Karabayev, Omar-Sayan2017-02-132017-02-132016Omar-Sayan Karabayev; 2016; LTE IN UNLICENSED BANDS: A RIVAL OR COLLABORATOR TO WI-FI?; School of Engineering. Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering. Nazarbayev University; http://nur.nu.edu.kz/handle/123456789/2323http://nur.nu.edu.kz/handle/123456789/2323Due to the rapidly increasing demand for internet traffic, mobile operators have faced a problem of bandwidth availability. Since only licensed spectrum has been previously utilized by wireless networks, moving LTE to the 5 GHz unlicensed bands has become a popular research initiative, known as LTELicensed Assisted Access (LTE-LAA). This thesis studies the feasibility and implementation of LTE-LAA, and sets a goal of confirming the effectiveness of this technology. An alternative implementation of a Listen-Before-Talk channel contention mechanism is tested in this work with the use of LTE-A Vienna Link Level Simulator. The obtained results suggest that LTE-LAA is capable of boosting network throughput while providing harmonious coexistence with the IEEE 802.11 standard operating in the same unlicensed spectrum.enAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United Stateswireless networksLTE-LAAinternet trafficMaster's thesis