LTE Guide Nov2010

The LTE / LTE-Advanced Guide
Your Ultimate LTE Resource

November 2010
www.lteportal.com
lte lte-advanced 4G imt-advanced

many names one dedicated resource
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lteportal.com broadband solutions, inc. +1 415 230 0305 info@lteportal.com www.lteportal.com
t he lt e / lt e-a d van c e d GU Id e - n ov e mb e r 2010
foreword
s noted by many experts at every major industry conference I attended this year, it is a great year for lte and lteadvanced. We all see a huge potential in the technology and witness an increased interest in the industry and an unprecedented enthusiasm among the industry ecosystem players. the latest delight - the acceptance of lte-advanced as a true 4G technology by ItU-r - could not come at a better time, in my opinion. I could certainly feel the buzz on the floor of the 4G World Conference that was held on the 3rd week of october of this year and organized by the Yankee Group. What does this mean? It means that all of us are on the right track. this second issue of the lte Guide highlights important updates from the industry organizations that stand behind the development and further commercialization of the next generation mobile broadband. It discusses some of the important challenges the industry ecosystem members face today. It attempts to look into the future and predict where the market is going. In short, not only does the Guide give you the baseline, but it also facilitates information sharing, integration, and collaboration and stimulates new developments in its own unique way. lte portal appreciates the support from our sponsors, institutional organizations, subject matter experts, market intelligence firms, market-leading companies, visionaries, and our readers. sincerely,
LTE Portal
tel: email: +1 415 230 0305 info@lteportal.com
Website: www.lteportal.com
presIdent and ceo basang malunov lte portal
ltepo rta l. com to table of contents
t he lt e / lt e-a d van c e d GU Id e - n ov e mb e r 2010
table of contents
6
3Gpp: Q&a
acceptance of lte-advanced by ItU-r, release 10, other new developments, and more
Interactive table of contents: topic name is linked to the page associated with it.
38 46 49
Gsa: 2010 - a Good Year for lte
11 Wireless Intelligence: Asia Pacific
operator commitments, launches and trials, Main Benefits of Deploying LTE, lte evolution to 4G / Imt-advanced, lte market Updates
to surpass 120 million lte connections in 2015 led by china and Japan
lte Will account for around 3 percent of all connections in the region
Idate: Is lte taking off?
business models & roadmaps: 207 million subscribers for lte by 2014
15 maravedis: the new paradigm of

all-Ip Wireless backhaul
frequency options, maximum throughout, pure packet vs. hybrid architecture, embedded switching capacity, microwave Gauss bell
ng connect program: expanding online access on the road
lte connected car appeals to Younger United states consumers
53
volGa forum: voice over lte: the silence is deafening
21
agilent: lte-advanced test challenges
voice: the silence is deafening, volte expected pending standards, mind the Gap, volGa fills the Gap
carrier aggregation, enhanced Uplink multiple access, enhanced multiple antenna transmission
55 57
ibwave: case study
cts double productivity With ibwave design
24
4G americas: the road to 4G in the americas
the femto forum: femtocells

a market status Update
Gsm-hspa statistics, american Wireless market, Gsm in americas, lte, non-Gsm carriers, roadblocks, 3G and lte, hspa and hspa+, and more
lte company directory
34
lte portal: application bundles in the lte networks

application bundles and network Intelligence, Unmet demand in terms of applications and service Quality
refer to the lte Guide may 2010 for a list of companies across these categories: access, core, silicon platform & subsystems, software & protocols, test & measurements, terminals / cpe, antennas, backhaul / aggregation, functional entities Interfacing to epc, end-to end, vas, consulting, training, and Certification www.lteportal.com
ltepo rta l. co m
www.lteportal.com
t he lt e / lt e -ad va n c ed GU Id e - n ov e mb e r 2010
3GPP: Q&A
3GPP
add: 3Gpp c/o etsI 650, route des lucioles 06921 sophia-antipolis cedex france contact@3gpp.org
email:
Website: www.3gpp.org
lte portal featured a Q&a with 3Gpp session in its may 2010 publication. Information that has not changed since may is not included in this publication. therefore, please refer to the may 2010 issue for more information and what was previously discussed.
new developments have occurred at 3Gpp since the release of the may 2010 edition of the lte Guide. what are they? One of the most significant developments is that 3GPPs lte release 10 & beyond (lte-advanced) was accepted as a 4G technology at the chongqing meeting of ItU-r Working party 5d on october 20, 2010. the 3Gpp candidate technology submission has successfully completed steps 4 through 7 of the Imt-advanced process in ItU-r, complying with or exceeding the ItU established criteria in all aspects. the positive assessment of the 3Gpp lte technology by the many Imt evaluation groups across the world, now confirmed by the ITU, reinforces the global preeminence of the work of 3Gpp, which unites the leading mobile technology companies in developing market oriented high performance broadband mobile wireless systems. Final ratification of the full Imt-advanced technology family will occur at the ItU-r study Group 5 meeting in november 2010. the 3Gpp submission was made jointly in the name of the Partnerships Organizational Partners: ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, etsI, tta and ttc, which represent the north american, european and asian regions and make 3Gpp a truly global initiative. In the final steps of the ITU-R IMT-Advanced process, 3Gpp in conjunction with its organizational partners will provide the detailed technical specifications and standards to the ItU-r by 2011, for inclusion in the recommen-
dation ItU-r m. the successful candidature of 3Gpp lte as an Imt-advanced (4G) solution builds upon 3GPPs multi-year continuing success story. by offering a full suite of integrated 3G and 4G ecosystems for Imt-2000 and now Imt-advanced, the 3Gpp technology family supports the evolving and expanding needs of the broad international base of mobile operators and allows the users of wireless mobile broadband to experience, on a global basis, a rich and innovative range of service and capabilities that is unparalleled by any other technology. what are the steps in the lte-advanced ran standardization? study Item was closed in march 2010. feasibility of lteAdvanced was confirmed in terms of performance, backward compatibility, complexity, etc. technologies will be added to lte release 8 and 9 with full backward compatibility. Specification work on RAN Release 10 Work Items was underway by march 2010. It included carrier aggregation for lte, enhanced downlink multiple antenna transmission for lte, and Ul multiple antenna transmission for lte. RAN Release 10 specifications will be approved in December 2010 to submit the specifications to ITU-R WP 5D in march 2011. what is carrier aGGreGation for lte? To fulfill the LTE-Advanced requirements, LTE-Advanced needs to support wider transmission bandwidths than the currently supported 20 MHz specified in Rel-8/9, at the same time maintaining the backwards compatibility with rel-8/9. the preferred solution to this is carrier aggregation, where multiple component carriers are aggregated to form a larger overall transmission bandwidth.
