Mobile Provisioning

Cost Efficient Provisioning of
Wireless Access
Infrastructure Cost Modeling and

Multi-Operator Resource Sharing
KLAS JOHANSSON
Licentiate Thesis in Telecommunication

Stockholm, Sweden 2005
Cost Efficient Provisioning of Wireless Access
Infrastructure Cost Modeling and Multi-Operator Resource Sharing
KLAS JOHANSSON
Licentiate Thesis in Telecommunication

Stockholm, Sweden 2005
TRITAS3RST0520
ISSN 14009137
ISRN KTH/RST/R--05/20--SE
KTH Signaler, sensorer och system

SE-100 44 Stockholm
SWEDEN
Akademisk avhandling som med tillst

and av Kungl Tekniska hogskolan framlagges till offentlig granskning for avlaggande av teknologie licentiatexamen fredagen den 16 december 2005 klockan 14:00 i sal C1, Electrum, Kungliga Tekniska
Hogskolan, Isafjordsgatan 22, Kista.
c Klas Johansson, december 2005
Tryck: Universitetsservice US-AB
Abstract
A cost efficient design of radio access networks is crucial for a continued growth
of mobile data services. In this thesis we study two opportunities that operators
have to lower their infrastructure costs; adapting network deployment to local
variations in traffic demand and multi-operator resource sharing.
With an increasing number of radio access technologies available, finding the
proper mix of systems is a critical issue for the operators. For this purpose,
we propose a model for estimating the total infrastructure cost as a function
of average traffic density. The main input parameters are the average cost,
throughput, and range per base station. Based on a log-normally distributed,
spatially correlated, traffic density map the network is dimensioned for a given set
of base station types. With this network cost model, we illustrate how the cost
depends on average traffic density for different single and multi-access network
concepts. Moreover, we identify how the respective subsystem in a multi-access
network should be improved in order to most effectively cut network costs.
Mobile infrastructure costs can also be reduced through network sharing
between multiple operators, and this has lately been put in focus during the
deployment of the third generations mobile systems. With a joint radio access
network, problems may arise in terms of free-rider effects, and there is a risk for
consciously misleading traffic forecasts with the objective to hide marketing plans
for competitors. This motivates a fair radio resource allocation between sharing
operators, in particular for cellular systems where over-dimensioning is quite
expensive. To avoid a reservation of radio resources, which decreases average
capacity utilization, we propose a load based priority queuing as an alternative
solution to this problem. Even without preemption of connected users, we show
that blocking levels can be sustained for operators with less than agreed load.
This comes, however, at the cost of increased call setup times during congestion.
Furthermore, roaming between overlapping mobile networks could be exploited to increase user data rates, in particular at the cell border. By means of
simulations with three similar cellular overlaid networks, we quantify the gain
with national roaming for an urban scenario. The gains are, thanks to increased
diversity against shadow fading, significant already with almost co-located base
stations.
iii
Acknowledgements
Half way through the doctoral studies, I would like to take this opportunity to
express my gratitude towards a number of persons who have contributed to this
work. To start with, the collaboration with Anders Furuskar, Johan Hultell, and
my supervisor Professor Jens Zander, as well as the previous work with Martin
Kristensson at Nokia Networks has been very rewarding. I could not wish for a
more professional and creative atmosphere!
Furthermore, the feedback from, and interesting discussions with, Magnus
Almgren, Bo Karlson, Peter Karlsson, Perttu Laakso, Jonas Lind, Professor
Gerald Maguire, Jan Markendahl, Guest Professor Osten

Makitalo, Mats Nilson,
Professor Bertil Thorngren, and Jan Werding have been very valuable. A special
thanks goes to Christian Bergljung for taking on the role as external reviewer at
the licentiate seminar, Martin who reviewed the licentiate thesis proposal, and
to Anders, Bo, Johan, Martin, and Osten

for commenting on the thesis draft.
The daily work with courses, teaching, etc., would probably not be endurable
without the class mates within the Graduate School of Telecommunications
and the colleagues at the Radio Communication Systems Lab (Pietro Lungaro
and Bogdan Timus, to just mention a few). The administrative support from
Niklas Olsson, Irina Radulescu, and Lise-Lotte Wahlberg is also very much appreciated.
I would also like to thank all my friends and former colleagues who, in one
way or another, inspired me to initiate this education and cheer along the way of
this mental marathon. In particular, David Ast`ely, Christian Braun, Ann-Louise
Johansson, Mats Larsson, Professor Preben Mogensen, and Klaus Pedersen from
the research department of Nokia Networks, who taught me the engineering basics and for sharing their enthusiasm for radio communications. I also very much
appreciate all activities with friends from the Electrical Engineering program at
KTH, skiing, and radio broadcasting, which to an equally large extent contribute
to my personal development.
Above all, though, I am very grateful and happy to have my beloved Maria,
my parents Britta and Lars, and my sister Jenny. Their love and support is
truly admirable.
Contents
I
1 Introduction
1.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2 Scope of the Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3 Thesis Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
3
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11
2 Infrastructure Cost Modeling

2.1 Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 Contributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.3 Delimitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.4 Base Station Characteristics (Paper 1) . . . .
2.5 Heterogeneous Infrastructure Cost (Paper 2)
2.6 Cost Efficient Capacity Expansion (Paper 3)
2.7 User Deployed Access Points (Paper 4) . . . .
2.8 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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3 Multi-Operator Resource Sharing

3.1 Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.2 Contribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3.3 Fair Resource Sharing (Paper 5) . . . . . . . .
3.4 Throughput with National Roaming (Paper 6)
3.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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4 Concluding Remarks
4.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2 Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
55
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References
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Appendices
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vii
viii
Contents
A Cost Modeling and Pricing Strategies

A.1 Discounted Cash Flow Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A.2 Pricing Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
69
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B Network Sharing Use Cases

B.1 Mobile Virtual Network Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
B.2 Inter-Operator Charging with Roaming Based Sharing . . . . . .
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II
77
Paper Reprints
5 Base Station Characteristics (Paper 1)
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6 Heterogeneous Infrastructure Cost (Paper 2)
87
7 Cost Efficient Capacity Expansion (Paper 3)
95
8 User Deployed Access Points (Paper 4)
103
9 Fair Resource Sharing (Paper 5)
109
10 Throughput with National Roaming (Paper 6)
117
List of Tables
2.1
2.2
2.3
Single carrier WCDMA BS performance assumptions . . . . . . .

Cost and performance estimates for different technologies . . . .
Summary of base station densities and infrastructure costs . . . .
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30
3.1
System parameters used in national roaming simulations . . . . .
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ix
List of Figures
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
Approximative macro cell ranges at different carrier frequencies

Cost structure of cellular BSs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Cost per area unit covered with WCDMA (uniform traffic) . .
Example of a generated traffic map and network deployment .
Cost for different combinations of radio access technologies . .
Cost for a multi-access network with different macro cell radii .
Elasticity of infrastructure cost in a multi-access network . . .
Fraction of traffic covered with user deployed APs . . . . . . .
Cost for various mixes of user and operator deployed APs . . .
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3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
Principle network sharing methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Admission control with non-preemptive priority queuing . . .
Probability of blocked calls per operator . . . . . . . . . . . .
An illustration of the inter-operator site distance model . . .
Expected gain in user throughput gain with national roaming
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xi
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List of Abbreviations
1G, . . . , 4G
3GPP
AP
ARPU
BS
CAPEX
CDMA
DCH
DSL
GSM
HSDPA
IEEE
IEEE 802.11a/b/g
MNO
MVNO
O&M
OPEX
QoS
RAN
RRM
S3G
SIR
SLA
UMTS
WCDMA
WLAN
First, . . . , Fourth Generation of Mobile Systems

Third Generation Partnership Program
Access Point
Average Revenue Per User
Base Station
Capital Expenditures
Code Division Multiple Access
Dedicated Channel
Digital Subscriber Line
Global System for Mobile Communications
High Speed Downlink Packet Access
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
WLAN standards authorized by IEEE
Mobile Network Operator
Mobile Virtual Network Operator
Operation and Maintenance
Operational Expenditures
Quality of Service
Radio Access Network
Radio Resource Management
Super 3G (Long Term Evolution of 3G)
Signal to Interference (plus noise) Ratio
Service Level Agreement
Universal Mobile Telephony System
Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
Wireless Local Area Network
xiii
Part I
Chapter 1
Introduction
In this thesis we treat two topics of relevance for a cost efficient capacity expansion of mobile data networks. More specifically:
1. How mobile network operators (MNO) could exploit various radio access
technologies in order to cut infrastructure costs.
2. The specific technical problems and possibilities that arise when multiple
operators (service providers) share the same radio access network (RAN).
Next we will outline the background to the study and a few underlying assumptions, and thereafter define and motivate the general problem addressed and
the thesis scope. More detailed problem descriptions and a review of previous
related work are included in Chapter 2 and 3 respectively, which also summarize
the included papers.
1.1
Background
Evolution of the Mobile Internet

The first generation of mobile systems (1G) was launched in the beginning of
the 1980s. A decade later, service offerings were exclusively targeted towards
business users and the service penetration rate was low. However, after the introduction of second generation systems (2G), prices declined during the second
half of the 1990s and mobile telephony was surprisingly soon adopted by most
people in the developed countries [1].
At the same time, the Internet, with services like web-browsing, file downloads, and e-mail, changed peoples way of living and doing business. The success
of the Internet was enabled by
Moores law, resulting in continuously increasing computer processing and
memory capabilities,
3
Chapter 1. Introduction
the fact that packet switched transmission in principle allow users to always
be connected without allocating expensive network resources, and
an open network architecture which basically allowed anyone to provide
interesting services and applications.
Today the majority of the population in industrialized countries is connected
and penetration rates for residential access have more than doubled since the
millennium shift [2, 3].
In the mid 1990s, the business cases of mobile telephony and the Internet
merged into a common vision the Mobile Internet. The business logic seemed
obvious; mobile users could access a tremendous amount of useful and entertaining Internet based services wherever they where. This would clearly open up for
new revenue streams and the Mobile Internet was incredibly hyped. However,
while predictions at that time suggested that the average data traffic volumes
would reach 150MB per user in January 2004 [4], voice services are still prevailing
in most countries.
Demand for Wireless Access

The demand for telecommunications in general, and mobile telephony in particular, is largely driven by the value of
having the opportunity to communicate, and
network effects1 [6].
To a large extent, these factors explain the demand for coverage and international roaming in mobile networks, as well as inter-connection of networks. It
furthermore partly motivates the importance for telecom operators to have a
large subscriber base; having that, they can capture parts of the value that
network effects brings [6].
Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), on the other hand, are today mainly
used for lap-tops and handhelds tailored for data services and the user behavior
is essentially the same as with fixed broadband, or local area networks. That
is, Internet-access, file transfers, etc., at homes and in offices which benefit from
a short transmission delay (per message, file, etc.). We can thus observe that
while area coverage and mobility have been important for telecommunication
services, a high data rate is often valued more for data oriented services.
The Cost of Coverage and Mobility

In spite of the increasing number of radio access technologies with various characteristics available [7], systems that are capable of providing Internet connectivity
1 By network effects, we include both that a network is worth more if more services and
people are accessible (Metcalfes law [5]), but also that an established communication per se
will lead to more communication.
1.1. Background
with wide area coverage and support for mobile usage are still quite expensive.
Mobile telephony, on the other hand, has evidently been a good stroke of business and the demand for coverage and mobility has driven the mobile systems
towards
base stations (BS) with high output power and highly mounted antennas,
sophisticated mechanisms for mobility management and fast handovers
between cells, and
complex billing systems supporting various pricing strategies (see further
Appendix A.2).
As a consequence, entry barriers have been high in the wireless infrastructure
market, and the cost of switching supplier is an important criteria when an MNO
purchase new infrastructure.
A key enabler for the success of mobile telephony has been the availability of
spectrum. Since voice and messaging services (personal communications) only
require a low average and peak data rate per session, a relatively small bandwidth
of radio spectrum is sufficient. Regulators have therefore, so far, been able to put
spectrum in suitable frequency bands at the operators disposal.2 In conjunction
with the low data rate requirements per link, the maximum feasible range per
BS has also been quite high (in the order of 1030km in 1G and 2G). Hence,
relatively few BSs were required for (almost) full area coverage and today we
have nationwide coverage for mobile telephony in most developed countries.
The situation is quite different for services requiring higher peak and mean
data rate per session. From the supply perspective, higher data rates imply
both higher bandwidth requirements, which have been difficult to find in lower
bands, and shorter feasible communication distances. This fact complicates
spectrum assignment procedures and requires denser networks (which might be
quite expensive). Already in third generation systems (3G), targeted for data
rates in the order of 100kbps with full area coverage, cell radii in the order
of a few hundred meters are required to obtain good indoor coverage in urban
environments. Hence, significantly higher data rates (that is, > 1Mbps) are
most likely economically feasible only in specific places, like malls and large
enterprizes, and not in general.
Spectrum Regulation
Spectrum allocation procedures have varied considerably between countries and
services, and is an intricate question from both a technical, societal, and business
2 Both the carrier frequency and bandwidth strongly affect what combination of area coverage and data rate per link that can be served with a BS. Propagation path gain decrease as
a function of carrier frequency and, according to the Shannon bound, (R = W log 2 (1 + SIR)),
data rates R increase linearly with system bandwidth W , but only logarithmical with the
signal to interference ratio (SIR).
perspective [6,8]. Radio spectra have traditionally been reserved for specific services and technologies, and concessions are handed out (primarily) to broadcasting companies, military organizations, and telecom operators. This paradigm is
currently being challenged, and with an increasing number of analogue radio systems being replaced by digital successors, large portions of spectrum is at stake
also in lower frequency bands. These bands are very attractive for a plethora of
mobile services, including broadcasting, personal communications, and internet
access.
Parts of the radio spectrum have also been allocated to low-power transmitters, which do not require a license (for example, the bands used for WLAN and
other short range technologies). Despite that the range is poor at high frequencies, it is most often sufficient for indoor systems. Moreover, an advantage with
high carrier frequency for indoor BSs is that the channel can be reused already
in adjacent buildings and floors, and there is, as oppose to for mobile systems,
no particular need for exclusive spectrum use rights.
The high value of radio spectrum adequate for mobile services was evident in
the the recent 3G license auctions in Europe. To use auctions or not, and how
to design the auction process, has been discussed for more than forty years [6,9].
Typically only a few (35) MNOs are currently targeted per market to ensure
that reasonable quantities are available at affordable prices, while allowing operators to cover their fixed costs [6,10]. However, to keep license fees at reasonable
levels (avoiding the winners curse phenomenon3 ), it has been stressed that
at least one more license than in previous systems has to be awarded when new
systems are introduced [6].
Since the spectrum allocation process becomes increasingly complex, especially considering the multitude of systems and services available, alternative
solutions are currently being investigated. Instead of long term allocations,
spectrum is envisaged to be assigned more dynamically for different services and
technologies, and with finer granularity; see for example [12, 13].
Inter-connection Regulation
Both in the copper-line access network and mobile networks, regulators try to
stimulate competition by enforcing the owner of the access networks to allow for
independent (virtual) operators to resell access subscriptions. In particular for
residential broadband subscriptions, the legacy telephony networks have proven
to be sufficient for the majority of consumers, and the low-cost Digital Subscriber
Lines (DSL) have clearly boosted the residential broadband penetration in many
countries [3]. As demand takes off, DSL operators can then expand their business
gradually and eventually roll-out their own fiber networks instead of facing huge
investments upfront for the last mile access network.
3 Meaning that the winner of an auction realizes that the object was more worth for him
than the other participants, and thus overbid [11].
1.2. Scope of the Thesis
Price regulation is frequently applied for inter-connection charges between

operators in order to avoid that licensees and incumbent fixed-line operators set
inter-connection charges too far above the production cost [6, 14, 15]. There is,
however, a risk that firms fail to recover sunk costs4 with cost based price
regulation whereby this needs needs to be done carefully.
1.2
Scope of the Thesis
General Problem Description

Mobile data services are widely believed to bring great opportunities for the
society, just as the fixed Internet and mobile telephony already have. And, as a
matter of fact, research and development towards future wireless infrastructure
is today essentially driven by a desire to increase data rates in order to support
a greater variety of services [16, 17]. However, as outlined above, there are still
many issues that need to be solved in order to attract the average consumer.
Besides innovation and marketing of new services that fulfill user needs, we
can presume that the cost of production needs be reduced significantly (especially where user density is low). Whereas steadily increasing data rates, thanks
to the diminishing cost of electronics, have been feasible to offer at a flat rate
in fixed broadband networks,5 it is questionable if the same will hold true also
for mobile systems. This since denser networks ultimately are required if significantly higher data rates are to be provided, which is associated with high
costs for site buildout, rental, etc. [18]. Alternatives to building yet denser cellular networks are therefore important, and that is the point of departure of this
thesis.
Research Approach
The cost of providing mobile data services can be reduced in several ways. If
we limit the scope to the RAN, which typically constitutes the bulk of the
infrastructure cost, an MNO could in principle choose to:
Improve the physical layer transmission techniques.
Exploit service requirements and propagation channel characteristics in
radio resource management (RRM).
Automate the network planning and optimization processes.
Acquire more radio spectrum in sufficiently low frequency bands.
4 Sunk costs have traditionally been high for telecom operators, both for mobile networks
and fixed line telephony infrastructure.
5 Once the cabling is in place, data rates in fixed networks can readily be increased by
upgrading routers, switches, etc. That is, electronics, for which the cost diminishes according
to Moores law.
Adapt BS capabilities to local coverage and capacity requirements using

multi-access networks or hierarchical cell structures.
Form a network sharing agreement with other operators in areas where
the own customer base is to small to cover the fixed costs.
Whereas the three first methods have been the traditional focus of technical
researchers in radio communication systems, the other are rather related to
non-technical issues; such as traffic demand, regulations, competitive strategy,
and financial considerations. Even though we acknowledge the importance of
improving the technical performance of different systems and the value of adequate spectrum allocations, we will focus on the two latter methods. This in
order to investigate to what extent these solutions, which are in the borderland
between technology and business, are useful as a means to lower infrastructure
costs for mobile data networks.
Throughout the thesis the focus will be on low and moderately high data
rates (up to approximately a few hundred kbps per user). This is motivated by
the reasoning presented in Section 1.1. That is, that only moderate data rates
are economically viable to provide with wide area coverage in mobile networks. 6
Contributions
More specifically, we will analyze
the infrastructure cost of wireless networks adapted to a geographically
varying traffic load, and
multi-operator resource sharing.
Brief problem statements and a summary of the contributions within the respective research topic are provided next.
Infrastructure Cost Modeling
Operators can choose to deploy specific cellular indoor solutions and WLAN to
provide coverage for high data rates in specific places. This typically requires a
high willingness to pay per user, and is today most common in airports, hotels,
etc. Traditionally, though, hierarchical cell structures have also been used as
capacity fill-in in zones with high traffic density. However, with WLAN technology available, operators also have the option to deploy multi-access networks
instead of hierarchical cell structures if traffic demand increases significantly.
While it is widely accepted that future networks will consist of a blend of
radio access technologies [1922], less is known about what cost savings that can
be expected with such heterogeneous wireless networks. The primary objective
6 For some specific places and services, for instance fixed wireless access, higher data rates
could still be worthwhile to offer, but such deployments are outside the scope of this thesis.
1.2. Scope of the Thesis
herein is therefore to quantify to what extent an operator can lower its infrastructure costs by utilizing BSs with different characteristics to cover a non-uniform
spatial traffic density. In particular, we will compare the cost of using WLAN
access points in traffic hot spots with a conventional (single-access) hierarchical
cell structure. Moreover, the need for improved cellular systems and alternative,
user deployed, expansion strategies will also be considered.
For this purpose an infrastructure cost model has been developed, which has
been used to evaluate different combinations of single and multi-access systems
in the following conference contributions (which are summarized in Chapter 2):
1. Klas Johansson, Anders Furuskar, Peter Karlsson, and Jens Zander, Relation between base station characteristics and cost structure in cellular
systems, In Proc. PIMRC 2004 [23].
2. Anders Furuskar, Klas Johansson, and Magnus Almgren, An Infrastructure Cost Evaluation of Single- and Multi-Access Networks with Heterogeneous Traffic Density, In Proc. VTC2005 Spring [24].
3. Klas Johansson and Anders Furuskar, Cost efficient capacity expansion
strategies using multi-access networks, In Proc. VTC2005 Spring [25].
4. Klas Johansson, On the cost efficiency of user deployed access points
integrated in mobile networks, In Proc. RVK 2005 [26].
The author of the thesis was main responsible for the first, third, and fourth paper. Anders Furuskar contributed with significant parts of the simulation models
and was the primary author of the second paper. All modeling and the research
approach has been developed jointly by the author and Anders Furuskar. Peter Karlsson contributed with valuable comments and ideas in particular on the
first paper. Magnus Almgren assisted with the initial research approach and
network dimensioning principles used in the three last papers. Jens Zander has
as advisor been involved and provided valuable feedback and guidance in all
papers.
Network sharing has recently been put into practice by some 3G operators and
the first operational networks were recently deployed in Sweden [2729]. 7 Technically, multiple operators access the same RAN using, to a large extent, mechanisms originally designed for international roaming. In a more general sense,
roaming based network sharing also includes Mobile Virtual Network Operators
(MVNO). National roaming between geographically overlapping cellular networks could also be exploited by operators to reduce their risk exposure when
introducing new services.
7 Rudimentary forms of network sharing, such as site and antenna sharing were widely used
also in 2G; see further Appendix B for a summary of network sharing methods.
10
The advantages with network sharing are promising, especially when considering the new business possibilities for MVNOs (see further Appendix B.1)
and that mobile data services could become economically viable also in less populated areas. However, there are considerable drawbacks in terms of reduced
differentiation possibilities as well as administrative and technical overhead.
Hence, the transaction costs may be significant, in particular for incumbent
operators [2731], which will be discussed further in Section 3.1.
We have studied technical solutions to one specific problem that has been
raised; namely how network resources can be allocated in a fair way between
operators sharing a cellular network. We will also investigate to what extent
coverage for higher data rates can be increased by means of national roaming.
This in order to further examine what the long-term use case of network sharing
might be for mobile network operators. These two problems were addressed in
the following two papers (summarized in Chapter 3):
5. Klas Johansson, Martin Kristensson, and Uwe Schwarz, Radio Resource
Management in Roaming Based Multi-Operator WCDMA networks, In
Proc. VTC2004 Spring [32].
6. Johan Hultell and Klas Johansson, An Estimation of the Achievable User
Throughput with National Roaming, Submitted to VTC2006 Spring [33].
The author of the thesis was main contributor to the first paper, for which
Martin Kristensson, Uwe Schwarz, and also Preben Mogensen contributed with
valuable feedback, both on the initial ideas and concept, and in identifying use
cases for fair radio resource sharing between operators. The second paper was
joint work with Johan Hultell where both contributed to an equal extent in all
aspects. Jens Zander provided feedback and guidance for both of the papers.
Other Related Papers
The following papers are related to, but not included, in the thesis and discuss
multi-operator RRM respectively business models for user deployed access points
(AP) at a conceptual level.
Johan Hultell, Klas Johansson, and Jan Markendahl, Business models and
resource management for shared wireless networks, In Proc. VTC2004
Fall [31].
Klas Johansson, Jan Markendahl, and Per Zetterberg, Relaying access
points and related business models for low cost mobile systems, In Proc.
Austin Mobility Roundtable, 2004 [34].
Klas Johansson, Jonas Lind, Miguel Berg, Johan Hultell, Niklas Kviselius,
Jan Markendahl, and Mikael Prytz, Integrating User Deployed Local Access Points in a Mobile Operators Network, In Proc. WWRF meeting
#12, 2004 [35].
1.3. Thesis Outline
1.3
11
Thesis Outline
The thesis consists of two parts. The first part contains a presentation of the
results and discussion of the included papers of the respective topic in Chapter 2
and Chapter 3. The thesis is summarized and recommendations for future work
are outlined in Chapter 4. In the second part, consisting of Chapter 510, the
series of papers that constitute the contributions of this thesis are reprinted
in verbatim. We have also included a brief overview of commonly used cost
terminology, pricing strategies, and network sharing use cases in Appendix AB.
Chapter 2
Infrastructure Cost
Modeling
In this chapter, we will analyze to what extent the incremental cost associated
with increasing traffic volumes can be reduced by adapting network capacity
and base station capabilities to local variations in demand. More specifically, we
will compare multi-access networks with conventional hierarchical cell structures.
Whereas the former refers to systems where multiple radio access technologies
(cellular and WLAN) are accessed with a multi-radio capable terminal, the latter describes a single-access network constituted of various cell sizes (macro,
micro, etc.). As compared to hierarchical cell structures, multi-access networks
in essence have the benefit that other (simpler) protocol stacks and larger (unlicensed) spectrum bandwidths can be used in local access systems (WLAN),
yielding cheaper systems and higher data rates. The advantage with hierarchical cell structures, on the other hand, is that handsets and central systems only
need to support one access method.
It is well known that considerable cost savings can be obtained by adapting
radio access systems to the data rates, capacity, and degree of coverage required.
For example, a system deployed in rural areas need a long range, but relatively
few users are served per BS. Consequently, a smaller chunk of spectrum in lower
frequency band is preferred as compared to a wide bandwidth at a higher frequency; see further Figure 2.1. Down-town areas with heavy traffic, on the
other hand, seldom require long range so the requirements on technology are the
opposite.1
If traffic is uniformly distributed within a service area, the network design is,
from an engineering perspective, straightforward since one technology essentially
minimizes cost for a given scenario. With a heterogeneous spatial traffic density,
1 In suburbs and urban areas with low-rise buildings, which in many European countries
cover the largest part of the population, BSs with medium range and capacity are typically
most cost efficient.
13
14
Chapter 2. Infrastructure Cost Modeling
Uplink user throughput (outdoors) [Mbps]
5
1GHz
2GHz
3GHz
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Distance from base station [m]
800
900
1000
Figure 2.1: A rough estimation of user throughput as a function of cell range for a
few carrier frequencies in a noise limited system. The COST231-Hata model for
outdoor, urban, propagation has been used (with parameters according to [25])
and throughput is calculated using the Shannon-bound, with 3.84MHz carrier
bandwidth. The figure illustrates how valuable spectrum in lower bands is for
services requiring area coverage.
though, introducing a mix of different BSs and radio access technologies with
varying characteristics could potentially reduce costs. In this chapter we will
therefore examine if there are any cost advantages to take local variations in
traffic load into account when deploying a heterogeneous wireless network. A
case study with a few common radio access technologies will be performed. The
focus in on infrastructure; even though terminals constitute a significant cost
for mobile operators and users, we assume that especially data and multi-media
handsets need to be multi-mode anyway to support legacy mobile systems and
private WLANs.
2.1
Related Work
Previous work on the cost structure of wireless access networks has mainly been
conducted during the development of the Universal Mobile Telephone System
(UMTS) [1, 10, 18]. National regulators have further on developed cost models for regulation of inter-connection charges and spectrum assignment guidelines [10,14,15,36,37]. Technology road-maps and visions, supported by economical reasoning, have also been presented by telecom equipment vendors [4, 38],
2.1. Related Work
15
and technical researchers have to some extent used infrastructure cost as objective function for optimization of network dimensioning [3944]. All of these
studies cover both useful methodology and empirical data on unit costs, and are
summarized next.
Business case feasibility studies

Infrastructure cost models have previously been applied in investment analyses
for wireless access provisioning. That is, the objective of these studies is to evaluate whether or not introducing a new communication technology is profitable.
Significant contributions have been made within the European Unions research
programs RACE II (Research of Advanced Communication Technologies), ACTS
(Advanced Communication Technologies and Services), and the recently finished
TONIC (Techno-Economics of IP Optimized Networks and Services) project. In
particular, a methodology for techno-economical evaluation of access networks
for telecommunication services was developed during 1992-1996 in the TITAN
project (Tool for Introduction Scenario and Techno-economic Evaluation of Access Network), as part of RACE II [45]. This was later on refined within ACTS,
which finished in year 2000, under the acronym TERA (Techno-economic results
from ACTS), and in TONIC [1].
While RACE II and ACTS subsequently led to the development of network
architectures and radio access technologies for UMTS, TONIC was mainly carried out during the downturn in the telecom sector, shortly after the millenniumshift. With the widely debated license fees and high investments for 3G networks [6, 46], the aim was to quantify the long-term profitability for UMTS
operators. WLAN hot spots were also addressed, since it rapidly had emerged
as a competing technology to UMTS. A number of typical scenarios were evaluated, including small and large European countries and various operator sizes.
The main results of TONIC were presented in terms of net present values (and
internal rate of return), and demand was modeled as a function of time using Scurves [1]. The pay-back time was estimated to be approximately seven years,
which was not considered to be too long having in mind that the concessions
typically have a duration of 20 years. Clearly this fact will be a significant entry
barrier for alternative technologies that now try to enter the mobile market [7].
Following up on TONIC, the CELTIC initiative recently launched ECOSYS
(techno-ECOnomics of integrated communication SYStems and services). The
aim with that project is to provide insights into risk management for new market
actors providing fixed and mobile Internet access and services, in an increasingly
heterogeneous market for wireless infrastructure. Among their early contributions is an overview of demand forecasts for fixed and mobile networks and
services in Europe [3]. This includes an overview of the market share of different broadband technologies, and their distinguishing characteristics, showing
that residential broadband penetration currently increase exponentially within
Western Europe (with Sweden in the forefront).
16
Similar methodology has been used to analyze the profitability of Swedish

UMTS licensees [46]. It was concluded that the profits of Swedish operators
would decrease with UMTS, in principle due to larger investments and operational expenditures (OPEX) at sustained average revenue per user (ARPU).
This was, however, based on the operators initial license applications, which
promised a significant UMTS coverage also in the rural parts of Sweden. At the
moment, however, the Swedish regulator and operators are considering alternative technologies in the 450MHz band (which still is used for 1G) to cover less
populated areas.
A case study of the economical feasibility of public WLAN deployed in a large
scale in Stockholm was presented in [47]. It was shown that there is a potential
for pure WLAN operators that provide limited coverage and mobility in public
places, such as museums, bus stops, inner city squares, etc. The users willingness
to pay has to exceed approximately 50SEK per month in order to cover the costs
for infrastructure. However, the author pointed out that revenues need to be
considerably higher for the business case to be considered as profitable for a
private actor due to the high risk. An option, proposed in [47], would instead be
that the public sector should deploy a public WLAN network in selected places
provide access, possibly free of charge, until demand increase and private actors
find it profitable to offer public WLAN access.
Network planning and optimization

Improving the link budget and the throughput per BS is as previously mentioned
widely accepted as an effective method to increase cost efficiency in mobile networks. The financial benefits with a few capacity enhancement techniques were
analyzed in [38, 39]. For instance in [38], a net present value analysis was presented for the case of introducing advanced antenna concepts in 3G systems.
However, no additional costs were associated with the capacity enhancing features.
The problem of optimizing BS range and aggregate throughput versus cost
was treated in [40, 41, 48]. All these studies have the infrastructure cost as objective function for network optimization. For example, in [41], an optimum
power allocation and placement of BSs with respect to infrastructure cost was
considered. Under the assumption of uniformly distributed traffic load and a
target blocking probability the optimization problem was shown be convex, and
thus a global optimum can be found. The cost of a BS was modeled as a linear
function of the composite output power and it was observed that minimizing
the number of BSs, which was done in for example [49,50], not necessarily minimize overall infrastructure costs considering the lower cost for smaller BS types.
Moreover, the cost structure shift from BSs and physical infrastructure to last
mile-transmission as BS size decreases and consequently, as noted in [41], lowering cost for the actual BS itself does not necessarily lower total infrastructure
cost.
2.1. Related Work
17
In wireless networks the fixed part of the last mile-transmission stand

for a significant portion of the overall infrastructure costs in the order of
5-15% [1, 44]. Optimization of the topology and aggregation points (hubs in
star-shaped networks) has been quite extensively studied; see for example [1, 41]
and references therein.
Methods to lower BS site costs (in total) were also discussed in [42], where
it was noted that pedestrian users do not need as advanced BSs as vehicular do.
Moreover, cost reductions of 60-70% per subscriber were estimated by introducing a micro-cell layer in second generation mobile systems.
Automated solutions are also often sought in order to reduce both investments and running costs by a proper cell planning and network management.
An overview of the potential cost reduction with different automation solutions
was presented in [43]. Automatic network optimization techniques are popular
since they do not require additional hardware (or at least very little). However,
it was also noted in [43] that an improved physical layer also is required if an
order of magnitude higher capacity is needed.
Residential broadband access

The aforementioned European research projects also covered techno-economical
feasibility of fixed broadband networks. Already within RACE, the TITAN
project developed methodology and tools for analyzing the net present value
and assess risks associated with providing broadband services [51].
It was argued in [51] that the most critical parameters to include in a technoeconomical model for broadband systems are subscriber density, civil works configuration, component cost evolution, and demand assessment (service penetration). The copper network was showed to be the cheapest solution. In rural
areas, however, wireless access (also called radio in the local loop) was significantly cheaper than fixed line alternatives. Component prices were too high at
that time (1996) for fiber based solutions to be considered profitable. However,
it was stressed that fiber based infrastructure will be increasingly interesting for
fixed broadband access, in particular considering the expected lower operation
and maintenance (O&M) costs and the potential to offer more services.
It is clear that the incremental cost for installing fiber is significantly higher
than DSL. The cost per fiber line (residence) was at the time of these studies
about US$2000-2500, whereof approximately US$1500 is for the passive optical network [52]. This should be compared to the incremental cost for a DSL
connection, which is less than a tenth of that [53].
Wireless fixed broadband systems have recently appeared in the market,
especially for rural markets. Although it has been available for 5-10 years, a
wider interest for these solutions occurred only recently. The reason for this is
probably the growing broadband market as a whole, including digital subscriber
line (DSL) systems, a political interest to make broadband available for every
citizen, and an increasing competition amongst radio access technologies and
18
operators. There are already a number of systems available, including the time
division duplex mode of WCDMA, IEEE 802.16a (WiMAX) and early fourth
generation (4G) system concepts. A techno-economical feasibility study of IEEE
802.16a was presented in [53], based on the methodology and tools developed
within ACTS and TONIC. The results showed that the cost structure of fixed
wireless access can not compete with fixed DSL in cities and suburbs due to
high equipment prices and low range of the systems, especially in the currently
available 3.5GHz frequency band. This was also concluded in [7]. However, for
rural areas and regions with inferior infrastructure the fixed broadband wireless
access systems look more promising and as compared to mobile systems the link
budget is significantly better thanks to that directional roof-top antennas can
be used (as with terrestrial TV-broadcasting).
Assessments of Spectrum Allocations

Having access to radio spectrum is, as discussed in Chapter 1, indeed a fundamental issue for MNOs. This topic has also been much debated during recent
years, and there are several contributions on the topic. The value of spectrum
for UMTS operators was assessed in a consultancy report commissioned by the
Swedish regulator Post och Telestyrelsen in 2004 [36]. This study also included estimates of the infrastructure cost, in order to quantify the economical
benefits of allocating additional spectrum for Swedish UMTS operators. It was
concluded that the cost of BSs constitute a large part of the total cost of the
networks, and that minimizing the number of BSs therefore is important. For
more densely populated areas, capital expenditures (CAPEX) could be reduced
in the order of 2-6 billion SEK if more spectrum can be added instead of new
sites (one BS costing approximately 1 million SEK). Savings in OPEX was assumed to be less significant, in the order of 5% of CAPEX. However, since the
need for additional capacity occurs in the future, the present value is lower (800
MSEK). This study does not take technology advances into account and due to
the difficulty of making traffic forecasts it was concluded that the point of time
when additional spectrum is needed is difficult to predict.
A thorough cost analysis was also presented in a report for the Federal Communications Commission in 1992, as part of a quite extensive study assessing
the spectrum required for personal communication services [10]2 . A case study
was conducted for a hypothetical residential area of 25600 households which was
to be provided personal communication services. The focus was on potential economical synergies between telephony services, cable TV and mobile telephony.
The long-run average cost per subscriber was used as performance measure and
recommendations were made regarding suitable spectrum allocations and number of licenses to award for personal communication services in the United States.
Different cell sizes were used in the cellular network depending on spectrum allocation, leading to varying infrastructure costs per subscriber. Interesting to
2 This
report was later summarized in a journal article [54].
2.2. Contributions
19
observe is that many of the conclusions and concepts in that study still are very
relevant, although empirical cost and performance estimates differ from present
levels.
User deployed access points

