Study on 3GPP RAN sharing enhancements

A recent study from 3GPP looks at how operators can share common LTE radio resources, according to identified RAN sharing scenarios, whether as a shared deployment or as a leased asset.

The first version of the Technical Report covers the E-UTRAN, but a revised edition is set to follow shortly -  broadening the coverage to UTRAN and GERAN so that 2G, 3G, and 4G networks are covered.

TR 22.852 identifies a set of common roles for connecting network facilities between the parties participating in a network sharing agreement;

·         Hosting RAN Provider
·         Participating Operator
·         Roaming operators (HPLMN and VPLMN)
·         Operators with multiple roles

The study then provides use cases, which demonstrate the various ways that resources can be shared;

·         RAN Sharing Monitoring
·         Minimization of Drive Testing Support for RAN operator
·         RAN sharing granularity – for cross border coverage
·         Maximizing RAN sharing revenue
·         Asymmetric RAN Resource Allocation
·         Dynamic RAN Sharing Enhancements
·         On-demand Automated Capacity Brokering
·         Participating Operator managing allocated resources
·         Load balancing in shared RAN
·         RAN Sharing Charging Event Triggering
·         RAN Sharing Charging Reconciliation
·         PLMN selection enhancements towards a shared RAN
·         Public Warning System in shared RAN

The creation of these scenarios and use cases to describe enhancements for RAN sharing should now create normative requirements (and specifications)  for;  OAM access for participating operators, support for load balancing, the generation and retrieval of usage and accounting information, on-demand capacity negotiation, handover functionality and for PWS support over the shared RAN.

The next update to TR 22.852, to include GERAN and UTRAN sharing, will involve the addition of use cases and an updating of the requirements section.

3GPP Studies on Radio Access Network (RAN) sharing enhancements:

Unique ID	Code	Title	Release
630017	FS_GUSH	Study on RAN Sharing Enhancements on GERAN and UTRAN	Rel-13
540028	FS_RSE	Study on RAN Sharing Enhancements	Rel-12