Time-Critical Communication (TCC) services—such as industrial automation and extended reality (XR)—require stringent latency and reliability guarantees. As mobile networks evolve toward beyond-5G systems, maintaining consistent TCC performance under varying traffic loads, spectrum allocations, and deployment conditions remains a major challenge. This thesis evaluates and enhances TCC user satisfaction in realistic large-scale network scenarios. The improvement is achieved through a newly proposed Load-Sensitive Admission Control (AC) mechanism that dynamically adapts admission decisions to the current traffic load. The study also examines how higher-frequency spectrum allocation and real-world site deployments affect TCC performance. A system-level simulation framework was developed to model uplink and downlink TCC traffic in both a regular hexagonal layout and a real operator network in Paris. The framework compares data-driven and Buffer Status Report (BSR)-based configured grant schemes, incorporates multiple frequency bands with a focus on 7 GHz, and analyzes system behavior with and without TCC-specific AC. The proposed Load-Sensitive AC is further compared with a default AC scheme to assess their effects on user satisfaction and network efficiency. Results show that the data-driven configured grant achieves higher uplink satisfaction than the BSR-based scheme. Adding the 7 GHz band further improves satisfaction by increasing capacity and reducing contention, while the real Paris deployment reduces satisfaction due to irregular site placement. The proposed Load-Sensitive AC outperforms the default scheme, particularly at low loads where the default control is overly conservative. Overall, the findings offer practical guidance for mobile network operators to better plan and optimize future 5G and beyond-5G networks serving TCC users.
Xu Wang (Wed,) studied this question.