The global macrocell mobile backhaul equipment market rose seven per cent year on year to reach over $8bn in 2012

The global macrocell mobile backhaul equipment market rose seven per cent year on year to reach over $8bn in 2012, according to research firm Infonetics Research.

According to the firm, Ericsson is the mobile backhaul microwave equipment market leader. Meanwhile China’s Huawei and French-headquartered Alcatel-Lucent are neck and neck, jointly leading the ethernet access device/gateway and ethernet router revenue markets.

“While its revenue growth rate is slowing, macrocell mobile backhaul equipment remains a huge market, with annual spending up in the $8bn to $9bn range over the next years. Just a few years ago in 2009, the market was worth under $5 billion,” said Michael Howard, principal analyst for carrier networks and co-founder of Infonetics Research.

“When we add to the picture small cell backhaul equipment, which we believe will total a cumulative $5bn over five years it becomes clear that the backhaul market is massive. The key drivers are the ongoing HSPA/HSPA+ onslaught across the 3GPP world and growing LTE deployments by 3GPP2 players. If you don’t have packet backhaul, there’s no way to handle HSPA and HSPA+. Ethernet and microwave backhaul spending are fueling the whole market.”

Suresh Sidhu, chief corporate and operating officer at Celcom Axiata Berhad, Malaysia

Suresh Sidhu, chief corporate and operating officer at Celcom Axiata Berhad, Malaysia, is taking part in the ‘Quiz the CxO’ segment on Day Two of  the LTE World Summit, the premier 4G event for the telecoms industry, taking place on the 24^th-26^th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands. Ahead of the show we find out more about Sidhu’s views on how networks can best be optimised for LTE and where RCS/VoLTE fit into the operator picture.

What major developments have there been with regards to the LTE industry in your region this past year?

The region has seen LTE spectrum awards in Malaysia and Singapore and this has been followed by very early deployments in Singapore across both 1800MHz and 2600MHz bands. We have also seen some very aggressive LTE roll-outs in the region, with close to 100 per cent population coverage in South Korea and Japan.

What are the chief technical challenges you are facing?

The key challenge is planning for and ensuring a seamless customer experience through the availability and co-existence of 2G, 3G and 4G networks. Currently we are upgrading our existing cell sites to cater for LTE and in addition, we are upgrading our backhaul infrastructure in a timely manner to ensure sustainable growth. In Malaysia, the national regulator has requested for LTE backhaul sites to be fiberized, adding to further rollout complexity.

What are the key techniques for network optimisation in LTE and what effect can it have on the customer experience?

It is critical that LTE network optimisation is performed end-to-end, taking into consideration the faster and asymmetrical data throughput across network elements. On radio access, it is imperative to optimise the multipath propagations that LTE-MIMO antenna technology delivers. For the core network, the use of network probes with Deep Packet Inspection coupled with the use of web caching further aids in optimising data traffic routing. Both techniques deliver a cost-effective solution in ensuring a superior end-user LTE experience.

Is VoLTE part of your plans and what benefits will it bring both to operators and consumers?

Celcom is actively following developments in this area. However, VoLTE will likely only become a part of our service offering in 24 to 36 months, as the technology matures and networks evolve from circuit to packet-based systems. We look forward to VoLTE, as it enables operators the ability to offer a differentiated class and quality of service coupled with Rich Communications Suite (RCS) integration. However, a wide LTE coverage area is essential prior to VoLTE deployment.

Do you believe that RCS services can genuinely help the industry compete with OTT?

The success of RCS services depends on the speed at which operators are able to integrate, test and deploy applications over their platforms in addition to ensuring a steady stream of new applications and services. Operators face a challenge in monetising these applications in an environment where OTT applications are offered as a freemium. There are also organisational challenges that telcos need to consider as they are not product innovation factories, whereas the OTT players are used to the rapid development cycles of testing, launching and discarding applications and services.

Pricing for LTE is a controversial subject. Are operators getting it right?

Operators are caught between wanting to increase tariffs for LTE for rapid LTE monetisation on the one-hand and incentivising LTE migration on the other in order to free up 3G network congestion. Many operators appear to offer LTE with little to no premium, which puts further strain on profits and margins. Celcom believes the right pricing strategy is to position LTE as an extension to 3G with larger data caps at a slight price premium. Device, network and application strategies are key considerations in pricing for LTE.

Do you think that LTE offers great opportunities for monetisation or does it present challenges?

LTE offers numerous opportunities in creating new revenue streams via product and service differentiation. We believe that LTE, with its faster data speeds and lower latency, encourages greater data consumption of OTT video, peer-to-peer sharing and multiplayer gaming type applications. In order to capitalise upon this trend, operators need to include application-based charging and service pass concepts as part of their charging mechanisms.

Furthermore, with an LTE overlay over existing networks, operators have the opportunity to create new Quality of Service and Policy Control-based charging mechanics in further drawing incremental revenues not only from LTE but also from their existing 3G networks.

Is there still a need to establish a business case for LTE deployment or is the long-term ROI potential clear?

The long-term ROI is clear. However in the shorter term, LTE deployment should be based upon the needs of the market coupled with the availability of LTE-enabled devices that support the LTE bands which have been assigned in-country.

Where do small cells fit into your plans, if at all?

Depending on the small cell wireless technology deployed, small cells fit in certain niches where they are more cost effective as opposed to a ubiquitous wifi, 3G or 4G overlay. However, the debate on the exact nature of small cells is likely to continue. Today Celcom is deploying WiFi, Nano/Pico and Femto cells to enhance gaps in coverage or provide a richer data experience. A convergent approach is needed but we have yet to see a compelling technology solution.

What impact does LTE have on your backhaul strategy and technology choices?

We believe LTE will challenge traditional backhaul assumptions. The gradual upgrade approach may well be discarded by the step-change approach, mostly in favour of fibre. The need for consistent, high availability bandwidth will likely drive this change.

What do you think will be the most exciting new development in LTE in 2013?

The innovative pricing strategies and roll-out criteria adopted by the operators in deploying LTE across their existing 3G footprint.

Andy Sutton, Principal Network Architect, EE

Andy Sutton, Principal Network Architect, EE is speaking on the Mobile Backhaul track on Day One of the LTE World Summit, taking place on the 24th-26th June 2013, at the Amsterdam RAI, Netherlands.  EE was the first to launch a national LTE network in the UK and ahead of the show we spoke to him about its progress on rolling out its LTE network and found out more about its approach to backhaul.

A year ago the prospect for LTE in the UK looked bleak. The UK operators were mired in wrangling over the proposed LTE spectrum auctions, and the only individuals gaining much from the process were the lawyers.

However, in mid-2012 EE managed to pull off something of a master-stroke when UK regulator Ofcom allowed it to re-farm its 1800MHz spectrum. It has a surplus of this following the creation of Everything Everywhere through the merger of T-Mobile UK and Orange, owned by parent company’s Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom.

The move set the cat amongst the pigeons in the UK telecoms markets but in late October 2012, under the new EE brand, the UK’s first LTE network was switched on across 11 cities, in a project in which EE will invest more than £1.5 billion pounds.

