Infrastructure and Spectrum Sharing for Coverage and Capacity Enhancement in Multi-Operator Networks
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Date
2023-08-31
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The rapid growth of mobile data traffic is putting a strain on wireless networks. Infrastructure and spectrum sharing are two promising ways to alleviate this challenge on the wireless networks. Infrastructure sharing refers to the co-deployment and operation of network infrastructures like base station and other radio access equipment by different mobile network operators (MNOs). Spectrum sharing refers to the use of the same spectrum by multiple MNOs. Full sharing involves the sharing of both infrastructure and spectrum among MNOs.
Sharing between operators is nowadays used as a cost optimization and technology refreshment in developed markets and as coverage and capacity enhancement in emerging markets. In Ethiopia, the two MNOs of the country are not meeting and exceeding the quality of service (QoS) target given by the nation’s communication authority and most customers are not satisfied by the poor QoS specially, mobile data services. Infrastructure and spectrum sharing are effective and efficient ways to fulfill the required QoS.
The research presented in this paper presents an analytical model for infrastructure, spectrum and full sharing scenarios and investigates the performance of the three sharing scenarios in terms of probability of coverage and mean user rate. The results show that infrastructure sharing provides superior coverage as compared to spectrum and full sharing scenarios; whereas, full sharing and spectrum sharing have given the highest mean user rate. Therefore, the findings of this thesis can help MNOs to decide on the best way to share infrastructure and spectrum in order to meet their capacity and coverage requirements.
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Keywords
infrastructure sharing, spectrum sharing, coverage probability, mean user rate, coverage enhancement, capacity enhancement