Real Life Pictures of LTE Equipment and Antenna

From a presentation by Robert Joyce of Telefonica.

Telefonica UK’s LTE & Small Cell Trials

A presentation by Robert Joyce, Chief Radio Engineer, Telefonica UK

Rec 12 073 Lte Small Cells Presentation Arrows from shaylinau

Backhauling the Telefonica O2 London LTE Trial

Interesting Video and Presentation about backhaul in the London Trial of LTE deployment by O2.


Presentation:

Efficient mobile backhaul

View more PowerPoint from Cambridge Broadband Networks Limited

We have an event in October in Cambridge Wireless that will look at the backhaul and deployments a bit more in detail. Details here.

A Twitter discussion on 'Data Tsunami' myth

Participants:


@disruptivedean - Dean Bubley
@StevenJCrowley - Steve Crowley
@WhatTheBit - Stefan Constantine
@labboudles - Leila Abboud
@twehmeier - Thomas Wehmeier
@jamncl4 - Jonathan Morgan
@wifidave - Dave Wright

@disruptivedean: Data tsunami myth washing further out to sea: Telefonica mobile data grew 35% YoY to Q1, vs. data rev growth of 28%. http://www.telefonica.com/en/shareholders_investors/html/financyreg/resultados2012.shtml


@disruptivedean: Increasingly convinced that some cellular data growth numbers & forecasts are over-inflated - mainly to sway regulators on spectrum policy

@StevenJCrowley: Wonder how much of Telefonica lower data growth is from Spain's unusually bad economy versus normal "S curve"

@twehmeier: Did you see that shockingly unbalanced story on data traffic in FT? Pure spin. Telefonica is v representative of Euro ops. The other factor is vendors perpetuating the myth to sell their products and services

@WhatTheBit: you should do some research into operator spectrum holdings versus actual utilization, I'm sure the results would B shocking

@twehmeier: The other factor is vendors perpetuating the myth to sell their products and services

@disruptivedean: Don't think Spanish economy that much an issue. Growth been flattening in UK & Germany for a while - http://disruptivewireless.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/smoking-gun-i-think-o2-uk-has-falling.html


@disruptivedean: The contrast in attitude between TF corporate vs. TF Digital is striking sometimes.

@labboudles: that's interesting, is it typical of others ops numbers, ie data makes them money so stop whining abt capex/google?

@disruptivedean: It's certainly true for VF in Europe - they have faster data rev growth than traffic growth. Caps/tiers fixed the problem


@disruptivedean: Basic pricing tiers/caps + user-controlled WiFi have "fixed" the problem. Has undermined need for more complex solutions & tech

@twehmeier: Indeed. amazes me how little emphasis placed on imprtnce of pricing. Next prob will be working out how to bring traffic back

@disruptivedean: Yes, especially with LTE - in some places/networks we're heading for overcapacity. Not quite as bad as fibre in 2001, but scary

@twehmeier: And that will likely lead to more naive pricing models that only serve to accelerate self-commoditisation of value of data!


@twehmeier: Telenor firsy reported faster data revenue growth versus traffic back in 2010. And that's in some of the world's most advanced smartphone and MBB markets...

@labboudles: thought so since that was case in France, but admit had not looked at all ops trends

@disruptivedean: Also beware that some operators (eg AT&T) have started adding in WiFi hotspot traffic to bump up the numbers

@twehmeier: Shameless lobbying....

@labboudles: where is there overcapacity?! Places where LTE has been built and already used?

@twehmeier: imagine a market where Wi-Fi is ubiquitous and all operators deploy LTE on top of pre-existing HSPA/HSPA+. And remember average utilisation of European 3G networks is typically only in the 35-40% range and pretty steady

@labboudles: that's a ways off in real world though


@labboudles: ok that I just don't understand, then why is my user experience of mobile Internet so crap n London, Paris ?

@disruptivedean: Depends how you calculate it. Bear in mind many MNOs don't "light up" all spectrum initially, but add extra capacity


@disruptivedean: Plenty of other bottlenecks - most notable is poor coverage, could be backhaul, stuff in core network, even DNS etc


@disruptivedean: Congestion often caused by too much signalling (setting up/tearing down IP conxns), not sheer data "tonnage"

@jamncl4: Actually I think we are also seeing the impact of the shift from laptops to tablets and smartphones


@jamncl4: People can't afford multiple data plans so they shift from laptop to Smartphones which inherently use less data

@wifidave: How did you arrive at 35%/28%? I found 15.4% YoY in "mobile data revenue", and couldn't find traffic figures.

