Cost Assessment and Optimization Methods for Multi-Node Radio Access Networks

The expected performance improvements of next-generation mobile radio access networks (RANs) can be achieved, e.g., by a flexible deployment of different types of radio access points (RAPs), such as intelligent relay nodes (RNs). To facilitate a cost-vs.-performance assessment of different deployment options, this paper presents a classification of different RAN cost components. Then, a method for deployment cost optimization is introduced which allows a comparison of the cost effectiveness of different RAN deployments by calculating optimum densities of different RAP types, based on a multi-dimensional iso-performance map. This method is first derived in theory and then demonstrated for two different deployment scenario examples.