An Initial Look into the Performance Evolution of 5G Non-Standalone Networks
Giuseppe Caso, Mohammad Rajiullah, Konstantinos Kousias, Usman Ali, Luca De Nardis, Anna Brunström, Özgü Alay, Marco Neri, Maria‐Gabriella Di Benedetto
Abstract
Fifth Generation (5G) networks have been operational worldwide for a couple of years. To reveal how the 5G system evolution (e.g., changes in network conditions, deployment, and configurations) affects user performance, empirical long-term analyses are required. This paper presents preliminary insights from our ongoing large-scale measurement study of the commercial 5G non-standalone (NSA) networks deployed in Rome, Italy. An initial comparison between the measurements in 2020-2021 vs. 2023 shows a decrease in throughput and latency performance, calling for deeper analyses toward understanding the root causes and deriving proper optimization solutions.