The Enterprise Unlocked V5 - Think Small Cell

The Enterprise Unlocked

Enabling rapid adoption of Enterprise Small Cells

David Chambers ThinkSmallCell

June 2014

A White Paper sponsored by Cisco and iBwave

The Enterprise -‐ Unlocked Page 2

The Growing Demand for In-‐Building Cellular Service

In-‐building cellular service quality appears to be noticeably degrading over the last year. This is apparent from more dropped calls, generally poor voice connections (especially uplink), intermittent data connectivity in some parts of the building, text messages and even incoming calls not getting through. By contrast, performance continues to improve from Wi-‐Fi in the office environment, especially where a single installation has been competently engineered with adequate broadband backhaul. Residential Wi-‐Fi capability continues to impress but is variable at the cell edge (outer areas of a house) or in dense urban areas with many conflicting hotspots. This becomes more significant as we connect fully wirelessly at work. A common combination today mixes Wi-‐Fi for laptop/smartphone data with 3G for direct voice calls and accessing data on the move. Rapid adoption of tablets1 exacerbates the demands on corporate IT departments, which are expected to ensure good wireless connectivity throughout business premises and not just in meeting rooms or public spaces2. Service quality is more difficult to maintain inside buildings than before for several reasons, primarily:

• Change in construction materials used for new buildings, making them more energy efficient, increase the RF isolation from outside and make it more difficult to penetrate cellular service indoors.

• Vastly increased data traffic demands, from data hungry devices and multiple devices per person, outstrip additional capacity available from existing cell towers

• Greater reliance on wireless devices during our daily lives increases the significance of poor service quality


Although some 10 million residential Femtocells have been shipped to date, surprisingly few non-‐residential buildings have been equipped with their own cellular installations. Of the 30 billion square feet of commercial property in use worldwide today, only 2% have in-‐building cellular installations3. Historically, this has been due to the high cost and complexity of equipment, such as Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS). Take-‐up of Enterprise Small Cells has been slower than many of the early analyst forecasts, for reasons which are less to do with technical capability or equipment price and perhaps more to do with lack of marketing drive from operators, lack of scalable processes (from sales through to installation and on-‐going support) and lack of a clearly understood and adopted strategic business case. While the cellular industry moves slowly to adopt Enterprise Small cells, we’ve seen Wi-‐Fi deployments grow quickly to provide good quality and low cost in-‐building data connectivity. ABI Research forecasts that the installed base of carrier deployed Wi-‐Fi hotspots will grow from 4.2 million at end 2013 to 10.5 million by end 20184. That’s a small proportion of the 139 million Wi-‐Fi access points shipped during 20135, and still significantly fewer than the installed base of femtocells or macrocells. The quality and capability of Wi-‐Fi has continued to improve and forms a significant part of our total data communications. More than half the data sent to/from smartphones goes via Wi-‐Fi rather than cellular6. 64% of hotels offer free Wi-‐Fi and 38% of hotel guests see lack of Wi-‐Fi as a deal-‐breaker7. The unregulated and low cost nature of Wi-‐Fi has enabled rapid mass deployment that in most cases bypasses the cellular operator. But Wi-‐Fi isn’t yet a panacea in all cases. The use of low RF power uncoordinated hotspots means that handover when walking or moving around may not work, and poor uplink performance can make voice calls less reliable. This is particularly noticeable in areas of high congestion and/or where multiple hotspots from different users attempt to share the same geographic area. Addressing the need for higher quality cellular service at lower cost, Small Cell products and reduced cost DAS systems are now available which promise straightforward installation and self-‐optimisation. Many integrate or support Wi-‐Fi hotspots to make best use of all available spectrum where appropriate. With Small Cell technology widely accepted and proven, with some 10 million Small Cells deployed worldwide, take-‐up is now dependent upon individual mobile operators commitment. This requires a combination of operational processes, a clear business case that justifies funding together with marketing communication to educate all parties of the availability and benefits.


Should building owners take matters into their own hands? There are some questions about whether mobile operators are proactive enough in driving take-‐up of Enterprise Small Cells. Substantial focus has been placed on deploying LTE, the new 4G technology, reducing costs through cellsite sharing and upgrading outdated macrocell equipment. Some progress has been made to make more use of Wi-‐Fi, through roaming agreements and HotSpot 2.0. Far less has been done to facilitate solving the in-‐building problem. Many enterprises are at a stage where they don’t want the hassle of managing and operating their own internal Wi-‐Fi networks. Cellular operators are in a strong position to take on this role, combining it with provision of in-‐building cellular service. Their ability to ensure good RF design, backhaul engineering, security and 24/7 proactive management is part of their DNA. Many system integrators would be willing to act as subcontractors as part of a wider eco-‐system. Failure to grasp this opportunity could result in significant loss of existing business as well as loss of additional revenue. An alternative could be for building owners and IT departments to install their own Small Cell solutions. These could be engineered and deployed by in-‐house staff or 3rd party systems integrators, ready to be commissioned and integrated with external mobile networks. This is the norm for other utility building services, such as water, electricity, gas and even fixed line telecommunications services. Such an approach could rapidly accelerate take-‐up of cellular in-‐building solutions and complement the extensive use of Wi-‐Fi. In this white paper, we consider whether property owners and CIOs, frustrated with progress and the available options open to them today, should take a more proactive role in Enterprise Small Cell deployment. Could we see buildings being equipped with their own cellular network equipment, ready to be commissioned and adopted by mobile operators? What are the operational and commercial barriers to making this happen?


