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.
Resource sharing in inter-operator cellular networks, in fact, is another important aspect of our work and it has been studied in @cite_22 @cite_19 @cite_30 @cite_23 . @cite_22 the authors analyze feasible sharing options in the near-term in LTE using co-located and non co-located base stations. Authors in @cite_19 assess the benefit of sharing both infrastructure and spectrum, using real base station deployment data. @cite_30 the authors have studied sharing opportunities between two operators, by looking at spatial variation in demand peaks. All the results obtained in these works suggest that resource sharing, whether spectrum or infrastructure, increases the network capacity and the ability to satisfy users' requirements. However none of them addresses the problem of to efficiently plan a shared network composed by resources already deployed by existing operators. In our previous work @cite_23 we investigate the obtained by combining existing cellular networks considering the coverage redundancy in real deployments in Poland but, unlike this paper, our earlier work does not address capacity requirements nor regulatory constraints.
@cite_30 @cite_19 @cite_22 @cite_23
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Network sharing is often hailed as a promising and cost-effective way to tackle the ever-increasing load of cellular networks. However, its actual effectiveness strongly depends on the correlation between the networks being joined -- intuitively, there is no benefit in joining two networks with exactly the same load and exactly the same deployment. In this paper, we analyse the deployment and traffic traces of two Irish operators to (i) study their correlation in space and time, and (ii) assess the potential benefit brought by network sharing. Through our analysis, we are able to show that network sharing is remarkably effective in making the load more regular over space, improving the operations and performance of cellular networks. As cellular networks are turning into a platform for ubiquitous data access, cellular operators are facing a severe data capacity crisis due to the exponential growth of traffic generated by mobile users. In this work, we investigate the benefits of sharing infrastructure and spectrum among two cellular operators. Specifically, we provide a multi-cell analytical model using stochastic geometry to identify the performance gain under different sharing strategies, which gives tractable and accurate results. To validate the performance using a realistic setting, we conduct extensive simulations for a multi-cell OFDMA system using real base station locations. Both analytical and simulation results show that even a simple cooperation strategy between two similar operators, where they share spectrum and base stations, roughly quadruples capacity as compared to the capacity of a single operator. This is equivalent to doubling the capacity per customer, providing a strong incentive for operators to cooperate, if not actually merge. Resource sharing among mobile network operators is a promising way to tackle growing data demand by increasing capacity and reducing costs of network infrastructure deployment and operation. In this work, we evaluate sharing options that range from simple approaches that are feasible in the near-term on traditional infrastructure to complex methods that require specialized virtualized infrastructure. We build a simulation testbed supporting two geographically overlapped 4G LTE macro cellular networks and model the sharing architecture process between the network operators. We compare Capacity Sharing (CS) and Spectrum Sharing (SS) on traditional infrastructure and Virtualized Spectrum Sharing (VSS) and Virtualized PRB Sharing (VPS) on virtualized infrastructure under light, moderate and heavy user loading scenarios in collocated and noncollocated E-UTRAN deployment topologies. We also study these sharing options in conservative and aggressive sharing participation modes. Based on simulation results, we conclude that CS, a generalization of traditional roaming, is the best performing and simplest option, SS is least effective and that VSS and VPS perform better than spectrum sharing with added complexity.