Collaborative Radio: Towards Sustainable Business in the Evolution of 4G

Deployment of newer generation cellular systems backed by new application usage trend, innovative device and operator´s business model increase the mobile broadband traffic exponentially. It is found that most of the mobile data traffic is generated from the indoor. Increase of indoor traffic reduces the overall capacity of the cell and degrades the user´s experience all over the network. This paper analyzes these aspects for LTE systems. The conventional operator-owned femtocell model to offload indoor traffic is not sustainable due to the mismatch between its limited deployment scenario and the significant growth of indoor traffic. This paper proposes an approach where user owns the indoor equipment who collaborates with the outdoor operators based on a-priori trust agreement. The paper elaborates the technical and business implications of the new proposal.