Twitter et al. for Small Cell Planning

A recent report in Light Reading mentioned about using Twitter for planning of Small Cells network. In fact for quite a while, a UK based company, Keima has been using this technique to help plan small cells deployments in the US. I used some of their research in my presentation in the Optimisation conference; see here.

A map using the Keima tool showing the activity on the Social Networks for London is as follows.

It would be very interesting to see the above during olympics.

If you are interested in learning more about the tool see Keima's presentation from MWC here and their video here.

Keima’s Simon Chapman will be presenting to the Cambridge Wireless Small Cells SIG event on 3rd October on the topic "Deploying bigger numbers of smaller cells". Here is a summary of things going to be discussed by them:

Small Cell Planning from 3G4G

We discuss how "small cells" are a natural evolution of network design principles started with A.H. Ring in 1947. We discuss the practical consequences of managing interference while rolling out more cells in the next few years than all the previous deployments put together.

We consider processes for achieving cost-effective, spectrally efficient network capacity and establish the most influential: the location of small cells. Given the importance of location we demonstrate mechanisms for identifying demand hotspots using publicly available datasets and show that this knowledge alone has a significant impact on the eventual network capacity.

Finally, as we look at the immediate areas in and around demand hotspots, we discuss the associated issues of selecting thousands of utility poles or building-side mountings; of managing wired or wireless backhauling; of lowering latency; of repurposing the macro

To register for the event please click here.

Seamless offloading between Cellular Network and WLAN (CNW)

Last month I wrote a post about the 'Virtual Femtocell' concept. Apparently there is a company already doing this. The following is from GigaOm:

SR-Mobile, a Korean company that also has offices in Plano, Texas, is looking to help cellular carriers make seamless handoffs with Wi-Fi networks, enabling them to easily offload traffic from their cellular networks. The company, which is demonstrating its technology later this month at the Mobile Asia Expo, allows a carrier to switch a call or data traffic seamlessly between Wi-Fi, 3G and 4G. It does this with the help of a virtual radio agent mobile application on a mobile device that automatically switches between cellular and Wi-Fi modems. The VRA app works with a smart radio mobile controller that can access the network server and transfers the network traffic to the network core.


The benefit of this approach is that it allows a Wi-Fi hotspot to act as a virtual base station, which can be easily added and managed by an operator. If there’s capacity on the Wi-Fi network, it can seamlessly handle calls and data but if it gets overcrowded, it can switch back to the cellular network. SR’s approach also means that a carrier can expand their network capacity without a lot of investment, by relying on their existing Wi-Fi network or their user’s private Wi-Fi network. SR, which was founded by James Lee, a former senior staffer at Samsung Telecom America, is working on a trial with Korean operator KT, which will test SR’s technology on select LG phones.

More details about their solution in their presentation below:

Seamless offloading between Cellular Network and WLAN (CNW) from Zahid Ghadialy

Real Life Pictures of Small Cells Deployments in London

Visitors of this blog seemed to like the last set of deployment pictures I put up. As a result here is another set of pictures from the same Telefonica presentation by Robert Joyce. See also my earlier post on the same topic here.

mHealth Revolution

We are living in amazing times where we can do things we could have just dreamt of 5-10 years back. I came across the following video:



This gives hope to the third world where a lot of our old non-smartphones are ending up. In fact this reminds me of Mexapixel Microscopy that can possibly have numerous applications.

There was an interesting presentation recently in the Future of Wireless Conference that was very well received and had people discussing it on twitter and in the event. Its embedded below (download from slideshare)

mHEALTHCARE Opportunities, Challenges and Prospects

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Do you have any more ideas or information on this topic? Please feel free to share in the comments.

Real Life Pictures of LTE Equipment and Antenna

From a presentation by Robert Joyce of Telefonica.

Fundamentals of Mobile Network Sharing

Some days back I blogged about the twitter discussion on 'Mobile Network Sharing'. Dr. Kim Larsen from Deutsche Telekom (DT) has now made a presentation and in his own words:


Given the renewed discussion of Network Sharing pros and cons I thought it made sense to wrap up several of my older presentations and update some of the information with latest knowledge. 


The myth of network sharing is clear -> huge savings and benefits often blinding the decision makers for the other side of the coin. 


I hope this presentation provided a fair picture of both sides of the Network Sharing Coin!

