Gomes, AndreKibilda, JacekFarhang, ArmanFarrell, RonanDaSilva, Luiz A.2022-01-042022-01-042021-09-011932-4537http://hdl.handle.net/10919/107355A key distinction between today's and future networks is the appetite for reliable communication to support emerging critical-communication services. In this paper, we study multi-operator connectivity as a form of redundancy to support the design of reliable networks and investigate its trade-offs. This approach is motivated by 3GPP standardisation initiatives of dual-connectivity and similar techniques in industrial wired networks. We deploy a risk awareness performance metric to assess reliability: this superquantile metric accounts for periods of connectivity shortfalls. Our analysis shows that multi-operator connectivity brings significant reliability gains, in particular when network deployments by different operators exhibit high complementarity in coverage. We also explore the effects of multi-connectivity on spectral efficiency in times of high demand for bandwidth. Our study is based on a real-world dataset comprising signal strength indicators of three mobile operators in Dublin, Ireland.Pages 2800-281112 page(s)application/pdfenIn CopyrightTechnologyComputer Science, Information SystemsComputer ScienceReliabilityRedundancyProtocolsMeasurementAntenna measurements3GPPSynchronizationNetwork reliabilitynetwork sharingmulti-operator connectivitymulti-connectivityrisk analysisLOW LATENCY COMMUNICATIONSACCESSNetworking & Telecommunications0805 Distributed Computing0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering1005 Communications TechnologiesArticle - Refereed2022-01-04https://doi.org/10.1109/TNSM.2021.30738411831932-4537