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Small cells are often discussed at wireless industry gatherings as being the solution for network operators that desperately need an answer to consumers growing appetite for mobile data. In fact, many analyst rms predict that the small cell market will grow exponentially in the coming years. Infonetics Research predicts that the global small cell market will grow to a $2.1 billion business by 2016, with 3 million small cells shipped. But small cells have some challenges. First, the denition alone is confusing. Femtocells are typically considered the original small cell but are usually associated with devices used primarily in the home. As the femtocell market evolved from indoor residential applications to outdoor public venues the term small cells became more prevalent than femtocell and now small cells include other technologies such as microcells, metrocells and even picocells. Whatever name your choose, the end result is that small cells are more complex than most realize because they have to be integrated into the rest of the network. This often requires intensive network planning and installation considerations since small cells are often located on city property or in buildings where owners want revenue for drilling holes, installing cables and supplying electricity. Small cells alone may not be costly estimates put their cost in the $2,000-$3,000 rangebut when you add power and backhaul costs, the price becomes much higher. In this FierceWireless ebook we will explore the various small cell solutions that are available and discuss how operators are planning to use them in their networks. This ebook will also look at small cell backhaul, which can be a major obstacle for deployments, and explore how rural carriers are planning to use the technology. Sue

THE SMALL CELL PHENOMENON

UNDERSTANDING

BY SUE MAREK

EDIToR-IN-CHIEF /// FIERCEWIRELESS

DIAMONd SPONsORs:

Small Cells Are Promising for Operators but Offer a New Level of Complexity
1 AUGUST 2 012

Femto, Pico, Micro: Whats in a Name?

An Integrated Small Cell Vision *Sponsored Content*

Cost Effectively Deploying Small Cells

Small Cells Find Homes in Rural Markets

Managing HetNets and Maximizing Small Cell Automation with SON *Sponsored Content*

10

Backhaul at the Forefront

11

Small cells Applications: Hope or Hype? *Sponsored Content*

12

GOLd SPONsOR:

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from existing network planning methodology, said Dimitris Mavrakis, principal analyst at Informa. Practical issues are the biggest challenges. To Gillotts way of thinking, the hurdles facing mobile operators with regard to small cells range from how and where they are located and installed, to how they are reached with backhaul connections, to how they interact with other network infrastructure. You have to be very careful how you deploy, because they can interfere with macrocells pretty easily, Gillott said. The ability to split the cell within the same frequency is pretty limited. Really, you want to do it in a different frequency band. Location is also an issue, Gillotte said, because You cant just bolt these things on the side of a building. Considerations like power and backhaul make deployment more complex, as does the question of exactly who can deploy them, he says. One of the biggest things about small cells people are overlooking is how youre going to put them up, Gillott said. Youre not going to have a truck roll for half a million small cellsits just not cost effective. Gillotts view is that the installation needs to be accessible to someone at the level of an IT professional to keep costs low but the requirements of small cell deployment extend beyond basic IT-type needs. Think Wi-Fi hotspot levels of deployment, if those were durable and carrier-grade, he said. Michael Howard, co-founder and principal analyst of Infonetics, notes that operators have many nontechnology hurdles to overcome as they consider deploying small cells on structures like light poles, trafc lights and buildings. We hear stories already of city governments, utility companies and building owners wanting new regulations and ordinances to avoid unsightly boxes perched and attached around town, Howard said. Some cities want the boxes painted black and limited in size; utility pole owners see new charges for boxes and electric services (and bigger charges for bigger boxes); and building owners are looking for new revenue for drilling holes, installing cabling, and supplying electricity and network connections. All of this is new to all concerned, and it will take time to gure it out. Cost, of course, is one of the biggest questions about small cells that operators must address. Most analysts agree that small cell market growth will be driven by operators seeking to enhance capacitybut for that to be worthwhile, it must be cost-effective. In our conversations and survey work with operators around the world, they want outdoor small cells in the $2,000 to $3,000 range, with another $500 or so for the backhaul, Howard said. Good luck to them for next couple of years. Depending on the size, power and range of the small cell, it can hit in that $2,000 to 3,000 range now, but the metro deployment size are today more in the $5000 range. There are a lot of factors in pricing, and some today are in the $10,000 range. Backhauling of trafc from small cells is yet another challenge and because of the early stage of deployment, the answers are yet to be readily available. Since there very few rollouts to date, there is no clear industry operator approach for selecting from the many alternatives for backhauling those small cells, Howard said. Operators are still evaluating, testing, and deciding. Most operators plan their rst outdoor deployments in the urban core, where macrocell sites are connected to ber backhaul networks, so most plan to aggregate small cell backhaul trafc onto the nearest macrocell site backhaul network. The other question mark with regard to small cell deployments is whether having them in place is just about coverage and capacity in