User deployed infrastructure has also been proposed as a method to reduce the
cost of wireless access infrastructure [5557]. In [56] the APs are anticipated
to be owned by private users who connect them to their existing broadband
connections. Access is then granted for everyone, free of charge, or possibly on
a reciprocal basis for those that also have local access networks. Another common case of user deployment concerns APs deployed by local operators having
roaming agreements with public operators [58].
Large scale deployment of WLAN was treated in [59, 60] where it, among
other things, was noted that WLAN dimensioning in fact is a 3-dimensional
problem, and introduced a systematic approach for planning of such systems.
In [57], a case study of random AP deployment in offices, shopping malls and
campus areas was conducted. It was concluded that the number of APs required
for full coverage roughly could be halved with a planned network instead of
randomly deployed APs.
2.2
Contributions
Previous research suggests that infrastructure costs can be lowered through BSs
that are well adapted to the deployment case. However, neither a framework for
analyzing the cost structure of heterogeneous networks, nor any quantification
of achievable cost savings, have been found in the literature.
In Paper 14, which are reprinted in Part II (Chapters 58), we have therefore
investigated the cost of using heterogeneous networks to expand the capacity in a
mobile network. Furthermore, we evaluate how the respective radio access technologies should be developed most effectively as part of a multi-access network.
The main contributions of the respective paper are as follows:
1. A methodology is derived for average infrastructure cost modeling under
uniform traffic densities, and the cost structure is derived for a few common
cellular BS configurations.
2. The average cost model is extended to the case of non-uniform spatial
traffic densities, in order to assess the cost of heterogeneous networks.
Numerical examples are also included with a number of different present
and future radio access technologies.
3. It is shown how the proposed cost model can be used to find the proper
tradeoff between macro cell radius and AP density, for a mixed 3G and
WLAN network. We also introduce the elasticity of infrastructure cost as
20
an effective method to compare achievable cost reductions with respect to

improvements in both unit cost and performance.
4. Potential cost savings with user deployed APs integrated in mobile networks are estimated with a random, uniformly distributed, placement of
APs.
2.3
Delimitations
When assessing the cost structure of a mobile network, a great number of factors
need to be considered. Proper delimitations and simplifications are therefore
necessary. Network dimensioning is a function of
Demand user data rates, area coverage, traffic load, . . .
Supply spectrum bandwidth, carrier frequency, spectral efficiency, . . .
In this work, though, we will focus on traffic load. The other variables are
modeled through a feasible average throughput and range for each BS type.
No explicit assumptions will be made on what services that are demanded,
except for that only moderate data rates (in the order of 100kbps) are required
with full coverage. This is motivated by the rationale outlined in Chapter 1;
that is, that only such services with low and moderate data rates should be
economically viable to offer in mobile networks with wide-area coverage and
that demand for these services therefore should drive network dimensioning.
Quality of Service (QoS) characteristics, such as peak user data rate, outage
probability, blocking probability, and delay requirements are consequently exogenous variables. Only aggregate traffic volumes (or average throughput) will be
used as measure of demand. In practice, the users willingness to pay for a service
is (simply put) a function of the value the service brings, competition, and availability of substitutes; see further Appendix A.2. This all varies both spatially
and over time, and greatly affects a network deployment strategy.3 However, to
make accurate predictions of future demand for specific services and applications
is very difficult. Moreover, already a few different service mixes would be quite
tedious to model and analyze. Therefore, we will in this study resort to having
the aforementioned macro-scopic parameters as a measure of demand.
Moreover, only initial network deployment (roll-out) will be considered. 4
This is done to keep the analysis simple and tractable. However, since absolute cost estimates are not as important for us as relative comparisons between
technologies, this should only have a minor impact on the conclusions. Emerging
traffic demand and the evolution of component cost and performance will hence
not be considered in this initial study.
3 For example, a residential user may have access to a flat rate fixed broadband service
and is thus willing to pay less per bit for mobile data services than a vehicular user (ceteris
paribus).
4 Normally, network capacity and coverage is increased gradually as demand increases.
2.4. Base Station Characteristics (Paper 1)
21
Strategic marketing issues are also neglected, as well as regulatory requirements, legacy infrastructure and organizational know-how and culture. These
factors will, of course, all heavily affect the deployment strategy for an operator. However, they are outside the scope of this thesis which has a technical
orientation.
All in all, we do not consider the delimited factors as absolutely necessary
for a first approximation of infrastructure costs. It is still, though, important to
keep these delimitations in mind when making conclusions on viable deployment
strategies based on the results. If more specific and precise results are required,
detailed case studies needs to be performed. Only then can all the aspects listed
above be modeled appropriately.
2.4
Relation between Base Station Characteristics and Cost Structure (Paper 1)
In the first paper we present a model for estimating average infrastructure costs
in mobile networks with uniform spatial traffic load. For this purpose, empirically based cost estimates of common BS configurations are derived [23]. The
models and results are summarized next.
Infrastructure Cost Model

Motivated by the cost structure of mobile networks [1], only the BSs are included
in our cost model. It should be noticed though, that all major auxiliary costs
for a BS site can be included, and not only radio equipment.
With different BS configurations available, the total infrastructure cost C for
a mobile operator can thus simply be modeled as
X
C=
ci ni ,
(2.1)
iB
where ci is the cost for BS type i, ni is the number of BSs that would be
required of that kind, and B is the set of available BS configurations. In this
paper, however, we only consider a uniform traffic distribution and hence only
one type of BS is considered (for each case).
Network Dimensioning
The network is dimensioned to serve a given average traffic density during the
busy hour5 and, for the sake of simplicity, only downlink is considered. This
should be reasonable since downlink generally limits the aggregate capacity in a
cellular system, while uplink limits the data rate per link and range (coverage)
5 A mobile network is normally dimensioned according to the traffic demanded during the
busiest time of the day the busy hour.
22
when the traffic load is low [61]. The maximum average throughput (reflecting
capacity) per BS is assumed to be constant, and does not vary as a function of
the actual cell range or time-varying traffic load, which typically is the case in
interference limited cellular networks.6
With a uniform spatial traffic density the network is thus either limited by
average aggregate throughput per BS Wmax (capacity limited) or the maximum cell range Rmax (coverage limited). The number of BSs required is then
given by
Aservice Nuser Wuser

Nbs = max
,
(2.2)
,
2
Rmax
Wmax
where Aservice is the total service area and Wservice is the total aggregate
throughput to be served within that area. Furthermore, the cell radius can not
be smaller than Rmin to assure that inter-cell interference levels are sufficiently
low [61].7
Thus, all required QoS levels need to be feasible at the assumed cell range R
(subject to Rmin < R < Rmax ) and average BS throughput W < Wmax .
Base Station Performance Assumptions
Performance and cost assumptions for a few typical cellular BS configurations
are summarized in Table 2.1. All values are approximative, but should be representative in a relative sense for a typical WCDMA system deployed in a Western
European city during 2003. Typical cell ranges and throughput estimates are
based on [61] and do not represent the performance of any specific product. We
have assumed that the cell capacity is higher for micro and pico BSs than in
macro cells. This since it is possible to minimize inter-cell interference by a
proper placement of the antennas (below roof-top or indoors). It should also
be noted that, for the sake of simplicity, only single carrier WCDMA BSs were
considered in this paper and that the macro BS is equipped with three sectors.
The equipment costs estimates were provided by the Gartner Group and the
other cost parameters are based on [1]. All cost data were slightly simplified
according to our own assumptions to fit with the chosen system modeling.
Results
The total cost (in present value) for each BS type is presented in Figure 2.2,
grouped by:
Radio BS equipment and discounted O&M costs.
6 In fact, a cellular network is never hexagonally shaped with uniform interference statistics
in practice. However, when modeling systems deployed over large areas it should be reasonable
to assume that the average approach we have taken herein is sufficiently accurate.
7 Besides, macro BSs can not be too densily deployed due to practical and environmental
reasons.
2.5. Heterogeneous Infrastructure Cost (Paper 2)
23
Table 2.1: Single carrier WCDMA BS performance estimates (based on own

assumptions and [61]).
Macro BS Micro BS
Pico BS
Sectors
3
1
1
Maximum cell range (Rmax )
1km
0.25km
0.1km
Minimum cell range (Rmin )
0.25km
0.1km
0.025km
Sector throughput
0.75Mbps 1.25Mbps 1.75Mbps
Maximum BS throughput (Wmax ) 2.25Mbps 1.25Mbps 1.75Mbps
Sites installation and discounted site leases.
Last mile-transmission discounted leased line costs.
A more detailed description of the cost assumptions are given in the paper [23],
and references therein. In this example micro BSs are 66% cheaper than macro
BSs, whereas the cost for a pico BS is only 44% lower than a a micro BS. This
has a rather intuitive explanation: the equipment cost is lower and site costs
can be reduced significantly as the required cell range decreases. However, the
transmission costs are the same for all BSs (which is a somewhat simplistic
assumption). Hence, as observed in [41], for BSs with shorter range the cost is
driven by transmission, rather than by radio and site costs.8
The infrastructure cost per user is calculated as a function of user density,
for different traffic levels per user during busy hour. With the modeling and
assumptions outlined above, results show that single carrier (5MHz) WCDMA
macro BSs are sufficient with less than, approximately, 4Mbps/km2 . This corresponds to 20 000 voice users (at 20mE), or 400 data users downloading 5MB of
data during busy hour, per km2 . At this traffic, approximately two macro BSs
are thus needed per km2 , corresponding to a cell radius of 400m. In Figure 2.2
it is further shown for what user densities the respective BSs are range limited
under these performance and traffic assumptions. However, since only a single
macro-cell carrier was assumed in this example, these values can be be multiplied
by three for the initial spectrum allocation typically available for European 3G
operators.
2.5
An Infrastructure Cost Evaluation of Singleand Multi-Access Networks with Heterogeneous Traffic Density (Paper 2)
While traffic was uniformly distributed in the first paper, a spatially heterogeneous traffic density is instead applied in this contribution [24]. The primary
8 The
exact figures are of course case specific.
24
Base station cost structure
300
Radio equipment and O&M

Site installation and rental
"Last mile"transmission
250
Cost [kEuro]
200
150
100
50
Macro
Micro
Pico
Figure 2.2: Cost structure of typical urban WCDMA BSs calculated in present
value over 10 years.
Average busy hour throughput per user W
4
user
= 1kbps
Pico BS
3
10
Micro BS
Infrastructure cost per km in present value [kEuro]
10
10
Macro BS
Capacity limited
Coverage limited
1
10 2
10
10
10
10
Users/km
Figure 2.3: Total infrastructure cost per km2 for different WCDMA BSs with
uniform spatial traffic density.
25
purpose of this is to quantify the cost savings with hierarchical cell structures
and multi-access networks under more scattered traffic variations, both with
wide-area and hot spot coverage.
Deployment strategies with spatially varying traffic density

With a perfectly homogeneous, uniform, spatial traffic density a single type of
BS will be sufficient to minimize cost. For example, micro cellular BSs may be
cheapest with high area traffic demand whereas macro BSs typically yield the
lowest cost where traffic is low. Hierarchical cell structures and multi-access networks are expected to be more cost efficient only in scenarios with heterogeneous
spatial traffic densities. This is, however, not a sufficient condition; traffic peaks
(hot spots) also need to be few and strong. Otherwise a large number of APs
are required and there will most likely be excess capacity in the smaller cells.
Heterogeneous Traffic Density Model

User density is in this paper modeled as a log-normally distributed, spatially
correlated, stochastic variable.9 This is motivated by traffic distribution in GSM
networks [63], and detailed population statistics available from the United States
[64]. However, the model has not been verified with traffic measurements in
mobile data networks.
The traffic map is divided into subareas of 20x20m, where the standard
deviation per sample has been chosen so that local peaks in user density are
reached with reasonable probability. Notice, though, that an operator typically
can not plan the network with that fine granularity in practice, at least not
during rollout when demand is not well known. To fit the standard deviation
per macro-cell (with a typical cell radius of 1km) to 0.4dB, reported in [63], a
spatial correlation distance of 500m is assumed.
By multiplying the user density with the average busy hour throughput per
user, we get the average traffic to be served. As a reference case we will use
private speech users, who typically call 1-2 minutes during the busy hour. This
yields approximately 0.2kbps average throughput assuming a 10kbps voice service. Furthermore it is assumed that the studied operator has a 30% market
share, and that overall service penetration is 90%. This gives, for example, an
average user density of
1 350 users/km2 in an urban area with 5 000 people/km2 , and
5 400 users/km2 in a city centre with 20 000 people/km2 .
Based on these numbers the average traffic per user can be approximated.
9 Similar
to how shadow fading typically is modeled in simulations [62].
26
Macro
3.5
Micro
3000
2.5
2500
2000
1.5
1
1500
0.5
1000
500
0
0
10
3500
Traffic Density [log (Mbps/km2)]
4000
0.5
1000
2000
3000
4000
Figure 2.4: Example of a network deployment with macro and micro cells covering an area of 4x4km with a spatially non-uniform traffic density.
Summary of Network Dimensioning Algorithm

A simple network dimensioning algorithm has been applied to account for the
spatially varying traffic load.10 In essence, macro BSs are deployed first to
obtain rudimentary coverage. Micro BSs, Pico BSs, and WLAN APs are then
deployed in hot spots in an increasing order of cell radius. Traffic in area samples
with low demand (user density) is primarily allocated to the macro cells, and so
forth. For the case of fractional (hot spot) coverage only, we include only the,
for instance, 20-percentile of traffic with lowest cost per transmitted bit in the
cost calculations. Notice that a more detailed description of the algorithm is
available in the paper.
The gray scale contour in Figure 2.4 depicts a realization of traffic density
generated by the model, with a network deployment of macro and micro BSs.
Notice that the micro BSs primarily are placed in areas with high traffic density
and that all base stations are placed on regular, hexagonal, grids (with a specific
cell radius for each type of BS).
Base Station Characteristics

The system concepts compared in the numerical examples of this paper include
the single-access systems:
10 This algorithm was proposed by the other authors of the paper; Magnus Almgren and
Anders Furusk
ar, both with Ericsson Research.
27
Table 2.2: Performance parameters and cost coefficients for the included radio
access technologies (BSs, APs and relay clusters).
Radio
System
Spectral
Cell
Capacity
Cost
Access
bandwidth
efficiency
radius
[Mbps]
Technology
[MHz]
[bps/Hz/cell]
[m]
3G macro
5-15
0.2
1000
3-9
1
3G micro
5-10
0.2
250
1-2
0.5
3G pico
5
0.2
100
1
0.25
802.11g
20
1.1
40
22
0.1
HSDPA
As 3G
0.5
As 3G
2.5x3G
As 3G
S3G macro
20
0.75
1000
3x15
1
S3G micro
20
0.75
250
15
0.5
S3G pico
20
0.75
100
15
0.25
S3G 450
20
0.75
2500
3x15
1
4G macro
100
1
700
3x100
1
4G micro
100
1
175
100
0.5
4G pico
100
1
70
100
0.25
4G relay
100
1
1850
100
6
WCDMA with Dedicated Channels (WCDMA DCH),
WCDMA with High Speed Downlink Packet Access (WCDMA HSDPA),
IEEE 802.11g WLAN,
preliminary Super 3G (S3G) and 4G proposals,
as well as multi-access combinations of WCDMA DCH/HSDPA and IEEE 802.11g.
As in the previous paper, QoS requirements (delay and peak data rates) are not
modeled explicitly. For a fair and relevant comparison the services considered
therefore need to be feasible to provide with the performance parameters given
in Table 2.2. All performance estimates are based on an outdoor urban environment, whereby resulting costs may be slightly optimistic for indoor services. 11
Results
In this paper the total system infrastructure cost, normalized per transmitted
gigabyte (GB) of data per month, is compared for different combinations of radio
access technologies. This has been evaluated as a function of average traffic
density for both fractional (20%) and almost full (90%) coverage of the offered
traffic; see Figure 2.5. As a reference level, the traffic volume relative to typical
private speech users in a city centre (cc) and low-rise urban (u) environments
are depicted on the horizontal axes.
11 Notice
also that the WCDMA performance estimates are slightly different than in Paper 1.
28
The multi-access concepts IEEE 802.11g WLAN combined with WCDMA

DCH respective WCDMA HSDPA macro and micro cells yield equal or lower
cost than the single-access WCDMA solutions (with pico cells in hot spots).
However, gains as compared to pure WCDMA DCH and HSDPA systems are
evident only at very high traffic (100 and 300Mbps/km2 respectively).12
Among the studied future system concepts, S3G remains coverage limited
for slightly higher traffic densities than WCDMA DCH and WCDMA HSDPA,
and thus yields lower costs than these systems for traffic densities exceeding
2Mbps/km2 . Even lower cost can be achieved with the hypothetical S3G 450
system; due to its large cell radius, the cost is almost 10 times lower than for
the other cellular concepts at low traffic densities. Even for high traffic densities
S3G 450 is better than S3G, despite the same throughput per BS. This indicates
that, even with a high mean traffic, there are large areas with less traffic where
BS range still is important for cost efficient operations.
For the case of 20% served traffic only, the main difference is that IEEE
802.11g yield a lower cost than WCDMA DCH and HSDPA already at 20 and
40 Mbps/km2 respectively (instead of 100 and 300Mbps/km2 ).
2.6
Cost Efficient Capacity Expansion

Strategies Using Multi-Access Networks
(Paper 3)
In this paper [25], we test different combinations of WCDMA HSDPA macro BS

and IEEE 802.11g AP densities to analyze the sensitivity of the infrastructure
cost with respect to initial deployment strategy. The evaluation is done with the
modeling and assumptions in the previous paper. Furthermore, we introduce
the elasticity of infrastructure cost as a measure of how relative improvements
of different sub-systems affect the total cost. That is, to identify what parameters
that are most important to improve in order to reduce the cost of a multi-access
network at different traffic loads. In the perspective of this analysis, we also
discuss in the paper how cell range, throughput, and the cost per BS can be
improved.
Elasticity of Infrastructure Cost

Elasticity is widely used in economics to measure the incremental percentage
change in one variable with respect to an incremental percentage change in
another variable [11]. In this study we evaluate the elasticity of infrastructure
cost with respect to the cost ci , coverage area Ai , and capacity Wi per AP. We
define the elasticity of a parameter X {ci , Ai , Wi } on the total infrastructure
12 Notice that the exact crossover points are subject to the performance and traffic modeling
whereby these results are not generally applicable.
2.6. Cost Efficient Capacity Expansion (Paper 3)
Fraction of Supported Users 20%
10
802.11g
WCDMA DCH
WCDMA HS
DCH & 11g
HS & 11g
S3G
S3G 450
4G
4G relay
10
10
-1
10
10
Traffic Density [Mbps/km2]
cc1000
u1000
cc100
u100
cc10
10
u10
10
cc1
10
u1
Infrastructure Cost per Month per GB [Euro]
29
10
10
(a) 20% served traffic

Fraction of Supported Users 90%
802.11g
WCDMA DCH
WCDMA HS
DCH & 11g
HS & 11g
S3G
S3G 450
4G
4G relay
10
10
-1
10
10
2
Traffic Density [Mbps/km ]
10
cc1000
u1000
cc100
u100
cc10
10
u10
10
cc1
10
u1
Infrastructure Cost per Month and GB [Euro]
10
10
(b) 90% served traffic
Figure 2.5: Infrastructure cost per transmitted GB per month for a few different
system configurations, including cellular systems, WLAN, and multi-access combinations. In the upper graph only 20% of the offered traffic is served, reflecting
the coverage of a hot spot access provider, whereas in the lower plot 90% of the
traffic is served.
30

Traffic density
1Mbps/km2 10Mbps/km2
HSDPA radius
1000m
800m
HSDPA BS density 0.33BSs/km2 0.56BSs/km2
HSDPA cells/BS
1.4cells
5.7cells
WLAN AP density
0APs/km2
2.1APs/km2
Infrastructure cost per GB per month:
Incumbent operator
e6.8
e2.9
Greenfield operator
e8.8
e3.4
Cost advantage
24%
15%
for incumbent
50Mbps/km2
400m
2.2BSs/km2
6.8cells
19APs/km2
e1.7
e1.9
10%
Table 2.3: Summary of monthly infrastructure costs per GB and the cost advantage for incumbents towards greenfield operators.
cost C as:
EC,X =
C/C
.
|X| /X
(2.3)
Thus, a negative EC,X corresponds to a decreased cost and if EC,X > 0 the
infrastructure cost increases independently of if the changed variable X is increased or decreased. The higher absolute elasticity, the greater impact X has
on C. Notice that elasticity quite often is calculated in absolute value in economics [24].
As an example, assume that we want to estimate the elasticity with respect
to the area covered per IEEE 802.11g AP. An elasticity of infrastructure cost
EC,X = 1 would then correspond to that the total infrastructure cost C decreases with
50% if the cell area is increased with 50%. That is, if the AP range
was 40 1.5 = 49m instead of 40m.
Results
In this paper we first estimate the infrastructure cost per GB and month for a
few different macro cell radii of an HSDPA system in combination with IEEE
802.11g APs. With denser macro cell layer, fewer WLAN APs will be deployed
(in accordance with the network dimensioning algorithm described in Section
2.5).
Due to the significant difference in cost and range of WCDMA HSDPA macro
BSs and IEEE 802.11g APs, different cell radius in HSDPA will minimize cost
at different traffic densities; see further Figure 2.6. With the assumptions and
modeling applied, we see that the incremental cost per GB and month flattens
at approximately 4Mbps/km2 . However, more macro cells are still beneficial as
traffic increase. Otherwise too many APs will have excess capacity in areas with
medium traffic. The results are summarized for a few traffic densities in Table
2.3.
Infrastructure Cost per Month and GB [Euro]
2.6. Cost Efficient Capacity Expansion (Paper 3)
31
200m
400m
800m
1000m
10
10
10
Voice
0
10
10 x voice
1
10
Average Traffic Density [Mbps/km2]
100 x voice
2
10
Figure 2.6: Infrastructure cost per GB and month for an incumbent operator
with a multi-access network consisting of WCDMA HSDPA macro BSs and IEEE
802.11g APs. The curves depict different cell radii in the macro cells.
The elasticity of infrastructure cost analysis shows that HSDPA capacity is
slightly more important to improve than 802.11g coverage with a dense macro cell
network (400m cell radius). However, with 800m cell radius improving HSDPA
capacity yields twice as high cost reduction as 802.11g coverage which is shown
in Figure 2.7. However, for traffic densities above 50Mbps/km2 the result is the
opposite. Furthermore, as seen in Figure 2.7, half of the total cost stem from
each sub-system at approximately 10 and 100Mbps/km2 with 800m and 400m
cell radius in WCDMA HSDPA respectively. Thus, the benefits of improving
different subsystems greatly depend on the initial dimensioning of the cellular
system and the average traffic density.
Positioning of Future Radio Access Technologies

These results points at how a future 4G radio interface targeted for urban environments could be differentiated with respect to current main stream technologies for wireless data connectivity. Examples of base station configurations not
covered well by todays systems (for urban deployment) are, as we see it, high
capacity micro BSs and long range WLAN APs.
Regarding the BS cost structure we can also note that, given the empirical
data available and our assumptions, macro cells are dominated by site rent and
installation. As observed in [18], this is probably difficult to reduce, both in ur-
32
HSDPA cost
HSDPA capacity
802.11g cost
802.11g coverage
0.5
0.5
1
Voice
0
10
10 x voice
100 x voice
10
10
(a) 400m HSDPA cell radius
HSDPA cost
HSDPA capacity
802.11g cost
802.11g coverage
0.5
0.5
1
Voice
0
10
10 x voice
1
10
100 x voice
2
10
(b) 800m HSDPA cell radius
Figure 2.7: The figure shows the elasticity of infrastructure cost for an HSDPA
and IEEE 802.11g multi-access network with respect to improved AP costs,
HSDPA capacity, and 802.11 range respectively. In the upper figure, the cell
radius of HSDPA is 400m (adapted for 100Mbps/km2 ) and the lower graph
depicts the results for a 800m cell radius (suitable for 10Mbps/km2 ).
2.7. User Deployed Access Points (Paper 4)
33
ban environments with constantly increasing property prices, and in rural areas
due to the construction work. WLAN APs are, instead, almost completely dominated by last-mil transmission. Considering indoor deployment, which is most
common for WLAN, we could therefore foresee novel, distributed, deployment
strategies involving the users and that is the focus of the next paper.
2.7
On the Cost Efficiency of User Deployed Access Points Integrated in Mobile Networks
(Paper 4)
An increasing availability of fixed broadband networks, including digital subscriber lines and cable modems, and the development of WLAN technology will
enable new designs of public wireless access networks. In this paper [26], the
economics of user deployed APs that are open for other subscribers and roaming
partners is considered. More specifically, we calculate the infrastructure cost
as a function of traffic density (area capacity) for different mixes of operator
deployed BSs and user deployed APs. Furthermore, the number of APs required
to serve different fractions of the offered traffic is estimated.
Network Franchising
Integrating user deployed APs in a public mobile network has, to the best of
our knowledge, not yet been implemented in practice. Use cases and business
models for that is an interesting topic, and we envisage that this is a plausible
extension of the ongoing convergence between fixed and mobile systems. One
possible business model that could be adopted by operators interested in exploiting this possibility would be network franchising; meaning that users install
APs, which the operator controls in terms of access rights, etc.
A successful franchising agreement of course relies on that both parties benefit. In this case, the operator obtains accessibility to APs providing cheap,
high-capacity, wireless access whereas the user gets an AP and some compensation by the operator. The operators could further on compensate the AP owner
through bundling of different services, such as fixed broadband, subsidized access
boxes, and wireless access when the user is in other locations. These marketing
related issues are however outside the scope of this paper. Yet, we can note that
network franchising in particular could be of interest to MNOs with limited
spectrum and/or poor indoor coverage, or broadband providers that would like
to exploit their fixed network by offering wireless access (indoors).
Network Dimensioning with User Deployed Access Points

In the operator deployed systems modeled in the two previous papers [24,25], BSs
were deployed in a decreasing order of cell range on hexagonal grids. Herein, we
34
100
Percentage of traffic covered
90
Typical fraction of traffic terminated
indoors in today's mobile systems
80
70
60
50
40
30
20mE voice traffic

100 x voice
200 x voice
20
10
0
10
15
20
25
30
Percentage of subscribers with APs
35
40
Figure 2.8: Fraction of traffic covered as a function of the percent of users with
an open AP, for different data volumes.
will also introduce user deployed APs in the analysis. In that case, user deployed
APs are instead deployed first, in a random fashion with a uniform distribution.
Residual traffic is then allocated to operator deployed BSs according to the
previous algorithm.
All cost and performance assumptions for WCDMA HSDPA and operator
deployed WLAN (IEEE 802.11g) are the same as in [24,25]. User deployed APs,
instead, resembles IEEE 802.11b with 50m range and 5Mbps average throughput.
Moreover, the cost for a user deployed AP is 20 times less than for a operator
deployed WLAN AP, including a revenue sharing of approximately e100 per year
with each AP owner. Moreover, the cell radius of HSDPA is 1000m for traffic
densities below 5Mbps/km2 , 800m between 5 and 20Mbps/km2 , and 400m for
densities above that [25].
Interesting to note is that if 1, 2 or 4% of the subscribers install open APs,
as much as 30, 40 and 70% of the traffic, respectively, is covered by these APs;
see Figure 2.8. This indicates that user deployed APs could bring substantial
cost savings with respect to traffic dimensioning.
Results
As in the two previous papers, we have herein evaluated the infrastructure cost
per GB per month, but this time for a few levels of user deployed APs (measured
as the percentage of subscribers with APs). As expected, the operator deployed
2.8. Conclusions
35
Monthly Infrastructure Cost [Euro/GB]
10
HS+11g
HS+11g+AP1%
HS+11g+AP2%
HS+11g+AP4%
10
10
10
10
Traffic Density [Mbps/km2]
10
Figure 2.9: Monthly cost per transmitted GB as a function of average traffic density. The solid line is for an operator deployed multi-access network with HSDPA
and 802.11g. The other lines represent different percentages of subscribers with
open APs.
network yields lowest cost at low traffic densities whereas user deployed APs is
worthwhile introducing at approximately 10Mbps/km2 ; see further Figure 2.9.
At ten times that traffic density, the cost for operator deployed networks have
flattened (as seen in the previous paper), whereas the incremental cost per GB
and month still diminishes if instead more APs are deployed by the users.
2.8
Conclusions
In this chapter we have compared a few alternative methods to reduce the cost
of mobile data networks using various combinations of radio access technologies
and BSs. In particular, we have compared multi-access networks consisting of
WCDMA and WLAN, with conventional single-access hierarchical cell structures. Future network concepts (S3G, 4G, etc.) have also been considered, as
well as user deployed APs.
For this purpose, we proposed a model to estimate the cost of a radio access
network as a function of traffic density. The model is based on average cost
and performance data, and accounts for both investments and running costs
(per BS). To dimension the network we utilize a statistical model for geographically varying traffic demand. No explicit QoS-requirements or service mixes
are assumed, instead, the maximum feasible cell range and average throughput
36
ultimately determines what services that the network is capable to deliver. The
key numerical results are summarized next, followed by a discussion of the need
for multi-access networks and factors that affect the validity of the presented
findings.
Infrastructure Cost Structure

We have seen that the cost structure of a wireless system largely is a function
of the characteristics of the deployed BSs. For a macro BS the costs mainly
considers BS equipment, O&M, installation and site rent, whereas last miletransmission dominates for pico BSs and operator deployed WLAN.
Multi-access networks, composed of WCDMA macro and micro cells combined with IEEE 802.11g WLAN APs, do not bring lower costs per user than
single-access networks. On the other hand, there is no loss either. From an
infrastructure cost perspective, there should hence be no major disadvantage for
an MNO to introduce WLAN instead of pico BSs in hot spots. Amongst the
hypothetical future network concepts studied, the overall lowest cost is enabled
by a S3G system operating in the 450MHz band. The long range, in combination with a high throughput, is thus beneficial also at high average traffic loads.
Provided that wide-area coverage is demanded for the considered services, we
can thus conclude that range also is important to improve (or at least maintain)
if traffic demand increases, and not only aggregate throughput per BS.
We have also illustrated how the elasticity of infrastructure cost can be used
to analyze what design parameters, including both performance and costs of different systems, that are most important to improve in a multi-access network. In
an example, we probed a bit deeper into the case of a combined WCDMA HSDPA
and IEEE 802.11g network. For this specific case, the aggregate throughput per
HSDPA macro BS was shown to be more important to improve than the range of
IEEE 802.11g in the case of a dense macro cell network (with 400m cell radius).
If, instead, HSDPA BSs are more sparsely deployed (800m cell radius), similar
cost savings can be achieved by increasing the range of IEEE 802.11g already at
moderate traffic loads. Thus, what parameter to improve in different subsystems
can not be generalized; it depends on the original network design and the level
of traffic demand.
Despite that hierarchical cell structures and multi-access networks reduce
cost, however, the incremental cost per GB always flatten at some traffic load
for operator deployed systems (for a given level of technology). Incorporating
user deployed APs in the network would then be an attractive method to increase capacity even further at a (still) diminishing incremental cost. With a
few numerical examples, for different fractions of users equipped with open APs,
we showed that the overall infrastructure cost can be reduced significantly. This
even with a considerable amount of revenue sharing with the AP owner.
2.8. Conclusions
37
The Need for Multi-Access Networks

Due to the minor difference in cost we have observed for a multi-access network as compared to single-access systems, it is plausible that other factors
than aggregate traffic volumes in the end will have greater impact on an MNOs
technology strategy. Thus, as described in Section 2.3, a thorough investment
analysis is required to make recommendations on an infrastructure deployment
strategy. A few general reflections could still be made, to put the presented
results in a broader perspective.
While advantages with a multi-access deployment strategy include increased
peak user data rates, less need for licensed spectrum and reduced investments,
a drawback is that it typically is more complicated to manage multiple systems
(both in terminals, and in the central systems).
Furthermore, already the initially deployed WCDMA networks have a cell
radius of a few hundred meters in urban areas. This was necessary in order to
obtain sufficient indoor coverage for services like video streaming and lap-top
connectivity with data rates in the order of 64384kbps. Thus, UMTS networks
are in practice quite often coverage limited up to quite high traffic densities also
in urban areas. The need for additional WLAN and cellular micro and pico
BSs in such scenarios should hence primarily be to improve coverage for higher
data rates in specific places, for example in malls and large office buildings, and
not for capacity reasons. For greenfield deployments, however, a multi-access
network could be considered from the beginning and thereby enable a sparser
macro-cell network. Of particular interest should then be the opportunity to
introduce user deployed APs in the network. Still, WLAN in general, and user
deployed APs in particular, may not be sufficient for services that require good
coverage, reliability, and QoS. In that case, a mobile network is still useful for
rudimentary coverage and capacity.
Validity of Results
To conclude this chapter, we will discuss a few important assumptions and
choices of modeling which could affect the accuracy of the presented results.
Firstly, all numerical results are subject to our specific assumptions. Although
the intention has been to use fair and realistic parameter settings, these may of
course differ significantly for a real deployment case.
The spatial traffic model was derived from population statistics and traffic
measurements from GSM networks. It is not certain that mobile data users
will have a similar behavior, even though that may be a reasonable assumption
for the (still) moderate data rates being the focus of this work. Therefore,
empirical data on traffic demand for mobile data services would (when such
become available) be useful to improve the heterogeneous traffic density model.
Furthermore, we did not model QoS requirements explicitly, and the resulting
data rates, etc., could therefore vary significantly between compared system
configurations. Besides, no attempts have been made to optimize the network
38
deployment. Instead, the target has been a simple principle that is reasonably
good and fair between system concepts. Still, although we elaborated on different
cell radii in Paper 3 [25], a more extensive sensitivity analysis is of interest for
further studies.
Moreover, the network dimensioning model is primarily not intended for high
rise buildings, where a 3-dimensional model is needed. This naturally limits the
scope of the study at hand. It should also be noted that the user deployed APs
were uniformly distributed. This may be a pessimistic assumption for estimating
population (or household) coverage, since more APs automatically will be
placed where many people live. However, high population peaks are most often
where there are high-rise buildings so with our 2-dimensional model, the result
would be too optimistic if APs are deployed proportional to traffic demand.
Regarding cost estimates, we have relied on secondary data in almost all
cases. However, also here, the ambition has been to model the relative difference between technologies, in an average sense, as fair as possible. It should
be stressed though, that a linear annualization of CAPEX would be even more
straightforward than the present value calculations we have utilized, and probably yield similar results.13
Yet, in spite of the simplistic assumptions used herein, the proposed methodology should, much thanks to its simplicity, be useful for an initial assessment
of operator deployment strategies and when technical requirements are defined
for future radio access technologies (for instance in standardization bodies).
13 In fact, we would recommend a linear annualization as a base line assumption for further
studies in this area.
Chapter 3
Multi-Operator Resource
Sharing
Herein, we will consider three different cases of multi-operator resource sharing,
which differ greatly from a business perspective but have quite a lot in common
technically.
Firstly, network sharing has evolved as an important method to reduce investments in wireless infrastructure, especially in rural areas for systems and
services with limited link budgets. This can, as discussed further in Appendix
B and in the following literature study, either be implemented as a common
shared network or by means of geographical sharing. Secondly, the market for
MVNOs who, with little or no mobile infrastructure, offer wireless services is
steadily increasing. Thirdly, MNOs could potentially agree to allow for roaming
in between their existing networks in order to increase coverage and capacity for
higher data rates (hereinafter denoted national roaming). The common technical
denominator for these flavors of network sharing is that they can be facilitated
with functionality originally designed for international roaming. Therefore, we
will refer to them jointly as roaming based network sharing.
A potential drawback with roaming based network sharing is that forecasting of traffic demand could become less transparent to the network provider.
Hence, given that over-dimensioning remains expensive, the post-paid charging
of MVNOs (see further Appendix B.2) may be insufficient for network planning
purposes. Furthermore, problems could arise in terms of free-rider effects and
there is a risk that competing service providers provide consciously misleading
traffic forecasts. Thus, besides assuring certain QoS levels for the roaming partners, those should also be punished in some way if the actual traffic exceed the
contracted volumes significantly and this topic will be addressed in this chapter
of the thesis.
Moreover, we will investigate what performance benefits that can be expected
for data services by sharing overlaid cellular networks via national roaming. Al39
40
Chapter 3. Multi-Operator Resource Sharing
though that was technically feasible already in earlier generations of mobile

systems it has, to the best of our knowledge, not been implemented in practice
so far. Partly because of the limited bandwidth required for voice telephony,
but also due to competitive reasons; coverage has simply been seen as a major
competitive advantage [28]. However, if the focus of operators and competition
authorities shift towards applications and services, and due to the inherent difficulties to provide wide area coverage for higher data rates, national roaming
may be worthwhile to reconsider for future radio access. In particular when
introducing new bandwidth demanding services, for which demand is uncertain,
that require significant area coverage. National roaming could in that case even
be of interest for the MNOs in order to reduce upfront investments (and, thus,
their risk exposure).1
3.1
Related Work
Previous studies on network sharing mainly considers techno-economical aspects,

including cost savings [1, 27, 29], competition [30, 65], and identification of new
requirements on network management [66, 67]. While fair resource sharing has
been addressed in numerous papers, both for fixed and wireless networks, previous work have mainly considered individual connections and service classes
sharing a common link. Besides this, some initial work on fair resource sharing
in multi-operator networks have recently been presented [68]. Moreover, spectrum sharing has recently appeared as part of the ongoing research targeting
4G [69, 70].
Potential Cost Savings

