Interference Management in HetNets

Interference Management is a big topic in HetNet's. An earlier blog post here on similar topic was very popular. The above picture shows a Heterogeneous cellular network topology incorporating different forms of small cell deployments as an overlay on the macrocell network. Small cells would generally use secure tunnels back to the core network using existing broadband infrastructure. Whereas in the HCS (Hierarchical Cell Structures), different layers have different frequencies, thereby not causing radio frequency interference, in HetNets same frequencies can be used between different layers. The same frequencies can cause radio frequency Interference and necessitates the use of advanced Interference avoidance techniques.

CTTC has another interesting presentation on Interference Management in HetNets that I am embedding below as slides and video:

Interference Management in Co-Channel Femtocell Deployment from Zahid Ghadialy

What is WebRTC and where does it fit with LTE and IMS

This simple video from MWC should give an idea on what WebRTC is and can do:


So what exactly WebRTC is in technical terms. Here is a recent presentation from WebRTC Conference and Expo

WebRTC Technical Overview and Introduction from Zahid Ghadialy

And here is another presentation that explains where it fits in with the LTE Architecture.

Extending 4G Communications with WebRTC IMS and WebRTC from Zahid Ghadialy

Dean Bubley from Disruptive Analysis has writted extensively on this topic and his recent post "Is the telephony "threat" from VoIP & WebRTC about competition or contextualisation?" is an interesting read.

Iain Sharp from Netovate recently pointed out that 3GPP have 'nearly' approved a work item for WebRTC access to IMS.

It would be interesting to see how operators will view WebRTC. As an opportunity or as a threat. Please feel free to air your opinions via comments.

DAS or 'Small Cells' and What is DAS anyway?

Its been a while I posted something on DAS (a.k.a. Distributed Antenna System). The articles I have posted have been mainly from AT&T and are here, here and here.

Picture source: The IET

Recently I read something interesting from IDG here:

According to Rob Bruce, Chief Operating Officer at distributed antenna system (DAS) vendor Axell Networks, a building is an asset, and that asset wants to deliver all the services it can in the simplest and most economical way.

"You wouldn't put five separate lighting systems into a building because there are five separate tenants in that building. You would put one in, and it becomes a utility for that building," Bruce told Techworld.

"Our view of life is it's the same for cellular coverage. You put one system in which covers the building. That is then a utility for the building, and operators can then connect into that infrastructure - that's how a DAS system works."

Bruce said that small cells are very good for single operator environments, when a single operator wants to add some capability into a particular area. But if they want to put multiple technologies into that environment then they have to put in multiple small cells.

So if a company in the UK wants to put GSM, UMTS and LTE into an office block, it has to install three small cells. If it wants to make that truly operator agnostic, it will probably have to put in 12 units, because each of the four operators uses at least three spectrum bands.

Axell Wireless recently installed a multi-operator DAS in The Shard in London, using 20 remote units to cover the whole building. Bruce claimed that, if the same thing had been done using small cells, it would involve over 100 units.

"So the building owner is saying I've got 100 lumps of intelligent electronics gadgetry that is scattered all over my building, and there's 4 different operators wanting access to all those different things in private flats, hotels and offices - it's just an operational nightmare," said Bruce.

Complete article is available here.

This is an interesting point because the Small Cells are still not evolved enough so that a single one can serve multiple operators, etc. Note that I am differentiating the closed residential femtocells from the public access small cells. Maybe a service such as FaaS or 'Femto as a Service' can help solve this problem. Based on my previous sentences, some of you may say that it should be called Small Cell as a Service (SCaaS) rather than FaaS but unfortunately that term has come to mean something else as can be seen here.

While initially the in-building solutions were mainly for coverage reasons, this may no longer be the only reason. Capacity is also an issue, especially in-building. Small cells can certainly help in the capacity area much more than DAS. Fortunately as most new phones are coming with inbuilt Wi-Fi chipsets and WiFi is available indoors in plenty, the capacity issue may no longer be a problem indoors. Again this is an area where we can have lots of discussions and each party with a vested interest can argue their case.

Here are couple of interesting videos from youtube that explain DAS:




There is also an interesting presentation by NEC in the Small Cell Americas event, embedded below:

Optimising Small Cells Architectures for In-Building Solutions from Zahid Ghadialy

802.11u, Passpoint and Hotspot 2.0 (HS 2.0)

Came across this interesting Video on Youtube explaining 802.11u that is embedded below.




A bit more detailed presentation on the same topic by Ruckus is also embedded below:


Related posts:

• Wi-Fi & Packet Core (EPC) Integration
• Hotspot 2.0, Next Generation Hotspot (NGH), etc.
• Cellular-Wi-Fi Integration - technology and standardization roadmap

Technologies from Mobile World Congress 2013 (#MWC13)

If you liked the Gadgets roundup from yesterday then you would like this one as well:



You can read more about this topic here.



You can read more about this here.











You can read more about this here.


Finally:

Gadgets from Mobile World Congress 2013 (#MWC13)

Finally, if you have enough patience, here is Nokia keynote:



Related blog post:

• Dumbphones, Featurephones, Smartphones, Superphones...
• Videos from the CES 2013
• Future mobile technology with Graphene
• 5 videos showing futuristic technologies that can be used with Mobiles
• Mobile Device Testing and its Path to Commercialization

Google Glasses - take two

Picture source: Guardian

So nearly after a year of my Google Glass post, looks like Google is ready to ship some of these glasses to some competition winners for $1500. Even the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is excited and cant wait to get his hands on it.

