Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 84428, Saudi Arabia.
School of Computing, Gachon University, Seongnam 13120, Korea.
Sensors (Basel). 2022 Jul 12;22(14):5215. doi: 10.3390/s22145215.
With the deployment of the fifth generation (5G) mobile network systems and the envisioned heterogeneous ultra-dense networks (UDNs), both small cell (SmC) and distributed antenna system (DAS) technologies are required by mobile network operators (MNOs) and venue owners to support multiple spectrum bands, multiple radio access technologies (RATs), multiple optical central offices (COs), and multiple MNOs. As a result, the neutral host business model representing a third party responsible for managing the network enterprise on behalf of multiple MNOs has emerged as a potential solution, mainly influenced by the desire to provide a high user experience without significantly increasing the total cost of ownership (TCO). However, designing a sustainable business model for a neutral host is a nontrivial task, especially when considered in the context of 5G and beyond (5GB) UDNs. In this paper, under an integrated optical wireless network infrastructure, we review how SmC and DAS technologies are evolving towards the adoption of the neutral host business model and identify key challenges and requirements for 5GB support. Thus, we explore recent candidate advancements in heterogeneous network integration technologies for the realization of an efficient 5GB neutral host business model design capable of accommodating both SmC and DAS. Furthermore, we propose a novel design architecture that relies on virtual radio access network (vRAN) to enable real-time dynamic resource allocation and radio over Ethernet (RoE) for flexible and reconfigurable fronthaul. The results from our simulations using MATLAB over two real-life deployment scenarios validate the feasibility of utilizing switched RoE considering end-to-end delay requirements of 5GB under different switching schemes, as long as the queuing delay is kept to a minimum. Finally, the results show that incorporating RoE and vRAN technologies into the neutral host design results in substantial TCO reduction by about 81% in an indoor scenario and 73% in an outdoor scenario.
随着第五代（5G）移动网络系统的部署和预期的异构超密集网络（UDN），移动网络运营商（MNO）和场馆所有者都需要小型小区（SmC）和分布式天线系统（DAS）技术来支持多个频谱带、多种无线电接入技术（RAT）、多个光中心局（CO）和多个 MNO。因此，代表第三方负责代表多个 MNO 管理网络企业的中立主机业务模式已经成为一种潜在的解决方案，主要受到提供高用户体验而不显著增加总拥有成本（TCO）的愿望的影响。然而，设计中立主机的可持续业务模型是一项艰巨的任务，尤其是在考虑到 5G 及以后的 UDN 时。在本文中，在集成光无线网络基础设施下，我们审查了 SmC 和 DAS 技术如何向采用中立主机业务模式发展，并确定了 5G 支持的关键挑战和要求。因此，我们探索了异构网络集成技术的最新候选进展，以实现能够同时容纳 SmC 和 DAS 的高效 5G 中立主机业务模型设计。此外，我们提出了一种新的设计架构，该架构依赖于虚拟无线电接入网络（vRAN），以实现实时动态资源分配和用于灵活和可重新配置前传的以太网无线电（RoE）。使用 MATLAB 在两个现实部署场景中进行的模拟结果验证了在不同交换方案下，只要排队延迟保持在最低水平，利用考虑到 5G 端到端延迟要求的交换 RoE 的可行性。最后，结果表明，将 RoE 和 vRAN 技术纳入中立主机设计可使室内场景的 TCO 降低约 81%，室外场景的 TCO 降低约 73%。
