An Analytical Model for Dynamic Inter-Operator Resource Sharing in 4G Networks

Abstract

Realtime resource sharing between operators is an efficient approach to deal with the ever increasing wireless traffic. Simple and closed form formulas relating cooperation terms to the network performance measures are needed, so that the operators can take cooperate/not cooperate decisions, and track the benefits/losses of sharing. Analytical solutions to resource sharing the among access networks of a single operator exist. However the fact that operators will not share network internal data calls for solutions that are separable from each other. In this paper we provide such a closed form formulation, validate it with simulations and propose a simple negotiation mechanism between two operators utilizing this model. This simple model can be extended to model more complex interactions between operators, interaction between more than two operators, or can be used to evaluate long term cooperation policies. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010.