Tightly coupled LTE Wi-Fi radio access networks: A demo of LWIP

Abstract

A tighter coupling [1] between LTE and Wi-Fi interfaces can be achieved by integrating them at the radio protocol stack. LTE Wi-Fi radio level integration with IPsec tunnel (LWIP) is one such architecture introduced in Rel.13 of 3GPP. We have developed a variant of LWIP prototype and made commercial UE to readily work with the LWIP. The developed LWIP testbed uses OpenAirInterface (OAI) for LTE network and Cisco AP /Atheros device with Hostapd as Wi-Fi Access Point. In this demo, we present the aggregation benefits of using LWIP at flow/packet/bearer level steering across LTE and Wi-Fi links.