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3Gp p conti nued
what about latency reduction in release 10? Improvements to reduce the latency in release 10 correspond directly to improved end-user performance and user satisfaction. these improvements are especially important for users running applications that send packets at non-predictable intervals (web surfing, messaging, etc.). what about relay functionality in lte release 10 & beyond (lte-advanced)? relays have been studied as part of the lte-advanced study item. One of the prime perceived benefits of relaying is to provide extended lte coverage in targeted areas at low cost. providing this feature as early as possible is crucial to enable operators to meet user expectations for lte and maximize take-up of lte devices. In order to maximize the benefits for cost-effective coverage improvements, relays should be standardized. the relay should have the following characteristics: It controls cells, each of which appears to a UE as a separate cell distinct from the donor cell The cells shall have their own Physical Cell ID (defined in lte rel-8). the relay node shall transmit its own synchronization channels and reference symbols The UE shall receive scheduling information and HARQ feedback directly from the relay node and send its control channels (sr/cQI/ack) to the relay node. what technoloGies are to be included in lte-advanced? although lte release 8 can meet most requirements of Imt-advanced, two additional improvements to lte performance are needed: Wider bandwidth: To improve peak data rate and spectrum flexibility; Spectrum/carrier aggregation based on component carrier(cc) concept to keep backward compatibility and allow smooth network migration; support of maximum 5 component carriers Each component carrier has a bandwidth defined in release 8/9 Intra-band contiguous(intra-band non-contiguous) and
inter-band non-contiguous aggregation rrc management of primary and secondary component carriers per Ue dynamic cross-carrier scheduling by mac Specified under the Work Item Carrier aggregation for lte. advanced mImo techniques: To improve peak data rate and cell/cell-edge spectrum efficiency; Up to 8-layers for DL and 4-layers for UL; dynamic sU/mU-mImo switching support 4 spatial layers for mU-mImo with maximum 2 layers per user Improved csI feedback using double codebook structure dedicated reference signal structure to support advanced precoding new codebook for 2tx and 4tx uplink mImo Specified under the Work Items Enhanced Downlink multiple antenna transmission for lte and Ul multiple antenna transmission for lte. what are other improvements in lte release 10? heterogeneous network, which can improve cell-edge user throughput, coverage and deployment flexibility. It will also provide interference coordination for overlaid deployment of cells with different tx power. Heterogeneous network is specified under the Work Item enhanced IcIc for non-carrier aggregation based deployments of heterogeneous networks for lte. could you elaborate more on this work item? With growing demand for data services, it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet the required data capacity and cell edge spectrum efficiency through simple cell splitting and current Inter-cell Interference control (IcIc) mechanism in rel-8/9. the enhancement of rel-8/9 IcIc mechanisms is necessary to efficiently support highly variable traffic loading as well as increasingly complexity and the network deployment scenarios with unbalanced transmit power nodes
th e lte / lte -a d va n c e d GU Id e - n ov em ber 2010 back to table of contents
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share the same frequency. While carrier aggregation (ca) based solutions are attractive for situations with large availability of spectrum and Ues with ca capability, non-ca (i.e., co-channel) based solutions are important to enable efficient heterogeneous network deployments with small bandwidth availability and Ues without ca capability. In networks with unbalanced transmit power nodes sharing the same frequency, interference conditions are expected to change from location to location (due to the possibly lower level of network planning of these deployments) and from time to time (due to the variable traffic load at each node). here coordination of control and data channel interference is important to maintain the downlink and uplink cell coverage and thus good data channel performance. where can we Get more information about 3Gpps work and specifications? All 3GPP information, including specifications, is openly available at www.3gpp.org. You may also email your questions to info@3gpp.org. In addition, a DVD of the full set of 3GPP specifications is produced on a regular basis and is made available at trade events free of charge.
about 3Gpp 3Gpp stands for the 3rd Generation partnership project (note: 3Gpp is not constrained to 3rd Generation. It includes work on both 2nd and 4th generation technologies). 3Gpp is a collaboration between groups of telecommunications associations, to make a globally applicable third-generation (3G) mobile phone system specification within the scope of the International mobile telecommunications-2000 project of the International telecommunication Union (ItU). 3Gpp specifications are based on evolved Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) specifications. 3GPP standardization encompasses radio, core network and service architecture. the partners are the standards developing organizations: arIb, atIs, ccsa, etsI, tta, and ttc. contribution is driven by the companies that participate in 3Gpp through their membership of one of these organizational partners. currently there are over 350 Individual members (operators, vendors, regulators), and 13 market representation partners (giving perspectives on market needs and drivers). there are approximately 185 meetings (some of them are co-located) per year, larger gatherings totaling around 600 delegates.
adrian scrase played a central role in creation of the 3rd Generation partnership project (3Gpp) and is responsible for the operations of the 3Gpp project Co-ordination Group. He also Heads 3GPPs Mobile Competence Centre (mcc) which is an International team of 20 experts who provide comprehensive support to the project. Adrian has more than 25 years experience in the telecommunications field, which includes 20 years of experience in standardization. he is vice president within etsI with responsibility for International partnership projects.
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11
Asia Pacific to Surpass 120 Million LTE Connections in 2015 Led by China and Japan
by Joss Gillet, senior analyst Wireless Intelligence
Wireless Intelligence
add: 7th floor 5 new street square london ec4a 3bf United kingdom +44 (0) 20 7759 2300 +44 (0) 20 7559 2301 info@wirelessintelligence.com
tel: fax: email:
Website: www.wirelessintelligence.com
the number of users of next-generation LTE technology in the Asia-Pacific region is forecast to surpass 120 million by 2015, according to a major new Wireless Intelligence study. It is forecast that lte will account for around 3 percent of all connections in the region by this point, driven by key regional markets such as china, Japan, Indonesia and south korea.
The figures are the first LTE forecasts published by Wireless Intelligence and form part of a global lte study due to be published later this year. The Asia-Pacific study includes lte forecasts for 35 mobile operators across 11 regional markets: china, Japan, south korea, taiwan, australia, new Zealand, malaysia, hong kong, singapore, Indonesia and the philippines. The pioneering LTE operator in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to be Japanese market leader ntt docomo, which plans to launch its Xi-branded LTE service in December this year. the service will initially be switched on in tokyo, nagoya and osaka, with plans to gradually expand coverage to additional cities. docomo has been testing lte since June this year and is deploying new Wcdma base stations equipped with newly-developed remote radio equipment (rre) units to support both existing Wcdma (3G) and forthcoming lte
services. The deployment is a part of the operators plan to layer a 2Ghz lte network over its existing 3G network to provide dual Wcdma/lte services. meanwhile, docomos domestic rivals SoftBank Mobile and EMOBILE (eaccess) are both planning lte launches in 2011 and 2012, respectively, while supporting high bandwidth mobile services via their hspa+ networks in the meantime. This market scenario means that Docomo will benefit from a first mover advantage, which is expected to boost its lte market share in Japan to approximately 60 percent by 2015 (it currently has an overall mobile market share of just under 50 percent). Wireless Intelligence estimates that 20 percent of the Japanese mobile market will have migrated to lte networks within five years, closely followed by South Korea on 17 percent. both markets have already migrated a significant majority of their customers (70 percent and 60 percent, respectively) onto Wcdma and hspa networks, which will support a rapid migration to lte. Japanese and south korean mobile users will account for almost 30 percent of total lte connections in the Asia-Pacific region by 2015 (see table). However, almost half (47 percent) of lte connections by this point will be based in China, the worlds largest mobile market. the chinese mobile market has been transformed in recent years via the introduction of three different flavours of high-speed mobile technology: td-scdma, Wcdma and cdma2000 1X ev-do. total 3G connections in the country (including cdma) recently crossed the 100 million mark and are expected to triple over the next three
