Ultra-low Latency in Next Generation LTE Radio Access

Inhalt:
Future 5G wireless systems aim to support new use-cases and requirements. For instance, critical machine type communication and enhanced mobile broadband drive the requirement of ultra-low latency. The evolution of LTE has already achieved enhancements to peak data rate and spectral efficiency. The focus, however, has shifted to reduce the LTE radio latency in order to strengthen its role in the 5G ecosystem. In this paper, we evaluate LTE Release 14 and Release 15 lowlatency features. These features, which are currently being standardized, comprise improvements to physical layer and medium access. We show how their reduction of LTE’s round trip time can significantly improve the end-user performance of latency-depended applications.