{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,16]],"date-time":"2026-07-16T15:47:19Z","timestamp":1784216839062,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"18","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,18]],"date-time":"2024-09-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1726617600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Ministry for Digital Transformation and of Civil Service of the Spanish Government through the 6G-CHRONOS Project","award":["TSI-063000-2021-28"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TSI-063000-2021-28"]}]},{"name":"Ministry for Digital Transformation and of Civil Service of the Spanish Government through the 6G-CHRONOS Project","award":["PID2022-137329OB-C43"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PID2022-137329OB-C43"]}]},{"name":"Ministry for Digital Transformation and of Civil Service of the Spanish Government through the 6G-CHRONOS Project","award":["871428"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["871428"]}]},{"name":"European Union through the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan\u2014NextGenerationEU","award":["TSI-063000-2021-28"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TSI-063000-2021-28"]}]},{"name":"European Union through the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan\u2014NextGenerationEU","award":["PID2022-137329OB-C43"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PID2022-137329OB-C43"]}]},{"name":"European Union through the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan\u2014NextGenerationEU","award":["871428"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["871428"]}]},{"name":"MICIU\/AEI\/ 10.13039\/501100011033","award":["TSI-063000-2021-28"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TSI-063000-2021-28"]}]},{"name":"MICIU\/AEI\/ 10.13039\/501100011033","award":["PID2022-137329OB-C43"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PID2022-137329OB-C43"]}]},{"name":"MICIU\/AEI\/ 10.13039\/501100011033","award":["871428"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["871428"]}]},{"name":"H2020 Research and Innovation Project 5G-CLARITY","award":["TSI-063000-2021-28"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["TSI-063000-2021-28"]}]},{"name":"H2020 Research and Innovation Project 5G-CLARITY","award":["PID2022-137329OB-C43"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PID2022-137329OB-C43"]}]},{"name":"H2020 Research and Innovation Project 5G-CLARITY","award":["871428"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["871428"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Fifth-generation mobile networks (5G) are designed to support enhanced Mobile Broadband, Ultra-Reliable Low-Latency Communications, and massive Machine-Type Communications. To meet these diverse needs, 5G uses technologies like network softwarization, network slicing, and artificial intelligence. Multi-connectivity is crucial for boosting mobile device performance by using different Wireless Access Technologies (WATs) simultaneously, enhancing throughput, reducing latency, and improving reliability. This paper presents a multi-connectivity testbed from the 5G-CLARITY project for performance evaluation. MultiPath TCP (MPTCP) was employed to enable mobile devices to send data through various WATs simultaneously. A new MPTCP scheduler was developed, allowing operators to better control traffic distribution across different technologies and maximize aggregated throughput. Our proposal mitigates the impact of limitations on one path affecting others, avoiding the Head-of-Line blocking problem. Performance was tested with real equipment using 5GNR, Wi-Fi, and LiFi \u2014complementary WATs in the 5G-CLARITY project\u2014in both static and dynamic scenarios. The results demonstrate that the proposed scheduler can manage the traffic distribution across different WATs and achieve the combined capacities of these technologies, approximately 1.4 Gbps in our tests, outperforming the other MPTCP schedulers. Recovery times after interruptions, such as coverage loss in one technology, were also measured, with values ranging from 400 to 500 ms.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s24186022","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,18]],"date-time":"2024-09-18T09:49:19Z","timestamp":1726652959000},"page":"6022","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["Combining 5G New Radio, Wi-Fi, and LiFi for Industry 4.0: Performance Evaluation"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"24","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4719-3156","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jorge","family":"Navarro-Ortiz","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Signal Theory, Telematics and Communications, University of Granada, 18014 Granada, Spain"},{"name":"Research Center on Information and Communication Technologies, University of Granada, 18014 Granada, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5428-3913","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Juan J.","family":"Ramos-Munoz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Signal Theory, Telematics and Communications, University of Granada, 18014 Granada, Spain"},{"name":"Research Center on Information and Communication Technologies, University of Granada, 18014 Granada, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3494-9487","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Felix","family":"Delgado-Ferro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Signal Theory, Telematics and Communications, University of Granada, 18014 Granada, Spain"},{"name":"Research