Small Cells Are Promising for Operators but Offer a New Level of Complexity
BY JaSoN ME YERS Most industry analysts are bullish on the concept of small cells, but caution that the capacity enhancements they offer could be tempered by the cost and complexity of deployment. The industry analyst outlook on small cell deployment strategies is perhaps best summarized by the view of Iain Gillott, founder and president of market consultancy iGR: Nothing is ever as easy as it seems. A wide range of analyst rms has predicted strong numbers for small cell strategies. Infonetics Research forecasts the global small cell market to grow to 3 million small cells shipped by

The biggest challenge is that small cells are such a signicant departure from existing network planning methodology.
DIMITRIs MAVRAKIs, PRINCIPAL ANALYsT AT INFORMA

2016, driving a market worth about $2.1 billion. Informa Telecoms and Media, for its part, projects that by 2016, small cells will comprise 88 percent of all base stations deployed globally. But there are many issues that must be addressed to make those projections a reality. The biggest challenge is that small cells are such a signicant departure

Most operators plan their rst outdoor deployments in the urban core, where macrocell sites are connected to ber backhaul networks, so most plan to aggregate small cell backhaul trafc onto the nearest macrocell site backhaul network.
MICHAEL HOWARd, CO-FOUNdER ANd PRINCIPAL ANALYsT OF INFONETICs

networks, or whether there are new service capabilities (like layering rich communications services on top and taking advantage of location-based services) that are enabled by a more complex web of coverage. Gillott said that small cell deployment is far more driven by capacity, and that the subject of differentiated services is one better addressed at the enterprise level. Howard of Infonetics agreed that capacity and coverage are the main drivers for small cells, but noted that service differentiation could be possible in some deployments. Operators are looking at service models for premium users that choose the best service when walking or driving in a downtown area, he said. Operators envision situations of dense users in which they will keep low paying subscribers on Wi-Fi, while premium subscribers will be parlayed among the best small cell or macrocell. Also, location services are planned where a subscriber walks down a street, and special offers are sent them from the nearby businesses. l
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In announcing the name change, the forum said it would address all small cells that operate in licensed spectrum, are operatormanaged and feature edge-based intelligence, including what have been dubbed femtocells, picocells, microcells and metrocells. Its also supporting the crossover between small cells and other relevant technologies, including Wi-Fi, cloud RAN, Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) and macrocells as part of the heterogeneous network (hetnet) environment.

Femto, Pico, Micro: Whats in a Name?

BY MoNICa ALLE VEN Small cell technology has evolved to encompass a lot of different architectures. Quick: Whats the difference between a femto, pico and microcell? If it takes moment to consider, youre not alone. In fact, some might say the difference no longer matters. Or theyre so loosely dened

At the moment, femtocells seem to be the most deployed technology in terms of volume
AdITYA KAUL, ABI REsEARCH PRACTICE dIRECTOR FOR MObILE NETWORKs

An Integrated Small Cell Vision

BY MaRK GR aYSoN, DISTINGUISHED CoNSULTING ENGINEER, CISCo

Sponsored Content

SMALL CELL OPPORTUNITY Were entering the postmacrocell era where radio type no longer denes the network architecture and small cells are critical in delivering the mobile Internet.
JOHN CHAMbERs, CHAIRMAN ANd CEO, CIsCO

that its more economical to just say small cell. Its not as if thats been lost on industry leaders. Femto has long been associated with devices for the home, but small cell technology evolved beyond that. In February, the Femto Forum announced its name change to the Small Cell Forum. It has since grown to more than 140 members representing operators and vendors linked to all kinds of small cell architectures.
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BACK TO BAsICs

Broadly speaking, a femtocell is often used to describe a consumer or enterprise product that resides indoors. A picocell sits in indoor public areas that can be residential or enterprise, and a microcell resides outside. But even the Small Cell Forum points out that a picocell is sometimes used to encompass outdoor cells as well. The term metrocell is typically used to describe technologies designed for high capacity metropolitan areas, but the forum says the

metrocell category also can include femtocells, picocells and microcells where they meet the deployment criteria. Go gure. At the moment, femtocells seem to be the most deployed technology in terms of volume, said Aditya Kaul, ABI Research practice director for mobile networks. But in general, the market is moving from indoor residential applications to outdoor public venues, and the small cell banner is becoming increasingly popular. The shift to the great outdoors is music to the ears of the vendors that specialize there. Over at Vanu, whose founder Vanu Bose has been a pioneer in software-dened radio (SDR), executives are cutting through the clutter by referring to their gear as a small thing that sits on a pole. Bose said the confusing array of small cell terminology has been a pet peeve of his for some time. These denitions are so loose, he said, noting that products often bleed into more than one category. Ours is a full-edged base station in a small package. Put another way, Vanu makes what it calls a compact RAN, or radio access network, thus solving the problem by being about as specic as you can get. Indeed, one persons femtocell may be anothers personal base continued on page 13

