A Sharing- and Competition-Aware Framework for Cellular Network Evolution Planning

TL;DR

This paper introduces a framework for cellular network evolution planning that incorporates infrastructure sharing and competition regulation, demonstrating improved resource efficiency and deployment strategies using real-world data.

Contribution

It presents a novel modeling framework that considers sharing and regulation constraints, providing insights into optimal network evolution and resource allocation.

Findings

Sharing infrastructure shifts capacity from rural to urban areas.

Regulation limits sharing but still allows significant efficiency gains.

Wider deployment of next-generation tech is encouraged under regulation.

Abstract

Mobile network operators are facing the difficult task of significantly increasing capacity to meet projected demand while keeping CAPEX and OPEX down. We argue that infrastructure sharing is a key consideration in operators' planning of the evolution of their networks, and that such planning can be viewed as a stage in the cognitive cycle. In this paper, we present a framework to model this planning process while taking into account both the ability to share resources and the constraints imposed by competition regulation (the latter quantified using the Herfindahl index). Using real-world demand and deployment data, we find that the ability to share infrastructure essentially moves capacity from rural, sparsely populated areas (where some of the current infrastructure can be decommissioned) to urban ones (where most of the next-generation base stations would be deployed), with significant increases in resource efficiency. Tight competition regulation somewhat limits the ability to share but does not entirely jeopardize those gains, while having the secondary effect of encouraging the wider deployment of next-generation technologies.