The financial benefits of network sharing were analyzed in [1, 2729]. These
studies show that cost savings are substantial, in particular in rural areas where
capacity utilization is low. In areas with higher user density the cost per subscriber is sufficiently low with single-operator networks, and the drawbacks with
network sharing (reduced differentiation possibilities, administrative overhead,
etc. [27]) are thus not justified solely by cost savings.
In the short run, though, network sharing could still be used to shorten the
time to market for new services and radio access technologies using, for example,
geographical sharing. If demand surges the operators can expand their networks
to provide full coverage.
1 Notice that for niche service providers requiring high data rates and reliability, for example
for video surveillance cameras, this could of course also readily be implemented by using
multiple subscriptions.
3.1. Related Work
41
Competition
Competition amongst sharing UMTS operators was studied in [30, 65], focusing
on the Swedish market. A key competitive advantage for MNOs has been to
provide good area coverage. With network sharing, other differentiation opportunities are hence needed. Quite a few possibilities were identified in [30, 65],
of which investing in multi-access networks was the most important 2 , together
with services that can be implemented in the unshared domain (that is, in the
core network and above). Still, most services require modifications also in the
shared RAN whereby site sharing is the only level of network sharing which does
not severely limit the operators differentiation possibilities [30].
Some drawbacks and difficulties with geographical sharing were also outlined
in [27]. This study emphasized that
Marketing campaigns launched by competitors may boost traffic load beyond the current network capacity, resulting in severe blocking for your
own customers.
Customer driven coverage3 , which is quite common at enterprises, may
only be provided by the operator responsible for that area.
Network quality needs to be sufficient for your customers and the services
you promote.
All in all, both common shared networks and geographical sharing will, without further considerations, cause both administrative and competition related
problems [2730, 65]. These, and more practical technical problems, have also
been addressed in the standardization body behind 3G4 , and the standards for
UMTS have been updated accordingly to support the most fundamental features of shared networks [66, 71]. This includes operator specific neighbor cell
and access rights lists, display of the home operator name in the terminals, etc.
However, as pointed out in [30], there are many aspects hidden in the detailed
configuration of a cellular network which also limits differentiation possibilities.
Service Level Agreements

A so-called Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the service provider and
hosting RAN provider should include the requirements and responsibilities for
both parties, considering for example QoS levels, reliability, performance monitoring, customer support, pricing policies, etc. [72,73]. An exhaustive recommendation for telecommunication SLAs has been provided by the Telecommunication
Management Forum [74].
2 In order to limit the scope of the shared UMTS network, the coverage of alternative
technologies such as WLAN and EDGE could be expanded.
3 Operators sometimes deploy special indoor solutions to improve coverage and capacity for
their corporate subscribers.
4 Third Generation Partnership Program (3GPP)
42
While the short-term fulfillment of the terms in an SLA is handled by RRM,

the service level monitoring and long-term actions to assure the contracted QoS
levels are primarily a task of network management [73]. The latter also includes
the procedure of mapping traffic forecasting onto needs for network capacity.
There are, however, no well established methods or processes for this so far [73].
In order to share the risk with large MVNOs, the access provider could
potentially base inter-connection charging on the share of the network capacity
that the MVNO is granted (similar to a network sharing agreement) [29]. Pricing
models for this scenario was also discussed in [72], where the author outlined a
few parameters that should be included in an SLA.
Fair Resource Sharing Between Operators

The resource allocation problem for shared cellular networks was recently treated
in [68]. Two principle methods to allocate radio resources fairly between sharing
operators was considered for a WCDMA downlink system. One with fixed power
allocations, which reduce trunking efficiency, and one based on adjusting elastic
data rates for packet switched bearers. None was found to improve fairness
significantly as compared to a reference system without any specific sharing
mechanism, although lowering data rates for the operator with highest load at
congestion gave a slight improvement.
Spectrum sharing between cellular operators was investigated in [69,70]. For
the case of two cellular operators sharing the same frequency band it was concluded that trunking gain leads to increased capacity. However, the gain vanished with displaced BSs due to near-far effects. Notice that, in this thesis,
we will only consider the case where multiple operators fully share the same
network.
The general problem of allocating radio resources to different bearer classes
was treated in [19]. Fair sharing between individual connections sharing the same
wireless system has also been treated in numerous papers considering packet
scheduling between connected bearers. The objective of these studies is typically to maximize system capacity, often measured as the number of supported
users [19], while assuring the QoS for individual connections. This problem is
a tradeoff between the bearers resource consumption, delay and throughput
requirements. To not complicate that further, by adding a constraint on how
many radio resources that should be allocated to each operator, we will instead
try to solve the problem of fair resource sharing between operators already in
admission control.
3.2
Contribution
Radio resource sharing between operators is an interesting option to reduce infrastructure costs. With roaming based network sharing a more formal structure
with negotiated capacity requirements between the service and RAN providers
3.3. Fair Resource Sharing (Paper 5)
43
could be beneficial. In Paper 5 and 6, we have contributed to a framework

for radio resource sharing in multi-operator networks and analyzed the technical performance benefits with national roaming. The papers are reprinted in
Chapter 910, and the main contributions of the respective paper are as follows:
5. A basic algorithm for fair resource sharing was proposed and evaluated
with a simple queuing system model. The algorithm is based on nonpreemptive priority queuing in the admission control, and thus no capacity
has to be reserved to achieve fairness (at the expense of increased call setup
times).
6. The achievable user data rates with national roaming between equivalent
overlaid cellular networks are estimated using a statistical model for uplink
best effort data users. In particular, the effect of operator specific BS sites
is studied, and for this purpose a model for inter-operator site distance is
introduced.
3.3
Radio Resource Management in Roaming

Based Multi-Operator WCDMA networks
(Paper 5)
In this paper [32], we introduce the problem of fair resource sharing in multioperator cellular networks, and propose a load based priority queuing in the
admission control to keep down the probability of call blocking for operators
that have not reached their agreed load. The focus is on roaming based sharing, which means that an operator access another operators RAN indirectly
via the core networks. This implies that multiple operators fully share the same
RAN, which motivates a radio resource control between the operators. Normally
the operators share the same carrier(s), but it is also possible to use dedicated
carriers.
Besides roaming based sharing, there are today two other major categories
of network sharing, being RAN sharing and site sharing. The three groups of
solutions imply different levels of sharing, which is depicted in Figure 3.1 (see
further Appendix B).
Methods for Allocating Radio Resources

How much of the radio network capacity that each sharing partner has the right
to use with roaming based sharing is commonly specified in an SLA. An operator
that follows its terms in the SLA should receive the agreed QoS levels; this even
if the other operators try to utilize more than agreed capacity.
This implies that radio resources must be shared in a controlled way between
the operators and this can in principle be achieved by:
44
Roaming based sharing
Core network
RAN sharing
Radio access network
Site sharing
BS
BS
BS
BS
Figure 3.1: The figure illustrates what levels of a cellular network architecture
that different sharing methods relate to.
using dedicated carriers for each operator,
allocating a fixed capacity share for each operator per carrier, or
dynamically prioritizing users from different operators (within one or multiple carriers).
Dedicated carriers and fixed capacity shares provide fairness between operators.
Unfortunately, though, any capacity reservation scheme implies a reduced capacity utilization (trunking efficiency). Instead, a dynamical prioritization of
operators based on the current load is preferable. For this purpose standard
RRM functionality such as admission control and packet scheduling can be utilized. In this paper we limited the scope to admission control, which in this
context is responsible for admission of new connections (both packet and circuit
switched) [61].5 Furthermore, assuming that a minimum rate is required for all
admitted bearers, we will without loss of generality limit the study to circuit
switched traffic.
Queuing System model

For the analysis in this paper a standard queuing system model with Poisson
arrivals will be used [75]. The total offered load per operator i is denoted Oi , and
is defined as Oi = i T where i is the average arrival rate of new connections
for operator i and T is the average duration per connection. The total offered
load is then given by
N
X
Oi ,
(3.1)
O=
i=1
5 Packet scheduling, on the other hand, is responsible for adjusting the bit rate and thus
resource consumption of connected non real-time radio bearers. Fair sharing using elastic bit
rates was studied in [68].
3.3. Fair Resource Sharing (Paper 5)
45
assuming that N operators share the network. Each of these operators has
priority to Ci channels per cell. A new connection request is queued until there
is a channel available. However, if the waiting time Td exceeds a certain threshold
Tmax the request is blocked.
P
The total number of channels per cell C =
Ci is thus modeled as constant,
which is a simplistic assumption for an interference limited system. However, for
an initial assessment of a priority queuing method, we believe that the allowed
queuing time, average connection duration, and the total number of channels
per cell will have stronger impact on the performance. More detailed system
modeling is left for further studies.
Admission control with Non-Preemptive Priority Queuing

As a basic approach to solve the fair sharing problem we propose to use admission
control with non-preemptive priority queuing. Connection requests of different
operators are prioritized according to the respective operators load level relative
to their agreed capacity.
Preemption, that is, allowing for removal of existing connections to make
space for a new request with higher priority will not be exploited. Although
preemption would increase fairness, it would increase the probability of dropping
active connections.6
An overview of the applied admission control algorithm is depicted in Figure
3.2. The priority level of each operator (Pi ) is defined as
Pi =
Ci
,
Li
(3.2)
so that operators with a load Li lower than the agreed minimum capacity Ci
receives a high priority. Li is simply defined as the total number of allocated
channels for that operator at a given point in time (without any averaging).
The queuing management outlined here can for example be implemented in
conjunction with a periodical admission control and it consists of the following
steps:
1. A new connection
request that arrives when the system is congested (that
P
is, when
Li = C) is put in the queue.
2. The queue is periodically sorted in a descending order according to Pi .

Then each operators connections are sorted group-wise in a descending
order based on Td . Consequently, the operator with highest Pi will be
served first and each operators connection requests are served in a firstin-first-out (FIFO) manner relative to each other.
3. If a channel has been released, the first user in the queue is admitted.
6 In
general this is considered to be the most important QoS measure for circuit-switched
services (like voice telephony).
46
Put new connection

request(s) in queue
Sort queue: 1) Pi 2) Td
Channel available?
Yes
Allocate channel
No
No
Td>Tmax?
Yes
Connection blocked!
Figure 3.2: Flowchart of periodical admission control with non-preemptive priority queuing.
4. Connection requests for which Td > Tmax are blocked and removed from
the queue.
Results
As a measure of the performance of the algorithm, we consider to what extent
operator specific blocking probability Bi can be kept below some given threshold
Bmax (say 5%) if the load Oi < Ci . Hence, as long as an operator has not
exceeded its agreed load share, their users should experience the contracted
blocking probability.
In an example with two operators sharing a network 50/50, we show that
the proposed algorithm functions well for a system with C = 80 channels per
cell. This case should resemble an urban WCDMA macro cell with voice users
only. A queuing time Tmax = 5s is allowed for new connection requests. With
only 16 channels per cell, modeling a video streaming service in WCDMA, the
algorithm is less effective even though Tmax was increased to 15s. The operator
specific blocking probabilities are plotted as a function of traffic load for both
systems in Figure 3.3.
3.4
An Estimation of the Achievable User

Throughput with National Roaming
(Paper 6)
As discussed previously, despite the introduction of advanced transmission and

packet scheduling techniques, existing mobile data networks would require significant investments in order to support higher data rates with wide area cov-
3.4. Throughput with National Roaming (Paper 6)
Blocking probability for operator 1 (B1)
0.35
0.3
0.25
47
Fixed reservation
O = 80 Erl
2
O = 60 Erl
2
O = 40 Erl
2
O2 = 20 Erl
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Offered load for operator 1 (O1) [Erlang]
Blocking probability for operator 1 (B1)
(a) Speech system with 80 channels per cell
0.25
Fixed reservation
O2 = 14 Erl
O2 = 10 Erl
O2 = 6 Erl
O2 = 2 Erl
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
2
10
12
Offered load for operator 1 (O1) [Erlang]
(b) Video streaming system with 16 channels per cell
Figure 3.3: The figure depict the blocking probability of operator 1 (B1 ) as a
function of offered load (O1 ) for different levels of load for the other operator
(O2 ). In the upper graph, a speech service is assumed whereas the lower graph
show the results for video streaming. The dashed lines represent a fixed resource
allocation of half (C/2) channels per operator.
48
erage. Consequently, many operators have chosen to postpone the necessary

network upgrades until consumer demand becomes more pronounced. Although
this might seem sound at a first glance, this is definitely not the case since supporting high-end users (early adopters) has proven to be a crucial enabler for
reaching a mass-market later on [76, 77].
An alternative method to increase coverage for higher data rates without
additional investments in hardware would instead be to allow users to roam
between existing networks with, at least partially, overlapping coverage; herein
referred to as national roaming.7
In this paper [33], we investigate what throughput gains users can expect
with roaming between multiple overlaid cellular networks. Moreover, we studied
to what extent these gains depend on the microscopic diversity order and the relative location of the operators BSs. The study is limited to uplink transmission,
since that typically limits coverage in cellular systems.
Base Station Deployment Model

A multi-operator environment with J = 3 operators is investigated and users
are either allowed to connect to their own operators network only, or to any of
the J cooperating operators BSs. For the sake of simplicity all operators are
assumed to deploy similar BSs on a hexagonal grid with cell radius rc . Each
operator has one carrier frequency, which is used in every cell (reuse factor 1).
The relative position of the sites belonging to different operators is captured
by the inter-operator site distance (d), which we define as the minimum distance
between adjacent sites belonging to different operators. Thus for a scenario with
J operators,
d = min d1 , d2 , ..., d(J ) .
(3.3)
Herein, we will consider the special case when d = d1 = . . . = d(J ) . For this case,
2
with three-operators, the relationship of the operators site locations is given by
cos(/6)
x0
xi
+d
,
(3.4)
=
(1)i sin(/6)
y0
yi
T
where i = 1, 2 and (x0 , y0 ) is the position of the reference network. Figure 3.4
depicts an example where d = rc .
Summary of Cellular System Model

More detailed system modeling and parameters are given in the paper, but
for convenience the utilized models are summarized next and the main system
7 Notice
that geographical sharing also has been called national roaming in the literature.
Although the cases are different, a common denominator is that operators allow users from
other operators to roam in their networks and that they retain the possibilities to expand their
own network capacity if demand surges.
3.4. Throughput with National Roaming (Paper 6)
49
d3
7d
1500
d1
1000
rc
500
0
500
1000
1500
1500 1000 500
500
1000 1500 2000
Figure 3.4: An example of the BS deployment for a three-operator scenario and

inter-operator site distance d = rc =360m.
It should be noted that the maximum
value of d is periodic with a period 2 3rc
parameters are provided in Table 3.1. To start with, all users are stationary and
uniformly distributed over the service area. This results in a Poisson distributed
traffic per operator and cell. Moreover, for simplicity reasons, we assume that
all users have full buffers and thus have data to transmit all the time.
Propagation channel modeling is chosen to mimic an urban macro-cell environment, with distance dependent path loss according to the COST231-Hata
model [78]. Shadow fading is log-normally distributed with 8dB standard deviation and 20m correlation distance [62, 79]. Rayleigh fading is also included, and
the fading component is independent for each receive antenna (we will use two
and four antennas). Moreover, for the sake of simplicity, there is no multi-path
fading.
The average transmit power was multiplied with the number of users connected per cell to compensate for reduced transmission time. However, the peak
transmit power was limited to eight times the average in order to have a limited
dynamic range. Two different packet schedulers have been studied, in order to
vary the degree of diversity gain against Rayleigh fading. These were:
Round Robin scheduling, with time-hopping to randomize interference,
and
Proportional Fair scheduling of the user with instantaneously most favorable fast fading.
50
Table 3.1: System Parameters

Parameter
Population density [km2 ]
# Operators
Slot duration [ms]
Correlation distance [m]
Standard deviation (shadow fading) [dB]
Shadow fading correlation between BSs
Pathloss@1m [dB]
Distance dependent attenuation factor
Cell radius [m]
Channel bandwidth [MHz]
Thermal noise floor [dBm]
# Receiving antennas
Average terminal power [dBm]
Maximum terminal power [dBm]
# Sectors per BS
Traffic [users/cell]
Inter-operator site distance [m]
Value
5000
3
2
20
8
0.5
35.8
3.5
360
5
-103
2, 4
24
33
3
1, 3, 10
0623.5
User throughput is estimated using a truncated Shannon model, where the

maximum data rate was selected so that approximately 10% of the users reach
this rate in the single operator case (with the modeling and assumptions used;
20Mbps).8 The resulting SIR with maximum ratio combining is calculated as
the sum of SIR (including thermal noise) over each antenna branch [80].
While Round Robin scheduling is used as a reference case, the Proportional
Fair scheduler will in conjunction with four receive antennas model a system
with a high degree of diversity against Rayleigh fading.
Results
The gain with national roaming was in this paper presented with respect to the
lower 10th percentile and average user throughput; see further Figure 3.5. The
difference in throughput is largest for the 10th percentile, for which national
roaming increase user throughput as compared to the single operator reference
system with approximately 80-190% with two receive antennas and Round Robin
packet scheduling. It is interesting that an 80% gain is obtained already when
BSs are just slightly separated. This can be explained by diversity gain against
8 This modeling is motivated by i) that modern radio access systems operate very close
to the well known Shannon bound at low mobile velocity, and ii) that a system typically is
designed so that the maximum rate is reached with some reasonably low probability.
3.5. Conclusions
51
shadow fading.9 Average user throughput is increased with approximately 2050%, and a similar dependency on inter-operator site distance can be observed
as for the 10-percentile.
With four receive antennas and proportional fair scheduling, which gives a
higher order of diversity gain against Rayleigh fading, the relative increase in
throughput is smaller (although still significant). The gain in user throughput
is in this case between 50-100% for the 10-percentile whereas the average user
throughput is increased with approximately 15-30%. The reduced gain with a
higher order of diversity gain can be explained by the logarithmic rate function
(with a higher SIR, the systems could have exploited a wider bandwidth).
3.5
Conclusions
Motivated by arising business needs, we have in this chapter first outlined how
fair resource sharing can be assured for operators using the same RAN. For this
purpose, an admission control with non-preemptive priority queuing based on
operator specific load was proposed. With a few numerical examples, we showed
that the method is promising for systems with a large number of channels per
cell. In this case, a quite moderate queuing time is sufficient. For systems
with fewer users per cell, stricter methods exploiting resource reservations or
preemption of allocated bearers would be necessary for a fair resource sharing.
However, this would come at the expense of decreased capacity utilization or
increased probability of dropped calls.
The benefits with national roaming between overlapping macro cellular networks were also assessed for uplink data services. It was shown that user throughput can be increased significantly already with adjacent BS locations, and in
particular for users with high path loss. Thus, national roaming promises large
coverage gains with only minor incremental infrastructure costs. However, the
relative gains will be smaller if the system already operate at high SIR levels.
Discussion and Validity of Results

Simplistic statistical modeling have been used for the numerical evaluation in
both Paper 5 (Fair Resource Sharing) and Paper 6 (Throughput with National
Roaming). Thus, the numerical results presented herein are indicative only
and the performance in real systems may differ significantly from these. A more
detailed system modeling is consequently needed before more specific conclusions
can be made.
In particular, a radio resource based admission control should be included
(for both problems), and methods for estimating the operator specific load are
required. In addition, it would be interesting to combine our algorithm with the
9 Herein, an urban scenario with 20m correlation distance was assumed for the log-normal
shadow fading. In, for example, suburban environments a larger separation of base stations
would be required to obtain such gains.
Gain in 10th percentile user throughput with national roaming [%]
52
200
150
Two receiving antennas and round robin scheduling

1 user/cell
3 users/cell
10 users/cell
100
50
0
120
100
Interoperator site distance 78m
Four receiving antennas and proportional fair scheduling

1 user/cell
3 users/cell
10 users/cell
80
60
40
20
0
(a) Lower 10-percentile user throughput
Gain in average user throughput with national roaming [%]
50
40

1 user/cell
3 users/cell
10 users/cell
30
20
10
0
30
25

1 user/cell
3 users/cell
10 users/cell
20
15
10
5
0
(b) Average user throughput
Figure 3.5: The relative gain with national roaming in 10-percentile user
throughput (upper graph) and average user throughput (lower graph). For both
measures, two different system configurations with different order of diversity
against Rayleigh fading have been simulated.
3.5. Conclusions
53
elastic bit rate method proposed in [68] for the case of mixed circuit and packet
switched radio bearers. A theoretical analysis of the priority queuing model
presented in Paper 5 would also be useful in order to validate the simulation
results and explain the behavior of the algorithm more consistently.
National roaming has herein been discussed in the context of cellular operators. A major obstacle for that to materialize, however, is that coverage still is a
very important competitive advantage for some operators. Yet, it is interesting
to understand what the gains would be, and it should be noticed that national
roaming also could be of interest for the emerging public WLAN operators and
other wireless operators with fractional coverage only.
Chapter 4
Concluding Remarks
This chapter concludes the first part of the thesis with a summary of the presented results and a few recommendations for future research in this field.
4.1
Summary
The main theme of this thesis has been cost efficient provisioning of mobile data
services. We have focused on two methods of relevance for MNOs; adopting
network deployment to local variations in traffic demand and network sharing
between multiple operators. Both solutions are, as we see it, quite promising
and the key findings are summarized next.
Infrastructure Cost Modeling

We first assessed the costs of multi-access networks and compared these to conventional hierarchical cell structures (with a single radio access technology). For
this purpose a network cost model, which accounts for the average cost and
performance of different BSs, was developed. The overall infrastructure cost is
calculated for a network composed of one or several radio access technologies.
To model local variations in traffic, which are necessary to study the need for
specific hot spot-solutions, we generated statistical traffic maps according to
a log-normally distributed, spatially correlated, stochastic variable. With a few
examples, covering both existing and proposed future systems, we also illustrated how the model can be used to estimate at what average traffic densities
different systems are most cost efficient.
With the modeling and assumptions used, multi-access networks consisting
of WCDMA macro and micro-cells in combination with IEEE 802.11g WLAN
always yield similar or lower infrastructure costs as compared to single-access
WCDMA networks with hierarchical cell structures. Hence, from this perspective, WLAN should serve as a viable substitute for pico-cells in hot spots. How55
56
Chapter 4. Concluding Remarks
ever, even though both multi-access networks and hierarchical cell structures
manage to lower the cost to some extent, the cost will always increase linearly
with traffic demand at some level (with a given set of technologies).
Using the elasticity of infrastructure cost as performance measure, we also
illustrated at what average traffic densities the throughput, range, and cost
of different radio access technologies should be improved (when deployed in a
multi-access network). This was exemplified with a network of WCDMA HSDPA
macro cells and IEEE 802.11g APs. For this case, we observed that throughput is
most important to increase for macro-cell BSs (at a maintained range), whereas
increasing range and reducing cost for sites and last mile-transmission have a
higher impact for WLAN.
As a comparison, we also evaluated both future cellular concepts (S3G, 4G,
etc.), as well as open, user deployed, WLAN APs combined with a WCDMA HSDPA macro-cell network. These results point at two key directions for expanding
network capacity if demand for mobile data services increase significantly. That
is, an operator could either choose to increase capacity in their macro-cells at a
(at least) maintained cell range, or resort to user deployed WLAN APs exploiting
existing fixed broadband networks for the last mile-transmission.

Two issues related to network sharing between multiple operators have also been
addressed. For this scenario, we studied how radio resources can be allocated
in a fair manner between operators sharing the same RAN. More specifically,
an admission control of new connection requests (calls) with a non-preemptive
priority queuing based on operator specific load was proposed. As an initial step,
using queuing system simulations, we showed that the method is promising for
systems with a large number of channels per cell. Hence, for cellular systems,
this method should mainly be of interest for macro cell BSs serving many users
simultaneously. With a few users per cell only, other methods relying on capacity
reservations or preemption of connected bearers have to be considered.
Finally, we estimated what gains in user throughput that can be expected
by allowing for roaming between overlapping cellular networks. This type of
national roaming could, for instance, be utilized by MNOs in order to try out new
services without taking on large upfront investments. With a statistical system
model for uplink best effort data traffic, we showed that gains are significant for
the users that experience lowest throughput. Interesting to note is also that,
thanks to increased diversity against shadow fading, a significant portion of the
gain is present already with almost co-located BSs.
4.2
Future Work
Departing from these results, a number of interesting research problems arise.

With the proposed network deployment model, a natural extension would be
4.2. Future Work
57
to estimate the empirical distribution of data rates that users experience with
different technology mixes. Refined system modeling and various sensitivity
analyses are also of great interest and importance for the cost evaluation. In
particular, the spatial traffic modeling should be verified for mobile data services,
and the effect of different user distributions should be investigated. If possible,
local demand and pricing for higher user data rates should also be modeled.
From a techno-economical perspective, case studies with empirical data from
specific markets and scenarios are also relevant extensions of this work. In
a broader sense, future research considering multi-access networks should also
include marketing strategies, multi-mode terminal availability, legacy infrastructure, cross-elasticity of demand between systems, etc. As this is a fundamental
part of future wireless networks, it should be an important topic on the wireless
research agenda and in particular for techno-economical research.
For what concerns fair radio resource sharing between operators, more detailed system modeling is needed with respect to the characteristics of a cellular
network (with time-varying path gains, interference, etc.). Furthermore, the proposed priority queuing mechanism relies on operator specific load measurements.
This could be difficult to measure in interference limited systems, and averaging
over both time and multiple cells may therefore be beneficial. Moreover, given
the rare event that more than two calls are queued in a specific cell, it could be
sufficient to have low and high priority calls only and this approach could also
be investigated further, as well as analytical solutions of the operator specific
blocking probability (with proper approximations).
In the assessment of data rates with national roaming, we did not consider
trunking efficiency (which increases as a function of total system capacity). As
further work the capacity gain with national roaming at a given blocking probability could be thus evaluated as a function of inter-operator site distance. A
related aspect, which may seem attractive at a first glance but which we do
not recommend for future work, is load balancing between cellular operators
that allow for national roaming. Firstly, the additional gain should be relatively
small1 . Secondly, as we elaborated on in [31], the administrative overhead between cooperating operators has to be minimized.2 A more relevant technical
problem would instead be how to design neighbor cell lists for handover measurements when multiple networks are accessible (to avoid exhaustive searches,
which decrease measurement accuracy).
1 In
cellular systems, connecting to the BS with lowest path loss is most often sufficient.
also that the trunking gain obtained by having access to more channels is present
also without advanced load balancing schemes, since it is sufficient if users can be redirected
to other operators at congestion.
2 Notice
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Appendices
67
Appendix A
Cost Modeling and Pricing

Strategies
In this appendix we first describe and motivate the cost modeling used in the
infrastructure cost analysis, and further summarize a few basic pricing strategies
that quite often are used by MNOs.
A.1
Discounted Cash Flow Modeling
It should be stressed that we deliberately have chosen a simplistic model for this
initial assessment of heterogeneous wireless infrastructure costs. The interested
reader is further referred to [11] for standard micro-economical cost definitions,
and [81] for an excellent overview of more detailed cost modelling applied to
telecommunications.1
The purpose with our model is to include both investments and running
costs.2 This can be done in several ways, where we have chosen a method
inspired by Net Present Value analysis (also referred to as Discounted Cash
Flow modeling) which is widely used for rudimentary investment analysis [11].
We thus calculate the cost (per BS) in present value, with a conventional 10%
discount rate.3
In general, the discount rate (r) reflects how willing a firm is to take risks.
It is thus of great importance, since it directly will affect the total net present
value. For more explicit derivations of r, a model often used is the Weighted
Average Cost of Capital (WACC). This may be calculated as a function of the
cost of debts (Cd ), tax level (T ), cost of equity (Ce ) and the size of debt (D)
1 As noted in [81], cost modeling becomes quite complex when used for real investment
analyses and regulation of inter-connection charges.
2 Often denoted Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) and Operational Expenditures (OPEX).
3 Here, we could as well have annualized the investments, for example with a linear depreciation during the system life cycle.
69
70
Appendix A. Cost Modeling and Pricing Strategies
and equity (E) according to:

r = Cd (1 T )
E
D
+ Ce
D+E
D+E
(A.1)
As we can see from the model above the discount rate will depend on the ratio
between equity and debt for the investment. Furthermore, the discount rate may
very well vary as a function of time. A more detailed Net Present Value analysis
thus requires detailed information on the investment to be judged. Another
popular method for more advanced investment analysis, which lends itself well
to the fast changing telecommunication industry [81], is the real options approach
[82]. With this method, also future opportunities can be modeled explicitly.
A.2
Pricing Strategies
This appendix includes an overview of common pricing strategies according to

micro-economic theory [11], with a few examples of applications in mobile communications.
Pricing with Market Power

Microeconomic theory tells that a firm acting on a perfectly competitive market,
where the price can not be affected by a single firm, should produce goods until
the marginal cost equals the price [11]. This way the competitive firm maximizes
its profit in the short run. For firms with market power, which is the interesting
case in practice, the level of output should be chosen in another way.
The simplest case is the monopolistic firm, where the output level should be
chosen so that marginal revenue equals the marginal cost. The monopolist will
hence set the price significantly higher than the competitive price.
In oligopoly markets, characterized by that a few firms produce most or all
of the goods or services, some firms will earn substantial profits in the long
run. This is because there are market entry barriers that make it difficult or
impossible for other firms to enter. The price will be determined based on
strategic decisions, but the price should be set somewhere between the price
level chosen by a monopolistic and the price in a perfectly competitive market.
It is also important to understand that there are a number of ways in how a
firm can increase its revenue (capturing parts of the consumer surplus) through
different kind of price discriminations.
Price Discrimination
Price discrimination is often implemented by mobile operators, for instance by
marketing different subscriptions towards different subscriber groups (block
pricing). Operators thereby charge differently per, for example, minute of use
dependent on the total number of call minutes per month.
A.2. Pricing Strategies
71
Another standard method is to brand and price the same product differently,
and market different brands towards different consumer groups. This way, users
that are willing to pay more can be attracted to the brand with higher price
(even though the product in principle is the same). We can see examples of this
among mobile operators who have launched own MVNOs under separate brands.
The objective is to be able to target low-price segment without damaging the
main brand.
Both inter-temporal price discriminations and peak-load pricing are very
common in mobile networks. The aim with the inter-temporal price discriminations is to charge early adopters more than needed, since they have a high
demand for the product and consequently may be willing to pay more. Peak load
pricing is implemented in such a way that telephone calls cost more during office
hours than at night time and during weekends. This is particularly important
if we take into account that mobile networks have to be dimensioned for peak
load (during busy hour).
Value versus Volume Based Pricing

The principles of value and volume based pricing in communication networks
have been debated during the last years. Fixed broadband operators have focused on attaining customers by charging flat rate pricing [83,84]. Some MNOs
have also use the same strategy to acquire more voice subscribers and reduce
churn, in particular (so far) in the United States. Flat rate pricing for GPRS and
3G data services are normally only used by MNOs as a way of marketing new
services, and to teach their customers to use and appreciate the new services.
At the same time, volume based pricing should be avoided in mobile networks [83]. In volume based pricing all costs, fixed and variable, are allocated
to the produced services proportional to the amount of bottleneck resource they
consume [11]. At each given point in time a mobile network is limited by the
number of bits available. Using this logic, each application should be priced proportionally to the number of transmitted bits [85]. However, this rapidly makes
capacity demanding data services very expensive, especially since a user does
typically not experience any relation between data volumes and the perceived
value. Hence, volume based pricing is very problematic in mobile data networks
and it will will fail to capture significant parts of the consumer surplus [11,83,86].
To increase their revenues, MNOs may instead use value-based pricing, where
consumers are charged per service rather than per bit (e.g. 1 Euro per song), as
suggested in [83,84]. In practice, though, it is rare that only one pricing strategy
is used. This is simply because pricing in practice is too complex and depend
various controllable and uncontrollable variables [86].
Appendix B
Network Sharing Use Cases

Infrastructure sharing between multiple operators can implemented in several
ways [1, 27, 30, 67]. Physical infrastructure, such as masts and antenna systems,
have been shared quite frequently already in second generation systems. Sharing
the complete RAN and part of the core network has just recently been implemented in some countries during the roll-out of 3G networks. These network
sharing methods are of course suitable for different use cases and, in summary,
the following flavors of network sharing are commonly referred to in the literature:
Site sharing Only non-intelligent equipment at base station sites are shared.
For example masts and power supplies, possibly also antenna systems.
BS sharing The BSs (and below) are shared, but operators have their own
radio network controllers and core networks.
RAN sharing The whole RAN is shared, but core networks are still operator
specific.
Common Shared Network Both the RAN and parts of the core network is
shared between operators.
Geographical Sharing Operators agree to build and operate geographically
split networks, but allow for roaming for each others users.
MVNO Operators without own spectrum licenses and RANs, who offer mobile
services.
While the first five sharing solutions refer to network sharing between MNOs as
a means to reduce cost in areas where the networks have significant overcapacity,
the latter (MVNO) is driven by other factors which will be discussed next.
73
74
Appendix B. Network Sharing Use Cases
B.1
Mobile Virtual Network Operators
MVNOs have recently been identified by the national telecom regulators and
competition authorities as a means to, similar to the unbundling of the local-loop
for DSL services, increase competition also in the oligopoly like mobile operator
market. There are different types of MVNOs, with different background and
competitive strategy. Most common today are
branding MVNOs,
fixed line telephony and broadband service providers, and
mobile telephony operators targeting specific market segments.
In a wider perspective, the scope of the telecom operators business is since a few
decades ago constantly undergoing a change [6]. Today, we see that new roles
are developed in the industry. Driven by the development towards a diverse
portfolio of services, MNOs tend to focus more on developing and marketing
user applications and services. At the same time, telecom equipment vendors
seem to seize the opportunity to integrate upwards in the value chain and offer
network operations and service platforms to the operators.
A separation between infrastructure, product innovation, and customer relationship businesses could often be beneficial from an organizational point of
view and stimulate innovation of new services [87]. However, this does not imply that MVNOs are best operated as small businesses. On the contrary, driven
by economies of scope and a strive to offer each customer as many services as
possible, customer relationship business tend to benefit from size [87]. 1 . Hence,
it is plausible that the role as service provider and intermediator for specialized producers of content will be important both for MVNOs and MNOs in the
future.
So far, however, with voice services as the key offering, the business case
of telecom MVNOs have relied on sufficiently low wholesale cost of network
access [27]. Even though regulators are well aware of that, and enforce cost
based inter-connection charges, it is of course difficult for MVNOs to have a cost
advantage towards the MNOs for the access.
Successful MVNOs therefore need other strategic advantages, such as a strong
brand, an existing customer base (that are interested in the service), a streamlined customer care organization, or a niche service that the traditional MNOs
neither could nor would offer [65].2 Of all these, the two most important drivers
for MVNOs today, and during the foreseeable future, will therefore probably be
their opportunities to target niche services and customer segments [28,29,65,72].
1 Infrastructure business such as access provisioning also benefit from size, but instead due
to economies of scale [87].
2 For a win-win situation, the MVNO and hosting MNO should not compete for the same
customers.
B.2. Inter-Operator Charging with Roaming Based Sharing
75
In this context, it should also be noted that, as emphasized in [30], the

network configuration need to be tailored for many mobile services (in terms of
QoS, area coverage, billing, etc.). Smaller MVNOs with little bargaining power
will consequently need to adapt their service offering to the specific capabilities
of the network. Hence, with only a few networks available, which most often are
optimized according to different criteria (depending on the business model of the
respective MNO), and the strategic considerations outlined above, it may very
well be so that a specific MVNO do not have many viable options of network
providers to choose between.
B.2
Inter-Operator Charging with Roaming

Based Sharing
As part of the GSM standard, international roaming has been extremely profitable for mobile operators, and a common assumption is that approximately
15% of their revenues originate from roaming calls [88]. GSM operators today
sign bilateral roaming agreements with license holders, but typically not with
MVNOs, from other countries. Hence, MVNO subscribers are referred to the
roaming partners of their respective hosting network operator. Accounting between operators is handled via international clearing houses. As we are used
to, subscribers normally pay for the international part of the call. The home
operator, however, may have a discount with the visited operator and is then
charged less per voice minute than what see on the bill [88]. The core network
functionalities originally intended for billing, service provisioning, and mobility
management with international roaming are naturally applicable also for roaming based sharing.
Part II
Paper Reprints
77
Chapter 5
Relation Between Base

Station Characteristics and
Cost Structure in Cellular
Systems (Paper 1)
Klas Johansson, Anders Furuskar, Peter Karlsson, and Jens Zander,
In Proc. IEEE PIMRC 2004, October 2004.
79
81
RELATION BETWEEN BASE STATION CHARACTERISTICS AND COST STRUCTURE IN