Single Operator vs Multi-‐Operator Small Cells are typically locked to a single mobile network operator, whereas DAS systems are commonly connected to two or more in what is termed Neutral Host. For building owners and property managers who want to serve all of their guests and customers, the larger the number of different mobile networks supported the better. The costs of installation can also be shared between different operators. On the other hand, the low cost of Small Cell installation, especially for small to medium sized buildings, can be more easily justified. The host operator would benefit from some exclusivity and differentiation, and could expect to attract many of the frequent visitors to migrate across to its network. Different methods of achieving Multi-‐Operator service using Small Cells Small Cells can be used to support multiple operators within an Enterprise in several different ways.

• National roaming could be used to allow visitors to use Small Cells managed by another operator and using their frequencies. Technically this is possible and in many countries is permitted by the regulator, but restricted for commercial reasons.

• Deploying additional Small Cells, with alternate units being connected to different host network operators. These may be integrated with existing Wi-‐Fi access points in what is sometimes termed a “Salt and Pepper” deployment.

• Deploying Small Cells fitted with multiple radio units, where each is connected to a different host network.

Pros and Cons Many businesses are now adopting a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) approach for their staff, and becoming less dependent on a single bulk deal with a single network operator. This, together with the need to provide good service to visitors, increases the pressure to provide multi-‐operator solutions. On the other hand, operators can offer discounts for large corporate deals. Tax regulations in some countries, e.g. UK, benefit employees where the employer pays directly for the mobile phone subscription. The added complexity of managing multi-‐operator solutions may not be considered worthwhile for smaller premises.


Technology Choice: 3G or LTE or both? Few subscriber devices deployed today are LTE capable and even with the strong take-‐up of the latest smartphones, it will be some time before LTE becomes predominant. The wide range of different frequency bands available for LTE, as well as the choice between FDD and TDD modes, further complicates matters. Early LTE capable devices may be incompatible with the full range of frequencies becoming available to their service providers. LTE roaming is still in its infancy. While LTE has been adopted more rapidly than any other cellular technology, it still only forms 3% of global connections8. There are strong regional variations: North America dominates with 50% of world’s 4G subscriptions at the end of 20139. LTE is forecast to grow to 24% of mobile broadband connections by 201810. The majority of these will be in the higher value markets of North America, Europe and Asia which will pull through demand from other regions. Perhaps the most important cellular service to address indoors is traditional voice, which is perceived to have been dropping in performance and quality over recent years. In 2013, voice service still generated 58% of mobile service revenues worldwide11. With more voice calls minutes now being made over cellular than landline, it is this service that is most critical to protect. VoLTE (Voice over LTE) is not yet widely deployed, and 2G/3G will continue to carry the majority of voice traffic for some years. 3G is a proven and appropriate solution for most in-‐building services today. Standalone LTE, while deployed extensively in a few countries such as South Korea, may not be so worthwhile until VoLTE service is widespread and the majority of the installed base of smartphones supports it. We have seen some caution from operators who seek to cater for both technologies so that the investment can be amortised over a longer period. This can be implemented either through:

• Multi-‐Mode Small Cells, capable of 3G, LTE and Wi-‐Fi simultaneously • Remotely upgradeable Small Cells, which can be software updated and

reconfigured between 3G and LTE without a site visit or hardware change. These would typically not handle remote upgrade between significantly different frequency bands.

• Modular upgradeable Small Cells, where a physical cartridge or pluggable module can be quickly swapped for one with different radio technology.

The underlying silicon chipsets from vendors such as Broadcom, Qualcomm and TI support these capabilities. Enterprise Small Cell products from vendors including Cisco, Alcatel-‐Lucent and Spidercloud support these capabilities.


Determining which host cellular network operator(s) to choose? The main factors that a CIO or property owner would take into account when choosing which host cellular network operator to facilitate their Enterprise Small Cell network include:

• Which operators actively offer to support such a solution • Whether this can be bundled with outsourced Wi-‐Fi management • Which network has the highest traffic/largest user base within the

building • Which network has the poorest in-‐building service at present • The total cost of installation to the Enterprise, weighed against any

discount to their own cellular costs and additional revenue derived by providing best service

Today’s Enterprise sector is starved for choice of good in-‐building solutions – not because these aren’t technically available, but because few cellular operators are actively marketing them. That’s partly for historic reasons, where the high costs of a DAS solution were difficult to justify (especially for smaller buildings). The low incremental cost of an in-‐building Small Cell deployment, bringing it within the budget of the Enterprise itself, radically changes the economics and opens the possibility for rapid expansion and deployment. Many enterprises are at the stage today where they are looking to outsource their in-‐building Wi-‐Fi service. They recognise its importance to the 24x7 running of their business and the technical skills required to ensure good performance including QoS and security. Many CIOs would consider a large telecom carrier to be ideally equipped to provide that outsourced service. A tremendous opportunity lies in bundling that with in-‐building cellular service using Small Cells. This will need a major change in attitude from mobile network operators, who have viewed residential Small Cells as a last resort churn prevention device rather than a major business differentiator. They will need to equip themselves with gateways, procedures and processes that can easily accept 3rd party in-‐building deployments and integrate them into their networks. A proactive campaign by a smaller network operator could improve their perceived performance and customer satisfaction more cost effectively than a more traditional approach alone. From a network operator viewpoint, it may be that the high level of traffic within a venue quickly justifies any investment made into an in-‐building system. By releasing the expensive resources of the serving macrocell for use elsewhere, it saves the potential cost of building additional outdoor cell towers, increasing overall network capacity at a fraction of the cost.


