Telecommunication Engineering

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Browsing Telecommunication Engineering by Subject "5G"

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    Techno-Economic Analysis of Cloud RAN Deployment Scenarios: In the Context of Ethio Telecom
    (Addis Ababa University, 2022-01) Behailu, Getachew; Beneyam, Berehanu
    The explosive mobile traffic growth, as well as rapid deployment of innovative wireless technologies and services, have all put significant strain on network capacity in the radio access network (RAN). Mobile network operators (MNOs) are considering Cloud-based RAN deployment to address this capacity challenge while improving cost, energy usage, deployment flexibility and network management. Efficient deployment of Cloud RAN requires selecting suitable deployment scenarios and a thorough understanding of both its technical and economic aspects in the context of the RAN service area. Such techno-economic study has not been undertaken in the context of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and it is required to scientifically understand viable deployment of RAN architecture in Addis Ababa. In this thesis work, potential Cloud RAN deployment scenarios are formulated using scenario planning method. For selected scenarios in the context of Addis Ababa, a thorough technoeconomic analysis is performed applying a modified TERA framework that includes marketing forecast, network dimensioning, cost modeling, revenue modeling and economic analysis. The analysis is performed using net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR) and payback period (PP) economic metrics that are obtained from its implementation in MS-Excel and MATLAB. For the analysis, we assume a 6 years study period and a 10% discount rate. Achieved results show traffic growth forecasts have a great impact on Cloud RAN economic benefits that in turn affect the rate of return on investment. In scenario 1 with low traffic expectation, centralized RAN architecture shows a better cost position than Cloud RAN and distributed RAN (D-RAN) with a payback period of 2.94, 3.04 and 3.14 years respectively. However, for small scale deployment under a high traffic growth scenario, Cloud RAN architecture becomes the most cost-efficient architecture with all economic indicators as shown by the result. In this scenario, the payback period for Cloud RAN, Centralized RAN, and DRAN is 3.5, 3.95 and 4.16 years respectively for Addis Ababa. Regarding NPV and IRR, all architectures have positive NPV for the study periods and greater IRR value than the defined discounted rate. The results indicate that Cloud RAN achieved significant cost benefits under a high traffic growth scenario.