At the time of writing, LTE covers 45 per cent of the UK population, and this is scheduled to hit over 55 per cent by the summer and 70 per cent by the end of 2013. The eventual target is 98 per cent LTE population coverage by the end of 2014.

The project wasn’t just about LTE though, Andy Sutton, Principal Network Architect at EE told Telecoms.com in a recent catch-up. “It was also about enhancing the 2G layer and improving the 3G network with Dual Carrier HSPA”, he said.

DC-HSPA currently covers 40 per cent of EE’s network, an important factor in keeping customer satisfaction high where LTE hasn’t yet arrived. While DC-HSPA can’t match LTE for consistent double-digit speeds, and doesn’t offer the same low latency or upload speeds, it is capable of matching it in ideal circumstance for real-world speeds to the handset on the downlink, and delivers a great mobile data experience.

In terms of network architecture, the LTE and DC-HSPA upgrades are separate. The DC-HSPA upgrades use EE’s spectrum, but employ the infrastructure that it shares with Hutchison as part of the shared network MBNL deal between T-Mobile and Hutchison, that predated the EE merger. Its 2G and LTE use its Huawei SingleRAN technology, and Sutton explains that its LTE upgrades are not available to others using that shared infrastructure.

“It’s a unilateral RAN deployment but it uses all of the commonalities and synergies afforded by MBNL. So we use the same sites, structures, cabins and power and we share the backhaul between 2G, 3G and LTE. But it’s not a shared LTE network in the way we had a shared 3G network. And that’s a very important point as we’re investing quite heavily in deploying that LTE infrastructure to give EE a benefit in the marketplace.”

For backhaul EE uses Gigabit Ethernet, having moved away from using TDM and ATM during the Godiva project that integrated the networks of T-Mobile UK and Three. From 2008 onwards MBNL implemented a backhaul upgrade programme to deliver backhaul running at 100Mbps, this was sufficient to support 3G and was based on BT MEAS (Mobile Ethernet Access Service), and hybrid point-to-point microwave radio. But to keep pace, or ahead of the demand curve, improvements are being made.

“As we roll out LTE, we upgraded from Fast Ethernet to Gigabit Ethernet and we’re continuing with an evolved version of the BT MEAS product. We’re also introducing Virgin Media backhaul.” The latter is additional to EE’s backhaul agreements with UK incumbent BT.

What’s interesting about EE backhaul is that while its 2G/4G and 3G are separate, the backhaul for all of them is aggregated, and runs over the same network with logical separation used to control the traffic flows within the pipe. Sutton explains the reasoning behind this.

“It allows us to realise synergies and makes for a more efficient network design. It helps as we only have to connect to a particular location once and then we can actually use that capacity effectively to support multiple radio access technologies. As we move towards SingleRAN, ultimately we have a single interface. It’s much more efficient, much slicker, more reliable and easier to manage.”

As well as Ethernet for Backhaul EE also offers its customers wifi access through BT Openzone hotspots widely found in public locations throughout the UK, of which there are around 3,500. Additionally, through its agreement with Virgin Media, EE customers also get wifi access for free at London Underground stations.

Sutton says EE views wifi as an integral part of its appeal. “We are looking to incorporate wifi as part of the story,” he says. However, he points out that wifi doesn’t always offer the best customer experience. “Currently with wider radio channels those using LTE have a better experience than those using public wifi. What we don’t want is a device selecting wifi when actually the experience on cellular would be better.” Sutton said that eventually the network will be able to intelligently decide which is the best connection for the user, a feature that he points out has been part of the 3GPP standards since Release 5 in 2002, along with IMS, both of which the telecoms industry is only now starting to embrace.

In terms of other innovations Sutton says EE is looking at small cells but that it is currently working out exactly how and where they will be required. Currently EE is focused on putting capacity in to the macro network and that LTE would push back the need for small cells. “The problem is how we see traffic migrating between the two.” The long-term aim is to create a HetNet, with a mixture of macro cell and small cells working intelligently together. However this will require the use of LTE small cells. “3G small cells will be for specific hot-spots, but we won’t be rolling them out to large areas. 3G wasn’t really designed for HetNets whereas LTE was, so in the future we’ll be deploying a large number of LTE small cells as we really look to add capacity in a particular geography.”

Deploying HetNets will inevitably have an impact on how backhaul is set up Sutton says. “One of the challenges of deploying any small cell technology is that you have to ensure that you have the correct backhaul solution in place. Increasingly, the coordination and cooperation of the two layers (macro and small cell) will allow you to get greater capacity and greater performance. Those are quite clear objectives for us as we manage the on-going quality of experience.

Speaking to Sutton, the quest to improve the quality of experience is an overriding theme and he says that he is excited about the progress that EE will make in 2013. “It’s very exciting. Getting [LTE] out to as large a population as possible is our objective.”

It’s also going to get better for those that have already signed up he claims. “In-building coverage will improve. Capacity will improve. At the moment we want to get LTE services out there so people can see what it can do. It’s a game changing technology. It’s a real step forward.”

Nima Pournejatian is CTO of MobinNet, Iran

Nima PourNejatian, CTO, MobinNet, Iran is speaking on Day One of the inaugural TD-LTE Summit taking place on the 23^rd-24^th April 2013 at the Fairmont Singapore Hotel, Singapore. Ahead of the show we speak to him on the subject of what the advantages TD-LTE brings to operators and what MobinNet’s plans are for the technology.

What have been the latest developments in terms of TD-LTE in your region?

There are two major operators in the region which employ WiMAX broadband technology. In order to plan a reasonable migration from WiMAX to a more advanced technology, both operators are going to secure an LTE license. As one of the two major WiMAX operators and the only nationwide wireless broadband provider, MobinNet is going to apply for TD-LTE. The other operator may select the same path. Moreover, recently the WiMAX Forum announced an updated industry roadmap supporting the continued evolution of the WiMAX ecosystem. The WiMAX Forum embraces a network evolution path to accommodate harmonisation and coexistence across multiple broadband wireless access technologies within a WiMAX Advanced network. Therefore, MobinNet’s plan is compliant with the WiMAX Forum’s roadmap.

Why do you believe the TD-LTE is a better choice for delivering mobile data than FDD LTE?

According to my personal experience working with both FDD and TDD technologies TDD deliver higher throughput per sector. This makes for a better user experience for data services and increases the capacity per base station, which lowers investment costs. Therefore TD-LTE is a better choice for delivering mobile data than FDD LTE.

Is the release of an iPhone that supports TD-LTE critical for the long term success of the technology?

It will definitely help but I would prefer the release of a device that is less voice centric. iPad users usually consume more data bandwidth than those of iPhone so perhaps a new iPad/iPod would be more helpful.

Some reports suggest that TD-LTE will account for 23 per cent of all LTE users by 2016. What has been difference this time between TD-LTE and previous time-division telecom technology flavours? (WiMAX and TD-SCDMA)

Firstly, data traffic demand now is not comparable with that of three or five years ago. This motivates more investment in TDD technologies. Secondly, nowadays spectrum is more congested, which means that the remaining spectrum must be used as efficiently as possible. Also the global minutes of voice services per user is decreasing. As a result, by selecting TDD technology, operators can utilise spectrum more efficiently, while addressing the demands of today’s customers. Thirdly, vendors production rates for TD-LTE equipment is much higher that older TDD technologies. This will help to keep prices low and consequently more TD-LTE networks will be built.