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years. market-leader china mobile has been conducting td-scdma/td-lte trials in 2010 and is planning on rolling-out its td-lte network as early as 2011. thirdplaced china telecom is also expected to launch lte services next year, while number-two china Unicom in collaboration with minority shareholder telefonica is expected to launch lte by 2012. both china telecom and china Unicom are currently focusing on promoting their respective ev-do rev. a and Wcdma hspa networks before migrating towards all-Ip networks. even though Wireless Intelligence estimates that only around 5 percent of the chinese mobile user base will have migrated to lte networks by 2015, due to the sheer size of the market, china itself will still account for almost half of the total LTE connections in Asia-Pacific by this point. australia, new Zealand, malaysia, taiwan and philippines currently have a combined 180 million connections and are expected to contribute a combined 11 percent of total LTE connections in the Asia-Pacific in five years
deploying a variety of lte network rollout scenarios. however, these markets are dwarfed by Indonesia, which is on track to surpass 200 million mobile connections by year-end. assuming current problems concerning lte spectrum allocation in the country can be resolved, Wireless Intelligence forecasts that Indonesia will account for over 10 percent of the LTE connections in Asia-Pacific by 2015, second only to china and Japan. two of Indonesias largest mobile operators Telkomsel and XL have already started lte trials. some smaller markets in the study - notably the global business hubs of hong kong and singapore are also set to make great progress in lte over the next few years, with the next-generation technology accounting for around 10-15 percent of total connections in each of these markets by 2015. Hong Kongs CSL is committed to launching commercial lte services before year-end, which should make it the first Hong Kong operator to do so. Wireless Intel-
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ligence forecasts that csl will command a dominant lte market share in hong kong of around 40 percent by 2015. according to Wireless Intelligence forecasts, operators in singapore will not launch commercial lte networks until next year, but the migration will happen at a slightly faster pace than in hong kong. market-leader singtel is currently trialing lte in four markets: singapore, australia (optus), Indonesia (telkomsel) and the philippines (Globe telecom) as part of a plan to establish a regionally compatible lte network across its apac footprint. both hong kong and singapore are set to lead LTE deployments in the Asia-Pacific, but will only account for a combined 2 percent of total lte connections in the region by 2015. for more information on the forthcoming Wireless Intelligence global lte study please contact: info@wirelessintelligence.com
Joss Gillet, senior analyst, Wireless Intelligence: the diversity and different levels of development across the Asia-Pacifics mobile markets has led to a multitude of lte network adoption scenarios. regulation will play a critical role in the future of lte in the region and may hold up commercial launches in some markets. for instance, in Indonesia, australia and new Zealand, regulators are still currently
about wireless intelliGence Wireless Intelligence is the definitive source of mobile operator data, analysis and forecasts, delivering the most accurate and complete set of industry metrics available. Relied on by a customer base of over 700 of the worlds mobile operators, device vendors, equipment manufac-
negotiating the release of 700mhz spectrum with analogue broadcasters, hence delaying lte launches until 2013. the uncertainty about how large economies in the Asia-Pacific region, such as India and australia, will carve up their digital dividend is also delaying deployments in some neighboring countries, which want to align their timelines and share best practice. the digital dividend spectrum will allow operators to expand coverage outside urban areas; a scenario favoured by vodafone new Zealand, which is likely to start rolling out LTE first in rural areas and the central business districts in the country. nevertheless, our study found that the consensus among apac operators launching lte before 2011 is to restack existing spectrum - notably in the 1800mhz band - to cover urban areas that have high levels of data traffic. Mobile operators are expected to target high-value consumers with lte data services initially via multi-mode Usb dongles, while they wait for voice-over-lte to come to market.
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15
The New Paradigm of All-IP Wireless Backhaul

by adlane fellah, research director maravedis, Inc.
Maravedis
add: 410 rue des recollets suite 301 montreal, Quebec, h2Y 1W2 canada +1 305 992 3196 +1 514 313 5465 info@maravedis-bwa.com
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Website: www.maravedis-bwa.com
traditionally microwave equipment has been classified into different categories depending on the capacity of the link (pdh, super pdh and sdh). as in other physical media such as fiber or copper, circuit switched philosophy limited multiplexing granularity in order to ensure interface compatibility. on the other hand, microwave equipment has also been classified by the distance covered by the link (generally long haul and short haul).
the advent of packet networking has brought a huge variety of combinations that have made the microwave market much more diverse and flexible. Classification of microwave by capacity is decreasing in importance, due to generalized use of software keys by vendors to gradually enable different performance levels. this allows mobile operators to pay as they grow, depending on their traffic needs, which makes much easier the backhaul network design. since fast ethernet is the most popular packet-based protocol because of its simplicity and cost effectiveness, its throughput of 100 mbps has been established as the new de facto standard. thanks to packet switching, a microwave link no longer needs to adapt its capacity to a concrete scale of numbers, being radio resources used in a much more efficient way. The evolution of microwave from TDM to packet has been accelerated by the adoption of all-Ip radio access
technologies such as lte and WimaX. the need to implement increasing networking capability in microwave equipment has made many vendors concentrate their efforts into developing scalable platforms whose functionality and capacity can be adapted to each segment of the backhaul: last mile (a base station site), chain sites (a base station site that connects other base station site to the network) and aggregation sites (a site receiving traffic from different backhaul links and transmitting it all together to the metro network). the common trend to separate networking and wireless baseband functionality from pure rf electronics has made possible to use the same networking technology for any kind of link by only changing the radio units. therefore, the most advanced solutions in the market today have decoupled networking and radio requirements so that multiple combinations are possible with a single platform. for this reason, talking about long haul and short haul platforms is changing to high power and normal power radios. an exception to this are those microwave devices that integrate radio and networking into a single all-outdoor enclosure. since this kind of equipment is targeted at last mile applications, they usually do not integrate high power radios. frequency options the increasing data demand most cellular operators are facing today has turned backhaul to be one of the most crucial parts of the network, since it can lead to bottlenecks if not upgraded as access networks are. this data demand comes in addition to already existing high demand of voice services, which does not allow opera-
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tors to reallocate bands to data services. therefore, new frequency bands are needed to provide this extensive data capacity. but as carrier frequencies go up, propagation attenuation increases. this physical cell shrinkage is even higher considering that higher capacity requires higher number of cells, arising the need for cost effective ways to backhaul all these new small cells. during the past 10 years, a Qos-aware radio technology has been developed. now, it is necessary to evolve next generation networks deployment in order to get the most of these Qos features, otherwise low quality connectivity will ruin all these technological development. this fact means using different sizes of base stations (femtocells, picocells, microcells and macrocells) to provide ubiquitous connectivity. besides the traditional 6 to 38 Ghz bands (with slight differences depending on whether ansI or etsI spectrum allocation is used), operators are looking for new
parts of the spectrum that help them deploy the new 4G networks. microwave vendors are trying to give response to such needs, supporting a wide range of frequency bands, as can be seen in figure 1. for instance, ericsson and nec have developed equipment for new adjacent bands to the traditional spectrum, 42 Ghz and 52 Ghz, respectively, although with not much market demand yet. solutions using the 80 Ghz band are being adopted by large carriers such as clearwire Usa. therefore most of microwave vendors offer or plan to offer soon 80 Ghz products, be they in-house developed or supplied under oem agreements. from all the microwave vendors covered in Maravedis Wireless Backhaul Market from an all-Ip perspective report, ceragon, dragonWave and exalt are the only ones lacking 80 Ghz products in their commercial offerings.