Fundamentals of Mobile Network Sharing

View more presentations from Kim Kyllesbech Larsen

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

OTT Messaging and the need for Telco-OTT Strategies

Sometime back I created a OTT Stats, Facts and Figures presentation for the FWIC conference and in that revealed the shocking figures of how popular the OTT messaging have become and how its impacting the operators worldwide by cannibalising their revenue. Below is a presentation by Dean Bubley from Disruptive Analysis who believes that in light of the OTT messaging apps eating into operators profits, Telco-OTT strategies are inevitable. Its not the question of 'if' but 'when'.

Disruptive Analysis - OMA Messaging Workshop July 2012 from Dean Bubley

A twitter discussion on 'Integration problems with Mobile Network Sharing'

@dmavrakis: Are cost savings >> cultural and integration problems for mobile network sharing? - http://www.telecoms.com/46594/cultural-and-integration-problems-hamper-network-sharing-deals/

Dimitris Mavrakis, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, believes that a major challenge many operators should anticipate when embarking upon network sharing deals is the extent to which cultural and integration problems can slow down their progress and success. 

Mavrakis said that one such deal that he is aware of saw two operators spending several months holding meetings on a frequent basis in order to tackle cultural issues. And with some key figures in the industry, such as Orange Spain’s CTO Eduard Duato, calling for multiple vendors to share networks for cost-effective LTE rollout, cultural and integration problems will be vast. 

“If two operators cannot agree, what happens when there are three or four? The cultural problems and integration problems increase dramatically with the number of operators involved,” he said. 

He explained that there are multiple types of integration issues affecting operators in this scenario. 

“One vendor’s equipment may be compatible with the core network but with another one, it may require considerable effort to integrate. But there is a danger that after the equipment has been integrated the core network, it may still need considerable reconfiguration to work efficiently. This is just the tip of the iceberg; it could be that the billing system is not interoperable, or that the personnel are not trained to handle certain problems – there could be a million different problems.” 

Mavrakis noted the words of Graham Payne, managing director for the MBNL project, as evidence of the tribulations involved in setting up a shared network. Payne said that, unless the companies embarking on a sharing project were fully committed from board level on down, the results could be disastrous. 

“[Payne] said that the integration of the three networks was the biggest achievement of his career, and he’s a seasoned veteran – he’s not a newbie. So that speaks volumes about how difficult it can be,” said Mavrakis. 

He added that even by taking the path that Vodafone and O2 have in the UK, and splitting the market by geographic area, is not a sure-fire way to prevent such integration and cultural problems. 

“There’s no silver bullet; it really depends on each operator. In the case of Vodafone and O2 it may be a better solution, but if we’re talking about a shared network for LTE, from a cost perspective, the more operators involved, the better. The problem is working with the culture and the competitive nature of each operator.” 

However, Mavrakis did admit that because cost savings are the biggest driver for network sharing, the benefits that operators will see from such deals should be sufficient incentive to overcome any integration and cultural problems.

@KimKLarsen: (1) I have come to believe that for #NetworkSharing to be successful/sustainable it needs to provide more than "just" cost saving

@KimKLarsen: (2) Often Operators gets blinded of saving Potential and forget UPFRONT Cash requirements and Restructuring Cost needed!

@dmavrakis: Very interesting! Seems all discussion on network sharing is on benefits, but not on challenges or threats.

@KimKLarsen: (3) TMUK-H3G 3G sharing was about doing a lot more than they could standalone (for same or better TCO), EE Ltd formula similar,

@KimKLarsen: (4) PTC-Or PL Deploy incredible strong SHARED 2&3&4G network across! Poland (would not have been financially feasible standalone)

@dmavrakis: Agreed. Strong drive for single deployed nationwide network+sharing for LTE or any new RAN tech.

@KimKLarsen: (5) Negatives of ?#Networksharing? (a) upfront cash required, (b) helping competition (e.g., H3G-UK), (c) strategic lock-in,

@KimKLarsen: (6) (d) Complex governance (e) Complex & COSTLY disentanglement (f) loss of operational independence (g) asymmetric benefits etc

@dmavrakis: I would hate to think what disentanglement means in an active RAN sharing deal...

@KimKLarsen: (7) Doing more network for same/less TCO compared to standalone is a MUCH Easier case for ?#Networksharing? than just cost saving!

@KimKLarsen: ;-) There are no easy/clean Divorces! but Disentanglement of Active RAN Share w. Spectrum Sharing would be Mother of Messiness!

@dmavrakis: Is it even possible? I feel sorry for the person in charge of such a divorce :-)

@KimKLarsen: Though the lawyers would have a field day with Disentangling an Active RAN Share JV ;-) ....

@dmavrakis: Indeed! Patent litigation and network sharing divorces. Lawyers' dream cases!

