Expanding Rural Cellular Networks with Virtual Coverage.
nsdi'13: Proceedings of the 10th USENIX conference on Networked Systems Design and Implementation(2013)
摘要
The cellular system is the world's largest network, providing service to over five billion people. Operators of these networks face fundamental trade-offs in coverage, capacity and operating power. These trade-offs, when coupled with the reality of infrastructure in poorer areas, mean that upwards of a billion people lack access to this fundamental service. Limited power infrastructure, in particular, hampers the economic viability of wide-area rural coverage. In this work, we present an alternative system for implementing large-scale rural cellular networks. Rather than providing constant coverage, we instead provide virtual coverage: coverage that is only present when requested. Virtual coverage powers the network on-demand, which reduces overall power draw, lowers the cost of rural connectivity, and enables new markets. We built a prototype cellular system utilizing virtual coverage by modifying a GSM base station and a set of Motorola phones to support making and receiving calls under virtual coverage. To support the billions of already-deployed devices, we also implemented a small radio capable of adding backwards-compatible support for virtual coverage to existing GSM handsets. We demonstrate a maximum of 84% power and cost savings from using virtual coverage. We also evaluated virtual coverage by simulating the potential power savings on real-world cellular networks in two representative developing counties: one in sub-Saharan Africa and one in South Asia. Simulating power use based on realworld call records obtained from local mobile operators, we find our system saves 21-34% of power draw at night, and 7-21% during the day. We expect even more savings in areas currently off the grid. These results demonstrate the feasibility of implementing such a system, particularly in areas with solar or otherwise-intermittent power sources.
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关键词
virtual coverage,constant coverage,virtual coverage power,wide-area rural coverage,billion people,Simulating power,limited power infrastructure,otherwise-intermittent power source,overall power,potential power saving,rural cellular network
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