Project SHARING

Abstract

Broadband networks are considered as an important stimulus to economic recovery in Europe. SHARING is a timely proposal to address the unprecedented challenge, faced by wireless industry, of spectrum and capacity crunch by 2020. SHARING target is to propose solutions coping with this expected traffic growth, with a particular focus on user experience improvement, through a set of new technologies and advanced techniques. The project aims at investigating factors that contribute to the non-linear traffic growth and heterogeneous nature of traffic demand dependent on: usage, devices, environment (indoors, outdoors …), and context (time of day …). SHARING will investigate issues related to adaptive coverage/capacity techniques, efficient integration of relevant transmission systems (frequency bands, radio access technologies 2G, 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi), and cell densification towards smaller cells with efficient resource management and backhauling mechanisms.

The main goal of SHARING is to propose cost/power efficient and high capacity broadband solutions by: 1.) Enabling a flexible interference management concept in order to trigger spectral efficiency increase in future heterogeneous networks, 2.) Introducing smart and innovative offloading strategies, as well as joint RRM solutions across radio, core and backhaul networks 3.) Proposing a novel integrated architecture incorporating: seamless Inter-Radio Access Technology (RAT) service continuity, fixed/wireless convergence, device-to-device transmissions, last mile broadband backhaul, and efficient licensed/license-exempt/unlicensed spectrum usage.

A strong consortium of key industrial and leading-edge academics, supported by an Advisory Board for regulatory and standardization issues are highly mobilized with sufficient effort to deliver all objectives of the proposal. The adopted unique approach and mix of stake holders are important ingredients ensuring innovation and a socially-responsible and sustainable European ICT economy.