Analysis of 5G Mobile Broadband Solutions in Rural and Remote Areas : A Case Study of Banten, Indonesia

Abstract: Providing a broadband access anytime and anywhere is one of the visions of the future 5G network. However, deploying a reliable network connection in remote/rural areas has been a challenging task because of its wide area that needed to be covered and a low density of user compared to urban area. Different geography and traffic condition may need different system solution. In this thesis, we analyze several solutions to providing a broadband access network in practical remote and rural area in Banten, Indonesia: Leuwidamar (remote) and Panimbang (rural). Two approaches are discussed, first one is fulfilling futuristic traffic demand by having LTE System, and the second one is by having 5G System. We included three key technology components in a 5G network: occupying wide bandwidth in high frequency, applying UE-Specific Beamforming, and implementing Carrier Aggregation (CA) scheme. We also account a rain attenuation when deploying a network in high operating frequency, since Indonesia has a high rain rate thus it is important to be considered. We compared five cases of solution: Case 1 is Single Carrier (SC) LTE 1.8 GHz system; Case 2 is Carrier Aggregation (CA) LTE 1.8 GHz + 2.6 GHz; Case 3 is SC 5G 15GHz; Case 4 is SC 5G 28 GHz; Case 5 is CA LTE 1.8 GHz + 5G 15 GHz. Basedon the evaluation, in Leuwidamar scenario, Case 5 gives us the least number of BS needed in order to meet the futuristic requirement with only 1.6 x densification from the current network. In Panimbang, the least number of BS neededis offered by two cases, Case 3 and Case 5 without any additional BS needed(1x densification). However, the solution with the lowest energy consumption for both area is Case 3. This is due to the fact that the carrier aggregation scenario needs additional power to generate the second system. Furthermore, if we introduce cell DTX ability in the 5G network, the Case 3 can give us impressive amount of energy saving, with 97% saving for Leuwidamar and 94% saving for Panimbang, compared to Case 1 solution without any DTX Capability.