To speed up the development of 5G, NYU Wireless plans to make its channel model simulator and measurement data free and open to all. The university said the move will take away years of millimetre wave (mmWave) development time for companies.
The statement comes after FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler told a Senate committee that the US will lead the fifth generation of wireless communication (5G) and quickly allocate high-frequency mmWave radio-wave spectrum, a band of frequencies that NYU Wireless at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering first demonstrated can help fulfill the urgent need for faster and greater wireless data capability.
The NYU Wireless simulator will provide the first open access to statistical spatial channel models that are based on the research group's experiments from 2011 to 2014 that showed how mmWave frequencies will work for mobile communication. The simulation software will allow researchers to understand the behaviour and capabilities of the mmWave radio spectrum that was originally widely believed to be only suitable for indoor communication.
With the new simulator, developers of 5G cellular phones, base station infrastructure, and future Wi-Fi products will be able to use the results of four years of measurements made at new mmWave frequencies ranging from 28 to 73 gigahertz and taken in New York City and Austin, Texas.
The open-source software includes real-world channel data measured throughout Manhattan and Brooklyn, and allows users to generate channel impulse responses, calculate precise time delays, locate the angles of arrival of energy in urban channels, determine received power levels, and other key technical data needed to create reliable mmWave wireless equipment and systems.