Are you concerned by increasing amounts of wifi offload reducing the need for TD-LTE?

One of the main motivations of wifi offload for users is to lower their costs. The severity of this threat for FDD LTE is higher than that of TD-LTE. Price per megabyte in TD-LTE is inherently cheaper than that in FDD LTE.

Does TD-LTE offer up any specific challenges around backhaul?

It depends on the type of the backhaul network. Any broadband service provider which holds a classic microwave backhaul network will suffer from the booming data traffic phenomena. It is expected a TD-LTE operator will need to carry heavy traffic over its microwave backhaul network. If that comes true, microwave backhaul will be a challenge.

What plans do you have for carrier aggregation?

Carrier aggregation depends on the frequency band and available bandwidth. Considering our spectrum limitations, we are not able to activate the intra-band contiguous or non-contiguous carrier aggregation.

What would you say to any operators considering the move to TD-LTE?

To select a technology, the availability of user terminals is the key decision factor. I suggest that operators first check the forecast of production rates of terminals per technology and for each frequency band.

This white paper will show that legacy Point-to-Point (PtP) architectures alone are no longer sufficient to support the modern RAN. That’s not to say, however, that there is no place for such technology in the modern backhaul environment; quite the opposite is true. In order to successfully and efficiently supply the RAN with backhaul, an operator must expect to adopt several technologies, including PtP, and implement them on a case-by-case basis.

While every backhaul technology exhibits distinct advantages, as well as some constraints, none of them can be considered as a ‘catch all’ solution. However, an optimum solution can be achieved by leveraging synergies between two best-of-breed technologies: P2MP and P2P.

The key message to take away from this paper, is that there is no ‘silver bullet’ when it comes to backhaul—operators will have to adopt several technologies, deploying each where most appropriate.

LTE networks need big pipes for backhaul as well

LTE mobile broadband has already been rolled out in some markets and is on the verge of deployment in many more, but as data consumption grows, a challenge that will face operators is how to backhaul their LTE networks. Without enough backhaul capacity for their networks, network customers will not feel they are getting the level of service they have paid for, which is one of the prime causes for customer churn.

Today, 3G mobile broadband is commonly deployed in developed markets and provides sufficient bandwidth for basic browsing and small downloads. However, consumers often complain that more data intensive tasks, such as video streaming, are often erratic and inconsistent using 3G. LTE is being pitched as a solution to this problem but without the necessary infrastructure in place to provide sufficient backhaul capacity, operators will continue to leave customers underwhelmed.

“If operators are planning to offer 100Mbps to customers by LTE, the backhaul required would be 150Mbps or even more – and it would be over-provisioned,” said Dimitris Mavrakis, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media. “Most of the deployments so far have been fibre-based, for example, Verizon’s LTE is capitalising on its fibre network, and that’s the reason why it’s so aggressive and are able to roll out LTE so quickly and in so many markets.”

But in order to provide the necessary coverage as data usage grows, operators have increasingly begun to rely on the use of small cells for their 3G networks. With small cells, operators can use many cells distributed across a geographical area to provide better coverage and satisfy customer demands.

LTE networks will need to provide speeds of up to 144Mbps to each cell. However, to deliver fibre to each small cell is not an practical option, due to the cost of leasing fibre, coupled with the work required to dig trenches to each individual small cell.

Therefore, vendors are providing fibre up to basestation towers, and then the rest of the signal is distributed by radiowave technology to the small cells. Operators can plan the contention ratio required and provide a reasonable amount of bandwidth into those radiowaves. There are various technologies on the market that aim to address this issue, and Mavrakis believes point-to-multipoint millimetre wave technology offers a compelling solution.

“Millimetre wave technology is very interesting simply because there’s so much bandwidth available so these backhaul solutions are capable of providing multi-gigabit capacity,” he said.

Bluwan is one vendor providing point to multipoint technology, and Shayan Sanyal, the firm’s CMO, believes that operators need to begin thinking about LTE small cell backhaul, as if they do not take necessary steps, their 4G networks will not deliver on the capabilities that LTE can provide.

“The reason the small cell approach is popular is because you can provide more bandwidth to fewer people,” he said. “But not a lot of thought has been given by the industry on how to backhaul small cell for LTE, so manufacturers of small cells are scrambling to figure out how to provide capacity – because the customers are saying, great technology, but how can you make it work?”

He argued that other technologies do have their use cases, but are not suitable for providing bandwidth to small cells on LTE networks. For example, point-to-point microwave requires each macro cell to have a large number of dishes installed across an area, however the installation and rental costs needed to for those dishes are very high.

“Then you have point-to-multi-point microwave, which requires almost half as many dishes, but do not provide enough capacity. Using that technology, operators can provide capacity of up to 100Mbps in total, but LTE small cells need 144Mbps delivered to each cell.”

Point to multi-point millimetre wave provides capacity of 2Gbps and can deliver 150Mbps-200Mbps to 10 sites and, according to Mavrakis, is a cheaper option too.

“It is cheaper not because of the technology itself, but because of the topology. You can put sector antennae at the distribution point, then you can connect several cells instead of having two antennae for each link,” he said.

However, he added that operators are not yet using small cells for their LTE networks, but that will be the next step of deployment and operators are likely to begin using them in one or two years.

“There’s a lot of activity from vendors on this, meaning that there’s a lot of demand from operators. Point to multipoint millimetre wave will be something to look out for,” he said.

The move should boost development of backhaul transport networks

Wireless networking kit vendor DragonWave on Friday announced plans to acquire the microwave transport business of Nokia Siemens Networks. The price is around €15m with extras and performance related payouts potentially raising the value of the transaction to above €80m.

DragonWave will pay approximately €10m in cash and €5m in shares. The company will also assume employee liabilities of €10m and will enter into a capital asset lease arrangement for €5m. Performance based earn-out payments could raise the value of the transaction by approximately €80m.

Under the deal, DragonWave would also become the preferred, strategic supplier of packet microwave and related products to NSN and the companies would jointly coordinate technology development activities. The deal is to accelerate innovation in backhaul products, the companies said.

NSN would retain responsibility for its existing solution sales and associated services for microwave transport, while DragonWave would be responsible for the product line, including R&D, product management and operations functions.

Approximately 360 NSN employees, mainly based in Milan, Italy and Shanghai, China, are to transfer to DragonWave.

NSN

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Ericsson is seeing strong growth in network core technology

Swedish equipment vendor Ericsson turned in a strong set of figures for the third quarter, notching up an increase in net sales of 17 per cent year on year to SKR55.5bn (€6bn), while net income edged up six per cent to SKR3.8bn.

Growth was driven by continuing demand for mobile broadband infrastructure and increased services revenues, with Ericsson maintaining its position as a leading player in the managed services space.

Networks sales for the quarter increased 25 per cent year-over-year on the back of strong sales in packet core, IP routers and microwave-based backhaul, while a sequential decrease of three per cent is due to reduced CDMA sales in North America, which is likely to be a continuing trend as carriers converge on LTE.

