SMALL CELL ARTICLES
HetNet Integration Solution Helps Telcos Improve User Experience & Increase Revenue
Huawei BlogsHuawei2/20/2014
The proliferation of smart phones and the mobile Internet results in massive data and network traffic growth. Total mobile data traffic is widely forecasted to exceed 10,000 PB per month in 2015, with an expected annual compound growth rate of over 100% from 2011 to 2015. Network traffic is now converging on hotspot areas. 20% of sites in high-traffic areas carry 80% of the total network traffic. The traffic rates of sites in high-traffic areas are 6.5 times that of common sites. Presently, telcos' primary concern is to alleviate network traffic pressure and deliver excellent mobile user experience. Based on a profound understanding of hotspot areas and rich industry experience, Huawei provides the HetNet Integration Solution to help telcos improve user experience and increase revenue efficiently.
Coordinated indoor and outdoor coverage in built-up business districts, delivering a first-class network while enhancing user experience
A large number of large buildings, shopping malls, and commercial streets are often found clustered in crowded built-up business districts. Signals receptions in these buildings where many high-end subscribers reside are garbled and susceptible to interference and signals on the streets between these buildings are weak because of the building sizes.
Huawei adopts the industry-leading indoor/outdoor traffic analysis technology to address weak or excessive coverage, improving traffic absorption. This technology assesses hotspot coverage and implements coordinated indoor/outdoor coverage simulation and capacity planning to enable seamless coverage and improve traffic absorption.
Huawei provides diversified solutions and customized product portfolios based on network requirements. For example, micro cells can recover bottom-layer coverage holes in built-up business districts and the LampSite indoor coverage solution can improve traffic absorption in shopping malls.
Coordinated coverage of multiple networks for large-sized stadiums, carrying ultra-large traffic and improving telcos brand competitiveness
During a sporting event, large-sized stadiums have dense spectators and ultra-large traffic and signals in these stadiums are subjected to strong interference. For example, in a large-scale stadium designed to accommodate 70,000 spectators, tens of thousands of voice calls are made and some hundred GB of data traffic is generated during the event. Calls and data traffic peak at the beginning, during half-time, and at the end of the event. Dozens of cell sectors are used to process the ultra-large traffic. Any interference between these cell sectors may increase background noises and then cause network congestion.
With rich experience in serving over 400 major sporting events, Huawei provides dedicated solutions tailored to large-sized stadiums. These solutions can accurately estimate the capacity of an event and customize traffic bearer policies based on empirical traffic models for large-sized stadiums. These solutions can also interwork with the G/U/L/WLAN Offloading Solution to dynamically balance traffic between GUL base stations and Wi-Fi hotspots, improving traffic absorption and enhancing resource utilization.
Based on experience accumulated from serving over ten well-known stadiums, Huawei provides a high-density cell sector solution designed to eliminate strong interference. This solution employs three-dimensional simulation to calibrate models, power, and layout positions of antennas, effectively controlling interference between cell sectors and maximizing the traffic capacity of each network.
Multi-telcos and multi-standard sharing in the metro, delivering high-speed service and achieving double win
The metro operates in narrow and enclosed underground areas which provide limited space for installing telcos devices. Usually, the metro is served by multiple telcos and thus has high requirements on interference control.
Based on technical indicators of different telcos, systems, and frequencies, Huawei provides a dedicated solution to detect and analyze interference sources in a multi-system environment and customize interference control measures. Besides, Huawei provides a modular SingleDAS solution with flexibly installed device modules to meet coverage requirements of different systems which can enable long distance transmission and reduces device space occupation, allowing end users to enjoy high-speed data services in express trains.
Dedicated solutions for school/corporate campuses with multi-functional areas, enabling resource sharing and improving resource utilization
A school/corporate campus has many indoor functional areas such as teaching buildings, dining halls, and dormitories as well as outdoor functional areas such as playgrounds and campus roads. Traffic generated in these different functional areas is extremely uneven. Huawei provides dedicated solutions to analyze possible traffic generated in these functional areas at different time based on their service requirements, and then customizes a capacity model adapting to traffic changes. In these solutions, a 3-Layer network with coordinated macro cells, micro cells, and indoor distributed systems is adopted to achieve seamless coverage and multiple remote radio units (RRUs) are used to cover one cell to enable network capacity sharing and improve resource utilization and the ROI.
Flexibly scalable and large-capacity solutions for transport hubs, helping telcos win more high-end subscribers
With many large-scale buildings, functional areas, and roaming/high-end subscribers, a transport hub like an airport has high requirements on user experience and is a hotly contested spot for telcos to win more high-end subscribers.
