On The Coexistence Of LTE And Wi-Fi In The 2.4 Ghz ISM Band

Abstract

The increasing demand for high data rate in broadband mobile and wireless networks pushes providers to effectively utilize a wide range of radio frequency (RF) spectrum, especially in the unlicensed bands. The expansion of Long Term Evolution (LTE) telecommunication services in the license-free GHz bands can result in unwanted coexistence scenarios with the Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) networks. This paper deals with the study of such scenarios in the 2.4GHz Industrial, Scientific and Medical band. The robustness of the LTE system against interferences is evaluated at the physical layer level. For this purpose, error vector magnitude (EVM) and carrier-to-interference (C/I) values are measured and calculated, respectively. The results of laboratory measurements show that the robustness of the LTE system is highly depending on the specific IEEE 802.11 technology used in the interfering Wi-Fi network.