CELLULAR SY STEM S
Klas Johansson1 , A nders F u ru sk a r 2 , P eter Karlsson3 , and Jens Z ander 1
1
W ireless@ KT H , E lec tru m 4 1 8 , S -1 6 4 4 0 Kista, S weden, {k lasj, jens.z ander}@ radio.k th.se
2
E ric sson A B , S E -1 6 4 8 0 S toc k holm , S weden, anders.fu ru sk ar@ eric sson.c om
T eliaS onera S weden, B ox 9 4 , S E -2 0 1 2 0 M alm o , S weden, P eter.C .Karlsson@ teliasonera.c om
Ab s tr a c t - A sim p le m ethod for estim ating the c osts of

b u ilding and op erating a c ellu lar m ob ile network is p rop osed. U sing em p iric al data from a third g eneration m ob ile
sy stem (W C D M A ) it is shown that the c ost is driv en b y
different fac tors dep ending on the c harac teristic s of the b ase
stations dep loy ed. W hen site density inc rease, op erational
and transm ission c osts tend to dom inate rather than radio
eq u ip m ent and site c osts. T he resu lts also show how, for
different c ap ac ity req u irem ents, the c osts c an b e m inim iz ed
b y a p rop er selec tion of for ex am p le m ac ro, m ic ro and p ic o
b ase stations. In m any sc enarios the m ac ro b ase stations y ield
the lowest c ost, indic ating that c ov erag e (c ell rang e) is an
im p ortant p aram eter when desig ning wireless sy stem s.
K e y w o r d s - T ele-ec onom ic s, c ost m odel, infrastru c tu re
c ost, b ase station c ost
I. IN
T R O D U C T IO N
T he c osts of p rov iding wide-area c ov erag e for hig h data

rate wireless ac c ess hav e b een disc u ssed widely in the
telec om indu stry ov er the last c ou p le of y ears. W hile m ob ile
op erators hav e stru g g led with hig h lic ense fees and rollou t c osts du e to reg u latory req u irem ents for third g eneration
network s, tec hnolog ies su c h as W ireless L A N hav e ev olv ed
as c om p lem enting and in sp ec ifi c sc enarios ev en c om p etitiv e alternativ es [2 ]. T his has ev idently c ontrib u ted to an
inc reased c ost awareness am ong b oth m ob ile op erators and
eq u ip m ent v endors [4 ].
M ob ile infrastru c tu re c ost was u nder stu dy already du ring
the dev elop m ent of G S M and other 2 G sy stem s, howev er it
has b een m ore foc u sed only rec ently for 3 G and b ey ond. In
[6 ] the c osts of p rov iding m ob ile data serv ic es was analy z ed
in term s of ec onom ies of sc ale and sc op e. F u rtherm ore,
c ost effec tiv e way s of c onfi g u ring c ellu lar network s was
addressed in [1 ] and an em p iric ally b ased c ost m odel for
c ellu lar sy stem s was p rop osed in [7 ].
It is c om m only k nown that the c ap ac ity is p rop ortionally
to the b ase station density for a g iv en c ellu lar sy stem .
U nfortu nately , also the infrastru c tu re c osts seem s to inc rease
alm ost linearly with the c ap ac ity req u ired (indic ating a low
deg ree of ec onom ies of sc ale). T his was disc u ssed in [9 ],
where the c ost stru c tu re of wireless ac c ess infrastru c tu re
was analy z ed. It was c onc lu ded that the network c ost rises
linearly with the data rate p er u ser. T his shou ld hold for a
g iv en freq u enc y alloc ation p rov ided that the sam e c ov erag e
is req u ired, and was identifi ed in [1 0 ] as a k ey p rob lem for
p rov iding wideb and data serv ic es in wireless sy stem s.
A sim p le infrastru c tu re c ost m odel was also p resented
in [9 ] (and dev elop ed fu rther in [1 0 ]), in whic h the total
infrastru c tu re c ost of a wireless sy stem is m odeled as linearly
p rop ortional to the nu m b er of b ase stations:
Csystem = cNb s ,
(1 )
where Nb s is the nu m b er of b ase stations and c is a c onstant

c orresp onding to the c ost p er b ase station. N ote that in [9 ]
c is assu m ed to b e the sam e for all b ase stations and it is
indep endent of the b ase station c harac teristic s.
H owev er, in a p rac tic al sy stem , a nu m b er of different
b ase station ty p es c ou ld b e u sed for different dep loy m ent
sc enarios and the req u irem ents on, e.g ., c ell rang e and reliab ility g reatly affec ts the total c ost p er b ase station (inc lu ding
c ap ital and op erational ex p enditu res). A s a c onseq u enc e the
c ost stru c tu re of a radio ac c ess network is dep endent of the
sy stem c onfi g u ration, i.e. the q u antities and ty p es of different
ac c ess p oints em p loy ed to ac hiev e v ariou s total network
c ap ac ities and c ov erag e.
T his top ic will b e treated fu rther in the seq u el of this
p ap er, whic h is ou tlined as follows. T he ov erall distrib u tion
of c osts in c u rrent m ob ile network s is p resented in S ec tion II.
T his disc u ssion ju stifi es a sim p le infrastru c tu re c ost m odel
whic h is desc rib ed in S ec tion III. U sing this, the total c ost
and c ost stru c tu re is c alc u lated in S ec tion IV for different
dem ands and p otential solu tions for deliv ering affordab le
wireless serv ic es with hig h data rates is disc u ssed b riefl y .
T he p ap er is c onc lu ded in S ec tion V .
II. O
V E R A L L C O S T S T R U C T U R E F O R M O B IL E O P E R A T O R S
B efore g oing into a m ore detailed analy sis, let u s fi rst

look b riefl y at the ov erall c ost stru c tu re of a m ob ile op erator as of today . T y p ic ally , their inv estm ents relate to
radio and transm ission eq u ip m ent, lic ense fees, site b u ildou ts and installation of eq u ip m ent. T he ru nning c osts, in
tu rn, c onsider m ainly transm ission, site rentals, m ark eting ,
term inal su b sidies, and op eration and m aintenanc e (O & M ).
T he ex ac t b reak down of those c osts is of c ou rse c ase
sp ec ifi c , and it m ay v ary sig nifi c antly b etween different
82
Chapter 5. Base Station Characteristics (Paper 1)
countries and operators. An attempt to model the costs and

rev enues for w estern E uropean operators w as done w ithin
the T O N IC project [5 ]. T he cost structure w as estimated
for operators prov iding U M T S serv ices in (i) a small and
sparsely populated country and (ii) a larg e country w ith
denser population.
F rom these results it is clear that cumulated running costs
dominate the total cost structure of a mob ile operator and,
according to [5 ], they correspond to roug hly 7 5 % of the total
costs for a larg e country. M ore specifi cally, the running costs
are dominated b y non-technical costs, such as mark eting ,
terminal sub sidies and w ag es w hich can b e seen in T ab le 1 .
N ote also that transmission constitutes a sig nifi cantly hig her
portion of the running costs in the small country. T his since
last mile-transmission is priced per k ilometer in the model
in [5 ] and the distance b etw een b ase stations is hig her in the
small country ex ample, due to its low er population density.
T ab le 1
T ypical running cost structure (b ased on [5 ]).
S ite rental
T ransmission
T erminal sub sidies
M ark eting
E mployees
Large country
5%
5%
15%
25%
50%
Small country
5%
25%
15%
15%
40%
Another interesting , althoug h perhaps not surprising , fact

is that the v ast part of the infrastructure related costs stems
from the radio access netw ork (including radio netw ork
controllers, b ase stations, sites, and last-mile-transmission).
C ore netw ork eq uipment such as b ack b one transmission,
sw itches, routers, charg ing functionality, and sub scrib er reg isters only contrib ute to 1 0 -3 0 % of the ov erall netw ork costs.
T his is in particular clear from the inv estment cost structure
presented in T ab le 2 .
T ab le 2
O perator inv estment structure (b ased on [5 ]).
C ore netw ork
S ite b uildout
R adio access netw ork
III. C
Large country
30%
30%
40%
Small country
10%
50%
40%
O S T E S T I M AT I O N M E T H O D AN D AS S U M P T I O N S
After the discussion ab ov e, it seems reasonab le to limit

the infrastructure cost model to the radio access netw ork .
T hus, only b ase station eq uipment, site costs and last miletransmission are included and w e use a W C D M A system as
a case study. T he same cost model as g iv en in (1 ) can then
b e used, b ut it remains to determine the total cost per b ase
station c. H ow ev er, to mak e the model more realistic w e
need to address that an operator seldom has the same b ase
stations for ev ery scenario.
A. Infrastructure cost model

In principle there is an infi nite numb er of possib le confi g urations of b ase stations (including different alternativ es
for sites, transmission, etc.). A roug h div ision, thoug h, could
b e to stick to three main categ ories b ased on the cell rang e;
namely macro, micro and pico cell b ase stations. T he cost per
b ase station c should also b e sig nifi cantly different for those
b ase stations. F or ex ample, a small micro or pico b ase station
implies a low cost for eq uipment, site leases and installation
w hereas a larg e macro b ase station costs much more in those
aspects. O n the other hand, fi x ed costs not directly related
to the capacity of the b ase station are div ided b etw een many
users in a macro b ase station so the cost per user may still
b e low er in many scenarios.
T he total infrastructure cost for a mob ile operator could
then b e modeled as
Csystem = c1 Nma c r o + c2 Nmic r o + c3 Np ic o ,
(2 )
w here c1 , c2 , and c3 are the total costs for macro, micro and
pico b ase station respectiv ely. T ypically c1 > c2 > c3 and, if
w e in the same w ay defi ne the max imum cell radius R per
b ase station, R1 > R2 > R3 . H ence, different b ase stations
w ill minimiz e cost for different scenarios. H ow ev er, for the
sak e of simplicity, w e w ill study the different b ase stations
separately b ut k eep in mind that each cellular netw ork in
reality consist of a mix of b ase stations.
B . N etw ork dimensioning
T he numb er of b ase stations req uired, Nb s , is calculated
as a function of the demand specifi ed b y the:
S erv ice area to b e cov ered, Aser v ic e .
Av erag e capacity per user during b usy hour, Wu ser .
N umb er of sub scrib ers w ithin the cov erag e area, Nu ser .
F urthermore, the dimensioning w ill b e done for dow nlink
only. T his should b e reasonab le since the dow nlink g enerally
limits the ag g reg ate capacity in a W C D M A system, w hile
the uplink limits the data rate per link and cov erag e w hen
the traffi c load is low [3 ].
O nly a sing le carrier is assumed, to mak e the comparison
b etw een b ase station types simple (more carriers w ould
reduce the numb er of sites in a capacity limited scenario).
E ach b ase station has a g iv en max imum cell rang e (Rma x ),
minimum cell rang e (Rmin ) and supported capacity (Wma x ).
F or simplicity the capacity is k ept constant, and does not
v ary as a function of the actual cell rang e (Rb s ). E ach cell has
circular cov erag e area, w hich according to [7 ] is a reasonab le
assumption.
T he netw ork can either b e cov erag e or capacity (interference) limited and the numb er of b ase stations req uired is
dimensioned according to the follow ing model:
Aser v ic e Nu ser Wu ser

Nb s = m a x
,
(3 )
,
2
Rma
W
ma x
x
83
assuming a continuous service area and that users are

uniformly distrib uted (as in e.g. [9 ]). N ote also that the
netw ork is dimensioned in an average sense, and that the
w anted b lock ing and outage p rob ab ility has to b e p ossib le
to achieve at the assumed cell range Rmax and b ase station
cap acity Wmax for each considered service. N ow , given that
the resulting cell range
r
As e r v ic e
Rmin ,
(4 )
Rb s =
N bs
the cap acity req uirements can b e met w ith the selected ty p e
of b ase station.
D . D iscou nted cash fl ow model

T he total cost p er b ase station c is calculated in p resent
value using a standard economical method for cumulated
discounted cash fl ow s. B y doing so, w e can account for b oth
investments and running cost in the comp arison and analy z e
the total cost structure of different b ase stations.
T his is simp ly done b y summing up the discounted annual
cash fl ow s (in this case y early ex p enditures) for the w hole
netw ork life cy cle (K y ears) according to
c=
K1
X
k= 0
C. Empirical cost and performance data

T he p erformance and cost data related to the b ase stations
are given in T ab le 3 . A ll values are ap p rox imate, b ut should
b e rep resentative in a relative sense for a ty p ical W C D M A
sy stem dep loy ed during 2 0 0 3 . F or simp licity only an urb an
scenario is considered and ty p ical cell ranges and cap acities
are b ased on general estimates p rovided in [3 ] and do
not rep resent the p erformance of any sp ecifi c p roduct. W e
assume that the cap acity p er cell is higher for micro and
p ico cell b ase stations. T his since it is p ossib le to minimiz e
inter-cell interference b y a p rop er p lacement of the antennas
(b elow roof-top or indoors).
T he eq uip ment costs estimates have b een p rovided b y the
G artner G roup and the other cost p arameters are b ased on
[5 ]. T he macro b ase station is naturally much more ex p ensive
than the smaller b ase stations, b ecause of its higher outp ut
p ow er and cap acity , b ut also due to that it has to b e more
reliab le since more users are served p er b ase station. T his
clearly affects the costs for sites, installation and O & M .
T ab le 3
B ase station p erformance and costs
P erformance [ 3 ] :
S ectors
C arriers (2 * 5 M hz )
M ax imum cell range (Rmax )
M inimum cell range (Rmi n )
C ap acity (Wmax )
Initial costs:
E q uip ment (S ource: G artner)
S ite b uildout [5 ]
S ite installation [5 ]
A nnu al costs [ 5 ] :
A nnual O & M
S ite lease
T ransmission
Macro BS
Micro BS
Pico BS
3
1
1km
0 .2 5 k m
2 .2 5 M b p s
1
1
0 .2 5 k m
0 .1 k m
1 .2 5 M b p s
1
1
0 .1 k m
0 .0 2 5 k m
1 .7 5 M b p s
50ke
70ke
30ke
20ke
15ke
5ke
3ke
3ke
10ke
5ke
1ke
3ke
5ke
1ke
1ke
5ke
L ast mile-transmission costs are also included in the

model, and for this p urp ose w e use a simp lifi ed modeling
of leased lines. E ach b ase station is assumed to have the
same cost for transmission of 5 k e p er y ear. T he transmission
p rices are sub ject to a y early p rice erosion of 5 % . T he other
annual costs are assumed to b e constant.
ck
,
(1 + d)k
(5 )
w here d is a discount rate w hich is assumed to b e eq ual to

1 0 % . T he netw ork is in all ex amp les in the seq uel assumed
to b e used during K = 1 0 y ears and the cost for eq uip ment
and site b uildouts are accounted for in the fi rst y ear (k = 0 ).
T hat is, the w hole netw ork is dep loy ed during the fi rst y ear.
E. D iscu ssion on th e models applicab ility
A lthough this is a very simp lifi ed model, w e b elieve
this ap p roach can b e useful to understand the fundamental
characteristics of different technical solutions. E .g., w hen
different b ase stations are ap p licab le and w hat the b ottleneck s are in today s sy stem. Y et, a few imp ortant things
that distinguish the model from a real netw ork could b e
w orth to p oint out. F irstly , neither b ase stations, nor users,
are uniformly distrib uted as w e assume in the simp le model.
S econd, a netw ork ty p ically consists of a variety of b ase
stations, transmission and antenna sy stem designs.
T he latter is p artly due to that an op erator naturally
op timiz es the choice of technology dep ending on the sp ecifi c dep loy ment case as discussed ab ove. B ut also b ecause
netw ork s evolve over time, and ex isting infrastructure can
q uite often b e reused w hen new technology is rolled out.
H ence, the p revious investments in, e.g., sites and cab ling
are treated as long term investments and do not add to the
incremental cost of adding more cap acity . N ote also that
the emp irical cost and p erformance data only should b e
considered as estimates, and the statistical signifi cance of
those is not k now n. H ow ever, w e b elieve that the fi gures
used refl ects the costs for a ty p ical mob ile netw ork fairly
w ell and the conclusions should therefore hold also for other
cellular technologies, such as G S M or C D M A 2 0 0 0 .
IV . R
E SU LT S
In this section w e w ill illustrate how the total sy stem cost

varies as a function of demand, given b y the user density
and demanded b usy hour throughp ut p er user Wu s e r , and the
b ase station ty p e (macro, micro and p ico). T his is follow ed
b y an analy sis of the cost structure of the b ase stations under
study , and a b rief discussion on technical imp rovements
req uired to p rovide high data rates w ith w ide area coverage.
Chapter 5. Base Station Characteristics (Paper 1)
A v e ra g e b u s y h o u r th ro u g h p u t p e r u s e r W
user
= 1k b p s
10
P ic o B S
3
10
M ic ro B S
In fra s tru c tu re c o s t p e r k m
in p re s e n t v a lu e [k E u ro ]
10
C o s t p e r u s e r in p re s e n t v a lu e [k E u ro ]
84
10
M a c ro B S
C a p a c ity lim ite d
10
user
= 10k b p s
Wu s e r = 1k b p s
1
10
user
= 0.2k b p s
C o v e ra g e lim ite d
2
10
10 2
10
10
U s e rs /k m
Fig. 1.
10
10
Infrastructure cost for different base stations.
A. Infrastructure cost
Fig. 1 illustrates th e total infrastructure cost Csystem for
different base stations w ith a data rate Wu ser = 1k bp s. T h is
could, e.g., corresp ond to a sp eech serv ice of 10 k bp s at
0 .1E rlang traffi c load (ty p ical corp orate user). A ccording to
(3 ) th e infrastructure cost is constant as long as th e sy stem
is cov erage lim ited. T h en, as m ore base stations are needed
to m eet th e cap acity req uirem ents th e total cost increase
linearly according to th e cost p er base station c.
From th is p icture it is p ossible to fi nd th e base station
ty p e th at m inim iz e infrastructure cost for different user
densities. In th is sp ecifi c case, w ith Wu ser = 1k bp s, th e
m acro cell base stations sh ould be used until dem and ex ceed
4 0 0 0 users/k m 2 , th ereafter m icro cell base stations could be
w orth w h ile to introduce up to a v ery h igh user density (ap p rox im ately 2 0 0 0 0 users/k m 2 ) w h en p ico cells are ch eap est.
W e can also see w h en dem and increase signifi cantly so
th at a denser dep loy m ent is needed, th e cost p er user is
low ered and th ere is a certain degree of scale econom ics
as dep icted in Fig. 2 . H ere w e h av e p lotted th e cost p er user
as function of user density for Wu ser eq ual to
0 .2 k bp s (ty p ical p riv ate sp eech user at 2 0 m E rl),
1k bp s (ty p ical corp orate sp eech user at 10 0 m E rl), and
10 k bp s (data user dow nloading ap p r. 5 M B /h our)
resp ectiv ely . N ote also th at th e cost p er user dim inish es
step w ise because of th e lim ited num ber of base station ty p es
used in th is ex am p le and th at each base station is cov erage
lim ited w ith in som e region.
B . C ost structure
T h e cost structure of different solutions is h ere div ided in
th ree p arts:
R adio: B ase station eq uip m ent and discounted O & M
costs.
10
10
Fig. 2 .
10
U s e rs /k m
10
10
M inim um cost p er user for different cap acity .
S ites: S ite buildout & installation and discounted site

leases.
T ransm ission: discounted lease line costs.
T h e total cost p er base station c and th e resp ectiv e cost

structure are giv en in T able 4 . T h e v alues are based on th e
assum p tions giv en in S ection III.
T able 4
C ost structure w ith different base stations.
Base station
M acro
M icro
P ico
R ad io
70ke
27ke
12 k e
S ites
16 8 k e
35ke
10 k e
T r ansm ission
28ke
28ke
28ke
C ost p er BS
266e
90ke
50ke
In th is ex am p le m icro base stations are 6 6 % ch eap er th an

m acro base stations, w h ereas th e cost for a p ico base station
is only 4 4 % low er th an a a m icro base station. T h is h as
a rath er intuitiv e ex p lanation: th e eq uip m ent cost is low er
and site costs can be reduced signifi cantly as th e req uired
cell range decreases. H ow ev er, th e transm ission costs are th e
sam e for all base stations in th is ex am p le. H ence, as th e base
station range decrease th e cost is driv en by transm ission,
rath er th an by radio and site costs.
C . P otential d ev elop m ent p ath s tow ard s h ig h er d ata rates at
a low cost
A k ey p roblem for deliv ering data serv ices in w ireless
sy stem s is th e cost p er bit, w h ich does not decrease in
th e sam e p ace as dem and increases w ith today s cellular
tech nology . A s discussed in [9 ] w e can not assum e th at th e
users total w illingness to p ay for w ireless serv ices increase
signifi cantly in th e future (at least not in th e sam e order as
data traffi c is ex p ected to grow ). T h erefore, nov el solutions
seem to be needed in order to ach iev e greater econom ics of
85
scale in wireless networks. But how can this be achieved in

p ractice?
T here are m ainly two p ossible develop m ent tracks. O ne is
to re-use ex isting sites, or even reduce the num ber of sites,
by ex tending the cap acity of ex isting solutions. T his can in
p rincip le be done by either
1 ) allocating m ore sp ectrum for third g eneration networks,
2 ) increase sp ectral effi ciency , e.g . by utiliz ing adap tive
antennas.
3 ) introduce m ulti-hop technolog y in the cellular networks,
or using a com bination of those.
Another way would be to actually allow for denser dep loy m ent by decreasing the cost p er base station. U sing the
cost structure analy sis above as a starting p oint, there is a p otential in lowering transm ission and O & M costs for p ico cell
base stations. Instead of the ex p ensive leased lines (E 1 /T 1 )
or m icrowave radio links cheap er transm ission technolog ies
could be introduced, e.g ., wireless fi x ed broadband or x D S L .
T he costs for O & M and sites could be reduced by allowing
for p rivately owned and dep loy ed base stations, p ossibly
connected to ex isting fi x ed broadband or local area networks.
S im ilar to W ireless L AN access p oints, one could im ag ine
sm all 3 G base stations owned by individuals or enterp rises.
H owever, for such solutions to be econom ically feasible,
som e sig nifi cant m odifi cations are req uired also in the core
network eq uip m ent (sim p ly to handle a larg e increase in the
num ber of base stations). It also req uires slig htly m odifi ed
business m odels and value chain constellations for the m obile op erators.
V. C
O N C L U S IO N
A sim p le m odel for estim ating the infrastructure costs

of cellular sy stem s was p rop osed. T he m odel is based on
averag e cost and p erform ance data from third g eneration
m obile networks and includes both investm ents and running
costs. W ith this m odel, it is p ossible to analy z e the infrastructure cost as a function of dem and for different base station
confi g urations.
T he cost drivers were shown to be a function of the
characteristics of the base stations. W ith m acro base stations
the costs m ainly considers base station eq uip m ent, O & M
and sites, whereas for p ico-cell dep loy m ent the last m ile
transm ission dom inates with the p resent technolog y . Results
also show that the m acro base stations y ield the lowest cost
in m any scenarios. T his indicates that coverag e (cell rang e)
is an im p ortant p aram eter when desig ning future wireless
access sy stem s.
F urther studies in this area could include im p roved m odeling and m ethods for evaluating the econom ical g ain of
new technical features, e.g . by m eans of elasticity analy sis.
Also the p otential econom ical benefi ts and suitable business
m odels for a wide dep loy m ent of p ico base stations, or other
ty p es of local access p oints, could be interesting to study in

m ore detail.
AC
K N O W L E D G M E N T
T hanks to M r. J ason C hap m an (T he G artner G roup ) and

D r. J an W erding for p roviding em p irical cost data and valuable insig hts on the fi nancial asp ects of wireless networks.
T he fi nancial sup p ort from the S wedish F oundation for
S trateg ic Research via the Affordable W ireless S ervices and
Infrastructure (AW S I) p rog ram is g reatly ap p reciated.
RE
F E RE N C E S
[1 ] B. G avish and S . S ridhar, E conom ic asp ects of confi g uring cellular networks , Wireless Networks, V ol. 1 ,
N o. 1 , F eb. 1 9 9 5 , p p .1 1 5 -1 2 8
[2 ] J . H arno, 3 G Business C ase S uccessfulness within
the C onstraints S et by C om p etition, Reg ulation and
Alternative T echnolog ies , in the P roc eed in g s of th e
F IT C E E u rop ea n T elec om m u n ic a tion s C on g ress, 2 0 0 2 .
[3 ] H . H olm a and A. T oskala, WC D M A for U M T S , J ohn
W iley & S ons, 2 0 0 2 .
[4 ] D . K atsianis et al., T he econom ic p ersp ective of the
m obile networks in E urop e , IE E E P erson a l C om m u n ic a tion s M a g a z in e, V ol. 8 , N o. 6 , p p 5 8 -6 4 , D ec. 2 0 0 1 .
[5 ] F . L oiz illon et al., F in a l resu lts on sea m less m ob ile IP
serv ic e p rov ision ec on om ic s , IS T -2 0 0 0 -2 5 1 7 2 T O N IC
D eliverable num ber 1 1 , O ct. 2 0 0 2 .
[6 ] D .P . Reed, T he C ost S tructure of P ersonal C om m unication S ervices , IE E E C om m u n ic a tion s M a g a z in e,
V ol. 7 , N o. 2 , Ap r. 1 9 9 3 , p p . 1 7 3 -1 8 5 .
[7 ] R. S tanley , A m ethodolog y for evaluating and op tim iz ing wireless sy stem infrastructure costs , in P roc eed in g s of th e IE E E In tern a tion a l S y m p osiu m of P erson a l,
In d oor a n d M ob ile R a d io C om m u n ic a tion s (P IM R C ),
1996.
[8 ] F .J . V elez , L .M . C orreia, C ost/revenue op tim isation in
m ulti-service m obile broadband sy stem s , in the P roc eed in g s of th e IE E E c on feren c e on P erson a l, In d oor
a n d M ob ile R a d io C om m u n ic a tion s (P IM R C ), 2 0 0 2 .
[9 ] J . Z ander, O n the cost structure of future wideband
wireless access , in p roc eed in g s of th e IE E E V eh ic u la r
T ec h n olog y C on fereren c e (V T C ), 1 9 9 7 .
[1 0 ] J . Z ander, Affordable m ultiservice wireless networks
- research challeng es for the nex t decade , in P roc eed in g s of th e IE E E In tern a tion a l S y m p osiu m on P erson a l,
In d oor a n d M ob ile R a d io C om m u n ic a tion s (P IM R C ),
2002.
Chapter 6
An Infrastructure Cost
Evaluation of Single- and
Multi-Access Networks with
Heterogeneous Traffic
Density (Paper 2)
Anders Furuskar, Klas Johansson, and Magnus Almgren,
In Proc. IEEE VTC2005 Spring, May 2005.
87
89
An Infrastructure Cost Evaluation of

Single-andM ulti-Access Networks with
Heterogeneous Traffic Density
Anders Furuskr andM agnus Almgren
Klas Johansson
W ireless Access Networks

Ericsson Research
Kista,Sweden
[anders.
furuskar,magnus.
almgren]@ ericsson.
com
W ireless@ KTH,
The Royal Institute of Technology
Electrum 418,S-16440Kista,Sweden
Email:klasj@ radio.
kth.
se
Abstract Traditional performance measures like capacity, cell

radius and supported QoS are often insufficient when comparing
wireless networks with different network architectures and cost
structures.Instead, in this paper, infrastructure cost is used to
compare different operator deployed single- and multi-access
wireless networks, including 3G, W LAN and proposed 4G radio
access technologies.For this purpose a model for the geographical distribution of traffic is introduced.Despite the spatially nonuniform traffic demand, single-access solutions like W CDM A
High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA)or Long-Term 3G
Evolved, with high capacity macro cellular base stations, typically yield the lowest costs per user.In particular this holds for a
hypothetical Long-Term 3G Evolved system operating in
450M Hzspectrum, which indicates the importance of good coverage.Operator deployed W LAN-only solutions are more expensive even for small fractions of supported users.M ulti-access
solutions, combiningfor example W CDM A DCH or HSDPA with
W LAN, do not seem to provide better cost efficiency than standard hierarchical cell structures in single-access systems.Instead,
multi-access solutions have to be motivated by other factors like
peak data rates and spectrum availability.
Keywords: Infrastructure cost, Tele-economics,multi-access,
W CDM A,3G,Long-Term 3G Evoluti
on,4G,W LAN
I. INTRODUCTION
M obile network operators are typically interested in maximizingthe profit determinedbythe revenue generatedbytheir
systems andtheir costs.Traditional performance measures used
for single-access cellular systems,suchas coverage andcapacity,are effective measures of the relative improvements for
specific systems.Consideringalso deployment aspects andthat
different systems typicallyhave different cost structure,technical measures,like spectral efficiency,are however,as discussed in e.
g.[1],insufficient to compare different systems.
Ideally both costs and revenues should be included in the
analysis,as in [2],andavailabilityof spectrum,previous assets,
andother strategic issues needto be taken into account.Due to
difficulties in,e.
g.
,predictingendusers willingness to pay,this
is quite complex.A simpler initial step,for relative comparisons only,is to compare the system cost for equal potential
revenues (to simplify;number of supported users)and this is
also the focus of this paper.
M ore specifically,the radio access network infrastructure

cost is normalized per user and compared between different
single-and multi-access system concepts as a function of traffic intensity per user and relative user coverage.The system
concepts compared include the cellular systems W CDM A
DCH, W CDM A HSDPA, and preliminary Long-Term 3G
Evolution and4G proposals,as well as the W LAN system concepts IEEE 802.
11b,a and g.Also multi-access combinations
of these,an expectedcharacteristic of future wireless networks
[3],are included.To evaluate the benefits of the multi-access
networks,a heterogeneous traffic densitymodel is applied.
Recently a number of wireless network infrastructure cost
analyses for single-access networks have been presented,e.
g.
[1]and[2].These conclude that the infrastructure cost,includingbothcapital expenditures (CAPEX)andoperational expenditures (OPEX),is largelyproportional to the number of access
points deployed.Equivalent cost figures per access point,are
also presented,which can be used to simply assess the total
infrastructure cost for a given deployment.M odels of the spatial distribution of mobile users have been presentedin e.
g.[4]
and[5].This paper combines the above results andextends the
scope to cover multi-access networks.
In what follows,Section II briefly discusses the impact of
the spatial traffic distribution on the cost efficiencyof different
single-and multi-access system concepts,and presents the deployment principles used in this study.An overview of the radio network,user behavior,and economical models and assumptions is given in Section III.Numerical results are presentedin Section IV,followedbyconclusions in Section V.
II. DEPLOYM ENT ASPECTS
In scenarios with homogeneous,uniform traffic densities,
single-access solutions withonlyone type of access point manage to maximize cost efficiency.For example,witha higharea
traffic demand micro cellular base stations may be most cost
efficient,whereas macro base stations typicallyyieldthe lowest
cost in areas withless traffic per area unit.Solutions witha mix
of macro,micro and pico cells,as well as multi-access concepts,may be expected to be more cost efficient than single
access networks only in scenarios with heterogeneous traffic
densities.Yet,this is not a sufficient condition.It is also required that traffic peaks (hotspots)are very few and strong.
90
Chapter 6. Heterogeneous Infrastructure Cost (Paper 2)
1) Varying but low (average) traffic density
2) Varying and high
3) Strongly varying, high, and correlated

M icro cell
area capacity
Traffic Density
M acro cell area capacity
Traffic Density
Traffic Density
Average
Figure 1. Simple example of traffic density variations over space, and deployment of macro(light grey) and micro(darkgrey) access points.
This is explained by the following example based on macro

and micro cellular base stations.
Assume that a single-carrier macro cell layer is deployed for
fundamental coverage. As depicted in the first example in
Figure 1, the capacity of this networkis sufficient to serve traffic density patterns for which the average is within the macro
cell area capacity. Local areas with traffic demands exceeding
the area capacity are supported. Then, if the average traffic
density exceeds the total area capacity of the first macro carrier, either a second macro carrier, additional macro base stations or micro cells can be deployed. W hat solution that brings
the lowest cost depends on the statistical distribution of traffic.
In the second example, traffic is high and strongly varying with
many relatively small peaks. Then adding a carrier to the
macro-cellular layer, or deploying macro base stations more
densely, is typically most efficient. Deploying a micro cell in
each of the many local traffic density peaks would require a
large amount of micro sites, and hence be costly, since each
micro base station would have excess capacity and be poorly
utilized. In situations like the one in example three, however,
micro cells are motivated. Here, the peaks in traffic density are
very strong and rather few, so that only a few micro cells need
to be deployed, and the cost for this is lower than that of extending the macro layer.
A heterogeneous traffic density alone is thus not sufficient
for motivating micro and pico cell, or multi-access solutions
from an infrastructure cost perspective. There are also requirements on (i) a high overall traffic density, (ii) strong variations
in traffic density, and (iii) special spatial correlation properties.
A. DeploymentPrinciple
The deployment principle used in this study is to first deploy
macro cells for full area coverage, and then complement with
micro or pico cells, or W LAN access points, where it is needed
for capacity reasons.
In more detail, first, the system area Asys is divided into N
different 40x40m elements. The (center) position and the traffic
generated in element n are denoted Pn and TEn respectively.
For each RAT r, candidate access point sites are positioned on
a regular hexagonal grid, with site-to-site distances according
to the AP cell radii. The position of AP m is denoted Sm. Based
on the site positions, an association between sites and traffic
elements is made, so that the elements in the set Srm belong to
AP m. The association is done so that traffic elements are associated with the closest site:
S mr = {n arg k min{d ( APk , Pn )} = m}
(1)
where d(APk, Pn) is the distance between AP k and element n.

The offered traffic per APis calculated as:
Tmr =
TE
(2)
nS mr
In each site m, Nrm cells (transceivers) are then deployed to

fulfill the offered traffic, while not exceeding the maximum
number of cells per AP, denoted NAPmax:
T r
N mr = min m , N APmax, m
Cr
(3)
where Cr is the capacity per access point of RAT r. Note that if

Trm = 0, no access point is deployed. If Trm > Cr, all the offered
traffic cannot be handled by RAT r. In that case elements are
allocated in an increasing order of offered traffic TEn until the
maximum capacity per AP CrNAPmax is reached. Remaining
traffic that has to be served with other RATs (with a smaller
cell radius and higher area capacity) will then belong to elements with the highest traffic TEn. More formally, the traffic
elements Srm are sorted in order of offered traffic and indexed
n. The number of elements Mrmax,m that are served by AP m is
then determined by:
M
r
M ma
TEn ' C r N APmax,m
x,
m = max M :
n '=1
(4)
Then, the offered traffic in elements n=1.. Mrmax m is set to zero

to determine the offered traffic for the next RAT to be deployed, i.e.,
0
TEn ' =
TEn'
r
n' M max
m
r
n' > M max
m
(5)
Once the above deployment is completed, which results in

100% coverage if no traffic remains after the last RAT is deployed, the cost for covering smaller fractions of users is calculated. This is done through sorting the access points in order of
supported traffic divided by the access point cost. Given the
final deployment for full coverage, deployment in this order
represents the most cost efficient way to support a given traffic.
It should be noted that no attempts have been made to optimize the deployment principle. Instead, the target has been a
simple principle that is reasonably good and fair between system concepts. It could e.g. be noted that limiting W LAN access
point positions to a regular grid is probably not optimum, but
neither is allowing only one cell radius for cellular macro, micro, and pico cells. This tradeoff is discussed further in [7].
91
Figure2. A sampl
eofatrafficdensi
t
ymapandW CDMA macroandW LAN
accesspoi
ntdepl
oyment.
III.
MODELSAND ASSUMPTIONS
Thissecti
on descri
besthe userbehavi
or,system,and radi
o
networkmodelsusedt
oevaluatethedifferentsystem concepts.
Macroscopicmodelsareused to enableaconceptualcomparisonbetweentheconceptsfordifferentt
rafficdensiti
es.
A. TrafficDensityModels
In ordert
o capturetheeffectsdiscussed in Secti
onII,aheterogeneoususerbehaviorisassumed. In short
,based on the
measurementsand modelproposed in [4]and statisticsfrom
[6],itisassumed thattheuserdensity isl
og-normally dist
ributed around a large-scal
emean. The smallscalestandard
devi
ati
on ofthisdist
ri
buti
on i
sadjust
ed so thatassumed peak
valuesinuserdensityareachi
evedwithreasonableprobabili
ty.
To fi
tthe cell-l
eveluserdensity standard deviati
on t
o the
value 0.4 (l
og-scale)reported in [4],a spatialcorrelati
on is
assumed between elements. Reference userdensi
tiesare created by multiplying typicalsuburban (su)and ci
ty centre(cc)
popul
ati
on densiti
es,500 and 20.000 inhabi
tants/km2 respectively,withanassumedservicepenetrati
onof90% andanoperat
ormarketshareof30%. Usersarefurthercharacteri
zedby
anaveragebusyhourtrafficintensity,measuredindat
ageneration perunittime. Asabasisforthis,thetrafficintensi
ty ofa
privat
evoiceuserduringbusyhourisused. Thisisassumedt
o
be20mErlangx10kbps= 0.2kbps. Mul
ti
plyingthiswithafactorN then formstrafficint
ensity referencevalues. Asareference,assuming that0.6% ofthe monthly traffic isgenerat
ed
during each busy hour(typicalforvoice),a 1GB/month user
corresponds t
o 13kbps, or N = 66. Traffic density maps
(10x10km)are creat
ed by multiplying the userdensit
ies and
per-usert
rafficint
ensities. Thegray scalecont
ourin Figure2
depi
ctsareali
zati
onoft
rafficdensitygenerat
edbythemodel.
Not
e thatno explici
tservice isassumed. The evaluati
on is
appli
cabl
eto allservi
cesforwhich thesystem models,i.e. accesspointcapacityandcoverage,arevali
d,andthatarewithin
t
he capabi
l
i
t
i
es of t
he access t
echnol
ogy. These capabi
l
i
t
i
es
differsignificantly between some ofthe accesstechnol
ogi
es.
Forexample,4G conceptsshould becompared withW CDMA
onlyforservicessupport
edbybothnetworks.
TABLE I. ACCESSPOINT CHARACTERISTICS.

