Data-Driven Adaptive Resource Allocation for Reliable Low-Latency Uplink Communications in Rural Cellular 5G Multi-Connectivity

TL;DR

This paper evaluates multi-connectivity strategies for improving uplink reliability and low latency in rural 5G networks, introducing an adaptive framework that balances redundancy and resource efficiency.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive experimental analysis of uplink performance in rural 5G, and proposes the PAAF framework for adaptive, resource-efficient redundancy management.

Findings

Latency and reliability are not solely determined by coverage indicators.

Uplink performance is heavily influenced by uplink power limitations.

Partial Duplication approaches can achieve high reliability with less overhead.

Abstract

Reliable low-latency communication is a key requirement for mission-critical and mobile autonomous systems, including teleoperation, autonomous navigation, and real-time uplink-dominant telemetry applications. While commercial 5G networks often provide adequate downlink performance, uplink performance in rural deployments may be constrained by radio-resource limitations and uplink power-control mechanisms. This paper presents a comprehensive experimental evaluation of multi-connectivity strategies over commercial 5G Non-Standalone networks, based on measurement campaigns conducted in urban, suburban, and rural environments. The study analyzes per-packet uplink and downlink latency, packet loss, and radio-layer KPIs across two mobile network operators. The measurements indicate that latency and reliability cannot be inferred solely from coverage indicators such as RSRP. In coverage-constrained scenarios, performance appears to be strongly influenced by uplink power-limited operation and partially correlated impairments across operators. Several multi-connectivity strategies are evaluated, including link aggregation, switching-based policies, and conditional packet duplication. A Primary-Anchored Adaptive Failover (PAAF) framework is introduced to selectively activate redundancy based on radio, latency and service cost considerations. The results suggest that Partial Duplication (PD) approaches can approach the reliability of multi-connectivity while substantially reducing duplication overhead in the evaluated rural scenario.