Mobile radio alternative systems study, executive summary

Present day mobile communication technologies, systems and equipment are described from background in evaluating the concepts generated in the study. Average propagation ranges are calculated for terrestrial installations in each of seven physiographic areas of the contiguous states to determine the number of installations that would be required for nationwide coverage. Four system concepts are defined and analyzed to determine how well terrestrial systems can fulfill the requirements at acceptable costs

Seesaw in the Air: Interconnection Regulation and the Structure of Mobile Tariffs

Interconnection rates are a key variable in telecommunications markets. Every call that is placed must be terminated by the network of the receiving party, thus the termination end has the characteristic of an economic bottleneck and is subject to regulation in many countries. This paper examines the impact of regulatory intervention to cut termination rates of calls to mobile phones. We argue that regulatory cuts should have a differential impact according to the type of tariff the mobile customer subscribes to. While all mobile customers may pay higher prices because of a "waterbed" effect, termination rates also affect competition among mobile operators. We show that the waterbed effect is diluted, but not eliminated, for customers with pre-paid cards, where regulation also acts as impediment to "raise-each-other's-cost" collusive strategies that mobile networks can adopt. The waterbed effect is instead strongest for consumers with monthly (post-paid) subscription contracts.Interconnection, network competition, regulation, mobile phones

FTTx Access Networks: Technical Developments and Standardization

This chapter provides a review of factors driving technical development of broadband access networks, mostly toward higher bit rates and symmetrical services, together with a review of “fiber to the x” (FTTx) technologies for fixed access networks, including development and performance limitations of digital subscriber line (DSL) systems using twisted-pair copper cables, as well as fiber to the home systems. Characteristics and standardization of these systems are presented, together with a review of the two main competing broadband technologies: Data over cable service interface specification (DOCSIS) in coaxial cable TV networks and the 4G and 5G wireless networks. Additionally, a short list of recent developments in passive technologies (fibers, cables, and connectors) is included. Finally, the issues related to dismantling of the traditional copper telephone network and ensuring continuity of voice services in emergency situations are analyzed

Analysis of GPRS Limitations

The General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a new standard for mobile data communications, which is implemented under the existing infrastructure of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). The promise capability of handling Internet Protocol traffic enables instant and constant connection to global network regardless of location and time. With its packet-based nature, the new technology facilitates new applications in wireless communications that have not been available previously. Nonetheless, there are numbers of limitations that have to be taken into consideration b~fore this technology can be implemented commercially. Despite all arguments and challenges, the GPRS system is here to stay and evolving towards the third generation mobile communications. This report covers the background of the GPRS and discusses the issues involved in implementing this current technology besides considering the deployment of third generation networks beyond GPRS

The Case for Liberal Spectrum Licenses: A Technical and Economic Perspective

The traditional system of radio spectrum allocation has inefficiently restricted wireless services. Alternatively, liberal licenses ceding de facto spectrum ownership rights yield incentives for operators to maximize airwave value. These authorizations have been widely used for mobile services in the U.S. and internationally, leading to the development of highly productive services and waves of innovation in technology, applications and business models. Serious challenges to the efficacy of such a spectrum regime have arisen, however. Seeing the widespread adoption of such devices as cordless phones and wi-fi radios using bands set aside for unlicensed use, some scholars and policy makers posit that spectrum sharing technologies have become cheap and easy to deploy, mitigating airwave scarcity and, therefore, the utility of exclusive rights. This paper evaluates such claims technically and economically. We demonstrate that spectrum scarcity is alive and well. Costly conflicts over airwave use not only continue, but have intensified with scientific advances that dramatically improve the functionality of wireless devices and so increase demand for spectrum access. Exclusive ownership rights help direct spectrum inputs to where they deliver the highest social gains, making exclusive property rules relatively more socially valuable. Liberal licenses efficiently accommodate rival business models (including those commonly associated with unlicensed spectrum allocations) while mitigating the constraints levied on spectrum use by regulators imposing restrictions in traditional licenses or via use rules and technology standards in unlicensed spectrum allocations.

