Proactive Handover Based on Human Blockage Prediction Using RGB-D Cameras for mmWave Communications

To substantially alleviate the human blockage problem in mmWave communications, this paper proposes a proactive handover system based on human blockage prediction using RGB and depth (RGB-D) cameras. The proposed scheme uses RGB-D camera images to estimate the mobility of pedestrians and to predict when blockage will occur. On the basis of this information, the proposed system transfers a mobile station (STA) communicating with one wireless BS (base station) to another BS before human blockage occurs and thus avoids blockage-induced throughput degradation. This paper presents performance modeling of both proactive handover scheme and reactive handover scheme which is based on the received power level. A numerical evaluation reveals conditions under which the proactive handover scheme achieves higher spectral efficiency compared to reactive scheme. In addition, using IEEE 802.11ad-based wireless local area network (WLAN) devices, a testbed for implementing the proposed system is built. The innovative experimental results demonstrate that the proactive handover system can considerably reduce the duration of human blockage-induced degradation of throughput performance relative to the reactive scheme.