A Comparative Analysis of Global Mobile Network Aggregators

Sergi Alcala-Marin; Weili Wu; Aravindh Raman; Marcelo Bagnulo; Ozgu Alay; Fabian E. Bustamante; Marco Fiore; Andra Lutu

doi:10.1109/TNSM.2025.3582089

A Comparative Analysis of Global Mobile Network Aggregators

Sergi Alcala-Marin^*, Weili Wu, Aravindh Raman, Marcelo Bagnulo, Ozgu Alay, Fabian E. Bustamante, Marco Fiore, Andra Lutu

^*Corresponding author for this work

Computer Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The mobile telecommunication industry is undergoing continuous evolution to cope with ever increasing service requirements and expectations of end users. This has recently led to the rise of Mobile Network Aggregators (MNAs), a new type of global virtual operators that deliver mobile communication services by utilizing multiple Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), dynamically connecting to the one that best meets their customers’ needs based on location and time. MNAs can then offer optimized global coverage by connecting to local MNOs that have limited (e.g., national) geographic service. In this paper, we provide a first in-depth analysis of the operations of three major MNAs: Google Fi, Twilio, and Truphone. We conduct performance measurements across these MNAs for critical applications spanning DNS, Web browsing, and video streaming, and compare their performance against that of a traditional MNO from two very diverse geographical locations, US and Spain. We find that MNAs may introduce some delay compared to local MNOs in the region where the user is roaming, yet they offer significant performance improvements over the traditional MNOs roaming model, such as home-routed roaming. To fully assess the potential benefits of the MNA model, we also carry out emulation studies assessing the potential performance gains that MNAs could achieve by deploying both control and user plane functions of open-source 5G implementations across different Amazon Web Services locations.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	4651-4667
Number of pages	17
Journal	IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management
Volume	22
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TNSM.2025.3582089
State	Published - 2025

Funding

This work has been partially supported by the ORIGAMI project, which has received funding from the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme with Grant Agreement No. 101139270. The work of Marcelo Bagnulo has been partially funded by the EU through the StandICT RXQ project.

Keywords

5G
Mobile networks
application performance
network aggregators
roaming

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Computer Networks and Communications
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Access to Document

10.1109/TNSM.2025.3582089

Cite this

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title = "A Comparative Analysis of Global Mobile Network Aggregators",

abstract = "The mobile telecommunication industry is undergoing continuous evolution to cope with ever increasing service requirements and expectations of end users. This has recently led to the rise of Mobile Network Aggregators (MNAs), a new type of global virtual operators that deliver mobile communication services by utilizing multiple Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), dynamically connecting to the one that best meets their customers{\textquoteright} needs based on location and time. MNAs can then offer optimized global coverage by connecting to local MNOs that have limited (e.g., national) geographic service. In this paper, we provide a first in-depth analysis of the operations of three major MNAs: Google Fi, Twilio, and Truphone. We conduct performance measurements across these MNAs for critical applications spanning DNS, Web browsing, and video streaming, and compare their performance against that of a traditional MNO from two very diverse geographical locations, US and Spain. We find that MNAs may introduce some delay compared to local MNOs in the region where the user is roaming, yet they offer significant performance improvements over the traditional MNOs roaming model, such as home-routed roaming. To fully assess the potential benefits of the MNA model, we also carry out emulation studies assessing the potential performance gains that MNAs could achieve by deploying both control and user plane functions of open-source 5G implementations across different Amazon Web Services locations.",

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A Comparative Analysis of Global Mobile Network Aggregators

Abstract

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Keywords

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