Staying Connected on the Go : Network Sharing Based on Multioperator Traffic Inside Moving Transportation

Network sharing is the key to improving network operators' capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operating expenses (OPEX). Many scenarios with space limitations can benefit from network sharing, such as a moving transportation scenario, where separate network operators are unable to put their equipment (e.g., small cells) inside the moving transportation to serve their users. In addition, due to the higher moving speed of the transportation, there are more frequent handovers with the operators' outdoor macro base stations (MBSs), which leads to degraded connection quality. Therefore, an effective network-sharing mechanism (NSM) is required to set up end-to-end routing paths for user traffic so that traffic from different network operators can be smoothly routed to the corresponding core networks (CNs). In this article, we adopt the network slicing concept and use it as a base for a developed NSM. For verification of the proposed NSM in this article, simulations and related analysis are presented. For future work, further study focusing on the end-to-end slicing concept, including radio and CNs, will be provided.