3G and LTE small cell news and analysis

Data caching reduces backhaul costs for Small Cells and Wi-Fi

feedback@thinksmallcell.com (David Chambers) — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:13:11 +0000

Backhaul connections for small cells are seen to be a costly component, especially for outdoor/public access where dedicated wireless equipment is required. The higher bandwidth demands from LTE and Wi-Fi place ever greater loads driving further investment. Data caching, storing frequently accessed data within each small cell, could significantly reduce backhaul bandwidth required and also improve the quality of service to customers. We look at two small cell vendors who champion this approach.

Wireless Broadband Alliance enable seamless cellular and Wi-Fi using Small Cells

feedback@thinksmallcell.com (David Chambers) — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:18:00 +0000

Wi-Fi is being mandated for many public access small cells, with an product specification of a tri-mode 3G/LTE/Wi-Fi small cell commonly thought of as an ideal long term goal. Relatively low takeup of Service Provider Wi-Fi to date isn't helped by clunky, unintuitive and potentially insecure login screens.

Tiago Rodrigues, Program Director at the Wireless Broadband Alliance explains how the WBA has developed a solution which makes Wi-Fi access as easy as cellular roaming, where and how this could be rolled out, and what the WBA/Small Cell Forum partnership could deliver next.

LTE small cells create opportunity for new mobile network entrant in the UK

feedback@thinksmallcell.com (David Chambers) — Thu, 16 May 2013 15:31:44 +0000

Something interesting is happening here in the UK, which may be a forerunner of what could happen elsewhere. BT, the encumbent fixed network operator, bought some 2.6GHz spectrum in the LTE auction earlier this year. Having initially said they had no plans to launch their own retail mobile network, they are now changing their approach and announced they may do so within the next 12 months.

We look at the context of how the commercial makeup of mobile network operators are evolving and are now becoming three distinct components. Is this a trend that will continue and be adopted more widely, or is BT's move an indication of consolidation to come?

ThinkSmallCell Interview with Gordon Mansfield, Chairmain Small Cell Forum, May 2013

feedback@thinksmallcell.com (David Chambers) — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:20:46 +0000

Gordon Mansfield, AVP – Small Cell Solutions at AT&T, has been Chairman of the Small Cell Forum since last September, and we caught up with him before Small Cell World Summit to hear how the Forum has evolved under his new leadership. He explained their Release Program, reveals where the strongest areas of interest are, discusses some terminology confusion and explains how the membership has evolved.

This shows a considerable move of focus from earlier residential femtocells (which aren't going away) onto both Enterprise and so-called Public Access small cells (Metrocells and Picocells).

Small Cell Chipset Vendor Landscape 2013

feedback@thinksmallcell.com (David Chambers) — Tue, 07 May 2013 16:46:24 +0000

A lot of investment has gone into development of specialist silicon for small cells in recent years. In this article, we've taken a step back and reviewed the landscape, talked to many of the major players, and developed our view of what's going on. It might be controversial for some, but should help navigate through the plethora of press releases and announcements.

The emerging opportunity for 42GHz wireless small cell backhaul

feedback@thinksmallcell.com (David Chambers) — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:41:54 +0000

Metrocells will need wireless backhaul with sufficient data throughput to deliver the high speeds which 3.5G and LTE are capable of. It's also important that the total capacity of that wireless backhaul within a geographic area matches or exceeds that of the metrocells themselves.

The key tradeoffs are the cost (and availability) of suitable spectrum, the cost of the equipment itself and the ease of deployment and maintenance. The relatively unused 42GHz sits between the licence free 60GHz and the more heavily utilized 28GHz bands, attracting some spectrum licence fees while offering lower costs by using a Point-to-Multipoint topology.

ThinkSmallCell Interview with Randy Cox, Head of Small Cell Product Management, Nokia-Siemens Networks

feedback@thinksmallcell.com (David Chambers) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:05:27 +0000

Nokia-Siemens Networks has consolidated all their small cell solutions into a single product group. Randy Cox, who heads up their Small Cell product management, highlights what's holding back the small cell market today, identifies changing requirements for small cells and explains his view of where public Wi-Fi fits into the picture.

Transport Networks for Mobile Operators conference including Small Cells

feedback@thinksmallcell.com (David Chambers) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:32:52 +0000

London was again home to the 15th annual Transport Networks for Mobile Operators (TNMO) conference. As with quite a few events these days, there was a strong theme of small cells which were mentioned in the majority of talks. Also in common with other conferences, I found a wide range of quality of content – from the outstanding to the truly banal. New takeaways for me related to small cells included the work being done by the MEF to determine the characteristics of Ethernet required for LTE small cell backhaul, various offers of Small Cell Hosting and the (mostly private) comments from operators about the reality of Metrocell rollouts.

We've also recorded a short (3 minute) vox-pop style video from the chairmen and several speakers during the event to give you a sample of the atmosphere.

Small Cell deployment opens up opportunities for new flavour of network sub-contractors

feedback@thinksmallcell.com (David Chambers) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 16:33:25 +0000

Alongside a strong interest in public access small cell products themselves, we've also seen plenty of attention for wireless backhaul solutions. But who's going to provide the specialist expertise to glue this together on the gorund - designing and choosing the best sites, the most appropriate backhaul option, then install and maintain them? We asked Peter Jennings, CTO at MLL Telecom, one of the UK's largest backhaul network providers, to share his view of where these skills will fit – a range of services that may soon be needed from others by network operators worldwide.

Picking the right frequency for wireless Metrocell backhaul

feedback@thinksmallcell.com (David Chambers) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:42:07 +0000

Most metrocells will be deployed for capacity reasons rather that just to improve coverage. In the medium term, each unit may handle 3G, LTE and Wi-Fi concurrently. For that reason, fairly high capacity backhaul will be preferred – at least 100Mbps. Ideally that would be fibre, but in many cases that is impractical. Wireless backhaul comes with many choices; what are the tradeoffs between capacity, cost and feasibility?