Competitive Assessments for HAP Delivery of Mobile Services in Emerging Countries

In recent years, network deployment based on High Altitude Platforms (HAPs) has gained momentum through several initiatives where air vehicles and telecommunications payloads have been adapted and refined, resulting in more efficient and less expensive platforms. In this paper, we study HAP as an alternative or complementary fast-evolving technology to provide mobile services in rural areas of emerging countries, where business models need to be carefully tailored to the reality of their related markets. In these large areas with low user density, mobile services uptake is likely to be slowed by a service profitability which is in turn limited by a relatively low average revenue per user. Through three architectures enabling different business roles and using different terrestrial, HAP and satellite backhaul solutions, we devise how to use in an efficient and profitable fashion these multi-purpose aerial platforms, in complement to existing access and backhauling satellite or terrestrial technologies

Will 5G See its Blind Side? Evolving 5G for Universal Internet Access

Internet has shown itself to be a catalyst for economic growth and social equity but its potency is thwarted by the fact that the Internet is off limits for the vast majority of human beings. Mobile phones---the fastest growing technology in the world that now reaches around 80\% of humanity---can enable universal Internet access if it can resolve coverage problems that have historically plagued previous cellular architectures (2G, 3G, and 4G). These conventional architectures have not been able to sustain universal service provisioning since these architectures depend on having enough users per cell for their economic viability and thus are not well suited to rural areas (which are by definition sparsely populated). The new generation of mobile cellular technology (5G), currently in a formative phase and expected to be finalized around 2020, is aimed at orders of magnitude performance enhancement. 5G offers a clean slate to network designers and can be molded into an architecture also amenable to universal Internet provisioning. Keeping in mind the great social benefits of democratizing Internet and connectivity, we believe that the time is ripe for emphasizing universal Internet provisioning as an important goal on the 5G research agenda. In this paper, we investigate the opportunities and challenges in utilizing 5G for global access to the Internet for all (GAIA). We have also identified the major technical issues involved in a 5G-based GAIA solution and have set up a future research agenda by defining open research problems

Role of satellite communications in 5G ecosystem: perspectives and challenges

The next generation of mobile radio communication systems – so-called 5G – will provide some major changes to those generations to date. The ability to cope with huge increases in data traffic at reduced latencies and improved quality of user experience together with a major reduction in energy usage are big challenges. In addition, future systems will need to embody connections to billions of objects – the so-called Internet of Things (IoT) which raises new challenges.Visions of 5G are now available from regions across the world and research is ongoing towards new standards. The consensus is a flatter architecture that adds a dense network of small cells operating in the millimetre wave bands and which are adaptable and software controlled. But what is the place for satellites in such a vision? The chapter examines several potential roles for satellites in 5G including coverage extension, IoT, providing resilience, content caching and multi-cast, and the integrated architecture. Furthermore, the recent advances in satellite communications together with the challenges associated with the use of satellite in the integrated satellite-terrestrial architecture are also discussed

Community Networks and Sustainability: a Survey of Perceptions, Practices, and Proposed Solutions

Community network (CN) initiatives have been around for roughly two decades, evangelizing a distinctly different paradigm for building, maintaining, and sharing network infrastructure but also defending the basic human right to Internet access. Over this time they have evolved into a mosaic of systems that vary widely with respect to their network technologies, their offered services, their organizational structure, and the way they position themselves in the overall telecommunications’ ecosystem. Common to all these highly differentiated initiatives is the sustainability challenge. We approach sustainability as a broad term with an economical, political, and cultural context. We first review the different perceptions of the term. These vary both across and within the different types of stakeholders involved in CNs and are reflected in their motivation to join such initiatives. Then, we study the diverse approaches of CN operators towards the sustainability goal. Given the rich context of the term, these range all the way from mechanisms to fund their activities, to organizational structures and social activities serving as incentives for the engagement of their members. We iterate on incentive mechanisms that have been proposed and theoretically analyzed in the literature for CNs as well as tools and processes that have been actually implemented in them. Finally, we enumerate lessons that have been learned out of these two decades of CNs’ operation and discuss additional technological and regulatory issues that are key to their longer-term sustainability

Study of the benefits and applications of LEO (Low Earth Orbit) for communications and definition of space new business models: OneWeb case

The existing global digital divide between the different geographic areas, leads to almost half of the world’s population lacking access to a reliable Internet connection. OneWeb, a global telecommunications company, aims to deploy an initial constellation of 648 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) to provide high-speed and low-latency connectivity to governments, businesses and communities around the world. Therefore, this thesis focuses on the study of the benefits provided by this orbit in the telecommunications field, for the subsequent analysis and development of OneWeb’s business model, by means of the CANVAS methodology. This project is integrated within the DISCOVERER framework, a European project dedicated to the research of innovative technologies for its application in the lowest orbits (VLEO), in which UPC is involved focusing on the market analysis to solve the existing market challenge

Broadband Technology Roadmap for Rural Areas in the Andes and Amazon Regions of Peru

This dissertation addresses the research question: What is the broadband roadmap for introducing broadband services to unserved areas in the Andes and Amazon Regions of Peru? Detailed technical and engineering cost analyses are conducted for evaluating the deployment and operation of wireless broadband local access networks for a 10-year period in two scenarios in the Andes and Amazon regions of Peru, in the context of the Peruvian National Broadband Plan, using current wireless broadband technologies (Wi-Fi, WiMAX, LTE, TVWS) and new stratospheric platforms (super-pressure balloons). These analyses show that based on current spectrum policies LTE is the lowest cost option. Current available spectrum policies and alternatives to enable more spectrum for new access network deployments are also proposed. Finally, a technology broadband roadmap for the 10-year period is presented, which includes using stratospheric balloons (carrying micro-LTE base stations) for the first years, and deploying complementary terrestrial LTE networks for the rest of the 10-year period

Broadband Technology Roadmap for Rural Areas in the Andes and Amazon Regions of Peru

This dissertation addresses the research question: What is the broadband roadmap for introducing broadband services to unserved areas in the Andes and Amazon Regions of Peru? Detailed technical and engineering cost analyses are conducted for evaluating the deployment and operation of wireless broadband local access networks for a 10-year period in two scenarios in the Andes and Amazon regions of Peru, in the context of the Peruvian National Broadband Plan, using current wireless broadband technologies (Wi-Fi, WiMAX, LTE, TVWS) and new stratospheric platforms (super-pressure balloons). These analyses show that based on current spectrum policies LTE is the lowest cost option. Current available spectrum policies and alternatives to enable more spectrum for new access network deployments are also proposed. Finally, a technology broadband roadmap for the 10-year period is presented, which includes using stratospheric balloons (carrying micro-LTE base stations) for the first years, and deploying complementary terrestrial LTE networks for the rest of the 10-year period