Analyzing Small-Cells and Distributed Antenna Systems from Techno-Economic Perspective

Abstract

The new generations of mobile networks will require economical and viable solutions in order to meet the promises raised by scientists. In this article, the authors overview the available research activities and present an architecture for DAS and femtocells and a mathematical model analyzing their costs, as they are considered technologies, that offer great advantages for mobile networks. The authors present a wide research in the solutions' parameters and prices. There are thorough experiments including several different types of costs. In particular, Capital (CAPEX), Operational (OPEX) expenditures and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) are examined for both technologies in terms of the backhauling technologies, of the size of buildings that they are implemented in and the years of investment from a telecommunication company. The main results are that femtocells are a more appealing solution when it comes to small places, while the alternative is more favorable for big infrastructures.