INDUsTRY CHALLENGE

There is a clear technology challenge we face today. It is being able to recognize that as we are nearing the asymptote of radio performance, the only way to meet the expected demand in mobile data is to deliver a lot more smaller cells. The industry needs to realize that focusing attention on facilitating the massive adoption of small cells will bear far more reward than dening ever higher order modulation schemes and RF capabilities that are inaccessible to the majority of macro-cellular users. So we will use small cells to solve the bandwidth issues and fortuitously they will also help solve the signaling issues which have been equally challenging to address. The always-on nature of Wi-Fi together with the distributed licensed small cell architectures both allow for massive ofoad of signaling events from the overburdened macro cellular network.

The new standard for how users access the mobile Internet will be via small cell solutions. The peak of consumption will happen when in coverage of small cells, whether at home, on the ofce, at the stadium or in the mall. The network will shift to offering elastic packet core services that can scale to deliver the dramatic increase in Internet consumption as well as the monetization opportunities for service providers to insert into established value chains and create new value chains that leverage mobile analytics. Small cells take penetration into these locations and drive new location, service, context, and device aware services. Cisco is tremendously enthusiastic about this transition which represents the massive adoption of mobile Internet services and the aggressive adoption of small cell solutions. Cisco has over a decade of experience in delivering small cell solutions to service providers using both licensed and unlicensed radio technologies. Moving forward, we are particularly excited about the opportunity to integrate licensed and unlicensed architectures. Our most recent announcement concerns the ASR 5500, Ciscos next generation elastic packet core services gateway, which is dimensioned for future network loads and provides a platform for delivering unied small cell gateway functionality, supporting Service Provider Wi-Fi,

3G Iu-h based femto, 4G small cells of all sizes, as well as conventional macro networks. Cisco is absolutely committed to the success of the small cell market. We have end-to-end solutions for both licensed and unlicensed technologies. Cisco is the market leader in carrier-grade Wi-Fi, unlicensed small cells if you will, and has delivered over 15 million such small cells. We have also deployed the worlds largest 3G WCDMA licensed small cell network with AT&T. We understand issues faced in large scale deployments such as the SuperBowl and the Olympics, and we have solved these problems with zero touch provisioning, Self Optimizing Networks (SON) functionality, beamforming, high density antennas, unied backhaul the list goes on. We are committed to and engaged in developing open standards both Next Generation Hotspot/Hotspot 2.0 for Wi-Fi through the WBA and the WFA and Iu-h for femto interoperability through the Small Cell Forum and 3GPP. Thats our vision: to build infrastructure with a highly intelligent combination of licensed and unlicensed access points, then to bring our understanding of access types together to enable our customers to build analytical capabilities and services on top of it. Thats really our vision for small cells. l

Mark Grayson is a Distinguished Consulting Engineer at Cisco with responsibility for leading Ciscos mobile architecture strategy. He has over 20 years of experience in the wireless industry, ranging from the development of military systems, the denition of satellite communication architectures, the evolution of traditional cellular systems through to the creation of the latest small cell solutions.

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ofcials. Weve been trying to pull together a set of best practices to lay down with them in hopes of avoiding a mish-mash of small cell regulations across jurisdictions, said Mike Schabel, vice president of AlcatelLucents small cell portfolio. And operators have a plethora of backhaul approaches from which to select for small cells, including ber, microwave and non-line-of sight solutions, all of which offer different cost bases. You cant just deploy the small cell where the backhaul is: You have to bring the backhaul to the small cell, said Vish Nandlall, CTO and head of strategy for Ericssons North American operations.

