Radio spectrum is a scarce resource. To meet demands, new wireless technologies must operate in shared spectrum over unlicensed bands (coexist). We consider coexistence of Long-Term Evolution (LTE) License-Assisted Access (LAA) with incumbent Wi-Fi systems. Our scenario consists of multiple LAA and Wi-Fi links sharing an unlicensed band; we aim to simultaneously optimize performance of both coexistence systems. To do this, we present a technique to continuously estimate the Pareto frontier of parameter sets (traces) which approximately maximize all convex combinations of network throughputs over network parameters. We use a dimensionality reduction approach known as active subspaces to determine that this near-optimal parameter set is primarily composed of two physically relevant parameters. A choice of two-dimensional subspace enables visualizations augmenting explainability and the reduced-dimension convex problem results in approximations which dominate random grid search.

The Licklider transmission protocol is a point-to-point communication protocol designed for space links, which commonly involve extreme delays, disruptions, and lossy transmissions. The protocol sends application data in blocks, which in turn are sent in segments. It achieves reliable block delivery through multiple transmission rounds, each one re-sending the segments lost during the previous round. This retransmission process drives protocol performance. We derive exact and approximate methods to find the average number of rounds per block. Then, we estimate the block delivery time and other metrics using this value. We found that the common practice of matching segment lengths to the maximum transfer unit of the link layer may lead to suboptimal performance. The models provide accurate protocol performance prediction, which can help to optimize protocol parameters for specified operating conditions.

To improve spectrum sharing between long-term evolution (LTE) license assisted access (LAA) and incumbent systems such as wireless local area networks (WLANs) in unlicensed spectrum, listen before talk (LBT) has been proposed as a candidate for LAA channel access. To allow for a robust spectrum sensing performance, LBT may use a backoff-slot duration that is substantially larger than its WLAN counterpart. There is potential for an unknown backoff slot-jamming (SJ) effect, which may significantly decrease channel access probability (CAP) and throughput of LAA-LBT links. In this paper, we study the SJ effect and propose an effective anti-SJ (ASJ) LBT scheme. To gain theoretical insight, we develop a new performance analysis approach on coexisting systems with different slot durations. We model the LAA backoff process with super-counters, provide an in-depth analysis of the backoff process, and derive key performance indicator (KPI) statistics. These KPIs include backoff hold time, successful transmission probability, CAP, and throughput. Simulation results thoroughly validate our analytical results, and show that the ASJ-LBT scheme is effective in mitigating the SJ effect. These results fill a major technical gap in spectrum sharing research and may be extended to support system optimization and coexistence analysis of other heterogeneous systems.