Radius
Capacity
1000m
[3-9]x1Mbps
W CDM A DCH macro
250m
[1-2]x1Mbps
W CDM A DCH micro
100m
1Mbps
W CDM A DCH pico
1000m [3-9]x2.5Mbps
W CDM A HS macro
250m [1-2]x2.5Mbps
W CDM A HS micro
100m
2.5Mbps
W CDM A HSpico
1000m
3x15Mbps
S3G macro
250m
15Mbps
S3G micro
100m
15Mbps
S3G pico
2500m
3x15Mbps
S3G macro 450
700m
3x100Mbps
4G
175m
100Mbps
4G micro
70m
1Gbps
4G pico
1850m
100Mbps
4G rel
ay
40m
6Mbps
IEEE 802.11b
40m
22Mbps
IEEE 802.11g
20m
22Mbps
IEEE 802.11a
20m
100Mbps
IEEE 802.11n
Cost Coeff.
1(55/45%)
0.45(45/55%)
0.3(35/65%)
1(55/45%)
0.45(45/55%)
0.3(35/65%)
1(55/45%)
0.45(45/55%)
0.3(35/65%)
1(55/45%)
1(55/45%)
0.45(45/55%)
0.3(35/65%)
6.4(65/35%)
0.13(3/97%)
0.13(3/97%)
0.13(3/97%)
0.13(3/97%)
B. System andRadioNetworkModels
Accesspointsofdifferentaccesstechnol
ogiesarecharacterized with differentmaximum cellradi
iand capaci
ties;seeTableI (hereinacellisdefinedasacombinati
onofasect
orand
carri
erfrequency). Allfiguresareforthedownlinkandroughly
valid foran urban environmentwithoutstrictrequi
rementsfor
indoorcoverage. However,withthesimplified modelingused,
withoutexplici
tradi
o networkmodels,themodelsareappli
cableforarbit
rary environment,depl
oymentand servi
cescenariosforwhichthesystem modelsareval
id.
The W CDMA DCH and HS-DSCH figures,assuming a
15MHzspectrum all
ocati
on,aretakenasreferencevalues,and
Long-Term 3G Evolved[8](henceforthshortlydenotedS3G)
and 4G figures are derived from these. ForS3G,a 20MHz
spect
rum allocati
onisassumed. Togetherwithaspect
rum efficiencyassumptionof0.75bps/
Hz/cell
,thisresultsinacapaci
ty
percellof15Mbps. ThesamepowerdensityasforW CDMA is
also assumed,resulting in thesamecellradius. To investigate
theimpactofcoverage,ahypotheticalS3G system operatingin
450MHz spect
rum,i
s also st
udi
ed. Its cel
lradius i
s simpl
y
basedonfrequencydifferenceandapath-l
ossexponentof3.5.
For 4G, a 100MHz spect
rum is assumed,together with a
slightly improved spect
rum efficiency of 1bps/Hz/cell
. This
resultsin acapaci
ty percellof100Mbps. A fourtimeslower
powerdensity is assumed forthe wider4G carrierthan for
W CDMA. Assuming a distance at
tenuat
ion exponentof3.5,
thisresultsin a30% reduced cellradius. Micro and pico cell
capaciti
esareassumed equalto the macro-cel
lcapaci
ties(per
cell
).
TheW LAN figuresassumesingle-cell
,non-interferedaccess
points. In coordinat
ed multi-cellscenarios these figures decrease some 20-40% for 802.11b and 802.11g. In noncoordinated multi-operat
or scenarios,the capacity is shared
equallybetweentheoperat
ors.
A simple2-hop regenerat
iverelaying conceptisalso evaluated. Itisassumedthattheaccesspointissurroundedbyari
ng
ofsix rel
ay nodes,each with thesamecellradiusasaregular
macrocellaccesspoint.Thisresultsinanequivalentcellradi
us
of7oftheoriginalcel
lradius. Thecapacityisl
imited byt
he
accesspoint
,and assumed to remain at100Mbpsdespit
et
he
potenti
ally favorable channel conditi
ons t
owards the rel
ay
Chapter 6. Heterogeneous Infrastructure Cost (Paper 2)
10
-2
10
T ra ffic D e n s ity [M b p s /k m 2]
10
30 /m o n th
-2
10
T ra ffic D e n s ity [M b p s /k m 2]
10
c c 1000
-1
10
c c 100
10
c c 10
10
s u 1000
10
cc1
c c 10
s u 1000
cc1
-1
s u 100
10
s u 10
10
10
8 02.11g
W C D M A D C H
W C D M A H S
D C H & 11g
H S & 11g
S 3G
S 3G 45 0
4G
4G r e la y
s u 100
30 /m o n th
10
10
F r a c tio n o f S u p p o r te d U s e r s 20%
s u 10
10
su1
In fr a s tru c tu re C o s t p e r M o n th a n d G b y te [ ]
10
8 02.11g
W C D M A D C H
W C D M A H S
D C H & 11g
H S & 11g
S 3G
S 3G 45 0
4G
4G r e la y
c c 1000
10
F r a c tio n o f S u p p o r te d U s e r s 9 0%
c c 100
10
su1
In fr a s tru c tu re C o s t p e r M o n th a n d G b y te [ ]
92
Figure 3. Infrastructure cost per 1GB/month user versus traffic density for
90% supported users.
Figure 4. Infrastructure cost per 1GB/month user versus traffic density for
20% supported users.
nodes. Note that more sophisticated relaying concepts than that

evaluated here exist, with potential to further improve coverage
and capacity.
The access points are also characterized with the cost coefficients given in Table I. These estimate the total infrastructure
cost associated with one access point, including CAPEX for
radio access network equipment and site build out, as well as
OPEX for site rental, transmission, power consumption and
O&M over a 10-year period, assuming a 10% discount rate.
The figures build on those used in [1], where in turn equipment
cost estimates were provided by the Gartner Group and other
cost estimates were based on [2]. In this study minor updates
for radio network controllers, power consumption and O&M ,
and addition ofW LAN, also based on [2], have been made.
The coefficients in Table I are normalized to an estimated
value for a cellular macro base station, assumed to be 300k
(slightly higher than in [1]due to the above modifications). The
components ofthe cost coefficients are further discussed in [1]
and [2], Table Imerely includes the fractional CAPEX and
OPEX, which in turn are dominated by site and transmission
costs respectively. The total infrastructure cost for green-field
operators can be calculated as the number ofaccess points of
each type multiplied with the corresponding cost coefficients.
Note that this model excludes costs for core network nodes
as well as costs for spectrum (due to differences in regulation, a
generally applicable spectrum cost model is very difficult to
define). This makes the costs incremental, i.e. measuring the
additional cost for covering a new area, once the core network
and spectrum is paid for. Terminal costs, as well administrative
costs, e.g. for marketing and billing, are also excluded.
GB and month is marked. This is a rough estimate ofwhat a

typical user is willing to spend on mobile communications today.
Generally, for all system concepts, the infrastructure cost per
GB decreases with traffic density while the systems are coverage limited, and flattens when the system becomes capacity
limited.
IV.
NUM ERICAL RESULTS
In this chapter numerical results are presented on the form

infrastructure cost per transferred data unit (1GB)and month
versus traffic density and fractional coverage. In Figure 390%
ofthe traffic (users)are supported and in Figure 4only a small
fraction, 20%, ofthe users are served. Some reference levels
are marked on the traffic density axis. These are combinations
ofsuburban (su)or city center (cc)environments as defined
above, and traffic intensities per user measured in N times
voice (0.2kbps). On the cost axis, a reference level of30 per
A. CommerciallyAvailableSystems
Beginning with the 802.11g W LAN and 90% ofthe traffic
served, it is seen that for low traffic densities the cost per GB is
very high. In a suburban environment with a voice-like traffic
intensity per user (su1), the infrastructure cost reaches
10.000/
GB/month. To get down to a reasonable cost per GB
(30), a traffic density of10 M bps/km2 is required, approximately corresponding to su500or cc10scenarios. For a fraction
ofsupported users ofonly 20%, as shown in Figure 4, the cost
per user for 802.11g decreases significantly (as expected). The
reasonable cost of 30/GB/month is now reached at
1M bps/km2 instead, or roughly a cc1 scenario. This indicates
the degree ofcoverage that can be expected to be profitable for
W LAN only operators.
W CDM A DCH and HSDPA yield about 50times lower cost
for moderate traffic densities. These systems reach 30per GB
and month already at 0.2M bps/km2 corresponding to su10scenarios. W CDM A HSDPA becomes capacity limited at higher
traffic densities than W CDM A DCH, and therefore yields
lower costs at high traffic densities. The crossover point between W CDM A HSDPA and 802.11g is about 100M bps/km2,
or cc100. W ith 20% ofthe users covered W CDM A HSDPA is
more expensive than W LAN at 30M bps/km2 (su1000/
cc30),
whereas with 90% coverage W LAN only systems gives a
2
lower cost at first around 100M bps/km (cc100).
The multi-access concepts, W CDM A DCH or W CDM A
HSDPA combined with 802.11g, are seen to yield the lowest
cost ofthe included subsystems. However, the gain as compared to, e.g., a single access W CDM A HSDPA system (with
hierarchical cell structures)is evident only at very high traffic
(> 300M bps/km2). W ith the models and assumptions used,
there is hence no significant multi-access cost reduction. On
the other hand there is neither any loss, and there is thus no
93
cost drawback for a mobile network operator deploying macro

and micro cells first,and then adding W LAN only in hotspots,
as compared to a pure W LAN operator. It may also be noted
that HSDPA alone is a better solution than both W CDM A
DCH and 802.11g for traffic loads up to 100M bps/km2.
B. FutureConcepts
The S3G concept,with similar coverage and cost characteristics as W CDM A DCH and HSDPA,also yield the same cost
as these concepts at low and moderate traffic densities (while
the systems are coverage limited). S3G however remains coverage limited for higher traffic densities,and yields lower costs
for traffic densities exceeding 2M bps/km2. S3G is also seen to
be a better alternative than W CDM A HSDPA combined with
802.11g for the full range of studied traffic densities.
The benefit of large coverage is also seen from the hypothetical S3G 450 system. Due to its large cell radius,it yields
cost almost 10times lower cost than the other cellular concepts
for traffic densities up to around 2M bps/km2. Even for high
traffic densities it is better than standard S3G despite the same
capacity per AP. This indicates that despite a highmean traffic,
there are large areas withless traffic where a large coverage per
AP is important.
The preliminary 4G concept,without relaying,is seen to suffer somewhat from its reduced coverage for traffic loads up to
about 10M bps/km2. Beyond this level it yields the lowest cost
per user. The 4G concept withrelaying provides slightly lower
cost than 4G without relaying for moderate traffic densities,but
still higher cost than bothW CDM A and S3G.
C. PricingStrategyandServiceOfferingConsequences
The cost per data unit can be mapped to a cost per user (and
service)in several ways. This is a quite complex area,which
has been subject to many studies. Value based pricing is,however,nowadays most often used in practice and there is typically little relation between price and production cost [9]. Yet,
the (incremental)production cost will tell if a service would be
profitable or not given the end user pricing possibilities.. Assuming a traffic independent cost the average cost per user is
given by the total infrastructure cost divided with the number
of supported users. This can also be calculated by multiplying
the cost per unit data withthe average per user traffic intensity.
Alternatively,assuming a linearly traffic dependent cost,the
cost per individual user is given by multiplying the cost per
unit data with the individual user traffic intensity. Several alternatives in between these extremesof course exist. The results presented here are valid for all these alternatives.
An interesting observation is that,with the models and assumptions used,the incremental infrastructure cost for 1GB per
month per user can be kept below 30 for traffic densities exceeding about 0.2M bps/km2. Adding margins for excluded
costs (marketing,customer care,core network and service platforms,profit,taxes,etc.)about 1M bps/km2 is probably a more
realistic value. This roughly corresponds to a city center area
withtodays voice traffic,or a suburban area with40times this
traffic per user.
V.
CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study indicate that,with the models and

assumptions used,single-access solutions with high capacity
macro cells yield the lowest costs per user,despite a spatially
non-uniform traffic demand. Examples of such systems are
W CDM A HSDPA and the preliminary S3G concept. Operator
deployed W LAN-only solutions yield high costs even if the
requirement on fractions of supported users is small (20%).
Except for at very hightraffic,a multi-access network composed of W CDM A DCH or HSDPA macro and micro cells
combined with IEEE 802.11g access points do not yield lower
costs per user than using a single-access W CDM A DCH or
HSDPA network consisting of macro,micro and pico cells.
This is because several W LAN access points are required in
each hotspotdue to the poor coverage,which results in an
excess capacity and poor utilization of eachAP. A hotspot concept with better coverage could thus lead to better results also
for moderate average traffic densities. For mobile network operators having a 3G license introducing W LAN hotspots hence
need to be motivated by other factors;such as access technology capabilities and spectrum.
Among the 4G concepts,it is seen that a simple relaying solution with macro-like relays nodes may yield improved cost
efficiency in areas with moderate traffic demand,up to some
10s of M bps/km2. For traffic densities beyond this level,this
particular relaying solution is not motivated. The overall lowest
cost is enabled by a hypothetical high-capacity cellular system
operating in 450M Hzspectrum. This indicates the importance
of good coverage,which is of course valid also for alternative
means to achieve it.
Future studies could make use of more refined system and
economical models. In particular empirical data on traffic demand for mobile data services would be useful to improve the
heterogeneous traffic density model.
REFERENCES
[1] K. Johansson,et al.,Relation between base station characteristics and
cost structure in cellular networks,in the Proc. of IEEE Personal,
Indoor and M obile Communications (PIM RC),2004.
[2] F. Loizillon et al.,Final results on seamless mobile IP service provision
economics,IST-2000-25172 TONIC Deliverable no. 11,Oct. 2002.
[3] N. Niebert et al., Ambient Networks: An Architecture for
Communication Networks Beyond 3G, in IEEE Wireless
Communicat
ions,Vol. 11,Issue. 2,April 2004,pp. 14-22.
[4] U. Gotzner et al.,Spatial Traffic Distribution in Cellular Networks,in
Proceedi
ngsofIEEE Vehi
cularTechnol
ogyConference,1998.
[5] R. Ganeshand K. Joseph,Effect of non-uniform traffic distributions on
performance of a cellular CDM A system, Universal Personal
Communications Record,October 1997.
[6] US Census Bureau,Table GCT-PH1. Population,Housing Units,Area,
and Density:2000,available at http:
/
/factfinder.census.gov/,
[7] K. Johansson and A. Furuskr, Cost efficient capacity expansion
strategies using multi-access networks, in Proceedings of IEEE
Vehicul
arTechnologyConferencespring,2005.
[8] Third Generation Partenership Project (3GPP),RP-040461,Proposed
Study Item on Evolved UTRA and UTRAN,available at www.3g
pp.org/ftp/tsg_ran/TSG_RAN/TSGR_26/Docs/PDF/RP-040461.pdf.
[9] T. T. Nagle and R. K. Holden,"The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing",
Second Edition,Prentice Hall,1997.
Chapter 7
Cost Efficient Capacity

Expansion Strategies using
Multi-Access Networks
(Paper 3)
Klas Johansson and Anders Furuskar,
95
97
Cost efficient capacity expansion strategies using

m ulti-access netw ork s
K las J oh ansson
A nd ers F urusk a r
W ireless@ K T H , R oyal Institute of T ech nology

E lectrum 4 1 8 , S E -1 6 4 4 0 K ista, S w ed en
E m ail: k lasj@ rad io.k th .se
W ireless A ccess N etw ork s, E ricsson R esearch

K ista, S w ed en
E m ail: and ers.furusk ar@ ericsson.com
Abstract Multi-access networks and hierarchical cell structures are two com m on cap acity ex p ansion strateg ies for m ob ile
network op erators. I n b oth cases costs can b e m inim iz ed for
a set of av ailab le radio access technolog ies, g iv en heterog eneous
req uirem ents on area cov erag e, cap acity and q uality of serv ice. I n
this p ap er we q uantify the infrastructure cost for a m ulti-access
network com p osed of m acro cellular H S D P A b ase stations and
I E E E 8 0 2 .1 1 g W L A N access p oints. T he network is dim ensioned
for an urb an env ironm ent using a stochastic m odel for heterog eneous traffi c density .
W ith the used assum p tions and m odelling it is shown that
a com b ination of H S D P A b ase stations dep loy ed with 4 0 0 m
cell radius tog ether with W L A N in hot sp ots are suffi cient for
av erag e traffi c densities up to around 5 0 Mb p s/km 2 (5 0 tim es
the traffi c of ty p ical p riv ate v oice users today ). I n order to
ev aluate the sensitiv ity to different desig n features, we introduce
the elasticity of infrastructure cost and can thereb y show that it
is m ore im p ortant to im p rov e cap acity in H S D P A than cov erag e
p er 8 0 2 .1 1 g access p oint. H owev er, with a sp arse dep loy m ent
of H S D P A m acro cells (8 0 0 m radius) infrastructure cost is
m ore elastic to 8 0 2 .1 1 g cov erag e. T he p ap er also indicates
som e p ossib ilities to differentiate future radio access technolog ies
towards current sy stem s.
I . I N T R O D U CT I O N
M ulti-access netw ork s are prom ising d ue to h igh ly v arying
req uirem ents ov er tim e and geograph ically on m ob ility, q uality
of serv ice, capacity, etc., and th e inh erent trad eoff in all
w ireless system s b etw een range and feasib le d ata rates. H ence,
b y d eploying a h eterogeneous w ireless netw ork , w ith m ultiple
stand ard s and /or h ierarch ical cell structures, an operator can
ad apt capacity to d em and and th ereb y low er th eir capital and
operational expend itures (CA P E X /O P E X ). T h ere are in fact
m any w ireless stand ard s in th e m ark et alread y tod ay, and
ev en m ore are und er d ev elopm ent. S om e system s, lik e 3 G ,
are d esigned to b enefit from econom y of scope, m eaning th at
cost efficiency is ach iev ed since a w id e range of serv ices can
b e prov id ed w ith th e sam e system ov er w id e areas, potentially serv ing m any users. O th er stand ard s are stream lined for
specific serv ices, such as 2 G for w id e-area m ob ile v oice and
W L A N for local h igh -speed d ata connectiv ity. T h ere are h ence
reasons to b eliev e th at m ulti-access netw ork s is a sustainab le
d eploym ent strategy for m ob ile netw ork operators.
T h is paper treats cost efficient d eploym ent strategies for
netw ork s com posed of H S D P A m acro cellular b ase stations
(B S ) and IE E E 8 0 2 .1 1 g access points (A P ). T h ese sh ould
represent system s w ith long range for w id e area cov erage and
low cost, sh ort range access points suitab le for h ot spots. M ore
specifically, tw o prob lem s w ill b e ad d ressed ; (i) th e trad eoff
b etw een th e num b er of m acro cellular B S s and com plem entary
W L A N A P s need ed , and (ii) w h ich param eters th at are m ost
im portant to im prov e in each system in ord er to furth er
red uce costs. T h is stud y com plem ents th e results presented
in [3 ], w h ich ev aluates th e cost w ith single and m ulti-access
d eploym ent for a num b er of, b oth com m ercially av ailab le, and
future rad io access tech nologies. In b oth stud ies th e scope is
lim ited to th e rad io access netw ork . S pectrum license fees and
oth er costs th at are com m on for th e w h ole m ob ile netw ork
are th us exclud ed . L ik ew ise are a num b er of oth er param eters
th at also are of im portance for a m ob ile operators d eploym ent
strategy; e.g. topology, prev ious assets, and (perh aps forem ost)
d em and and regulatory req uirem ents. Y et, th e ob jectiv e is to
contrib ute to a b etter und erstand ing of th e role of m ulti-access
as capacity expansion strategy and for th is reason a stoch astic
(log-norm al) spatial d istrib ution of traffic is assum ed [3 ].
S erv ice allocation principles for m ulti-access netw ork s h av e
prev iously b een treated in, e.g., [4 ] and [7 ]. T h ese stud ies,
h ow ev er, ad d resses th e prob lem of selecting rad io access
netw ork for users th at are cov ered b y m ultiple system s, and not
d im ensioning of each sub system . In ad d ition, E U h as recently
initiated th e A m b ient N etw ork s project w h ich d eals w ith a
num b er of aspects, m ainly tech nically b ut also b usiness w ise,
of h eterogeneous netw ork s [9 ] and th ere are h ence a num b er
of ongoing stud ies in th is area. P rev ious stud ies consid ering
th e cost structure of m ob ile system s includ e, e.g., [6 ], [8 ], [1 1 ],
and [1 2 ]. F rom th ese stud ies it is clear th at th e cost structure
of m ob ile netw ork s tod ay is d om inated b y th e rad io access
netw ork . M oreov er, th e stud ies in [6 ] and [8 ] prov id e a b asis
for th e tech no-econom ical m od elling used in th e seq uel of th is
paper w h ich is outlined as follow s.
S ection II cov ers b asic m od elling and assum ptions related to
B S perform ance and costs, as w ell as netw ork d im ensioning.
Infrastructure cost estim ations for a m ulti-access netw ork is
presented in S ection III for incum b ent and greenfield operators
respectiv ely, togeth er w ith an analysis of th e elasticity of cost
w ith respect to th e capacity, cov erage and cost per B S . In
S ection IV w e d iscuss h ow th e stud ied system s could b e
im prov ed tech nically and econom ically, and point at a few
gaps th at potentially could b e filled b y future rad io access
tech nologies. T h e paper is conclud ed in S ection V .
98
Chapter 7. Cost Efficient Capacity Expansion (Paper 3)
II. S Y ST E M M O D E L S AN D P E R F O R MAN C E M E ASU R E S

A m a c ro s c o p ic m o d e l is u s e d to c a p tu re k e y te c h n ic a l a n d
e c o n o m ic a l p a ra m e te rs th a t in fl u e n c e th e in fra s tru c tu re c o s t fo r
a ty p ic a l (w e s te rn E u ro p e a n ) m o b ile n e tw o rk o p e ra to r. T h is is
b a s e d o n p re v io u s w o rk p re s e n te d in [4 ] a n d fa c to rs n o rm a lly
m o d e lle d in n e tw o rk d im e n s io n in g a n d c a p a c ity a n a ly s is ; lik e
in te rfe re n c e , p ro p a g a tio n , e tc ., a re e x o g e n o u s to th e m o d e l.
A. Network dimensioning and traffic modelling
In a m u lti-a c c e s s n e tw o rk APs w ith s h o rte r ra n g e a n d c o s t
m a y b e u s e d in h o t s p o ts , w h e re a s m a c ro B Ss w ith a h ig h
a re a c o v e ra g e a re u s e d to p ro v id e b a s ic c o v e ra g e a n d c a p a c ity .
In p ra c tic e ra d io n e tw o rk p la n n in g a n d d im e n s io n in g is a n
ite ra tiv e p ro c e s s [2 ] a n d a s th e n e tw o rk m a tu re s it is g ra d u a lly
a d a p te d to lo c a l d e m a n d . T o m o d e l th e d e p lo y m e n t s tra te g y w e
u s e a h e u ris tic a lly b a s e d m e th o d w h ic h is d e s c rib e d in m o re
d e ta il in [3 ]. T h e b a s ic id e a is , in o u r e x a m p le , to fi rs t d e p lo y
H SD PA s ite s w ith a g iv e n c e ll ra d iu s a n d lo a d th e m w ith a s
m a n y tra n s c e iv e r u n its a s n e e d e d (u p to th e m a x im u m c a p a c ity
p e r B S). If th is is n o t s u ffi c ie n t to s e rv e th e tra ffi c d e m a n d ,
8 0 2 .1 1 g APs a re d e p lo y e d in a re a s w ith h ig h e s t tra ffi c d e n s ity .
Id e a lly , e a c h s u b s y s te m s h o u ld b e ju s t c a p a c ity lim ite d fo r a
c o s t e ffe c tiv e d e p lo y m e n t to a v o id e x c e s s c a p a c ity p e r AP.
T ra ffi c d e n s ity is m o d e lle d a s in [3 ] w ith a lo g -n o rm a l,
s p a tia lly c o rre la te d , s to c h a s tic v a ria b le o v e r th e s e rv ic e a re a
(1 0 x 1 0 k m ) w h ic h h e re in is d iv id e d in to s a m p le s o f 2 0 x 2 0 m .
A s ta n d a rd d e v ia tio n o f 7 d B h a s b e e n a s s u m e d a n d th e c o rre la tio n d is ta n c e is 5 0 0 m , w h ic h m a tc h e s th e c e ll le v e l s ta tis tic s
p re s e n te d in [5 ]. In a ll n u m e ric a l e x a m p le s th e a v e ra g e p o p u la tio n d e n s ity is 2 0 0 0 0 in h a b ita n ts /k m 2 , c o rre s p o n d in g to a
c ity c e n te r e n v iro n m e n t. T h e o p e ra to r u n d e r s tu d y is a s s u m e d
to h a v e a 3 0 % m a rk e t s h a re a n d th e s e rv ic e p e n e tra tio n is
9 0 % . H e n c e , th e n u m b e r o f s u b s c rib e rs is in a v e ra g e 5 4 0 0
u s e rs /k m 2 (lo c a lly th is is m u c h h ig h e r).
B . P ath loss models
Alth o u g h n o t u s e d e x p lic itly fo r th e n e tw o rk d im e n s io n in g ,
tw o s ta n d a rd p a th lo s s m o d e ls w ill b e u s e d to e s tim a te th e
c e ll ra n g e o f m a c ro c e lls in Se c tio n IV ; th e C O ST 2 3 1 -H a ta
(v a lid fo r 1 k m < d < 2 0 k m ) a n d C O ST 2 3 1 -W a lfi s c h -Ik e g a m i
(v a lid fo r 2 0 m < d < 5 k m ). In g e n e ra l th e p a th lo s s in s m a ll
c e lls , a n d in p a rtic u la r in d o o rs , is c a s e s p e c ifi c a n d n o t re a d ily
d e s c rib e d w ith a s ta tis tic a l m o d e l. H o w e v e r, th e s e c o m m o n ly
u s e d m o d e ls p ro v id e d in [1 ] s h o u ld g iv e a n in d ic a tio n o f
fe a s ib le c e ll ra n g e s a n d th e s a m e m e th o d o lo g y h a s b e e n u s e d
in , e .g ., [2 ] fo r ru d im e n ta ry c o v e ra g e a n a ly s is .
C O S T 2 3 1 -W alfisch -Ikegami - a s s u m in g b u ild in g s e p a ra tio n
(3 0 m ), s tre e t w id th (1 5 m ), b u ild in g h e ig h t (2 5 m ), a n d a 9 0
d e g re e a n g le o f a rriv a l fo r b u ild in g re fl e c tio n s :
1.5fc
) lo g 1 0 fc + 3 8 lo g 1 0 d. (1 )
925
C O S T 2 3 1 -H ata - w ith 3 d B m e tro p o lita n a re a c o rre c tio n
fa c to r a n d a n O k a m u ra -H a ta B fa c to r a s re c o m m e n d e d fo r
la rg e c itie s :
Lb = 57.9 + (2 7.5
Lb = 2 8 .9 + 3 3 .9 lo g 1 0 fc + 3 5.2 lo g 1 0 d.
(2 )
T AB L E I
AC C E SS PO IN T C H AR AC T E R IST IC S
R a d iu s
C a p a c ity
C o s t c o e ffi c ie n t
(C APE X /O PE X )
HSDPA
2 0 0 -1 0 0 0 m
[3 -9 ] x 2 .5 Mb p s
1 (5 5 % /4 5 % )
+ 0 .0 3 p e r c e ll
8 0 2 .1 1 g
40m
2 2 Mb p s
0 .1 3 (3 % /9 7 % )
In b o th m o d e ls th e B S h e ig h t w a s 3 0 m a n d m o b ile s ta tio n
h e ig h t 1 .5 m . Lb d e n o te p a th lo s s in d B , fc is th e c a rrie r
fre q u e n c y in MH z , a n d d is th e d is ta n c e b e tw e e n B S a n d
m o b ile s ta tio n g iv e n in k m .
C . Access p oint p erformance and cost assu mp tions
APs a re c h a ra c te riz e d w ith d iffe re n t c e ll ra d ii, c a p a c itie s a n d
c o s ts ; s e e T a b le I. C a p a c ity c o e ffi c ie n ts fo r 8 0 2 .1 1 g a s s u m e s
n o c o -c h a n n e l in te rfe re n c e w h e re a s H SD PA d o e s , d u e to th e
c e llu la r d e p lo y m e n t a n d lim ite d fre q u e n c y s p e c tru m w e
a s s u m e 3 c a rrie rs x 5 Mh z (1 5 MH z in to ta l) fo r d o w n lin k .
N o tic e th a t th e m a x im u m c a p a c ity fo r H SD PA a n d 8 0 2 .1 1 g
is s im ila r, 2 2 .5 a n d 2 2 Mb p s , s o th e AP w ith lo w e s t c o s t p e r
tra n s m itte d b it is e s s e n tia lly d e te rm in e d b y th e g e o g ra p h ic a l
d is trib u tio n o f tra ffi c .
C o s t c o e ffi c ie n ts in c lu d e b o th C APE X a n d O PE X a n d a re
h e n c e fo rth d e n o te d AP c o s t. F o r H SD PA w e u s e th e c o s t fo r a
m a c ro B S d e riv e d in [6 ], w h ic h in tu rn w a s b a s e d o n e s tim a te s
p ro v id e d b y th e G a rtn e r G ro u p a n d [8 ]. In th e n u m e ric a l
e x a m p le s w e h a v e a s s u m e d th a t a m a c ro B S c o s ts e3 0 0 k .
C o s ts fo r ra d io n e tw o rk c o n tro lle rs (R N C ) a n d e le c tric a l p o w e r
h a v e b e e n a d d e d a s c o m p a re d to th e e s tim a te s in [6 ]. T a b le
I a ls o s u m m a riz e s th e c o s t s tru c tu re in te rm s o f C APE X
a n d O PE X a n d th e a d d itio n a l c o s t fo r e x tra c e lls (d e fi n e d
a s a c a rrie r fre q u e n c y a n d s e c to r) in H SD PA. An in c u m b e n t
o p e ra to r th a t a lre a d y h a s s ite s fo r le g a c y s y s te m s in s ta lle d m a y
re u s e m o s t o f th e s e s ite s a n d w e a s s u m e th a t th is lo w e rs th e
c o s t fo r H SD PA B Ss w ith 2 5 % . F o r 8 0 2 .1 1 g n e w e s tim a te s
h a v e b e e n d e d u c te d b a s e d o n [8 ]. O PE X is c a lc u la te d in
p re s e n t v a lu e o v e r a 1 0 -y e a r p e rio d , u s in g a 1 0 % d is c o u n t
ra te (s e e fu rth e r [6 ]). F o r th e s a k e o f s im p lic ity th e n e tw o rk is
d im e n s io n e d to c a rry th e s a m e tra ffi c d u rin g th e w h o le n e tw o rk
life s p a n .
D . Infrastru ctu re cost measu res
T h e b a s ic m e a s u re fo r c o s t e ffi c ie n c y u s e d is th e infrastru ctu re cost p er G B and month . In d o in g th is w e a s s u m e th a t 0 .6 %
o f th e m o n th ly tra ffi c is c a rrie d d u rin g e a c h b u s y h o u r, w h ic h
ro u g h ly c o rre s p o n d s to th e tra ffi c p a tte rn in c u rre n t c e llu la r
s y s te m s , a n d th a t th e n e tw o rk is d im e n s io n e d a c c o rd in g to
a v e ra g e a g g re g a te th ro u g h p u t (p e r a re a s a m p le ). H e n c e , th e
re s u lts a n d c o n c lu s io n s s h o u ld h o ld fo r a ll tra ffi c m ix e s th a t
fa ll w ith in th e p e rfo rm a n c e p a ra m e te rs g iv e n in T a b le I.
As a s e n s itiv ity a n a ly s is w e e s tim a te th e elasticity of infrastru ctu re cost. E la s tic ity is c o m m o n ly u s e d in e c o n o m ic s
to m e a s u re th e in c re m e n ta l p e rc e n ta g e c h a n g e in o n e v a ria b le
w ith re s p e c t to a n in c re m e n ta l p e rc e n ta g e c h a n g e in a n o th e r
v a ria b le [1 0 ]. W e d e fi n e th e e la s tic ity o f a p a ra m e te r X (w h ic h
In fra s tru c tu re C o s t p e r M o n th a n d G B [E u ro ]
99
T A BL E II
S U M M A RY O F M O N T H L Y IN FRA ST RU C T U RE C O ST S P E R GB A N D T H E C O ST
A D V A N T A GE FO R IN C U M BE N T S T O W A RD S GRE E N FIE L D O P E RA T O RS .
200m
4 00m
8 00m
1000m
10
T r a ffi c d en s ity
H S D P A r a d iu s
H S D P A B S d en s ity
H S D P A cells /B S
W L A N A P d en s ity
I n cu m b en t op er a tor
G r een fi eld op er a tor
C os t a d v a n ta g e
for in cu m b en t
10
Voice
1M bps/k m2
10 0 0 m
0 .3 3 BSs/k m2
1.4 cells
0 A P s/k m2
e6 .8
e8 .8
24%
1 0 x v oice
10 M bps/k m2
800m
0 .5 6 BSs/k m2
5 .7 cells
2 .1A P s/k m2
e2 .9
e3 .4
15 %
5 0 x v oice
5 0 M bps/k m2
400m
2 .2 BSs/k m2
6 .8 cells
19 A P s/k m2
e1.7
e1.9
10 %
10
V o ic e
0
10
10 x v o ic e
1
10
A v e ra g e T ra ffic D e n s ity [M b p s /k m 2]
100 x v o ic e
2
10
Fig. 1. Infrastructure cost per GB and month for an incumbent operator with
a multi-access network consisting of H SD P A macro BSs and IE E E 8 0 2 .11g
A P s. T he curv es depict different cell radii in the macro cells.
herein is either cost, cov erage or capacity per A P ) on the total

infrastructure cost C as:
C/ C
EC,X =
.
(3 )
|X| / X
T hus, a negativ e EC,X corresponds to a decreased cost and

if EC,X is positiv e the infrastructure cost increases (independently of if the changed v ariable X is increased or decreased).
T hus, the higher absolute elasticity , the greater impact X has
on C. N otice that elasticity q uite often is calculated in absolute
v alue. A 5 0 % change in X has been used in all studied cases so
that |X|/ X = 0 .5. A s an ex ample, assume that we want to
estimate the elasticity with respect to A P cov erage in 8 0 2 .11g.
EC,X = 1 would then mean that the total infrastructure cost
C decreases with 5 0
% if the cell area is doubled. I.e., if the
A P range were 4 0 1.5 = 4 9 m instead of 4 0 m.
III. N U M E RIC A L R E SU L T S
In this section the tradeoff between H SD P A cell radius (site
density ) and the number of 8 0 2 .11g A P s will fi rst be q uantifi ed
through simulations using the models outlined abov e, which
are described more thoroughly in [3 ]. T hen the elasticity of
infrastructure cost is deriv ed for a few base line confi gurations.
A. Traffic density and HSDPA site distance
T he macro cellular site density that minimiz es cost with
single access deploy ment is not necessarily optimum with a
multi-access deploy ment. It depends on the traffi c demand,
and how that v aries ov er the total serv ice area (as discussed in
[3 ]). If the macro BSs are deploy ed too sparsely , the remaining
areas that hav e to be cov ered with, in this case, 8 0 2 .11g A P s
may be too large with a resulting ov ercapacity per access point.
T his tradeoff is illustrated in Figure 1, where the infrastructure
cost per GB and month is shown for an incumbent operator
with different cell radius in the macro cell lay er and 9 0 % of
the offered traffi c supported. A s ex pected the cost v aries with

traffi c density and deploy ed macro cell radius. T he results are
summariz ed in T able II for 1, 10 and 5 0 times the traffi c of
ty pical priv ate v oice telephony users (2 0 mE rl, 10 k bps, see [3 ]).
A t 10 x v oice, in this ex ample eq ual to a traffi c density
of 10 M bps/k m2 , an H SD P A cell radius of 8 0 0 m y ields the
lowest cost. In av erage six cells (two carriers in three sectors)
are used per H SD P A BS and there are approx imately two
8 0 2 .11g A P s per k m2 deploy ed in hot spots. T he lowest cost
for another tenfold traffi c increment is achiev ed with 4 0 0 m
cell radius. T he av erage number of cells per H SD P A BS
is approx imately the same. H owev er, the number of W L A N
A P s is now 19 /k m2 . N otice also that the incremental cost
per transmitted GB fl attens when the macro cellular network
becomes capacity limited which is due to poor cov erage in
8 0 2 .11g.
Results for Greenfi eld operators hav e the same shape and
the difference in infrastructure cost per GB and month is giv en
T able II. T he cost adv antage of incumbents v anishes as traffi c
increase and 8 0 2 .11g has to be deploy ed to a greater ex tent.
T his highlights how important it is for incumbents to acq uire
more spectrum to remain competitiv e if traffi c surges in the
long run.
T hese results also ex plain how operators could ex ploit
W L A N in the short run instead of building a denser macro
network if traffi c suddenly increases. In particular, considering
the relativ ely small sunk costs in W L A N , see T able I, this
could be economically justifi ed during transition periods.
For ex ample, increasing capacity from 5 to 10 M bps/k m2
with W L A N instead of deploy ing more macro sites increase
costs with less than 10 0 % per GB calculated ov er 10 y ears
(comparing the results for 10 0 0 m and 8 0 0 m H SD P A radii).
In the long run increasing capacity in the macro cell lay er is,
howev er, more cost effi cient as we will discuss further nex t.
B . E lasticity o f infrastru ctu re co st
T wo reference sy stems adapted for approx imately 10 and
5 0 M bps per k m2 will be used as ex amples to analy z e what k ey
parameters that would lower infrastructure costs the most. For
these sy stems, with 8 0 0 m and 4 0 0 m cell radius respectiv ely ,
the elasticity of infrastructure cost EC,X is plotted Figure 2
with the following v ariables changed (one per curv e):
decreased H SD P A cost coeffi ecient,
100
Chapter 7. Cost Efficient Capacity Expansion (Paper 3)
1
H SD PA
H SD PA
8 02.11g
8 02.11g
0.5
cost
c a p a c ity
cost
c o v e ra g e
E la s tic ity o f In fra s tru c tu re C o s t
E la s tic ity o f In fra s tru c tu re C o s t
0.5
H SD PA
H SD PA
8 02.11g
8 02.11g
0.5
cost
c a p a c ity
cost
c o v e ra g e
0.5
1
V o ic e
0
10
10 x v o ic e
1
10
100 x v o ic e
V o ic e
2
10
(a) HSDPA cell radius 400m
10
10 x v o ic e
1
10
100 x v o ic e
2
10
(b ) HSDPA cell radius 8 00m
F ig . 2 . E lasticity o f in frastructure co st fo r an HSDPA an d 8 02 .1 1 g multi-access n etw o rk w ith resp ect to differen t ch an g es in desig n p arameters. T h e referen ce
sy stem is adap ted fo r ap p ro x imately 5 0 x v o ice traffi c (left g rap h ) an d 1 0 x v o ice traffi c (rig h t g rap h ). All b ut th e ch an g ed v ariab les are k ep t co n stan t.
decreased 8 02 .1 1 g co st co effi ecien t,

in creased HSDPA B S cap acity , an d
in creased 8 02 .1 1 g AP co v erag e.
E lasticity o f in frastructure co st w ith resp ect to th e co st co effi cien ts sh o w h o w larg e sh are o f th e in frastructure co st
th at stems fro m each sy stem. W ith 400m cell radius each
sub sy stem stan ds fo r 5 0% o f th e co st at 9 0M b p s/k m2 , w h ile
th e cro sso v er o ccurs at aro un d 1 5 M b p s/k m2 w ith 8 00m cell
radius. At 1 M b p s/k m2 o n ly HSDPA b ase statio n s are dep lo y ed
an d th ere is h en ce o v er-cap acity in th e macro cell lay er. W e can
also see th at HSDPA cap acity is mo re imp o rtan t to imp ro v e
th an 8 02 .1 1 g co v erag e at all studied traffi c den sities w ith 400m
HSDPA cell radius. W ith mo re sp arsely dep lo y ed HSDPA
sites, h o w ev er, in frastructure co st is mo re elastic to 8 02 .1 1 g
AP co v erag e th an HSDPA B S cap acity fo r traffi c den sities
ab o v e 5 0M b p s/k m2 .
Alth o ug h n o t in cluded in th e g rap h s, simulatio n s also
sh o w th at th e co st is p erfectly in elastic to th e cap acity fo r
8 02 .1 1 g up to ap p ro x imately 2 00M b p s/k m2 . N o te, th o ug h ,
th at b uildin g o p erato r dep lo y ed W L AN n etw o rk s w ith full
co v erag e p ro b ab ly is n o t feasib le co n siderin g th e g reat n umb er
o f APs req uired so such a n etw o rk is a b it h y p o th etical. Hig h er
traffi c den sities th an , e.g ., 5 0M b p s/k m2 are n o t lik ely to b e
imp lemen ted usin g th e studied set o f radio access tech n o lo g ies
o n ly . In stead th e results fo r h ig h er traffi c den sities sug g est
h o w cellular an d W L AN lik e so lutio n s sh o uld b e imp ro v ed
if traffi c in crease in th e future. In p articular, w e can see h o w
imp o rtan t ex istin g assets (i.e. p rev io us dep lo y men t) o f mo b ile
n etw o rk o p erato rs an d req uiremen ts o n traffi c den sity are fo r
th e selectio n o f radio access tech n o lo g y .
I V . P O T E N T I AL I M PR O V E M E N T S O F C U R R E N T SY ST E M S
F o llo w in g th is an aly sis o f k ey p arameters to imp ro v e in
HSDPA an d 8 02 .1 1 g if traffi c in creases w e w ill discuss b riefl y
h o w such imp ro v emen ts co uld b e materializ ed.
A. Capacity and coverage