Who Pays?

The high price of cellular service has led to a strong customer attitude that the cellular network operator should provide and pay for all aspects of network provision. There has been a strong negative reaction by many residential consumers, who resented having to pay for the (usually subsidised) cost of a residential femtocell which addressed poor indoor service at home.

This is in stark contrast with other utilities, such as electricity, gas and water supply where building owners are responsible for internal distribution to safe standards. Even wireline services are provisioned to a network termination point, with phones, internal data networks and Wi-‐Fi access points being entirely the responsibility of the property owner. Certified installers, using published standards, perform the installation and this must be signed off by an authorized installer or inspector. Utility suppliers can terminate supply if they believe the network is being tampered with or safety is affected. Worldwide, most hotels, businesses and public venues have installed their own Wi-‐Fi systems and many provide this as a free service. A minority charge for access or to use higher bandwidth services12. In the past, large building owners and busy shopping malls would negotiate with major network operators to install a DAS system. It is much cheaper to deploy these during the initial construction phase, but even so the cost could be substantial – often many $100Ks. Some of the installation costs may be borne by the building owner, keen to ensure good service to all visitors, but the basestation equipment, backhaul and operating costs would almost always be handled by each network operator. Sometimes a lead operator would own and pay for the deployment, sub-‐leasing capacity on the DAS system to one or more other operators. This helps defray the costs. Property developers, building new sub-‐divisions or new tower blocks, are keen to ensure good cellular service. It’s not unusual for them to be quoted costs of $300K or more for a single network operator to install a new system, whether a cell tower or internal DAS system. They would be prepared to make a contribution but find these costs prohibitive. The low cost of Small Cells, priced from $100s or low $1,000s for single offices and smaller properties, makes them much more attractive. A lack of awareness among building and property owners, together with poor marketing and/or application processes to acquire them, is delaying more widespread deployment. There are also several strong commercial drivers for the cellular operator.

• Differentiation by providing a better service. Ultimately this should lead to increase subscribers (who choose the better network) and increased


usage (because the network can deliver more capacity, higher speeds and coverage).

• Cheaper form of increasing capacity than adding to existing macrocells. Considering the total cost of operation, the Enterprise would typically cover the costs of energy, security and even backhaul. Utilisation may be lower but the additional capacity is available during peak times, often at locations with more traffic congestion.

• Releases existing macrocell capacity for use with more difficult traffic patterns (eg faster moving users, outdoor areas, inaccessible locations)

The costs of installing and operating the network could be split between the property owner and the network operator. Some costs seem quite easy to attribute, others may be negotiable depending on how aggressive the operator is to address this business opportunity vs how keen the property owner is to ensure good in-‐building service to customers and staff. A 3rd party system integrator would take responsibility for many aspects of the installation, funded by the property owner. A potential three-‐way split of these tasks is shown overleaf:


Potential three-‐way split

Property Owner System Integrator Network Operator Site rental, both for Small Cells and any onsite switching/control kit

Planning (RF coverage/placement, Ethernet cabling, Backhaul)

Remote provisioning including defining RF frequencies, power levels, neighbour lists, E911 and other RAN parameters

Physical site security

Physical installation Remote software upgrading

Electrical power Initial system testing

Remote fault management for serious outages and office reconfigurations/moves (e.g. requiring additional or moves of specific Small Cells)

Backhaul (Broadband Internet)

Recurring system performance checks (eg Annual survey)

Backhaul capacity monitoring

Site electricians, low skill technicians to install

Selection and purchase of Small Cell equipment

Funding of Small Cells

It’s important for all parties to have a clear understanding of the total costs involved, including long term ongoing management/maintenance issues. These must be manageable and budgeted for, to avoid surprises.


Planning

Cellular network planning tends to focus mostly on the RF aspects, with backhaul transmission as a secondary factor. The emphasis shifts for Enterprise, where integration with the in-‐building data network is a critical factor. Knowledge of both aspects is critical for successful design, which must also take into account likely traffic patterns and cosmetically acceptable equipment siting. The main factors to take into account when developing an Enterprise Small Cell installation include:

• Determining where the highest traffic demand will be. This may shift during different times of day

• Ensuring good coverage throughout the building, including catering for any individual unit outages

• Considering entrance/egress points to ensure seamless handover • Considering nearby cell towers and avoiding contention at windows • Cabling and wiring requirements for power and data • Integration into the existing building data network, including security and

firewall configuration • Form factor and visibility of the Small Cells • Backhaul capacity and resilience to the external mobile operator network • Interconnect with the local IP-‐PBX and/or enterprise data network

The design task will vary in complexity from the simplest single small cell deployment (simply plugging into a broadband router) to involve a multi-‐disciplinary team of experts for large tower blocks.


