Modelling the cost of heterogeneous wireless access networks

Heterogeneous wireless access networks are today considered to be a key enabler for affordable wireless access to the internet. Thanks to the diverse usage patterns and quality of service requirements for mobile and wireless data services, operators may reduce their costs significantly by exploiting different radio access technologies. These are then accessed via 'multiradio' terminals that automatically select between available systems. As a means to identify efficient combinations of radio access technologies, we propose a methodology to estimate the total infrastructure cost for non-uniform traffic distributions. With a few numerical examples including the packet data optimised evolutions of third generation mobile systems (3G) as well as Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology, the model is used to quantify the average total cost of different system configurations. The methodology should prove useful as a basis for more specific analysis of the economics of heterogeneous wireless access networks.