Extending 5G Capacity Planning Through Advanced Subscriber Behavior-Centric Clustering

Abstract

This work focuses on providing enhanced capacity planning and resource management for 5G networks through bridging data science concepts with usual network planning processes. For this purpose, we propose using a subscriber-centric clustering approach, based on subscribers’ behavior, leading to the concept of intelligent 5G networks, ultimately resulting in relevant advantages and improvements to the cellular planning process. Such advanced data-science-related techniques provide powerful insights into subscribers’ characteristics that can be extremely useful for mobile network operators. We demonstrate the advantages of using such techniques, focusing on the particular case of subscribers’ behavior, which has not yet been the subject of relevant studies. In this sense, we extend previously developed work, contributing further by showing that by applying advanced clustering, two new behavioral clusters appear, whose traffic generation and capacity demand profiles are very relevant for network planning and resource management and, therefore, should be taken into account by mobile network operators. As far as we are aware, for network, capacity, and resource management planning processes, it is the first time that such groups have been considered. We also contribute by demonstrating that there are extensive advantages for both operators and subscribers by performing advanced subscriber clustering and analytics.