@KimKLarsen: (8) Overlooked in ?#Networksharing?: (i) instant cell split=more capacity, (ii) improved coverage, (iii) Spectral efficiency boost

@dmavrakis: Very interesting! Seems all discussion on network sharing is on benefits, but not on challenges or threats.

@Gabeuk: Biggest issue I've heard for #Networksharing is the competitive dynamic -- you need to be more or less equal size

@KimKLarsen: Well then TMUK & Three UK must have been a mistake! ;-) ... Smaller party has much more to gain from sharing that's true!

@KimKLarsen: An important consideration as is the possible asymmetry! but I would not say it's the Biggest Issue nor a Blocking Stone!

@KimKLarsen: As the saying goes: "Money Makes Strange Bed Fellows" ;-) & cost savings do (often) take precedent over market dynamics.

@twehmeier: Interesting to see if agreement unwinds with transition to LTE, a la Sweden. Or are there commitments?

@Gabeuk: TMoUK and 3UK were the two smallest outfits at the time... so it worked for both of them

@Gabeuk: TeliaSonera wanted out of the deal, hence push to LTE. Telenor wont share in Norway, but will in Sweden

@Gabeuk: O2 and Vodafone are RAN sharing in the UK because they are roughly equal size; other combinations couldn't be agreed

@KimKLarsen: It is a highly asymmetric venture in terms of respective market shares and network size -> Size does Not matter too much!

@KimKLarsen: There are no other options in UK for meaningful network sharing! O2/VF needs higher net density to remain competitive!

@KimKLarsen: I just don't believe that Size Matters ;-) is a very important consideration for #Networksharing ...

@dmavrakis: Indeed, VF/O2 can't compete against MBNL's site density on a standalone basis!

@KimKLarsen: The only way O2 & VF could create a network in equal size to EEs in a meaningful economical way is to share their grids!

@Gabeuk: TMo, 3UK, and Orange all needed scale -- hence those combinations, and why VF and O2 sat aside

@Gabeuk: yes, the emergence of EE has changed the telco landscape in the UK

@KimKLarsen: (1) Changes in spectrum strength/position (low vs high freq) between partners might trigger an unwind.

@KimKLarsen: (2) though more likely than unwind would be downgrade from active to passive/site sharing!

@disruptivedean: Issue I see is around flexibility, eg if one MNO's customer profile has v different usage patterns

@dmavrakis: That may be in favor or active sharing. E.g. if busy hours or traffic patterns are different

@disruptivedean: Yes, but might be mix of signalling vs. "tonnage" intense, indoor/outdoor mix, specific geo's etc

@disruptivedean: ie network-sharing puts constraints on business models, customer targets, mktg propositions etc

@dmavrakis: Not sure if network sharing has effect beyond the network dept of MNO.

xoxoxoxoxoxo Added 13/07/2012 xoxoxoxoxoxo


@sadinmobile: Interesting - from experience "network" sharing should be strictly limited to a very short term or site/antenna sharing only..

@KimKLarsen: how do you get to that conclusion/experience? Particular the very short term statement? At odds with the economics!

@sadinmobile: After traffic levels pick up, networks will split anyway, until then it's nothing but tech issues and politics, s/t <5y

@KimKLarsen: 2+ yrs to get a shared network, spending abundant on integration & restructuring, w. <3 yrs to recover! Hmmm ;-)

@KimKLarsen: Though this said (1) I do agree that most of the Opex savings are in site related Opex incl. Ops/field services!

@KimKLarsen: (2) substantial Capex savings/avoidance can be achieved as well … doing so much more for the same amount of cash!

@KimKLarsen: and (3) network sharing is so much more than technology … it’s about marketing too … though politics! YEAHHH that too!

@sadinmobile: site/antenna sharing should def be done for many reasons. Also fibre backhaul sharing is a must for larger landscapes.

@KimKLarsen: particular last point is a really important one for LTE and HSPA+ where legacy backhaul falls short of air-interface!

@KimKLarsen: Few operators have the financial strength & infrastructure to standalone finance FTTS: backhaul sharing is important!

@KimKLarsen: And as backhaul FTTS is shared, so does site sharing jump out as a natural corollary.

Participants:

@dmavrakis = Dimitris Mavrakis

@KimKLarsen = Dr. Kim Larsen

@Gabeuk = Gabriel Brown

@twehmeier = Thomas Wehmeier

@disruptivedean = Dean Bubley

@sadinmobile = Sadin N

Femtocells vs. Wi-Fi - Conflict or Complement?

How Wi-Fi and Femtocells complement one another to optimise coverage and capacity

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A presentation from the LTE World Summit 2012.