  The millimeter-wave (mmWave) technology, recently standardized by IEEE
802.11ad, is emerging as an attractive alternative to the traditional 2.4/5GHz
wireless systems, promising multi-Gigabit wireless throughput. However, the
high attenuation and vulnerability to blockage of 60 GHz links have limited its
applications (until recently) to short-range, line-of-sight, static scenarios.
On the other hand, the question of whether it is feasible to build
general-purpose WLANs out of mmWave radios in dynamic indoor environments with
non-line-of-sight links remains largely unanswered. In this paper, through
extensive measurements with COTS 802.11ad hardware in an indoor office
environment, we investigate the question of whether the mmWave technology, in
spite of its unique propagation characteristics, can serve as a viable choice
for providing multi-Gigabit ubiquitous wireless indoor connectivity. We study
the range of 60 GHz transmissions in indoor environments, the impact of antenna
height, location, orientation, and distance on 60 GHz performance, the
interaction among metrics from different layers of the network stack, the
increased opportunities for spatial reuse, and the impact of human blockage.
Our results reveal a number of challenges that we have to address for 60 GHz
multi-gigabit WLANs to become a reality.
