Multi-point Connectivity for Reliable mmWave

The fundamental challenge for mmWave communication is the sensitivity of mmWave signals to the blockage, which gives rise to unstable connectivity and impacts the reliability of a system. In this paper, we explore the viability of using coordinated multi-point connectivity, which facilitates multi-user precoding across spatially distributed transmitters, to ensure reliable connectivity even if one or more dominant links are under blockage. We provide successive convex approximation based algorithms for weighted sum-rate maximization and minimum user-rate maximization problems while considering the effects of random link blockage. For the downlink precoder design, a conservative estimate of the available rate per user is computed over all subset combinations of potentially blocked links. The trade-off between achievable sum-rate and reliable connectivity is illustrated via numerical examples. In the presence of random link blockage, the outage performance and effective throughput of the proposed transmit precoder design significantly outperforms several baseline scenarios, and results in more stable connectivity for highly reliable communication.