Cost Effectively Deploying Small Cells

BY TammY PaRKER Automation and selfprovisioning will help reduce deployment costs. The business economics of deploying small cells have made them appear excessively costly to deploy and maintain, but operators and vendors are feverishly working on efforts to bring down the costs. As with macro cells, small cells require expenditures in site acquisition, backhaul, installation and ongoing maintenance. But because there are generally so many more small cells than macros--a 6:1 ratio is commonly envisioned-those costs can seem overwhelming. One way to solve such issues is to avoid them in the rst place by, for instance, focusing on residential or enterprise femtocells. The biggest barriers to small cells are real estate, power and backhaul, said Jared Headley, director, service provider mobility, at Cisco Systems. In the home, all three of those are solved. Yet other small cell deployments, both indoors and outdoors, still must clear those hurdles. Siting issues are a fact of life for macro and small cell deployments, but operators and vendors can make the process easier for local
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DELIVER THE BEST EXPERIENCE ON EVERY PHONE, TABLET AND GADGET (EVEN ONES THAT HAVENT BEEN INVENTED YET).
Mobile customers get savvierand more demandingevery day. So the network has never mattered more. With device numbers set to nearly double

UsING AUTOMATION AND MODELING

Some of the most signicant cost savings for heterogeneous networks, or HetNets, is expected to stem from automation. Its the self-provisioning aspect that makes femtocell deployments economical, Headley said. The same is true for larger devices. More and more we just need to adopt automation technologies, Nandlall said, adding the key is to be able to install, tune and optimize small cell equipment

in a highly variable environment without doing a truck roll every time a change is needed. The cost of services can equate to 20-30 percent of a macro cell build but 40-45 percent of a small cell roll out, he said. Self-organizing network (SON) technology, which makes a small cell installation as zero-touch as possible, is key to reducing costs. Vendors are currently taking existing tools, automating them and tying them into the various IT platforms so we can create automatic workows to install and tune the small cells, said Nandlall. Its not what I would call 100 continued on page 14

in four years, Cisco is helping carriers offer better plans, more services and, always, a top-tier experience. The Cisco Intelligent Network masters any device, anywhere, anytime. Regardless of operating system, communications standard, apps or hardware. Now, offering customers more is an easy call. Use the device of your choice to learn more at cisco.com/go/yourway

You cant just deploy the small cell where the backhaul is: You have to bring the backhaul to the small cell.
2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

VIsH NANdLALL, CTO ANd HEAd OF sTRATEgY FOR ERICssONs NORTH AMERICAN OPERATIONs

Q1 004520-02B-CSC-12-2B-A4.indd 1

8/27/12 3:39 PM

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time and went through three different vendors before Ubiquisys stepped up. Keith Day, vice president of marketing at Ubiquisys, said Mosaic is a good example of an operator doing advanced implementations even though its serving rural communities that usually have to wait for the latest and greatest technology. The operator sells an in-home solution branded as Home Cell, which can use cable modem, DSL or Mosaics own LTE network for backhaul. Mosaic CEO Rick Vergin has stated publicly that the carrier struggled for over a year to get a femtocell product that would work in its spectrum. Again, economies of scale played a role; its difcult to get a manufacturer to make devices for an order involving thousands instead of hundreds of thousands or millions of devices. Another Wisconsin-based operator, Cellcom, didnt have the same problem but did have issues getting things rolling with vendors. Rob Riordan, executive vice president and director of corporate development at Cellcom and Nsight, said the operator had been looking continued on page 15

Small Cells Find Homes in Rural Markets

BY MoNICa ALLE VEN Used primarily to ll coverage gaps, small cells can solve problems for rural operators. In urban areas, its fairly well understood that smartphones, tablets and other data devices are pushing data capacity limits, requiring more ofoad techniques, including small cells. But in rural areas, sometimes it just comes down to plain old coverage, regardless of whether its for voice or data or both. Operators serving rural areas face a lot of challenges. Providing backhaul is one issue. Economies of scale play a big role a lot of times, big vendors dont want to make equipment that works on the smaller carriers frequencies because the orders are too small to justify the requisite retooling. Of course, the ageold problem remains whereby operators need to justify the cost of equipment in sparsely populated areas with few customers to support it.

Managing HetNets and Maximizing Small Cell Automation with SON

BY RENUK a BHaLER ao

Sponsored Content

meet their unique requirements:  Distributed SON: Algorithms are executed at a network element, so the functionality resides in many locations; Provides more scalability, less operator control  Centralized SON: Algorithms are executed in a centralized entity such as the OAM, so functionality resides in fewer locations; Provides more operator control, less scalability  Hybrid SON: Algorithms are executed at the OAM and the network element level, providing enhanced exibility SONs automated techniques effectively eliminate the need for dedicated manual control which is cumbersome and expensive. SON algorithms can also coordinate the large number of small cells with the existing macro network, signicantly enhancing small cell gains. Radisys eld-hardened, preintegrated TOTALeNodeB solution includes SON, Radio Resource Management and OAM functions which are supported by standardsbased software stacks, but customizable for operators specic deployment scenarios. Radisys offers a broad portfolio of products to address a range of bandwidth optimization, network monetization and security solutions. The Trillium TOTALeNodeB is a fully integrated LTE small cell solution for todays HetNet. To learn more, visit www.radisys.com. l

