LTERadar: Towards LTE-Aware Wi-Fi Access Points

Major LTE hardware vendors (e.g. Qualcomm, Ericsson), mobile service providers (e.g. Verizon, T-Mobile), and standardization bodies (e.g. LTE-U forum, 3GPP) are extending LTE networks into unlicensed spectrum bands to boost the speeds and coverage of mobile networks. However, the deployment of LTE in unlicensed has raised serious concerns regarding their adverse impact on Wi-Fi networks in the same bands. We design LTERadar, a lightweight interference detector, that runs on Wi-Fi devices and accurately detects LTE interference in real time. LTERadar is a purely software-based solution that is independent of specific hardware or technology of the LTE interferer (e.g. LTE-U, LAA, the dominant LTE unlicensed protocols). Our implementation and evaluation with off-the-shelf Wi-Fi APs show that LTERadar achieves more than 90% of the interference detection accuracy in operational networks.