O2 has selected NSN to prepare its network for LTE services across London and the South East of England

UK operator O2, part of the Telefónica group, has selected Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) to prepare its network to deliver LTE services across London and the South East of England. The operator is preparing to launch its 4G services soon after the UK’s spectrum auction in early 2013.

The decision was made after a successful 12 month LTE network trial involving hundreds of consumers and businesses across parts of London, according to NSN.  O2 will also rely on NSN to upgrade its existing GSM and HSPA network with the vendor’s latest radio access technology, and it is also enabling O2’s radio access network sharing.

“We’re investing in our network now to ensure we’re able to make 4G available to our customers as soon as possible following next year’s spectrum auctions,” said Andrew Conway, head of mobile access for O2. “Our choice of vendor was based on the positive experiences we’ve had implementing Nokia Siemens Networks’ Liquid Radio solution in our network.”

Rob Stent, head of the Telefónica UK customer team at NSN, added that the vendor is helping O2 meet its goals related to network simplification and managing consumer expectations for capacity.

Leading vendors have opted out of the bidding for BSNL's network expansion

Leading network infrastructure vendors have pulled out of negotiations with India’s state-owned telco BSNL, which is looking to expand its network.

Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks have withdrawn from the tender, saying they cannot match the proposal from Chinese vendor ZTE.

According to local reports, ZTE is offering to install around 14.4 million lines for BSNL for  just $840m, while Huawei had quoted $1.3bn, Alcatel-Lucent quoted $1.8bn, Ericsson $2.3bn and NSN $2.5bn.

BSNL network expansion plans have been hit by politically-motivated delays, security concerns around allowing Chinese vendors to install kit in border areas, and often complex demands on the suppliers.

The major hurdle now facing the telco is the fact that Indian laws require multiple suppliers for large contracts, and that the other bidders must match the lowest price awarded. Therefore, if competing vendors do not match ZTE’s bid, then the network expansion will be delayed once again.

This is the third attempt to secure a network expansion by BSNL.

NSN claims new feature offers up to five times more capacity for smartphone users on HSPA+ networks

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has demonstrated a new feature for HSPA+ networks that it claims improves smartphone performance, despite research suggesting that there is not a lot of difference between vendors’ offerings.

NSN’s feature implements a bundle of standards-based features that deliver Continuous Packet Connectivity (CPC), which it claims provides “five times more uplink capacity” and allows operators to support more smartphone users on HSPA+ networks.

“High network interference levels pose a serious challenge to network capacity, considerably limiting the number of smartphone users that operators can add to their HSPA+ networks. These challenges are magnified with the ongoing rise in smartphone penetration,” said Keith Sutton, head of the WCDMA business line for NSN.

“Via extensive testing, we’ve established that Continuous Packet Connectivity serves as a powerful tool by countering these challenges and optimizing HSPA+ performance.”

NSN added that using the feature set, smart device batteries last 15 per cent longer while people benefit from a 60 per cent increase in data rates.

However, while vendors have been quick to point out how their technologies trump that of their rivals, Mobile Communications International (MCI) surveyed a group of CTOs from leading operators around the world, and the consensus was that there is not much difference between vendors’ offerings.

“There are some finer points between them all; there have always been. But in terms of technical equipment and performance spec, there’s not much in it,” said Ed Candy, CTO at 3 Group.

Australian operator Telstra’s CTO Hugh Bradlow concurred, saying: “I wouldn’t say there’s a huge difference between them.”

Sprint’s Stephen Bye and MTS CTO Andrei Ushatskiy offer similar assessments in the upcoming issue of MCI, and the interviews are set to appear on Telecoms.com soon as part of a special CTO series. The first, with Ushatskiy, is here.

Everything Everywhere and NSN have partnered on M2M vending machines in Europe

Everything Everywhere (EE) has partnered with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) on an international M2M project they claim will offer vending machine owners an opportunity to increase revenue and reduce costs through remote stock monitoring, increased customer interaction and multiple payment methods.

Under the scheme, vending machines will be linked to NSN’s VendMe application and installed with EE SIM cards, connecting the machines to the operator’s networks in the UK, France and Germany.

