A Study to Enhance Cellular Network Efficiency through Wi-Fi Offloading

Abstract

Cellular network congestion is on the rise due to the fast increase in mobile data consumption caused by things like the proliferation of smartphones, streaming videos, cloud apps, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. In heavily crowded urban locations in particular, this congestion leads to worse service quality, slower data rates, higher latency, and an overall worse user experience. One important tactic for overcoming these issues is Wi-Fi offloading, which involves moving mobile data traffic from cellular networks to Wi-Fi infrastructure. This improves network efficiency. The study considers various city topologies, movement speeds, and Wi-Fi access point technical features to determine the fraction of street users that can be offloaded to Wi-Fi access points. We demonstrate that the number of users on the street that can be transferred to Wi-Fi is significantly impacted by how fast they move, the range of the access points, and the time it takes to connect to the access points. Several test runs have shown that more Wi-Fi access points greatly enhance offloading efficiency, which in turn reduces the stress on cellular networks. Wi-Fi range also matters a lot, albeit the benefits start to dwindle as coverage from several access points starts to blend. Offloading rates are unaffected by changes in urban density, however connectivity is severely affected by changes in user movement speed and login delays. Insights gained from these results might help telecom carriers optimize Wi-Fi offloading solutions for use in urban areas, which in turn improves network performance.