An Empirical Study on the Deployment and Performance of Citizens Broadband Radio Service in 4G LTE Commercial Networks

Abstract

This research explores the deployment of Citizens Broadband Radio (CBRS) Service in 4G LTE from a major commercial carrier across multiple locations in Virginia. The study described in this paper used a commercial off-the-shelf phone, equipped with a commercial cellular measurement application to collect measurement data, and analyze key CBRS performance metrics. The findings reveal that the commercial carrier utilizes CBRS primarily as a secondary band, predominantly supplementing downlink emissions to enhance network throughput. The study also provides an in-depth analysis of the reference signal receiver power (RSRP) distribution, highlighting the impact of Federal Communications Commission regulations on power levels in the CBRS band and propagation characteristics within the CBRS band on RSRP measurements. In addition, the findings yielded observations on the usage of priority access licenses and general authorized access within the CBRS band. These insights contribute to a comprehensive understanding of current CBRS implementations and their impact on the spectrum sharing ecosystem.