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

该项目为无线网络开发了一个新的愿景，其基础是创建服务驱动的虚拟网络，该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的移动的运营商、WiFi接入网络运营商、通过小型小区部署支持无线连接的企业和家庭、流量聚合器（例如移动的虚拟网络运营商[MVNO]）以及监管机构。由此产生的架构将面向消费者的服务提供与用于构建网络的技术分离，从而实现当前无线服务提供系统的非中介化。将网络访问交易发生的点向上移动到价值链（或协议栈）意味着可以向消费者提供更大范围的服务类型，而不需要（面向消费者的）服务提供商方面的大量前期资本投资。这将对行业和社会产生深远影响，影响这些网络的设计和构建方式，频谱和基础设施资源的管理方式，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架构，该架构能够通过不同制度下许可的频谱和不同所有权的基础设施的组合实现无线网络的虚拟化。基于虚拟网络构建的博弈论和市场模型，设计了新的资源管理机制，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化无线网络的资源的动态分配和聚合的实用机制。在分析所提出的架构对频谱市场的影响时，一个关键问题是虚拟化频谱商品的加入是否会影响这些市场的可行性（通过流动性结果来衡量），以及这与之前交易的商品是物理频谱资源的情况相比如何？裸光谱？最后，该项目探讨了在LTE-Advanced和预期的5G发展背景下，虚拟无线容量市场在当前无线网络中实施时如何运作。

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.