Achievable Throughput over Mobile Broadband Network Protocol Layers: Practical Measurements

Having cognizant practical knowledge of the achievable throughput quality that can be attained at the user equipment communication device over deployed mobile broad cellular networks radio interface under different protocol layers has manifold gains for both subscriber and the radio network service operators. The benefits range from root-cause analysis of results, the network status exposure, triggering of performance optimisation, to path and server selection. However, most radio network service operators usually hide this information regarding practical performance status their networks. To tackle this problem, a practical–based measurement assessment and in-depth analysis of cellular network performance status is proposed. To actualize this, firstly, radio frequency eNodeB site survey was conducted to identify accessible field drive test routes and obtained the relevant eNodeB transmitting engineering parameters, Secondly, an in depth radio channel and achievable throughput quality and radio channel has been conducted under PDCP, RLC and PDSCH LTE protocol layers. Thirdly, the impact user communication distance, signal quality and signal coverage levels on the achievable throughput quality is reported across for three different eNodeB transceivers. The results at PDCP, RLC and PDSCH layers indicate that the achievable throughput degrades proportionally with user location transmission distance and radio network signal coverage and signal quality conditions.