Demo: Coexistence of a 5G NR-U Private Network and Wi-Fi in the 5 GHz Unlicensed Band

Abstract

Private 5G networks can provide dedicated connectivity where public networks are unavailable, and the unlicensed 5 GHz band makes them inexpensive to deploy, at the price of sharing the medium with Wi-Fi. Sensing, however, is only half of channel access: what the base station does after it detects Wi-Fi determines how much airtime and throughput the 5G cell retains. This demonstration showcases a compact, stand-alone 5G NR-U private network that coexists with Wi-Fi through a dynamic PRB blocklist: rather than suspending the whole carrier whenever Wi-Fi appears, the gNB vacates only the resource blocks that overlap the busy Wi-Fi channel and keeps serving the user on the rest of the band. Running on OpenAirInterface and USRP hardware, the demo shows, live, the cell moving between full- and half-bandwidth states as the Wi-Fi load varies, and the resulting effect on downlink throughput and latency.