Overcoming urban small cell deployment challenges
- 1. Overcoming urban small cell deployment challenges Steve Greaves, CEO Small Cells Americas 4 November 2015
- 2. 2 Key barriers to deployment today Overall business case: • Site acquisition • Suitable backhaul • Single-operator deployments
- 3. 3 What are we trying to achieve with small cells? • Increase capacity per unit area • Throughput per m² = cd * bw * η bits/sec/m² – cd = cell density in cells/m² – bw = bandwidth in Hz – η is spectral efficiency in bits/sec/Hz/cell • Small cells: small, easy-to-install eNodeBs to increase cell density
- 4. 4 Site acquisition is difficult Use fewer sites Increase TX power Larger form factor Issues with planning approval What do we seem to be doing?
- 5. 5 Suitable backhaul: rationale for Metnet • High capacity of V/E-band systems • Ease of deployment of sub-6GHz systems • High resilience for street-level environment • Small form factor that needs no planning approval • Ability to scale organically and rapidly with no re-planning • Operate in licensed spectrum that’s widely available
- 6. 6 Key system attributes • Fully self-organising • Multipoint-to-multipoint • “De minimis” form factor • Wide 270-degree field of view • Only one node per site • No frequency planning • No antenna alignment • Easy installation
- 7. 7 Deployment in London • Small cell at bottom • Antennas and backhaul at top • Helps overcome loading issues
- 8. 8 • Busy commercial area in Longyan • Narrow streets with tall, reflective buildings • Difficult RF and GPS environment • Distributed timing provides synchronisation resilience when GPS fails Deployment for China Mobile
- 9. 9 Synchronisation challenge • Timing requirements more stringent for hetnets and virtualisation • Significant challenge below roofline • Separate GPS antennas add cost, planning and deployment issues
- 10. 10 Competing for real estate • Overlapping small cell deployments in the same hotspots • Limited space on limited street-level assets • Need equal access to street furniture to promote fair competition NEC ePico Sm CC • • • • NE • • • • • Two options considered to provide flexibili scenarios (maybe different markets?) • Key difference is number of mounting points an designed into the products Separate deployments on pole, Fron Airspan Synergy 2000, SBA antenna & CCS Um
- 11. 11 Not just small cells…
- 12. 12 Neutral host model required • Reduced time-to-market and costs • City concessions for exclusive access to street furniture • Pooled licensed spectrum resource for urban small cells
- 13. 13 Summary • Address planning issues to accelerate deployment • Reduce size of form factor • Enable neutral host model
- 14. The world’s first self-organising small cell microwave backhaul www.ccsl.com