As a rule of thumb: • Small offices requiring 1-‐2 Small Cells may typically not need any

significant survey beforehand, and positioning of equipment can be determined during the installation visit by an experienced Wi-‐Fi network installer.

• Medium offices requiring some 3-‐10 Small Cells would benefit from a simple survey using an in-‐building planning tool such as iBwave Mobile Planner. This allows the designer to consider the effects of each location and illustrate to the building owner the impact of positioning them too close together. Relatively minimal training would be required to be able to use the tool onsite and capture the required information.

• Larger deployments of 10 or more units are likely to benefit from a more skilled expert, who could review the design captured by an in-‐building planning tool. This can often be done as a desk-‐checking exercise at head office rather than requiring a site visit, although this becomes more worthwhile for larger and more complex installations.

In most cases, the cellular network operator RF planning team would not need to be involved. Larger buildings will have more impact, and should significantly offload traffic from existing outdoor cell towers. From a more strategic planning perspective, cellular operators would no doubt be keen to avoid making their own investments in outdoor equipment to deal with high traffic/poor coverage scenarios in areas where they knew of impending Enterprise deployments. More sophisticated applications involve integrating with the Enterprise Universal Communications service through an IP-‐PBX. The Small Cell Forum Enterprise architecture includes the option for a local controller and gateway function, which allows voice and data traffic to be managed and routed locally. Universal Communications is an area where system integrators may already be present and would be ideally placed to expand the service across into cellular using Small Cells.


Installation The installation of Enterprise Small Cells is very similar to that for Wi-‐Fi, with a single Ethernet cable providing both power and data connectivity. These units can be installed by in-‐house electricians, 3rd party system integrators and others familiar with straightforward cabling and mounting procedures. In many cases, property owners prefer if the equipment can be hidden from public view. Offices often have plenums (cavities above false ceilings) into which Small Cells can be installed. These can either be completely hidden or use a small visible antenna on the ceiling. Studies1314 have shown that the RF performance is not significantly degraded when hidden in these areas, for both 3G and LTE. Cisco’s Wi-‐Fi access points, which can be upgraded to full cellular Small Cell operation by inserting a module, offer one of the least disruptive installation routes. Avoiding the need for any additional wall or ceiling mounted units and reusing the same power and data cabling, there is only the back office integration and configuration to deal with. The technicians most appropriate and qualified to do this type of work are those already working on in-‐building Wi-‐Fi installations. The skills required to work on outdoor high-‐rise cell towers are quite different and may not be so easily transferrable. This will open up opportunities for system integrators and other in-‐building service providers as the emphasis shifts from outdoor to in-‐building service provision. Prior to being connected to a cellular operator network, the Small Cells cannot actively transmit or connect to cellular devices. Self test and end-‐to-‐end data connectivity can be checked, and the units can operate in listen-‐only mode to give confidence of being ready to be integrated into the cellular network.


Integrating into the Cellular Network Mass deployment of residential femtocells, where several operators already have more than 1 million actively in operation, demonstrates that self provisioning procedures can be automated and scale to volume. In order to do so, cellular operators have had to deploy one or more Small Cell gateways and integrate these into their core network, provisioning and fault management systems. Most have selected a single Small Cell gateway and integration partner, a few have installed gateways from multiple vendors. Although there has been extensive interoperability testing, far from all Small Cell access points are compatible with all Small Cell gateways. The technical choices for operators to support Small Cells are:

• Installing one or more Small Cell Gateways which support a range of Small Cell vendors.

• Interconnect to a Small Cell managed service, where the 3rd party Small Cell gateway is connected into the core network using standard interfaces.

• A combination of the above, allowing a wider range of Small Cell vendors to be supported.

One could compare this with international roaming arrangements. Most are handled through central clearing houses which handle both real-‐time signalling interworking and post-‐event billing transaction/settlement. The more popular roaming traffic, especially directly between operators belonging to the same international parent, bypasses those routes with direct agreements. Smaller operators almost exclusively use clearing houses. There are relatively few commercially proven Small Cell gateways available today, perhaps about half a dozen at most. Leading players include but are not limited to: Alcatel-‐Lucent, Cisco, Contela, ip.access, NEC and NSN. For 3G CDMA only, Taqua and Samsung are the two main vendors. Huawei did launch a 3G Small Cell Gateway for residential femtocells which they continue to support but do not actively market or develop. While LTE Small Cells technically do not require a Gateway, and this may be avoided for small numbers, it is recommended for larger systems. All of the above vendors already have, or are developing, combined 3G/4G gateway solutions.


Will operators readily accept self-‐installations? Operators are traditionally risk averse and have preferred to design and engineer their own networks themselves. Over the past decade or so, we’ve seen extensive outsourcing, with the large RAN vendors now making more revenue from this activity than supplying products. These outsourcing arrangements are usually driven by the network operators themselves, who may retain what they see as essential capabilities in-‐house, such as RF planning and performance management. In a few cases, the entire RAN operation is outsourced leaving the mobile operator functioning mainly as a sales and marketing organization. Extensive procedures and standards are defined to ensure quality, defining the products used, cabling and installation methods, test procedures and acceptance criteria.

