Sevana: Wi-Fi/LTE-U tests lack LTE equipment

The Wi-Fi Alliance is conducting tests this week on the coexistence of Wi-Fi and LTE-U. LTE-U, or LTE in unlicensed spectrum, has already been tested by the chipmakers who want to build LTE-U chips, and they claim that LTE can share the 5 GHz band without degrading the performance of Wi-Fi networks.

Companies that are focused exclusively on Wi-Fi equipment are not so sure, and the Wi-Fi Alliance has convened a Coexistence Task Force to conduct futher tests. The association has also asked the Federal Communications Commission to await the results of these tests before approving any LTE-U equipment for commercial use.

The Wi-Fi Alliance wants to conduct tests using actual LTE base stations, but none of the manufacturers supplied equipment for its tests. The Alliance said that LTE transmissions for its tests will be produced with an LTE signal generator.

“If/when LTE equipment is available, the LTE studies shall be performed using actual equipment, noting the manufacturer, model and revision numbers,” said the Alliance. “As implementations may vary considerably, studies must be repeated with each different equipment set available.”

“The desired criteria is that the introduction of a co-channel LTE network will not impact an existing Wi-Fi network’s performance any more than introduction of a similar co-channel Wi-Fi network,” wrote the Wi-Fi Alliance in its coexistence guidelines document.

Specifically, these are the criteria the alliance is proposing:
Data traffic:

Throughput for Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi greater than or equal to throughput for Wi-Fi with LTE.

Packet loss for Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi less than or equal to packet loss for Wi-Fi with LTE.

Frame re-transmission rate for Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi less than or equal to packet loss for Wi-Fi with LTE.

Beacons and power save signaling frames:

Packet loss with Wi-Fi less than or equal to packet loss for Wi-Fi with LTE

Jitter with Wi-Fi less than or equal to packet loss for Wi-Fi with LTE.

VoIP and real-time video:

Latency with Wi-Fi less than or equal to packet loss for Wi-Fi with LTE.

Packet Loss with Wi-Fi less than or equal to packet loss for Wi-Fi with LTE.

Jitter with Wi-Fi less than or equal to packet loss for Wi-Fi with LTE.

Frame re-transmission rate for Wi-Fi with Wi-Fi less than or equal to packet loss for Wi-Fi with LTE.

For mobile operators, LTE-U offers a way to maintain a connection for users who might otherwise not be able to access the network in congested areas. It also offers a way to count time spent in unlicensed spectrum against users’ data plans, instead of losing potential revenue each time a customer jumps to Wi-Fi.

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