[gaia] Call for Cooperation on Bringing 5G in Rural and Low-Income Areas- a Good Will of 5G for ALL :)

[William Liu <[e-mail]>]

Dear GAIAers, how are you ! ☺
Energized by UN's SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals, here we (a team of 12 researchers from four continents: Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and Americas) love to share with you our recent work below which is to be published in IEEE Communications Standards Magazine.
Chiaraviglio, L., Blefari-Melazzi, N., Liu, W., Gutierrez, J., van de Beek, J., Birke, R., Chen, L.,  Idzikowski, F., Kilper, D., Monti, P., Bagula, A., and Wu, J. Bringing 5G in Rural and Low-Income Areas: Is it Feasible? Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317427117_Bringing_5G_in_Rural_and_Low-Income_Areas_Is_it_Feasible
Abstract: Nowadays, at least two billion people are experiencing a complete lack of wireless cellular network coverage. These users live in rural areas and low-income regions, where network operators are not keen to invest, mainly due to high Capital Expenditure (CapEx) and Operational Expenditure (OpEx) costs, as well as the scarcity of electricity from the grid. We tackle this challenge by proposing a 5G network explicitly designed to serve rural and low-income areas. Our solution investigates the possibility of mounting Remote Radio Heads (RRHs) on top of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), as well as Large Cells (LCs) to increase the coverage range. In addition, 5G-nodes are powered by solar panels and batteries. Preliminary results, obtained over three representative case studies (located in Italy, Cook Islands, and Zimbabwe) show that providing connectivity in rural and low-income areas by means of the proposed 5G architecture is feasible. At the same time, we also show that the monthly subscription fee paid by the users can be kept sufficiently low, i.e., less than 1 [EUR/month] in low-income areas, and around 11 [EUR/month] in rural regions.

Other relevant information:

Associated Professor Jairo A. Gutierrez's Interview on Radio NZ: http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=201849174

Assistant Professor Luca Chiaraviglio's interview on L'Eco del Chisone (in Italian): https://sites.google.com/site/lucachiaraviglio/ECOC2617Pagina_007.pdf


Now we are Calling for Cooperation on the following points:

(i)                 case studies where we can apply our economic model

(ii)              investigations of real implementations and testbeds of the proposed architecture

(iii)            promotion of relevant ideas and approaches into applications etc.
If you have any comment, idea or interest to join our work, feel free to contact Luca Chiaraviglio [e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]> to discuss further.

Cheers Will from Auckland

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Dr William Liu
Department of Information Technology and Software Engineering
School of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences
Auckland University of Technology
Auckland, New Zealand
Address for correspondence:
Level 1, AUT Tower, 2-14 Wakefield St, Auckland 1010, NZ.
Private Bag 92006, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
Phone: [phone]  ext 5210
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>
http://www.aut.ac.nz/profiles/william-liu/