• Operators don’t today have methods or processes to accept or integrate 3rd party implemented in-‐building cellular systems.

• Other industries already do this, such as an office PBX being installed by 3rd parties but connected to the wireline network. Other utilities such as water, gas and electricity are commonly supplied to a central point at each building, and from there are distributed using the property owners internal systems.

• Many buildings can now even generate their own electricity and supply externally back to the grid. e.g. solar or wind generated.

Why cannot this approach be adopted by the cellular networks? It could be argued this is already the case for self-‐installed residential Femtocells. It would require:

• Defined standards of installation, eg using certified or approved equipment

• Procedures to be in place to adopt/integrate installations. Possibly requiring a site visit, but normally provisioned through remote control

• Legal agreement to define the service to be delivered, requirements and expectations on both sides

• Marketing to actively promote the capability. Sales to conclude transactions and encourage takeup.

• Training of installation teams. This could include a certification program (e.g. similar to Cisco’s training and certification scheme.)

These principles are already in place for residential femtocells which are deployed at rates of up to 1,000 units per day. There seems no reason why these couldn’t be adopted more widely.


3rd party managed services Several companies are offering “Small Cells as a Service” to operators. These host their own Small Cell gateway, which is integrated directly into the operator’s network core. Functions including 24/7 network management, software upgrade and remote configuration are outsourced. Such businesses reduce the initial costs and can accelerate the time to market. Examples include Cloudberry (Europe), ClearSky (US) and Cellcom (US 3G CDMA). None of these companies own their own licenced spectrum. They would not be involved in usage billing or roaming. This is a significant distinction from Wi-‐Fi aggregators. The benefit of a single point of commercial and operational interface for mobile operator is to scale and facilitate much larger number of installations. Costs would be borne by the network operator.

Distributed Antenna Systems A new range of DAS systems promise lower cost and complexity of deployment than before. The flexibility of products such as CommScope ION-‐E 15or Kathrein K-‐BOW16 is to allow each radio node to operate using a total of 300MHz of spectrum assigned across almost any selected cellular frequencies. The radio nodes are connected using CAT6 cable which also supports backhaul transmission to adjacent Wi-‐Fi access points. The high power consumption of the radio nodes often means local power supplies are required because these exceed the capacity of PoE (Power over Ethernet), although some non-‐standard alternatives are available. Inevitably, the high capacity of each DAS radio node means that these individually cost more than a simpler Small Cell. Considerable additional extra hardware is required in the basement to support the in-‐building system, all adding to cost. For these reasons, the intrinsic cost of DAS is higher than Small Cells. For larger buildings, and high traffic areas, this can be justified by sharing the cost between multiple operators. We are likely to continue to see DAS installations, but the lower price of Small Cells (both equipment cost and simplicity of installation) is expected to dominate small to medium sized properties. It’s unlikely that both DAS and Small Cells would be deployed within the same building, but this has been the case across some larger campuses. AT&T’s solution for the large Disney resorts is a good case in point17.


Enterprise Wi-‐Fi Wi-‐Fi has been widely adopted throughout offices and public buildings. It has primarily succeeded in many locations because of its low cost, especially where roaming charges are involved, but partly because mobile operators haven’t provided adequate in-‐building service. Enterprise Wi-‐Fi is usually funded directly by the building owner, although some Wireless ISPs have installed equipment at their own cost. The new 802.11ac standard is rapidly being deployed18, with Wave 2 products offering even higher capacity and throughput. Using Wi-‐Fi when away from home or office has a reputation of being (a) difficult to connect to and (b) of variable quality. HotSpot 2.0 should address the issues of discovery and authentication while several smart clients promise quality monitoring solutions to ensure Quality of Service. Operators are in effect already extending their RAN capability through a series of relatively unknown Wi-‐Fi roaming agreements. These can reach many, but not all, Wi-‐Fi hotspots and will offer varying solutions. It is said that many businesses and larger property owners are at a stage where they would be open to outsourcing their in-‐building wireless network provision. They recognize this requires specialist skills and support that is not their core business. There is clearly an opportunity for service providers, whether fixed or mobile or both, to expand their business in this way. As an added benefit, they could install Small Cells and deliver a comprehensive licenced cellular service alongside the unlicenced Wi-‐Fi. The combination of licensed and unlicensed technologies promises a carefully balanced approach that makes best use of all available resources, delivering quality, capacity and mobility in equal measure.


Summary The demand for improved in-‐building wireless service is clearly present and growing. With over 80% of wireless data traffic now consumed in building19, the cost of serving this from traditional outdoor cell towers isn’t sustainable – lower cost solutions that provide capacity and coverage from within buildings are much more cost effective. Mobile operators aren’t moving quickly enough to address the issue and are unlikely to be able to scale their internal resources rapidly enough to meet demands. System integrators, who already have extensive experience with Enterprise Wi-‐Fi, should be easily capable of deploying Small Cells as an adjunct. The relatively low additional equipment and installation cost may be borne by the Enterprise itself. In the simplest case by installing snap-‐on modules to existing Wi-‐Fi access points. Unlike outdoor cell towers, ongoing energy, security and backhaul costs may also be free. Easy to use tools, such as iBwave Mobile Planner, enable rapid on-‐site design and documentation which ensure consistent standards from a wider pool of field technicians. Mobile operators need to put in place an “Adoption Process” which allows them to accept and integrate orphan Enterprise deployments. Many already have systems in place for residential femtocells that would easily scale to achieve that goal. The lack of complete interoperability between Small Cell gateways and all Small Cells may require additional Small Cell gateways from more than one vendor to be installed. It could be argued that operators are already enabling Enterprise wireless service through Wi-‐Fi roaming agreements, but these will not offer differentiation or full mobility. An approach that engages and enables Enterprises to “bring their own network” creates the opportunity to rapidly expand and grow cellular network capability to match demands in a cost effective and scalable manner.


