[opendtv] Small cells still not ready for mobile prime time
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2012 17:01:14 -0500
These are the two KEY points, IMO. Quoting:
1. "A carrier can increase its capacity as much as twenty-fold adopting
heterogeneous networks of small and macro cells,
2. "but only if it pools all its spectrum into one combined 3G and LTE net,
said Erik Ekudden, head of technology strategy at Ericsson."
There's also this related issue (quoting again):
"The amount of cellular coverage area subject to inter-cell interference grows
from 25 percent with macro cells to 40 percent with macro and small cells, said
Andrew Jun, vice president of network strategy at cellular operator KT in Korea
that has created centralized pools of 144 to 1,000 cell sites."
And btw, let's not forget that when you use lower UHF frequencies of the TV
bands, this problem can only get worse.
Still, the "multiplier effect" achieved with small cells is clearly way more
than what an extra 120 MHz of TV spectrum can provide. When we remember that
these 4G channels are going to aggregate multiple 20 MHz channels into 80 or
100 MHz channels. You ain't going to get no stinkin' 20X increase in capacity
if all you get from the TV giveback is 1 or 1 1/2 more LTE 4G channels.
Bert
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http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4375969/Small-cells-still-not-ready-for-mobile-prime-time
Small cells still not ready for mobile prime time
Rick Merritt
6/22/2012 12:27 PM EDT
SAN FRANCISCO - Engineers still have significant work ahead to deliver small
cell base stations, a key piece of the puzzle for easing congestion on heavily
loaded mobile data networks.
Powerwave Technologies (Santa Ana, Calif.) showed what it claimed was one of
the first shipping small cell base stations at the NGMN Alliance conference
here recently (below, left). Although it is being used in a small-cell network
for a U.S. government department, the small cells do not yet interoperate with
traditional macro base stations.
So far the traditional base station suppliers have not disclosed details of
their X2 interconnects that companies such as Powerwave need to link to the
macro cells. Release 10 of Long Term Evolution specifies an inter-cell
interference mitigation standard over X2, but operators are not expected to
start deploying Release 10 until sometime in 2013.
Qualcomm showed a demo at the event of the inter-cell interference technology
working on prototype chip sets installed in base stations at its San Diego
headquarters. It did not say when those chip sets will ship.
The amount of cellular coverage area subject to inter-cell interference grows
from 25 percent with macro cells to 40 percent with macro and small cells, said
Andrew Jun, vice president of network strategy at cellular operator KT in Korea
that has created centralized pools of 144 to 1,000 cell sites.
"This is why we introduced [base station] virtualization" said Jun. "With one
location managing multiple cells we could have coordinated transmissions to
control interference, especially at the cell edge," he said.
"It's only a matter of when" until small and macro cell interoperability is
ready, said Khurram Sheikh, chief technologist of Powerwave in a panel session
at the event. He claimed his company's small cells support both LTE and Wi-Fi
and can increase an operator's network capacity fifteen-fold while increasing
battery life five-fold.
A carrier can increase its capacity as much as twenty-fold adopting
heterogeneous networks of small and macro cells, but only if it pools all its
spectrum into one combined 3G and LTE net, said Erik Ekudden, head of
technology strategy at Ericsson. Most OEMs are still in the design phase for
small cells with field trials starting next year, he added.
For its part, Huawei described at the event a merged LTE and 802.11n Wi-Fi
hotspot based on Release 8. It can support downloads at about 1.2 Gbits/second
using 256 QAM and is now in a lab prototype based on FPGAs and DSPs, said a
Huawei engineer.
"Everybody has nice stuff on their slides, but go try to find a good commercial
small cell--I can't find a single vendor to supply one, said Konstantin
Yurganov, chief technology officer at Yota, a 4G supplier in Russia, in a talk
at the event.
The carrier has as many as 15 percent of its base stations heavily loaded in
some cities with as many as 70 to 160 subscribers on a single base station, he
said.
Ultimately, small cells will be deployed both in public areas such as lamp
posts and in businesses such as cafes and offices. That's opening up an
opportunity for enterprise networking companies to participate.
In a keynote talk, Paul Mankiewich (right), chief technologist for mobility at
Cisco Systems, called for a network API enabling broad virtualization across
carrier and business nets. The API could build upon technology already in the
works at the Wi-Fi Alliance to help identify traffic on public versus private
Wi-Fi hotspots, he said.
"We don't have coherence between enterprise and service provider networks
today," said Mankiewich. "All that depends on two sets of standards that don't
speak to each other today," he said.
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