A First Look at Commercial 5G Performance on Smartphones

TL;DR

This paper presents the first comprehensive measurement study of commercial 5G performance on smartphones across different carriers and environments, providing a baseline for future research and improvements.

Contribution

It offers the first detailed analysis of 5G network performance, handoff mechanisms, and app performance in real-world urban settings, with publicly available data for further study.

Findings

Identified key factors affecting 5G performance in urban environments

Analyzed handoff mechanisms and their impact on network stability

Provided a baseline dataset for future 5G performance research

Abstract

We conduct to our knowledge a first measurement study of commercial 5G performance on smartphones by closely examining 5G networks of three carriers (two mmWave carriers, one mid-band carrier) in three U.S. cities. We conduct extensive field tests on 5G performance in diverse urban environments. We systematically analyze the handoff mechanisms in 5G and their impact on network performance. We explore the feasibility of using location and possibly other environmental information to predict the network performance. We also study the app performance (web browsing and HTTP download) over 5G. Our study consumes more than 15 TB of cellular data. Conducted when 5G just made its debut, it provides a "baseline" for studying how 5G performance evolves, and identifies key research directions on improving 5G users' experience in a cross-layer manner. We have released the data collected from our study (referred to as 5Gophers) at https://fivegophers.umn.edu/www20.