The Cambridge Communications Assessment Model

Description

The Cambridge Communications Assessment Model is a decision support tool to quantify the performance of national digital infrastructure strategies for fixed and mobile broadband, using different fixed, wireless and satellite technologies. The tool currently consists of two sub-models, one for use with fixed broadband networks, and the other for use with 4G and 5G mobile networks.

Citations:

``` Oughton, E.J. and Frias, Z. (2017) The Cost, Coverage and Rollout Implications of 5G Infrastructure in Britain. Telecommunications Policy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2017.07.009.

Oughton, E.J., Z. Frias, T. Russell, D. Sicker, and D.D. Cleevely. 2018. Towards 5G: Scenario-Based Assessment of the Future Supply and Demand for Mobile Telecommunications Infrastructure. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 133 (August): 141–55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.03.016.

Oughton, E.J., Frias, Z., van der Gaast, S. and van der Berg, R. (2019) Assessing the Capacity, Coverage and Cost of 5G Infrastructure Strategies: Analysis of The Netherlands. Telematics and Informatics (January). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2019.01.003. ```

Setup and configuration

All code for The Cambridge Communications Assessment Model is written in Python (Python>=3.5) and has a number of dependencies. See requirements.txt for a full list.

Using conda

The recommended installation method is to use conda, which handles packages and virtual environments, along with the conda-forge channel which has a host of pre-built libraries and packages.

Create a conda environment, using digital_comms as a short reference for digital communications:

conda create --name digital_comms python=3.5

Activate it (run each time you switch projects)::

activate pysim5g

First, install required packages including fiona, shapely, numpy, rtree, pyproj and pytest:

conda install fiona shapely numpy rtree pyproj pytest

For development purposes, run this command once per machine:

python setup.py develop

To install digital_comms permanently:

python setup.py install

The run the tests:

python setup.py test

Quick start

If you want to quickly generate results run:

python scripts/mobile_run.py

And then to visualize, install pandas, matplotlib and seaborn:

conda install pandas matplotlib seaborn 

Followed by running:

python vis/vis.py

Background and funding

The Cambridge Communications Assessment Model has been collaboratively developed between the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, the Networks and Operating Systems Group (NetOS) at the Cambridge Computer Laboratory, and the UK's Digital Catapult. Research activity between 2017-2018 also took place at the Cambridge Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.

Development has been funded by the EPSRC via (i) the Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium (EP/N017064/1) and (ii) the UK's Digital Catapult Researcher in Residence programme.