T o start w ith , cap acity (ag g reg ate th ro ug h p ut) p er site is o f
co urse a majo r issue fo r macro cells if traffi c deman d in creases
sig n ifi can tly . In th e lo n g run th is is p erh ap s easiest so lv ed v ia
mo re sp ectrum b an dw idth w h ich , h o w ev er, usually co mes w ith
a co n siderab le co st. Adv an ced tran smitter an d receiv ers tech n iq ues, lik e M ultip le-In p ut-M ultip le-O utp ut (M IM O ) sy stems,
are also p ro misin g . N aturally it is also b en efi cial to smo o th en
o ut traffi c lo ad o v er time, e.g . usin g in ter-temp o ral p ricin g
sch emes o r cach in g an d p re-fetch in g so lutio n s.
M erely in creasin g cap acity p er site is n o t suffi cien t th o ug h .
Also th e cell ran g e n eeds to b e main tain ed to p ro v ide co v erag e
also fo r h ig h er p eak data rates. T h is req uires an imp ro v ed
lin k b udg et w h ich , e.g ., can b e ach iev ed th ro ug h M IM O ,
h ig h er masts, freq uen cy sp ectrum in lo w er b an ds, o r multih o p relay in g . Ab o v e all th e lin k b udg et is v ery critical if
b ro adb an d data serv ices sh o uld b e p ro v ided in do o rs usin g
o utdo o r B Ss. T h is is illustrated in F ig ure 3 , w h ere w e h av e
p lo tted th e th eo retical cell ran g e in up lin k fo r a co n v en tio n al
W C DM A macro cell. A few ty p ical serv ices are dep icted in
th e g rap h acco rdin g to stan dard lin k b udg ets p resen ted in
[2 ]. Already at 1 44k b p s th e max imum cell ran g e is in th e
o rder 7 00m fo r in do o r users. Hen ce, in creasin g p eak data
rate to 1 M b p s reduces th e n o min al cell ran g e fro m almo st
7 00m to ap p ro x imately 3 5 0m sin ce th e lin k b udg et is lin early
p ro p o rtio n al to th e data rate (all else eq ual). T o sup p o rt ev en
h ig h er rates in a macro cellular n etw o rk th e lin k b udg et
th erefo re n eeds to b e imp ro v ed.
B . Cos t per acces s point
C o n tin uin g to th e co st p er AP, w e h av e in Sectio n III-B
co n sidered a reductio n o f th e to tal co st, in cludin g in v estmen ts
an d run n in g co sts. In T ab le I th e main co st co effi cien ts fo r th e
studied sy stems w ere listed. T h e b ase v alue h as b een e3 00k
101
V . C O N CL US I O N S
2200
2000
18 00
C e ll ra n g e [m ]
16 00
In c a r 12.2k b p s
speech user
O u td o o r 3 8 4 k b p s
n o n re a ltim e d a ta u s e r
14 00
1200
1000
In d o o r 14 4 k b p s
re a ltim e d a ta u s e r
8 00
6 00
C O S T 23 1-W a lfis c h -Ik e g a m i
C O S T 23 1-H a ta
4 00
200
120
125
13 0
13 5
14 0
A llo w e d p a th lo s s [d B ]
14 5
15 0
Fig. 3. Uplink range as a function of allowed path loss for urban WCDMA
m acro cells. A few ty pical serv ices [2 ] are depicted in thegraph.
for a single carrier H S DP A B S with an additional e1 0 k per

cell and e39 k for 8 0 2 .1 1 g AP s.
As discussed in [6 ], the cost structure for new m acro
cells is today dom inated by costs for site acq uisition, buildout, installation and rental. In 8 0 2 .1 1 g howev er, last m iletransm ission is a key contributor to the total infrastructure
cost (followed by site rental). T his is based on an assum ption
that a leased line is req uired per AP . L ow-cost transm ission
alternativ es, e.g. wireless (m eshed) networks, could reduce
O P E X to som e ex tent. B ut it does not change the conclusion
that cov erage per 8 0 2 .1 1 g AP needs to be im prov ed (with
retained capacity ) in order to lower the cost for operator
deploy ed WL AN solutions. An alternativ e m ethod to prov ide
indoor cov erage and capacity at a low cost could be to let users
install AP s in their own prem ises that are open for access to
all the operators subscribers and roam ing partners, e.g. using
a N etwork Franchise business m odel. T his solution seem s
prom ising in particular for operators with a strong position
also in fi x ed access.
C. Positioning of next generation radio access technologies
T he results also points at how a future 4 G radio interface
targeted for urban env ironm ents could be differentiated with
respect to current m ain stream technologies for wireless data
connectiv ity . E x am ples of niches not cov ered well by today s
sy stem s for urban deploy m ent are
high capacity m icro cells, and
long range WL AN access points.
In both cases we assum e that the data rate at the cell border
is signifi cantly higher than in 3G . Without m aking ex plicit
assum ptions on req uired range and data rates, we can note
that concepts sim ilar to the gaps indicated by this study already
hav e been proposed in different contex ts; for ex am ple in the
research program WIN N E R (recently initiated by the E U) and
in sim ilar initiativ es. N um erical results on the infrastructure
cost for a different 4 G concepts are presented in [3].
Multi-access networks are useful in order to lower infrastructure costs for operators in the long run if geographical
traffi c density v aries strongly . Also in the short run, it can be
benefi cial as a tem porary solution before im prov ed m acro cell
networks and m ore freq uency spectrum are av ailable.
As an ex am ple, we hav e looked in m ore detail into an
operator deploy ed network with m acro cellular H S DP A base
stations and IE E E 8 0 2 .1 1 g access points. For this sy stem
the total infrastructure cost was q uantifi ed for a city center
env ironm ent using a stochastic (log-norm al) m odel for heterogeneous traffi c density . It was shown that an H S DP A cell
radius between 4 0 0 m and 8 0 0 m m inim iz e cost for av erage
traffi c densities during busy hour of 1 0 -5 0 Mbps/km 2 . T his
approx im ately correspond to 1 0 -5 0 tim es the traffi c of priv ate
v oice users today . For higher traffi c densities, either a v ery
dense m acro cell lay er, or a large am ount of WL AN access
points are needed and this is probably not feasible.
We hav e also illustrated how elasticity of infrastructure cost
can be used to effectiv ely analy z e what design param eters
that are m ost im portant to im prov e in a m ulti-access wireless
network. In the ex am ple with H S DP A and 8 0 2 .1 1 the capacity
per m acro base station is m ore im portant to im prov e with
4 0 0 m cell radius than 8 0 2 .1 1 g cov erage up to 1 0 0 Mbps/km 2 .
H owev er, if H S DP A base stations are m ore sparsely deploy ed
(8 0 0 m radius) the sam e cost sav ings can be achiev ed through
increasing the range of 8 0 2 .1 1 g already at 5 0 Mbps/km 2 .
ACK N O WL E DG ME N T
T his work has partly been sponsored by the S wedish
Foundation for S trategic Research v ia the Affordable Wireless
S erv ices and Infrastructure P roject.
R E FE RE N CE S
[1 ] CO S T 2 31 Final Report, av ailable at http://www.lx .it.pt/cost2 31 /
[2 ] H . H olm a and A. T oskala (editors), W CD M A for U M T S , T hird edition,
J ohn Wiley & S ons, 2 0 0 4 .
[3] A. Furuskar, M. Alm gren, and K . J ohansson, An Infrastructure Cost
E v aluation of S ingle- and Multi-Access N etworks with H eterogeneous
User B ehav ior , in Proc. IE E E V ehicu lar T echnology Conference sp ring,
May 2 0 0 5 .
[4 ] A. Furuskar, Allocation of m ultiple serv ices in m ulti-access wireless
sy stem s , in Proc. IE E E W ork shop on M ob ile and W ireless Com m u nications N etw ork , 2 0 0 2 .
[5 ] U. G otz ner et al., S patial T raffi c Distribution in Cellular N etworks , in
Proc. IE E E V ehicu lar T echnology Conference, 1 9 9 8 .
[6 ] K . J ohansson, A. Furuskar, P . K arlsson, and J . Z ander, Relation between
base station characteristics and cost structure in cellular networks ,
in Proc. IE E E Personal, Indoor and M ob ile R adio Com m u nications,
S ept. 2 0 0 4 .
[7 ] J . K alliokulju et al., Radio Access S election for Multistandard T erm inals , IE E E Com m u nications M agaz ine, O ct. 2 0 0 1 .
[8 ] F. L oiz illon et al., F inal resu lts on seam less m ob ile IP serv ice p rov ision
econom ics , IS T -2 0 0 0 -2 5 1 7 2 T O N IC Deliv erable num ber 1 1 , O ct. 2 0 0 2 .
[9 ] N . N iebert et al., Am bient N etworks: An Architecture For Com m unication N etworks B ey ond 3G , IE E E W ireless Com m u nications, April
2004.
[1 0 ] R. S . P indy ck and D. L . Rubinfeld, M icroeconom ics , Fifth edition,
P rentice H all International, 2 0 0 1 .
[1 1 ] D. P . Reed, T he Cost S tructure of P ersonal Com m unication S erv ices ,
IE E E Com m u nications M agaz ine, Apr. 1 9 9 3.
[1 2 ] J . Z ander, O n the cost structure of future wideband wireless access ,
in Proc. IE E E V ehicu lar T echnology Conference, 1 9 9 7 .
Chapter 8
On the Cost Efficiency of

User Deployed Access
Points Integrated in Mobile
Networks (Paper 4)
Klas Johansson,
In Proc. RVK 05, June 2005.
103
105
On th e c o s t e ffi c ie nc y o f u s e r d e p lo ye d a c c e s s
p o ints inte g ra te d in m o b ile ne tw o rk s
Klas J o h an sso n
Wireles s @ K TH , R oyal In s titu te of Tec h n ology, E lec tru m 4 1 8 , S E -1 6 4 4 0 K is ta, S wed en
E m ail: k las j@ rad io.k th .s e
Abstract O p en ac c es s to p r ivate, u s er d ep loy ed , ac c es s

p oin ts is a p r om is in g c an d id ate for p r ovis ion in g of h ig h
d ata r ates in p u b lic w ir eles s ac c es s s y s tem s . T h is d ep loy m en t s tr ateg y s h ou ld es p ec ially b e an effi c ien t m eth od to
s er ve in d oor u s er s in c ities w ith a s ig n ifi c an t p en etr ation of
fi x ed b r oad b an d n etw or k s . We es tim ate th e in fr as tr u c tu r e
c os t for d iffer en t m ix es of op er ator d ep loy ed (H S D P A
m ac r o c ells an d 8 0 2 .1 1 g WL AN ) an d u s er d ep loy ed ac c es s
p oin ts . T h e n etw or k is d im en s ion ed ac c or d in g to a s toc h as tic (log -n or m ally d is tr ib u ted ) m od el for tr affi c d en s ity .
R es u lts in d ic ate th at, w ith th e m od ellin g an d as s u m p tion s
u s ed , u s er d ep loy ed ac c es s p oin ts low er th e in fr as tr u c tu r e
c os t for tr affi c d en s ities ab ove 1 0 M b p s /k m 2 (1 0 tim es th e
tr affi c of ty p ic al p r ivate s p eec h u s er s in a c ity c en ter ).
M or eover , on ly a few p er c en t of th e s u b s c r ib er s n eed to
in s tall op en ac c es s p oin ts to c over a s ig n ifi c an t fr ac tion of
th e total tr affi c ter m in ated in d oor s .
I. I NTRODUCTION
An in c reas in g availability of fi x ed broad ban d n etwork s ,
in c lu d in g d igital s u bs c riber lin es an d c able m od em s ,
an d th e d evelop m en t of Wireles s L AN tec h n ology will
en able n ew d es ign s of p u blic wireles s ac c es s n etwork s .
In th is s tu d y th e ec on om ic s of u s er d ep loyed loc al ac c es s
p oin ts (AP s ) th at are als o op en for oth er s u bs c ribers
an d roam in g p artn ers , is c on s id ered . M ore s p ec ifi c ally,
we will es tim ate th e in fras tru c tu re c os t as a fu n c tion
of traffi c d en s ity (area c ap ac ity) for d ifferen t m ix es of
op erator d ep loyed bas e s tation s (B S ) an d u s er d ep loyed
AP s . Fu rth erm ore, th e n u m ber of AP s n eed ed for s om e
frac tion of c overed traffi c is ad d res s ed .
For th is p u rp os e a tec h n o-ec on om ic al m od el th at
ac c ou n ts for both c ap ital an d op eration al ex p en d itu res
(C AP E X an d O P E X ) is ap p lied . Th e n etwork is d im en s ion ed ac c ord in g to average c ap ac ity an d ran ge p er
ac c es s p oin t an d a s tatis tic al m od el for h eterogen eou s
traffi c d en s ity is u s ed to c ap tu re geograp h ic al variation s
in aggregate (d em an d ed ) th rou gh p u t. An ex am p le of a
n etwork layou t with op erator d ep loyed m ac ro c ellu lar
bas e s tation s an d ran d om ly p lac ed ac c es s p oin ts (AP s )
d ep loyed by u s ers is given in Figu re 1 .
P rivately own ed AP s th at are op en for p u blic ac c es s
h ave p reviou s ly been p rop os ed in , e.g., [1 ,9 ,1 2 ]. In [1 2 ]
it was c on c lu d ed th at ap p rox im ately twic e as m an y
AP s are n eed ed to c over in d oor (offi c e) en viron m en ts
with ran d om in s tead of p lan n ed p lac em en t. A s im ilar
c as e is loc al WL AN p rovid ers p res en t in s p ec ifi c areas ,
e.g., airp orts an d h otels . Th es e op erators typ ic ally h ave
roam in g agreem en ts with p u blic op erators wh o ac tu ally
c h arge th e en d u s ers an d in tu rn p ay th es e loc al n etwork
p rovid ers for p rovid in g ac c es s to th eir c u s tom ers [1 0 ].
A c learin g h ou s e m ay als o be u s ed as an in term ed iator
Fig . 1 . An ex am p le o f a m ix ed n etw o rk w ith o p erato r d ep lo y ed m ac ro

c ells an d u s er d ep lo y ed ac c es s p o in ts .
to h an d le s ettlem en ts between loc al op erators an d th e

u s ers h om e op erators [1 3 ]. In th is p ap er we will fu rth er
in ves tigate h ow u s er d ep loyed in fras tru c tu re c ou ld be
ex p loited by n etwork op erators th rou gh a fran c h is in g
bu s in es s m od el, referred to as network fra nc h is ing .
Network fran c h is in g an d th e AP c on c ep t is d es c ribed
fu rth er in S ec tion II. A tec h n o-ec on om ic al m od el u s ed
for es tim atin g in fras tru c tu re c os ts is d es c ribed in S ec tion
III, an d n u m eric al res u lts are p res en ted in S ec tion IV .
C on c lu s ion s an d id eas for fu rth er res earc h in th is area
are given in S ec tion V .
II. N ETWORK FRANCHISING AND USER DEPLOYED
ACCESS POINTS
It is well k n own th at th e ran ge for h igh d ata rate s ervic es

is lim ited in a c on ven tion al c ellu lar s ys tem an d th is u ltim ately lead s to a h igh n u m ber of AP s if an y s ign ifi c an t
area c overage is to be p rovid ed . With c u rren t tec h n ology
ou td oor bas e s tation s h ave p roblem s in p rovid in g th e
rec eived p ower level req u ired for in d oor c overage of
h igh d ata rates . We c an th erefore as s u m e th at s u c h a
s ys tem , c on s is tin g of a large n u m ber of AP s , m os t lik ely
wou ld be too ex p en s ive to bu ild in a c en traliz ed way
an d th is h as been id en tifi ed as a c h allen ge for fu tu re
p rovis ion in g of wireles s broad ban d s ervic es [1 4 ]. O th er
au th ors h ave als o id en tifi ed th e n ec es s ary s h ort ran ge for
h igh d ata rate wireles s ac c es s in th e c on tex t of fou rth
gen eration m obile n etwork s [8 ].
To res olve th is in tric ate is s u e we en vis age a d ec en traliz ed bu s in es s m od el wh ere u s ers , or c om p an ies with
loc al p res en c e, in s tall AP s an d c on n ec t th em to ex is tin g
fi x ed broad ban d n etwork s . For n etwork p rovid ers , fran c h is in g p rovid es an op p ortu n ity to lower in s tallation an d
Chapter 8. User Deployed Access Points (Paper 4)
A. T h e n e tw o r k fr a n c h is in g bu s in e s s m o d e l
G enerally speaking , franc h ising refers to a two-layered
bu siness m od el wh ere a franc h iser offers brand nam e and
c ore fu nc tions su c h as proc u rem ent, bac k-offi c e, and IT
su pport to a larg e nu m ber of affi liates, c alled franc h isees.
Th ese franc h isees norm ally h ave to pay a fee for u sing
th e brand and su pport fu nc tionality and follow ru les for,
e.g ., store selec tion, servic e and prod u c t q u alities set u p
by th e franc h iser. H owever, m ost loc al profi ts are kept
by th e loc al franc h isee. Im plem entations of th is bu siness
m od el c an be fou nd in, e.g ., th e retail ind u stry.
With network franc h ising both parties benefi t from th e
arrang em ent. Th e operator obtains ac c essibility to AP s
provid ing c h eap, h ig h -c apac ity wireless ac c ess wh ereas
th e u ser g ets an AP and som e c om pensation by th e
operator. In prac tic e we ex pec t th at operators will c om pensate th e AP owner th rou g h bu nd ling of d ifferent
servic es, su c h as fi x ed broad band , su bsid iz ed ac c ess
box es, and wireless ac c ess wh en th e u ser is in oth er
loc ations. N atu rally th e ac tu al d esig n of th e offering will
d epend on th e types of provid ers, wh ic h allows for a
nu m ber of new ways of pac kag ing and d istribu ting th e
d eploym ent; th is issu e is ou tsid e th e sc ope of th is paper.
Th is bu siness m od el c ou ld be of interest to m obile
network operators with lim ited spec tru m and /or poor
ind oor c overag e, or broad band provid ers th at wou ld like
to ex ploit th eir fi x ed network by offering wireless ac c ess
(ind oors). A prom ising bu siness c ase wou ld be operators th at provid e fi x ed broad band ac c ess and m obile
su bsc riptions as a M obile Virtu al N etwork O perators
(M VN O ). Th ese M VN O s c ou ld offer ind oor and loc al
c overag e by m eans of franc h ising of AP s, th ereby only
u tiliz ing th e m obile network as a c om plem ent (prim arily
for ou td oor and m obile u sers). N ote, h owever, th at
with ou t reg u latory interventions operators with ou t th eir
own fi x ed broad band ac c ess wou ld probably su ffer from
h ig h inter-c onnec tion fees for th e last m ile. In any c ase,
th e proposed bu siness m od el fosters m ore c om petition in
ac c ess networks, wh ic h h as been an im portant objec tive
of telec om reg u lation au th orities for a long tim e [2 ].
m obile servic es also via WL AN [1 1 ]. Th is c ou ld be an

im portant step in im plem enting th e proposed bu siness
m od el in prac tic e. In fac t, in th e following we will
assu m e th at eac h AP h as sim ilar c h arac teristic s as IE E E
8 0 2 .1 1 b.
III. S YSTEM MODELLING , ASSUMPTIONS , AND
PERFORMANCE MEASURES
A tec h no-ec onom ic al m od el previou sly presented in [3 ]

will be u sed to estim ate th e infrastru c tu re c ost for a m obile network. Th e m od el is, for th e sake of c onvenienc e,
d esc ribed briefl y nex t.
A. N e tw o r k d im e n s io n in g a n d tr a ffi c m o d e llin g
A h eu ristic m eth od is u sed to d im ension th e rad io ac c ess
network. In operator d eployed system s m ac ro c ells are
d eployed fi rst on an h ex ag onal g rid and d im ensioned
ac c ord ing to traffi c d em and . If th e traffi c ex c eed s th e
m ax im u m c apac ity in som e c ell, WL AN ac c ess points
are d eployed wh ere need ed . Th ese are plac ed in areas
with h ig h est traffi c (i.e., prim arily in h ot spots). In th e
m ix ed c ase with both u ser- and operator-d eployed base
stations, th e AP s are fi rst d eployed rand om ly ac c ord ing
to a 2 D -P oisson proc ess (i.e., th ey are u niform ly d istribu ted ). R esid u al traffi c th at c an not be c overed by u ser
d eployed AP s are th en alloc ated to operator d eployed
base stations (ag ain, with m ac ro c ells fi rst).
Traffi c d ensity is m od elled with a log -norm al, spatially c orrelated , stoc h astic variable over th e servic e
area (1 0 x 1 0 km ) wh ic h is fu rth er d ivid ed into sam ples
of 2 0 x 2 0 m ; see th e ex am ple in F ig u re 2 . A stand ard
d eviation of 7 d B h as been assu m ed and th e c orrelation
d istanc e is 5 0 0 m [3 ]. In all nu m eric al ex am ples th e
averag e popu lation d ensity is 2 0 0 0 0 inh abitants/km 2 ,
c orrespond ing to a c ity c enter. Th e operator is assu m ed
to h ave a 3 0 % m arket sh are and servic e penetration
is 9 0 % . H enc e, th e nu m ber of su bsc ribers is 5 4 0 0
u sers/km 2 on averag e (loc ally th is is m u c h h ig h er).
B . Ac c e s s p o in t p e r fo r m a n c e a n d c o s t a s s u m p tio n s
AP s are c h arac teriz ed by d ifferent c ell rad ii, c apac ities,
and c osts; see Table I. Th e c apac ity c oeffi c ients for
1 0000
9 000
4.5
8 000
7 000
3.5
6 000
5 000
2.5
B . U s e r d e p lo y e d a c c e s s p o in ts
4 000
U ser d eployed AP s c an su pport a sing le or m u ltiple rad io

ac c ess tec h nolog ies. M oreover we assu m e th at th e AP s
will, wh en installed , be self-c onfi g u ring and au tom atic ally integ rate itself into th e operators network (th e
spec ifi c network arc h itec tu re is h owever not with in th e
sc ope of th is stu d y). F u rth erm ore, th e U niversal M obile
Ac c ess (U M A) tec h nolog y c u rrently being d eveloped
will allow u sers with m u lti-m od e h and sets to ac c ess
3 000
2 000
1.5
1 000
0
0
10
operational c osts. Th is oc c u rs bec au se th e u sers d eploy

AP s th em selves in th eir own fac ilities and u se th eir own
power and th eir ex isting fi x ed broad band c onnec tion.
Th ere are natu rally c osts for th e u ser to install th e AP , to
g ive it spac e, for elec tric power, m aintenanc e, and for th e
broad band c onnec tion. H owever, we ex pec t th at u sers
are d eploying a private WL AN ac c ess point anyway, so
th ese c osts will be h id d en for th e u ser and , th erefore,
rem oved from th e operator.
T ra ffic D e n s ity [lo g (Mbps/km2)]
106
1
2 000
4 000
6 000
8 000
1 0000
Fig . 2 . Ex am p le o f traffi c d e n s ity g e n e rate d w ith th e h e te ro g e n e o u s

traffi c m o d e l fo r a s e rv ic e are a o f 1 0 x 1 0 k m .
107
ACCESS POINT CHARACTERISTICS .
R a d iu s
C a p a c ity
C o s t c o e ffi c ie n t
(C APE X /O PE X )
90
T y p ic a l fra c tio n o f tra ffic te rm in a te d
in d o o rs in to d a y 's m o b ile s y s te m s
80
70
60
50
40
30
2 0m E v o ic e tra ffic
1 00 x v o ic e
2 00 x v o ic e
20
TAB L E I
HSDPA
2 0 0 -10 0 0 m
[3 -9 ] x 2 .5 Mb p s
1 (5 5 % /4 5 % )
+ 0 .0 3 p e r c e ll
1 00
P e rc e n ta g e o f tra ffic c o v e re d
802.11g as s u m es n o c o-c h an n el in terferen c e wh ereas

H S D P A d oes , d u e to th e c ellu lar d ep loym en t an d lim ited
freq u en c y s p ec tru m ; h ere we as s u m e 3 c arriers x 5M H z
(15M H z in total) for d own lin k . N otic e th at th e m axim u m
c ap ac ity for H S D P A an d 802.11g is s im ilar, 22.5 an d
22M bp s , s o th e AP with lowes t c os t p er tran s m itted bit
is es s en tially d eterm in ed by th e geograp h ic al d is tribu tion
of traffi c . Th e c ell rad iu s of H S D P A is 1000m for
traffi c d en s ities below 5M bp s /k m 2 , 800m between 5 an d
20M bp s /k m 2 , an d 4 00m for d en s ities above th at [6 ].
8 0 2 .1 1 g
40m
2 2 Mb p s
0 .13 (3 % /9 7 % )
10
0
AP
50m
5 Mb p s
0 .0 0 6 7
C os t c oeffi c ien ts in c lu d e both C AP E X an d O P E X ,

wh ere O P E X is c alc u lated in p res en t valu e over a 10year p eriod u s in g a 10% d is c ou n t rate (s ee fu rth er [4 ]).
For th e s ak e of s im p lic ity th e n etwork is d im en s ion ed
to c arry th e s am e traffi c d u rin g th e n etwork life s p an .
Th e c os t for H S D P A is bas ed on th e es tim ate d erived in
[4 ] for m ac ro c ell W C D M A bas e s tation s , wh ic h in tu rn
was bas ed on es tim ates p rovid ed by th e G artn er G rou p
an d [7 ]. In th e n u m eric al exam p les we h ave as s u m ed
th at a m ac ro B S c os ts e300k . C os ts for rad io n etwork
c on trollers an d elec tric al p ower h ave been included as
op p os ed to th e es tim ates in [4 ]. Table I s u m m ariz es
th e c os t s tru c tu re in term s of C AP E X an d O P E X an d
th e ad d ition al c os t for extra c ells (d efi n ed as a c arrier
freq u en c y an d s ec tor) in H S D P A. An in c u m ben t op erator
th at alread y h as s ites for legac y s ys tem s in s talled m ay
reu s e m os t of th es e s ites an d we as s u m e th at th is lowers
th e c os t for H S D P A B S s by 25% .
For 802.11g n ew c os t es tim ates h ave been d ed u c ted
bas ed on [7 ]. U s er d ep loyed AP s are as s u m ed to c os t
e2000 in total, in c lu d in g c os ts for eq u ip m en t, c u s tom er
c are, etc ., an d s om e reven u e s h arin g with th e AP own er.
N otic e th at th is is bas ed on ou r as s u m p tion s an d n ot on
em p iric al d ata, s in c e th e c on c ep t h as n ot been im p lem en ted in p rac tic e yet.
C. In fra s tru c tu re c o s t m ea s u res
Th e bas ic m eas u re for c os t effi c ien c y u s ed is th e in fra s tru c tu re c o s t p er G B p er m o n th . In d oin g th is m ap p in g
we as s u m e th at 0.6 % of th e m on th ly traffi c is c arried
d u rin g eac h bu s y h ou r, wh ic h rou gh ly c orres p on d s to
th e traffi c p attern in c u rren t c ellu lar s ys tem s , an d th at th e
n etwork is d im en s ion ed ac c ord in g to average aggregate
th rou gh p u t (p er s am p le area). As a referen c e c as e we
will u s e th e traffi c of a typ ic al p rivate voic e telep h on y
u s er, gen eratin g 20m E of traffi c at 10k bp s d u rin g bu s y
h ou r. Th is c orres p on d s to 200bp s th rou gh p u t on average
d u rin g th e bu s y h ou r.
In th is m od el th e ac tu al traffi c m ix, m obility, etc ., are
th u s exogen ou s . Yet, th e res u lts an d c on c lu s ion s s h ou ld
h old for all traffi c m ixes th at fall with in th e p erform an c e
p aram eters given in Table I.
10
15
20
25
30
P e rc e n ta g e o f s u b s c rib e rs w ith A P s
35
40
Fig . 3 . P e rc e n tag e o f traffi c c o ve re d as a fu n c tio n o f th e p e rc e n t o f

u s e rs w ith an o p e n AP , fo r d iffe re n t d ata vo lu m e s .
IV. I NFRASTRUCTURE COST ESTIMATES

In th is s ec tion a few n u m eric al exam p les of th e c os t of a
m obile in fras tru c tu re with an d with ou t AP s are p rovid ed ,
u s in g th e m od els ou tlin ed above.
A . N u m eric a l res u lts
Figu re 3 s h ows th e p erc en tage of traffi c c overed with
AP s as a fu n c tion of th e p erc en tage of s u bs c ribers
eq u ip p ed with AP s . For low traffi c d en s ities , h ere u p
to ap p roxim ately 100 x voic e traffi c , th e AP s h ave
overc ap ac ity an d th e p lot ac tu ally c orres p on d s to th e
frac tion of th e s ervic e area c overed . As traffi c p er u s er
in c reas es , th e frac tion of traffi c s erved by AP s at a
given AP p en etration (d en s ity) d ec reas es . B as ed on th es e
res u lts we will as s u m e th at 1, 2, or 4 % of th e u s ers
h ave AP s in th e followin g exam p les . Th is im p lies th at
ap p roxim ately 30, 4 0, an d 7 0% of th e total traffi c is
c overed by AP s . In p rac tic e, it is u n lik ely th at all traffi c
c an be rou ted via u s er d ep loyed AP s s in c e fu ll ou td oor
c overage (in c lu d in g m obile u s ers ) c an n ot be exp ec ted .
A c om m on as s u m p tion tod ay is th at arou n d 80-9 0% of
th e traffi c in m obile n etwork s is term in ated in d oors s o
th is c ou ld be s een as an u p p er lim it (as d ep ic ted in 3).
Th e total in fras tru c tu re c os t for m u lti-ac c es s n etwork s
c on s is tin g of op erator d ep loyed H S D P A an d 802.11g
ac c es s p oin ts in c om bin ation with AP s in s talled by n on e,
1% , 2% , an d 4 % of th e u s ers is d ep ic ted in Figu re 4 .
Th e p lot s h ows th e in fras tru c tu re c os t p er s u bs c riber
as a fu n c tion of average traffi c d en s ity. At low traffi c
volu m es an op erator d ep loyed n etwork yield s th e lowes t
c os t, wh ereas for h igh er traffi c in tegratin g AP s in th e
n etwork d ec reas es th e average c os t p er tran s m itted G B .
Th e s lop e of th e c u rves an d c ros s -over p oin ts n atu rally
d ep en d on th e as s u m p tion s on p erform an c e, c os ts , an d
reven u e s h arin g.
Th e n u m ber am ou n t of ac c es s p oin ts an d H S D P A
tran s c eivers (TR X s ) is s u m m ariz ed in Table II for s everal
levels of AP in s tallation s an d two volu m es of traffi c . For
exam p le at 10 x voic e traffi c , in trod u c in g 100 AP s /k m 2
will yield ap p roxim ately th e s am e c os t as an op erator
d ep loyed n etwork . H owever, th e n u m ber of H S D P A
108
Chapter 8. User Deployed Access Points (Paper 4)
TAB LE II
T HE NUMBER OF TRANSCEIVERS AND ACCESS POINTS REQUIRED
PER SERVED KM 2 IN A CITY CENTER .
M o n th ly In fra s tru c tu re C o s t [E u ro /G B ]
10
H
H
H
H
S
S
S
S
+
+
+
+
11g
11g + A P 1%
11g + A P 2%
11g + A P 4 %
Subscribers w ith AP
10 x vo ic e tr a ffi c
H SD P A T R X s
8 0 2 .1 1 g AP s
AP s
100 x vo ic e tr a ffi c
H SD P A T R X s
8 0 2 .1 1 g AP s
AP s
10
0%
1%
2%
4%
3 .2
9 .1
0 .0
2 .6
3 .6
54
2 .2
1 .8
110
1 .4
0 .0
220
23
28
0 .0
19
17
54
16
10
110
11
3 .7
220
10
10
10
2
T ra ffic D e n s ity [M b p s /k m ]
10
Fig. 4 . Mo n th ly c o st p er tran sm itted GB as a fu n c tio n o f average

traffi c d en sity . Th e so lid lin e is fo r an o p erato r d ep lo y ed m u lti-ac c ess
n etwo rk with H SDPA an d 8 0 2 .1 1 g. Th e o th er lin es rep resen t d ifferen t
p erc en tages o f su b sc rib ers with APs.
transceivers and op erator d ep loyed 8 0 2 .1 1 g access p oints

are d ecreased sig nifi cantly. At a traffi c of 1 0 0 x voice
th is is even clearer and in th is case th e network of u ser
d ep loyed AP s also bring s a lower cost, as can be seen
in Fig u re 4 .
B. D is c u s s io n o f re s u lts
S ince m any strateg ic factors h ave been left ou t (e.g .
d em and , Q oS , and p reviou s assets of th e op erator) in
th is stu d y we can not m ak e g eneral recom m end ations on
op tim u m d ep loym ent strateg ies. Yet, som e interesting
asp ects can be h ig h lig h ted from a cost p ersp ective.
First, th e econom ics of scale is interesting to note.
I.e., th at increasing traffi c volu m es h as a d im inish ing
increm ental cost. Th is h as p reviou sly been q u estioned
for cellu lar network s and u sed as an arg u m ent for novel
bu siness m od els and d ep loym ent strateg ies su ch as u ser
d ep loyed infrastru ctu re [1 ], [1 4 ]. Th ese resu lts ind icate
th at h ig h er d ata rates can actu ally be p rovid ed at a
sig nifi cantly lower increm ental cost by m eans of an
u ser d ep loyed infrastru ctu re. Th is occu rs even with a
sig nifi cant p ortion of revenu e sh aring (in th is exam p le
ap p roxim ately e1 0 0 p er year p er AP wh ich in p ractice
is q u ite a su bstantial su bsid y). S econd ly, th e sh are of
investm ents relative to ru nning costs (CAP E X d ivid ed
by O P E X ) is m u ch lower th an for a conventional cellu lar network . Th is typ ically lowers th e risk and is a
virtu e of u ser d ep loyed wireless infrastru ctu re th at is an
interesting top ic for fu rth er research .
V. C ONCLUSIONS
Th e infrastru ctu re cost h as been estim ated for d ifferent
d ensities of op erator and u ser d ep loyed access p oints.
Resu lts ind icate th at it is su ffi cient if a few p ercent of th e
su bscribers of a m ajor op erator (with 3 0 % m ark et sh are)
in an u rban area install op en access p oints to lower th e
infrastru ctu re cost sig nifi cantly. With th e u sed m od elling
and assu m p tions, cost saving s are sig nifi cant at traffi c
levels above 1 0 M bp s/k m 2 . Th is wou ld ap p roxim ately
corresp ond to ten tim es th e traffi c of p rivate voice u sers.
To com p ensate th e access p oint owners for allowing

p u blic access to th eir internet connections we h ave
assu m ed a su bstantial revenu e sh aring (in th e ord er of
e1 0 0 p er year p er access p oint). Th u s, introd u cing u ser
d ep loyed access p oints th at are op en for access also to
oth er su bscribers seem s to be a cost effi cient m eth od to
p rovid e h ig h d ata rates in p u blic wireless access system s.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Th is work was sp onsored by th e S wed ish Fou nd ation for
S trateg ic Research via th e Afford able Wireless S ervices
and Infrastru ctu re (AWS I) P rog ram and th e L ow Cost
Infrastru ctu re (L CI) P roject. Th e au th or wou ld also lik e
to ack nowled g e th e contribu tions of D r. And ers Fu ru sk a r
(E ricsson Research ) and J onas L ind (S tock h olm S ch ool
of E conom ics) to th is work .
R EFERENCES
[1 ] A. B ria et al., 4 th -Gen eratio n Wireless In frastru c tu res: Sc en ario s an d Researc h Ch allen ges , IEEE Pe rs on a l C om m u n ic a tion s ,
Dec . 2 0 0 1 .
[2 ] M. Cave, S. Maju m d ar, an d I. Vo gelsan g (ed ito rs), H an d b o o k
o f Telec o m m u n ic atio n s Ec o n o m ic s , Elsevier Sc ien c e, 2 0 0 2 .
[3 ] A. Fu ru sk a r, M. Alm gren , an d K. J o h an sso n , An In frastru c tu re
Co st Evalu atio n o f Sin gle- an d Mu lti-Ac c ess Netwo rk s with
H etero gen eo u s User B eh avio r , in Proc . IEEE V T C S p rin g 2 0 0 5 .
[4 ] K. J o h an sso n , A. Fu ru sk a r, P. Karlsso n , an d J . Z an d er, Relatio n
b etween b ase statio n c h arac teristic s an d c o st stru c tu re in c ellu lar
n etwo rk s , in Proc . IEEE PIM R C 2 0 0 4 .
[5 ] K. J o h an sso n , et al. In tegratin g User Dep lo y ed Lo c al Ac c ess
Po in ts in a Mo b ile Op erato rs Netwo rk , In Proc . WWR F M e e tin g n r. 1 2 , 2 0 0 4 .
[6 ] K. J o h an sso n an d A. Fu ru sk a r, Co st effi c ien t c ap ac ity ex p an sio n
strategies u sin g m u lti-ac c ess n etwo rk s , In Proc . IEEE V T C
S p rin g 2 0 0 5 .
[7 ] F. Lo iz illo n et al., F in a l re s u lts on s e a m le s s m ob ile IP s e rv ic e
p rov is ion e c on om ic s , n o t p u b lish ed , IST-2 0 0 0 -2 5 1 7 2 TONIC
Deliverab le n u m b er 1 1 , Oc t. 2 0 0 2 .
[8 ] W. Mo h r, R. Lu d er, an d K-H . Mo h rm an n , Data Rate Estim ates,
Ran ge Calc u latio n s an d Sp ec tru m Dem an d fo r New Elem en ts o f
Sy stem s B ey o n d IMT-2 0 0 0 , in Proc . IEEE WPM C 2 0 0 2 .
[9 ] J . M. Pereira, Fo u rth Gen eratio n : No w it is Perso n al! , in Proc .
IEEE PIM R C 2 0 0 0 .
[1 0 ] O. Tirla et al., Ac c o u n tin g m an agem en t in h etero gen eo u s
m o b ile ac c ess n etwo rk s: th e MIND ap p ro ac h , in Proc . IEEE
WPM C 2 0 0 2 .
[1 1 ] UMA Tec h n o lo gy , h ttp ://www.u m atec h n o lo gy .o rg/
[1 2 ] Matth ias Un b eh au n , O n th e D e s ig n a n d D e p loy m e n t of L ow c os t Wire le s s In fra s tru c tu re , Do c to ral Dissertatio n , Ro y al In stitu te o f Tec h n o lo gy , Dep artm en t o f Sign als, Sen so rs an d Sy stem s,
2002.
[1 3 ] S. Wo lters an d H . Lu ed iger, Reso u rc e b ro k erage in fu tu re
wired an d wireless n etwo rk s - WH Y LESS.COM , n o t p u b lish ed ,
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[1 4 ] J . Z an d er, On th e c o st stru c tu re o f fu tu re wid eb an d wireless
ac c ess , in Proc . IEEE V T C 1 9 9 7 .
Chapter 9
Radio Resource
Management in Roaming
Based Multi-Operator
WCDMA networks (Paper
5)
Klas Johansson, Martin Kristensson, and Uwe Schwarz,
109
111
Radio Resource Management in Roaming Based