Center on Information and Communication Technologies, University of Granada, 18014 Granada, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2981-3219","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ferran","family":"Canellas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"i2CAT Foundation, 08034 Barcelona, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9956-5068","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Daniel","family":"Camps-Mur","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"i2CAT Foundation, 08034 Barcelona, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Amin","family":"Emami","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Smart Internet Laboratory-HPN, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UB, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3911-0886","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hamid","family":"Falaki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Smart Internet Laboratory-HPN, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE), University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UB, UK"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"Ericsson (2019). 5G for Business: A 2030 Market Compass. Setting a Direction for 5G-Powered B2B Opportunities, Ericsson. White Paper."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"136","DOI":"10.1109\/MIE.2020.3004975","article-title":"Private 5G: The Future of Industrial Wireless","volume":"14","author":"Aijaz","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Ind. Electron. Mag."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ordonez-Lucena, J., Chavarria, J.F., Contreras, L.M., and Pastor, A. (2019, January 28\u201330). The use of 5G Non-Public Networks to support Industry 4.0 scenarios. Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE Conference on Standards for Communications and Networking (CSCN), Paris, France.","DOI":"10.1109\/CSCN.2019.8931325"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1533","DOI":"10.1109\/JLT.2015.2510021","article-title":"What is lifi?","volume":"34","author":"Haas","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Light. Technol."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"73","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.001.2100615","article-title":"5G-CLARITY: 5G-Advanced Private Networks Integrating 5GNR, WiFi, and LiFi","volume":"60","author":"Cogalan","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"(2022, October 10). 5G-PPP. Available online: https:\/\/5g-ppp.eu."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"3rd Generation Partnership Project, and Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects (2018). Study on Access Traffic Steering, Switch and Splitting Support in the 5G System Architecture (Release 16), ETSI. Technical Report 3GPP TR 23.793 V16.0.0."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ford, A., Raiciu, C., Handley, M.J., and Bonaventure, O. (2013). TCP Extensions for Multipath Operation with Multiple Addresses, RFC. RFC 6824.","DOI":"10.17487\/rfc6824"},{"key":"ref_9","unstructured":"(2023). IEEE 802.11 Working Group. IEEE Approved Draft Standard for Information Technology\u2013Telecommunications and Information Exchange Between Systems Local and Metropolitan Area Networks\u2013Specific Requirements\u2014Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications Amendment 7: Light Communications (Standard No. Standard IEEE 802.11bb-2023)."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Canellas, F., Camps-Mur, D., Fernandez-Fernandez, A., Boyano, I., Urias, M., Navarro-Ortiz, J., and Ramos-Munoz, J.J. (2023, January 20). Demo: 5G NR, Wi-Fi and LiFi multi-connectivity for Industry 4.0. Proceedings of the INFOCOM CNERT 2023: The 10th International Workshop on Computer and Networking Experimental Research Using Testbeds, New York, NY, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/INFOCOMWKSHPS57453.2023.10225854"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Imam-Fulani, Y.O., Faruk, N., Sowande, O.A., Abdulkarim, A., Alozie, E., Usman, A.D., Adewole, K.S., Oloyede, A.A., Chiroma, H., and Garba, S. (2023). 5G Frequency Standardization, Technologies, Channel Models, and Network Deployment: Advances, Challenges, and Future Directions. Sustainability, 15.","DOI":"10.3390\/su15065173"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"87","DOI":"10.1016\/j.dcan.2017.09.010","article-title":"A survey of 5G technologies: Regulatory, standardization and industrial perspectives","volume":"4","author":"Morgado","year":"2018","journal-title":"Digit. Commun. Netw."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"67512","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.3031234","article-title":"A Survey on Beyond 5G Network With the Advent of 6G: Architecture and Emerging Technologies","volume":"9","author":"Dogra","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sylla, T., Mendiboure, L., Maaloul, S., Aniss, H., Chalouf, M.A., and Delbruel, S. (2022). Multi-Connectivity for 5G Networks and Beyond: A Survey. Sensors, 22.","DOI":"10.3390\/s22197591"},{"key":"ref_15","unstructured":"(2022, October 10). Multi-Path TCP. Available online: https:\/\/www.multipath-tcp.org."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Paasch, C., Ferlin, S., Alay, O., and Bonaventure, O. (2014, January 18). Experimental Evaluation of Multipath TCP Schedulers. Proceedings of the 2014 ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Capacity Sharing Workshop, New York, NY, USA. CSWS \u201914.","DOI":"10.1145\/2630088.2631977"},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"Chen, Y.C., Towsley, D.F., and Nahum, E.M. (2012). Characterizing 4G and 3G Networks: Supporting Mobility with MultiPath TCP UMass Amherst Technical Report: UM-CS-2012-022, UMass."