Network planning studies and technoeconomic evaluations of 5G/6G networks operating at mmW/THz frequencies

• Κύριος συγγραφέας: Πογιατζής, Πάρις
• Άλλοι συγγραφείς: Poyiatzis, Paris
• Γλώσσα: English
• Έκδοση: 2023
• Θέματα: 5G; 6G; mmWave; THz; Techno-economic evaluation; Δίκτυο 5G

Why is 6G needed? In the coming decade, 6G will bring a new era in which billions of things, humans, connected vehicles, robots and drones will generate Zettabytes of digital information. 6G will be dealing with more challenging applications, e.g., holographic telepresence and immersive communication, and meet far more stringent requirements. The 2030’s could be remembered as the start of the age of broad use of personal mobile robotics, which 5G will not be enough to tackle those requirements. There is significant technological and financial uncertainty as 6G is not yet standardized, cost data of 6G equipment are not available in the market and the strategies to be followed by mobile providers are not yet known. 6G is very promising, as it has shown that there is a radical change from previous generations of networks, mainly, the speed and capacity values that can be much greater, 10 to 100 times, than the speeds that exist today. In order to comply with these specifications, the network densification is necessary, according to the available frequency spectrum that 6G can offer. Optimal network design is vital to ensure a sustainable investment. Decisions on 5G/6G infrastructure must be supported by quantitative analysis. To achieve an optimal network design, it is necessary to study the network both in terms of design engineering and in terms of cost. This literature, evaluates that many times while these two aspects are studied independently, yet are related. It is observed that the gradual increase of the required capacity is related to the future demand, and it will be necessary to calculate the required traffic based on the required throughput for each user, which entails to population density. At the same time, channel characteristics (shadowing, diffraction, scattering, multipath, rainfall attenuation etc.) play a major drawback in THz bands, so different methodologies are applied to tackle these phenomena (e.g, beamforming). A network planning study will take place, the number of cells needed for full coverage, network capacity, SNR and PL will be evaluated, and result in an estimate Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for two scenarios. An outdoor stadium, located in an urban area, will provide guidance for the necessary future strategy analysis to support a 6G network and an indoor industrial 4.0 private environment, located in an isolated industrial zone.