Design and Evaluation of LTE/WLAN Traffic Steering and Link Aggregation Algorithms
Panagiotis Fotiadis, Pablo Soldati, Peter J. Legg · 2016
To meet the increasing data rate demand, radio networks are becoming increasingly heterogeneous as we move towards 5G. In step with this, we present new algorithms for cellular-controlled LTE/WLAN traffic steering and link aggregation using the newly standardized WLAN support within the 3GPP LTE-A Rel-13. The proposed schemes rely on user measurement reports for estimating the WLAN data rate before steering users to WLAN. We evaluate their performance in several scenarios against baseline solutions compliant with Rel- 12 specifications for cellular-assisted WLAN offloading. We show that a proper user selection for WLAN offloading is crucial to fully harvest the benefits of cellular-controlled LTE/WLAN interworking, and that outdoor WLAN and indoor co-located LTE/WLAN deployments are the most promising for enjoying the Rel-13 enhancements.