  The millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies have attracted considerable
attention for fifth generation (5G) cellular communication as they offer orders
of magnitude greater bandwidth than current cellular systems. However, the
medium access control (MAC) layer may need to be significantly redesigned to
support the highly directional transmissions, ultra-low latencies and high peak
rates expected in mmWave communication. To address these challenges, we present
a novel mmWave MAC layer frame structure with a number of enhancements
including flexible, highly granular transmission times, dynamic control signal
locations, extended messaging and ability to efficiently multiplex directional
control signals. Analytic formulae are derived for the utilization and control
overhead as a function of control periodicity, number of users, traffic
statistics, signal-to-noise ratio and antenna gains. Importantly, the analysis
can incorporate various front-end MIMO capability assumptions -- a critical
feature of mmWave. Under realistic system and traffic assumptions, the analysis
reveals that the proposed flexible frame structure design offers significant
benefits over designs with fixed frame structures similar to current 4G
long-term evolution (LTE). It is also shown that fully digital beamforming
architectures offer significantly lower overhead compared to analog and hybrid
beamforming under equivalent power budgets.
