Long Term Evolution (LTE)-Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) Path Aggregation
(LWPA) based on Multi-path Transmission Control Protocol (MPTCP) has been under
standardization procedure as a promising and cost-efficient solution to boost
Downlink (DL) data rate and handle the rapidly increasing data traffic. This
paper aims at providing tractable analysis for the DL performance evaluation of
large-scale LWPA networks with the help of tools from stochastic geometry. We
consider a simple yet practical model to determine under which conditions a
native WLAN Access Point (AP) will work under LWPA mode to help increasing the
received data rate. Using stochastic spatial models for the distribution of
WLAN APs and LTE Base Stations (BSs), we analyze the density of active
LWPA-mode WiFi APs in the considered network model, which further leads to
closed-form expressions on the DL data rate and area spectral efficiency (ASE)
improvement. Our numerical results illustrate the impact of different network
parameters on the performance of LWPA networks, which can be useful for further
performance optimization.Comment: IEEE GLOBECOM 201