Economic Models for Collaborative Access Network Provisioning: US-Finland Collaboration

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Increased capacity in wireless networks has largely come from shrinking cell sizes, but continuing this trend has become impractical for large operators. Small wireless networks are also straining in overcrowded spectrum bands. The problems are particularly acute in high-density 802.11 deployments. It is clear that a collaborative approach, taking advantage of both large infrastructure deployment by operators and distributed deployments of 802.11 and femtocell networks could be extremely beneficial. This project focuses on three major problems related to heterogeneous wireless networks. First, models are developed that quantify the gains from cooperation between large operators and small-scale operators and end users deploying their own wireless access networks. Second, game theoretic and pricing models are developed to study incentive structures to support collaboration in heterogeneous wireless networks. Third, a threat model is developed to specifically model security threats that would impact a heterogeneous wireless network through a holistic vulnerability assessment. These three tasks are all complemented by frequent prototyping and experimentation.This work will be immediately applicable to real networks and will quantify the benefits of collaboration for network operators. In addition, the collaborative project will deepen technological collaboration between the United States and Finland. The models developed in this project will all be available and published in the scientific literature, providing a holistic understanding of heterogeneous wireless networks. These models will catalyze the further technical development of protocols and standards to support open, heterogeneous wireless networks.