EARS: Spectrum and Infrastructure Sharing in Millimeter Wave Cellular Networks

EARS：毫米波蜂窝网络中的频谱和基础设施共享

• 批准号: 1547332
• 负责人: Sundeep Rangan
• 金额: $ 75万
• 依托单位: New York University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-02-01 至 2021-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1547332&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EARS; Spectrum; Infrastructure; Sharing; Millimeter

With the severe spectrum shortage in conventional cellular bands, millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies between 30 and 300 GHz have been attracting growing attention as a possible candidate for next-generation micro- and pico-cellular wireless networks. The mmWave bands offer orders of magnitude greater spectrum than current cellular allocations and enable very high-dimensional antenna arrays for further gains via beam-forming and spatial multiplexing. However, due to unique nature of propagation in these frequencies, cellular systems will need to be significantly redesigned to fully exploit the potential of these frequencies. This project investigates one key dimension in mmWave network design: resource sharing, involving the sharing of spectrum and network infrastructure resources by multiple operators. It is argued that sharing of this form will be essential to fully exploit the tremendous bandwidth and antenna degrees of freedom offered by these bands and also provide statistical multiplexing to accommodate the highly variable nature of traffic.This inter-disciplinary project explores both the engineering and economic aspects of mmWave resource sharing. On the engineering side, the key challenge is that the spectrum must be shared not only in time and frequency, but also space. In addition, new decentralized mechanisms are required to rapidly reallocate backhaul and core network elements across multiple parties. The project develops signal processing methods, protocols and network optimization algorithms to facilitate directional sharing of spectrum along with dynamic re-routing and load balancing. On the economic and policy side, several shared ownership models under varying forms of licensing agreements between the operators, regulatory agencies and third-party spectrum and resource brokers are investigated. Based on the capacity estimates obtained from the engineering side, economic models are developed to assess key indicators such as operating and capital costs and coalition formation and market concentration.

由于传统蜂窝频段频谱严重短缺，30 至 300 GHz 之间的毫米波 (mmWave) 频率作为下一代微蜂窝和微微蜂窝无线网络的可能候选者越来越受到关注。毫米波频段提供的频谱比当前蜂窝分配的频谱大几个数量级，并支持非常高维的天线阵列，通过波束成形和空间复用获得进一步增益。然而，由于这些频率传播的独特性质，蜂窝系统需要进行重大重新设计，以充分利用这些频率的潜力。该项目研究毫米波网络设计的一个关键维度：资源共享，涉及多个运营商共享频谱和网络基础设施资源。有人认为，共享这种形式对于充分利用这些频段提供的巨大带宽和天线自由度至关重要，并提供统计复用以适应流量的高度可变性。这个跨学科项目探索了工程和毫米波资源共享的经济方面。在工程方面，关键的挑战是频谱不仅必须在时间和频率上共享，而且还必须在空间上共享。此外，需要新的去中心化机制来跨多方快速重新分配回程和核心网络元素。该项目开发信号处理方法、协议和网络优化算法，以促进频谱的定向共享以及动态重新路由和负载平衡。在经济和政策方面，研究了运营商、监管机构以及第三方频谱和资源经纪人之间不同形式的许可协议下的几种共享所有权模式。根据从工程方面获得的容量估算，开发经济模型来评估运营和资本成本以及联盟形成和市场集中度等关键指标。

项目成果

Capacity Scaling of Cellular Networks: Impact of Bandwidth, Infrastructure Density and Number of Antennas

• DOI: 10.1109/twc.2017.2769054
• 发表时间: 2017-05
• 期刊: IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications
• 影响因子: 10.4
• 作者: Felipe Gómez-Cuba;E. Erkip;S. Rangan;F. González-Castaño