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chen, Y.C., and Towsley, D. (2014, January 2\u20134). On Bufferbloat and Delay Analysis of Multipath TCP in Wireless Networks. Proceedings of the 2014 IFIP Networking Conference, Trondheim, Norway.","DOI":"10.1109\/IFIPNetworking.2014.6857081"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Chen, Y.C., Lim, Y.s., Gibbens, R.J., Nahum, E.M., Khalili, R., and Towsley, D. (2013, January 23\u201325). A Measurement-Based Study of MultiPath TCP Performance over Wireless Networks. Proceedings of the 2013 Conference on Internet Measurement Conference, New York, NY, USA. IMC \u201913.","DOI":"10.1145\/2504730.2504751"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Paasch, C., Detal, G., Duchene, F., Raiciu, C., and Bonaventure, O. (2012, January 13). Exploring Mobile\/WiFi Handover with MultiPath TCP. Proceedings of the 2012 ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Cellular Networks: Operations, Challenges, and Future Design, Helsinki, Finland. CellNet \u201912.","DOI":"10.1145\/2342468.2342476"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Peng, Q., Chen, M., Walid, A., and Low, S. (2014, January 11\u201314). Energy Efficient MultiPath TCP for Mobile Devices. Proceedings of the 15th ACM International Symposium on Mobile Ad Hoc Networking and Computing, New York, NY, USA. MobiHoc \u201914.","DOI":"10.1145\/2632951.2632971"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Mahmud, I., Lubna, T., and Cho, Y.Z. (2022). Performance Evaluation of MPTCP on Simultaneous Use of 5G and 4G Networks. Sensors, 22.","DOI":"10.3390\/s22197509"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"108401","DOI":"10.1016\/j.comnet.2021.108401","article-title":"Understanding Commercial 5G and its Implications to (MultiPath) TCP","volume":"198","author":"Ding","year":"2021","journal-title":"Comput. Netw."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3311","DOI":"10.1109\/TMC.2020.3000041","article-title":"DEFT: MultiPath TCP for High Speed Low Latency Communications in 5G Networks","volume":"20","author":"Lee","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2090","DOI":"10.1109\/TNSM.2020.3031333","article-title":"Estimating Pole Capacity From Radio Network Performance Statistics by Supervised Learning","volume":"17","author":"Toril","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Netw. Serv. Manag."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"96079","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2022.3205418","article-title":"NexGen S-MPTCP: Next Generation Smart Multipath TCP Controller","volume":"10","author":"Singh","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gentili, A., Horsmanheimo, S., Tuomim\u00e4ki, L., Hyv\u00e4rinen, P., Kokkoniemi-Tarkkanen, H., and Ahmad, I. (2023, January 10\u201313). Improving 5G Performance in Critical Environments through MPTCP. Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE 98th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC2023-Fall), Hong Kong, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/VTC2023-Fall60731.2023.10333809"},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Cogalan, T., Camps-Mur, D., Garcia, A., Chackravaram, K., Navarro-Ortiz, J., Ramos-Munoz, J., Lopez-Soler, J., Videv, S., Yesilkaya, A., and Alshaer, H. (2021). Project H2020 5G-CLARITY (Grant No. 871428): Deliverable D3.2. Design Refinements and Initial Evaluation of the Coexistence, Multi-Connectivity, Resource Management and Positioning Frameworks, 5G-CLARITY. Deliverable."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"(2024, September 14). Multi-Technology Testbed v0. Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/jorgenavarroortiz\/multitechnology_testbed_v0."},{"key":"ref_30","first-page":"1825","article-title":"Throughput Prediction Using Machine Learning in LTE and 5G Networks","volume":"22","author":"Minovski","year":"2023","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput."},{"key":"ref_31","unstructured":"(2024, September 14). Multi-Technology Testbed Configurations. Available online: https:\/\/github.com\/jorgenavarroortiz\/mptcp_configurations."},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"(2024, September 14). Netperf Homepage. Available online: https:\/\/hewlettpackard.github.io\/netperf\/."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"(2024, September 14). TCPDump and LibPCAP. Available online: https:\/\/www.tcpdump.org\/."},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"Frank, H., Emami, A., Falaki, H., Yan, S., Camps-Mur, D., Canellas, F., Sark, V., Goodarzi, M., Vasist, R., and Channinganathota, N. (2023). Project H2020 5G-CLARITY (Grant No. 871428): Deliverable D5.3. 5G-CLARITY Use Cases: Demonstrations and Evaluations, 5G-CLARITY. Deliverable."},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"(2024, September 14). Open AI Cellular. Available online: https:\/\/www.openaicellular.org\/."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/24\/18\/6022\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T15:58:28Z","timestamp":1760111908000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/24\/18\/6022"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,18]]},"references-count":35,"journal-issue":{"issue":"18","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,9]]}},"alternative-id":["s24186022"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s24186022","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,9,18]]}}}