LTE-U is an extension of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard for operation in unlicensed spectrum. LTE-U differs from WiFi, the predominant technology used in unlicensed spectrum in that it utilizes a duty cycle mode for accessing the spectrum and allows for a more seamless integration with LTE deployments in licensed spectrum. There have been a number of technical studies on the co-existence of LTE-U and WiFi. In this paper, we instead investigate the impact of such a technology from an economic perspective. We consider a model where an incumbent service provider (SP) deploys a duty cycle-based technology like LTE-U in an unlicensed band along with operating in a licensed band and competes with one or more entrants that only operate in the unlicensed band using a different technology like WiFi. We characterize the impact of a technology like LTE-U on the market outcome and show that the welfare impacts are subtle, depending in part on the amount of unlicensed spectrum and number of entrants. The difference in spectral efficiency between LTE and WiFi also plays a role in the competition. Finally, we investigate the impact of the duty cycle and the portion of unlicensed spectrum used by the technology.

中文翻译：

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LTE-U与WiFi之间的市场竞争

LTE-U是长期演进（LTE）标准的扩展，用于在非授权频谱中进行操作。LTE-U与WiFi（无执照频谱中使用的主要技术）不同，它利用占空比模式来访问频谱，并允许与许可频谱中的LTE部署进行更无缝的集成。关于LTE-U和WiFi的共存，已经进行了许多技术研究。相反，在本文中，我们从经济角度研究了这种技术的影响。我们考虑一种模型，在这种模型中，现有服务提供商（SP）在免许可频段内部署基于占空比的技术（如LTE-U），并在许可频段内进行操作，并与一个或多个仅在免许可频段内进行操作的进入者竞争，方法是使用WiFi等不同的技术。我们描述了诸如LTE-U之类的技术对市场结果的影响，并表明对福利的影响是微妙的，这部分取决于无执照频谱的数量和进入者的数量。LTE和WiFi之间频谱效率的差异在竞争中也发挥了作用。最后，我们研究了占空比的影响以及该技术使用的未许可频谱部分。