DISTRIBUTED UNIT-BASED CUSTOM TRAFFIC INSERTION FOR LIVE-AIR AND NON-LIVE-AIR SIGNALS

The described technology is generally directed towards scheduling, by a distributed unit, the injection of custom traffic (signals/data) into a radio unit communications path. The distributed unit coordinates with the radio unit to schedule and synchronize such custom traffic in unscheduled (physical resource block), such as interleaved with to live-air and non-live-air traffic. The radio unit can request the unscheduled physical resource blocks for custom traffic to be inserted by the radio unit. Alternatively, the distributed unit can inject the custom traffic in otherwise unscheduled physical resource blocks for sending to the radio unit. The custom traffic is configured to perform some action by the radio unit, such as to perform antenna calibration, to perform test and measurement operations to obtain performance data, and the like. Performance data can be used, for example, to modify operating parameters of the radio unit to improve performance of the radio unit.