Measuring the Effects of Guaranteed Bit Rate on 5G Cell Resource Allocation and Throughput
Dominik Krah und Stefan Farthofer-Oster (2025): Measuring the Effects of Guaranteed Bit Rate on 5G Cell Resource Allocation and Throughput In: 2025 9th Network Traffic Measurement and Analysis Conference (TMA)
5G networks support prioritization of traffic via Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR), enabling predictable performance for sensitive applications. However, allocating guaranteed resources to GBR clients may negatively impact the overall cell performance. In this work, we present a measurement methodology to investigate the influence of GBR-enabled User Equipments (UEs) on the net bit rate available to other users within a 5G cell. Our experimental lab setup uses a private indoor 5G cell and a fully passive measurement methodology to assess cell utilization under varying signal quality conditions. Results show how GBR allocation under degraded signal conditions can cause significant bit rate reductions for other UEs. Our initial findings highlight the tradeoffs introduced by GBR in 5G networks and emphasize the need for careful resource planning in mixed-priority environments.