Lower margin network modernisation projects, especially those in Europe, continue aplenty with old GSM and WCDMA radio base stations starting to be replaced with multi-standard radio models. Meanwhile, Ericsson believes that 3G rollouts in India already peaked in the second quarter.

WCDMA/HSPA will remain the leading mobile access technology for many years to come, the company said.

Ericsson’s leadership in the managed services space continued, with sales increasing one per cent year on year but 12 per cent sequentially, to SEK5.3bn, driven by Brazil, Germany, Italy, UK and the US, as well as a large Bharti Airtel deal in Africa.

The company has also been on the acquisition trail, picking up OSS/BSS firm Telcordia in June, M2M player Telenor Connexion in August, and taking a stake in Nortel’s patent portfolio as part of a consortium in July.

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Ericsson’s joint venture figures continue to make less encouraging reading, with chip unit ST-Ericsson reporting a widening loss for the quarter, which grew 74 per cent year on year to $211m. Handset venture Sony Ericsson hit an income of zero, down from a profit of €49 in the same quarter in 2010.

Rumours currently abound that executives at Ericsson have acknowledged that the handset unit has more in common with Sony than with the Swedish firm and as a result Sony may be looking to buy Ericsson’s half of the business.

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euNetworks will be providing a fibre-optic backbone infrastucture for Vodafone Germany

euNetworks, a fibre-optic infrastructure provider, has announced a network supply deal with Vodafone Germany. As part of the agreement, euNetworks will deliver fibre services to the operator in Frankfurt, Hamburg, Berlin and Munich.

The deal will enable Vodafone Germany to strengthen backhaul capabilities for its LTE network, which since its launch in December 2010, now reaches more than four million homes.

euNetworks owns 13 fibre-based metropolitan networks across Europe and according to a statement the deal will, “enable Vodafone to benefit from euNetworks’ extended footprint”.

No financial information related to the deal was revealed in the announcement.

“LTE delivers a technological quantum leap for the industry, and is the first gigabit technology in the mobile sector,” said Hartmut Kremling, chief technology officer of Vodafone Germany, in a statement. “A strong underlying fibre optic network is important for us as we roll out LTE across Germany. euNetworks has this network in key markets. Their demonstrated commitment to this partnership and unique assets deliver great value to our overall network strategy.”

With over 33 million subscribers Vodafone Germany is the second largest mobile operator in Germany, narrowly behind T-Mobile, according to Informa WCIS statistics.

The LTE North America 2011 conference takes place on the 8-9 November 2011 in Dallas, Texas.

Small cell base stations are set to play an important role

With mobile data traffic expected to double annually, small cell base stations are set to play an important role in expanding the capacity of wireless networks. Mobile operators are realizing that to meet the demands for data, video and application access caused by smart phones and other devices, there is a real beauty to going small.

Small cells provide flexibility and increased QoS capabilities at an attractive cost. Implementing a small cell infrastructure is also more environmentally friendly as it will reduce the number of cell towers (maybe even eventually eliminate them) and it provides a cleaner signal with less power.

But going small is the answer to just one part of the equation. The ability to interact with today’s macro networks as well as effectively backhaul small cells is another.

Compact base stations (C-BTS) have been referred to by several nomenclatures such as micro and pico base stations. They are small size, fully integrated base stations that include baseband processing and radio module in one physical unit. They are relatively light in weight (e.g. a few kilograms) and are easy to deploy and maintain. They come with varying output power ranging from a half-watt to a few watts.

They are provisioned to support a limited number of subscribers that range in the tens of subscribers. These features separate them from larger ‘macro’ base stations that typically have a split or all-indoor architecture in addition to larger capabilities in terms of output power and number of supported subscribers. Thus, it is common to deploy compact base stations at relatively low height (e.g. 10-15 meters) to cover a limited area (e.g. 100 meter) to provide capacity to a hot spot or coverage in a dead zone. Macro base stations on the other hand are mounted higher at 30-45 meters, for example, and used to provide wider coverage (e.g. 500 meters or more).

Despite the differences in architecture and form-factor, the data rate that a large or small base station can support is the same. This is the link-level data rate that is measured in a lab environment, in the absence of interference. The link-level rate is determined by the capability of the wireless access technology such as WCDMA or LTE.

However, what matters to wireless network operators and subscribers alike is the actual performance of a wireless network. Hence, network-level performance is the real measure with link-level performance being an upper-bound that’s only reached in ideal scenarios seldom present in a real deployment.

Small cell base stations provide higher capacity than macro cells because of the deployment scenario. Because these base stations are mounted low above ground, they are less susceptible to interference. This translates directly into higher capacity.

Higher signal quality leads to better throughput because it allows the system to use a more spectrally efficient transmission scheme where more bits can be transmitted at the same time.  Therefore, the areas where users can transmit and receive at higher data rate are larger in a small cell than a macro cell. This is significant because it leads directly to a large increase in overall capacity: the capacity of small cell base station is about 89 per cent higher than that of a macro cell.

Additional benefits include:

1-    Lower delay: users will experience lower latency for data services and will enjoy faster download and upload time.

2-    In-building coverage: small cells provide better outdoor-to-indoor coverage. Considering that 40 per cent of mobile traffic originates from home and 25 per cent from work, this can represent a significant source of revenue for network operators.

3-    Better cell-edge coverage: Macro base stations provide poor service at the cell edge which includes a large percentage of the cell area. Small cells provide better cell-edge performance, particularly for the uplink than large cells.

The fact that small cells provide almost double the capacity of a macro cell is why they are set to become an important part in addressing the capacity crunch in wireless networks.

However, small cell base stations have met with challenges from a business case perspective even though they can be made at a fraction of the cost of larger base stations. The issue is how to backhaul such base stations and the cost of the backhaul. As these base stations are mounted low above ground, typical microwave systems are not technically effective because they require a clear line-of-sight between the two nodes of the microwave link – which is difficult to provide in urban areas where small cells are deployed below building rooflines. Alternatively, fiber is expensive to lay as it may not be available at the spot where the small cell is required in addition to large monthly fees that make it unattractive from an economical perspective.

Frank Rayal is VP of Product Management at backhaul supplier BLiNQ Networks

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MLL's managed LTE backhaul service can scale up to 1Gbps

Backhaul specialist MLL Telecom is pitching a managed service offering for UK LTE networks, designed to help operators cope with the incremental data increases they will face one LTE networks are rolled out.

“The challenge is that LTE cells are now delivering data speeds of around 300Mbps and existing mobile backhaul services need to be scaled up to cope with the demand”, said Richard Brandon, head of strategy at MLL Telecom, in a statement. “The new LTE backhaul service can scale up to 500Mbps or 1Gbps with cross-polarisation, but the speeds of the services can be tailored to suit customer requirements.”

The service is based on microwave links and is designed to complement and extend the reach of fibre for situations where it is not cost effective to roll-out fixed line backhaul.

MLL owns its own spectrum at 32GHz and 40GHz and does not have to obtain planning permission for kit deployment so is able to rapidly deploy interference free point-point back-haul. It sasid that it has worked with Ericsson on a LTE trial in Europe, providing back-haul speeds of 650Mbps for aggregated cell sites.

