7,456 research outputs found
Techno-economic viability of integrating satellite communication in 4G networks to bridge the broadband digital divide
Bridging the broadband digital divide between urban and rural areas in Europe is one of the main targets of the Digital Agenda for Europe. Though many technological options are proposed in literature, satellite communication has been identified as the only possible solution for the most rural areas, due to its global coverage. However, deploying an end-to-end satellite solution might, in some cases, not be cost-effective. The aim of this study is to give insights into the economic effectiveness of integrating satellite communications into 4G networks in order to connect the most rural areas (also referred to as white areas) in Europe. To this end, this paper proposes a converged solution that combines satellite communication as a backhaul network with 4G as a fronthaul network to bring enhanced broadband connectivity to European rural areas, along with a techno-economic model to analyse the economic viability of this integration. The model is based on a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model for 5 years, taking into account both capital and operational expenditures, and aims to calculate the TCO as well as the Average Cost Per User (ACPU) for the studied scenarios. We evaluate the suggested model by simulating a hypothetical use case for two scenarios. The first scenario is based on a radio access network connecting to the 4G core network via a satellite link. Results for this scenario show high operational costs. In order to reduce these costs, we propose a second scenario, consisting of caching the popular content on the edge to reduce the traffic carried over the satellite link. This scenario demonstrates a significant operational cost decrease (more than 60%), which also means a significant ACPU decrease. We evaluate the robustness of the results by simulating for a range of population densities, hereby also providing an indication of the economic viability of our proposed solution across a wider range of areas
'Two-speed' Scotland : patterns and implications of the digital divide in contemporary Scotland
Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Business Innovation Strategies to Reduce the Revenue Gap for Wireless Broadband Services
Mobile broadband is increasing rapidly both when it comes to traffic and number of subscriptions. The swift growth of the demand will require substantial capacity expansions. Operators are challenged by the fact that revenues from mobile broadband are limited, just a few per cent of APRU, and thus not compensating for declining voice revenues, creating a so called "revenue gap". Concurrently, mobile broadband dominates the traffic, set to grow strongly. In this paper we analyze the potential of different strategies for operators to reduce or bridge the revenue gap. The main options are to reduce network costs, to increase access prices and to exploit new revenue streams. The focus in the paper is on cost & capacity challenges and solutions in the network domain. Operators can cooperate and share sites and spectrum, which could be combined with off-loading heavy traffic to less costly local networks. In the network analysis we illustrate the cost impacts of different levels of demand, re-use of existing base station sites, sharing of base stations and spectrum and deployment of a denser network. A sensitivity analysis illustrates the impact on total revenues if access prices are increased, whether new types of services generate additional revenues, and if it fills the revenue gap. Our conclusion is that the different technical options to reduce the revenue gap can be linked to business strategies that include cooperation with both other operators as well as with non-telecom actors. Hence, innovations in the business domain enable technical solutions to be better or fully exploited.Wireless Internet access, data traffic, revenues, network costs, spectrum, deployment strategies, HSPA, LTE, operator cooperation, value added services, NFC, B2B2C.
A Sharing- and Competition-Aware Framework for Cellular Network Evolution Planning
Mobile network operators are facing the difficult task of significantly
increasing capacity to meet projected demand while keeping CAPEX and OPEX down.
We argue that infrastructure sharing is a key consideration in operators'
planning of the evolution of their networks, and that such planning can be
viewed as a stage in the cognitive cycle. In this paper, we present a framework
to model this planning process while taking into account both the ability to
share resources and the constraints imposed by competition regulation (the
latter quantified using the Herfindahl index). Using real-world demand and
deployment data, we find that the ability to share infrastructure essentially
moves capacity from rural, sparsely populated areas (where some of the current
infrastructure can be decommissioned) to urban ones (where most of the
next-generation base stations would be deployed), with significant increases in
resource efficiency. Tight competition regulation somewhat limits the ability
to share but does not entirely jeopardize those gains, while having the
secondary effect of encouraging the wider deployment of next-generation
technologies
Valuation of spectrum for mobile broadband services: Engineering value versus willingness to pay
Radio spectrum is a vital asset and resource for mobile network operators. With spectrum in the 800 and 900 MHz bands coverage can be provided with fewer base station sites compared to higher frequency bands like 2.1 and 2.6 GHz. With more spectrum, i.e. wider bandwidth, operators can offer higher capacity and data rates. Larger bandwidths means that capacity can be provided with fewer base station sites, i.e. with lower cost. Operators that acquire more spectrum in existing or new bands can re-use existing sites for capacity build out. Engineering value is one way to estimate the marginal value of spectrum. The calculation of engineering value is based on comparison of different network deployment options using different amounts of spectrum. This paper compare estimates of engineering value of spectrum with prices paid at a number of spectrum auctions, with a focus on Sweden. A main finding is that estimated engineering value of spectrum is much higher than prices operators have paid at spectrum auctions during the last couple of years. The analysis also includes a discussion of drivers that determine the willingness to pay for spectrum.Radio spectrum,mobile communications,spectrum valuation,spectrum allocation,mobile broadband,marginal value of spectrum,engineering value
Characterizing Spatial Patterns of Base Stations in Cellular Networks
The topology of base stations (BSs) in cellular networks, serving as a basis
of networking performance analysis, is considered to be obviously distinctive
with the traditional hexagonal grid or square lattice model, thus stimulating a
fundamental rethinking. Recently, stochastic geometry based models, especially
the Poisson point process (PPP), attracts an ever-increasing popularity in
modeling BS deployment of cellular networks due to its merits of tractability
and capability for capturing nonuniformity. In this study, a detailed
comparison between common stochastic models and real BS locations is performed.
Results indicate that the PPP fails to precisely characterize either urban or
rural BS deployment. Furthermore, the topology of real data in both regions are
examined and distinguished by statistical methods according to the point
interaction trends they exhibit. By comparing the corresponding real data with
aggregative point process models as well as repulsive point process models, we
verify that the capacity-centric deployment in urban areas can be modeled by
typical aggregative processes such as the Matern cluster process, while the
coverage-centric deployment in rural areas can be modeled by representativ
Context-Awareness Enhances 5G Multi-Access Edge Computing Reliability
The fifth generation (5G) mobile telecommunication network is expected to
support Multi- Access Edge Computing (MEC), which intends to distribute
computation tasks and services from the central cloud to the edge clouds.
Towards ultra-responsive, ultra-reliable and ultra-low-latency MEC services,
the current mobile network security architecture should enable a more
decentralized approach for authentication and authorization processes. This
paper proposes a novel decentralized authentication architecture that supports
flexible and low-cost local authentication with the awareness of context
information of network elements such as user equipment and virtual network
functions. Based on a Markov model for backhaul link quality, as well as a
random walk mobility model with mixed mobility classes and traffic scenarios,
numerical simulations have demonstrated that the proposed approach is able to
achieve a flexible balance between the network operating cost and the MEC
reliability.Comment: Accepted by IEEE Access on Feb. 02, 201
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