The VendMe application allows vending machine owners to monitor their stock levels remotely and plan efficient replenishing of machines without the need to make site visits, NSN said.

Vending machine operators will also be able to engage potential customers, through sending targeted messages to people in the vicinity of a smart vending machine, and they will also be able to interact with customers and their contacts through social networks.

Consumers will not need cash to make a purchase from the NSN enabled machines instead using NFC technology, through Orange Quick Tap  or NFC-enabled cards. Contactless payments are also possible through Reverse SMS and Chip & PIN.

“There is great potential for M2M technologies to provide companies operating internationally in all sectors with instant access to data, making businesses run better and improving the customer experience,” said Marc Overton, vice president wholesale and M2M at Everything Everywhere.

The partnership means that customers benefit from a reduced time to market of up to 60 per cent, according to the firms.

KDDI launches iSON network in Japan

Japanese operator KDDI has deployed what it claims to be the “world’s first self operating 3G and 4G mobile network,” deployed by Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN). The operator has deployed an intelligent Self Organising Network (iSON) solution which uses NSN’s advanced NetAct Operations Support System (OSS).

LTE SON makes use of network intelligence and management features in order to automate the configuration and optimisation of networks, lowering costs and improving network performance and flexibility. A key element is its ability to support multi-vendor network environments, reducing time-consuming and error-prone manual processes, and increasing the efficiency of the network.

The iSON approach from Nokia Siemens Networks operates country-wide, across networks built with equipment from multiple vendors and provides KDDI with a unified and flexible platform as well as an integration layer for multivendor operations.

Steven Hartley, practice Leader of Ovum’s Telco Strategy Practice, explained that the key draw for using SONs is the fact that operators no longer have to send out a field engineer whenever you want they want to tweak the network to optimise its performance.

“That is a significant reason why operators are getting excited about it. In most developed markets, revenues aren’t growing significantly, so this puts a huge amount of pressure on the cost base,” he said.

“You’re trying to return a decent return to shareholders, you’ve got to keep the costs down somehow to keep the margins at the right level. The network operations costs are an enormous part of any MNO’s cost base, so anything you can do to make those networks run more efficiently, operators will be interested in that.”

Julian Bright, senior analyst at Informa, added that in his discussions with operators, they tend to like the idea of SONs because they save on engineers’ time, ongoing maintenance costs, but they’re not convinced that all of the capabilities are fully there, in terms of the SONs.

“I spoke to operators that say this ANR process, whereby the cells registers with neighbouring cells and automatically slots in to the radio environment – some say it works so far but at some points in the process, they’re finding that an engineer has to go in and do a few tweaks to get it to work properly,” he said.

“So they’re saying it needs a bit more development to get the potential fully realised.”

He added that if operators want to optimise the cell’s performance, they have to monitor it over a period of time, and derive a set of KPIs and understand how it’s working and where the tweaks need to be made. Then they have to implement changes based on the feedback.

“What SONs are intended to do is make that a more dynamic process so monitor and adjust – they want it to be a real-time process where the network is being adjusted constantly to give optimum performance.  That’s another area where there’s still a lot of work to be done,” he said.

“There are other operators that are implementing elements of SON. I’ve heard Middle Eastern operators who have already rolled out LTE and they have elements of SON operating in their networks, and these may be to a fairly limited degree. The significance of this network is that it’s covering 3G and 4G – covering both radio networks.”

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The LTE Awards 2012 are taking place on May 23rd, at the El Xalet, Montjuic, Barcelona.

Now in its third year, the annual LTE Awards, in association with Telecoms.com, are now established as the leading event of its kind. The LTE Awards are designed to recognise, celebrate and reward the great innovations that are being made in the industry, and this year are co-located with the LTE World Summit 2012, taking place on the evening of the 23rd, at the El Xalet, Montjuic, Barcelona. The event is sure to be a glamorous and entertaining evening for all participants.

The winners, from a varied selection of 10 categories and 48 shortlisted companies, will be picked by an independent panel of judges, consisting of leading industry experts, during a two week assessment process.

