Saudi Integrated Telecom Company:

Fixed and Nomadic LTE Services

Dr. Liang Wu
CTO, SITC
Technology Consultant, PCCW
 KSA Market Overview

 KSA General:
 has a population of approx. 25 million.
 a high GPP per capita
 Market has been slower to develop so leaving
opportunity for growth.
 Key information
 40% of population under age of 14 end of 2007.
 27% of population expatriates end of 2008.
 Saudi Arabia is becoming open to the world
winning in 2005 admission to World trade
organisation (WTO)

Confidential
Saudi Arabia, Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband, Paul Budd Communications Ltd, July 2009 4
 KSA Telecommunications Market -
Potential Fixed / Data / Mobile Voice
A growing population, a high proportion of youth, low spending on Telcos
and high disposable income in Saudi Arabia make the market attractive.

 Total KSA Telecom Targeted Market Potential is expected to grow from 48 BSR in Year 1 to 62
BSR in Year 7 (CAGR 4.4%)
 Targeted KSA Data Telecom Market is the fastest growing with CAGR of 8.6%
 High interests in LTE to allow capturing of revenue shares from all three market sectors

The analysis above targeted telecom revenues generated within KSA only
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 Fixed (Non Nomadic) and
Nomadic Wireless Access
LTE is chosen to provide indoor fixed broadband access (1, 2 or 4 Mbps,
guaranteed QoS) and USB dongle roaming service (best effort, no hand-
off) to satisfy fixed license requirement Rural

Microwave
Microwave link
link LTE
WiMAX Nomadic
Base
Voice Station

Outdoor
Internet unit
GE switch WiFi
Transport City POP
router

network City POP

VPN

router
Service GE switch Metro DWDM LTE
Platforms ring WiMAX
City POP Base
Station

Indoor unit

Transport Backhauling LTE

WiMax
4G access Built-in
Built-in
wimax
LTE
modem
modem

Urban customers

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 2.5GHz Spectrum Allocation
SITC plans to use 2x10 MHz blocks to provide LTE service in FDD mode
and use the remaining two 10MHz blocks for TD LTE
Spectrum suitable for LTE FDD
(10 x 2 MHz)

• SITC’s fixed license includes 40 MHz of TDD in 2.5GHz band

• The spectrum was intended for WiMAX (not yet a standard band for TD-LTE)
• Two of the 10 MHz blocks allocated (2550-2560MHz, 2670-2680MHz) happen to line up
with 120 MHz offset and become suitable for FDD operation
• Since FDD is a special form of TDD, it still complies with the TDD license requirement

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 Business Driver for LTE

 From a marketing perspective, LTE will allow the network to address

the mass market of handheld devices (so address a wider market
including the mobile market);

 LTE may enable SITC to offer to Mobile Operators wholesale or dual-

mode MVNO services where mobile service providers could off load
their capacity onto the SITC LTE network;

 As 3GPP R8 standard, LTE will facilitate smooth roaming with the

existing 3G networks

 From an investment perspective, LTE will be more attractive to a wider

range of investors so as an “exit strategy”mobile service providers will
see a benefit in acquiring what will essentially be a 4G network;

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 LTE’s Revolutionary Architecture

LTE’s flat IP network architecture allows introduction of triple-play via

simple application servers; no need to rely on NGN or softswitches

2G/3G:
2G/3G: Legacy
Legacy Architecture
Architecture LTE:
LTE: Flat
Flat Architecture
Architecture

MSC/SGSN/GGSN SAE-GW SAE-GW

IP Network
Network
BSC RNC

eNodeB eNodeB

BTS BTS BTS BTS

eNodeB

 LTE is all-IP flat structure, Compared with the 2G/3G,the BSC and RNC is not
necessary

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 LTE Logical Network Architecture

LTE eNodeB cost is only a small fraction of the total cost; IP backbone and
service/control must be shared by fixed services to make business case viable

