Abstract
Developing ways to affordably deliver broadband connectivity is one of the major issues of our time. In challenging deployment locations with irregular terrain, traditional Clear-Line-Of-Sight (CLOS) wireless links can be uneconomical to deploy, as the number of required towers make infrastructure investment unviable. With new research focusing on developing wireless diffractive backhaul technologies to provide Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) links, this paper evaluates the engineering-economic implications. A Three-Dimensional (3D) techno-economic assessment framework is developed, utilizing a combination of remote sensing and viewshed geospatial techniques, in order to quantify the impact of different wireless backhaul strategies. This framework is applied to assess both Clear-Line-Of-Sight and diffractive Non-Line-Of-Sight strategies for deployment in Peru, as well as the islands of Kalimantan and Papua, in Indonesia. The results find that a hybrid strategy combining the use of Clear-Line-Of-Sight and diffractive Non-Line-Of-Sight links produces a 9–45 percent cost-efficiency saving, relative to only using traditional Clear-Line-Of-Sight wireless backhaul links.
Highlights
Task 9.c of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to provide universal affordable broadband to all by 2030 [1], [2]
Our aim is to develop a method which can obtain a broad view of the required investment to provide broadband services in a challenging deployment situation, as a precursor to doing detailed modeling on prioritized regions
A surprisingly small number of techno-economic models use engineering techniques to explicitly inform their design, instead usually relying on spreadsheet-based approaches with parameter value assumptions [85], even at the regulatory level [86]. Often this means a lack of initial rigor translates into results uncertainty. To avoid such a situation, we present here a wireless modeling framework which can be used to inform the model input parameters selected
Summary
Task 9.c of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aims to provide universal affordable broadband to all by 2030 [1], [2]. Solving the digital divide by providing universal and affordable Internet access (SDG 9.c) is critical. One of the cheapest ways to provide internet access is to use wireless technologies, such as 4G cellular. While the access sites themselves can often be viably built, connecting these assets back into the internet can be a more challenging endeavor for providing coverage, in mountainous areas [4], [5]. The connections between the access sites and the operator’s core network are generally called transport links or backhaul links [6]
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