To whet your appetite for the event here is a preview of Category 7: Best LTE RAN Product.

This award recognises Radio Access Network elements that are exceptional in their area. The judges look at how the product contributes to making LTE more attractive for operators to deploy and how it contributed to the success of a commercial LTE deployment.

Alcatel-Lucent: LightRadio Metro Cell

LightRadio cube-based Metro Cells solve the fundamental problem of cost-effectively satisfying users’ demand for more capacity and a better quality of experience, while ensuring community acceptance of new equipment. The LightRadio Metro Cell is a small cube that weighs about 300g and has a very low power draw. The LightRadio Metro Cells uses a unique frequency selective scheduler and a Bell Labs innovative enhanced inter-cell interference coordination (eICIC) to effectively manage interference. As a result, LTE Metro Cells may be successfully deployed using either dedicated or shared carriers. It’s also one of the first cellular network solutions to minimise environmental impact in terms of both carbon footprint reduction and aesthetic acceptance. LightRadio Metro Cells are in trials with many operators today, most notably with Telefonica as announced in February.

CellMax Technologies: Antennas

CellMax range of ‘next generation’  high-efficiency antennas for base stations use patented technology that eliminates energy losses in the internal feed network inside the antenna, increasing energy efficiency to 96 per cent compared to the 25-60 per cent energy heat losses of traditional antennas. Results from live LTE networks (2600MHz) show a data throughput increase of +25-100 per cent bit rate just by replacing standard LTE antennas with high efficiency LTE antennas from CellMax. Results also show up to 30 per cent increase in geographical coverage, a 10-20 per cent increase in net traffic, and a 20 per cent reduction in costs per call for the same amount of power consumed. CellMax antennas are used today by many operators including T-Mobile, Huawei, Hutchison, Ericsson, NSN, and ZTE. The LTE product line was launched in 2010.

Huawei Technologies: GigaSite

Huawei’s GigaSite solution is designed for operators to build the next generation of mobile broadband. It includes the ARU (Adaptive Radio Unit) and the AtomCell. The total size of its integrated antenna and radio unit is comparable to a standalone antenna, and its modular design can be easily configured. It can simultaneously support three separate bands over three different modes (typically for LTE, including GSM and UMTS), and supports cell splitting to improve overall cell capacity by up to 80 per cent. The ARU features the world’s highest single-unit throughput with 1.6Gbps on the Downlink. The ARU is specifically designed to meet the challenges of ever increasing upload with its 4-way receiver technology, which is capable of boosting gain by up to 40 per cent to help uplink throughput reach 850Mbps. The Huawei ARU was deployed by UK operators at the end of 2011 on commercial networks.

Nokia Siemens Networks: Flexi Multiradio 10 base station

The Flexi Multiradio 10 base station is the evolution of the Flexi Multiradio base station, the first LTE-ready Single RAN base station in the market. It provides for ten times higher baseband capacity and reduces power consumption by 30 per cent. It offers the industry’s highest integration density for achieving maximum throughputs in a minimum amount of space. For example, just one Flexi Multiradio System Module has been used to perform the world’s first LTE-Advanced demonstration with throughputs exceeding 1.4Gbps over 100MHz of aggregated spectrum. Site capacity can be scaled to beyond 10Gbps by pooling of system modules.

Samsung Electronics: Smart LTE Networks

Smart LTE Networks is a RAN solution for LTE that utilises an advanced radio resource management technology to significantly reduce the interference between sectors and cells. It uses a virtual server connected to a large number of base stations through Ethernet. Working in real-time environment, the virtual server receives LTE radio channel information (from all connected base stations simultaneously and sends back most optimal radio resource allocation pattern. Thus all BTS in the LTE network work in coordination to provide best QoS for every user. It boasts up to double the number of users than conventional LTE networks, and based on figures from Korea Telecom Samsung claims OPEX and CAPEX reductions of up to 26 per cent. Deutsche Telekom also successfully conducted a Smart LTE Networks trial in Q4 of 2011.

