Dynamic packet duplication for reliable low latency communication under mobility in 5G NR-DC networks

Abstract

The fifth generation (5G) networks and beyond are key to meeting the exponentially increasing demands of next generation services for high throughput and reliable low latency communication under various mobility scenarios. These promising features have critical gaps to be filled before they can be fully implemented for mobile applications in complex environments like smart cities. Millimeter wave (mmWave) communications is a key enabler for a significant increase in the performance of these networks. However, due to the extremely limited transmission range of mmWave frequencies, 5G network deployments are designed to have several small cells operating in the mmWave frequency range using Ultra-dense networking (UDN) techniques to provide continuous coverage. But, such deployments not only face challenges in terms of a higher number of handovers, higher latency, lower reliability, and higher interference levels but also in terms of site acquisition, logistics, unbalanced load distributions, and power requirements. Multi-connectivity can improve the performance of UDNs and provide better deployment strategies as it provides multiple simultaneous links between the User Equipment (UE) and base stations. In such systems, packet duplication can be used to meet the stringent reliability and latency requirements of modern cellular networks as data packets are duplicated and transmitted concurrently over two or more independent links. The downside to packet duplication, however, is the increased usage of resources like spectrum, power, etc. In this work, we explore and analyze different techniques that could aid in reducing radio resource utilization without sacrificing the improvements in reliability and latency observed through packet duplication. To perform this study, we develop a novel 5G deployment with new radio dual connectivity (NR-DC) and packet duplication to improve reliability. We then analyze possible enhancements in the system to improve radio resource utilization when packet duplication is implemented. In this article, we propose and evaluate this novel 5G network deployment with multi-connectivity using Simu5G network simulator for enabling future 5G systems. The proposed 5G architecture is shown to meet the requirements of next generation applications. Our simulations show that the proposed techniques improve the throughput by up to 165.72%, the latency by up to 91.22%, and the packet loss decreases to near zero compared to a single link system.