Mobile radio alternative systems study satellite/terrestrial (hybrid) systems concepts

The use of satellites for mobile radio service in non-urban areas of the United States in the years from 1985 to 2000 was investigated. Several satellite concepts are considered: a system with single-beam coverage of the fifty United States and Puerto Rico, and multi-beam satellites with greater capacity. All of the needed functions and services identified in the market study are provided by the satellite systems, including nationwide radio access to vehicles without knowledge of vehicle location wideband data transmission from remote sites, two way exchange of short data and control messages between vehicles and dispatch or control centers, and automatic vehicle location (surveillance). The costs of providing the services are within acceptable limits, and the desired returns to the system investors are attractive. The criteria by which the Federal Communication judges the competing demands for public radio spectrum are reviewed with comments on how the criteria might apply to the consideration of land mobile satellites. Institutional arrangements for operating a mobile satellite system are based on the present institutional arrangements in which the services are offered to the end users through wireline and radio common carriers, with direct access by large private and government users

Wireless Efficiency Versus Net Neutrality

Symposium: Rough Consensus and Running Code: Integrating Engineering Principles into Internet Policy Debates, held at the University of Pennsylvania\u27s Center for Technology Innovation and Competition on May 6-7, 2010. This Article first addresses congestion and congestion control in the Internet. It shows how congestion control has always depended upon altruistic behavior by end users. Equipment failures, malicious acts, or abandonment of altruistic behavior can lead to severe congestion within the Internet. Consumers benefit when network operators are able to control such congestion. One tool for controlling such congestion is giving higher priority to some applications, such as telephone calls, and giving lower priority or blocking other applications, such as file sharing. The Article then turns to wireless networks and shows that in addition to congestion issues, priority routing in wireless can make available capacity that would otherwise go unused. Wireless systems that are aware of the application being carried in each packet can deliver more value to consumers than can dumb networks that treat all packets identically. Handsets are both complements to and substitutes for the network infrastructure of wireless networks and any analysis of handset bundling should consider this complementarity. Next, the Article reviews analogous issues in electrical power and satellite communications and shows how various forms of priority are used to increase the total value delivered to consumers by these systems. Finally, the Article observes that regulations that prohibit priority routing of packets and flows on the Internet will create incentives to operate multiple networks

THE ECONOMICS OF MOBILE INTERNATIONAL ROAMING

International roaming is a hot topic in the telecommunications industry. Many countries have witnessed a downward trend in mobile domestic prices. On the contrary, international roaming prices remained reluctant to follow the domestic trend. In Europe, the service has been regulated with price cap since 2007, and regulation is maintained for years to come. The existing literature on the economics of international roaming has focused on theoretical modelling, which assumes a uniform retail price (i.e. common across visited networks). The main finding is that wholesale and retail prices rise with the number of visited networks. Additionally, vertical merger is found unprofitable; and home network steering does not cause downward pressure on wholesale prices. We found that the assumption of uniform retail pricing leads to results that are inconsistent with wholesale competition because visited networks appear in the demand as complements rather than substitutes. We present theoretical models that match the existing literature’s findings, and compare results to the case whereby the retail price is discriminatory (i.e. differs by visited networks). With discriminatory retail, substitutability of networks reduces prices, and the incentive for vertical merger exists. In a steering game, steering is found able to reduce wholesale prices; and networks alliances are formed in equilibrium. The empirical literature on international roaming is limited to few industry studies. We use an aggregated dataset on prices and quantities for networks visited by roamers from one major mobile provider whose subscribers travel a lot across the world, Etisalat. The study period witnessed a retail price shift from discriminatory to uniform. The main findings are: (1) competition, as measured by the number of visited networks, reduces wholesale price; (2) traffic steering is effective, especially towards preferred networks (alliance and cross-owned); (3) only alliance networks offer wholesale discounts; and (4) demand is more elastic than crude industry studies

Tutorial on LTE/LTE-A Cellular Network Dimensioning Using Iterative Statistical Analysis

LTE is the fastest growing cellular technology and is expected to increase its footprint in the coming years, as well as progress toward LTE-A. The race among operators to deliver the expected quality of experience to their users is tight and demands sophisticated skills in network planning. Radio network dimensioning (RND) is an essential step in the process of network planning and has been used as a fast, but indicative, approximation of radio site count. RND is a prerequisite to the lengthy process of thorough planning. Moreover, results from RND are used by players in the industry to estimate preplanning costs of deploying and running a network; thus, RND is, as well, a key tool in cellular business modelling. In this work, we present a tutorial on radio network dimensioning, focused on LTE/LTE-A, using an iterative approach to find a balanced design that mediates among the three design requirements: coverage, capacity, and quality. This approach uses a statistical link budget analysis methodology, which jointly accounts for small and large scale fading in the channel, as well as loading due to traffic demand, in the interference calculation. A complete RND manual is thus presented, which is of key importance to operators deploying or upgrading LTE/LTE-A networks for two reasons. It is purely analytical, hence it enables fast results, a prime factor in the race undertaken. Moreover, it captures essential variables affecting network dimensions and manages conflicting targets to ensure user quality of experience, another major criterion in the competition. The described approach is compared to the traditional RND using a commercial LTE network planning tool. The outcome further dismisses the traditional RND for LTE due to unjustified increase in number of radio sites and related cost, and motivates further research in developing more effective and novel RND procedures