LTE/Wi-Fi Coexistence: Challenges and Mechanisms

Wireless communications industry foresees an exponential increase of the traffic demand for the next years. Spectrum scarcity for the operation of cellular networks makes the use of unlicensed spectrum an attractive alternative for traffic offload. From the technical perspective, LTE pico/femtocells arise as the preferable traffic offload solution. On the other hand, Wi-Fi broad and low cost deployment makes it a competitive solution. The use of both technologies for traffic offload is thus a possible scenario which brings some challenges. This paper discusses LTE/Wi-Fi coexistence challenges and two enabling mechanisms. Both mechanisms are based on LTE features and have their performance evaluated by simulations.