Resilience of LTE-A/5G-NR links Against Transient Electromagnetic Interference

This paper presents a comparative analysis of long-term evolution advanced (LTE-A) and fifth-generation new radio (5G-NR), focusing on the effects of Transient Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) caused by catenary-pantograph contact in a railway environment. We developed a software-defined radio (SDR)-based prototype for the performance evaluation of LTE-A and 5G-NR links in the presence of transient interference. The results show that both links experience considerable degradation due to interference at different center frequencies. Performance degradation is proportional to the gain of interference. The measurement results show that both links experience considerable performance degradation in the presence of transient EM interference.