ZTE Corporation: is ZXSDR R8884 RAN

ZTE’s ZXSDR R8884 RAN product was launched in September 2011 and is designed to help operators solve issues around scare spectrum resources, which often means using frequency blocks that are less than optimal. The ZXSDR R8884 RAN can accommodate carrier aggregation, continuous or non-continuous, both in intra-band and inter-band. For example if an operator owns 10MHz frequency band in 1.8GHz and another 10MHz in 2.6GHz, but needs wider band for building LTE network, then ZXSDR R8884 can help to get 20MHz band in total through inter-band carrier aggregation. Thus, more throughput is obtained and less RRU’s are used. ZXSDR R8884 is the only RRU in the industry that can support inter-band carrier aggregation. ZTE is currently working with several operators including Hong Kong CSL, an operator in Russia, China Telecom and China Unicom.

The LTE World Summit is taking place on the 23-24 May 2012 CCIB, Barcelona, Spain. Click here to register your http://ws.lteconference.com/interest.

The LTE Awards 2012 are taking place on May 23rd, at the El Xalet, Montjuic, Barcelona.

Now in its third year, the annual LTE Awards, in associated with Telecoms.com, are now established as the leading event of its kind. The LTE Awards are designed to recognise, celebrate and reward the great innovations that are being made in the industry, and this year are co-located with the LTE World Summit 2012, taking place on the evening of the 23rd, at the El Xalet, Montjuic, Barcelona. The event is sure to be a glamorous and entertaining evening for all participants.

The winners, from a varied selection of ten categories and 48 shortlisted companies, will be picked by an independent panel of judges, consisting of leading industry experts, during a two week assessment process.

To whet your appetite for the event here is a preview of Category 5: Most Innovative LTE Commercial Launch.

This award recognises the most innovative LTE commercial launch. The judges take into account the success of a network launch and what makes it stand out from others.

Huawei Technologies

In August 2011, Huawei and Wireless City Planning (WCP), a SoftBank group company, commenced deployment of the largest commercial LTE TDD network in the world – the first time LTE TDD has been adopted for a large scale commercial network deployment. The deployment uses technology such as SFN (Single Frequency Networking), 4x4MIMO, and the world’s smallest and lightest broadband RRU (Radio Remote Unit). This supports 40MHz bandwidth, offers downlink data speeds of over 400Mbps and increased site capacity by up to 1.2Gb/s. Each cell site can support 2,000 camping subscribers, 1,000 of which can be active at the same time. Further commercial launches are planned for parts of Tokyo and Osaka in November 2012. By March 2013, the deployment will provide 99 per cent of the population in Japan’s cities (an estimated 114 million people) with ultra broadband services made using Huawei’s LTE TDD solutions.

Nokia Siemens Networks

Nokia Siemens Networks and SKY, the largest cable and satellite TV operator in Brazil, launched an TD-LTE network using the 2.6GHz frequency on the 13 December, 2011. It is a unique 4G TD-LTE deployment with wifi an integral part of the solution. It includes one of the industry first TD-LTE based wifi wireless routers for consumers. The NSN technology includes its FlexiPacket Microwave transport platform and Evolved Packet Core (EPC), part of its Liquid Core architecture. In addition, NSN has provided its CPEi-lte 7212 wireless router. Nokia Siemens Networks has also provided its NetAct network management system to provide consolidated configuration, monitoring and network optimization. SKY plans to roll out services to new customers in other cities of Brazil, and other countries in Latin America, in the future.

Samsung Electronics

Samsung launched a network in with a major South Korean operator in January 2012. The network was located in the capital city of Seoul. As of March 2012 it cover 26 cities in Korea with about 28,000 cell sites and the ultimate goal in 84 cities covering 90 per cent of the country’s population. The Samsung network uses its SmartCloud technology and is the first LTE network that uses cloud computing. There are two key differences over other networks: centralizing hundreds of base station sites into one BTS site, and network-wide optimisation by connecting virtual server to all the radio units. SmartCloud is designed to create a flexible and high-capacity network for serving dense urban areas efficiently. A virtual server communicates simultaneously with all RRUs to mitigate interference across entire network, and help provide a better quality of experience to user irrespective of location to the cell edge or cell centre. It uses air resource management technology, to mitigate interference among cells. SmartCloud reduced CAPEX by 26 per cent and cut OPEX for the launch operator by 37 per cent by eliminating the need to operate hundreds of DU sites.