Gary Marven, COO said, “The LTE links we have already installed are maintaining the high level of availability and resilience we experience from our our existing microwave links, so we are confident they will offer our customers the same high service levels they are used to.”

The service will mean that BT’s 21CN network has a rival for back-haul in the LTE space.

The auction for LTE spectrum in the UK is due to be held in early 2012 with networks expected to be rolled out in 2013. However, it was revealed last week that PCCW’s UK arm UK Broadband was looking into offering an LTE network on a wholesale basis as early as 2012.

The fourth annual LTE North America Conference takes place in Texas, US, November 8-9

WACS landed in Cape Town on Thursday

A high capacity submarine cable system linking southern Africa with Europe landed at its final destination in Cape Town Tuesday morning. The West African Cable System (WACS), a 14,000km, 5.1Tbps system was brought ashore at Yzerfontein in the Western Cape and will both complement and compete with the 340Gbps Sat-3 system that went into service in the region in 2002.

WACS backers include South African state-owned Telkom, MTN, Vodacom and second national operator (SNO) Neotel. MTN claims to be the biggest single investor in the project, contributing $90m to the $600m+ venture. The cable system is the first of two high-capacity links that will come online in the region over the next two years; WACS is expected to be ready commercially in early 2012 while the Africa Coast to Europe system (ACE), backed by France Telecom is expected later that year.

Construction of the landing station at Yzerfontein has yet to be completed, but is expected to be ready by July this year; backhaul fibre to the station is not yet in place. A date for commercial testing of the system has not been announced but is anticipated for September/October this year. WACS links southern Africa with London and is expected to increase broadband capacity in South Africa by 500Gbps.

Mobile operators are moving to IP backhaul to deal with explosive growth in data traffic

Russia’s mobile operators are moving to IP backhaul to deal with explosive growth in data traffic. Leading Russian carrier MTS (Mobile TeleSystems) said this week that it is expecting 86 per cent growth in Russian data traffic by 2015, forcing a strategic focus on network transport.

According to MTS, an upgrade to Ethernet and IP as a backhaul carrier is the best way the operator can maintain service quality going forward. MTS has partnered with Tellabs and local telecom solutions provider Intracom Svyaz to undertake this upgrade.

In a double win for Tellabs, smaller Russian player MegaFon is also planning to build a countrywide IP mobile backhaul network with the aim of reducing costs, increasing network capacity and ensuring a smooth migration from legacy technology to an all-IP transport platform. In this case Nokia Siemens Networks will be performing the systems integration.

“We aim to build a unified mobile backhaul to facilitate faster rollout of 3G services such as HSPA and prepare a converged IP transport network for fixed and mobile services for millions of people in Russia,” said Valery Ermakov, chief operations officer at MegaFon. “This will help us keep pace with the exponential increase in the data traffic while significantly reducing our capital costs.”

Feature: Many operators are pushing core capabilities out to the network edge

Telecoms.com recently looked at how operators have moved on from addressing shortcomings in their radio access networks, which are being relentlessly battered by the demands of smartphones and tablets, with network congestion is moving ever closer to the core, where it becomes increasingly expensive to manage. The consensus is that the best strategy is to deal with the tidal wave of data moving towards the core before it even gets there, by keeping it as close to the network edge as possible. According to the industry pundits spoken to for this feature, operators worldwide are rethinking their network topology, especially with regard to the design and implementation of the last mile.

The consolidation momentum in the telecom sector is increasing

International fibre network operator Level 3 Communications on Tuesday agreed to acquire rival carrier Global Crossing in a stock for stock transaction valued at approximately $3bn.

The combined company will operate a services platform anchored by fibre networks on three continents – the Americas, Europe and Asia – connected by its own undersea facilities. The combined network will serve a customer base with owned network in more than 50 countries and reach to more than 70 countries.

Commenting on the deal, Jim Crowe, chief executive officer of Level 3, said: “The complementary fit between the two companies’ networks, service portfolios and customers is compelling. By leveraging the respective strengths and extensive reach of both companies, we are creating a highly efficient and more extensive global platform that is well-positioned to meet the local and international needs of our customers.”

Jim Kinsella, chairman of European network operator and smaller regional rival, Interoute, said that the deal was a sign of the times. “The consolidation momentum in the telecom sector is increasing. There seem to be two primary reasons for the acceleration in deal activity. First, bandwidth usage is spiralling – from computer desktops to mobile phones – and the operators are working hard to keep up with the demand. Companies that provide that bandwidth are experiencing record growth in IP traffic and the bandwidth that supports it.

“Second, enterprises are relying more heavily than ever on infrastructure companies to provide the physical network upon which their cloud services can operate. The cloud is effectively allowing organisations to manage large parts of their IT more cheaply and far more effectively.”

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Many operators are pushing core capabilities out to the network edge

As mobile operators move to address shortcomings in their radio access networks, which are being relentlessly battered by the demands of smartphones and tablets, network congestion is moving ever closer to the core, where it becomes increasingly expensive to manage. With more rich applications than ever before, there is a shift taking place in the type of network traffic seen, causing operators to rethink their backhaul needs as they move to an all IP architecture and next generation infrastructure. According to the industry pundits spoken to for this feature, operators worldwide are rethinking their network topology, especially with regard to the design and implementation of the last mile.

For many service providers addressing this issue, the only way to ensure quality of experience is to densify the network by making more cell sites available. As anyone who attended February’s Mobile World Congress can attest, we are at the dawn of the age of the heterogeneous network, or ‘hetnet’, whereby meeting future capacity demands depends on a clearly defined small cell strategy.

telecoms.com looked at femtocell technology recently and came to the conclusion that small cells are getting bigger and vice versa—a phenomenon which raises some operational challenges. As Ben McCahill, director of mobile strategy at Tellabs puts it, the emergence of small cells and the shrinking size of cell sites means that operators are managing tens of thousands of node Bs on individual networks, a task which must be carried out regardless of vendor or technology type. “In fact, operators are now so focused on increasing network density we are moving to a model where our customers [the operators] say, ‘I want a base station delivered here and up and running in four hours or I’m not paying.’

They want a fast, scalable and efficient service. They just need to increase density and don’t want excuses about technology type,” he says. “Every time you roll a truck it costs money, so you’ve got to get it right on time, first time, every time,” he adds.

With network operators in a transition phase, hybrid networks with 2G, 3G and even 4G infrastructure, connected by different types of transport and additional data backhaul are the norm. It’s an operational nightmare, which is why IP is heralded as the saving grace and operators are moving to all IP networks faster than expected. But until the last 2G node is removed from the network—some time in the distant future—there will still be a complex mix of TDM, ATM, Ethernet and IP. In the meantime, prices for leased line and Ethernet continue to fall so economies continue to improve, yet the amount of data going through the network also continues to increase as does the level of resilience required.

The consensus is that the best strategy is to deal with the tidal wave of data moving towards the core before it even gets there, by keeping it as close to the network edge as possible.

