Small Cells The Big Picture

Vikas Dhingra
May, 2014

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AGENDA

1. Small Cells Why and Where?

2. Deployment Challenges
3. In-Building Wireless Solutions

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Small Cells

More cells, smaller cells

Miniaturised base stations
Low power
Deployed anywhere

POTENTIAL FOR
ORDERS-OF-
MAGNITUDE
HIGHER CAPACITY

Smaller cells are the primary route to high capacity

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MNO Options
Capacity options
Buy / Acquire Spectrum (Limited &
Expensive)

MIMO, LTE-Adv, CoMP,

Carrier Aggregation Femto, Metrocells

(AFFORDABLE) SPATIAL EFFICIENCY = METROCELLS

In the longer-term more spectrum may be made available. However, in the next 2-5 years, spectrum is a finite resource.
Macrocells are very expensive and time consuming to deploy.
Metrocells provide up to 10 times the capacity of a Macrocell at a 40% lower cost per bit .

Metrocell is the preferred & affordable option for increasing capacity

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MNO Options
Small cell economics
Not always optimal
($$$)
3-sector MacroBTS

Add Carrier

[or Cell-Split (rare)]

Overloaded-sector
Zones of Advantage

Small cells allow operators to:

Meet end-user needs and data explosion at 40% lower TCO
Driven by higher bits at targeted hot spots and lower cost of deployment
Improve network performance & QoE = Reduce churn
Time to Market Advantage
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Distributed Antenna System (DAS)

Passive DAS

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Active DAS

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MNO Options
Technology Solutions
SOLUTION FIT
Solution Coverage Capacity QoS Cost
Metrocell
PUBLIC INDOOR
DAS GOOD
HOT-SPOTS
BETTER
Wi-Fi
BEST
Metrocell
OUTDOOR
HOT-SPOTS
Wi-Fi

DAS
PRIVATE IN-
BUILDING Ent. Femto
PENETRATION
Wi-Fi

Res. Femto
RESIDENTIAL
COVERAGE
Wi-Fi

DAS is best suited where multiple operators need to be supported (neutral host): for coverage/QoS (voice), rather than for data
capacity
Wi-Fi is well suited as a neutral host where best effort data traffic offload is acceptable

Metrocell deployments and Wi-Fi Offload are preferred options in Public Indoor and Outdoor locations

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MNO Options
Metrocell deployment challenges

Backhaul Cost, sourcing, negotiations with owners

Site acquisition -- Individual negotiations; Expensive bureaucracies
Installation extra labor, special equipment
Power -- remote power requires expensive trenching

Small Cell Deployment Issues For Mobile Network Operators By Level Of Top Barrier to Outdoor Small Cell Site Backhaul Link
Importance Source: Analysys Mason Deployment

Operational readiness and Time-to-market are critical for volume deployments, starting late-2014.

Providers with assets and capabilities to address these challenges are uniquely positioned
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SITE SELECTION
WHATS REQUIRED FOR OPTIMAL METRO CELL PLACEMENT

80% Outdoor Metro Indoor Metro Enterprise

CAPACITY

Cells Cells cells

PUBLIC AREA ENTERPRISE

of traffic typically
contained in 15% of TARGETED USERS
geographic area
Nomadic users Employees

GET THE USERS WHERE THEY ARE !

MNOs need to do site selection based on quantifiable data in order to optimize their return on investment

Without the right data, MNOs are left to guess the right locations for placement, waste resources placing metro cells
where no value is added, possibly creating additional interference that degrades the overall network performance

Data offload must be part of the overall deployment strategy, striking the optimal design between metro and
macro sites
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SITE SELECTION
EVALUATION CRITERIA
RF
Site Selection should achieve:
INTERFERENCE
RF Interference Mitigation: minimizes RF
interference with existing macro MITIGATION
Interference
Footfall: maximizes usage by identifying traffic Mitigation
hotspots based on user density, traffic profiles
and time of day SITE + POWER
Site power and backhaul availability: minimize FOOTFALL
+ BACKHAUL Footfall
Site + Power
cost by mapping appropriate locations based on
AVAILABILITY + Backhaul
availability of existing power/backhaul
Availability

ACCURATE PLACEMENT OF 4 METRO CELLS CAN OFFLOAD >50% OF THE MACRO ON A PER SECTOR BASIS

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SITE ACQUISITION
Major Activities Key Challenges
Site surveys; per adherence to regulations and
mandates Minimize time, effort and costs to acquire site
rights
Characterize existing backhaul Establish power to the sites
Site determination Proximity of available backhaul
Power considerations Maximize macro offload; per Network RF plan
Secure access and hang rights with utilities, Usability: ease of install and maintenance
MSOs, municipalities, real estate owners Achieve lowest cost per site; power and
Zoning and permitting backhaul

