Post on 20-Jun-2015
Small Cells: How did we get from heresy to prevailing orthodoxy, and what challenges lie ahead?
Simon Saunders
04/10/2012 1 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
Agenda
• About Real Wireless
• Small cell progress: seven years in four minutes
• Big questions remaining
• Aspirin or tonic?
• Why, where, when, how many?
• Role of hosted, managed service
• Additional issues
04/10/2012 2 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
About Real Wireless
• Focused UK-based wireless consultancy, bridging the gap between wireless experts and wireless users
• Team of independent experts with deep technology and broad business experience
• Clients include: • Enterprises
• Operators
• Regulators
• Vendors
• Investors and law firms
• Experience: • Hundreds of radio systems
• Wireless strategy for landlords and enterprises
• Founded and chair(ed) Small Cell (Femto) Forum
• Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board
3 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved. 04/10/2012
Some Clients
Some Places Some Technologies
The Small Cell community has come a long way
04/10/2012 4 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
3G Femtocell Standard
Interference management
100x capacity
Business case
More 3G femtos than
macros globally
60% of operators say small cells more
important than macrocells for LTE
Heresy!
Outside-in always wins!
2005
Orthodoxy!
2012
But some big questions remain
• Femtocells: niche or mass market?
• Public small cells:
• Aspirin or tonic?
• Why?
• Where?
• When?
• How many?
• Need to rewrite the RF planning rulebook for the new world
04/10/2012 5 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
Capacity benefits
• Small Cell Forum study of 3G small cells in outdoor environments (but general concepts similar for LTE)
• Demonstrates that interference management techniques allow small cells and macrocells to coexist in the same frequencies without causing undue interference
• Shows that even with conservative deployments, small cells could offload the majority of subscribers in busy areas, reducing network load and improving user experience
© Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
21%
56%
75%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
1 4 10
Small cells per macro
% t
raff
ic o
fflo
ade
d
Source: Small Cell Forum
04/10/2012 6
Aspirin
User experience benefits
• Substantial increase in typical data throughput for all users, whether connected to the small cells or macrocells
• Great opportunity for increasing user satisfaction and a strong motivation to install small cells even outside of capacity-limited areas
© Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
58%
315%
523%
31% 138%
246%
0%
200%
400%
600%
1 4 10
All Users
Macro Users
% increase in median throughput over macrocells alone
Small cells per macrocell Source: Small Cell Forum
04/10/2012 7
Tonic
So why deploy small cells?
04/10/2012 8 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
Small Cells
Offload for capacity
Depth and breadth of coverage
Improved user experience
Value-added services
More Deeper, broader
Better Different
Strategy Downsides Upsides
Where should small cells be placed? Currently no agreement on the placement strategy: several options:
04/10/2012 9 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
Exact hotspot
locations
Maximise ‘geometry’ gains
Hotspots appear, move and disappear
Macrocell edges
Stable, goes to the heart of the
issue
Comparable benefit?
Backhaul locations
Make best of available fibre
Compromised access
performance
Randomly & in excess
Break dependence on
planning
Subtle balance of locations being
cheaper vs more numerous
When should small cells be deployed and how many are needed? • On capacity grounds alone, need to consider all enhancement techniques
together, not just small cells with static macro capacity
• We tried this for the UK over the period 2012-2030
04/10/2012 10 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
What did we find? It depends…
11 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
TECHNOLOGY
SPECTRUM TOPOLOGYCapacity
11x? 7x? 13x?
2-100x??
• Depends heavily on economics as well as technology
6.2x? 10.1x? 3/3x?
04/10/2012
How many small cells depends (inter alia) on how much spectrum
• One illustration of how the numbers depend on external factors • See http://www.realwireless.biz/mobile-capacity-in-the-uk-major-study-
published/ for more
12 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved. 04/10/2012
Source: Real Wireless, 2012
Different motivations, different locations and volumes
04/10/2012 13 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
Offloading congested macrocells
In hotspots, at macrocell edges
4-8 per congested
macro?
Depth and breadth of coverage
Close to shielded buildings, far from macros
5-10 per macro?
Improved user experience
Almost everywhere
5-30 per macro?
Why?
Where?
How many?
More Deeper, broader Better
Consistent operator views on the top challenges for small cells
04/10/2012 14 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
Source: Small Cell Forum LinkedIn Group. Poll results as at 12/9/12
Small Cells as a Service – SCaaS
04/10/2012 15 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
Site provider 1 Site provider 2
Small Cell Service Provider - SCaaS
Operator 1 Operator 2 Operator 3
Access to sites
Small Cell Network Access to and operation of small cell network
Delivery of mobile services
Mobile operator self-provided A potential SCaaS offering
Which parts of a small cell network could a SCaaS provider offer?
04/10/2012 16 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
SCaaS more likely to offer
Operator more likely to self-provide
Sites
Backhaul
Antennas
Housing Active
Electronics Power
Mobile operator
Small Cell Service Provider
- SCaaS
Other issues could help shift small cells from aspirin to tonic • Councils and other site providers have a big role to play
• Broadband objectives: Growth, inclusiveness, remote delivery
• Can we align their incentives and those of the industry? (Avoid “lamp grab”)
• Open interoperability (not just standards) • Well in hand for femtocells
• But is it just too hard for public access small cells?
• Spectrum sharing models • Witness 3.5GHz in the US
• Not always palatable for current operators, but can open up new bands and facilitate rapid refarming
• Many locations require a multi-operator model: shared spectrum may be more practical than multi-carrier
04/10/2012 17 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
Overall • Small cells are increasingly well-accepted as
playing a key role in future mobile networks
• But there are distinct motivations lead to distinct outcomes:
• Capacity
• Depth of coverage
• User experience
• Services
• These distinct motivations - and progress in the other options for delivering them - lead to very different outcomes for:
• Quantity
• Timing
• Location
• Actual scale of deployment will depend to a large degree on how easy/cheap deployment turns out to be
• A wholesale “SCaaS” approach could help address both backhaul and site issues
04/10/2012 18 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.
Contact Real Wireless PO Box 2218 Pulborough West Sussex RH20 4XB United Kingdom
realwireless.biz
Tel: +44 (0) 207 117 8514 Web: www.realwireless.biz Blog: realwireless.biz/blog Email: info@realwireless.biz
04/10/2012 19 © Real Wireless Ltd. 2012, All rights reserved.