Cisco’s Enterprise and Small Cell Solution Interview with Eric Vallone, Small Cell Technology Group, Cisco What’s your understanding of Small Cell market demand within the Enterprise? The Enterprise sector has been starved of affordable solutions for cellular service. In all but the largest buildings, operators simply can’t justify the cost of DAS systems and other legacy approaches. Small cells turn the market upside down, bringing a cost-‐effective and efficient alternative approach to solve the problem. Until now, we’ve seen residential small cells have mostly been used as a measure of last resort, to prevent churn for those with poor coverage. Instead, we want to highlight their tremendous revenue generating opportunities. This doesn’t just come from adding good connectivity in-‐building, although that’s a primary feature. We’ve also been demonstrating this to operators around the world, giving examples of additional features such as location services, analytics, customer loyalty etc. which further enhance the business case. The Small Cell Forum has a good business case document that provides clear justification with many use cases. Once you look more specifically at each vertical segment, you can see the importance of mission critical wireless connectivity further increases the value. The incremental cost of adding 3G to our Wi-‐Fi access points can be as little as 20%, which makes this very easy to justify and radically different to the price point for legacy approaches. What is delaying enterprise small cell deployments? Small Cell deployments are at the precipice of the adoption chasm with no viable bridge to cross it, up until now. Enterprises around the world are often challenged to gain access to affordable mobile services in their own buildings. This problem is becoming more acute with the emergence of business critical apps and the increasing move towards BYOD driving today’s businesses to become reliant on mobile devices. The challenge lies in enabling in-‐building Enterprise small cell 3G/LTE services at a manageable cost and scale, and in seamlessly integrating these small cells into Enterprise networks. How does your Enterprise Small Cell story fit with your Wi-‐Fi portfolio? Cisco is focused on offering solutions that meet the key challenges our customers are facing. We uniquely combine a strong enterprise Wi-‐Fi solution with a comprehensive enterprise Small Cell portfolio.


Cisco has created an end-‐to-‐end solution that pairs Cisco’s products, technology and expertise along with several strategic acquisitions, including Intucell and Ubiquisys. This best in-‐class licensed radio solution complements our in-‐house Service Provider Wi-‐Fi solution. The portfolio includes:

• A range of 3G and LTE capable small cells, including standalone residential and enterprise models. The Aironet 3600 Wi-‐Fi access point can be upgraded to full 3G or LTE cellular capability by installing the Universal Small Cell 5310 “clip-‐on” module. This fits within the power budget of Power over Ethernet, avoiding the need for additional cabling or external power source, and simplifying the installation.

• The ASR 5000 Series Small Cell gateway is already installed at several mobile operators, including AT&T where it supports over 1 million 3G Microcells. Fully standards compliant, it interoperates and supports 3rd party small cells.

• Management and provisioning, with scalable processes to automate configuration and ongoing upgrade. CloudBase ensures secure delivery of operating software and updates. Quantum SON actively manages more than 1 million cell sectors spread across many operators worldwide, co-‐ordinating between macrocells and small cell layers in a multi-‐vendor environment.

Sites with existing 3600 Wi-‐Fi units deployed can be quickly upgraded by installing modules in a subset of the access points, and routing the traffic back to the operator’s core network. Where do Cisco partners fit into the picture? Rather than treat the problem with the same, costly, model required to deploy macro cell sites or DAS, Cisco used its years of expertise deploying Enterprise Wi-‐Fi to develop a go-‐to-‐market strategy for Enterprise small cells. Working in concert with our Mobile Network Operator customers, Cisco has developed a model that engages Cisco’s extensive Enterprise Partner Program to deploy 3G/LTE as part of the partners’ Wi-‐Fi offer and practice. Cisco Small Cell Enterprise Select enables Cisco’s Wi-‐Fi certified partners to coordinate with Mobile Operators in order to meet their in-‐building small cell design, implementation, and service criteria. Enterprise Select allows enterprise customers to choose their preferred Operator while being assured of a premium service offering. One of the most important aspects of design and implementation of an Enterprise wireless solution is how it integrates with the Enterprise IT network. Cisco partners who have acted as system integrators within an Enterprise have an excellent appreciation of how best to design a solution with minimum impact. This takes into account security issues, such as firewall routing, independent cabling, Ethernet routing configuration and power considerations.