Critical Success Factors

Optimize the ratio of lease to number of sites

Development of a plan that meets regulatory constraints and guidelines
Phased deployment to optimize for:
user density, traffic profiles and time of day
availability of existing power and backhaul
Ability to scale acquisition process for the volume required
Ensure site has sufficient power for current requirements and future growth

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HETEROGENEOUS NETWORKS
CHANGING THE GAME FOR BACKHAUL

60%

Backhaul related costs account for Sensitivity of metro cell placement requires Metro cell density (3 to10 per macro site) and LTE macro
around 60% of metro cell TCO innovative site location (municipal pole, building) introduction challenge existing backhaul capacity

CONTAIN METRO CELL CONNECT A VARIETY OF ADDRESS HETNET

TCO LOCATIONS IN A TIMELY MANNER CAPACITY

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THE OPTIMAL BACKHAUL FOR HETNET?
ITS ALL ABOUT MAKING SMART CHOICES

Use adapted In hot spots, capacity

technologies TECHNO HOT comes first but quality
(NLOS) MIX SPOTS can be relaxed

SMART SMART CAPACITY AND

TRADE-OFF BETWEEN
TECHNOLOGY QUALITY CHOICES
COST, QUALITY OF
CHOICES
SERVICE, TIME TO DEPLOY
Leverage existing
AND SUSTAINABILITY In coverage mode, no
URBAN NOT
power and compromise on quality but
SPOTS
connectivity grid FURNITURE capacity can be relaxed

CURRENT
Leveraging existing
infrastructure to reduce INFRA
last mile deployment

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Metro Backhaul Options
Comparative Analysis
Bit rate Latency Pros Cons

Cost, Deployment
GPON/xGPON via OLT 10 Gbps 0.3 ms Capacity
Flexibility
2.5 ms + Capacity,
VDSL 25-100 Mbps Cost
backhaul Availability

Leased Ethernet/Fiber 10 Gbps ~25msec Capacity Cost, Availability

Hybrid Fiber/Coax 300 Mbps ~30msec Cost QoS, Availability

Unlicensed, Distance, Medium

Sub 6 GHz NLOS 200 Mbps <3ms
NLOS, Cost Capacity
Unlicensed, High
Millimeter wave (60 GHz LOS) 800 Mbps <50sec Frequency Re-use, Cost, LOS, Distance
Higher Capacity

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Metrocell Deployment Metrocell
Site

Line of sight
Macrocell
microwave
Macrocell
LOS (<1 km)
NLOS

Cat 5/6 Coax

Leased EthernetNLOS (<200

Fiber m)
NLOS

Microwave/Fiber
Metrocells can be linked to a macrocell site, which has already a backhaul connectivity
Connected to an intermediate site with better regional vision
A mix backhaul technologies both LOS and NLOS can be used to reach metrocells
Metrocells can be connected in star, tree or daisy chain topologies.
All depends on cost
Use cell site router as hub for providing these connections.
Macrocells are connected to Aggregation Ring through PtP Microwave (6 Ghz to 38 GHz)
LOS transmission can be 60GHz MW
Connection of Hub metrocell to macro backhaul network can be either leased Ethernet fiber (if available) or LOS transmission (if metrocell can be reached via LOS)
NLOS transmission from one metrocell to another metrocell can be sub 6 GHz unlicensed spectrum
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Increasing Small Cell Offload Ratio

1. Increase Transmit Power of the Small Cell

2. Increase Cell Association Bias
3. Increase Number of Small Cells

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Association Ratio

Number of Small
Cells

Transmit Power Cell Association

Bias

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Average Cell Spectral Efficiency

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Cell Border Throughput

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 Macrocell site
Size of Outdoor Metro Cell
Case of shared carrier Exclusion zone
Intermediate zone
Exclusion zone
Safe zone
- Small cells dont have useful cell size, and cause high interference to macrocell users.

- Deployment should be avoided. For ISD 500~1000m, this zone is approximately 100m-
200m from the macro cell.

- Typical example: indoor environment

Intermediate zone
- Small cells have useful cell size and offer offload benefits, but still have some
detrimental impacts on macro cell user throughputs.

- Small cell deployment in this area is advantageous if large portion of traffic is located
within hotspots.

Safe zone
- Small cells do not have significant interference impact, and raises throughput of all
users in cell

- Safe zone starts at approximately 50% of the macrocell sector radius.