Multi-O p erator W C D MA N etw ork s
Martin K ristensson and U w e Sch w arz
K las J oh ansson
Radio C ommunication Sy stems L ab oratory
D ep t. of Signals, Sensors & Sy stems
Roy al Institute of T ech nology
S-1 0 0 4 4 ST O C K H O L M, Sw eden
E mail: k lasj@ radio.k th .se
Abstract Infrastructure sharing and Mobile Virtual Network

O p erators (MVNO ) are becom ing m ore and m ore com m on in
today s m obile networks. In both cases the subscribers of m ultip le
op erators connect to the sam e radio access network v ia, e.g.,
roam ing based m ethods. D ep ending on how m uch each op erator
p ay s, they should then be guaranteed a certain cap acity in the
shared network.
T his p ap er discusses different solutions for how the radio
resources in such a roam ing based m ulti-op erator W C D MA network m ay be allocated to the sharing op erators. O ne p articular
m ethod based on R adio R esource Managem ent (R R M) with nonp reem p tiv e p riority q ueuing in the adm ission control is p resented
in detail. T he m ethod seem s to p rov ide an attractiv e tradeoff
between fairness and total sy stem cap acity .
I . I N T RO D U C T I O N
Sh aring th e radio access netw ork (RA N ) h as b ecome p op ular among U MT S mob ile op erators during th e recent y ears.
T h e main reason is p erh ap s to low er th e inv estment costs, b ut
it could also b e to reduce op erating costs in th e long run.
In p articular in rural areas, w h ere cov erage driv es th e total
netw ork cost, th is h as also to some ex tent b een imp lemented
in p ractice. Moreov er, op erators w ith out a 3 G license may act
as Mob ile V irtual N etw ork op erators, and th ereb y ex tend th ere
serv ice offering b y roaming into anoth er op erators netw ork .
F or th is p urp ose, similar functionality as w ith international roaming can b e utiliz ed to inter-connect th e op erators
netw ork s. A nd, th is p ap er inv estigates meth ods for h ow to
allocate radio resources in such roaming b ased multi-op erator
W C D MA netw ork s.
T ech nically , w ith roaming based sharing, an op erator access
anoth er op erators RA N indirectly v ia th e core netw ork s. T h is
imp lies th at multip le op erators fully sh are th e same RA N ,
and th ere is h ence a p otential need for radio resource control
b etw een th e op erators. N ormally th e op erators sh are th e same
carrier(s), b ut it is also p ossib le to use dedicated carriers.
Besides roaming b ased sh aring, w h ich is th e top ic of
th is p ap er, th ere are also oth er sh aring solutions. T h e main
categories th at w e see today are R A N sharing and site sharing.
T h e th ree group s of solutions imp ly different lev els of sh aring,
w h ich is dep icted in F ig. 1 .
W ith RA N b ased sh aring th e op erators h av e dedicated
carriers b ut sh are netw ork elements up to and including th e
N ok ia N etw ork s
Saterinp ortti, P L 3 0 1
0 0 0 4 5 N ok ia G roup , F IN L A N D
E mail: {martin.k ristensson, uw e.sch w arz }@ nok ia.com
Core network
R oa m ing b a s ed
s h a ring
R a d io N etwork Controller
BS
BS
BS
BS
R A N s h a ring
S ite
s h a ring
F ig. 1 . T h e fi gure illustrates w h at lev els of th e U MT S netw ork arch itecture

th at different sh aring meth ods relate to.
radio netw ork controller (RN C ), or p ossib ly only th e b ase

stations. T h e adv antage is th at op erators, alth ough sh aring
signifi cant p arts of th e RA N , still h av e a h igh degree of
indep endence.
T h e isolation b etw een th e sh aring op erators is ev en b etter
w ith site sh aring. In th is case th ey only sh are for ex amp le th e
p lace w h ere th e b ase station is located or p h y sical eq uip ment,
such as for ex amp le antennas and p ow er sup p lies.
W ith th ose infrastructure sh aring meth ods it is p ossib le to
imp lement a numb er of different use cases. F or ex amp le,
geograp h ical sh aring w h ere op erators p rov ide cov erage

in different p arts of a country , or
a mix of ow n netw ork s in urb an areas and a common
sh ared netw ork in low p op ulated areas.
Sh ared netw ork s h av e recently b een under inv estigation

in 3 G P P ; see [6 ] and [7 ]. T h ough , RRM algorith ms are
mainly p rop rietary and h ence not treated in 3 G P P . In th e
research community sh ared netw ork s h av e b een discussed in
for ex amp le [1 ], [5 ] and [4 ], b ut th e RRM asp ects in roaming
b ased sh aring h av e not attracted much research interest y et.
T h e outline of th e p ap er is as follow s. In Section II w e
b riefl y discuss different w ay s for sh aring th e radio resources
b etw een multip le op erators w ith roaming b ased sh aring. T h en,
in Section III a meth od to dy namically allocate cap acity is
p resented in more detail. T h e p erformance of th is algorith m
is analy z ed w ith simp le simulations in Section IV , and conclusions are draw n in Section V .
112
Chapter 9. Fair Resource Sharing (Paper 5)
II. M E T H O D S F O R A L L O C A T IN G R A D IO R E S O U R C E S W IT H
R O A MIN G B A S E D S H A R IN G
A. Dedicated carriers
In th is c a s e th e o p e ra to rs s h a re fo r e x a m p le th e b a s e s ta tio n s ,
th e tra n s m is s io n n e tw o rk a n d th e ra d io n e tw o rk c o n tro lle r, b u t
th e y e a c h h a v e th e ir d e d ic a te d c a rrie r la y e r.
D e d ic a te d c a rrie rs re s u lt in g o o d in te r-o p e ra to r is o la tio n ,
b u t th e d e d ic a te d c a rrie rs a ls o re s u lt in u n n e c e s s a ry h ig h
in v e s tm e n t c o s ts in s o m e s c e n a rio s . E s p e c ia lly in ru ra l a re a s
th e c a p a c ity o f a s in g le -c a rrie r W C D MA n e tw o rk c o u ld b e
w e ll e n o u g h to c o v e r th e n e e d s fo r m u ltip le o p e ra to rs .
B . F ix ed cap acity sh ares p er carrier
W ith a d v a n c e d R R M fu n c tio n a lity , a fi x e d fra c tio n o f th e
c e ll c a p a c ity c a n b e re s e rv e d fo r e a c h o p e ra to r a n d o n ly o n e
c a rrie r is th u s re q u ire d . T h is a p p ro a c h re s u lts in lo w e r in v e s tm e n t c o s ts a s c o m p a re d to d e d ic a te d c a rrie rs (in p a rtic u la r in
c o v e ra g e lim ite d a re a s ) a n d it s till p ro v id e s p e rfe c t fa ir s h a rin g
o f th e a v a ila b le c a p a c ity . H o w e v e r, it c o u ld a ls o le a d to a lo s s
in to ta l s y s te m c a p a c ity a s c o m p a re d to fu lly s h a re d c a rrie rs
d u e to a d e c re a s e d s ta tis tic a l m u ltip le x in g g a in .
A n e x a m p le o f th e tru n k in g e ffi c ie n c y is g iv e n in F ig . 2 .
H e re th e a v e ra g e c h a n n e l u tiliz a tio n is d e p ic te d a s a fu n c tio n
o f th e n u m b e r o f a v a ila b le c h a n n e ls p e r c e ll C. F o r a to le ra b le
b lo c k in g p ro b a b ility Bmax = 5% (c a lc u la te d a c c o rd in g to
th e w e ll k n o w n E rla n g -B fo rm u la , s e e e .g . [3 ]), th e a v e ra g e
c h a n n e l u tiliz a tio n is h e re d e fi n e d a s
O
(1 )
= ,
C
w h e re th e o ffe re d lo a d O is th e to ta l o ffe re d lo a d g iv e n in
E rla n g a n d th e n u m b e r o f c h a n n e ls C is a c o n s ta n t.
W ith C = 8 0 c h a n n e ls a v a ila b le p e r c e ll th e to ta l c a p a c ity
is re d u c e d w ith 1 0 % a lre a d y w ith tw o o p e ra to rs s h a rin g
th e c a p a c ity in e q u a lly s iz e d s h a re s . A n d w ith fo u r s h a rin g
o p e ra to rs th e lo s s is u p to 2 0 %. N o tic e th a t th is a ls o b rin g s
m o re c o s ts w h ic h w o u ld c o n tra d ic t w ith th e m a in p u rp o s e o f
10%
re d u c tio n
2 0%
re d u c tio n
0.9
A v e ra g e c h a n n e l u tiliz a tio n ,
H o w m u c h o f th e ra d io n e tw o rk c a p a c ity th a t e a c h s h a rin g
p a rtn e r h a s th e rig h t to u s e w ith ro a m in g b a s e d s h a rin g is
c o m m o n ly s p e c ifi e d in a S e rv ic e L e v e l A g re e m e n t (S L A ). A n
o p e ra to r th a t fo llo w s its te rm s in th e S L A s h o u ld re c e iv e th e
a g re e d Q u a lity o f S e rv ic e (Q o S ) le v e ls ; th is e v e n if th e o th e r
o p e ra to rs try to u tiliz e m o re c a p a c ity th a n a g re e d . T h e o n ly
w a y fo r a n o p e ra to r to o b ta in m o re c a p a c ity s h o u ld th u s b e to
e ith e r p a y fo r a la rg e r s h a re , o r in v e s t in m o re c a p a c ity .
In p ra c tic e th is m e a n s th e th e ra d io re s o u rc e m u s t b e s h a re d
in a c o n tro lle d w a y b e tw e e n th e o p e ra to rs . A n d , th e ra d io
re s o u rc e s c a n in p rin c ip le b e a llo c a te d b y :
u s in g d e d ic a te d c a rrie rs fo r e a c h o p e ra to r,
a llo c a tin g a fi x e d c a p a c ity s h a re fo r e a c h o p e ra to r p e r
c a rrie r, o r
d y n a m ic a lly p rio ritiz e o p e ra to rs (w ith in o n e o r m u ltip le
c a rrie rs ).
N e x t w e w ill d is c rib e th o s e m e th o d s b rie fl y , a n d d is c u s s th e
a p p lic a b ility fo r d iffe re n t u s e c a s e s .
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
N u m b e r o f c h a n n e ls p e r c e ll, C
F ig . 2 . C h a n n e l u tiliz a tio n a s a fu n c tio n o f th e to ta l n u m b e r o f c h a n n e ls

C p e r c e ll w ith 5 % a v e ra g e b lo c k in g p ro b a b ility .
s h a rin g a W C D MA n e tw o rk . T h u s , w ith fi x e d c a p a c ity s h a re s ,

th e c o s t o p e ra to rs h a v e to p a y fo r th e fa ir c a p a c ity a llo c a tio n
is m o s t lik e ly h ig h e r th a n th e v a lu e a d d e d .
C . Dy n am ical p rio ritiz atio n o f o p erato rs w ith in o n e o r m u ltip le carriers
A s th e s o lu tio n s d is c u s s e d a b o v e a ll le a d to a s ig n ifi c a n t
lo s s in to ta l s y s te m c a p a c ity o r c o s t e ffi c ie n c y , a d y n a m ic a l
p rio ritiz a tio n o f o p e ra to rs b a s e d o n th e c u rre n t lo a d is p re fe ra b le . F o r th is p u rp o s e s ta n d a rd R R M fu n c tio n a lity s u c h a s
a d m is s io n c o n tro l a n d p a c k e t s c h e d u lin g c a n b e u tiliz e d .
A d m is s io n c o n tro l is in th is c o n te x t re s p o n s ib le fo r a d m is s io n o f n e w c o n n e c tio n s (b o th p a c k e t a n d c irc u it s w itc h e d ),
w h e re a s p a c k e t s c h e d u lin g a d a p tiv e ly a d ju s ts th e b it ra te o f
c o n n e c te d n o n re a l-tim e b e a re rs [2 ].
F o r th e s a k e o f s im p lic ity , w e o n ly tre a t c irc u it s w itc h e d
tra ffi c in th is p a p e r. H o w e v e r, it s h o u ld b e s tra ig h tfo rw a rd
to e x te n d th e s o lu tio n to h a n d le a ls o p a c k e t s w itc h e d tra ffi c .
Mo re o v e r, o n ly a s in g le -s e rv ic e s y s te m is tre a te d .
T h e p rio ritiz a tio n c a n im p le m e n te d w ith p rio rity q u e u in g
in th e a d m is s io n c o n tro l. E a c h c o n n e c tio n b e lo n g in g to a n
o p e ra to r s h o u ld th e n re c e iv e a p rio rity c a lc u la te d b a s e d o n
th a t o p e ra to rs c u rre n t lo a d re la tiv e to th e ir a g re e d m in im u m
c a p a c ity , s o th e p rio rity le v e l re fl e c ts h o w m u c h e a c h o p e ra to r
h a s u tiliz e d its a g re e d c a p a c ity s h a re ..
A n o th e r d e s ig n d e c is io n is w h e th e r o r n o t to u s e p re e m p tio n (a llo w in g fo r re m o v a l o f e x is tin g c o n n e c tio n s to m a k e
s p a c e fo r a n e w re q u e s t). P re e m p tio n w o u ld p e r d e fi n itio n
in c re a s e th e p ro b a b ility o f d ro p p in g a c tiv e c o n n e c tio n s . In
g e n e ra l th is is c o n s id e re d to b e th e m o s t im p o rta n t q u a lity
o f s e rv ic e m e a s u re fo r c irc u it-s w itc h e d s e rv ic e s (lik e v o ic e
te le p h o n y ) a n d p re e m p tio n is h e n c e n o t p re fe ra b le .
H a v in g s a id th a t, th e m e th o d w ith n o n -p re e m p tiv e p rio rity
q u e u in g in a d m is s io n c o n tro l s e e m s to b e th e m o s t p ro m is in g
s o lu tio n to th e s ta te d p ro b le m a n d w e w ill fo c u s o n th is m e th o d
in th e s e q u e l o f th is p a p e r.
113
III. M U L T I - O P E R A T O R A D MIS S IO N C O N T R O L W IT H
N O N - P R E E MP T IV E P R IO R IT Y Q U E U E IN G
Put new connection

req ues t(s ) in q ueue
A. System model and performance measures

F o r th e fu rh e r a n a ly s is a s ta n d a rd P o is s o n tra ffi c m o d e l w ill
b e u s e d (s e e e .g . [3 ]). T h e to ta l o ffe re d lo a d p e r o p e ra to r i is
d e n o te d Oi , a n d is d e fi n e d a s
S ort q ueue: 1 ) Pi 2 ) Td
N o
C h a nnel a v a ila b le?
Oi = i T,
(2 )
w h e re i is th e a v e ra g e a rriv a l ra te o f n e w c o n n e c tio n s fo r
o p e ra to r i a n d T is th e a v e ra g e d u ra tio n p e r c o n n e c tio n . T h e
to ta l o ffe re d lo a d is th e n g iv e n b y
O=
N
Oi ,
N o
Td> Tm a x ?
Y es
Y es
A lloca te ch a nnel
C onnection b lock ed!
F ig . 3 .
F lo w c h a rt o f p e rio d ic a l a d m is s io n c o n tro l w ith n o n -p re e m p tiv e
p rio rity q u e u in g .
(3 )
i=1
a s s u m in g th a t N o p e ra to rs s h a re th e n e tw o rk .
T h e to ta l n u m b e r o f c h a n n e ls p e r c e ll C is s till m o d e le d
a s c o n s ta n t. A lth o u g h it is w e ll k n o w n th a t th is is n o t th e
c a s e in a W C D MA s y s te m (s e e e .g . [2 ], w e b e lie v e th is in itia l
a s s e s s m e n t is n o t im p ro v e d s ig n ifi c a n tly b y m o d e lin g th is in
m o re d e ta il.
E a c h o p e ra to r is a s s ig n e d a m in im u m c a p a c ity le v e l p e r c e ll,
Ci , h e rin c o rre s p o n d in g to th e n u m b e r o f c h a n n e ls a n o p e ra to r
is g u a ra n te e d a c c o rd in g to th e S L A .
A n e w c o n n e c tio n re q u e s t is q u e u e d u n til th e re a re re s o u rc e s
a v a ila b le . H o w e v e r, if th e w a itin g tim e Td e x c e e d s a c e rta in
th re s h o ld Tm a x th e re q u e s t is b lo c k e d . T h e b lo c k in g p ro b a b ility fo r a n o p e ra to r, Bi , is th u s d e fi n e d a s
Bi = P r (Td > Tm
ax
)P r (U s e r b e lo n g s to o p e ra to r i). (4 )
F u rth e rm o re , th e lo a d p e r o p e ra to r Li is s im p ly g iv e n b y
th e to ta l n u m b e r o f a llo c a te d c h a n n e ls fo r th a t o p e ra to r a t a
g iv e n p o in t in tim e .
B . Alg orith m description
A n o v e rv ie w o f th e a lg o rith m u s e d fo r a d m is s io n c o n tro l
w ith n o n -p re e m p tiv e p rio rity q u e u in g is d e p ic te d in F ig . 3 .
T h e p rio rity le v e l o f e a c h o p e ra to r, Pi , is d e fi n e d a s
Ci
,
(5 )
Li
s o th a t o p e ra to rs w ith a lo a d Li lo w e r th a n th e a g re e d
m in im u m c a p a c ity Ci re c e iv e s a h ig h p rio rity .
T h e q u e u in g m a n a g e m e n t o u tlin e d h e re c a n b e im p le m e n te d
in c o n ju n c tio n w ith , e .g ., th e p e rio d ic a l a d m is s io n c o n tro l
fu n c tio n a lity d e s c rib e d in [2 ] a n d it c o n s is ts o f th e fo llo w in g
s te p s .
1 ) A n e w c o n n e c tio n re q u e s t th a t a rriv e s w h e n th e s y s te m
is c o n g e s te d is p u t in th e q u e u e .
2 ) T h e q u e u e is p e rio d ic a lly s o rte d in a n d e s c e n d in g o rd e r
a c c o rd in g to Pi . T h e n e a c h o p e ra to rs c o n n e c tio n s a re
s o rte d g ro u p -w is e in a d e s c e n d in g o rd e r b a s e d o n Td .
C o n s e q u e n tly , th e o p e ra to r w ith h ig h e s t Pi w ill b e
s e rv e d fi rs t a n d e a c h o p e ra to rs c o n n e c tio n re q u e s ts a re
s e rv e d in a fi rs t-in -fi rs t-o u t (F IF O ) m a n n e r re la tiv e to
e a c h o th e r.
3 ) N o rm a l a d m is s io n c o n tro l is p e rfo rm e d fo r e a c h c o n n e c tio n re q u e s t in th e q u e u e in p rio ritiz e d o rd e r. If e n o u g h

re s o u rc e s a re a v a ila b le , a c h a n n e l is a llo c a te d .
4 ) C o n n e c tio n re q u e s ts fo r w h ic h Td > Tm a x a re b lo c k e d
a n d re m o v e d fro m th e q u e u e .
C . P erformance measures
H o w e ffe c tiv e th e d iffe re n tia tio n in b lo c k in g p ro b a b ility is
d e p e n d s o n th e p ro b a b ility th a t e n o u g h re s o u rc e s a re re le a s e d
b e fo re th e m a x im u m a llo w e d w a itin g tim e Tm a x is re a c h e d
a n d a c o n n e c tio n h a s to b e b lo c k e d . T h is s h o u ld m a in ly b e
a fu n c tio n o f u s e r b it ra te s , a v e ra g e c o n n e c tio n d u ra tio n s a n d
th e m a x im u m a llo w e d q u e u in g tim e .
H e n c e , th e p e rfo rm a n c e c a n b e e v a lu a te d b y o b s e rv in g th e
o p e ra to r s p e c ifi c b lo c k in g p ro b a b ility Bi . If th e a lg o rith m
p e rfo rm s w e ll,
Bi Bm
ax
fo r Oi < Ci .
(6 )
T h a t is , Bi s h o u ld b e b e lo w a c e rta in th re s h o ld Bm a x u n til
th e o p e ra to r re a c h e s its a g re e d m in im u m c a p a c ity Ci . A n d
a s a c o n s e q u e n c e , a t h ig h to ta l o ffe re d lo a d O th e b lo c k in g
p ro b a b ility w ill b e h ig h e r fo r o p e ra to rs th a t h a v e e x c e e d e d
th e ir lo a d s h a re .
Pi =
IV . S IMU L A T IO N S A N D R E S U L T S
T h e p e rfo rm a n c e o f th e a lg o rith m o u tlin e d in S e c tio n III h a s
b e e n in v e s tig a te d b y m e a n s o f s im p le q u e u in g s im u la tio n s w ith
tw o o p e ra to rs (N = 2). F irs t, g e n e ra l s im u la tio n a s s u m p tio n s
a n d m o d e ls a re d e s c rib e d . T h e n a fe w e x a m p le s a re g iv e n to
s h o w h o w th e a lg o rith m c o u ld fu n c tio n in d iffe re n t s c e n a rio s .
A. G eneral assumptions and traffi c models
A s in g le c e ll h a s b e e n s im u la te d in w h ic h a ll c o n n e c tio n s
h a v e th e s a m e b it ra te . E a c h o p e ra to r h a s p rio ritiz e d a c c e s s to
a to ta l n u m b e r o f Ci c h a n n e ls . A n d , if n o t s ta te d o th e rw is e ,
b o th o p e ra to rs h a v e th e s a m e g u a ra n te e d c a p a c ity s o th a t
C1 = C2 =
C
.
2
(7 )
114
Chapter 9. Fair Resource Sharing (Paper 5)
TABLE I
S IM U LATED SER V IC ES
Se rv ic e
C h a n n e ls p e r c e ll C
Allo w e d q u e u in g tim e Tmax [s ]
Av e ra g e c o n n e c tio n tim e
D a ta ra te
Sp e e c h
80
5s
120s
1 2 .2 k b p s
V id e o s tre a m in g
16
15s
120s
64kbps
A c o n n e c tio n is a d m itte d if th e re is a t le a s t o n e c h a n n e l
a v a ila b le , th a t is if
N

Li < C,
(8 )
i=1
a n d b lo c k e d if n o c h a n n e l is re le a s e d b e fo re th e m a x im u m
a llo w e d w a itin g tim e Tm a x is e x c e e d e d . Th e p rio rity le v e l Pi
is u p d a te d c o n tin u o u s ly w ith o u t a n y te m p o ra l a v e ra g in g a n d
is th e s a m e fo r a ll c o n n e c tio n s b e lo n g in g to th e s a m e o p e ra to r.
Th e to ta l n u m b e r o f c h a n n e ls C a n d th e m a x im u m w a itin g
tim e Tm a x a re s e rv ic e s p e c ifi c a n d th e s a m e in a ll s im u la tio n s ;
s e e Ta b le I.
N o te a ls o th a t, a c c o rd in g to th e P o is s o n tra ffi c m o d e l
u s e d , b o th th e in te r-a rriv a l tim e s o f c o n n e c tio n re q u e s ts a n d
c o n n e c tio n d u ra tio n s a re e x p o n e n tia lly d is trib u te d .
B. Blocking probability for a speech service
Th e b lo c k in g p ro b a b ility o f a n o p e ra to r i = 1 is d e p ic te d
in F ig . 4 a s fu n c tio n o f its o ffe re d lo a d O1 . Th is h a s b e e n
s im u la te d fo r a fe w d iffe re n t v a lu e s o f o ffe re d lo a d fo r th e
s e c o n d o p e ra to r, O2 . N o w , a c c o rd in g to (6 ), th e b lo c k in g
p ro b a b ility o f th e s tu d ie d o p e ra to r B1 s h o u ld b e k e p t b e lo w
s o m e th re s h o ld Bm a x a s lo n g a s L1 < C1 .
F ig . 4 s h o w s th a t th e a lg o rith m p e rfo rm s w e ll fo r a s p e e c h
s e rv ic e . Th is is s im p ly d u e to th a t th e re a re q u ite m a n y
c h a n n e ls (8 0 ) a v a ila b le p e r c a rrie r. Th u s , th e re is a h ig h
lik e lih o o d th a t a c h a n n e l is re le a s e d b e fo re th e m a x im u m
a llo w e d q u e u in g tim e Tm a x is e x c e e d e d .
A fi x e d c a p a c ity a llo c a tio n o f 4 0 c h a n n e ls d e d ic a te d fo r

o p e ra to r 1 is d e p ic te d a s a re fe re n c e c a s e . In te re s tin g to n o te
is th a t fo r a lo w lo a d th e b lo c k in g p ro b a b ility is h ig h e r w ith
d y n a m ic a l p rio ritiz a tio n th a n w ith d e d ic a te d c a p a c ity . H o w e v e r, a s s o o n a s th e lo a d in c re a s e th e d y n a m ic a l p rio ritiz a tio n
o u tp e rfo rm s a fi x e d a llo c a tio n o f c h a n n e ls .
Th e a p p ro x im a te g a in in te rm s o f o ffe re d lo a d fo r a to le ra b le
b lo c k in g p ro b a b ility Bm a x = 5 % is s u m m a riz e d in Ta b le
II. Th e g a in a s c o m p a re d to a d e d ic a te d c a p a c ity s c h e m e is
n a tu ra lly h ig h e r w h e n th e to ta l s y s te m lo a d is lo w .
TABLE II
G AIN R ELATIV E TO A F IX ED ALLO C ATIO N O F 4 0 SP EEC H C H AN N ELS W ITH
Bmax = 5% TO LER ABLE BLO C K IN G P R O BABILITY .
O2 [Erl]
O1 [Erl]
Ga in
0.15
0.1
20
72
80%
As th e b it ra te in c re a s e , th e to ta l n u m b e r o f c h a n n e ls
a v a ila b le p e r c a rrie r d e c re a s e a n d th e n o n p re m p tiv e p rio rity
q u e u in g a lg o rith m s h o u ld c o n s e q u e n tly p e rfo rm w o rs e . Th is
is a ls o in d ic a te d b y th e s im u la te d re s u lts in F ig . 5 fo r a v id e o
s tre a m in g s e rv ic e .
In th is c a s e th e b lo c k in g p ro b a b ility o f th e fi rs t o p e ra to r B1
c a n n o t b e k e p t b e lo w Bm a x = 5 % w h e n th e lo a d is h ig h
fo r th e o th e r o p e ra to r, a n d th e re is h e n c e a lo s s in c a p a c ity
0.2
40
51
30%
C . Blocking probability for a stream ing vid eo service
B lo c k in g p ro b a b ility fo r o p e ra to r 1, B
B lo c k in g p ro b a b ility fo r o p e ra to r 1, B
0.25
F ix e d re s e rv a tio n
O = 80 E rl
2
O2 = 60 E rl
O2 = 40 E rl
O2 = 20 E rl
60
44
10%
F in a lly , w e c a n a ls o s e e in F ig . 4 th a t, w h e n th e o ffe re d lo a d
fo r th e s e c o n d o p e ra to r O2 in c re a s e , s o d o e s u n fo rtu n a te ly
a ls o th e b lo c k in g p ro b a b ility o f o p e ra to r 1 (B1 ). H o w e v e r, in
th is c a s e B1 c a n s till b e k e p t b e lo w Bm a x = 5 % . Th u s , w e
c o n c lu d e th e a lg o rith m p e rfo rm s w e ll fo r a W C D M A s y s te m
w ith s p e e c h u s e rs a n d th is s h o u ld a ls o h o ld fo r a n y c irc u it
s w itc h e d v id e o a n d d a ta s e rv ic e w ith a m o d e ra te d a ta ra te .
0.3 5
0.3
80
4 1 .6
5%
0.25
F ix e d re s e rv a tio n
O = 14 E rl
2
O2 = 10 E rl
O2 = 6 E rl
O2 = 2 E rl
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0.05
0
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Offe re d lo a d fo r o p e ra to r 1, O1 [E rl]
F ig . 4 . Th e b lo c k in g p ro b a b ility o f o p e ra to r 1 (B1 ) fo r a s p e e c h s e rv ic e a s a
fu n c tio n o f o ffe re d lo a d (O1 ) fo r d iffe re n t le v e ls o f lo a d fo r th e o th e r o p e ra to r
(O2 ). A fi x e d re s o u rc e a llo c a tio n o f 4 0 c h a n n e ls p e r o p e ra to r is d e p ic te d a s
a re fe re n c e .
0
2
10
12
Offe re d lo a d fo r o p e ra to r 1, O [E rl]
1
F ig . 5 . Th e b lo c k in g p ro b a b ility o f o p e ra to r 1 (B1 ) fo r a v id e o s tre a m in g

s e rv ic e a s a fu n c tio n o f o ffe re d lo a d (O1 ) fo r d iffe re n t le v e ls o f lo a d fo r th e
o th e r o p e ra to r (O2 ). A fi x e d re s o u rc e a llo c a tio n o f 8 c h a n n e ls p e r o p e ra to r
is d e p ic te d a s a re fe re n c e .
115
T AB L E III
G AI N RE L AT I V E T O A F I X E D AL L O C AT I O N O F 8 S T RE AM I N G C H AN N E L S
W I T H 5% T O L E RAB L E B L O C K I N G P RO B AB I L I T Y .
O2 [E rl]
O1 [E rl]
Gain
14
2 .0
-6 0 %
10
4 .6
-6 %
6
6 .9
40%
2
11
120%
0.25
O p e ra to r s p e c ific b lo c k in g p ro b a b ility , B
as compared to the reference case with 8 dedicated channels;

see T ab le III. T his despite the fact that we hav e increased the
max imu m allowed waiting time Tmax to 1 5 s (instead of 5 s
which was u sed for the speech serv ice). H owev er, with a more
moderate load for the second operator, for ex ample O2 = 6
E rl, the alg orithm fu nctions well also in this case.
0.2
D. Coexistence of operators with low and high minimum

agreed capacity per cell
In the prev iou s simu lations, b oth operators had the same
g u aranteed capacity lev el Ci . It is also of interest to u nderstand
if an operator with a low capacity share can coex ist with an
operator that has a hig her reserv ed capacity and a larg er share
of the offered traffi c load.
In F ig . 6 we show a few ex amples for a speech serv ice
where C1 = 2 0 and C2 = 60 . T he load for operator 1 , O1 ,
was increased linearly for two different lev els of O2 ; namely
6 0 and 1 0 0 E rlang .
F rom these resu lts, it can b e noticed that the b lock ing
prob ab ility can b e k ept low also for operators with a small
fraction of the total capacity . H owev er, the b lock ing prob ab ility of the operator with low load is increased slig htly
as the load of the second operator increase. O n the other
hand, B2 B1 , so the b lock ing prob ab ility of the b ig g er
operator is sig nifi cantly hig her. T hu s, the alg orithm clearly
differentiates the b lock ing prob ab ility of the two operators. S o
from a fairness perspectiv e, the alg orithm performs well also
in this case and one operator can not cannib aliz e on the other
operators resou rces withou t a penalty in terms of increased
b lock ing prob ab ility .
V . C O N C L U S IO N
S haring radio resou rces in a mu lti-operator W C D M A network is b est done with a comb ination of serv ice lev el ag reements (S L A) and su pporting fu nctionality for fair resou rce
sharing . If the operators will ex perience clear drawb ack s
when they v iolate an S L A, they will b e forced to follow the
ag reement, b u y capacity from another sharing partner or pay
for a capacity ex pansion of the shared network .
T his paper ou tlined mu ltiple technical solu tions to the
radio resou rce-sharing prob lem and describ ed one of them,
admission control with non-preemptiv e priority q u eu ing , in
O
O
O
O
=
=
=
=
2
2
100 E rl
100 E rl
6 0 E rl
6 0 E rl
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
5
T hese resu lts indicate that for circu it switched serv ices
with hig h data rates, one cou ld consider to slowly adju st the
minimu m capacity g u aranteed per operator Ci according to
the av erag e demand. F or pack et switched serv ices, howev er,
it is simpler to mu ltiplex b etween u sers and the same ty pe of
prob lem shou ld hence not occu r for su ch traffi c.
B fo r
2
B fo r
1
B fo r
2
B fo r
10
15
20
O ffe re d lo a d fo r o p e ra to r 1, O
25
1
30
[E rl]
F ig . 6 . C oex istence of operators with sig nifi cantly different traffi c load and
max imu m capacity lev el Ci . H ere, C1 = 2 0 and C2 = 6 0 channels. T he
offered load for operator 1 is v aried and depicted for two different lev els of
offered load for operator 2 (O2 = 6 0 and 1 0 0 E rlang ).
detail. It was shown that this method mak es it possib le to