ZTE Corporation

ZTE launched a CS Fallback solution together with CSL in Hong Kong in February 2012.  The solution brings high quality voice services for LTE users, reduces the pressure on the 3G data network and; enhances the operator’s reputation in a very competitive market. It mitigates the need to migrate CS service to IMS for voice, maximising the existing 3G investment and smoothing evolution to CSFB service thanks to a lower TCO. The launch used a unique “Proxy MSC” solution preventing the need to upgrade all the MSCs in the CS network. ZTE and CSL will optimise the network in the coming 12 months. The LTE network will be inter-connected with other vendors to support CSFB roaming. In the future, the user experience will be enhanced to absorb more and more smartphones onto the LTE network.

The LTE World Summit is taking place on the 23-24 May 2012 CCIB, Barcelona, Spain. Click here to register your http://ws.lteconference.com/interest.

The LTE Awards 2012 are taking place on May 23rd, at the El Xalet, Montjuic, Barcelona.

Now in its third year, the annual LTE Awards, in associated with Telecoms.com, are now established as the leading event of its kind. The LTE Awards are designed to recognise, celebrate and reward the great innovations that are being made in the industry, and this year are co-located with the LTE World Summit 2012, taking place on the evening of the 23rd, at the El Xalet, Montjuic, Barcelona. The event is sure to be a glamorous and entertaining evening for all participants.

The winners, from a varied selection of 10 categories and 48 shortlisted companies, will be picked by an independent panel of judges, consisting of leading industry experts, during a two week assessment process.

To whet your appetite for the event here is a preview of Category 4: Most Significant Development for Commercial LTE Network by an Operator.

This award recognises the activities by vendors in commercial rollouts of LTE, including the development of the networks, the commitment and investment into LTE development over other technologies and growth and progress of the networks over the past 12 months.

Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel Lucent has 25 LTE commercial contracts, taking in the largest LTE networks in scale, scope and size. It is also involved in more than 80 advanced LTE trials worldwide. Its end-to-end 4G LTE solutions and tools power LTE networks reaching 100’s of million people. It has invested €2.4billion in R&D in 2011, and LTE is one of the key strategic growth segment for the company. Its solution includes software-defined LTE radio access and breakthrough LightRadio architecture. It includes a purpose-built all-IP wireless packet core, industry-leading mobile backhaul and converged transport solution, and field-proven Service Delivery Environment (SDE) comprising IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and applications.

Huawei Technologies

Huawei has been a leading vendor in the commercialization and innovation of LTE technology since its inception and has hit many major milestones such as launching the world’s first commercial network with TeliaSonera in December 2009 and the northernmost LTE site on Earth (between the Arctic circle and north pole) in conjunction with Telenor. Of the 57 commercial LTE networks confirmed by the GSA in March 2012, 28 were built by Huawei. The company has been awarded 67 commercial LTE contracts and its kits are being used by 50 per cent of the operators that have decided to deploy LTE. It’s commitment to LTE is indicated by the fact that during 2011, it invested more than €455 million in LTE R&D and LTE-related projects.

Nokia Siemens Networks

NSN is a supplier to more than 50 operators across five continents. More than 20 of these have commercially launched LTE and have around 30 per cent of the global LTE subscribers among them. It has major input in the networks of Telia, Seden, Telia, Denmark, the first live TD-LTE network in Latin America by Sky, Brazil, in South Korea and in Japan. Many of its researchers have published books on LTE and have contributed to maturing LTE Advanced and VoLTE. Its equipment has led the field in several industry benchmarks with its Liquid Radio network.

ZTE Corporation

ZTE is an LTE leader and has deployed 30 LTE commercial networks, 100 LTE trials. Six commercial LTE networks were launched in 2011. A stand out was the world’s first Dual Mode FDD/TDD LTE deployed in 2011 in Sweden for Hi3G, with 800 base stations. There have also been notable networks set up for CSL, Telenor, Sonaecom, Softbank and Airtel. The company has invested €600 million in LTE.

