Characterisation of Human Body Shadowing in Millimetre Wave Systems

One of the main challenges in millimetre wave (mm-wave) communication for fifth-generation (5G) and beyond systems is the shadowing of received signals. A mobile device in proximity to a human body can result in shadowing of the received mm-wave signal. By investigating different antenna heights, it is possible to model shadowing based on which, the channel capacity and the resulting average attenuation in the shadow region of the human body is derived. It is proven that the attenuation in the body’s shadow for a mm-wave signal at 26GHz can be reduced when the transmit and receive antenna heights are adjusted. Forwards and backwards movement of the body causes positive and negative Doppler Shift, respectively, producing frequency dispersion, in addition to the channel delay-dispersion. It is also demonstrated that a steerable beam reduces the signal attenuation in the shadow region significantly, as the delay-dispersion of the channel reduces.