Local wireless access provision for rural penetration and urban diversification: A techno-economic analysis

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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Electrical Engineering | Doctoral thesis (article-based) | Defence date: 2021-08-10
Date
2021
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
112 + app. 136
Series
Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS, 81/2021
Abstract
Wireless access services contribute to digitalization and economic growth; hence, its desirable that they become widely adopted by consumers and enterprises. These services are predominantly provided by nationwide operators, given country-level regulation and scale economies. However, their uniform offering and rigid technical solutions struggle to serve declining rural areas and competitive urban areas. This thesis studies how local wireless access provision can advance rural penetration and urban diversification by employing novel technology and introducing structural market changes. A techno-economic analysis is conducted through known and novel methods, providing empirical, managerial, and theoretical results over three logical steps. First, we identify market conditions that slow the diffusion of national services and/or enable local provision. To this end, we propose two novel methods for wireless technology diffusion investigation. One method studies national diffusion, measuring the spatial relationship between population density and diffusion determinants. When applied to the Finnish broadband, it reveals the positive role of spectrum policy on rural penetration and characterizes community commitment as a key local provision enabler. The other method investigates local diffusion, forecasting urban wireless traffic evolution, considering new devices and the role of policy. The traffic forecast of downtown Helsinki suggests that macrocell capacity may soon become fully utilized. Therefore, small cells with high deployment costs are needed to enable urban diversification. Second, we assess the feasibility of small cell and edge cloud technologies to address the identified limiting market conditions. We develop a cost model for deploying smart light poles equipped with millimeter wave cells and various sensors. The model includes novel hardware and deployment structures, cost sensitivities, and estimations for the smart city. For edge cloud technology, we assess operator adoption of a routing solution based on recent Information-Centric Networking (ICN) developments, i.e., IP-over-ICN. Benefits and challenges are identified regarding preexisting traffic and edge application provision. Finally, we evaluate local market structures that employ the previously studied technologies. We suggest that market structures around a community operator can advance rural penetration, given longer investment pay-back times, among other factors. For urban diversification, we indicate that local neutral operators can facilitate co-investment and data exchange across connectivity and data markets. Hence, local provision can mitigate initial deployment costs and promptly deliver new connectivity services when national provision struggles. We provide policy recommendations for local market structure realization.
Description
Defence is held on 10.8.2021 12:00 – 16:00 via remote technology (Zoom), https://aalto.zoom.us/j/69085821732
Supervising professor
Hämmäinen, Heikki, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Communications and Networking, Finland
Thesis advisor
Töyli, Juuso, Adj. Prof., Aalto University, Finland
Finley,Benjamin Dr., University of Helsinki, Finland
Keywords
techno-economics, wireless technology diffusion, wireless access, local wireless markets, local operators, data operators, city networks, rural networks, edge clouds
Other note
Parts
  • [Publication 1]: Benseny, J., Töyli, J., Hämmäinen, H. and Arcia-Moret, A. The mitigating role of regulation on the concentric patterns of broadband diffusion. The case of Finland. Telematics and Informatics, 41, pp.139-155, August 2019.
    Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-201908154707
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tele.2019.04.008 View at publisher
  • [Publication 2]: Finley, B., Benseny, J., Vesselkov, A. and Walia, J. How does enterprise IoT traffic evolve? Real-world evidence from a Finnish operator. Internet of Things, 12, p.100294, December 2020.
    Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202010025734
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iot.2020.100294 View at publisher
  • [Publication 3]: Benseny, J., Lähteenmäki, J., Töyli, J., Hämmäinen, H. Urban wireless traffic evolution: the role of new devices and the effect of policy, 41 pages, Submitted for publication, November 2020
  • [Publication 4]: Landertshamer, O., Benseny, J., Hämmäinen, H. and Wainio, P. Cost model for a 5G smart light pole network. In Proceedings of the 2019 CTTE-FITCE: Smart Cities & Information and Communication Technology, pp. 1-6, September 2019.
    Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202001021031
    DOI: 10.1109/CTTE-FITCE.2019.8894818 View at publisher
  • [Publication 5]: Benseny, J., Lagutin, D., Hämmäinen, H. and Trossen, D. Feasibility of IP-over-ICN. Telecommunication Systems, 73(1), pp.27-46, July 2019.
    Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202002122119
    DOI: 10.1007/s11235-019-00593-5 View at publisher
  • [Publication 6]: Benseny, J. and Hämmäinen, H. Value network analysis in a low-cost and affordable Internet. In proceedings of the 2016 European Conference on Networks and Communications (EuCNC), pp. 148-152, June 2016.
    DOI: 10.1109/EuCNC.2016.7561022 View at publisher
  • [Publication 7]: Benseny, J., Walia, J., Hämmäinen, H. Value Network Configurations for Smart Cities. Journal of the Institute of Telecommunication Professionals. Prof. 14, 18–25, June 2020
Citation