3GPP Spectrum Access Evolution Towards 5G

The ever-increasing needs for more spectrum resources, and the emerging new Radio Access Technologies under the 5G umbrella add to the complexity of the Spectrum Toolbox in mobile networks landscape. This article covers 3GPP LTE evolution from Release 8 up to the Release 14, which deals with the LTE-Advanced Pro enhancements. A collection of available frequency bands, spectrum aggregation mechanisms, licensing and duplexing schemes, as well as spectrum sharing and refarming techniques is described. With such a classification, Spectrum Toolbox is defined and its evolution directions are discussed, with the opportunities and challenges of the individual features summarized. Studies on the new non-backwards compatible Radio Access Technology, as well as the new channel models for higher frequency bands are also covered. The presented Spectrum Toolbox is considered as a baseline for the introduction of the new air interface framework towards 5G ecosystem in the context of future mobile networks enhancements

From cognitive radio to cellular networks: Summary and future research on routing protocols

In this work authors are analyzing mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET) and cognitive radio ad-hoc networks (CRAHN) solutions from routing protocols point of view, in order to identify promising directions of the future research, which could be developed towards energy efficient routing protocols for future cellular networks. Literature studies are covering cognitive solutions implementation in cellular environment. Standardization developments were studied, in order to identify industry's views on the energy efficiency aspects in networks, as well as on the alternative offloading solutions. Based on the compilation of the research and industry overviews, various deployment scenarios are considered, including inter-UE, intra-operator, as well as inter-operator case. Number of concepts was identified, including radio resource management solutions, proposals related to the introduction of energy efficiency related performance indicators in networks, or cooperative schemes in inter-operator networks, which could be studied from the energy efficiency point of view. Proposed ideas are basis for further research work. © 2013 IEEE

Resource allocation and management in multi-operator cellular networks with shared physical resources

In this paper, we focus on next-generation cellular networks and discuss physical resources sharing among the operators. This implies cooperative usage of the available radio frequencies and also infrastructure sharing. In particular, we analyze the spectrum sharing gain achievable at different time scales and the main factors impacting on it. Then, we move towards a wider idea of resource sharing and consider a joint spectrum and infrastructure sharing (full sharing). We describe a two-layer resource management architecture that enables operators to reduce costs while still guaranteeing a good service level. The main findings of our investigations are to quantify the effectiveness of resource sharing and open up new perspectives for the operators of next-generation networks