FIGURE 1: FREQUENCy BAND SUPPORT CHART. GREEN: AVAILABLE NOW; yELLOW: COMING SOON soUrce: WIreless backhaUl market from an all-Ip perspectIve market report
this need for spectrum has secured a second life to technologies that in the past did not get the attention they deserved due to the worse propagation conditions they have to face or the advanced technology they require. It is the case of the 24 Ghz band, which was partially left unlicensed due to the high attenuation it suffers because of the water on the atmosphere. besides the 250 mhz available in the 24 Ghz band, the largest unlicensed spectrum available today is in the so called 60 Ghz band, where up to 7 Ghz of free spectrum is waiting mobile operators to be used for 4G backhaul. again,
the allocation of these unlicensed band was conditioned by the high oxygen attenuation these frequencies suffer, although this fact can prove to be beneficial for urban deployment, since it diminishes interference probability among operators. besides the popular and crowded 2.4 Ghz band, the most used unlicensed band today is 5 Ghz, specially attractive to WIsps. In this case the problem are not special propagation drawbacks, but a much higher interference risk than in 60 Ghz. the problem of this band is also the relatively small spectrum amount available (5.250
17
5.350, 5.4705.725, this need for spectrum has secured a second life to technologies that in the past did not get the attention they deserved due to the worse propagation conditions they have to face or the advanced technology they require. It is the case of the 24 Ghz band, which was partially left unlicensed due to the high attenuation it suffers because of the water on the atmosphere. besides the 250 mhz available in the 24 Ghz band, the largest unlicensed spectrum available today is in the so called 60 Ghz band, where up to 7 Ghz of free spectrum is waiting mobile operators to be used for 4G backhaul. again, the allocation of these unlicensed band was conditioned by the high oxygen attenuation these frequencies suffer, although this fact can prove to be beneficial for urban deployment, since it diminishes interference probability among operators. although Ieee 802.11a technology with some enhancements has been reused as 5 Ghz unlicensed backhaul for years, higher performance solutions are starting to appear in the market, offering higher throughputs and improved interference resistance. vendors that are at the forefront in this sense are exalt communications, proxim Wireless and Memorylink. The first two claim throughputs well above the theoretical 54 mbps offered by 802.11a, which in reality become slightly more than the half of such rate at the user level. exalt communications, as well as memorylink also claim improved resistance to interference compared to the industry standard. by far, the most innovative unlicensed technology for carrier grade applications is free space optics, which consists in using infrared optic beams to establish wireless links providing over 1 Gbps capacity. vendors such as skyfiber are offering this technology to mobile carriers, which are successfully trialling it. sophisticated mechanisms are being devised to solve traditional problems of fso such as vibration and sway sensitivity. from the advantages that fso represents compared with the rest of
unlicensed wireless solutions the most important one is the absence of radio magnetic pollution. the use of light to transmit information avoids interference to any other device, as well as lowers health risks of electromagnetic transmissions, which are still to be investigated. maximum throuGhput the combination of certain channel bandwidth and modulation determines the capacity of a microwave device. since not all the vendors support the same range of channel bandwidths, there are notable differences among them. however, the evolution from tdm microwave to packet microwave is also making possible the development of compression techniques that increase the effective throughput being experienced at the ethernet port level. here comes one of the main differences among microwave vendors, since some of them have taken this opportunity to differentiate from their competitors. In general, there are three kinds of packet compression techniques employed by microwave vendors: header compression. since the information carried by headers (see figure 2) such as source and destination mac addresses, is rather repetitive, it is possible to reduce the number of bits sent without loosing any information. Inter-frame gap suppression. since ethernet was conceived as a contention based technology, it is important to observe the separation between consecutive frames (named inter-frame gap) in order to detect any potential collision it may occur. however, in point-topoint microwave links there is no possibility of collision, since there is no multiplexing in the air (in contrast to point to multipoint solutions). Therefore, traffic rate can be increased a little bit in the air by removing this unused gap. payload compression. this is the kind of compression that most discussions has caused. It consists in com-
fIGUre 2: ethernet frame termInoloGY
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pressing the content of the packet, which makes the performance of this compression very dependent on the concrete service that is being carried inside each frame. Those traffics that go through a compression process at the application level, such as most of voIp, JpeG pictures and mpeG video, will not experience any additional compression when transmitted over payload compressing microwave. the effect of payload compression is most effective over TDM traffic carried over packet (using pseudowire technology), since it is usually uncompressed voice and tdm frames are not usually 100% full of data. pure packet vs. hybrid architecture since tdm applications are destined to disappear, the future is pure packet. however, the discussion arises when deciding what kind of equipment to use in the meantime. hybrid allows operators for an easy evolution, although not all the benefits of the pure packet world are enjoyed. this is because the concrete management of ethernet packets is inherited in each vendor from previous equipment generations and usually there are constraints that can not be avoided until a new generation of packet microwave is released. one potential difference between pure packet and hybrid systems is regarding QoS. Packet configuration allows to do congestion control and traffic shaping according to cIr (committed Information rate) and eIr (Excess Information Rate) configurations for each priority level. however, since hybrid equipment has lower Ethernet capabilities, low-priority traffic can take all the resources and while this traffic does not leave room for additional traffic, no other information will be transmitted, even when the traffic waiting to be delivered have higher priority. this is the case of nokia siemens (nsn), which recommends using its flexipacket instead of its FlexiHybrid. Furthermore, low priority traffic transmitted over tdm (3G web browsing for instance) can get more resources that voIp over packet, which is not desired. another advantage of packet operation is exclusive of alcatel-lucent. Its 9500 mpr allows for network interface mapping, meaning that what enters the microwave link by a tdm interface can be gathered in an ethernet interface at the other link. any combination of ingress and egress ports can be configured for each class of service, which allows for easier migration path to all-Ip systems.
