Wireless Open Access Networks: State-of-the-Art and Technological Opportunities

The present article provides a literature review in the field of open access networks and points out additional strengths of infrastructure sharing in the advent a new wave wireless advances. The first part of the article summarizes different initiatives carried out both by researchers and practitioners around the globe. The focus is on finding commonalities in what have been, until now, disperse efforts. A perspective on the current regulation regarding open access networks in the framework of the European Commission is also provided. The second part of the article reviews some recent proposals to increase the performance of wireless networks. It is explained that the idea of deploying a shared wireless infrastructure (as opposed to multiple ones), presents some additional advantages when combined with opportunistic scheduling in OFDMA and the use of wider channels for increased throughput. The concept of collaborative networks is gaining momentum and it is also closely related to the idea of infrastructure sharing.