Based on the analysis of airport subscriber behavior and traffic models, Huawei accurately determines the coverage and capacity requirements of different functional areas and then takes corresponding measures. For example, the parking apron area is fully covered with signals to ensure passengers' fast access to the network. This measure helps telcos win high-end international roaming subscribers. Based on current and future traffic requirements, Huawei appropriately plans cells for areas such as departure halls and VIP lounges that generate large traffic and also uses the remote capacity expansion feature of the LampSite indoor coverage solution to dynamically expand capacity on demand.
To date, Huawei has provided indoor coverage services to 115 telcos in 64 countries all over the world and set up over 26,000 hotspot networks. Huawei's indoor coverage solutions are adopted in many landmarks such as the United Nations Headquarters, Mall of the Emirates, Brazil World Cup stadium, Baku Crystal Hall, Paris metro, and Zurich Airport.
Steve Perlman's Amazing Wireless Machine Is Finally Here
By Ashlee VanceFebruary 18, 2014
It was almost three years ago that Steve Perlman began courting controversy by promising something of a wireless technology panacea. A relentless entrepreneur and inventor, he unveiled a prototype called DIDO in this magazine’s pages. The technology would do away with wireless network congestion by giving each smartphone and tablet its own super-fast connection instead of asking these devices to share bandwidth pumped out by a cell tower. The ins and outs of the technology were difficult to understand, and plenty of critics dismissed Perlman’s claims as being misguided and trumped up.
Courtesy Astro Studios for ArtemisThe Artemis pWavetransmitterPerlman tried his very best to prove the critics wrong today by unveiling a commercialized version of his wireless innovation, now known as pCell or personal cell technology. Perlman bills the wireless system as basically the successor to LTE, the current high-speed wireless technology. In demonstrations at his laboratory, Perlman showed off iPhones, Surface tablets, and TVs streaming massive files—the 4K UltraHD version of House of Cards from Netflix, for example—via his own wireless networking equipment. The demonstration proved not only that the high-speed wireless technology worked but also that it would work with existing devices that support LTE.
“That will shock people,” Perlman said in an interview. “It means we have hundreds of millions of devices out there that are ready to go.”
The problem Perlman is trying to solve revolves around how current wireless networks are built. Companies like AT&T and Verizon will put up a cell tower that sends out a signal, which must then be shared by any people in range. The idea is to have the signals overlap at the edges of their range like a series of circles nudging up against each other. The arrangement must be done very artfully because the circles cause interference if they’re too close. As a result, there are spots in cities like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco where you often have tons of people in the same cell all placing calls and pulling down data to their devices at the same time, and their connections slow because they’re all sharing the bandwidth in that given area. The congestion issue is expected to get worse and worse as people keeping adding wireless devices and downloading larger and larger media files.
Story: What's Better for Wireless, Faster Infrastructure or Lower Prices?
Under Perlman’s pCell system, interference from the cells is not an issue. Instead of blasting out a dumb signal across a given area, Perlman and his team of researchers have developed a smart transmission system. Their networking equipment locates a device like a smartphone and uses complex mathematical operations to create a unique signal—hence the personal cell idea—just for that device. The upshot of this is that you can place the pCell transmitters anywhere and not worry about their signals bleeding into each other. And instead of sharing a signal, each person gets to tap into close to the full capacity of the transmitter. “We believe this is the largest increase in capacity in the history of wireless technology,” says Perlman. “It’s like the wireless equivalent of fiber-optic cables.”
Artemis Networks is the company Perlman has formed to sell this technology. It’s in the process of putting pCell transmitters on about 350 rooftops in San Francisco, and Perlman is looking to work with a telco or technology company like Google (GOOG) or Microsoft (MSFT) to get a commercial service running in the fourth quarter. “We’ll do San Francisco first and then do New York, Chicago, Dallas, and other congested cities,” says Perlman.
To work properly, a company backing the pCell technology would need to build out a large data center in addition to deploying the transmitters. It’s in the data center where servers constantly crunch away on the algorithms that form the unique wireless stream aimed at each device. As people move about, the servers must keep recalculating and processing a new stream. Perlman expects that a single data center could satisfy the needs of a city like San Francisco.
Story: A Startup That Lets You Pay for Wireless Data With Time
Perlman has spent about 10 years working on this technology with a handful of employees. I paid a recent visit to their San Francisco laboratory and saw the technology working firsthand. Perlman had put a few of the transmitters up near the ceiling and was able to direct a wireless beam right at a device in my hand. Despite such demonstrations, Perlman has been unable to tempt venture capitalists with the technology. “They invariably bring in experts who say it doesn’t really work,” he says. “I am showing them a demo, but they remain convinced that it’s something else.”
