Rural connectivity has been a widely researched topic for several years. In India, around 50% of the population have poor or no connectivity to access digital services. Numerous technological solutions are being tested around the world, as well as in India. The key driving factor for reducing the digital divide is to lower the cost of network deployments and improve service adoption rate by exploring different technological and economical solutions. This survey aims to study rural connectivity and create awareness about the use-cases, state of the art projects and initiatives, challenges, and technologies to improve digital connectivity in rural parts of India. The strengths and weaknesses of different technologies tested for rural connectivity are analysed. The study includes a brief discussion of rural connectivity trials performed in India and around the world. We also explore the rural use-case of the 6G communication system, which would suit the rural Indian scenario.
Rural areas are often neglected while deploying newer mobile technologies. Hence, these place are digitally disconnected from the world. To overcome this challenge, 5G network slicing supporting multi-tenancy, also known as neutral host network, is studied to improve rural connectivity. The infrastructure provider (InP) deploys the rural 5G network and mobile network operators (MNOs) lease the slices from InP to serve their end-users. This aims to study the value network configuration (VNC) for the 5G network slicing architecture to understand the possible business model. As a result, three configurations are defined driven by micro-operator, MNO and community endusers respectively. The business models are constructed using SWOT analysis and business canvas models. The revenue streams for the proposed rural network are analyzed.Index Terms-neutral host network, infrastructure provider, 5G, mobile network operators, network slicing TABLE III BUSINESS CANVAS MODEL FOR 5G NHN
Around 40% of the world's population is currently without access to the internet. The digital divide is due to the high cost of provisioning these services and the low return on investment for network operators. We propose using 5G network slicing with multi-tenancy (also known as neutral host networks (NHN)) for macro-cells and small cells in rural areas to reduce the costs. This paper investigates the techno-economic feasibility of using rural 5G NHN to minimise the digital divide.A generic model is developed to analyse the techno-economic analysis of 5G NHN deployment around the world, with a special focus on rural areas where no MNO is interested in providing services. To understand the application, it is applied to the Indian scenario. First, a discussion on existing infrastructure, competition and statistics for Indian telecommunications is presented. Next, the technical requirements are analysed using the key performance indicators (KPI) required for the rural 5G NHN for the Indian scenario. The study also analyses the relationship between coverage, investment in the network, the number of subscribers, investment time, demand, the investment per user and sensitivity analysis to understand the feasibility of the proposed solution for Indian villages with different input conditions. Later, a case study is carried out based on the proposed approach, along with coverage modelling for a few Indian villages having different topologies. The results show that 5G NHN using network slicing can significantly reduce the total investment required for providing 5G services in rural areas. Furthermore, the study shows that rural 5G NHN is a viable investment and a key enabler for internet connectivity for villages with 10-year investment, having a subscribers' base as low as 100 with a customer growth rate of 7%.
Regions with little or no access to modern information and communication technologies (ICT) experience the digital divide, and this is typically more prominent in rural areas. 5G network slicing with multi-tenancy, known as neutral host networks (NHN), is being investigated to reduce the digital divide in regions with and without existing infrastructure. Therefore, the key questions that need to be addressed include: What are the potential pricing strategies for 5G that support multi-operator network sharing? Which pricing strategy is most profitable in areas with a digital divide for the infrastructure provider (InP) and the national 5G mobile operator? This paper evaluates the pricing strategies for 5G NHN in rural areas to attract investment from stakeholders and maximize their return on investment. The study uses the game theory framework to understand the suitability of three pricing strategies: Shapley value, bargaining game, and dynamic pricing, to help minimize the digital divide. We also apply the Nash equilibrium concept to find the most suitable pricing strategy for various input scenarios for the players. The results of the case study for rural areas show that dynamic pricing produces the highest payoff compared to the other two strategies for the InP and the operators in a scenario with a combined total subscriber number of ≥ 200. In contrast, the Shapley value is a more suitable strategy for InP for a combined total subscriber ≤ 200, and for MNOs with a combined total subscriber ≥ 280. Applying the Nash equilibrium concept to the players in this game suggests that dynamic pricing produces a mutually beneficial strategy.
There is a growing need to provide high-speed wireless broadband to deliver mobility for an increasing number of global Internet users. However, there are a variety of engineeringeconomic challenges associated with this endeavor. Therefore, an emerging zeitgeist of the modern telecommunications era is the concept of infrastructure sharing. While this approach has existed for many decades, there has recently been growing interest by both network operators and governments, who share the joint aspiration of reducing costs and increasing broadband coverage. In this article we firstly explore where infrastructure sharing can take place, how these strategies can be implemented in practice, and who are the key enablers. Secondly, we report on a technoeconomic viability assessment of rural 5G infrastructure sharing strategies, for four major approaches, which include Businessas-Usual (No Sharing), Passive Sharing, Active Sharing, and a Neutral Host Network (NHN). The findings suggest that any network sharing strategy has a higher Net Present Value (NPV) of between 20-90% compared the baseline strategy (No Sharing). In particular, a NHN approach can help reduce deployment costs by 10-50% compared with other strategies for providing rural wireless broadband.
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