Abstract
Mobile operators are seeking to increase network capacity by extending Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular operation into unlicensed frequency bands. While these efforts may respond to the projected exponential growth in mobile data traffic, significant concerns exist about the harmonious coexistence of LTE with incumbent Wi-Fi deployments.
In this paper we characterise experimentally the LTE and Wi-Fi behaviour when sharing the same spectrum while operating under a broad range of network conditions. Specifically, we deploy a test bed with commodity Wi-Fi hardware
and low-cost software-defined radio equipment running an open-source LTE stack. We investigate the user-level performance attainable over these technologies when employing different settings, including LTE duty cycling patterns, Wi-Fi offered loads, transmit power levels, modulation and coding schemes, and packet sizes. We show that co-existence is feasible without modifications to the Wi-Fi stack, if LTE periodically employs “silent” sub-frames; however, optimising the performance of both requires non-trivial tuning of multiple parameters in conjunction with close monitoring of Wi-Fi operation and detection of application-specific requirements. Our findings lay the foundations for coherent design of practical LTE/Wi-Fi co-existence mechanisms.
In this paper we characterise experimentally the LTE and Wi-Fi behaviour when sharing the same spectrum while operating under a broad range of network conditions. Specifically, we deploy a test bed with commodity Wi-Fi hardware
and low-cost software-defined radio equipment running an open-source LTE stack. We investigate the user-level performance attainable over these technologies when employing different settings, including LTE duty cycling patterns, Wi-Fi offered loads, transmit power levels, modulation and coding schemes, and packet sizes. We show that co-existence is feasible without modifications to the Wi-Fi stack, if LTE periodically employs “silent” sub-frames; however, optimising the performance of both requires non-trivial tuning of multiple parameters in conjunction with close monitoring of Wi-Fi operation and detection of application-specific requirements. Our findings lay the foundations for coherent design of practical LTE/Wi-Fi co-existence mechanisms.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | WiNTECH '16 Proceedings of the Tenth ACM International Workshop on Wireless Network Testbeds, Experimental Evaluation, and Characterization |
| Place of Publication | New York City, NY, USA |
| Publisher | ACM |
| Pages | 33-40 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-1-4503-4252-0 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 3 Oct 2016 |
| Event | Tenth ACM International Workshop on Wireless Network Testbeds, Experimental Evaluation, and Characterization - New York City, United States Duration: 3 Oct 2016 → 7 Oct 2016 https://www.sigmobile.org/mobicom/2016/ |
Conference
| Conference | Tenth ACM International Workshop on Wireless Network Testbeds, Experimental Evaluation, and Characterization |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | MobiCom'16 |
| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | New York City |
| Period | 3/10/16 → 7/10/16 |
| Internet address |