In order to evaluate the performance of new mobile network technologies, system level simulations are crucial. They aim at determining whether, and at which level predicted link level gains impact network performance. In this paper we present a MATLAB computationally efficient LTE system level simulator. The simulator is offered for free under an academic, noncommercial use license, a first to the authors' knowledge. The simulator is capable of evaluating the performance of the Downlink Shared Channel of LTE SISO and MIMO networks using Open Loop Spatial Multiplexing and Transmission Diversity transmit modes. The physical layer model is based on the postequalization SINR and provides the simulation pre-calculated "fading parameters" representing each of the individual interference terms. This structure allows the fading parameters to be pregenerated offline, vastly reducing computational complexity at run-time.

In this article, we introduce MATLAB-based link and system level simulation environments for UMTS Long-Term Evolution (LTE). The source codes of both simulators are available under an academic non-commercial use license, allowing researchers full access to standard-compliant simulation environments. Owing to the open source availability, the simulators enable reproducible research in wireless communications and comparison of novel algorithms. In this study, we explain how link and system level simulations are connected and show how the link level simulator serves as a reference to design the system level simulator. We compare the accuracy of the PHY modeling at system level by means of simulations performed both with bit-accurate link level simulations and PHY-model-based system level simulations. We highlight some of the currently most interesting research questions for LTE, and explain by some research examples how our simulators can be applied.

Cellular networks are an essential part of todays communication infrastructure. The ever-increasing demand for higher data-rates calls for a close cooperation between researchers and industry/standardization experts which hardly exists in practice. In this article we give an overview about our efforts in trying to bridge this gap. Our research group provides a standard-compliant open-source simulation platform for 3GPP LTE that enables reproducible research in a well-defined environment. We demonstrate that much innovative research under the confined framework of a real-world standard is still possible, sometimes even encouraged. With examplary samples of our research work we investigate on the potential of several important research areas under typical practical conditions.Comment: The final version of the manuscript is available at: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6514821&isnumber=633654

No abstract

No abstract