Cisco is unique in having a strong direct channel to the Enterprise sector as well as a separate Service Provider sales and solution arm that caters for network operators. Are Enterprise businesses and building owners ready for such a radical solution? We are finding Enterprise Wi-‐Fi is at a crossroads today. Many businesses understand they need great in-‐building wireless service but recognise that this is not their core business. This creates a significant outsourcing opportunity which network operators are well placed to capture. Their large resources and wide range of specialist expertise, from security to operational management, are attractive to CIOs from the small to large businesses. The reality is that Cisco is not delivering a radical product, but it is taking a radical approach. However, an approach that is fully supported by the enterprises and Mobile Network Operators alike. By pairing Cisco’s enterprise customers, with Cisco’s partner network and Cisco’s Mobile Network Operators we are creating value in a market that was previously challenged. Operators gain deeper access to enterprise network and wireless services, without many of the traditional costs (e.g. site acquisition, rental fees, and security). Enterprises get a superior service offering with better coverage and capacity, as well as creating a means to deliver new services to their employees and customers. When we look at how the cellular industry needs to scale additional capacity while lowering its costs, this approach delivers both. When you consider that most data is consumed indoors (and that percentage is growing), this just reinforces the case. Have operators been waiting for multi-‐mode 3G/LTE before moving forward? Operators look carefully at the total cost of ownership and especially the cost of deployment. Many appear to want a “Swiss Army Knife” product that is packed with features and capability. They want to transition their data services to LTE, seeing it as a revenue generating technology that can compete with Wi-‐Fi. This is where we see most optimism and opportunity. Meanwhile the Enterprise market is looking for voice solutions that could quickly be addressed today with 3G. This has held the market back to some extent, while the industry waits for VoLTE to become more mature. Cisco is alleviating the need to wait as it has products for 3G, LTE and Wi-‐Fi including several which combine these in various enterprise friendly form factors, today!


iBwave Mobile Planner Interview with Benoit Fleury, VP Products and Innovation, iBwave Inc What is the scope of iBwave Mobile Planner and who exactly uses it? iBwave Mobile Planner runs as an Android app allowing real-‐time input of possible Small Cell locations and immediate visualization of the coverage and data throughput footprint. Typically a building floor plan will first be imported or created, then small cell equipment selected from the components database which includes fully modelled small cells and related equipment from a wide range of vendors. Upon rapid visualization of the coverage and throughput footprint, small cell placements can be adjusted to achieve the desired results. Additional site information can be captured after which the final design is uploaded for storing and future use. Closely located cells can increase capacity at the expense of reduced range and footprint. Direct visual feedback allows the designer to refine and improve the solution, discussing alternative placement options with the building owner during the initial survey as required. We’ve aimed this tool to be used in the majority of Enterprise Small Cell deployments, either directly by the mobile operatorss own staff, 3rd party sub-‐contractors, system integrators, IT personnel or even building owners themselves. Design and planning activities for larger and more complex venues should be done, or at least validated, by RF engineers using a more advanced desktop tool such as iBwave Design. However the majority of buildings, such as smaller office buildings, have relatively simple requirements which can easily and quickly be handled with less qualified field personnel. Even for smaller buildings which may only require one or two small cells per floor, the need for design and as-‐built documentation is very important. This has to cover not just the small cells themselves, but also the cabling, networking equipment and other related components making up the complete in-‐building network. A key reason for ensuring proper documentation is to be able to reference it down the line when upgrades are needed, such as for increasing capacity or upgrading to new technologies. Often installations aren’t built precisely as originally designed and that’s why it is important to record these deviations (the result being documented “as-‐built”) and recalculate the impact on the RF plan. When field-‐based RF planning is not required such as larger complex venues where RF planning is performed remotely by a more advanced desktop tool, iBwave Mobile can still be used to capture and document the details of each DAS antenna or small cell. This is then exported into a desktop planning tool for more complex designs. A simpler version of the tool, namely iBwave Mobile Note,


provides this function and uploads the records in a central cloud-‐based storage area or optionally a management platform such as iBwave Unity which provides more advanced functionality such as report generation. What minimum skill level is needed to use Mobile Planner? We’ve taken a different approach from that used for larger desktop planning tools. We felt we should aim it for field technicians who already know basic IT principles and are familiar with Wi-‐Fi access points. They only need to specify what the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) need to be for an building design. An example could be specifying the required data throughput for the majority of the floor layout as a site parameter. Some operators we work with are keen to use the tool to ensure consistent design quality. That is why we have recently launched a 1 day training course which brings users of iBwave Mobile Planner up to speed with what they need to do to achieve good small cell designs. We’ll develop this course into a more formal certification program in due course once deployments become more mainstream and the market requires it. Certification has to be fully accepted throughout the industry, so it’s important to implement it at the right time. We’ve used this approach in the past and it has worked well. For our iBwave Design toolkit we also have a 3-‐level certification program to ensure this consistency of in-‐building design quality. Operators worldwide now insist that in-‐building designs are submitted with appropriate iBwave certification according to the venues’ complexity. What industry insights can you share regarding take-‐up of Enterprise Small Cells? Take-‐up varies between different regions around the world. Although not yet in mainstream deployment, we can see that several operators clearly have aggressive plans. We’ve seen a lot of activity in the US and several APAC countries, with some European operators showing interest.. There’s quite a lot going on behind the scenes, with a few privately having quite large targets. A large number of operators worldwide are planning or trialling OEM equipment with many pilots going on today, but mainstream deployment is only in pockets at present. I would estimate a 6-‐12 month window for mainstream take-‐up of Enterprise Small Cells. We will see more multimode 3G/LTE small cells in that timeframe, some are trialling those today although many operators will proceed with 3G first. We feel our market timing with iBwave Mobile Planner is spot on without being too early nor too late. Ongoing iterations and refinements resulting from trials and feedback worldwide will allow the tool to become well tuned to support the volume ramp-‐up of leading small cell operators, which for several is happening very shortly.


