Delivering Multicast Traffic in mmWave Systems: Challenges and Performance Analysis

Millimeter wave (mmWave) radio technology is considered as a comprehensive foundation for fifth-generation (5G) networks, which are claimed to efficiently and effectively support both multicast and unicast traffic. One of the main features of mmWave communications is the exploitation of highly directional antennas, at both user and access point sides, that allow providing very-high speed and ultra-low latency services. However, the delivery of multicast traffic in mmWave systems requires special attention because of the nature of the group-oriented services in which receivers simultaneously fed by a single transmission can be located at different positions. The aim of this paper is to discuss the main challenges that must be faced to take advantage of mmWave communication for multicast data delivery. A performance analysis is carried out with the aim to provide a comparison among unicast, sequential multicast, and multicast transmission modes.