Bare Metal Wires as Open Waveguides, with Applications to 5G

We study an old but unconventional waveguiding technique based on the use of overhead bare metal Medium Voltage (MV) power lines as open waveguides and not as transmission lines. This technique can be used in support of 5G applications such as backhauling and broadband access in the mmW frequency range or above. Although the analysis of open waveguides dates back a century or more, very few communications oriented papers are available in the literature and there is today no commonly agreed upon channel model. This paper offers a first step in covering this gap by first solving numerically the characteristic equation derived from Maxwell equations, then deriving an analytical expression for the transfer function, and finally reporting for the first time capacity values for bare metal open waveguides. A channel capacity of 1 Tbps over 100 m can be achieved using a single overhead Medium Voltage power line, 1 W of total transmitted power, and the 1-100 GHz band.