On the Impact of LTE-U on Wi-Fi Performance

TL;DR

This paper examines how LTE-U deployment in unlicensed spectrum affects Wi-Fi network performance, highlighting coexistence challenges and potential degradation issues.

Contribution

It provides an analysis of LTE-U and Wi-Fi coexistence challenges and quantifies Wi-Fi performance degradation due to LTE-U interference.

Findings

LTE-U deployment can significantly degrade Wi-Fi performance

Coexistence challenges require careful spectrum sharing strategies

Performance degradation varies with LTE-U deployment parameters

Abstract

With the exponential growth in mobile data traffic taking place currently and projected into the future, mobile operators need cost effective ways to manage the load of their networks. Traditionally, this has been achieved by offloading mobile traffic onto Wi-Fi networks due to their low cost and ubiquitous deployment. Recently, LTE operating in the unlicensed spectrum has drawn significant interests from mobile operators due to the availability of the unlicensed spectrum. However, the deployment of LTE networks in the unlicensed band poses significant challenges to the performance of current and future Wi-Fi networks. We discuss the LTE and Wi-Fi coexistence challenges and present analysis on performance degradation of the Wi-Fi networks at the presence of LTE.