Access Aggregation Core Service/Control

BRAS SAE-GW SBC

FTTx Subsystem IMS Subsystem
MDU

VDSL CPE
UPE PE-AGG P Router CSCF
/NPE
GPON SDU
Metro IP IP/MPLS Core
GPON/P2P IPTV Subsystem
OLT
P2P SDU

BTV VOD
Head end Server
Metro DWDM national/DWDM
LTE Subsystem
ISP Subsystem

Network Subsystem
eNodeB AAA DHCP Portal

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 WiMAX vs. LTE
- Coverage Planning Comparison

LTE provides better uplink performance than WiMAX

Cell Radius (km)

Wireless
Service Terminal
System
Dense Urban Urban Sub-Urban

WiMAX 0.45 0.71 1.79

VoIP and Data Service PCMCIA/USB Dongle
LTE 0.46 0.71 1.92

Average Throughput per Site (Mbps)

Wireless System Network Configuration
DL UL

WiMAX PUSC with all SC 1*3*3 5MHz 25.30 7.54

LTE 10MHz bandwidth (SFR 1*3*1) 57.51 31.59

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 WiMAX vs. LTE
- Coverage Planning Comparison
The below table shows planning site number based on indoor coverage
requirement similar to mobile; the site number could be reduced
depending on the coverage requirement

Site Number
City
WiMAX LTE

A 399 385
B 167 159

C 266 256

Base-station numbers are coverage dominant in early years and

later by capacity

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 RF Planning & Network Economics

Indoor Coverage planning criteria determine the cost of the radio network
as well as services that can be offered.
Achieving better than 90% indoor coverage with 2.5GHz band
Requires 10% more base stations than 3G
Allows offering of USB dongle and handheld device services
to compete directly with 3G/HSPA and fixed-line services

Penetration of first walls only (room with views)

Can reduce up to 50% of the base stations required for coverage
Relies on dual-mode WiFi/LTE routers for indoor coverage
Similar to most mobile WiMAX service, compete with fixed-lines.

Hot-spot only
Can reduce up to 80% of the base stations required
For traffic off load of 3G/HSPA traffic
Require dual-mode 3G/LTE devices for off load and compete with 3G/WiFi
off load solutions, small incremental revenue

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 WIMAX migration to LTE

Some vendors provide WiMAX equipment that can be upgraded to LTE

New MME
added
Software
Upgrade to
LTE MME

Software
eNodeB Upgrade to
WiMAX SAE-GW
BS AAA
IP Bearer Network CSN
Software
ASN-GW DHCP server
Upgrade to SAE-GW
LTE
eNodeB
WiMAX
BS

 Only software upgrade to protect investment.

 ASN-GW just need software upgrade to evolve into SAE-GW

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 LTE Advantages

 LTE targets at low latency on user services and signaling, this gives
fast service setup time and time critical services such as voice and
online game etc.
 To reduce power consumption and cost of handheld devices, SC-
FDMA (single carrier FDMA) provide lower PAPR (peak to average
power ratio) which benefit uplink transmit power efficiency.
 QoS class (QCI) ensure end to end bearer QoS can be carried in LTE
network.
 Multi-antenna system improve received SNIR for cell edge users, thus
better throughput .
 Robust to traffic demand e.g. at least 200 active users per cell per 5
MHz channel.
 Allow operators to approach fixed mobile convergence services and
co-existence with GERAN/3G.

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 Conclusions

 LTE appears to be an improvement over WiMAX in providing better

uplink coverage, QoS, roaming compatibility, and spectrum flexibility.

 LTE’ s flat IP network architecture provide a simple framework for

introducing triple-play applications, but support infrastructure (OSS,
BSS, SMS, FSS, MME, ENUM, etc.) needs to be laid out carefully to
allow integrated fixed and mobile application.

 Availability of handheld devices that bundle triple-play applications

such as iPAD and allow mobile roaming will be the crucial success
factor for LTE.

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 Technology, Strategy and Development

PCCW Limited
40F PCCW Tower
Taikoo Place
Quarry Bay
HONG KONG
Tel +852 9127 0880

Emails: liang-tai.wu@PCCW.COM

liangtwu@gmail.com

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