From the 12 vendors covered in Maravedis backhaul report, only ericsson and ceragon have just hybrid equipment in order to support ethernet services. In the case of Ericsson the new Mini-link PT will fill up the packet microwave option before end of the year, whereas for ceragon there are no known plans to launch a pure packet device. If we consider the classical 6 to 38 Ghz range, dragonWave, nsn and alcatel-lucent are the only ones to be fully committed with pure packet, since their brand new microwave just support this mode of operation. dragonWave and skyfiber are the only vendors that do not offer hybrid solutions. In the case of skyfiber, the company relies on external equipment provided by third parties in order to provide pseudowire technology. on the contrary, dragonWave provides its sdU equipment that implements pseudowire functionality for a complete backhaul solution. In addition, DragonWaves pseudowire offer is going to undoubtedly benefit from the recent acquisition of axerra networks. embedded switchinG capacity there is a trend within the backhaul industry consisting in integrating all kinds of backhaul in a single product. equipment vendors are following this strategy in order to secure as many deployments as possible no matter the technologies involved. besides microwave, the other technology being mostly used for backhaul is fiber, so integration of both technologies leads vendors to integrate high-end networking functionalities and microwave connectivity in a single equipment. Implementation of this technological convergence varies depending on the vendor. alcatel-lucent, huawei and Zte corp. have their own routers, while ericsson acquired redback networks Inc. in 2006 and nsn is partnering with Juniper networks since october 2009. nec is also proposing this technological convergence as one of the main innovations of the brand new ipasolInk compared to the existing pasolInk neo platform. adaptation of a lan technology such as ethernet to be used in Wan networks such as backhaul is also determining the networking features that are required to microwave equipment. legacy ethernet, the traditional ethernet implemented in ordinary lan switches can have insufficient performance specially regarding reliability, predictability and monitoring. carrier class ethernet is the response to this need. carrier class ethernet
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(carrier ethernet in short way) is an enhanced version of ethernet ensuring that its performance is acceptable in a carrier grade environment. To ensure a fair classification of carrier ethernet equipment, the metro ethernet forum is in charge of approving specifications that must be passed by ethernet equipment in order to get a certain certification (there are multiple depending on the applications targeted). The two certification levels common to most of microwave vendors analyzed in Maravedis backhaul report are mef 9 and mef 14. mef 9 ensures proper implementation of ethernet technology, such as frame loop avoidance and successful delivery of frames to the right destination. mef 14 is related to Qos by measuring frame delay and frame loss ratio and ensuring proper implementation of bandwidth profile rate enforcement characterized by cIr and eIr. mef has also developed mef 22 in particular for ethernet mobile backhaul, although equipment is still not being certified. From all the vendors analyzed in the backhaul report, only bridgeWave, exalt and SkyFiber have not MEF certification for their products. asked about this fact, they claim their customers are not requesting this, so they have not seen the need to achieve MEF certification. The rest of vendors have at least one certified microwave device and are consequently expected to achieve certification for any pending equipment in their offerings. among other things, mef 22 establishes concrete Qos requirements for ethernet in mobile backhaul applications. Given the huge data demand mobile operators are facing today, it is important for them to have Qos enforcement mechanisms in order not to get their networks saturated. prioritization techniques are not new in the Ip landscape (Ieee 802.1p, diffserv, mpls), but
they required in the past the use of additional switches in aggregation sites, which increased capeX considerably. all the microwave backhaul solutions analyzed in this report have integrated prioritization capabilities into their equipment, making mobile deployments more cost efficient. All the equipment analyzed in this report exceeds mef 22 recommendation of 4 prioritization levels, with some vendors such as ericsson, huawei, exalt and bridgeWave offering 8. asked about their support for Ipv6, 100% of vendors covered in this report have answered they have not detected any demand for such feature, so Ipv6 support is reduced to a simple milestone in their roadmaps. most of vendors are using commercial ethernet chipsets that already support Ipv6, although will remain disabled until required. It is surprising to see so low interest from operators (the ones that at the end drive the equipment market with their requests for proposals, rfps) in Ipv6. In January 2010 the Asia Pacific Network Information Center (apnIc) announced the central pool of unallocated addresses could be exhausted by late 2011. It would be a real nightmare for mobile operators if, once they had finally migrated to all-IP technology, they were not able to expand their networks. Since much undesired traffic is being addressed globally to some of the remaining addresses in the Ip pool, there are also doubts that the complete range of Ip addresses technically available can be used. The amount of undesired traffic being received in this addresses would make them unusable. the microwave Gauss bell as happens with any new technological evolution, things are getting more complex with all-Ip backhaul
fIGUre 3 the mIcroWave GaUss bell th e lte / lte -a d va n c e d GU Id e - n ov em ber 2010 back to table of contents
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and the expected hype around it is already in place. this hype has been increased by mobile carriers awareness of operating cost savings ethernet microwave allows for compared to expensive leased lines. If we analyze the evolution of the amount of research and investment around backhaul, we will see we are just at the top of a Gauss bell (see figure 3). although the debate around backhaul was foreseeable, it is not to stay with us forever. eventually, microwave backhaul will start going down the bell back again to a maturity state as it was before the ethernet revolution came. vendors such as nokia siemens, alcatellucent and nec are somewhat advancing that situation by integrating their microwave offerings into a more general backhaul solution where microwave, fiber and all upper-layer protocols are implemented. furthermore, in
order to accelerate such a technological convergence, these vendors are integrating complementary microwave equipment such as 80 Ghz links from partners instead of developing their own solutions. When will the bottom of the bell be reached? When network managers consider microwave simply as another kind of ethernet interface to any networking equipment. however, since we are still at the top of the Gauss bell, we have devised Maravedis coming Wireless backhaul report as a parachute solution for carriers and equipment vendors to secure their way down the curve. The article was based on findings from the report Wireless backhaul market from an all-Ip perspective published by maravedis in october 2010. for more information on the report, please contact info@maravedisbwa.com
mr. fellah, ceo and founder of maravedis Inc., is a leader in the broadband Wireless world and authored various landmark reports on lte, 4G, WimaX, broadband Wireless and voice over Ip (voIp). he is regularly asked to speak at leading wireless events and to contribute to various influential portals and magazines such as telephony magazine, 4G & WimaX trends, fierce Wireless, WimaX.com, to name a few. fellah is a member of the program advisory board for the 4G World conference since 2004 and an active member of the World communications association International (WcaI) and the european broadband Wireless association. prior to founding maravedis, fellah held various positions at harris corporation in charge of market intelligence and business development.
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LTE-Advanced Test Challenges

by Janine Whitacre, lte program lead agilent technologies
Agilent Technologies
add: 5301 stevens creek blvd. santa clara, ca 95051 Usa Us: +1 800 829 4444 canada: +1 877 894 4414 contact_us@agilent.com
tel: email:
Website: www.agilent.com
In the feasibility study for lte-advanced, 3Gpp determined that lte could meet most of the ITU-Rs 4G requirements with the addition of the following lte-advanced features: wider bandwidths, enabled by carrier aggregation, and higher efficiency, enabled by enhanced uplink multiple access and enhanced multiple antenna transmission (advanced mImo techniques). lte itself is new and quite complex consider the use of multiple channel bandwidths, differing downlink and uplink transmission schemes, two transmission modes (fdd and tdd), and mImo. 2G/3G interworking necessities and potential interference issues exist. In typically difficult radio environments, LTE sets the bar for performance targets very high, and lte-advanced raises it even higher. the challenges for design and test cannot be overstated.
carrier aGGreGation Carrier aggregation will undoubtedly pose major difficulties for the Ue, which must handle multiple simultaneous transceivers. the addition of simultaneous non-con-
tiguous transmitters creates a highly challenging radio environment in terms of spur management and selfblocking. simultaneous transmit or receive with mandatory MIMO support will add significantly to the challenge of antenna design. the exact impact of carrier aggregation on the specifications depends on the reference UE architecture, and several are still under discussion. Until this discussion concludes, the performance requirements for carrier aggregation remain undecided. enhanced uplink multiple access the introduction of clustered sc-fdma in the uplink allows frequency selective scheduling within a component carrier for better link performance. also, the pUcch and pUsch can be scheduled together to reduce latency. however, clustered sc-fdma increases papr by a significant amount, adding to transmitter linearity issues. simultaneous pUcch and pUsch also increase papr. both features create multi-carrier signals within the channel bandwidth and increase the opportunity for in-channel and adjacent channel spur generation. test tools will need to be enhanced with capability for signal generation and analysis of in-channel multicarrier signals in LTE-Advanced power amplifiers. enhanced multiple antenna transmission higher order mImo increases the need for simultaneous transceivers in a manner similar to carrier aggregation. however, mImo has another challenge because the number of mImo antennas will multiply and they all must be de-correlated. It will be especially difficult to design multiband, mImo antennas with good de-correlation
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a GIle n t te c h n oloGIe s conti nued
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to operate in the small space of an lte-advanced Ue. conducted testing of higher order mImo terminals will no longer be usable for predicting actual radiated performance in an operational network. a study item in release 10 is looking at mImo over the air (ota) testing that could be extended to the higher order MIMO defined for lte-advanced. the potential reception gains from mImo systems are a function of the number of antennas. although the theoretical potential of such systems can be simulated, practical considerations make commercial deployment more challenging. at the base station, compact 4x antenna systems are already in use. Increasing this to 8x to maximize the potential for spatial multiplexing and beamsteering may require the use of tower-mounted remote radio heads to avoid running 8 sets of expensive and lossy cables up the tower. the increased power consumption of mImo systems is a factor that cannot be overlooked. there is a tradeoff between the number of antennas per sector and the number of sectors per cell. sometimes it may be preferable to use a six-sector cell with four antennas per sector rather than a three-sector cell with eight antennas per sector. at the Ue, the main issue with higher order mImo is the physical space required for the antennas. laptop data-
only systems clearly have an advantage over handheld devices in terms of size, power handling, and throughput requirements. Also, its difficult in a small device to achieve the necessary spatial separation of the antennas in order to exploit spatial beamforming in the channel. a solution might use cross-polarization rather than spatial separation to reduce the correlation between antennas. these are just a few of the challenges that lte-advanced will present wireless design and test engineers. as the technology moves ahead, test vendors will have to increase the capability of their products and invent ingenious new ways to verify performance in the evolving systems.a unique aspect of lte is that the Ue must support all six channel bandwidths from 1.4 mhz to 20 mhz even though actual system deployment in any one geographical area may be restricted to fewer bandwidths. the lte signal structure contains reference signals (rs) spread both in frequency and in time over the entire lte signal. the Ue and base station (enb) receivers can use these signals along with digital signal processing (dsp) techniques to compensate for amplitude and phase linearity errors in the transmitter, radio channel, and receiver. flatness needs be tested across each supported bandwidth and band, particularly at the band edges where the duplex filter attenuates the edge of the signal.
