Characterizing Inter-cell Interference in 5G NSA: Insights from a Large-Scale Measurement Campaign

Fifth Generation (5G) networks have emerged as the norm within the global telecommunications landscape, supporting a wide range of verticals and use cases. In line with the accelerated adoption of 5G, commercial deployments are expanding at a fast pace. One of the primary challenges associated with this expansion lies in the efficient positioning of new 5G-enabled cells and antennas. Following an experimental approach, in this paper we investigate the implications of inter-cell interference in 5G Non Standalone (NSA) networks, which refers to the interference caused by neighbouring cells reusing the same frequency resources. We collect our dataset by performing a large-scale measurement campaign in Stockholm (STO) and Karlstad (KAR), Sweden, during a 9-month period in 2023. Our study focuses on two main aspects. First, we characterize inter-cell interference by carrying out an evaluative comparison across different settings, i.e., Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), locations, and mobility scenarios. Second, we explore the relationship between inter-cell interference and Secondary Synchronization Reference Signal Received Power (SS-RSRP)/Secondary Synchronization Signal to Interference and Noise Ratio (SS-SINR) through a cross-correlation analysis. The results of this analysis reveal a significantly stronger correlation between inter-cell interference and SS-SINR, an insight particularly valuable to MNOs and service providers, as SS-RSRP, a standardized 3GPP metric, is primarily used in mobility operations such as handover management. Additionally, it can support the efficient orchestration of (O)RAN functions. We open-source the datasetto enable further exploration across different research directions.