A Novel Long Term Telecommunication Network Planning Framework

Abstract

The design of large scale telecommunication networks is more than the technical allocation of capacity and path routing. By examining the design and allocation of resources in a broader sense, telecommunication network planning and management can better deliver value to the various stakeholders. This is significant especially when deploying networks in economically marginal areas such are rural, remote, or economically depressed regions. This paper presents a planning framework to systematically incorporate the influences, resources and decisions to effectively build or expand a network. Using a stake holders, input, process, output, customer approach, six key areas of society that derive value from better communication infrastructure in relatively unique manners were identified. These areas include healthcare, education, business, and others. The framework presented defines the inputs and outputs that accounts for the range of influences and outcomes in a network planning process. Inputs are broken down into four areas of concern (technical, market, financial, and application trends) that can influence how a network could be designed, along with four output areas (auxiliary activities, deployment strategies, technical design, and ownership and access). Through an extensive literature survey across many industries this framework was established to incorporate the many social economic and technical factors that influence telecommunication network planning and design.Keywords Network planning Á Survivable network planning Á Techno-economic planning Á Long range planning Á Network design Á Six sigma sipoc

Expand or Oversize? Planning Internet Access Network in a Demand Growth Scenario

“…Second, GPON networks allow service traffic originating from both mobile (5G) and cable networks [14]. 1 Third, because GPON networks offer abundant bandwidth capacity to support bandwidth-intensive services traffic [15]. Fourth, because GPON networks enable network traffic capacity to be increased by upgrading and/or adding equipment [27,38].…”

“…Internet demand forecast involves variables that represent social conditions (e.g. macroeconomic aspects [29], technologies and innovations [39], the Internet availability [40,41]) and, the procedures adopted in this relatively fickle activity [1]. The geoprocessing of the physical characteristics of the unit of analysis involves variables that represent the occupation of the city (e.g., distribution and population concentration [2], the layout of streets and avenues [3,12,42,43]) being procedures adopted in this activity relatively constant [44].…”

“…However, path optimization algorithms [41] used to design the Steiner's network are heuristics that can yield suboptimal results [47,48]. Although no overall minimization of investments is guaranteed, these algorithms are widely used in network planning [12,21] and are found both for planning the expansion of existing cable networks [1,4,7,10,11,45] as well as for the planning of new cable networks [3,15,17,40]. However, although some of these studies are concerned with the Internet demand forecast models [1,7,11] and/or the geoprocessing of the features of the analyzed sites [17,18,43], these studies ignore the expand strategy and merely design an oversized network.…”

“…Studies reveal that Internet-based services will face a very challenging scenario [1]. First, because Internet demand is growing driven by increasing customer numbers [2], by the emergence of new technologies [3][4][5], and by applications of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Smart Cities (SC) systems [6].…”

“…With this possibility, network planners can: (I) expand the network by laying cables to serve new customers as these customers arise [ 2 , 6 ]; or (II) oversize the network, leaving enough cables to serve new customers coming in the future [ 1 ]. With these alternatives, the question arises: which of these two strategies is most advantageous?…”