Cost-Efficient Citywide Neutral Host Design: A Micro-Operator Business Model for Expedited 5G and Beyond Network Infrastructure Rollout

Recently, skepticism has surrounded the ability of mobile network operators (MNOs) to achieve a timely mass rollout of 5G mobile network infrastructure. This is mainly due to the staggering number of antennas required and the unforeseen complexities involved, leading to a considerable disparity between total ownership cost (TCO) and return on investment (ROI), which is the primary concern from MNOs perspective. This amplifies significantly when contemplating universal 5G and beyond (5GB) coverage, pivotal for unlocking a myriad of innovative use cases and applications. Amidst these challenges, the concept of micro-operators represents a potential solution to augment the role of traditional MNOs in expediting the deployment of widespread 5GB infrastructure. Particularly, the newly emerging neutral host business model, wherein a third party assumes responsibility for providing coverage across multiple MNOs, stands as a compelling micro-operator solution, offering the sough-after cost-effectiveness and reliability. Our proposal in this paper relies on the dynamics observed in tidal traffic patterns of multi-tenant venues and citywide deployments to outline a cost-optimized design for a citywide neutral host micro-operator. Leveraging network slicing and statistical multiplexing techniques, our design approach enables real-time dynamic resource allocation. Additionally, the design integrates radio over Ethernet (RoE) and high availability seamless redundancy (HSR) protocols to meet the diverse service quality demands of 5GB applications. Simulation results demonstrate the scalability of our proposed design, meeting diverse 5GB QoS requirements across a spectrum of real-world citywide deployment scenarios, and cost-effectiveness by driving the TCO down by over 67%.