  The hand blockage effect of the human hand around the user equipment (UE) is
too considerable to be ignored in frequency range 2 (FR2). This adds another
layer of complexity to the link budget design in FR2 for 5G networks, which
already suffer from high path and diffraction loss. More recently, multipanel
UEs (MPUEs) have been proposed as a way to address this problem, whereby
multiple distinct antenna panels are integrated into the UE body as a way to
leverage gains from antenna directivity. MPUEs also enhance the Rx-beamforming
gain because it is now subject to each individual antenna panel. In this paper,
the mobility performance of hand blockage induced by three practical hand grips
is analyzed in a system-level simulation, where in each grip both the UE
orientation and the hand positioning around the UE is different. It is seen
that each hand grip has a significant impact on mobility performance of the
network, where in the worst case mobility failures increase by 43% compared to
the non-hand blockage case. Moreover, a detailed analysis of the tradeoff
between the mobility key performance indicators and the panel and Rx beam
switching frequency is also studied. Results have shown that both the panel and
Rx beam switches can be reduced considerably without compromising on the
mobility performance. This is beneficial because it helps in reducing UE power
consumption.
