Cost drivers and deployment scenarios for future broadband wireless networks - key research problems and directions for research

The most prominent problem in providing anywhere, anytime wideband mobile access is the towering infrastructure cost as it is basically proportional to the bandwidth provided. We provide a simple, initial, analysis of the various infrastructure cost factors. This analysis shows that, contrary to what one may expect, the infrastructure cost is not dominated by electronic equipment, but rather by other deployment related costs (towers, wiring, building, network connections) and maintenance costs. In the paper some novel architectural approaches for future wideband mobile access focusing on these dominant cost factors are described and the related key research issues are discussed.