The iPhone 5 launch with LTE signals a major upsurge in LTE devices and LTE network rollouts. However, operators must deliver on LTEs promise, meeting user demand for broader coverage and faster data speeds. To meet demand, operators can complement their LTE rollouts with small cell deployments to manage trafc and monetize the network. This combined heterogeneous network, or HetNet, is a multi-layer network that enables demand-based capacity and coverage. It combines macrocells with strategically placed, multiple other node types including indoor small cells, Wi-Fi hotspots, relays, remote radio head, and open access pico and microcells. The versatility of HetNets can help operators achieve the mobile broadband nirvana of best speed and coverage everywhere. However, there are challenges to overcome: 1)  Deployed macro networks are based on extensive conguration, planning, installation and monitoring that is done manually 2)  HetNet deployments will add thousands of micro/picocells to the network, making it essential to have an automated approach for set-up, installation and ongoing maintenance 3)  The small cells network under the macro umbrella is an interference prone environment, necessitating constant coordination and optimization for a seamless user experience

KEY SON BENEfITs

 Reduces costs and increases efciency, enabling dramatically reduced planning efforts for initial roll out  Enables effective coordination of time and frequency resources between macro and small cells to minimize interference  Delivers dynamic optimizations to avoid interference and load balance, even with a complex HetNet topology  Adapts and self-heals as per changing network conditions  Provides automation for deployment, optimization and maintenance, leading to reduced OPEX

THIs Is WHERE SON COMEs IN

A self-organizing network, or SON, offers LTE operators a better way to manage their HetNet, providing effective coordination of RF resources suitable for multi-radio, multi-standard small cell networks with automated steps for: Self-configuration Self-optimization Self-healing Enhanced O&M

FILLING IN GAPs

Earlier this year, Mosaic Telecom in northwestern Wisconsin rolled out femtocells provided by Ubiquisys as part of a Nokia Siemens Networks solution, making it the rst operator to deploy femtocells in AWS spectrum. But it didnt come without some hiccups. The operator waited a long

Mosaic is a good example of an operator doing advanced implementations even though its serving rural communities that usually have to wait for the latest and greatest technology.
KEITH DAY, VICE PREsIdENT OF MARKETINg AT UbIqUIsYs

By automating these steps, mobile operators can lower deployment and operations costs, mitigate interference, and optimize their network to boost capacity and throughput. However, they must decide how to implement SON to

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backhaul technology, the economic benets of deploying small cells are lost, and any value the carriers thought theyd see with small cells is not realized. According to ABI Research, both ber and microwave/millimeter wave platforms are viable contenders for small cell backhaul. ABI recently forecast the global microwave backhaul segment to grow to more than $6.4 billion in 2017, up from a forecasted viable for small cell backhaul, and that wireless solutions will be more cost-effective and faster. While carriers will desire to use ber for the backhaul connection, the reality is that ber is not ubiquitous, and the costs to bring ber to places like street poles simply doesnt scale with the number of small cells they look to deploy, he said. Permit delays, right-of-way issues and tearing up city streets to bring ber to these

Backhaul at the Forefront

BY JaSoN ME YERS Executing a small cell strategy isnt a simple plug-and-play solution to coverage and capacity concernsthe backhaul portion of the equation is one of the most critical elements for success. The concept of implementing a network of small cells to enhance the coverage of a mobile network seems fairly straightforward, and it isexcept when it comes to transporting the trafc that those cells collect back into the network. When it comes to backhaul, mobile operators that are pondering a small cells strategy must contend with decisions about whether to use ber or wireless solutions, the reliability of each and the cost impact those decisions have on their overall business model. The backhaul connection for small cells plays a signicant role in carriers decision to roll out small cells in the network, said Joe Schraml, vice president of marketing for BridgeWave Communications, a developer of wireless backhaul solutions. Without the right small-cell
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Small cells Applications: Hope or Hype?

BY ARUN NaTaR ajaN

Sponsored Content

$1.5 billion for 2012. Millimeter wave line-of-sight, meanwhile, is forecasted to garner $2.8 billion by and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing non line-of-sight $1.9 billion. Wi-Fi, meanwhile, will capture $784 million of the 2017 market, according to ABI. ABI also expects ber backhaul solutions to experience healthy growth, grabbing 24 percent of the global market by 2017. But Schraml believes ber will prove not as

locations isnt going to be an option when carriers need to quickly and economically deploy small cells. Cost certainly is a major consideration when it comes to small cell backhaul strategy, said Rajesh Kumar Sundararajan assistant vice president for data communication products at Aricent Group. The backhaul strategy that an continued on page 17

