Economic analysis of SON-enabled mobile WiMAX

Abstract

Even though mobile communication traffic continues to grow fast, its revenue does not increase sufficiently. Hence, mobile communication network operators are seeking technologies and strategies to maintain qualitative network services and reduce the Operational Expenditure (OpEx). Self Organization Network (SON) technology is one of the effective solutions to reduce OpEx. This paper presents the economic analysis of SON-enabled Mobile WiMAX. We define Network Propagation Models (NPM), introduce feasible SON use cases that can reduce the OpEx efficiently, select OpEx factors that can be reduced by deploying SON use cases, and propose mathematical expressions for revenue, CapEx, OpEx, CF, DCF and NPV. For the analysis, we consider a sample site and perform its cost and financial analysis through comparisons before and after SON deployment. As a result, 69% and 89% of total OpEx are decreased at newly added sites and traditional sites, respectively. Moreover, profits are increased earlier. Finally, SON technology can be achieved substantial OpEx reductions in network operational tasks. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.