Janine r Whitacre, lte program lead, electronic measurement Group, agilent technologies Janine r Whitacre received her bs degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin, madison, in 1979. she has over 10 years of experience working on emerging cellular technologies and is currently focused on application engineering for lte.
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The Road to 4G in the Americas
4G Americas
add: 1750 112th ave. ne suite b220 bellevue, Wa 98004 Usa +1 425 372 8922 info@4gamericas.org
Q&A with Chris Pearson, President of 4G Americas
tel: email:
Website: www.4gamericas.org
Industry organization 3G americas, recently renamed 4G americas, has been at the forefront of the ever-evolving mobile broadband ecosystem and has fostered the successful deployment, adoption and growth of the 3Gpp family of technologies, including hspa and lte, throughout the Western hemisphere.
through education and advocacy, 4G americas works with regulatory bodies, technical standards bodies and other global wireless organizations to promote seamless interoperability and convergence and to identify any roadblocks that could hinder the success of the 3Gpp technologies. In effect, the association has worked to build a house of stone with the 3Gpp technologies in the region. At the first half of 2010, GSM-HSPA represented 75 percent market share in the americas, up from 73 percent at the end of 2009. the 3Gpp family of technologies market share continues to grow in this important region with the U.s. as the leading nation for mobile broadband services worldwide and latin america as the second fastest growth region globally. this is particularly significant for a strong foundation with a house of stone on the road to 4G as Greenfield, CDMA and WimaX operators are choosing the evolution to lte. 4G americas president chris pearson responds to questions regarding the next generation of mobile broadband in the americas.
Gsm-hspa statistics: 656 million subscriptions in Western hemisphere * latin america growth engine: 512 million subscriptions and 93% share of market * Worldwide hspa: 359 commercial networks in 142 countries (4G americas, nov 2010) Worldwide hspa+: 73 commercial network in 39 countries (4G americas, nov 2010) Worldwide Umts-hspa subscriptions expected to reach over 697 million by Ye 2010 * more than 2,057 commercial hspa devices from 176 suppliers made available worldwide (Gsma, nov 2010) hspa+ dual-carrier at 42 mbps peak theoretical download speeds now commercially deployed by telstra (australia) and pccW (hong kong) lte commercially launched by 6 operators in 5 countries (4G americas, nov 2010) AT&T: upgrading to HSPA+ by yE 2010; LTE launch in 2011 in both 700 mhz and aWs spectrum bands covering 70-75 million POPs by yE 2011; and introducing voice over lte (volte) by 2013 t-mobile Usa: plans 100 markets and 200 million pops with hspa+ by Ye 2011 rogers Wireless: hspa+ in all major markets from coast to coast; trialing LTE with Ericsson in Ontario with theoretical speeds of 150 mbps, launch date tbd
* statistical data from Informa telecoms & media WcIs, september 2010 estimates
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fIGUre 1: Gsm-hspa GroWth In the Western hemIsphere
Give us a snapshot of the americas wireless market. Its a healthy market by any measure. Lets start with growth. Figure 1 illustrates how the regions total number of wireless subscriptions nearly quadrupled between 2001 and June 2010 to 851 million. one thing that changed during this period is the popularity among both wireless carriers and their customers of the 3Gpp family of technologies, which includes edGe, Umts, hspa, hspa+ and now lte. as figure 1 shows, starting around 2006, GSM became the regions dominant wireless technology in terms of subscriptions. today, the Gsm family of technologies has a 75 percent share of the americas market. This dominance isnt a regional anomaly, either. On a global level, 4.7 billion wireless subscriptions are from
the Gsm family of technologies, according to Informa Telecoms & Media, an independent research firm. Thats 90 percent of the worldwide market. and in some parts of the americas, the Gsm family of technologies is even more dominant. figure 2 illustrates how GSMs popularity in Latin America and the Caribbean increased to 93 percent as of June 2010.
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fIGUre 2: latIn amerIca WIreless technoloGY GroWth
As these pie charts above show, GSMs growth over the past year isnt entirely a byproduct of the regions overall wireless growth. Some of GSMs growth also comes from an increase in the number of wireless carriers and mobile users switching from other technologies to Gsm. so where does Gsm Go from here? is the americas market now saturated? Theres still ample room for growth. Ill explain some of the reasons in a moment, but lets look at some forecasts first. Figure 3 (see next page) predicts that on a global level, the combined market for Umts-hspa and lte 3Gpp mobile broadband technologies will more than triple between 2011 and 2015. figure 4 (see next page) shows that this trend is playing out in the americas, too. One reason why theres still so much room for growth is
that people increasingly have multiple wireless devices, such as a person who owns both a smartphone and a 3G tablet. another growth opportunity is the rise of machineto-machine (m2m) communications, sometimes referred to as connected devices. these devices far outnumber humans. over the past year, 4G technoloGies have made a lot of headlines not just in the telecom and business press, but also in the mainstream. where does lte fit in? LTE is both a revolution and an evolution. Thats not just a sound bite. Instead, its an accurate description of where this technology fits in. Heres an example: For carriers that currently use the Gsm family of technologies which includes Gsm, edGe, Umts, hspa and hspa+ lte is a natural,
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fIGUre 3: Global trends for Umts-hspa, 2001-2015
fIGUre 4 shoWs that thIs trend Is plaYInG oUt In the amerIcas, too.