@jamncl4: Same with tablets which also pull usage away from laptop except most tablets are wifi only


@jamncl4: WiFi is in enough places that I can't justify two data plans so I stick to wifi tablet and data pla smartphone

@disruptivedean: It's on page 6 of the results presentation, showing rapid convergence of traffic & revenue growth

@jamncl4: The smartphone will take a few years to catch up to laptops in terms of data requirements thus "slowdown" growth

@disruptivedean: Bear in mind rising % of people don't have "plans" but use PAYG for data. But yes, dongle traffic falling, phone rising

@jamncl4: But Smartphone require higher signaling than laptops due to apps & power saving techniques;massive signal growth

@disruptivedean: Tablet/laptop substitution (or not) largely irrelevant as both are generally WiFi-only & will most likely stay that way

@jamncl4: Multi device plans could be interesting moving forward and there impact on this


@jamncl4: I disagree. Majority of traffic has come from laptops in past so more wifi & tablets reduces the traffic

@wifidave: @disruptivedean OK, I see. The 27% is a subset of the 15.4%.

@jamncl4: I think the real issue is that people don't want to pay for 2 plans & the 1 plan in general is Smartphone for now. Multidevice PAYG plans will be interesting on their impact.

@wifidave: Ponder this > Assuming TF #s are cell data, they represent a mobile data Traffic/Rev YoY growth ratio of 1.29:1 . The same ratio for #ChinaMobile in Q4'11 was 1.28:1 . For #ChinaMobile, cell data grew at 56.1% traffic and 43.5% revenues.


@wifidave: ATT says that "wireless data traffic" doubled in 2011 from 2010. (http://www.attinnovationspace.com/innovation/story/a7781181). but elsewhere report that their Wi-Fi traffic increased 550% in Q4'11. (http://www.vision2mobile.com/news/2012/01/wif.aspx). all while wireless data revenues only grew 19.4% YoY in Q4'11 (http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=22304&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=33762)


@wifidave: The real growth (337% and 550% for CM and ATT) is in Wi-Fi as Dean said. Not adding much to rev yet.

@disruptivedean: Absolutely agree more WiFi = less "big device mobile data traffic". Unconvinced it matters if big device = laptop/tablet


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Telefonica UK London Small Cells (Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G)

From a presentation by Robert Joyce, Chief Radio Engineer, Telefonica UK in the 3G, HSPA, LTE Optimisation conference.

Signalling Load per device and OS

From the presentation by Martin Prosek, Telefonica, Czech Republic in 3G Optimization Conference 2012, Prague.

Signalling can cause many issues:

In the mobile device, Frequent PDP-context establishment is known to drain the battery. Battery life can be improved by supporting fast dormancy in network.

In the network, Signalling flood can create situations reminding DoS attacks. Increased signalling in RAN can cause impacts in core network:

• Radius/Diameter interface overload of AAA servers
• DHCP IP address pools exhaustion

The concept of 'PDP Context Parking'

Access Point Name (APN) identifies a packet data network (PDN) that is configured on and accessible from the packet core (eg. GGSN). APNs are similar to a DNS name of the packet core and its composed of 2 parts.

• The APN Network Identifier which defines the external network or service that the user wishes to connect to via the packet core.
• The APN Operator Identifier which defines in which mobile network the packet core is located.

The APN that a mobile user is allowed to use is either programmed in the phone, or it could be sent over the air (OTA) via SMS. If an invalid APN is used then the PDP context request would be rejected with Invalid APN cause.

The networks of today are capable of handling any APN name and in fact recently I read some operator will allow any APN name to be used (PS: I cant remember details so please feel free to add link in the comment if you know). The reason for any APNs is that users use mobiles that were used on other networks which would have their APN settings, so the operator allows them to use any APN and then send OTA message to provide new settings.

The problem starts on these devices of today, even though you may say that you dont want to use operator data (especially while roaming), it still uses data and if the user does not have a good data plan then he may end up running a huge bill. See a discussion on this topic here and here.

From operators point of view, once they have sent setting OTA then they dont send it again. The users have come up with a workaround that they can use an invalid APN name and that would not connect to the operators network and incur data costs. The problem is that since the PDP Context request was now rejected, the device retries it when the device tries to use data again (mostly when there is no WiFi due to user being out and background apps are still running). This can cause loads of unnecessary signalling (for establishing PDP context).

In a situation like this, Martin Prosek from Telefonica, Czech Republic, mentioned that they have introduced 'PDP Context Parking'. They accept the PDP context request even though the APN is invalid but redirect the user to a default page where the user has many options like name of correct APN for someone using wrong APN by mistake, possiblity to buy 'bolt-ons' so they can use data over the mobile network and in some cases simply some free data allowance so that the users can get a feel of mobile data usage. This helped Telefonica O2, Czech Republic, reduce signaling and improve pdp connection success rate

I think this is a great idea and if someone has more information on this or personal experience, please feel free to add.