Richard Lord, CTO of Altobridge, explains: “Typically, data from users’ handsets is encapsulated in protocols then encrypted and sent over the backhaul. So we take part of the core network functionality and push it out to the cell site. The encryption terminates at the remote site, then we strip off all the cellular protocols to expose the raw IP data, so now we can start implementing optimisation or even caching that same data in remote locations.” For Altobridge, which plays exclusively in emerging markets, this technique works well as a method of keeping operators’ costs down, as users in remote communities are often looking at the same content—perhaps an online public noticeboard—and caching this cuts down on transport costs.

Tellabs’ McCahill talks about the shift in operator mindset as a slow transition from network engineering to applications engineering that has become a common theme across the industry.

“Everyone’s talking about quality of experience for the user, not just in terms of ability but also response time in terms of individual applications and context and awareness of applications right out into the RAN,” he says. “You don’t want to bring the data all the way into the core then realise you should have performed some action on it further out in the access network.”

A similar theme has been noticed among the customer requests to Juniper Networks’ head of carrier Ethernet, David Noguer Bau, which he puts down to a changing focus from technical issues to business issues. “It comes down to the core network and application complexity,” says Noguer Bau. “Networks were designed so that all the traffic went to the data centre. But that introduces costs, and very little traffic actually needs to go to the data centre. So we sit next to the Mobile Packet Gateway, where the traffic is aggregated and turned into IP and we look at that traffic and decide whether it can go straight to the internet or if it has to go to the data centre. We can also analyse the data to see if there’s a way to optimise it there and then.” One by-product of this densification is the creation of more aggregation layers in the network, which will need to be fed by backhaul capacity. “It comes down to a question of how many aggregation layers you have,” says McCahill from Tellabs. “You could have one, two or maybe even three layers. But it all depends on the pricing of leased lines in a particular market.” And this is where the backhaul players earn their bread and butter.

According to McCahill, in the US it’s more cost effective to backhaul node Bs all the way back to the data centres. Yet in other markets its better to get off high-cost leased lines as soon as possible by terminating them at an aggregation point and using something far cheaper like Ethernet to take the data back into the core network. “From an economics point of view you terminate the expensive last mile as soon as possible. And from an operational point of view you can end up with a far more resilient network if you use a mesh topology, then if there is a fibre cut you can route around the problem and therefore your uptime is improved,” says McCahill.

It’s not just the growing number of small cells in a network that require more and more bridges to the core, but packet data today tends to be very uncorrelated and bursty, which means it is very difficult to dimension a single link for it, as traffic requirements are all over the place. So the consensus is for a dynamic rather than a dedicated system, so as to avoid ending up with lots of whitespace, which is wasted resource.

Carrier grade Ethernet is rapidly growing in popularity. Yes, networks are moving to all IP architectures, but that doesn’t mean you have to build an entire network using IP routers. Indeed, you only need it in certain places. Out at the edge the most cost effective and simple transport is Ethernet. In the eyes of Mervyn Kelly, EMEA marketing director at Ciena, it’s the unsung hero.

“Use IP at the centre of the network but don’t take it to edge as it’s too expensive,” he says. “You can build a network and deliver high quality service with Ethernet as a simpler way of building mobile backhaul. It’s cheap and reliable and can be an enabler for the rest of the network. Base station deployments are large and complicated so you want the backhaul to be as simple as possible. Ethernet can be installed by an unskilled installer and is selfconfiguring, which is of the utmost importance if you’re rolling out thousands of sites.”

Make no mistake that the prefix ‘carrier grade’ is also of the utmost importance. As Kelly says, “this is where we’ve added carrier grade attributes to Ethernet—all sorts of features to make it service- centric and manageable. We’re moving from SDH, which was deployed many years ago, to packet optical and WDM, as well as from 10Gb to 40Gb and 100Gb, all of which is a mostly carrier Ethernet-based transition.”

In terms of transport, a few years ago, the desire was to connect all cell sites with fibre. But demand has outstripped the time available to make such upgrades and, while in a developed country it may still be more cost effective to get traffic onto fibre as soon as possible, given market economics, an operator is not going to lay 1,000 miles of fibre to a small town in Congo. Which is why they’ll use whatever they can get their hands on, as long as it is reliable, packet-optimised, scalable, and capable of very high bandwidth—perhaps up to 1GB per base station.

There are plenty of options, and carriers are likely to use a good mix of all of them, depending on the market. We take a look at some of the front running technologies on the previous page, but as Ryanair has taught the world, it’s all about the operational efficiency and not just about capex and the latest technology. Bandwidth is increasing, yes, but it’s operational issues that are worth focusing on as the single biggest element in the budget. There’s a lot of network and traffic engineering going on, but as we move towards application engineering and look at how we treat applications in the network, well we’ve only just begun.

NEC to demonstrate how it can help mobile operators transform their networks and businesses and profit from new services over the cloud

London and Tokyo, January 18, 2011 – NEC Corporation (NEC) announced today that it will attend the Mobile World Congress 2011 at the Fira de Barcelona, Barcelona February 14 – 17, 2011.   This year, NEC will showcase a range of innovative and revenue-generating solutions for mobile operators at Stand No 8A125, Hall 8 including quick-to-market cloud services and next-generation mobile broadband solutions: LTE, backhaul, femtocell and Operational Support Systems (OSS).   

 “The Mobile Cloud is changing the economics of enterprise IT by allowing businesses, large or small, to access low-cost applications with high-processing power; the only requirement is a mobile device and Internet connection,”  said Toshiyuki Mineno, Senior Vice President, NEC Corporation.  “This mobile platform will become the dominant method of IT delivery allowing access to virtualized remote desktops and office suites via any device, any time.  NEC’s seamless IT and network solutions are helping operators to capture revenue from these transformative opportunities.”

At the NEC stand, NEC will demonstrate its C&C Cloud capabilities including business application services accessed over the cloud that mobile operators can deploy and start generating revenue quickly. These cloud-based services include Web Collaboration, Fleet Management, Accounting, E-learning and E-healthcare solutions.  In addition, NEC will also demonstrate its mobile network infrastructure solutions in support of these cloud-based business application services.

“Operators need to ensure their networks are geared towards the Mobile Cloud era with high-capacity, high-speed and reliable delivery,” said Shinya Kukita, Chief Manager, NEC.  “NEC’s small-cell LTE allows mobile operators to tailor cost effectively their services according to end user and capacity demand from small-scale to wide-scale commercial deployments.   Our new breed of product, the iPASOLINK platform, is the key building block in the transformation of backhaul networks for LTE enabling affordable and scalable migration.  In addition, NEC’s 3G femtocell solution provides the five-bar coverage indoors required to access capacity-intensive applications.” 

C&C Cloud

We are entering a mobile cloud era, with new business creation opportunities for operators. NEC has a Cloud platform and operation and local ISV (Independent Software Vendors) management systems for third party application integration.  Examples of applications that operate over SaaS include CRM, ERP, Office Applications, Web Collaboration, Call Center, Fleet Management, Antivirus and E-learning.

NEC will be providing live demonstrations of its recently launched ‘Cloud Communicator’ Android-based tablet, its remote cancer diagnostic solution, ‘e-Pathologist’ and its Digital Signage Solution.