In the era of exploding mobile data, the need for small cells as an indoor data ofoad & coverage solution in homes and enterprises is well accepted. What is not that well understood is the important role that small cells play in enabling the convergence of the internet and mobile applications eco-systems. Smalls cells are unlike any other base station deployed by the operator. They are not only a part of the operators mobile network, but are also a part of the home or enterprise LAN. This sets the small cell in a perfect position to be a conduit between the mobile and internet worlds. Key pieces of information made available by the small cells are Location, Service discovery with in the local area network and secure connectivity between the mobile and local network. This valuable information provided by small cells can be accessed and used by applications running anywhere in the mobile & internet applications ecosystem; be it applications running on the mobile device , applications hosted on the local network or applications on the internet. While the verdict is still not out on which device is going to be the centre of the digital home; companies like Apple, Microsoft

and a whole host of router, Wi-Fi and media gateway device manufacturers are vying for a piece of the action. In this crowded market place small cells stand tall as the only device that truly bridges the mobile networks and local area networks. Some of the possible applications that enrich the user experience in the home environment are: 1. Home Automation Basic presence-based scenarios like automatically turning the lights on or off based on user presence in the room, advanced scenarios like adjusting the television volume based on user behaviour and location within the room.

systems, intelligent burglar alarms and emergency response services that take action based on location and presence home. Smalls cells are prime candidates for deployment not only in the home but also in the enterprise environments. Some of the possibilities are: 1.  Short Dialling location and presence information can be used to reach an employee on his/her cell phone via a short code while connected to the small cell. 2. Facilities Management intelligent business automation systems which turn off power in conference rooms/ofces based on lack of registered user presence in the room, automated access control to buildings where the cell phone becomes the access card. 3. Enhanced Find Me/Follow Me Find Me and Follow Meservices in enterprise have been around for some time now, but now can be enhanced with real time location capabilities to seamlessly deliver media (voice/video) on the device of choice. Smart phone applications on mobile phones have transformed the mobile industry, the next big change in the applications ecosystem will be enabled by the interaction provided by the small cells between the worlds of mobile, internet and local area network applications. Small cell applications offer a hope for the mobile operators to monetise their investments and move up the value chain. www.aricent.com l

2. Home Energy Management Climate control conguration based on user presence and localization, intelligently combining pre-set rules and demand response features for energy savings. 3. Media and Entertainment automatically synchronizing content across multiple devices, contextualized and dynamic follow-me services that enable consumers to enjoy media on their device of choice. 4. Home Security and Surveillancesimple remote feeds and alert-me services that allow consumers to remotely manage their security

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Mindspeed Technologies, which acquired Picochip earlier this year, said one of the nice things about small cells and all their avors is they can solve lots of different problems. Among the issues they address: lack of coverage, both in residential rural areas and places like shopping malls and train stations in urban areas; the explosion in data trafc in urban areas; and the desire to serve enterprises with better capacity, coverage or features. Baines points to SoftBanks deployments in Japan, where the operator is now serving parks and ski resorts places that previously didnt have coverage in a big way. Small cells also are applicable in

continued from page 5 station. AT&T started marketing a femtocell device back in 2009 under the name 3G MicroCell. Sprint has been telling customers to call its Airave product your own mini cell tower. Verizon Wireless also describes its 3G femtocell product as a device that works like a miniature tower in your home or home ofce but gives it the rather innocuous label of Network Extender, which sells for $249.99. Perhaps the small cell moniker is the safest bet. Alcatel-Lucent markets small cells solution for the home as the 9361 Home Cell. Its enterprise solution is the 9362 Enterprise Cell, supporting from 16 to 24 to 32 users. For urban and rural spaces, it offers its Metro Cell Outdoor (MCO) solutions. Ip.access, a longtime leader in small cells, offers an end-to-end femtocell and picocell solution that it calls the nano3G. It also offers what it calls the worlds most deployed GSM picocell, the nanoGSM.

The biggest barriers to small cells are real estate, power and backhaul.
JAREd HEAdLEY, dIRECTOR, sERVICE PROVIdER MObILITY, AT CIsCO SYsTEMs

continued from page 7 percent SON thats being deployed as yet. Its SON-lite. In addition, engineers are learning that their previous approaches to deploying macro cell networks are not appropriate for small cells. Alcatel-Lucent built a geo-location optimization model to identify the locus of acceptable sites to serve native ofoad and then a built a costing model on top of that. We found a lot of results that were perhaps going against the grain of institutional knowledge with respect to how you would deploy [small cells] to optimize cost, said Schabel, adding that nontraditional sites are often preferable for deployments. We were able to rationalize why with some of the early-stage trials you heard these horric stories about how much it cost to deploy the darn things, and that checks out with some of the models that we were dealing with, he said.