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HetNet Interference

DL Denial-of-Service zone DL jammer

SC-UE
M-UE

Interfering link Interfering link

Victim link Victim link

UL Noise-rise UL jammer

SC-UE M-UE
SC-UE M-UE

Interfering link
Interfering link
Victim link
Victim link

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HetNet Mobility

Macro-Macro Mobility Macro-Metro-Macro Mobility

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Mobility Robustness

Too Early Handovers

Too Late Handovers
Wrong Handovers

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Types of DAS

Passive DAS:
A passive infrastructure involves the use of conventional coaxial-based components
Components vary by design but usually includes coaxial cable, combiners, splitters, diplexers, antennas
and attenuators
Components require no external power to operate, only an RF signal input
Active DAS:
Used when the losses in a passive system become excessive
Used to cover large areas with high capacity requirements
amplifiers can be used to directly extend the range of simple coaxial cables by introducing fiber

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Typical Outdoor DAS (3 Band Neutral host)

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Outdoor DAS (O-DAS)

Designed to cover outdoor gaps in macro coverage

Offload capacity for macros in outdoor or campus environments
Higher power required than Indoor DAS (20W vs. 1W)
Equipment is designed to be mounted on utility poles or exterior walls
Uses the same general architecture of fiber transport from the head end to the remotes followed by coax
to an antenna.
Site Acquisition and Installation can be expensive and challenging depending on the areas oDAS is
deployed

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Example - TE - Flexwave Prism

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Indoor Building Wireless Solutions
Features/So Active DAS Passive DAS Repeaters Picocells Femtocells
lution

Capacity vs Provide both Capacity & Provide both Capacity & Coverage Only provide Coverage Provide both Capacity & Provide both Capacity & Coverage
Coverage Coverage Coverage

Multi- Multi and Single Multi and Single Multi and Single Single Single
Carrier/Single
Carrier

End Use 100 K to 1 million sq. ft and
case/Applicati higher buildings; stadiums,
on Areas public spaces, university
campuses, large commercial
govt., healthcare properties
100 k to 500k sq. ft; stadiums,
public spaces, university
campuses, medium-large
commercial govt., healthcare
properties
50-100k sq. ft buildings; Less than 50k sq. ft ; Residential and SoHo primarily. Also
commercial buildings Small and medium could be used as a grid-network in SMEs
enterprises (SMEs)

Scalability Fully Scalable Scalability limited due to absence Scalability limited due to Scalability linked to picocells Scalability linked to femtocells to
of active electronics macro network capacity to picocells handover and femtocells handover and interference
interference mitigation mitigation capability
capability

Cost of Most expensive solution ($0.25- Equipment cost less than Active Medium Range Cost Low Deployment Cost ($0.15 Lowest Cost ($0.05 - $0.10 per sq. ft).
deployment* $0.50 per sq. ft.). DAS but labor cost more. solution ($0.07 - $0.15 per sq. ft).
(Labor - per sq. ft). (10% - 90%)
Equipment (50% - 50%) (60% - 40%) (75% - 25%) (20% - 80%)
Cost)

Equipment revenue from small cells will see exponential growth from 2013-2016 reaching DAS level by 2016.*
Small cell mostly limited to SMEs space and thus, will complement Active DAS solutions rather than compete.
* Source: ABI Research
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BACKUP
HETNET ACE ANALYSIS
IDENTIFYING THE HOT SPOTS

SELECTING THE STUDY AREA GENERATING THE HEAT MAP

HETNET ACE PRECISELY IDENTIFIES HOT SPOTS. BUT ALCATEL-LUCENT WE DOESNT STOP HERE--HEAT
MAPS AND FOOTFALL INFORMATION ISNT ENOUGH...

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HETNET ACE OFFLOAD ANALYSIS
QUANTIFIES THE OPTIMAL OFFLOAD ON A PER SITE BASIS

OFFLOAD ANALYSIS OFFLOAD MAP

HETNET ACE HELPS OPERATORS UTILIZE OFFLOAD ANALYSIS FOR THE OVERALL BUSINESS CASE ANALYSIS IN
THE DEPLOYMENT OF METRO CELLS ASSOCIATED WITH EACH MACRO.

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60GHz TRIAL LAYOUT
RADIO POSITIONING
SUB10 Liberator-V320

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ALCATEL-LUCENT CONFIDENTIAL SOLELY FOR AUTHORIZED PERSONS HAVING A NEED TO KNOW PROPRIETARY USE PURSUANT TO COMPANY INSTRUCTION
WI-FI TRIAL LAYOUT
RADIO POSITIONING

Wifi

5.25-5.875 GHz

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ALCATEL-LUCENT CONFIDENTIAL SOLELY FOR AUTHORIZED PERSONS HAVING A NEED TO KNOW PROPRIETARY USE PURSUANT TO COMPANY INSTRUCTION
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SMALL CELL BACKHAULING SERVICES
TYPICAL SCENARIOS USING SPIDER TOOL
BASELINE INTRODUCING HETNET BACKHAUL
SCENARIO METROCELLS DENSIFICATION TRANSFORMATION
Area covered with 2G/3G Metro cells are introduced to offload New LTE sites and 3G metro cells VDSL transformed to GPON
macrocells the macro layer are added
Legacy Microwave transformed
Backhaul solutions:
Connected to existing backhaul Sharp traffic increase, links are to Microwave Packet Radio
VDSL
progressively becoming congested
Microwave Ethernet
Fiber Need for a backhaul transformation

Spider modeling Design optimization Traffic forecast TCO analysis

Backhaul dimensioning Bottlenecks identification Support strategic decision

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