Economic viability of HTC and MTC service provision on a common network infrastructure

Abstract

This paper analyses the economic viability of serving Machine Type Communications (MTC) and Human Type Communications (HTC) on a common network infrastructure under monopolistic and duopolistic scenarios. The scenarios are compared against the case where one operator serves HTC. The service provision is modelled by a two-priority queue and the competition is analyzed as a two-stage game. In the first stage, each operator posts a price and in the second stage, users decide to subscribe or not to the service based on a utility function related with the packet delay and the price charged. The HTC-MTC coexistence is shown to be feasible in the duopolistic scenario. The entry of the second operator to serve MTC users is desirable not only from the point of view of resource usage efficiency and from the point of view of the users, but also from the point of view of the two operators. The HTC-MTC service provision is therefore feasible and economically viable, and more efficient than the baseline scenario.