Perlman, who made millions selling WebTV to Microsoft, has funded all of this himself, and he declines to reveal the exact amount spent so far. He will show off the pCell technology at Columbia University on Wednesday during a midday lecture
AT&T, Cisco promise Hotspot 2.0 Wi-Fi roaming for MWC attendees
February 17, 2014
Read more: AT&T, Cisco promise Hotspot 2.0 Wi-Fi roaming for MWC attendees - FierceWirelessTech
The backers of Hotspot 2.0 want the mobile industry to know that the technology is ready for prime time, and there probably is no better way to make that point than to deploy Hotspot 2.0 for automatic use by at least a portion of the attendees at next week's Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona.
AT&T (NYSE:T) is collaborating with a host of other mobile operators as well as vendors Cisco and Accuris Networks to bring the service to fruition, if only for a week and only within the confines of the Fira Gran Via convention grounds.
In addition to AT&T, participating service providers in the demo include Bell Mobility, China Mobile, Korea Telecom, MEO, Mobily, NTT DoCoMo, PCCW-HKT, SK Telecom and True. AT&T negotiated with its roaming partners worldwide, including the participating mobile operators, to add Wi-Fi roaming to their roaming agreements.
"Customers of the participating mobile operators with the latestcompatible phones will securely and automatically authenticate onto the Hotspot 2.0 Wi-Fi network when they walk through the conference doors, just as easily as they roamed onto the mobile network when they landed in Barcelona," said a release from AT&T, Cisco and Accuris.
Cisco is providing the carrier-grade Wi-Fi network, including Passpoint access points and controllers certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance. The platform uses self-optimizing network (SON) technology.
Accuris Networks is responsible for enabling MWC attendees to securely and automatically connect onto the Wi-Fi network. Its AccuRoam platform will enable authentication and billing management via SIM cards, just as they are in the case of cellular-only roaming.
"As the Wi-Fi and cellular worlds merge, developing a common authentication mechanism with standard roaming agreements is a natural next step," said JR Wilson, vice president of partnerships and alliances at AT&T Mobility and chairman of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA).
The companies noted that once users can securely roam onto Wi-Fi as easily as they do onto cellular networks, operators will be positioned to begin marketing new services that take advantage of indoor location information and analytics uniquely provided by indoor small cells.
In related news, the WBA last week unveiled what it calls a comprehensive definition of carrier Wi-Fi, which it noted has been loosely used as an industry buzzword but with no universally recognized meaning.
"Achieving a common vision for the future of carrier Wi-Fi and what needs to be put in place to make it a reality is imperative," said Philippe Lucas, senior vice president of standardization and ecosystems development at Orange, which led the initiative along with Ruckus Wireless.
The WBA guidelines for carrier Wi-Fi capabilities address requirements such as consistent experience, fully integrated end-to-end network and network management, which addresses quality, security and manageability.
The WBA said it will also send the paper to other industry bodies for their feedback. The alliance has started initial consultations with industry bodies including 3GPP, the Broadband Forum, GSMA, NGMN and the Wi-Fi Alliance regarding the carrier Wi-Fi definition.
Analyst Angle: Go-to-market tune ups for small cell infrastructure players
Posted on 05 February 2014by Aaron Blazar, VP, Atlantic-ACM. Tags
Tower providers, fiber players, integrators and others are focused on capturing business from the next round of U.S. mobile infrastructure expansion – small cells. In my previous Analyst Angle, I posed the question of whether or not the demand is real (i.e. when it’s coming or what will make it real).
The next step is to understand how vendors can win business from U.S. wireless operators. At this point, with the carrier outdoor small-cell deployment game in the early innings, there is no clear-cut approach to winning business. Therefore, forming an understanding of what the requirements are, who the potential players are and how to approach opportunities will drive wins in the next round of mobile infrastructure expansion.
U.S. mobile operators have yet to fully define small-cell infrastructure requirements, resulting in an ecosystem with a wide array of players lined up and ready to serve rollout needs. As clarity on deployment requirements begins to emerge, business models will take shape and winning approaches to the market will be defined. So, for today, the largest question in the market is which solutions will win small-cell infrastructure business.
Two schools of thought
Two approaches have emerged for serving U.S. wireless operator needs – turnkey and a-la-carte. Turnkey solutions, also known as small-cell-as-a-service, include site acquisition, site leasing, attachment rights, utility contracting, backhaul and ongoing backhaul network management. Many ecosystem providers are lining up to test the turnkey waters. Potential players are leveraging existing infrastructure (tower operators or fiber providers) or developing businesses as sourcing partners/integrators to deliver turnkey solutions. Advantages to this model include the ability to drive scale/subsidies across existing products and the opportunity to become a one-stop sourcing partner for wireless operators.