Performance metrics for analysis of operator benefits of network cooperation in multi-operator scenarios

Wide spread adoption of mobile Internet services will increase the demand for low cost high capacity wireless networks. Cooperation between different types of operators will enable increased network utilization and availability for the end-users. This will lead to more satisfied customers and potentially both more users and increased usage. The benefits of cooperation is clear for end-users as they can freely chose access networks and services from a larger pool of options. The operator benefits are not as straightforward although some benefits can be identified. In this paper we will present both end-user and operator related performance metrics that describe the effects of network cooperation. The Ambient Networks concepts and functionality are used to illustrate cooperation mechanisms and performance gains. The main result is that the proposed Operator Satisfaction Index (OSI) can be used to describe benefits of cooperation in terms of network utilization, user perception of availability, revenues and network cost.