Joint Deployment and Pricing of Next-Generation WiFi Networks
Joint Deployment and Pricing of Next-Generation WiFi Networks
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DOI：
10.1109/tcomm.2019.2919590
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发表时间：
2019-05
影响因子：
8.3
通讯作者：
Konstantinos Poularakis;G. Iosifidis;L. Tassiulas
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Konstantinos Poularakis;G. Iosifidis;L. Tassiulas
越来越多的运营商利用WiFi来投机取巧地卸载蜂窝网络基础设施，甚至通过WiFi套餐和WiFi点播通行证来增加收入。尽管这项技术的重要性和发展势头强劲，但目前运营商对WiFi接入点（ap）的部署主要遵循启发式方法。此外，普遍的免费WiFi接入政策可能会给运营商带来巨大的机会成本，因为这些流量可能会带来不可忽视的收入。本文以运营商利润最大化为目标，研究WiFi ap的优化部署和WiFi数据使用定价问题。解决这个问题是WiFi与下一代运营商网络有效集成的先决条件。我们的框架考虑了各种需求模型，这些模型预测了交通将如何随着价格和AP位置的变化而变化。我们提出了最优解和近似解，并揭示了关键参数如何塑造运营商利润。对WiFi接入模式数据集的评估表明，WiFi确实可以帮助运营商降低成本，同时向用户收取的费用比手机服务低50%左右。
WiFi is increasingly used by carriers for opportunistically offloading the cellular network infrastructure or even for increasing their revenue through WiFi-only plans and WiFi on-demand passes. Despite the importance and momentum of this technology, the current deployment of WiFi access points (APs) by the carriers follows mostly a heuristic approach. In addition, the prevalent free-of-charge WiFi access policy may result in significant opportunity costs for the carriers, as this traffic could yield non-negligible revenue. In this paper, we study the problem of optimizing the deployment of WiFi APs and pricing the WiFi data usage with the goal of maximizing carrier profit. Addressing this problem is a prerequisite for the efficient integration of WiFi to next-generation carrier networks. Our framework considers various demand models that predict how traffic will change in response to alteration in price and AP locations. We present both optimal and approximate solutions and reveal how key parameters shape the carrier profit. Evaluations on a dataset of WiFi access patterns indicate that WiFi can indeed help carriers reduce their costs while charging users about 50% lower than the cellular service.