MORE THAN A NAME

Todd Mersch, director of product line management for Radisys, said his team looks at small cells across several dimensions and tries not to get too hung up on the names. Other factors come into play, like how many users are supported, power requirements, coverage area and whether its outside or closed to public access. Hybrids also exist that can give priority access to a certain user group. Another way to think about small cells is the problems theyre designed to solve. Rupert Baines, vice president of corporate strategy and marketing communications at

Baines likens the small cell phenomenon to the shift from the main frame computer to PCs.

emergencies, as they were widely used in Japan to reach places where macro sites were hit hard by the tsunami. Baines likens the small cell phenomenon to the shift from the main frame computer to PCs. The idea of making things smaller, cheaper and closer to the end user leads to better performance. For a recent report on small cell backhaul requirements, Senza Fili Consulting President Monica Paolini needed to establish some denitions. For the purposes of the report, she ended up excluding residential or enterprise femtocells that operators do not install or control because they dont require dedicated backhaul. In dening a small cell, part of her criteria included coverage up to 200 meters radius, with the expectation that most small cells will have a sub-50 meter range. Her basic approach is to exclude the two extremes macro and residential small ofce/enterprise, reasoning that a new vendor could unveil something tomorrow that could t somewhere in between the macro and the small cell. Products are built in a continuum, and there is a grey area in between, for sure, she said. l

and engineering, said the traditional model for in-building coverage and capacity enhancements at marquee locations such as amusement parks and large stadiums is untenable because it demands a rigorous, expensive engineering process as well as specialized equipment such as DAS gear and special cabling. Further, venue owners typically demand compensation for allowing an operator to add coverage at their location. That model is unsustainable over the long term because it is very slow and very expensive, Tarazi said.

Sprint is working with its small cell suppliers on low-cost, lowpower, compact and intelligent end points that do not require specialized equipment, engineering or design work and are capable of reconguring themselves. The carrier aims for fast-track deployments that take six weeks rather than six months. The cost of deployment is a fraction of what you do in the other system, Tarazi added. We aim for the ability to drop the cost by north of 80 percent.

STARTING THE LEARNING CURVE

Despite the technological advancements that have been made to rein in small cell deployment costs, this young market has a long way to go. Theres a lot of learning still yet to be had, Nandlall said. l

SPRINT HOPs ON fAsT TRACK

Operator Sprint Nextel is deeply involved in boosting coverage and capacity for its networks via femtocells for homes and businesses and a picocell deployment strategy that is just ramping up, with an initial focus on indoor deployments followed by outdoor deployments in 2013-2014. Iyad Tarazi, Sprint Nextels vice president of network development
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Operators generally look to small cell technology for three reasons: capacity, coverage and, in the case of some of the things Cellcom is exploring, presence.
ROb RIORdAN, EXECUTIVE VICE PREsIdENT ANd dIRECTOR OF CORPORATE dEVELOPMENT AT CELLCOM ANd NsIgHT

continued from page 9 at small cells for a few years but experienced a few bumps in the road, mainly tied to inactivity in the vendor space. Starent Networks was working with Cellcom until it was bought by Cisco, and after an evaluation period, Cisco decided not to pursue it. Nowadays, Cellcom uses small cell technology from Taqua and Airvana, and its been undergoing friendly trials with femtocells in employees homes. Cellcoms relationship with UBEE AirWalk goes back to at least 2004 when it started supplying the AW-96 micro solution RAN for markets in Michigan. AirWalk Communications also has supplied its enterprise CDMA femtocell product to Sprint Nextel. Riordan says operators generally look to small cell technology for three reasons: capacity, coverage
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and, in the case of some of the things Cellcom is exploring, presence. As for capacity, it costs a lot less to deploy small cells to cover game day at Lambeau Field than to install an expensive macro cell, he said. To address coverage, a small cell can ll in rough spots where a macro cell will pose interference problems. And with presence, all kinds of usage scenarios come to mind, such as a home equipped with a small cell that can let parents know when a child has arrived home from school, or serving as notication when a car salesperson leaves or returns to the dealership. On the East Coast, the state of Vermont represents one of the more challenging RF areas. The state is the second least populous of the 50 states (behind Wyoming) and its biggest city is about 40,000

OVER THE HILLs Of VERMONT

residents strong. Its hills, foliage and valleys make for great tourist attractions, but not for cellular coverage. Its a challenging terrain to cover wirelessly, said Christopher Campbell, executive director of the Vermont Telecommunications Authority (VTA). The state is still recovering from the torrential rains and ooding from 2011s Hurricane Irene, after which the lack of reliable communications became painfully clear. The state is also aware that providing wireless coverage is necessary not only for emergencies but ongoing business and economic development. Its hugely important to the economic well-being of the state, Campbell said. Tourists who visit Vermont expect their cellular connections to work, as do people who are encouraged to locate or to relocate their businesses to Vermont and/or telecommute.

