Australian Digital Dividend Spectrum Auction Concludes by Raising $2 Billion.

May 12, 2013 2 Comments

Australia Spectrum AuctionThe Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) announced last Tuesday the results of the 700 MHz & 2500 MHz spectrum auction. A total of AU$ 1.96 billion (US$ 2.02 billion) was raised by licensing a combined 200 MHz in these two bands. Telstra & Optus won 2×20 and 2×10 MHz, respectively, in the 700 MHz Band. Yet, 30 MHz in this band remains unsold. In the 2500 MHz band, Telstra and Optus secured 2×40 MHz and 2×20 MHz, respectively. TGP Internet secured a 2×10 MHz license. The duration of licenses in both bands is 15 years. The table below shows the total amounts paid by each operator. Read more of this post

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The Shifting Paradigm of Mobile Network Operations

May 8, 2013 1 Comment

paradigm shiftThe deluge of demand for mobile data has been much discussed and talked about. News is abounding with figures, quotes and graphics of the increasing consumption (about doubling every year) and its projection to the future (anywhere from 10-25 time increase within the next 4 years). On the other hand, there has not been much discussion on what this mean from an operational perspective for the network operator. So, what is going on and what do we see? Read more of this post

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Cloud RAN vs. Picocells: The Need for Integrative Approach in Next Generation Network Design.

April 18, 2013 4 Comments

Picocell vs. Cloud RANWhen it comes to deciding on deploying small cell base stations, one is faced with a few options. One option is based on cloud RAN architecture with remote radio heads connected through optical fiber to a central base station housing the baseband processing. A second option is that of a compact base station which includes both the radio frequency and baseband processing functions. The compact base station is connected to the core network by a number of different backhaul technologies.

The availability of low cost fiber is a gating factor in deploying cloud RAN architecture. Remote radio heads require very high capacity links to support modern air interface features such as multiple antennas for MIMO. CPRI and OBSAI interfaces run at between 3 and 6 Gbps depending on the number of supported antennas. The compact base station on the other hand requires much lower capacity for backhaul – on the order of tens to over a hundred Mbps.  Low backhaul throughput requirements should translate into lower deployment cost to the advantage of compact base stations. Read more of this post

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Should Small Cells Be Deployed In Their Own Spectrum Band?

April 9, 2013 1 Comment

Small cells raise a number of practical implementation questions which are yet to be resolved. One such question is whether small cells should operate in the same frequency band as the macrocell layer (co-channel deployment), or on a different frequency band. The question has profound implications to operators, vendors, and to regulators alike.

To clarify, recall that in co-channel small cell operation interference between the macrocell and small cell layers limit the capacity gain of small cells. The benefit from small cells is realized when they are placed in traffic hot spots whose location must be identified (which is a challenge in itself). As LTE technology matures with advanced releases, techniques such as ‘Almost Blank Frame‘ are introduced to manage interference whereby a layer temporarily ceases operation to reduce interference to the second layer as shown in Figure 1. These techniques largely trade off some capacity for lower interference (but not network capacity: network capacity would still increase because small cells are added).  Using a different frequency band for small cells provides yet higher capacity because the different layers are separate networks. Read more of this post

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Mobile Data Traffic Predictions Say: It’s WiFi Offload!

March 20, 2013 2 Comments

Mobile Data - Small Cell NetworksIf you’re in the wireless infrastructure business, you’ve seen it many, many times. I’m talking about the predictions showing exponential mobile data traffic growth. Hardly a conference presentation goes by without seeing this graph on the first or second slide. It became customary to preface any discussion with this context, often with the idea to get people salivating at a potential windfall of profits from selling systems, software, or services. But predictions are tricky, and mobile data predictions are particularly tricky. A sober read of the facts and what’s behind the headlines is revealing.

Let’s have a look at Cisco’s latest VNI was released earlier last month. It includes a significant reduction in estimated mobile data traffic of about a third for 2012-2016 from those estimated a year ago (29% reduction for 2012). Cumulative average growth rate drops from 78% (18x) to 66% (13x) for the 5-year period ending 2016 and 2017, respectively. Mobile data growth, although still substantial, is not as high as we thought it is, and it is continuously being downgraded every passing year. Predicting data growth is tough business. Read more of this post

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Unleashing the Power of HetNets: Interference Management Techniques for LTE-Advanced Networks

March 18, 2013 Leave a comment

In my earlier blog post, The Hype & Reality of Small Cells Performance, I provided a qualitative review of small cell performance and discussed interference scenarios that limit performance. Perhaps the most defining problem of small cell deployments is the large transmit power imbalance between the macrocell and the small cell (~20-30 dB) which increases the potential of uplink and downlink interference thereby limiting the ‘cell-splitting gain.’ As interference is the culprit in limiting performance, so managing it is at the crux of advanced LTE techniques. Fortunately, the LTE physical layer provides many levers to manage interference. Let’s recall that LTE is based on orthogonal division multiple access technology (OFDM) where orthogonal sub-carriers divide a wide channel bandwidth into multiple narrow frequency bands. Data is scheduled on sub-carriers which are assigned to users in the frequency and time domains (the basic unit of assigned sub-carriers is called a Resource Block). As we shall see, many of the interference management techniques are related to how the network assigns and manages its resources. But before we get into this, let’s have a look at range expansion which is a fundamental aspect of small cell deployments. Read more of this post

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Word Clouding MWC: Observations and Takeaways.

March 7, 2013 Leave a comment

MWC Cloud LogoMWC is over. In reflecting on the show, I came up with an idea and tried it out, just for fun. What if I take all the news coverage from the show and generate a ‘word cloud,’ would I be able to zoom in on the few key trends? What would ‘word clouding’ tell me? As it turned out, it was much more work than I had anticipated, but it was an interesting process. I’ll take you through this while I add my observations on the show. Read more of this post

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