Practical LTE and Wi-Fi Coexistence Techniques beyond LBT

Abstract: Coexistence with Wi-Fi is the key issue for unlicensed band LTE. The main coexistence mechanism is Listen-Before-Talk, whereby radio frequency energy is sensed over a short period of time and compared to a threshold. Given the default energy thresholds, the energy sensing range is actually much less than the cell range. Both technologies can experience collisions due to transmission being below energy detection threshold. Currently Wi-Fi is agnostic of LTE presence in the unlicensed spectrum. To improve coexistence a communications channel via relaying is proposed to be used by the unlicensed band LTE, to announce its presence on an unlicensed channel. Legacy Wi-Fi APs may be programmed to interpret and respond by firmware upgrade at the AP to enhance its channel selection algorithm. Higher performance for both networks is demonstrated via more effective radio frequency channel selection and adaptive energy detection thresholding.