Investigation of the impact of heterogeneous traffic on performance of LTE-based mission critical communication networks

The existing Private/Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) technologies designed specifically for Mission Critical Communication (MCC) systems are narrowband and wideband devices, with limited network data capacity in emergency scenarios. They are majorly used to support MCC voice communications and low data rate applications during mission critical operations. However, the need for broadband systems that would support high radio data capacity keep increasing during major incidents and accident scenarios. Because of this, the MCC agencies were attracted by the broadband capabilities of Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. But, the capacity of LTE-based MCC systems is still a concern. Therefore, this study describes simulation approach to model heterogeneous data applications over the LTE-based MCC network. The relation between the traffic load (video, data, and voice, short messaging) and waiting time is presented. ARENA simulation tool is used to show the throughput, waiting time, and resource utilization to be expected when using LTE-based MCC networks. The simulation results are compared with the analytical and 3GPP models. Results show that up to ten users each with traffic less than 3.6 Mbps can simultaneously upload data on the uplink of the LTE-based MCC network. The results from this study can help the network designers in the implementation of equipment and devices that could support MCC services over LTE networks.