In LWA, a mobile handset supporting both LTE and Wi-Fi may be configured by the network to utilize both links simultaneously.
Unlike other methods of using LTE and WLAN simultaneously (e.g. Multipath TCP), LWA allows using both links for a single traffic flow and is generally more efficient, due to coordination at lower protocol stack layers.
For a user, LWA offers seamless usage of both LTE and Wi-Fi networks and substantially increased performance.
Using WLAN does not only allow operators to increase peak data rate and system capacity, but also to offer services for non-cellular devices, such as laptops.
All of the above methods of integration assume a certain level of service continuity as well as the terminal devices being always under a licensed spectrum cellular coverage.
In the former, the WLAN Access Point (AP) or Access Controller (AC) is physically integrated with the LTE eNB, whereas in the latter the WLAN network (i.e. APs and/or ACs) are connected to the LTE eNB via an external network interface (Xw).
In the user plane, LTE and WLAN are aggregated at the Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) level.
This is possible as the PDCP layer can re-order packets received from both LTE and WLAN links, which in its turn results in substantial performance gains.
In the control plane, Evolved Node B (eNB) is responsible for LWA activation, de-activation and the decision as to which bearers are offloaded to the WLAN.
It is not clear though how much improvement LWA may bring when it is compared with other RAN based LTE-WLAN Aggregation solution (eg.
Through leading edge LTE-WiFi Aggregation (LWA) technology, M1 expects to deliver peak download speeds of more than 1 Gbit/s by 2017.