Simulation Vs. Testbed: Small Scale Experimental Validation Of An Open-Source Lte-A Model

A majority of scientific publications on wireless networking is (partly) based on network simulation in order to evaluate the presented concepts, algorithms and architectures. In research related to 4G and 5G cellular communication, the system-level simulation SimuLTE is a widely used model. Despite its popularity, no results regarding an experimental validation of this model are publicly available up to now. This paper presents results of a first step in this direction: A small-scale completely shielded cellular testbed based on OpenAirInterface is set up and packet delay and inter-arrival time are measured in several low and high load scenarios. Afterwards, the identical scenarios are modeled in SimuLTE. The comparison of simulation and measurement results indicate a good accuracy of the model for low-load scenarios. However, in particular in overload conditions involving more than one packet source the results differ significantly. Subsequently, several adaptations to the model are proposed which lead to a better agreement of simulation and measurement results in the investigated scenarios.