Impact of the flexible spectrum aggregation schemes on the cost of future mobile network

Nowadays the spectrum regulations landscape is changing towards more flexible spectrum management schemes, such trends are expected to make additional spectrum resources available and lowers the spectrum access hurdles. In this paper, different spectrum aggregation scenarios have been compared focusing on the tradeoff between the total cost of ownership and the targeted QoS under different market conditions. The main finding in this study thereof indicates that the addition of more spectrum resources will lead to an overall reduction in the total cost of ownership (TCO) as long as the spectrum price remains small compared to the cost of the network infrastructure. Moreover, schemes such as LSA and secondary access will enable operators who have insufficient licensed spectrum resource to expand their mobile network infrastructure especially in hotspots with high subscribers demand in a cost-effective way. In this regard, the harmonization of spectrum use for LSA and TVWS across multiple countries stands as a key requirement for the reduction of the production cost of equipment and hence, the creation of an economy of scale considering both of the network equipment (i.e. radio base station) and end-subscriber devices.