🤖 AI Summary
This study investigates mutual interference between ultra-low-power (VLP) Wi-Fi 6E/7 and 5G NR systems operating in the 6 GHz band. Leveraging an OpenAirInterface-based software-defined radio testbed configured for the n102 band (40 MHz bandwidth, 30 kHz subcarrier spacing), the authors conduct conducted interference experiments with commercial VLP Wi-Fi devices—injecting Wi-Fi signals at varying power levels—and measure their impact on 5G gNB uplink and UE downlink performance in terms of throughput, block error rate, and signal-to-noise ratio. This work presents the first real-world conducted interference assessment of VLP Wi-Fi on a functional 5G NR system, quantifying interference thresholds and translating them into physical safety distances. Results show negligible 5G degradation when Wi-Fi interference remains below −75 dBm; UEs exhibit robustness at low data rates, and Wi-Fi beacon-only transmissions cause no harmful interference. The derived safety distances are substantially shorter than Listen-Before-Talk exclusion zones, confirming that compliant VLP devices do not pose a risk of harmful interference.
📝 Abstract
This paper presents the first conducted-interference measurements of a commercial Very Low Power (VLP) Wi-Fi 6E/7 device into both the gNB uplink and UE downlink receiver chains of a live 5G New Radio (NR) system, using a complete O-RAN/SDR stack with 5G core in band~n102 (6\,GHz). We use a Software-Defined Radio (SDR) testbed built on OpenAirInterface with band~n102 support (40 MHz, 30 kHz Subcarrier Spacing). We sweep the injected Wi-Fi power and record throughput, block error rate, and signal-to-noise ratio on both the gNB uplink and UE downlink paths. Neither receiver shows measurable degradation below 75 dBm. Above this threshold, performance degrades progressively. The UE is more resilient at lower data rates and unaffected by beacon-only transmissions. A complementary link-budget analysis maps these measured thresholds to equivalent VLP-to-victim distances. These distances fall well inside the 545--685 Listen Before Talk (LBT) exclusion zone, confirming that a compliant VLP device would vacate the channel before its emissions could harm either receiver.