About ThinkSmallCell ThinkSmallCell.com is an independent website which has tracked the evolution of

Small Cells from their early femtocell origins. With comprehensive coverage of both technical and commercial aspects of the topic, this respected website is a font of insights, new developments and practical experience gained during their evolution. Our founder, David Chambers, has accumulated expertise in both technical and commercial aspects from many years in the industry. He has met with operators in all five continents and is not afraid to ask the more difficult questions. He can often be found at Small Cell events and is well known throughout the industry. Featuring interviews with many leading industry figures, spotlights on small cell technology and detailed conference reports, the website is popular throughout the industry. New articles are published weekly and a free email newsletter is sent out monthly. We also produce a series of webinars, white papers, training seminars and marketing material both under our own brand name and white-‐labelled. Contact us directly to discuss how we may contribute toward your own marketing campaign. Email: contact (at) thinksmallcell.com Website: www.thinksmallcell.com ThinkSmallCell Ltd Innovation Centre Broad Quay Bath BA1 1UD United Kingdom


References 1 Next Generation Knowledge Workers – Cisco white paper, 2013 http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/sp/Business-‐Mobility.pdf 2 Computer Weekly: Challenges of Office Mobility http://www.computerweekly.com/feature/Challenges-‐of-‐office-‐mobility 3 Commscope News Release http://www.commscope.com/NewsCenter/PressReleases/CommScope-‐Redefines-‐In-‐building-‐Wireless-‐with-‐ION-‐E/ 4 ABI Research: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140508006351/en/Global-‐Wi-‐Fi-‐Hotspots-‐Grow-‐7.1-‐Million-‐2015#.U3IN4S-‐7nb4 5 ABI Research: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140228005553/en/139.1-‐Million-‐Consumer-‐Wi-‐Fi-‐Access-‐Points-‐Shipped#.U3IOaC-‐7nb4 6 Arbitron Mobile Research: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-‐releases/wi-‐fi-‐is-‐the-‐data-‐beast-‐of-‐burden-‐among-‐smartphone-‐panelists-‐194877571.html 7 2013 Hotel Chatter Wi-‐Fi Report http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2013/4/27/12444/1162/hotels/The_2013_HotelChatter_Hotel_WiFi_Report 8 4G Americas (using data from Informa). Pie-‐chart of worldwide mobile subscriptions by technology end 2013. http://www.4gamericas.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page&pageid=565 9 4G Americas (using data from Informa). 100 of 200 million LTE world subscriptions at end 2013 are from North America. http://www.4gamericas.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page&pageid=2055 10 4G Americas (using data from Informa). Forecast mobile broadband growth by technology 2013 to 2018. http://www.4gamericas.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page&pageid=1940 11 Toni Ahonen 2014 Almanac: http://communities-‐dominate.blogs.com/brands/2014/05/lets-‐do-‐the-‐big-‐mobile-‐numbers-‐blog-‐where-‐are-‐we-‐in-‐mobile-‐stats-‐in-‐2014the-‐mobile-‐subscription-‐rate-‐is-‐at-‐or-‐very-‐very-‐nea.html


12 Hotel Chatter 2014 Wi-‐Fi report: http://www.hotelchatter.com/story/2014/4/22/11951/4765/hotels/The_2014_HotelChatter_WiFi_Report%3A_Who_is_Still_Charging_for_WiFi_and_Why%3F_ 13 Measurement of RF propagation into Concrete Structures over the frequency range 100MHz to 3GHz. C Taylor et al, Philips Laboratories https://wireless.vt.edu/symposium/proceedings/1996/(13-‐1)Measurement%20of%20RF%20Propagation%20into%20Concrete%20Structures%20over%20the%20Frequency%20Range%20100%20MHz%20ro%203%20GHz.pdf 14 Galtronics Webinar: Antenna Evolution: Meeting the demand for LTE DAS and Small Cell networks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cDA1SmWFHo 15 Commscope ION-‐E News Release http://www.commscope.com/NewsCenter/PressReleases/CommScope-‐Redefines-‐In-‐building-‐Wireless-‐with-‐ION-‐E/ 16 Kathrein K-‐BOW: http://www.kathrein.de/en/filters-‐combiners-‐and-‐amplifiers/k-‐bow/ 17 Network Toolset makes connections at Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort: John Donovan, CTO AT&T http://www.attinnovationspace.com/innovation/story/a7794558 18 Infonetics: 2013 Wireless LAN Market Highlights http://www.infonetics.com/pr/2014/4Q13-‐Wireless-‐LAN-‐Market-‐Highlights.asp 19 Commscope Infographic: Sources: Juniper Research, Fierce Wireless Europe, Mobile Expert, Gartner et al http://www.commscope.com/NewsCenter/Infographics/Wrestling-‐with-‐the-‐Data-‐Tsunami-‐Indoors/

Documents

The Enterprise Unlocked V5 - Think Small Cell