The millimeter wave (mmWave) band will provide multi-gigabits-per-second connectivity in the radio access of future wireless systems. The high propagation loss in this portion of the spectrum calls for the deployment of large antenna arrays to compensate for the loss through high directional gain, thus introducing a spatial dimension in the channel model to accurately represent the performance of a mmWave network. In this perspective, ray-tracing can characterize the channel in terms of Multi Path Components (MPCs) to provide a highly accurate model, at the price of extreme computational complexity (e.g., for processing detailed environment information about the propagation), which limits the scalability of the simulations. In this paper, we present possible simplifications to improve the trade-off between accuracy and complexity in ray-tracing simulations at mmWaves by reducing the total number of MPCs. The effect of such simplifications is evaluated from a full-stack perspective through end-to-end simulations, testing different configuration parameters, propagation scenarios, and higher-layer protocol implementations. We then provide guidelines on the optimal degree of simplification, for which it is possible to reduce the complexity of simulations with a minimal reduction in accuracy for different deployment scenarios.

中文翻译：

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毫米波光线追踪的准确性与复杂性：全栈视角

毫米波 (mmWave) 频段将在未来无线系统的无线电接入中提供每秒数千兆位的连接。这部分频谱中的高传播损耗要求部署大型天线阵列，以通过高定向增益来补偿损耗，从而在信道模型中引入空间维度以准确表示毫米波网络的性能。从这个角度来看，光线追踪可以根据多路径分量 (MPC) 来表征信道，以提供高度准确的模型，但代价是计算复杂度极高（例如，用于处理有关传播的详细环境信息），这限制了模拟的可扩展性。在本文中，我们提出了可能的简化，通过减少 MPC 的总数来改善毫米波光线追踪模拟的准确性和复杂性之间的权衡。通过端到端模拟、测试不同配置参数、传播场景和更高层协议实现，从全栈角度评估这种简化的效果。然后，我们提供有关最佳简化程度的指南，为此可以降低模拟的复杂性，同时对不同部署场景的准确性降低最小。和更高层的协议实现。然后，我们提供有关最佳简化程度的指南，为此可以降低模拟的复杂性，同时对不同部署场景的准确性降低最小。和更高层的协议实现。然后，我们提供有关最佳简化程度的指南，为此可以降低模拟的复杂性，同时对不同部署场景的准确性降低最小。