Location-Aware Fractional Numerology-use for Cross-Technology Interference Management in 4G–5G Coexistence
IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society, cilt.7, ss.3078-3093, 2026 (ESCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 7
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1109/ojcoms.2026.3679275
- Dergi Adı: IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), Scopus, Compendex, INSPEC, Directory of Open Access Journals
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.3078-3093
- Anahtar Kelimeler: 4G and 5G coexistence, Cross-technology interference, fractional numerology, guard band, inter-numerology interference (INI), mixed numerology, windowing
- İstanbul Medipol Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
The coexistence of 4G and 5G systems within shared spectrum bands has emerged as a practical pathway toward seamless evolution and efficient spectrum utilization. However, the coexistence of mixed numerologies, characterized by different subcarrier spacings and symbol durations, inherently breaks orthogonality and gives rise to inter-numerology interference (INI), which degrades throughput and spectral efficiency (SE). This paper presents a fractional numerology framework for cross-technology interference management between 4G and 5G. A comprehensive analytical model is developed to quantify the bidirectional INI considering pathloss, shadowing, and time-domain misalignment, capturing realistic coexistence conditions. Building upon this model, we introduce an adaptive numerology assignment strategy that partitions the 5G cell into inner and outer subregions. The outer region employs 4G-aligned numerologies to suppress cross-technology INI, while the inner region uses a flexible numerology assignment to better match the prevailing channel conditions. Extensive simulations demonstrate that the proposed method achieves superior INI suppression and significantly improves both bit error rate (BER) and SE compared with conventional guard-band (GB) and windowing-based schemes, confirming its effectiveness for practical 4G–5G coexistence scenarios.