Research On Network Infrastructure Sharing Technologies In Mobile Communication Systems

For the last few decades,mobile communication systems have experienced a rapid growth around the world.They have contributed in expanding communication services to the unconnected population in both developed and developing countries.Currently,there is a rapid technological changes and high demand for data flow.This trend of technological changes and high data demand is not expected to drop in recent years.To meet this demand,mobile network operators?MNOs?need to upgrade and extend their network infrastructures to increase the capacity.Network infrastructure deployment and maintenance is very expensive,this requires MNOs to invest heavily into it.MNOs deploying infrastructures to the rural area become challenge;consequently most of rural areas are unconnected.About 4billion people globally have no access to the internet,majority being from developing countries of Africa and Asia.Therefore,the need for network access to all,calls for innovative modes of infrastructure deployment and management for mobile network systems.Network infrastructure sharing?NIS?is considered as a promising practical solution for MNOs to reduce both the capital expenses?CAPEX?,operational expenses?OPEX?and get along with the technological changes to meet the fast growing demands of data traffic.For that reason,this study investigates the mobile NIS and proposes various sharing strategies for MNOs in developing world.A survey research approach was employed to collect data from telecom experts and the end users.End users were subdivided into three subgroups based on the area.These areas were Dar Es Salaam City,Morogoro Town and Matombo Village.This aimed at collecting data that represents the study population.During research,questionnaires,interview,and observation were used for data collection.The survey results show that poor network coverage,high inter-operators charges,unreliable power supply,and poor quality of services are among the challenges facing telecommunication sector in most developing countries like Tanzania.The survey shows that,MNOs use diesel generators to power their infrastructure leading to high running cost and environmental pollution.Furthermore,NIS and the usage of renewable energy?RE?by MNOs are low.Therefore,researcher proposes joint venture?JV?,tower companies?TowerCos?involvement and wireless network virtualization?WNV?technology to enhance NIS in developing countries.Then a techno-economic analysis of joint venture site deployment was performed.The results from cooperative game theory have shown that,there is a significant cost reduction when MNOs jointly develop a site.On top of that,JV reduces the wastage of resources and the number of diesel generators from each site.Moreover,this study introduced the hybrid power system?HPS?scheme for powering the mobile network site in remote area where there is no power grid.Various power system configurations,integrating different components to generate power for remote base stations?BS?were evaluated and the techno-economic analysis was performed using Hybrid Optimization Model for Energy Resources?HOMER?.The results obtained from the cost analysis revealed that the use of HPS can reduce net present cost?NPC?,cost of energy?COE?,and greenhouse gas?GHG?emissions and increase the RE penetration.The study has also revealed that the Diesel Generator/Solar/Battery HPS is financially viable,environmental friendly and provides a sustainable solution for powering MNOs?site?s?.Furthermore RE contributes about83%of power production reducing the dependence of the diesel generators,and GHG emissions.For example,a conventional diesel generator system,produce about27,227Kg/year of carbon dioxide?CO₂?while HPS produce about 3,123Kg/year of the same,accounting to annual CO₂ reduction of about 88%.