Network sharing; Architecture and functional description
In the current mobile telephony marketplace, functionality that enables various forms of network sharing is becoming more and more important. These aspects have not really been addressed in either 2G or 3G systems, although there is functionality that supports a very basic type of network sharing in the current specifications within 3GPP. In [1], 3GPP has studied service requirements and functionality necessary for supporting a standardized network sharing.
The present document discusses issues and describes functionalities required for Network Sharing as outlined in [1]. The intention is to present one (or more) architectural alternatives for achieving the required functionality within a 3GPP network. An important part of the work is to adapt the network functionality so that supporting mobile telephones that do not have any of the possibly new functionality being introduced for network sharing support can be handled in a more efficient way than in pre-Rel-6 networks.