NEC will also demonstrate its strength in Content Sharing Services with its Rich Communication Suite, which offers a new communication style of image and video sharing with synchronization of real-time interactions during voice call.

LTE

Around the world, mobile operators are re-examining their LTE rollout strategy in the face of soaring CAPEX and OPEX experienced with the macro rollout of their 3G networks.  NEC’s small cell LTE solution gives control back to mobile operators by enabling them to test, adjust and tailor the provision of LTE services according to capacity demand and the profitability of high-data rate services.  NEC will showcase its small cell LTE solutions in combination with its world’s leading technology enabling operators’ business transformation. 

Backhaul

NEC will demonstrate the evolution of backhaul to an IP world.  The NEC iPASOLINK incorporates packet, microwave and optical technologies and an all-in-one design that reduces cost of ownership.  It is a new breed of product for converged backhaul networks evolving to LTE and will underpin the quick-to-market rollout of services.

Femtocell

NEC will demonstrate its award-winning Femtocell Solution Suite that enables mobile operators to provide premium mobile services and an excellent mobile consumer experience.  It offers an excellent end user experience through enhanced quality and coverage. This is critical to the objectives of mobile operators seeking to address the retention of their mobile subscriber base and customer acquisition.   Its femtocell systems are fully standard compliant, interoperable and compatible in a multi-vendor eco-system, enabling mobile operators to build economies of scale for quick-to-market, mass-femtocell deployments. 

OSS 

NEC’s OSS telecom operation and management solution enable mobile operators to execute comprehensive business transformations for operational efficiency and profitability.

 In addition, NEC’s executives will make the following keynote speech and presentations at the following forums to be held in App Planet, Hall 7.

LTE Forum

Date: Wednesday, February 16,  13:45-14:45                                                                        Title:  LTE:-Providing new setting for mobile applications                                                                       Name: K. Jay Miyahara, Corporate Chief Engineer, NEC Corporation

Mobile Cloud Forum

Date: Thursday, February, 17,  9:30 – 11:00                                                                          Title: Mobile meets Cloud. Realizing smarter mobile services.                                          Opening Keynote by:                                                                                                                          Dr. Takemitsu Kunio, Senior Vice President, NEC Corporation                                                Dr. Heinrich  Stüttgen, Vice President, NEC Laboratories Europe                                       Mr. Jaime Serrano, Head of Cloud Competence Centre,                                                                                           President & CEO, NEC Iberica 

For further information please visit http://www.nec.com/mwc

About NEC Corporation

NEC Corporation is a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies that benefit businesses and people around the world. By providing a combination of products and solutions that cross utilize the company’s experience and global resources, NEC’s advanced technologies meet the complex and ever-changing needs of its customers. NEC brings more than 100 years of expertise in technological innovation to empower people, businesses and society.  For more information, visit NEC at http://www.nec.com.

Press Contacts

NEC is a registered trademark of NEC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Other product or service marks mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners. ©2010 NEC Corporation.

Press Contacts

NEC to Attend Mobile World Congress 2011

NEC to demonstrate how it can help mobile operators transform their networks and businesses and profit from new services over the cloud

London and Tokyo, January 18, 2011 – NEC Corporation (NEC) announced today that it will attend the Mobile World Congress 2011 at the Fira de Barcelona, Barcelona February 14 – 17, 2011.   This year, NEC will showcase a range of innovative and revenue-generating solutions for mobile operators at Stand No 8A125, Hall 8 including quick-to-market cloud services and next-generation mobile broadband solutions: LTE, backhaul, femtocell and Operational Support Systems (OSS).   

 “The Mobile Cloud is changing the economics of enterprise IT by allowing businesses, large or small, to access low-cost applications with high-processing power; the only requirement is a mobile device and Internet connection,”  said Toshiyuki Mineno, Senior Vice President, NEC Corporation.  “This mobile platform will become the dominant method of IT delivery allowing access to virtualized remote desktops and office suites via any device, any time.  NEC’s seamless IT and network solutions are helping operators to capture revenue from these transformative opportunities.”

At the NEC stand, NEC will demonstrate its C&C Cloud capabilities including business application services accessed over the cloud that mobile operators can deploy and start generating revenue quickly. These cloud-based services include Web Collaboration, Fleet Management, Accounting, E-learning and E-healthcare solutions.  In addition, NEC will also demonstrate its mobile network infrastructure solutions in support of these cloud-based business application services.

“Operators need to ensure their networks are geared towards the Mobile Cloud era with high-capacity, high-speed and reliable delivery,” said Shinya Kukita, Chief Manager, NEC.  “NEC’s small-cell LTE allows mobile operators to tailor cost effectively their services according to end user and capacity demand from small-scale to wide-scale commercial deployments.   Our new breed of product, the iPASOLINK platform, is the key building block in the transformation of backhaul networks for LTE enabling affordable and scalable migration.  In addition, NEC’s 3G femtocell solution provides the five-bar coverage indoors required to access capacity-intensive applications.” 

C&C Cloud

We are entering a mobile cloud era, with new business creation opportunities for operators. NEC has a Cloud platform and operation and local ISV (Independent Software Vendors) management systems for third party application integration.  Examples of applications that operate over SaaS include CRM, ERP, Office Applications, Web Collaboration, Call Center, Fleet Management, Antivirus and E-learning.

NEC will be providing live demonstrations of its recently launched ‘Cloud Communicator’ Android-based tablet, its remote cancer diagnostic solution, ‘e-Pathologist’ and its Digital Signage Solution.

NEC will also demonstrate its strength in Content Sharing Services with its Rich Communication Suite, which offers a new communication style of image and video sharing with synchronization of real-time interactions during voice call.

LTE

Around the world, mobile operators are re-examining their LTE rollout strategy in the face of soaring CAPEX and OPEX experienced with the macro rollout of their 3G networks.  NEC’s small cell LTE solution gives control back to mobile operators by enabling them to test, adjust and tailor the provision of LTE services according to capacity demand and the profitability of high-data rate services.  NEC will showcase its small cell LTE solutions in combination with its world’s leading technology enabling operators’ business transformation. 

Backhaul

NEC will demonstrate the evolution of backhaul to an IP world.  The NEC iPASOLINK incorporates packet, microwave and optical technologies and an all-in-one design that reduces cost of ownership.  It is a new breed of product for converged backhaul networks evolving to LTE and will underpin the quick-to-market rollout of services.

Femtocell

NEC will demonstrate its award-winning Femtocell Solution Suite that enables mobile operators to provide premium mobile services and an excellent mobile consumer experience.  It offers an excellent end user experience through enhanced quality and coverage. This is critical to the objectives of mobile operators seeking to address the retention of their mobile subscriber base and customer acquisition.   Its femtocell systems are fully standard compliant, interoperable and compatible in a multi-vendor eco-system, enabling mobile operators to build economies of scale for quick-to-market, mass-femtocell deployments. 

OSS

NEC’s OSS telecom operation and management solution enable mobile operators to execute comprehensive business transformations for operational efficiency and profitability.

 In addition, NEC’s executives will make the following keynote speech and presentations at the following forums to be held in App Planet, Hall 7.

