Coexistence analysis of Wi-Fi 6E and 5G NR-U in the 6 GHz band

TL;DR

This paper investigates the coexistence of Wi-Fi 6E and 5G NR-U in the 6 GHz band, analyzing throughput and parameter effects to inform fair coexistence strategies in dense, high-interference scenarios.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive simulation-based analysis of Wi-Fi 6E and 5G NR-U coexistence, highlighting key parameter tuning for fair and efficient spectrum sharing.

Findings

Optimal parameter settings improve coexistence fairness.

MAC frame aggregation influences throughput balance.

Energy detection threshold impacts interference management.

Abstract

The ever-increasing demand for broadband and IoT wireless connectivity has recently urged the regulators around the world to start opening the 6 GHz spectrum for unlicensed use. These bands will, for example, permit the use of additional 1.2 GHz in the US and 500 MHz in Europe for unlicensed radio access technologies (RATs) such as Wi-Fi and 5G New Radio Unlicensed (5G NR-U). To support QoS-sensitive applications with both technologies, fair and efficient coexistence approaches between the two RATs, as well as with incumbents already operating in the 6 GHz band, are crucial. In this paper, we study through extensive simulations the achievable mean downlink throughput of both Wi-Fi 6E APs and 5G NR-U gNBs when they are co-deployed in a dense residential scenario under high-interference conditions. We also explore how different parameter settings e.g., MAC frame aggregation, energy detection threshold and maximum channel occupancy time (MCOT) affect the coexistence. Our findings give important insights into how to tune the key parameters to design fair coexistence policies.