Coexistence Between Dissimilar Wireless Systems in the Unlicensed Spectrum
Dr. Monisha Ghosh
Research Professor, Institute for Molecular Engineering
Associate Member, Computer Science, University of Chicago
Program Manager, National Science Foundation
Abstract:
Unlicensed technologies, mainly Wi-Fi, and licensed cellular technologies, LTE being the latest, have both been enormously successful in their respective domains. However, the ever-increasing demands of greater wireless capacity has led to innovative uses of these technologies beyond their original spectral domains. Recent industry trends have moved towards the introduction of LTE, designed for operation over a licensed spectrum where interference can be strictly controlled by the operator, into an unlicensed spectrum where there is no interference protection by rule. Thus, fundamentally different system architectures: the scheduled, centralized system of LTE and the carrier sense collision avoidance protocol of Wi-Fi will need to coexist “fairly” in the unlicensed spectrum. This talk will provide an overview of recent developments in the industry, highlight some of the pressing coexistence issues and propose some solutions that will ensure “fair” coexistence.