Enhancing Transmission on Hybrid Precoding Based Train-to-Train Communication

Train-to-Train (T2T) communication is expected to increase efficiency of train operation and reduce life cycle cost in construction for urban rail transit system. In this paper, we introduce the millimeter wave (mmWave) and multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technologies to improve the reliability and capacity of T2T communication, and a novel mmWave MIMO based transmission scheme is proposed. By applying the hybrid precoding at the T2T transceivers, the system design cost and power consumption are greatly reduced, while satisfying the requirements of spectral efficiency and signal to noise ratio (SNR). Simulations results show that the performance of the proposed precoder approaches the one under unconstrained digital precoder. Compared with the analog precoding scheme, the proposed scheme can achieve at least a 7-fold increase in spectral efficiency. By analyzing the effects of the number of data streams, the number of radio frequency (RF) chains, and the T2T communication distance on the system performance, the proposed scheme is confirmed to provide theoretical guidance for practical design of T2T communication.