System Level Evaluation and Validation of the ns-3 LTE Module in 3GPP Reference Scenarios

Abstract

LTE networks represent the latest generation implementation of communications technologies for mobile users. As such, simulation tools are essential in the development of new radio resource management (RRM) techniques for LTE. In this paper, we evaluate the LTE module of the ns-3 simulator in a set of 3GPP reference scenarios for system level simulation. Downlink spectral efficiency, user throughput distribution and SINR distribution in a basic LTE configuration are compared against 3GPP results, which are based on an aggregate of 17 industrial simulators. Results show that the ns-3 LTE module achieves similar performance to the one obtained by the 3GPP industrial simulators in the evaluated cases, both in terms of SINR distributions and users' throughput.