IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/itse18/184938.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Techno-economic viability of integrating satellite communication in 4G networks to bridge the broadband digital divide

Author

Listed:
  • Chiha, Asma
  • Van der Wee, Marlies
  • Verbrugge, Sofie
  • Colle, Didier

Abstract

Bridging the broadband digital divide between urban and rural areas in Europe is one of the main targets stated in the Digital Agenda for Europe. Though many solutions are proposed in literature, satellite communication has been identified as the only possible solution for rural areas, due to its global coverage. However, deploying an end-to-end satellite solution might be in some cases not cost-effective. In this paper, we propose a converged solution that combines satellite communication as a backhaul network with 4G as a fronthaul network to bring enhanced broadband connectivity to European rural areas. Therefore, a techno-economic model is proposed to analyze the viability of this integration. The model is based on a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model for 5 years, taking into account both the capital and the operational expenditures, designed for converged networks. This model aims to calculate the TCO as well as the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for the studied scenarios. We evaluate the suggested model by simulating a hypothetical use case for two scenarios. The first scenario is based on a radio access network connecting to the 4G core network via a satellite link. Results for this scenario show high operational costs. In order to reduce these costs, we propose a second scenario, consisting of caching the popular content on the edge to reduce the traffic carried over the satellite link. This scenario demonstrates a significant operational cost decrease (more than 75%), which also means a significant ARPU decrease.

Suggested Citation

  • Chiha, Asma & Van der Wee, Marlies & Verbrugge, Sofie & Colle, Didier, 2018. "Techno-economic viability of integrating satellite communication in 4G networks to bridge the broadband digital divide," 29th European Regional ITS Conference, Trento 2018 184938, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:itse18:184938
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/184938/1/Chiha-et-al.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carare, Octavian & McGovern, Chris & Noriega, Raquel & Schwarz, Jay, 2015. "The willingness to pay for broadband of non-adopters in the U.S.: Estimates from a multi-state survey," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 19-35.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Techno-economics; broadband digital divide; satellite; 4G;

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:itse18:184938. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics). General contact details of provider: http://www.itseurope.org/ .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.