EARS: Spectrum and Infrastructure Sharing in Millimeter Wave Cellular Networks

由于传统蜂窝频段的频谱严重短缺，30至300 GHz之间的毫米波（mmWave）频率作为下一代微蜂窝和微蜂窝无线网络的可能候选者越来越受到关注。毫米波频段提供了比当前蜂窝分配大几个数量级的频谱，并使非常高维的天线阵列能够通过波束形成和空间复用获得进一步的增益。然而，由于在这些频率中传播的独特性质，蜂窝系统将需要进行重大重新设计，以充分利用这些频率的潜力。该项目研究毫米波网络设计中的一个关键维度：资源共享，涉及多个运营商共享频谱和网络基础设施资源。有人认为，这种形式的共享对于充分利用这些频带提供的巨大带宽和天线自由度以及提供统计多路复用以适应流量的高度可变性质至关重要。这个跨学科的项目探讨了毫米波资源共享的工程和经济方面。在工程方面，关键的挑战是频谱不仅要在时间和频率上共享，还要在空间上共享。此外，需要新的去中心化机制，以便在多方之间快速重新分配回程和核心网络元素。该项目开发信号处理方法、协议和网络优化算法，以促进频谱的定向共享以及动态重路由和负载平衡。在经济和政策方面，在运营商、监管机构和第三方频谱和资源经纪人之间不同形式的许可协议下，研究了几种共享所有权模式。基于从工程方面获得的产能估算，开发了经济模型来评估关键指标，如运营和资本成本、联盟形成和市场集中度。

With the severe spectrum shortage in conventional cellular bands, millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies between 30 and 300 GHz have been attracting growing attention as a possible candidate for next-generation micro- and pico-cellular wireless networks. The mmWave bands offer orders of magnitude greater spectrum than current cellular allocations and enable very high-dimensional antenna arrays for further gains via beam-forming and spatial multiplexing. However, due to unique nature of propagation in these frequencies, cellular systems will need to be significantly redesigned to fully exploit the potential of these frequencies. This project investigates one key dimension in mmWave network design: resource sharing, involving the sharing of spectrum and network infrastructure resources by multiple operators. It is argued that sharing of this form will be essential to fully exploit the tremendous bandwidth and antenna degrees of freedom offered by these bands and also provide statistical multiplexing to accommodate the highly variable nature of traffic.This inter-disciplinary project explores both the engineering and economic aspects of mmWave resource sharing. On the engineering side, the key challenge is that the spectrum must be shared not only in time and frequency, but also space. In addition, new decentralized mechanisms are required to rapidly reallocate backhaul and core network elements across multiple parties. The project develops signal processing methods, protocols and network optimization algorithms to facilitate directional sharing of spectrum along with dynamic re-routing and load balancing. On the economic and policy side, several shared ownership models under varying forms of licensing agreements between the operators, regulatory agencies and third-party spectrum and resource brokers are investigated. Based on the capacity estimates obtained from the engineering side, economic models are developed to assess key indicators such as operating and capital costs and coalition formation and market concentration.