Performance Analysis of User Plane Connectivity in the 5G Non-Standalone Deployment

The Fifth Generation (5G) radio networks are expected to appear first according to so called non-standalone deployment option, which was created as a set of early specifications by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The non-standalone option has its basis in dual-connectivity technique, which allows the use of legacy network and which aims at reliability of connection, coverage and yet very high throughput. This article conducts a performance analysis of the 5G non-standalone option for a split bearer in the user plane by means of simulations. The analysis focuses on the factors that influence the throughput and latency, as well as the impacted receiver window. The study addresses dual-connectivity options, where a slower connection is serving concurrently with the high performing 5G. Further analysis follows for the impact of improving the packet delay observed over the slower transmission path, the impact of packet data arrival rate, as well as the tolerated amount of data in-flight dependent on the size of the protocol unit Sequence Number.