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evolutionary step because all of them share the 3Gpp standards foundation. this commonality makes it faster, easier and more cost effective for carriers to add lte than if they had to do a forklift upgrade of their network infrastructure. for instance, some base stations deployed years ago can be upgraded to support lte by simply adding hardware modules and software. Thats faster and less expensive than having to install an entirely brand new base station. but lte also is revolutionary. for example, its architecture is all-IP, which simplifies the network. LTE also is designed so that new base stations can automatically work with one an grade of their network infrastructure. for instance, some base stations deployed years ago can be upgraded to support lte by simply adding hardware modules and software. Thats faster and less expensive than having to install an entirely brand new base station. but lte also is revolutionary. for example, its architecture is all-IP, which simplifies the network. LTE also is designed so that new base stations can automatically work with one another to organize themselves into a network, possibly freeing a small army of engineers to work on other aspects of the network. These features can significantly reduce the carriers overhead and improve overall efficiency. some non-Gsm carriers also are GoinG to lte. why? Quite a few, in fact. verizon Wireless (U.s.), bell mobility (canada), sk telecom (south korea) and kddI (Japan) are among the more than 34 cdma carriers worldwide that have committed to deploying lte. also, regarding WimaX technology, russian operator Yota, one of the worlds leading WiMAX operators, plans to roll out LTE technology in five Russian cities in 2010 as well as the new markets that they enter in the future. and in the U.s., clearwire has publicly announced their trial and interest in lte. arguably the biggest factor is that lte gives them access to global economies of scale and scope, and an ecosystem thats larger than CDMA and WiMAX combined by a wide margin. today, the Gsm family of technologies has more than 90 percent of the global mobile market in terms of customers. 4G americas also predicts that most all Gsm carriers
will eventually migrate to lte not a far-fetched prediction, considering that more than 250 operators have either announced their plans or launched commercial lte service. that means over the long term, lte will have a global market share that rivals GSMs. Add in the growing number of cdma and WimaX carriers switching to LTE, and LTEs long-term mobile broadband market share could be unmatched. Which brings us back to the economies of scale. a rule of thumb in telecom and every other industry is that as volumes increase, prices decrease. by switching to lte, legacy cdma and WimaX carriers can leverage a larger wireless ecosystem. One quick example of why thats so important: A major trend in wireless is that more and more non-consumer devices from shipping containers to digital signage to utility meters are connected, meaning they use wireless to report information such as their location and status. many analysts predict that within a few years, the number of connected devices will surpass the number of mobile phones. the catch is that many connected-device applications are highly price-sensitive. so to capitalize on this opportunity, wireless carriers must have immense efficiencies and economies of scale. Gsm offers that today, and lte will tomorrow. are there potential roadblocks? Spectrum is the main one. Unfortunately thats true for all wireless technologies. Sure, LTE is far more efficient than its predecessors in terms of how it shoehorns more voice, data and multimedia traffic into a limited amount of spectrum. But even those techniques dont obviate the need for more spectrum to deliver not only the services, but also the quality of services, that consumers and businesses demand. Thats why 3G Americas spent the past several years educating regulators throughout the americas about why spectrum is crucial. 4G americas is continuing that mission. for example, not all spectrum is equally useful. although lte is designed to work in more than 25 bands, its not practical or cost-effective to build phones, modems and other devices that support more than a handful of those bands. By comparison, todays GSM-HSPA world phones typically have no more than four cellular bands in addition to bluetooth and Wifi.
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Thats why one of 4G Americas initiatives is to educate regulators about the need not only for more spectrum, but harmonized spectrum. the ideal would be to have a small number of common bands available throughout the americas. that would make regional roaming much easier and potentially less expensive from a device standpoint because handsets, tablets and modems would have to support fewer bands. as a rule, the more bands that a device has to support, the more complex its design, and the more expensive it becomes. Governments benefit when wireless carriers have ample spectrum. case in point: the U.s., where carriers have invested $264 billion since 1985, with $120 billion in the past five years alone, according to CTIA. but now spectrum has become scarce in the U.s. and many other countries in this region. opening new bands quickly would spur investment, which would benefit the economy. new spectrum spurs new investment in infrastructure, devices, backhaul and, most importantly, jobs. compared to some of their peers abroad, carriers in the americas are better off because many regulators here allow them to deploy lte in their existing 2G/3G spectrum. however, it is not easy to re-farm spectrum and make it available for lte commercial deployments. as evidence, most of the lte deployments in 2010 and 2011 are by operators who are investing billions of dollars to deploy lte in new spectrum, not re-farmed spectrum. how lonG, and how will, 3G and lte coexist? Theyre highly complementary, to the point of being symbiotic. that relationship will continue for at least several more years because it simply takes time to build out lte coverage to the point that it matches 2G/3G coverage. during this interim, 2G/3G will serve as a fallback for lte in two ways. first, in areas where a particular carrier hasnt built out LTE coverage yet, LTE devices will automatically fall back to 3G. In many cases, theyll fall back to HSPA or HSPA+, which Ill discuss in a moment. those two technologies are capable of delivering multimegabit speeds, which means that customers shouldnt notice a dramatic drop in performance when their device falls back. depending on the carrier, 3G could remain in service even after LTE is completely built out. This strategy isnt new. many carriers have deployed 3G in urban and sub-
urban areas, with edGe or even Gprs coverage outside of those markets. some carriers will exercise the same strategy with lte, deploying it in areas where population density is high, making for a big enough pool of potential customers to justify the investment. the second way that 3G complements lte is voice. sure, most consumers and business users have spent the past several years flocking to data services, but voice is still very, very important to them. the Gsm ecosystem is currently working on the detailed standard specifications and implementation guidelines for running voice traffic over LTE or VoLTE. That should be finalized sometime in 2011, after which infrastructure and device vendors can start building compatible equipment for carriers to deploy starting sometime by 2013. Until that solution is widely deployed, lte smartphones will automatically switch to 3G or even 2G for voice calls. voice also is one of the reasons why I described the relationship between 3G and lte as symbiotic. because voice is so important to their customers, carriers have a vested interest in maintaining high-quality 3G networks to deliver that service. this is good news for customers who arent ready to upgrade to LTE. Theres another factor that will keep many 2G/3G networks switched on for the foreseeable future. earlier, I mentioned the boom market for connected devices. many of these are designed to remain in service for a decade or longer. After all, its not practical for, say, a utility company to replace the wireless modules on all of its electric meters every few years just because theres a new wireless technology in town. Carriers dont want to alienate those customers, which is why theyre unlikely to shut down their edGe and Umts networks anytime soon. you mentioned hspa and hspa+. at least in the media, they seem to be overshadowed by lte. are they just steppinG stones to 4G? hspa and hspa+ are robust technologies in so many ways: performance, carrier commitments and launches, upgradeability, device selection, to name just a few. 4G americas believes as do many analysts that hspa/ hspa+ will remain top choices for carriers and customers through at least the next five to 10 years. one reason is momentum. In 2010, there were already more than 2,057 models of commercial hspa devices
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fIGUre 5: hspa+ data rate evolUtIon
available from 176 vendors, according to the Gsm association. as of november 2010, there also were 345 commercial Umts-hspa networks already in 139 countries. 4G americas expects the majority of all of these operators to deploy hspa+. all of this adds up to an enormous installed base, one that will continue to grow on a regional and global basis. Why? because hspa and hspa+ are fast enough to support even the most bandwidth-intensive applications and services. Initial hspa deployments typically have peak theoretical download speeds of 3.6 mbps before being upgraded to 7.2 mbps. hspa+ is a simple upgrade to an hspa network, but the payoff is enormous: peak theoretical download speeds of 21.6 mbps with initial upgrades, with some carriers such as telstra implementing versions that support peak speeds of 42 mbps. In the americas, rogers Wireless and t-mobile Usa are among the 12 carriers that have upgraded to hspa+ at 21.6 mbps. also, at&t announced an upgrade to hspa+ before year end 2010 while t-mobile Usa has announced their upgrade to dual carrier hspa+ in 2011 with peak download speeds of 42 mbps. 3G americas recently rebranded as 4G americas. why?
