On Common Spectrum and Active Infrastructure Sharing in Cloud Radio Access Networks

Abstract

Common spectrum and active infrastructure sharing is promising to improve Quality of Service (QoS), without significant increase in Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) and Operational Expenditures (OPEX). Through sharing their spectral resources and active network components (e.g. antenna elements, switches, and backhaul equipment), Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) improve network coverage, capacity, and power savings. In this article, we propose two different approaches for multi‐MNO resource sharing in Cloud‐Radio Access Network (C‐RAN) architecture. As multisite resources are centrally managed, multi‐MNO resource sharing and statistical multiplexing further improve network coverage, capacity, and power savings in C‐RAN. In the first approach, spectrum sharing aims to enhance spectral efficiency through interference mitigation. In the second approach, spectrum sharing aims to increase capacity through multi‐MNO Carrier Aggregation (CA). Moreover, we evaluate these two approaches for different network load conditions over a real case topology, and highlight the benefits of sharing spectrum and active infrastructure in C‐RAN.