NARROW-BAND AND BROAD-BAND INFRASTRUCTURE DESIGN FOR WIRELESS NETWORKS

There has been an explosion in the number of wireless subscribers in r ecent years. Currently a number of air interface technologies, such as GSM, TDMA, and CDMA, are available to wireless service providers for offering wireless services. In addition, a variety of networking techn ologies, such as STM, ATM and frame relay, are available to the wirele ss services provider for designing their infrastructure networks. The abundant choice of technologies, and their associated capabilities and costs, creates a need for network design tools which can help vendors and wireless service providers to understand the economics of investi ng in different technologies. This article is concerned with the desig n of narrowband and broadband infrastructure networks for wireless acc ess. The article first describes the different technology alternatives and tariff structures and their impact on wireless infrastructure net work design. The general infrastructure design problem is then stated and a solution methodology outlined. Examples of the economic trade-of fs involved in narrowband and broadband networking technologies are al so presented.