Collaborative Research: Virtualized Wireless Networks and Their Impact on Capacity Markets

该项目开发了无线网络的新愿景，其基础是创建服务驱动型虚拟网络，该虚拟网络由属于各种利益相关者的资源池构建。资源包括频谱、物理基础设施以及控制和管理支持，利益相关者包括传统移动运营商、WiFi接入网络运营商、通过小蜂窝部署支持无线连接的企业和家庭、流量聚合器(如移动虚拟网络运营商[MVNO])和监管机构。由此产生的体系结构将面向消费者的服务提供与用于构建网络的技术分开，从而实现了当前无线服务提供系统的去中介化。将网络接入交易发生的点向价值链(或协议堆栈)上游移动意味着可以向消费者提供更广泛的服务类型，而不需要(面向消费者的)服务提供商进行大量的前期资本投资。这将对行业和社会产生深远的影响，影响这些网络的设计和建设方式、频谱和基础设施资源的管理，以及通过网络提供的服务的定价结构。该项目首先定义了一个新的体系结构，该体系结构支持在不同体制下许可的频谱和不同所有权的基础设施的组合上实现无线网络的虚拟化。基于博弈论和虚拟网络建设的市场模型，设计了一种新的资源管理机制，以选择合适的资源集合来构建具有给定覆盖和容量要求的虚拟无线网络。针对多个对象的组合拍卖是用于这样的虚拟无线网络的资源的动态分配和聚集的实用机制。在分析拟议架构对频谱市场的影响时，一个关键问题是，纳入虚拟频谱商品是否会影响这些市场的生存能力(以流动性结果衡量)，以及这与之前交易的商品是物理频谱资源或裸频谱的情景相比如何；最后，本项目探索在LTE-Advanced和预期的5G发展的背景下，虚拟无线容量市场在当前无线网络中实施时将如何运作。

This project develops a new vision for wireless networks, predicated on the creation of service-driven virtual networks constructed from a pool for resources that belong to a variety of stakeholders. The resources include spectrum, physical infrastructure, and control and management support, and the stakeholders include traditional mobile operators, operators of WiFi access networks, businesses and households that support wireless connectivity through small cell deployment, traffic aggregators (such as Mobile Virtual Network Operators [MVNOs]), and regulators. The resulting architecture separates the consumer-facing service provision from the technologies used to construct the network, enabling the disintermediation of current wireless service provision systems. Moving the point at which network access transactions take place up the value chain (or the protocol stack) means that a greater range of service types can be provided to consumers without requiring large up-front capital investments on the part of the (consumer-facing) service providers. This will have profound impact on both industry and society, affecting the way that these networks are designed and built, spectrum and infrastructure resources are managed, and pricing structures for services provided over the network.This project first defines a new architecture that enables the virtualization of a wireless network over a combination of spectrum licensed under different regimes and infrastructure with different ownership. Relying on game theoretic and market models of virtual network construction, new resource management mechanisms are designed to select the appropriate set of resources to build a virtual wireless network with given coverage and capacity requirements. Combinatorial auctions for multiple objects are practical mechanisms for the dynamic allocation and aggregation of resources for such a virtualized wireless network. In analyzing the impact of the proposed architecture on spectrum markets, a key question is whether the incorporation of a virtualized spectrum commodity influences the viability of these markets (as measured by the liquidity outcome), and how this compares to previous scenarios in which the traded commodity was the physical spectrum resource or 'naked spectrum;. Finally, this project explores how markets in virtual wireless capacity would work when implemented in current wireless networks, in the context of LTE-Advanced and expected 5G developments.