The LTE World Summit is taking place on the 23-24 May 2012 CCIB, Barcelona, Spain. Click here to register your http://ws.lteconference.com/interest.

Ericsson triples uplink capacity in HSPA networks

Ericsson claims to have developed a solution that triples uplink capacity in HSPA networks, allowing operators with a large number of users to offer high uplink data speeds. The news comes hot on the heels of an announcement from Nokia-Siemens Networks, which has claimed it has developed a new solution to double throughput and data speeds for users at the edge of a small cell.

Using Ericsson’s receiver technology, Ericsson Interference Suppression, along with 4-antenna radio base stations, the Swedish vendor performed a demonstration last month. It showed that over-the-air uplink throughput for simultaneously active devices in a cell was increased from around 4Mbps to more than 12Mbps.

Interference Suppression is a base station receiver technology for WCDMA/HSPA that improves uplink speeds by increasing the network capacity. This is done by using software algorithms in the base station that reduce the negative effects of uplink interference that is today the bottleneck in many HSPA networks.

Ericsson said the gains were further enhanced by the use of base stations configured with four antennas per cell. This combination delivers a leap in end user experience and uplink capacity.

“We have proven that Ericsson’s unique Interference Suppression is a giant leap forward and it will be the new reference for WCDMA uplink performance for years to come,” said Nils Viklund, Director WCDMA RAN at Ericsson. “This can even be further enhanced by combining it with multi-receive antenna technologies. Because these technologies work with existing devices, operators that implement them will instantly benefit from the attractive gain.”

Earlier this week, NSN announced that it was launching a solution aimed at doubling mobile broadband speeds for consumers at the edge of a base station cell, by allowing devices to connect with a second base station that serves a neighbouring cell. Both Ericsson’s and NSN’s technologies will be on show next week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Jukka Luoma, head of product management, voice and IP transformation, Nokia Siemens Networks

We speak to Jukka Luoma, head of product management, voice and IP transformation, Nokia Siemens Networks, following the announcement that the company won the Best LTE Core Network Product category at the LTE North America Awards 2011, held last week in Dallas, Texas, USA.

Can you tell us a little more about your entry?

The Open Core System is the suite of products enabled by the Nokia Siemens Networks open core applications and software architecture, in which all the common components of a core network across the packet-switched, circuit-switched and IMS domains can be installed and scaled up within a single COTS ATCA (commercial off-the-shelf Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture) hardware environment.

The Open Core System forms part of Nokia Siemens Networks’ Liquid Core. As part of our Liquid Net architecture, Liquid Core provides the foundation of the broadband experience. It brings fluidity to the core network as all the common components of the core network can be installed on a single common hardware environment. Liquid Core smartly manages and delivers services and content, and dynamically provides the capacity needed to ensure the best customer experience at the lowest cost.

Why do you think the judges chose your entry for this award?

We at Nokia Siemens Networks believe our Open Core System is an ideal evolutionary step towards simplification, modernisation and environmentally sustainable telecommunication business.

By adopting the Open Core System, operators will be prepared for future data traffic growth. The flexibility of the architecture enables them to scale up the core to meet rising demand and they will be ready to introduce LTE functionality into existing hardware via a simple software upgrade.

What recent industry developments does it specifically address?

The communications market is pushing Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to require more open and flexible platforms for the most valued applications (such as Voice, SMS and data) to provide a secure evolution path towards LTE. CSPs are also looking for network simplification and network element efficiency to reduce total cost of ownership and enable the implementation of green values – all while considering a long term platform strategy for consolidated core networks architecture.

With Nokia Siemens Networks’ Open Core System, all common components of a core network can be installed and scaled up at a single and synergetic COTS ATCA hardware environment. NSN’s Open Core Software Architecture is hardware agnostic, enabling the same software to run on both legacy and the latest state-of-the-art platforms. It is compliant with all defined core network standard interfaces.