Real time emulation of an LTE network using NS-3

In recent years, LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology has emerged as a new standard in mobile communications. Due to barriers such as high initial costs and the need to maintain existing networks which are still widely used and profitable for Telcos, LTE network rollouts have been slow in some areas of the world. Although rollout has been slow in some areas, LTE coverage is continuing to grow and is set to become the first truly global mobile network standard. The purpose of this paper is to provide a low cost and effective test methodology, namely a real time test bed which can interact with real IP based network traffic between two computers. This paper shows how real time traffic can be sent over an emulated LTE network in NS3. While showcasing the advantages of emulation, we also present the limitations of emulations with discussion for further works and improvements.