differentiate the b lock ing prob ab ility of operators sharing the
same carrier(s), in particu lar for serv ices with modest data
rates (lik e v oice telephony ).
F or fu rther work it wou ld b e interesting to analy z e the
performance with pack et switched connections, and the implications of av erag ing load measu rements.
AC K N O W L E D GM E N T
T he au thors wou ld lik e to thank P rof. J ens Z ander (Roy al Institu te of T echnolog y , S weden) and P reb en M og ensen (N ok ia
N etwork s, D enmark ) for their v alu ab le comments and feedb ack on this work .
R E F E RE N C E S
[1 ] A. B artlett and N . N . J ack son, N etwork P lanning C onsiderations for
N etwork S haring in U M T S , In P roceedings of 3 G M ob ile Communication T echnologies, M ay 8-1 0 , 2 0 0 2 .
[2 ] H . H olma and A. T osk ala, W CDM A F O R U M T S R adio A ccess for
T hird G eneration M ob ile Communications , J ohn W iley & S ons.
[3 ] N g C hee H ock , Q ueueing M odelling and F undamentals , J ohn W iley
& S ons, 1 9 9 6 .
[4 ] J .H arno, 3 G B u siness C ase su ccessfu lness within the C onstraints S et b y
C ompetition, Reg u lation and Alternativ e T echnolog ies , in P roceedings
of F IT CE Congress, S eptemb er 4 -7 , 2 0 0 2 .
[5 ] J . A. V illag e, K . P . W orrall and D . I. C rawford, 3 G S hared Infrastru ctu re , In P roceedings of 3 G M ob ile Communication T echnologies, M ay
8-1 0 , 2 0 0 2 .
[6 ] 3 rd Generation P artnership P roject (3 GP P ), T echnical S pecifi cation
Grou p (T S G) RAN 3 , S hared N etwork S upport in Connected M ode
(R elease 5 ) , T echnical report R3 .0 1 2 , v ersion 1 .0 .0 , S eptemb er 2 0 0 2 .
[7 ] 3 rd Generation P artnership P roject (3 GP P ), T echnical S pecifi cation
Grou p S erv ices and S y stem Aspects, S erv ice A spects and R eq uirements
for N etwork S haring (R elease 6 ) , T echnical report 2 2 .9 5 1 , v ersion
6 .0 .0 , D ecemb er 2 0 0 2 .
Chapter 10
An Estimation of the
Achievable User
Throughput with National
Roaming (Paper 6)
Johan Hultell and Klas Johansson,
Submitted to IEEE VTC2006 Spring.
117
119
An E s tim a tio n o f th e Ac h ie va b le U s e r
T h ro u g h p u t w ith N a tio na l R o a m ing
Johan H u lte ll, and K las Johans s on
Wireless@ K TH , Th e R oyal In stitu te of Tec h n ology
E lec tru m 4 1 8 , S -1 6 4 4 0 K ista, S wed en
E m ail: {joh an .h u ltell, klasj}@ rad io.kth .se
Abstract N a tion a l roa m in g , th a t is a llowin g u s ers to a c c es s

n etwork s of m u ltip le d om es tic op era tors , wa s d is c u s s ed a lrea d y
d u rin g d evelop m en t of fi rs t a n d s ec on d g en era tion m obile s y s tem s . For m obile voic e s ervic es , h owever, th e op era tors a fford ed
to bu ild n etwork s with (a lm os t) fu ll c overa g e a lon e. T h e ben efi ts
with n a tion a l roa m in g , in term s of in c rea s ed c overa g e, tru n k in g
effi c ien c y a n d lowered ris k ex p os u re, d id c on s eq u en tly n ot ex c eed
th e d ra wba c k s a s s oc ia ted with in c rea s ed op era tor c oop era tion .
M otiva ted by th e c on s id era ble in ves tm en ts for p rovid in g c overa g e for m obile d a ta s ervic es , a n d en a bled by th e c om m on
ra d io res ou rc e m a n a g em en t p rop os ed for s y s tem s B ey on d 3 G ,
th is p a p er1 eva lu a tes th e ben efi ts with n a tion a l roa m in g for bes t
effort d a ta s ervic es . T h e res u lts s h ow th a t n a tion a l roa m in g m ore
th a n d ou bles th e d a ta ra tes for u s ers a t th e c ell bord er. T h is
g a in is m otiva ted by red u c ed p a th los s a n d lowered in terferen c e
levels . A rou n d h a lf of th e p oten tia l g a in is c a p tu red a lrea d y with
n ea rly c o-s ited ba s e s ta tion s , wh ic h s u g g es ts th a t th e ben efi ts for
op era tors to c oord in a te th eir ba s e s ta tion s ite p la n s a re lim ited .
I. I NTRODUCTION
D esp ite th e in trod u c tion of ad van c ed tran sm ission an d
p ac ket sc h ed u lin g tec h n iq u es, ex istin g m obile d ata n etworks
wou ld req u ire sign ifi c an t, an d h en c e c ostly, u p grad es in ord er to su p p ort h igh er d ata rates with wid e area c overage.
C on seq u en tly, th e vast m ajority of op erators h ave c h osen
to p ostp on e th e n ec essary n etwork u p grad es u n til c on su m er
d em an d bec om es m ore p ron ou n c ed . Alth ou gh th is at a fi rst
glan c e m igh t seem sou n d , it is d efi n itely n ot th e c ase sin c e
su p p ortin g h igh -en d u sers ( early ad op ters ) h as p roven to be
a c ru c ial en abler for later reac h in g a m ass-m arket [1 ].
O n e m eth od to in c rease c overage for h igh er d ata rates wou ld
be to en able u sers to roam between m u ltip le op erators with in
a c ou n try (h en c eforth referred to as national roam ing ) u n til
d em an d for h igh -sp eed servic es ju stifi es a n etwork ex p an sion .
Th e m eth od was d isc u ssed alread y d u rin g d evelop m en t of
th e fi rst an d sec on d gen eration system s, bu t for m obile voic e
servic es op erators afford ed to bu ild fu ll c overage n etworks
alon e. S u p p ortin g broad ban d d ata servic es are h owever assoc iated with m u c h larger in vestm en ts an d , as alon g as d em an d
is resilien t, risks. M oreover th ere will, c om p ared to voic e
servic es, be fewer sim u ltan eou s u sers an d th u s larger sc op e for
statistic al m u ltip lex in g. All of th is yet again m akes n ation al
roam in g an in terestin g altern ative.
1 Th is wo rk h a s b e e n c o n d u c te d with in th e No ve l A c c e s s P ro vis io n in g
(NA P ) p ro je c t, c o -fu n d e d b y th e S we d is h A g e n c y fo r In n o va tio n S ys te m s
(VINNOVA ).
With th is said , th e c h ief ad van tage with n ation al roam in g

is th at on ly sm all in vestm en ts are n eed ed wh ereas th e m ain
d rawbac k is th at it m igh t h arm c om p etition between th e op erators an d th at th e in volved n etworks n eed to be c om p atible.
H en c e, it is of p aram ou n t im p ortan c e th at both th e ex c h an ge
of bu sin ess sen sitive in form ation (e.g. load m easu rem en ts) is
kep t at m in im u m level, wh ic h we d isc u ssed in [2 ], an d th at
th e en ablin g fu n c tion ality rem ain sim p le so th at ex it barriers
assoc iated with n etwork sh arin g agreem en ts are sm all [4 ].
In p rac tise th is m ean s th at ex istin g fu n c tion ality sh ou ld be
reu sed as far as p ossible wh ereas n ew m ec h an ism s ou gh t to
be d esign ed in a m od u lar fash ion [3 ].
A sim ilar c on c ep t is geograp h ic al sh arin g of wireless in frastru c tu re. It h as p reviou sly been p rop osed as a m eth od to lower
in frastru c tu re c osts an d savin gs in th e ord er of 1 0 p erc en t of
a m obile op erators total c ost h as been rep orted [4 ]-[5 ]. Th is
is, h owever, p rim arily a m eth od for lowerin g roll-ou t c osts
for n ew rad io ac c ess tec h n ologies wh ereas n ation al roam in g
rath er is abou t d eferrin g in vestm en ts by sh arin g ex istin g, an d
th u s alread y d ep loyed , in frastru c tu re. Th e p roblem of alloc atin g u sers to th e ap p rop riate base station in h eterogen eou s
m u lti-n etwork en viron m en ts h as attrac ted sign ifi c an t atten tion
in th e literatu re [6 ]-[1 2 ]. D yn am ic resou rc e m an agem en t of
m u ltip le wireless n etworks, ac ross rad io ac c ess tec h n ologies
an d bu sin ess bou n d aries, is also a m ain th em e in th e in tegrated
E U p rojec t Am bien t N etworks [1 0 ]. A th orou gh in vestigation
of h ow u sers sh ou ld be alloc ated with in on e op erators m u ltiac c ess n etwork was c on d u c ted in [8 ] an d it was sh own th at
sign ifi c an t gain s c ou ld be ac h ieved in a c om bin ed G S M /E D G E
an d WC D M A sc en ario. Also [9 ] ex am in ed gain s th at c ou ld be
attain ed by ex p loitin g th e c oex isten c e of m u ltip le system s to
in c rease th e tru n kin g effi c ien c y. It was c on c lu d ed th at c om m on
rad io resou rc e m an agem en t with fou r in tegrated n etworks
d ou bles th e in terac tive p ac ket c ap ac ity . O th er stu d ies, su c h
as [1 1 ]-[1 2 ] h ave id en tifi ed c om p lem en tary m etric s su c h as
m on etary c ost, u ser p referen c es, etc ., th at c ou ld be c on sid ered
wh en alloc atin g u sers in m u lti-op erator en viron m en ts.
In th is p ap er we will in vestigate wh at th rou gh p u t op erators
c an ex p ec t with n ation al roam in g for u sers loc ated at th e c ell
bord er as well as in average. M oreover we stu d y if, an d to wh at
ex ten t, th ese gain s d ep en d on th e m ic rosc op ic d iversity ord er
an d th e relative site loc ation s of th e in volved system s (d egree
of overlap ). Th e stu d y is lim ited to u p lin k tran sm ission , sin c e
th at typ ic ally lim its c overage in c ellu lar system s.
120
Chapter 10. Throughput with National Roaming (Paper 6)
II. S YSTEM M ODEL

B es id es in trod u cin g a m od el for q u an tifyin g th e d egree of
overlap between in volved s ys tem s , th is s ection p res en ts th e
u s ed p rop agation m od el an d m u lti-acces s s ch em es .
d3
d2
7
1500
11
A. U s e r a n d Tra ffi c B e h a v io r
N ation al roam in g en ables u s ers to con n ect to an y of th e J

coop eratin g op erators bas e s tation s . For th e s ak e of s im p licity
all op erators are as s u m ed to d ep loy bas e s tation s , eq u ip p ed
with m u ltip le th ree-s ector an ten n as , in a h ex agon al grid (with
corres p on d in g bas e s tation d en s ity j ). E ach op erator h as on e
carrier freq u en cy, wh ich is u s ed in every cell (reu s e factor 1).
T h e coverage an d cap acity gain s attain ed from n ation al
roam in g d ep en d on th e em p loyed h an d off algorith m , an d th e
relative p os ition of th e s ites belon gin g to th e op erators . T h e
latter is cap tu red by th e in te r-o p e ra to r s ite d is ta n c e d, wh ich
we d efi n e as th e m in im u m d is tan ce between ad jacen t s ites
belon gin g to d ifferen t op erators . T h u s for a s cen ario with J
op erators
(1)
d = m in d1 , d2 , ..., d(J ) .
2
Alth ou gh d1 6= d2 6= ... 6= d(J ) in gen eral it can be s h own 2

2
th at d ep loym en ts wh ere d1 = d2 = ... = d(j ) ex is t if J belon g
2
to th e s o-called m agic n u m bers . For a th ree-op erator s cen ario,
th e relation s h ip of th e op erators s ite location s are given as
xi
yi
x0
y0
+d
co s (/6 )
(1)i s in (/6 )
(2 )
wh ere i = 1, 2 an d (x0 , y0 ) is th e p os ition of th e referen ce

n etwork . Figu re 1 d ep icts an ex am p le wh ere d = rc an d in
Section IV th e in ter-op erator s ite d is tan ce will be u s ed to
con trol th e d egree of overlap between th e n etwork s .
C . P ro p a g a tio n M o d e l
G iven a u s er p os ition , th e s lowly varyin g (ex p ected ) com p on en t of th e p ath gain between u s er k an d bas e s tation l can
be written in logarith m ic s cale as
es
kl = Gkl + G
[d B ].
(3 )
Gkl d en otes th e d eterm in is tic p art of th e p ath gain an d is

h erein d es cribed by th e C O ST 2 3 1-H ata m od el [13 ]. U s in g
s tan d ard p aram eters for an ou td oor u rban s ettin g (i.e. bas e
2 It c an b e s h o w n th at th is is p o s s ib le if th e n u m b er o f n etw o rk s J b elo n g
to th e s o -c alled m ag ic n u m b ers {1 ,3 ,4 ,7 ,9 ,...}.
4
4
4
16
18
16
14
10
14
3
3
17
77
1
15
15
13
19
20
19
20
19
1000
7
21
13
13
12
1500
21
21
15
12
12
1000
14
17
17
rc
16
10
500
2
2
18
10
18
500
1500
B . M u lti-O p e ra to r E n v iro n m e n t a n d B a s e S ta tio n D e p lo y m e n t
9
11
1000
A m u lti-op erator en viron m en t with J op erators is in ves tigated . T h rou gh ou t th e p ap er all active u s ers are s tation ary
an d u n iform ly d is tribu ted . T h is res u lts in th at th e traffi c load
for op erator j is P ois s on d is tribu ted with ex p ected valu e j
(m eas u red in u s ers p er k m 2 ). Moreover we, for s im p licity
reas on s , as s u m e th at all u s ers h ave fu ll bu ffers an d d em an d
bes t effort traffi c.
d1
11
500
20
500
1000
1500
2000
F ig . 1 . A n ex am p le o f th e b as e s tatio n d ep lo y m en t fo r a th ree-o p erato r

s c en ario an d in ter-o p erato r s ite d is tan c e d = rc = 3 6 0 m .
It s h o u ld b e n o ted
th at th e m ax im u m valu e o f d is p erio d ic w ith a p erio d 2 3rc
s tation h eigh t of 3 0 m , u s er h eigh t of 1.5 m an d a 3 d B correction

factor) it red u ces to
Gkl = (28.9 + 3 3 .9log10 fc + 3 5 .2log10 rkl )
[d B ],
(4 )
wh ere fc is th e carrier freq u en cy in MH z an d rkl is th e

d is tan ce between th e bas e s tation an d th e m obile term in al.
T h e s econ d p art of E q . (3 ) corres p on d s to th e s p atially
correlated log-n orm al s h ad ow fad in g (s low fad in g). With in th is
s tu d y it is as s u m ed to h ave a s tan d ard d eviation s = 8d B
an d a d ecorrelation d is tan ce of 2 0 m [14 ]-[15 ]. B es id es th e
s low fad in g d es cribed above, th e an ten n a elem en ts on th e
bas e s tation s are as s u m ed to be ex p os ed to in d ep en d en t fl at
R ayleigh fad in g with ex p ected valu e eq u alin g kl . T h u s th e
p ath gain between a u s er an d its corres p on d in g bas e s tation
can be d es cribed by M id en tically, in d ep en d en tly R ayleigh
d is tribu ted ran d om variables wh ere M rep res en ts th e n u m ber
of an ten n a elem en ts .
D . M u lti-Ac c e s s S c h e m e
We s tu d y two s ch ed u lin g m eth od s for s h arin g th e d ata
ch an n el an d d u e to s im p licity reas on s we as s u m e th at u s ers
on ly can con n ect to on e bas e s tation at a tim e u s in g T D MA.
H en ce we d o n ot accou n t for p oten tial d ivers ity gain s from s oft
h an d over (or rath er, in th e cas e of T D MA, fas t cell s election ).
T h e fi rs t m u lti-acces s s ch em e con s is ts of a rou n d robin (R R )
s ch ed u ler wh ere u s ers in a p articu lar cell s h are th e ch an n el in a
ran d om fas h ion . O n average th ou gh , all u s ers in th e cell obtain
th e ch an n el an eq u al am ou n t of th e tim e ( tim e-h op p in g ).
C om p ared to u s in g a cyclicly rep eated s ch ed u le th is yield s
s m ooth er in terferen ce s tatis tics .
In th e s econ d m eth od a p rop ortion fair (P F) s ch ed u ler is
u s ed . C on trary to th e R R s ch ed u ler, wh ich ign ore th e ch an n el
con d ition s , th e P F s ch ed u ler ex p loit th e fas t fad in g variation s
an d as s ign s th e ch an n el to th e u s er ex p erien cin g th e bes t
relative ch an n el q u ality. For bas e s tation l, th e ch an n el q u ality
as s ociated with u s er k is m eas u red as
121
Qkl =
PM
m=1
e klm
G
kl
TAB LE I
S YSTEM PARAMETERS
[lin],
(5 )
e lkm c o rres p o nd s to ind ep end ent ex p o nentially d is w h ere G

trib u ted variab les . Th e nu m erato r es tim ates th e ins tantaneo u s
c h annel q u ality and th e d eno m inato r d es c rib es th e ex p ec ted
c h annel q u ality . B as ed o n th is m eas u re, eac h b as e s tatio n
s c h ed u le th e u s er fu lfi lling
k = argm ax Qlk
(6 )
kkl
w h ere kl is th e s et o f u s ers c o nnec ted to b as e s tatio n l.

Fo r b o th s c h ed u ling s trategies th e average trans m it p o w er is
lim ited to th e m ax im u m o f an average valu e o f P = 2 4 d B m and
a p eak valu e o f Pm a x = 3 3 d B m . C o ns eq u ently a u s er c o nnec ted
to a b as e s tatio n w ith N 1 o th er s im u ltaneo u s u s ers u tiliz e
a trans m it p o w er given b y
Pk = m in P N, Pm
ax
[lin].
(7 )
E. D a ta R a te Es tim a tio n
As s u m ing th at u s er k b elo ngs to th e s et o f u s ers th at are
s c h ed u led to trans m it d u ring tim e-s lo t kt , th e rec eived s ignalto -interferenc e (SIR ) ratio at antenna elem ent m b elo nging to
b as e s tatio n l c an b e w ritten as
Pk Gklm
,
(8 )
klm = P
i=kt \k Pi Gim + N0 W
w h ere N0 W is th e rec eived no is e p o w er (m o d elled as AWG N
w ith c o ns tant s p ec tral d ens ity ). As s u m ing s y nc h ro no u s m ax im u m ratio c o m b ining (MR C ), th e res u lting ins tantaneo u s SIR
is o b tained as
M
X
kl =
klm .
(9 )
m=1
U s ing th es e SIR valu es , th e d ata rates are es tim ated th ro u gh

th e Sh anno n m o d el w ith a m ax im u m p eak b it rate Rm a x
ac c o rd ing to
Rkl = m in(Rm
ax
, W lo g2 (1 + kl )),
(1 0 )
w h ere Rma x is th e m ax im u m p eak th ro u gh p u t th at th e m o d u latio n and c o d ing s c h em es s u p p o rt. Th is is s et to eq u al

th e 9 0 th p erc entile o f p eak th ro u gh p u t (p er tim e s lo t) in th e
s ingle o p erato r c as e w ith fo u r antennas . In th is c as e Rma x =
2 0 Mb p s (es tim ated th ro u gh s im u latio ns ). D u e to o u r id eal
as s u m p tio ns and m o d elling th is is h igh er th an in p rac tic al
s y s tem s .
Pa ra m e te r
Po p u la tio n d e n s ity [k m 2 ]
# Op e ra to rs
Slo t d u ra tio n [m s ]
Co rre la tio n d is ta n c e [m ]
Sta n d a rd d e via tio n (s h a d o w fa d in g ) [d B ]
Sh a d o w fa d in g c o rre la tio n b e twe e n b a s e s ta tio n s
Pa th lo s s @ 1 m [d B ]
Dis ta n c e d e p e n d e n t a tte n u a tio n fa c to r
Ce ll ra d iu s [m ]
Ch a n n e l b a n d wid th [MH z ]
Th e rm a l n o is e fl o o r [d B m ]
# Re c e ivin g a n te n n a s
Ave ra g e te rm in a l p o we r [d B m ]
Ma x im u m te rm in a l p o we r [d B m ]
# Se c to rs p e r b a s e s ta tio n
Tra ffi c [u s e rs /k m 2 ]
In te rs ite d is ta n c e [m ]
Va lu e
50 0 0
3
2
20
8
0 .5
-35.8
3.5
36 0
5
-1 0 3
2,4
24
33
3
1 ,3,1 0
0 -6 23.5
Sinc e th e p ath lo s s is rec ip ro c al th e algo rith m d es c rib ed

b y E q . (1 1 ) c an b e im p lem ented in a d is trib u ted fas h io n
w h ere th e term inals , s u b s eq u ent to c o nd u c ting th e nec es s ary
m eas u rem ents s elec t th e ap p ro p riate b as e s tatio n. N o tic e th at
th is fac ilitates a s o -c alled m o b ile c o ntro lled h and o ff, w h ic h
p revio u s ly h as b een id entifi ed as a d es irab le p ro p erty in m u ltio p erato r enviro nm ents s inc e it am o ngs t o th er red u c es th e
s ignaling b etw een th e invo lved o p erato rs [7 ] [1 2 ]. As w e
neglec t effec ts o f m eas u rem ent erro rs , w e im p lic ity as s u m e
th at th e term inals h ave th e ab ility to m eas u re th e p ath gain
id eally fo r th e entire c and id ate s et o f b as e s tatio ns .
G enerally h and o ver algo rith m s als o inc o rp o rating lo ad info rm atio n o u tp erfo rm th o s e th at m erely b as e th eir d ec is io n o n
rec eived s ignal q u ality [6 ]. Th is is h o w ever d u e to lim ited
s p ac e o u ts id e th e s c o p e o f th is p ap er.
III. P ERFORMANCE M EASURES AND S IMULATION M ODEL
Th is s ec tio n b riefl y d es c rib es th e s im u latio n enviro nm ent
u s ed to q u antify ing th e gains in u s er th ro u gh p u t as s o c iated
w ith natio nal ro am ing.
A . Pe r fo r m a n c e M e a s u r e s
O ne ru d im entary m eas u re o f th e b enefi t w ith natio nal ro am ing is th e ac h ievab le u s er th ro u gh p u t. In th e p ap er w e u s e th e
average u s er th ro u gh p u t, w h ic h als o c o rres p o nd s th e s y s tem
th ro u gh p u t, to m eas u re gain an u s er ac h ieves in average. As
no m inim u m gu aranteed d ata rates h ave b een as s u m ed (and
c o ns eq u ently , no ad m is s io n c o ntro l h ave u s ed u s ed ) w e u s e
th e average d ata th ro u gh p u t fo r th e 1 0 th u s er p erc entile, w h ic h
d es c rib es th e s itu atio n fo r u s ers lo c ated at th e c ell b o rd er.
F. M in im u m Pa th -L o s s B a s e S ta tio n S e le c tio n
We as s u m e th at u s ers c o nnec t to th e b as e s tatio n as s o c iated
w ith th e h igh es t lo ng-term average p ath gain kl . C o ns eq u ently u s er k c o nnec ts to b as e s tatio n l w h ere
l = argm ax kl
ll
and l is th e s et o f b as e s tatio n th at th e u s er c an s elec t.
(1 1 )
B . S im u la tio n M o d e l
Th ro u gh o u t th e s im u latio ns w e as s u m e th at th ree o p erato rs
c o ex is ts . Po tential b o rd er effec ts are m itigated th ro u gh an
im p lem ented w rap -aro u nd tec h niq u e and w ith in o u r s im u latio ns th e inter-o p erato r s ite d is tanc e d, lo ad and nu m b er
o f rec eiving antennas M are varied . R em aining s im u latio ns
p aram eters are s u m m ariz ed in Tab le I.
2 00
150
Chapter 10. Throughput with National Roaming (Paper 6)

1 user/cell
3 users/cell
10 users/cell
1 00
50
0
120
1 00
Interoperator site distance 6 2 4 m

1 user/cell
3 users/cell
10 users/cell
80
60
40
20
0
50
Gain in average user throughput with national roaming [%]
Gain in 10th percentile user throughput with national roaming [%]
122
40

1 user/cell
3 users/cell
10 users/cell
30
20
10
0
30
25

1 user/cell
3 users/cell
10 users/cell
20
15
10
5
0
(a) G ain in 1 0 -p erc en tile u s er th rou gh p u t

(b ) G ain in average u s er th rou gh p u t
F ig. 2 . Th e relative gain in u s er th rou gh p u t for th e 1 0 th p erc en tile an d average u s er th rou gh p u t w ith n ation al roam in g. Th ree load s j {1, 3, 10 } are
p res en ted for tw o variou s s y s tem s .
IV. N UMERICAL R ESULTS

T h is s ec tion s tarts with an gen eral evalu ation of th e th rou gh p u t gain s a m ob ile op erator c an ex p ec t with n ation al roam in g.
T h en , we an alyz e h ow th es e gain s d ep en d on th e m ic ros c op ic
d ivers ity ord er an d th e in ter-op erator s ite d is tan c e of th e in volved s ys tem s . Notic e th at eac h op erator op erator is res tric ted
to th eir own c arrier als o in th e c as e of n ation al roam in g. A
join t freq u en c y p lan wou ld in c reas e th e gain as s oc iated with
n ation al roam in g even fu rth er.
A. G a in s w ith N a tio n a l R o a m in g
T h e u p p er p art of F igu re 2 p res en ts th e relative gain of th e
average d ata th rou gh p u t for th e 1 0 th u s er p erc en tile as well
as for th e average u s er in a s ys tem u tiliz in g two rec eivin g
an ten n as an d a RR s c h ed u ler. T h ree load s j {1, 3, 10 } and
two inter-op erator s ite dis tanc es are c ons idered.
T h e relative gain for th e 1 0 th u s er p erc entile varies between
7 9 1 8 5 % (1 0 0 % c orres p onds to a dou bling) and alth ou gh th e
gain for th e average u s er s m aller it is s till s ignifi c ant. T h e
gains are m ainly m otivated by redu c ed p ath -los s , bu t als o
aris e from lowered average interferenc e levels . From th e fi gu re
we fu rth erm ore s ee th at th e gains inc reas e with both interop erator s ite dis tanc e and load. T h e latter c an, at leas t p artially,
be ex p lained by th at interferenc e levels at low loads already
with ou t national roam ing is s m all. T h is m ak es th e interferenc e
redu c tion enabled by national roam ing les s p rom inent. For th e
1 0 th u s er p erc entile th e differenc e is ac c entu ated as th os e u s ers
typ ic ally are loc ated in c ells with h igh loads . A t low loads ,
th is is c om p ens ated by inc reas ed trans m it p ower (s ee E q . 7 ),
wh ic h redu c es th e relative interferenc e level even fu rth er.
B. E ffe c t o f H ig h e r M ic ro s c o p ic D iv e r s ity
T h e lower p art of Figu re 2 p res ents th e c orres p onding
gains for a s ys tem u tiliz ing fou r rec eiving antennas and a P F
s c h edu ler. C om p ared to th e th os e rep orted above, we s ee th at

th e relative gains as s oc iated with national roam ing are redu c ed
for m ore advanc ed s ys tem s . N otic e h owever th at c ons iderable
gains s till ex is ts . T h e gain redu c tion aris es s inc e s ys tem s em p loying op p ortu nis tic s c h edu ling, m ore rec eiving antennas or
in any tec h niq u e im p roving th at ex p loits m ic ros c op ic divers ity
in order to im p rove th e link q u ality are as s oc iated with h igh er
S IR and, th u s , als o u s er th rou gh p u t levels . H enc e th e relative
gain m ay dec reas e even th ou gh th e abs olu te one inc reas es .
T h is fac t is dep ic ted in Figu re 3, wh ic h p res ents th e data rate
for th e 1 0 th u s er p erc entile. B es ides th e two afore des c ribed
s ys tem s , one u s ing fou r antennas and R R s c h edu ling and one
u s ing two antennas and a P F s c h edu ler are treated.
From Figu re 3 it is c lear th at u s er th rou gh p u t inc reas es wh en
a P F s c h edu ler is u s ed ins tead of a R R s c h edu ler. A dditionally,
it c an be s een th at th e relative gain as s oc iated with th e P F
s c h edu ler inc reas es as th e load, and h enc e m u ltiu s er divers ity,
inc reas es . In s ys tem s with h igh loads , e.g. j = 10 u s ers p er
c ell, it yields gains s im ilar to th os e obtained with national
roam ing. N otic e h owever th at a P F s c h edu ler gives s ignifi c ant
gains als o for s m all loads . T h is , at fi rs t rath er u nex p ec ted
res u lt, aris es s inc e th e nu m ber of u s ers in a c ertain c ell is
P ois s on dis tribu ted. T h u s th e wors t u s ers are, even at low
loads , lik ely to be in c ells wh ere th e wireles s c h annel is
s h ared with s everal oth ers s o th at a m u ltiu s er divers ity is
p res ent. Finally, we note th at adding m ore rec eiving antennas
ou tp erform s P F s c h edu ling at low loads wh ereas th e gains
c oinc ides at h igh er loads .
C . E ffe c t o f In c r e a s e d In te r -O p e r a to r S ite D is ta n c e
Irres p ec tively of s c h edu ling s trategy, nu m ber of rec eiving
antennas and s ys tem load, th e u s er th rou gh p u t for th e 1 0 th
u s er p erc entile initially inc reas es rap idly with d. H owever,
at dis tanc es c om p arable to th e dec orrelation dis tanc e u s er
123
T h ro u g h p u t fo r th e 10th p e rc e n tile o f u s e rs [M b p s ]
T
T
F
F
w o a n te n n a s
w o a n te n n a s
o u r a n te n n a s
o u r a n te n n a s
R R
PF
R R
PF
1 u s e r/c e ll
3
3 u s e rs /c e ll
2
10 u s e rs /c e ll
0
0
100
200
300
400
In te ro p e ra to r s ite d is ta n c e [m ]
500
600
Fig. 3 . Th e 1 0 -p erc en tile o f u ser th ro u gh p u t as a fu n c tio n o f in ter-o p erato r

site d istan c e fo r d ifferen t an ten n as an d p ac ket sc h ed u lin g strategies. No te th at
c o -sitin g (0 m site d istan c e) c o rresp o n d to th e sin gle-o p erato r c ase.
throughput s aturates . T his s ugges ts that, for bes t effort traffi c

an d a m in im um path los s han d off algorithm , on ly m in or
c overage gain s are obtain ed by optim al c o-plan n in g of the
n etwork s . Yet, it is of c ours e of prin c ipal im portan c e that
the s ites are n ot c o-loc ated , in whic h c as e n o m ac ros c opic
d ivers ity gain s are ac hieved .
S im ilarly as for the 1 0 th us er perc en tile the average us er
throughput in c reas es rapid ly with in c reas in g in ter-operator s ite
d is tan c e d. A roun d half of the gain is obtain ed alread y when
s ites are s eparated with 7 8 m , jus t above the d ec orrelation
d is tan c e of the s had ow fad in g. H en c e, a join t s ite plan n in g
is n either m otivated from a s y s tem c apac ity pers pec tive. D ue
to lim ited s pac e thes e res ults are n ot in c lud ed in the paper.
D. Va lid ity o f R e s u lts
T he valid ity of our pres en ted res ults are n aturally s ubjec t to the applied s y s tem m od ellin g an d as s um ption s . For
in s tan c e, in the s im ulation all operators were as s um ed to
have the s am e ty pe of n etwork (bas e s tation d en s ity , rad io
ac c es s tec hn ology , etc .). M oreover we as s um ed id eal path
los s m eas urem en ts an d bes t effort traffi c with full buffers ,
whic h s tron gly effec ts , for ex am ple, the m ultius er d ivers ity
gain . A ll of the aforem en tion ed as s um ption s are lik ely to
y ield optim is tic perform an c e gain s when m eas ured in abs olute
n um bers . H owever, if the s am e m od ellin g errors are m ad e in
the s in gle operator referen c e c as e, the relative c om paris on s
s hould n ot be s ign ifi c an tly affec ted . H en c e, even though the
us er throughput of real n etwork s are un lik ely to be the s am e, it
is reas on able to believe that the relative gain s as s oc iated with
n ation al roam in g would be s im ilar as thos e pres en ted here.
V. C ONCLUSIONS
In this paper poten tial gain s as s oc iated with n a tio n a l ro a m in g , where operators s hare the wireles s in fras truc ture in ord er
to in c reas e the c overage for higher d ata rates , have been

s tud ied . T hroughout the s tud y ac tive us ers were as s um ed
s tation ary an d c on n ec ted to the bas e s tation with highes t
res ultin g path gain .
E n ablin g n ation al roam in g c an in this s c en ario d ouble the
d ata rates that us ers c los e to the c ell bord er ac hieves , even
with n early c o-loc ated bas e s tation s . T he gain is partly d ue to
red uc ed path los s , but als o from a lower average in terferen c e
level, whic h us ers c los e to the bas e s tation als o ben efi t of.
E ven though the relative gain in c reas e with in c reas in g in teroperator s ite d is tan c e an d traffi c load , alm os t half of the gain
aris e from m ac ros c opic d ivers ity again s t s had ow fad in g. T his
s ugges ts that the ben efi ts for operators to c o-plan their bas e
s tation s ites with n ation al roam in g are lim ited .
M oreover we c om pared the gain s with n ation al roam in g
to a few other (s tan d ard ) tec hn iq ues to in c reas e c apac ity an d
c overage, s uc h as m ulti-us er d ivers ity s c hed ulers an d rec eive
d ivers ity with m ultiple an ten n as . It was s hown that the gain
with n ation al roam in g is s ign ifi c an tly higher, es pec ially for
low traffi c load , in whic h c as e the preferable ord er (without
c on s id erin g c os ts or other ec on om ic variables ) is n ation al
roam in g, m ore an ten n a elem en ts an d las tly m ore ad van c ed
s c hed ulin g s trategies .
N atural ex ten s ion s to this work would be to s tud y the effec ts
of m ore s ophis tic ated han d off algorithm s , the in fl uen c e of
in hom ogen eous us er d is tribution s , m eas urem en t errors , an d
ad d ition al c apac ity gain s obtain able in s y s tem s with ad m is s ion
c on trol (d ue to trun k in g effi c ien c y ).
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Rad io Reso u rc e M an agem en t (CRRM ) , in Pro c . o f IE E E IC C , 2 0 0 2 .
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Cost Efficient Provisioning of

Infrastructure Cost Modeling and

Licentiate Thesis in Telecommunication

Cost Efficient Provisioning of Wireless Access

Infrastructure Cost Modeling and Multi-Operator Resource Sharing

Licentiate Thesis in Telecommunication

KTH Signaler, sensorer och system

Akademisk avhandling som med tillst

Tryck: Universitetsservice US-AB

Gerald Maguire, Jan Markendahl, Guest Professor Osten

to Anders, Bo, Johan, Martin, and Osten

2 Infrastructure Cost Modeling

3 Multi-Operator Resource Sharing

A Cost Modeling and Pricing Strategies

B Network Sharing Use Cases

5 Base Station Characteristics (Paper 1)

6 Heterogeneous Infrastructure Cost (Paper 2)

7 Cost Efficient Capacity Expansion (Paper 3)

8 User Deployed Access Points (Paper 4)

9 Fair Resource Sharing (Paper 5)

10 Throughput with National Roaming (Paper 6)

Single carrier WCDMA BS performance assumptions . . . . . . .

System parameters used in national roaming simulations . . . . .

Approximative macro cell ranges at different carrier frequencies

Principle network sharing methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

First, . . . , Fourth Generation of Mobile Systems

Evolution of the Mobile Internet

Demand for Wireless Access

The Cost of Coverage and Mobility

1.2. Scope of the Thesis

Price regulation is frequently applied for inter-connection charges between

Scope of the Thesis

General Problem Description

Adapt BS capabilities to local coverage and capacity requirements using

1.2. Scope of the Thesis

1.3. Thesis Outline

Chapter 2. Infrastructure Cost Modeling

Uplink user throughput (outdoors) [Mbps]

Distance from base station [m]

2.1. Related Work

Business case feasibility studies

Chapter 2. Infrastructure Cost Modeling

Similar methodology has been used to analyze the profitability of Swedish

Network planning and optimization

2.1. Related Work

In wireless networks the fixed part of the last mile-transmission stand

Residential broadband access

Chapter 2. Infrastructure Cost Modeling

Assessments of Spectrum Allocations

report was later summarized in a journal article [54].

User deployed access points

Chapter 2. Infrastructure Cost Modeling

an effective method to compare achievable cost reductions with respect to

2.4. Base Station Characteristics (Paper 1)

Relation between Base Station Characteristics and Cost Structure (Paper 1)

Infrastructure Cost Model

Chapter 2. Infrastructure Cost Modeling

Aservice Nuser Wuser

2.5. Heterogeneous Infrastructure Cost (Paper 2)

Table 2.1: Single carrier WCDMA BS performance estimates (based on own

exact figures are of course case specific.

Chapter 2. Infrastructure Cost Modeling

Base station cost structure

Radio equipment and O&M