Innovations in a communication system and densely deployed networks have brought about omnipresent high-speed broadband access. Such access makes our daily lives dependent on the Internet for a wide variety of content and services. The amount of data traffic carried over cellular networks is increasing day by day. The number of users accessing the network and demanding different types of services is expected to increase for many years to come. To cope with ever-growing needs and expectations, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is continuously developing new Long Term Evolution (LTE) functionalities that increase network capacity. In the past, improved data transmission speed was acquired by utilization of higher order modulations (e.g., 256 QAM), multi-cell coordination techniques or advanced Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna technologies.
The next important feature that will lead to better performance of the LTE system is called Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA) introduced in the 3GPP release 13 specification. In LTE, the preferred type of spectrum to use for data transmission is licensed spectrum, because it can provide predictable high-quality services. On the other hand, since the licensed spectrum is limited, it is extremely costly to allocate new licensed spectrum bands. Therefore, it is necessary to exploit new frequency spectrum resources. To cope with ever-increasing data traffic, the 3GPP expands the bandwidth to the unlicensed 5 GHz spectrum. In that case, the unlicensed spectrum can be an effective complement to licensed spectrum in cellular networks and lead to increased data throughput. Considering the use of the unlicensed spectrum, the fair coexistence between LTE and incumbent systems, such as Wi-Fi, must be taken into account. LAA design should target not to impact Wi-Fi services more than an additional Wi-Fi network on the same carrier, with respect to throughput and latency. LAA is introduced as a single global solution framework allowing compliance with any regional regulatory requirements. The main objective of this master’s thesis was to prepare and perform tests of LTE-LAA and Wi-Fi coexistence in the unlicensed spectrum in the lab environment. Various Wi-Fi services were measured in the presence of simultaneous LTE transmission and then analyzed in terms of the throughput as well as Quality of Service (QoS) parameters, such as transmission delay and jitter. During simultaneous transmissions, different types of LTE traffic were used and compared to determine if coexistence between LAA and Wi-Fi in unlicensed spectrum was fair and harmonious.
akihiro_kokubo
csswizardry
scottboms
lara
honzajavorek
szymonslowik
reverentgeek
rakko
inesmontani
tammielis
aleyda
![Materials used in presentation [1] Ericsson: Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA) [2],[4]](https://files.speakerdeck.com/presentations/0656c42c2c414d16aed2af7c8c9938c6/slide_16.jpg){kind=link}