There is also this new video showing 'How it Feels' wearing Glass and everytime I go back to youtube, the count increases by 100K. Embedded below:


My two main concerns are that I have to speak loudly to the glass which may not be convenient in public places or in front of others and the other being that when many people will have these devices, my Glass may pickup command from another user.

Sometime back there was a discussion on 'Bone conduction audio'. This will allow the user to hear from the Glass without the need of a headphone or speakers, I guess a similar kind of technology is needed in place of a mic. The Glass can sense that the user who is wearing it is talking instead of someone else. It should also solve the need to speak to speak loudly to the Glass.

Videos from the CES 2013

Gorilla glass (above) is made by a company called Corning that is much more well known for its futuristic video, see here.











Finally, this Sony Xperia Z has got over 2 million hits, not exactly sure why so I have added the video for this as well

'Small Cells' Analyst Forecasts

Interesting discussion, courtesy of Think Small Cell



If you just want to view the slides quickly, available below:

Future mobile technology with Graphene

Some days back I attended an interesting talk where the speaker showed how Graphene will revolutionise the future mobile devices. Here is what Graphene is:



Another version:



A concept phone video from Samsung



And a Nokia demo from the last MWC that uses Graphene as a sensor and also opens the possibility of using other gestures except for touch

5 videos on Augmented Reality

Looks like Augmented Reality (AR) is getting hot, just in time for Christmas. I wonder how many products will be sold based on AR. As I suggested in an earlier post, there may be 1 Billion users by 2020. Here are the videos:

Google's Ingress is an AR baased game:



Augmented Reality Book of Spells, Harry Potter experience:

Wonder when/ever it will come to a mobile near you.

LightBeam - Interacting with Augmented Real-World Objects in Pico Projections:



The next is a bit old but worth mentioning:

LuminAR from MIT


Finally, the science of Haptics will allows us to "touch" objects in a virtual world in future

Augmented Reality and Touch

Connected Lighting of the future

This is an advertisement from Philips about their personal wireless lighting system called Hue. This is also the reason why we say that in future everything would be connected and with its own IP address (though this is not the case in Hue).


With Internet of Things (IoT) becoming more mainstream, it would be interesting to see these things becoming more popular and we will hopefully see more interesting apps.

This article makes an interesting reading too.

Imagine the Future - by Cisco

Here is a video from Cisco from the last year, that I think is still relevant to help put in perspective where the future is going:




There is also a slide cast worth watching on the same topic from last month:

The Social Web of Things - Part 2

Here is the Part 1 in case you are wondering.

LTE, LTE-A and Testing

Some months back R&S held a technical forum where there were many interesting talks and presentations. They have now uploaded video of all these presentations that can be viewed on their website (no embedding allowed).

Available to be viewed here.

Samsung's Transparent Smart Window

These are a bit old but I just saw them and love the idea.

Heterogeneous Networks 3G and 4G / LTE-A

There is an excellent presentation and video on Hetnets by Qualcomm that is embedded below:

Heterogeneous Networks 3G and 4G from Zahid Ghadialy

Futuristic Video: 'Sight'

What happens when Google Glasses can get embedded in a lens placed in our eye. A bit like an advanced version of the Intelligent Contact Lens in Mission Imposssible Ghost Protocol movie. Maybe then the Augmented Future video is easily possible. Anyway, here is a new video which is someone's graduation project:




If interested, there are more videos that you can see using the tag 'Future Technologies'

1 Billion Augmented Reality (AR) users by 2020

It has been slow but I am getting more and more convinced that AR can do far more than what we think it can. Part of my pessimism was due to the fact that this is placed on the Peak of Inflated expectations on the Gartner Hype cycle and was predicted to go to the trough. But in the end success depends of what the available apps are like.

Part of my optimism stems from the fact that things have been changing rapidly. Take for example the 'Augmented Future' video. When I watched it I thought this would happen but maybe quite a few years down the road. Then came the 'Project Glass' video and suddenly you are thinking from 'how it would be done' to 'when will this be available'. The latest news I read was that the prototypes are being tested Google's offices.

I am sure the first few releases would be far from perfect and will have few features, security issues, etc. but we certainly think its possible. I dont know its working but it could be actually synched with a device in your pocket and is just an add on that communicates via something like Bluetooth.

In a recent event, Intel showed off their new Ultrabook features using Augmented Reality. See the video:



And there is another video of BBC frozen planet where people can put themselves with the Augmented creatures. See below:



These just go to show what can be done via Augmented reality. With more and more powerful devices that are available to us at reasonable prices, all that needs to be done is to create Apps and they will find the users trying to make most out of them.

I have already posted some videos and presentations from an event back in March that talk more about the apps and the platforms here.

The idea of 1 Billion AR users is not mine but has been used by Tomi Ahonen in a recent TEDx presentation and his blog post. The TEDx video as follows:



You can read  more about Tomi's idea on Aurmented Reality in his blog post here.

LTE/LTE-A SON (for Femtocells)

LTE/LTE-A SON (for Femtocells)

View more presentations from Zahid Ghadialy

A Video presentation of the above is embedded below:



PDF of the above presentation is available here.