FLEX: Joint UL/DL and QoS-Aware Scheduling for Dynamic TDD in Industrial 5G and Beyond

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Kleinberger, Leonard, Gundall, Michael, Schotten, Hans D.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Kleinberger, Leonard
Gundall, Michael
Schotten, Hans D.
author_facet Kleinberger, Leonard
Gundall, Michael
Schotten, Hans D.
contents Industrial 5G deployments using Time Division Duplex (TDD) networks face a critical challenge: existing schedulers rely on static configuration of Uplink (UL) to Downlink (DL) resource ratios, failing to adapt to dynamic asymmetric traffic demands. This limitation is particularly problematic in Industry 4.0 scenarios where traffic patterns exhibit significant asymmetry between directions and heterogeneous Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. We present FLEX, a novel QoS-aware scheduler that dynamically adjusts the UL/DL ratio in flexible TDD slots while respecting diverse QoS requirements. FLEX introduces DL buffer state estimation to prevent starvation of high-priority DL traffic, exploiting the deterministic nature of industrial traffic patterns for accurate predictions. Through extensive simulations of industrial scenarios using 5G LENA and ns-3, we demonstrate that FLEX achieves similar throughput compared to established scheduling while correctly enforcing QoS priorities in both traffic directions. For deterministic traffic patterns, FLEX maintains minimal latency overhead (less than 1 slot duration), making it particularly suitable for industrial automation applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_20971
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle FLEX: Joint UL/DL and QoS-Aware Scheduling for Dynamic TDD in Industrial 5G and Beyond
Kleinberger, Leonard
Gundall, Michael
Schotten, Hans D.
Networking and Internet Architecture
Industrial 5G deployments using Time Division Duplex (TDD) networks face a critical challenge: existing schedulers rely on static configuration of Uplink (UL) to Downlink (DL) resource ratios, failing to adapt to dynamic asymmetric traffic demands. This limitation is particularly problematic in Industry 4.0 scenarios where traffic patterns exhibit significant asymmetry between directions and heterogeneous Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. We present FLEX, a novel QoS-aware scheduler that dynamically adjusts the UL/DL ratio in flexible TDD slots while respecting diverse QoS requirements. FLEX introduces DL buffer state estimation to prevent starvation of high-priority DL traffic, exploiting the deterministic nature of industrial traffic patterns for accurate predictions. Through extensive simulations of industrial scenarios using 5G LENA and ns-3, we demonstrate that FLEX achieves similar throughput compared to established scheduling while correctly enforcing QoS priorities in both traffic directions. For deterministic traffic patterns, FLEX maintains minimal latency overhead (less than 1 slot duration), making it particularly suitable for industrial automation applications.
title FLEX: Joint UL/DL and QoS-Aware Scheduling for Dynamic TDD in Industrial 5G and Beyond
topic Networking and Internet Architecture
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20971