This past summer, the VTA signed a $500,000 contract with CoverageCo to deploy small cells in parts of rural northern Vermont that were identied as being unserved by wireless carriers. The state identied 90 miles of unserved roadway in three sections of the state, and CoverageCo is covering an additional 125 road miles through private capital investment. The small cell equipment is provided by CoverageCos afliated company, Vanu. Part of the reason Vermont is able to afford the gear is Vanu has been commercially deploying its software-dened radio technology in places such as Nepal and India, bringing down the cost per base station. That, along with the fact that CoverageCo is using existing infrastructure telephone poles on which to put the gear means its more affordable.

side of the equation, CoverageCo said it had entered into an agreement with a national cellular carrier. The company isnt naming names, but since one of its founders is Barry West, the former president of Sprints 4G unit, the unnamed customer is widely believed to be the No. 3 carrier. CoverageCo CEO Rich Biby, who

was the chief technology ofcer at tower company Crown Castle International for several years, would not conrm that, but he said the plan is to offer roaming services, much like it traditionally has been done in cellular, so that wireless operators will pay roaming fees to CoverageCo in exchange for using CoverageCos network in the remote areas. The company has executed roaming agreements that cover both CDMA and GSM carriers, with additional agreements in negotiations. Were doing quite well, Biby said of the deployment in Vermont, which is expected to be done before the end of this year. After Vermont is up and running, the company will look for opportunities in other states. l

MAKING NUMBERs WORK

As part of the prot

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the optimal way does seem to be microwave or millimeter wave. These two technologies provide the necessary exibility, installation cost and ability to grow. It is not surprising that there is enormous research going on in exploitation of these two strategies. Schraml of BridgeWave added that while cost is a critical consideration for small cell backhaul, it is far from being the only driver in operators decisions. Form factor, scalability spectrum availability and location are all important issues, he said. There is the need to have a form factor that seamlessly blends in with the urban environment, and any solution must scale in capacity as needs grow, Schraml said. Any wireless solution proposed also must have the spectrum available to deploy easily and quickly. Finally, there is the need for the operator to gain access to locations to deploy the small cells. Many people talk about light poles, but there is also the opportunity to deploy them on the sides of buildings or on lowlevel rooftops. The primary consideration from a cost perspective, Schraml said, should be on lowering operating expenditures which he said requires backhaul products that operate in unlicensed spectrum bands, install quickly and dont require costly truck rolls. Certainly lower costs and faster connection speeds

continued from page 11 operator chooses must come at the optimum cost that is viable to provide good quality of service for the subscriber base being served, while providing room for growth, Sundararajan said. Balancing protability in the present while providing for the future is always a challenging game, especially in extremely competitive environments. The cost itself is a factor of how scalable the backhaul network is, how resilient it is to environmental changes, rainy-day scenarios, disasters, etc. And cost denitely inuences how much redundancy can be built into a network and how resilient the technology is. Making the decision on that optimal platform for small cell backhaul typically depends on a given operators existing network topology, Sundararajan said. An operator with existing cable layouts will always nd it more economical and scalable to use a wired network, he said. In the absence of an existing network,

Everyone loves to forget backhaul.

IAIN GILLOTT, FOUNdER ANd PREsIdENT OF MARKET CONsULTANCY iGR

for these backhaul solutions will need to keep pace with carriers implementations, but other factorssuch as self-optimizing or self-aligning antennas, autodiscovery, and self-healing ring architectureswill also evolve into the platforms as carriers look to adopt small cells en masse, he said. No single technology will provide all the backhaul needs for small cells. The backhaul for small cells is going to require multiple tools in a carriers toolbox, with non-line of sight, Wi-Fi ofoad and millimeter wave radios being the solutions. Iain Gillott, founder and president of market consultancy iGR, maintains that the marketing claims for wireless backhaul solutions have yet to be proven in real small cell deployments, and deployments that rely on them could prove to be stickier for operators than many are anticipating. Gillott said the backhaul for a small cell strategy is often overlooked and could stall the small cell deployments many operators are relying on for fast coverage and capacity enhancements in their networks. Everyone loves to forget backhaul, he said.With LTE in particular, you have to have really good backhaul. The backhaul question is big enough with small cells to put a hold on the strategy. l

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