Capturing Capacity and Profit Gains with Base Station Sharing in mmWave Cellular Networks

TL;DR

This paper explores how base station sharing in mmWave cellular networks can enhance capacity and profitability simultaneously, using a weighted scheduling algorithm to balance technical gains and market competition.

Contribution

It introduces a weighted scheduling algorithm that enables profitable base station sharing in mmWave networks under certain market conditions.

Findings

Sharing can increase network capacity significantly.

Proper scheduling weights can make sharing more profitable for providers.

Both technical and economic benefits can be achieved simultaneously.

Abstract

Due to the greater path loss, shadowing, and increased effect of blockage in millimeter wave cellular networks, base station sharing among network service providers has the potential to significantly improve overall network capacity. However, a service provider may find that despite the technical gains, sharing actually reduces its profits because it makes price competition between service providers tougher. In this work, a weighted scheduling algorithm is described, which gives greater control over how the airtime resource is allocated within a shared cell. It is shown that, under certain market conditions, there exist scheduling weights such that base station sharing is more profitable than not sharing for both service providers in a duopoly market, while still achieving almost as much network capacity as in a conventional base station sharing scenario. Thus, both technical and economic benefits of base station sharing may be realized simultaneously.