Mobile Energy Efficiency (MEE) Optimisation project

Recently read that Telefonica, Germany has identified that it can save €1.8 million per year with the help of GSMA's MEE Optimisation service. Here is a detailed case study from GSMA:

Case Study: Mobile Energy Efficiency Optimisation

View more documents from Zahid Ghadialy

Also, found a presentation that explains a bit more about what MEE (Mobile Energy Efficiency) is:

Mobile Energy Efficiency Explained

View more presentations from Zahid Ghadialy

Maybe a good idea for other operators to start looking into how they can be saving with this initiative as well.

More details on MEE here.

SIMFi = SIM with WiFi

Since the beginning of this year, Sagem Orga and Telefonica have been working on next generation SIM card called SIMFi.

With SIMFi, you can convert a phone into a WiFi hotspot. The phone would use HSPA/LTE for data connectivity and at the same time it would broadcast WiFi signals for any equipment to connect to these signals and browse the web. Power consumption information have not been mentioned which I am sure would be a problem for the phone.

SIMFi Removes the need for additional accessories to facilitate transmission services (e.g. MiFi, USB modem, PCMCIA…) and can make connectivity a lot simpler, straigtforward and cheaper.

SIMFi specifications

• SIM card compatible with the latest telecom specifications.
• SIM card: ISO 2FF plug-in
• The mobile phone does not need any special features.
• Modem WiFi integrated in the SIM card, works with 802.11b.
• The modem is guided by the SIM card's tools.
• Energy-saving features (works with 2G and 3G).
• The aerial is adaptable, allowing short- and long-range operations (from 2 cm to 30 m) managed by the SIM card's tools.

Femtocells may not be that close to deployment yet

Recently Zahid Ghadialy in his blog mentioned about the first deployment of Femotcells by NEC and Ubiquisys. Since then you must have thought that the femotcells will pick up and will be commercialized very soon. I am not hundred percent sure this is the case though as I have come across few articles which suggest that operators are no way near to the launch of femtocells for various reasons.

While the enthusiasm for femtocells continues unabated, several of the mobile operators that have once taken the lead are having second thoughts due to unresolved technical issues and unclear business cases.

These concerns came to the surface during the Femtocell Europe 2008 conference when SFR said it had delayed selecting a femtocell supplier because of undefined industry standards. The company said that the expected deployment of the technology now would not commence until sometime next year.

SFR, of which Vodafone Group owns 44 per cent, participated in Vodafone's group-level request for proposals for femtocells last year, but it also issued its own RFQ separately. "We're assessing another technology in parallel," said Thierry Berthouloux, network solutions director at SFR. "However, we have decided to extend that assessment period and have put this process on hold to give equipment suppliers time to consolidate roadmaps. There's no point making a decision today."

In my view it is very important that if femtocells have to be a success then there should be agreed standard so that there is no confusion as such towards the technology. When I say confusion what I mean is that if there is a set and agreed standard then most of the questions or doubts will be answered. According to those close to the situation, the issue for the major operators in agreeing to a standard is the need for clarity on 3GPP status and the lack of resource being provided by the larger femtocell vendors to achieve this.

Although the above scenario does present a bleak picture but all is not lost for femtocells commercialization. Some operators although having some concerns have not given up on femtocells and are continuing with their trials and testing.

Once of such operator is Telefonica O2, which having already conducted consumer and equipment trials earlier this year, is now looking to another femtocell pilot early next year. Although this retesting will mean O2 will miss its earlier forecast of a commercial femtocell launch during Q1/09 but at the same time it does presents a hopeful image for O2’s commercial launch of femtocells.

The femtocells developer Ubiquisys, which took part in O2's trial this year, said a phased approach should not be unexpected and would be typical of the way operators evaluate new technologies and products, such as femtocells.

But in my view O2’s retrial itself is not enough and I firmly believe that if femtocell technology has to be a success then other operators must join O2 as well, given that O2 has been a firm advocate for the technology anyway. It is true that there are operators other than O2 who might be interested in the technolgy and hence will be interested in the deployment of femtocells. But the delay in O2 plans might draw a conclusion for these other operators that the business case for 3G home access points and services remains in question. This might also bring into doubt reports that 2010 would be the year of significant deployments for femtocells in Europe.

Whatever is the outcome I do hope that the industry gets their acts together and work their socks off towards the success of femtocells?

The femtocell market is primed to grow in 2008 and hence the global revenues generated by the femtocell equipment vendors are forecast to grow as well. Whatever the discrepancy over the market size, the perception of significant growth in femtocells illustrates the potential opportunity both technically and commercially.