LTE Forum

Date: Wednesday, February 16,  13:45-14:45                                                                        Title:  LTE:-Providing new setting for mobile applications                                                                       Name: K. Jay Miyahara, Corporate Chief Engineer, NEC Corporation

Mobile Cloud Forum

Date: Thursday, February, 17,  9:30 – 11:00                                                                          Title: Mobile meets Cloud. Realizing smarter mobile services.                                          Opening Keynote by:                                                                                                                          Dr. Takemitsu Kunio, Senior Vice President, NEC Corporation                                                Dr. Heinrich  Stüttgen, Vice President, NEC Laboratories Europe                                       Mr. Jaime Serrano, Head of Cloud Competence Centre,                                                                                           President & CEO, NEC Iberica 

For further information please visit http://www.nec.com/mwc

About NEC Corporation

NEC Corporation is a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies that benefit businesses and people around the world. By providing a combination of products and solutions that cross utilize the company’s experience and global resources, NEC’s advanced technologies meet the complex and ever-changing needs of its customers. NEC brings more than 100 years of expertise in technological innovation to empower people, businesses and society.  For more information, visit NEC at http://www.nec.com.

NEC is a registered trademark of NEC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Other product or service marks mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners. ©2010 NEC Corporation.

Topics up for discussion included the choice of offload technologies available to mobile operators, such as carrier-grade wifi and metro femtocells; their relative cost and performance benefits; and the opportunities that each provides to develop services and hence drive revenues.

Estimates varied as to the proportion of data traffic that is currently subject to offload. In the Czech Republic, Telefonica/O2 puts the figure at around 20 per cent for handsets but acknowledges that this may be lower than many operators are experiencing. The figure for PC data traffic offload is as high as 80 per cent, according to the operator.

Telefonica/O2 would like to see a higher proportion of smartphone traffic being offloaded from the network, but believes that its customers are not using wifi offload either because their terminals do not support handover and authentication, or because they are “leaking” to other Wi-Fi networks that are free to use. Martin Prosek, the operator’s video and content platforms specialist, said that only around 8 per cent of handsets in the Czech Republic are Wi-Fi enabled, compared to 15 per cent in the UK. He said device support was key and that a “smart proposition” was essential for a successful offload implementation.

This included support for IEEE 802.1x authentication and especially the EAP – SIM and/or AKA protocols, said Prosek. The latter being particularly important for mobile operators in order to keep the subscriber on board and prevent them leaking out from the operator’s network. He complained that mobile phone manufacturers paid insufficient attention to operator based WiFi services. Whereas support for Wi-Fi access via the Symbian platform was relatively good, Android offered insufficient support for EAP-SIM, and PC equipment manufacturers felt no relation to operators at all, he said.

Informa’s own research shows that the current growth in demand for offload will continue, only starting to tail off after 2014. Nevertheless, the use by operators of WiFi and femtocells for traffic offload will continue to make business sense even after the introduction of LTE. Basing its calculations on a theoretical UK mobile operator model as part of its latest cost-per-Gigabyte research, Informa concludes that by 2015 when many operators will have deployed LTE, per-Gigabyte costs will have fallen to the point where offload becomes less necessary.

In reality, however, many operators will see that they can still save costs with offload so will continue doing it and delay deploying LTE, said Informa senior analyst, Dimitris Mavrakis. In the meantime it makes sense to upgrade HSPA or use offload or optimization to deal with capacity issues, he suggested, but noted that offload only makes sense where there is a capacity problem in the network.

Discussion as to the preferred option for offload, wifi or femtocells, prompted the observation from more than one speaker that as Wi-Fi networks are already widely deployed, they represent too good a proposition for operators to ignore. However, in order to extract value from wifi offload mobile operators will require carrier-grade Wi-Fi networks that are more tightly integrated into the operator’s network and back office environments than at present, and deployment of which will incur significant costs. Contrary to the accepted wisdom that Wi-Fi is the cheaper option, femtocells were said by one analyst to provide a “bigger bang” for the operator’s “buck”.

Though not represented at the conference, a number of wifi providers say they are developing carrier-grade products designed to provide seamless handover from 3G/LTE networks while keeping down the associated network infrastructure cost and complexity. By giving operators the flexibility to route offload traffic back to their core network as well as directly to the internet, these products promise greater visibility and management control as part of the offload process.

However, Femto Forum chairman, Simon Saunders, said that operators wanting improved management of the wifi offload process would need to change out their existing wifi networks for carrier-grade products, so undermining the argument that existing coverage of wifi is giving the technology a head start. Nevertheless, at least one operator is proceeding with the wholesale build-out of new, national wifi coverage, he said.

As well as offloading traffic from the RAN and backhaul networks, operators are looking at whether and under what circumstances they might want to offload traffic from the core network. A speaker from InterDigital said that some offload strategies offer more value and some less, but how that was managed from the radio network to the core was absolutely critical.

Basic femtocell offload which is available today, takes traffic from the mobile operator’s radio access and backhaul network, but tunnels traffic back to the operator’s core network. This fits with mobile operators’ need to monetize services through the personalization of services and the application of policy management; something which can’t be said of many current wifi offload approaches.

Future femto offload approaches which are due to be standardized in 3GPP by end-2011 or early 2012, will provide different options for operators. SIPTO (selective IP traffic offload) and LIPA (local IP traffic offload) will provide operators with more flexibility in how they handle different traffic types. SIPTO allows operators to selectively offload some traffic directly to the internet, bypassing the radio access and core networks, while LIPA, which is due to be standardized in 3GPP by 2011/12, is useful for offloading local high bandwidth content in the home.

Other interested parties in the offload discussion included fixed wireless providers such as Ireland’s Imagine, a WiMAX operator which sees mobile offload as an opportunity to tap into mobile operators’ revenue streams. Imagine regards mobile broadband and fixed providers as its main competitors, but says it is getting interest from mobile operators who want to sell WiMAX as an adjunct to HSPA, particularly in areas of congestion.

With the incumbent’s FTTH offering expected to be some years away and Ireland likely to follow behind the UK in licensing spectrum for LTE, with the first LTE networks unlikely to appear before 2014, Imagine sees a window of opportunity during which it can provide offload capacity for overstretched HSPA networks. The company says it will launch dual-mode 3G/WiMAX devices in 2011 and has a relationship with an MVNO that will allow it to provide a single billing solution.

Also jumping on the offload bandwagon was French TV and telecoms group TDF, which proposed using broadcast networks for video/TV offload from mobile networks as an option that provides no limit to user numbers and no risk of saturation.

TV and video traffic on mobile networks represented 20 per cent of total data traffic in 2009, and could rise to 40 per cent by 2018, according to Vincent Grivet, TDF’s director of mobile TV. In order to accomodate this level of growth an increase in network capacity increase on existing 3G sites of between five and ten times would be required, but would be a waste of mobile operators scarce spectrum resources. However, the cost of delivering mobile TV services over a broadcast network was one tenth that of unicast, and could support an unlimited number of simultaneous users, Grivet said.

Thus far mobile operators had failed to engage with mobile broadcast, but the advent of new devices and over-the-top providers will potentially drive the development of mobile broadcast services, which can offer an effective mobile offload solution, he said.