COST COMPETITIVENESS OF FIBEROPTIC INFRASTRUCTURES FOR METROPOLITAN MICRO PICO-CELLULAR MOBILE NETWORKS/

The cost competitiveness of fiber-optic backbone infrastructures for m obile communication networks is investigated with respect to installat ion, operation, administration, and maintenance. Fiber-optic star, tre e, and ring infrastructures are evaluated and compared to twisted copp er pair star and microwave radio tree infrastructures. It is shown tha t today, fiber-optic solutions are, in general, more expensive than bo th twisted copper pair and microwave radio solutions. However, the opt imum infrastructure depends on the specific network scenario, and fibe r optics show potential for large mobile networks with small cells.