We felt that the time was right with the ItU expected to ratify Imt-advanced technologies in october 2010. our board members voted unanimously on a new mission and objectives for the organization that expanded our vision while continuing to do the successful work that we have accomplished in the past years. the new brand succinctly captures the evolution of both the organization and the Gsm family of technologies. But the new brand and logo also reflect the 3G americas brand, which is known and respected by industry media, analysts and regulators. 4G americas will continue to support 2G and 3G technologies addressing standards recommendations, technical requirements and advocacy. However, weve now broadened our scope to include more under our organizations umbrella. 4G Americas will promote, facilitate and advocate for the deployment and adoption of the 3Gpp family of mobile broadband technologies throughout the ecosystem including networks, services, applications and wireless connected devices in the americas. will your membership chanGe? due to the broadening of our mission, it is possible that more companies could apply to 4G americas. because we are encompassing additional parts of the wireless ecosystem, we could also see membership evolve to
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include new areas. however, growing membership was not the reason for our change to 4G americas. We want to address a world of connected devices, and the emerging new ecosystems being created by device manufacturers, infrastructure solution providers, vertical industries, application developers and other companies. In many ways the change to 4G americas offers a new horizon for the organization. so very much has been accomplished, as we built the Gsm technology into the position as market leader in the Western hemisphere, with the U.s. leading mobile broadband milestones on a global basis, and lte starting to be commercially deployed. now we can support the continued growth of the 3Gpp technology family while seeking to put our technology family into any device that will benefit from a wireless connection giving us an aspiration to transform communications for people, businesses and societies throughout the americas.
about 4G americas: unifyinG the americas throuGh mobile broadband technoloGy 4G americas is an industry trade organization composed of leading telecommunications service providers and manufacturers. The organizations mission is to promote, facilitate and advocate for the deployment and adoption of the 3Gpp family of technologies throughout the americas. 4G americas contributes to the successful commercial rollout of 3Gpp mobile broadband technologies across the americas and their place as the no. 1 technology family in the region. the organization aims to develop the expansive wireless ecosystem of networks, devices, and applications enabled by Gsm and its evolution to lte. 4G americas is headquartered in Bellevue, Wash., with an office for Latin America and the caribbean in dallas. more information is available at www.4gamericas.org.
chris pearson, president of 4G americas, is responsible for the strategic planning of the organization and providing executive management for the integration of strategy and operations in the areas of technology, marketing, public relations and regulatory affairs. as president, he represents 4G Americas Market Representation interests within the 3GPP organization. mr. pearson has more than 23 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. he regularly speaks at wireless conferences and events throughout the world.
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for additional information on hspa+ and lte: download free white papers at www.4gamericas.org
click on white paper cover image(s) to visit 4G americas white papers web page.
transItIon to 4G: 3Gpp broadband evolUtIon to Imtadvanced
traffIc manaGement technIQUes for mobIle broadband netWorks: lIvInG In an orthoGonal World
mImo and smart antennas for 3G and 4G WIreless sYstems: practIcal aspects and deploYment consIderatIons
3Gpp mobIle broadband InnovatIon path to 4G: release 9, release 10 and beYond: hspa+, sae/lte and lte-advanced
Gsm-Umts netWork mIGratIon to lte
the benefIts of son In lte
3Gpp lte for tdd spectrUm In the amerIcas
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Application Bundles in the LTE Networks

by volkan sevindik, phd systems engineer, airvana, Inc. technology expert, lte portal
LTE Portal
add: tel: fax: email:
po box 191314 san francisco, ca 94119 Usa +1 415 230 0305 +1 866 639 4720 info@lteportal.com
Website: www.lteportal.com
application - the buzz word - is an attractive term for every organization in the telecommunication sector and, especially, for service providers and mobile device manufacturers. basically, an application means a small software component, which runs on a mobile device. applications can have different functionalities based on the device or the user who is using the device. this makes most of the applications mobile device-dependent. for iphone or blackberry, different applications should be developed in order to leverage the functionalities of these devices. for instance, blackberry is known for its superior email performance, so emailbased applications would be more desirable than other types of applications. for iphone, the situation is somewhat different, since iphone was created by keeping the user-friendly design concept in mind. any application that takes advantage of iPhones high performance graphic and video handling capabilities may be the selling application.
When I think about applications, I think about two restaurants one is McDonalds and the other one is some fancy restaurant. their basic service is to serve food. however, the ways they serve food and the type of food they serve are different. similarly, applications are different ways that network providers use to deliver their basic service - data. since the line between voice and data services is blurring (cf. voIp), I refer to data service as the basic service that network operators are delivering and will be delivering over 4G networks. If the application provides capabilities to make data consumption easy and more efficient, both consumers and service providers will be happy. since data speeds will go up in the lte and WimaX networks, service providers should carefully design applications, so they use network resources efficiently at all times. All applications have different usage and data consumption patterns. this means that on different days of the week or during different times of the day, some applications will be more dominant in terms of data usage. therefore, network operators should carefully design and tailor different types of applications for different segments of customers. moreover, operators should create different application bundles - that is sets of applications that are functionally independent from each other - for different customer segments. for example, by combining calendar and voice mail applications, your mobile device can adjust its settings in such a way, so as to forward all incoming calls directly to your voice mail during the times that you have marked as busy on your calendar. or by analyzing your calendar, facebook profile, and current location, it can recommend, for example, a new restaurant or some other place, where you can meet with your facebook friends. by comparing your amazon or barnes & noble accounts and facebook profile, your mobile device can recommend a specific gift for
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What I mean by the application bundle is a small software installed on the users mobile device, which utilizes information from other applications in order to offer unique recommendations based on the users needs or interests.
parties. one example is when you travel to a different country. Your service operator will update this software with relevant information about the country you are visiting. thus, you do not have to worry that you may miss some popular sites and places of interest in that particular country. all that you need to know will be on your smartphone. the application bundle will offer comprehensive information about that particular country and make the best possible recommendations based on your arrival and departure times, so that you can use your time more efficiently. For example, you tell your smartphone that you would like to visit two famous museums, have dinner at a popular restaurant serving traditional food, go to a jazz concert, buy some books for your parents and gifts for your kids, and that you need to be at the airport three hours before the flight. your smartphone will analyze all the available information and provide you with the most relevant recommendations based on your preferences. Your smartphone will also provide backup recommendations, in case your flight is delayed or canceled for some reason, so you know what to do in such a situation. In addition, you will be able to provide a feedback for those recommendations. once you left the country, your smartphone will send your feedback to your original service provider in your home country, so that you can share this information with others. moreover, by using your feedback, network operators can gather more accurate information about the visited country, so you can use an improved and updated version of this application bundle, when you visit that country in the future. for each feedback that you provide, you will receive the next update for free. one way to monetize this service is to charge users per update for the application bundle. If the users want better and more accurate recommendations, they should pay for it. for popular international destinations, the us-
your friend whose birthdays is approaching. moreover, depending on your location (when you are not at a movie theater, for instance) and calendar (not during work hours or business or school meetings, for example), your smartphone can start asking sat, Gmat, Gre, or lsat questions to help you practice for the upcoming test marked on your calendar. an application bundle combines the capabilities of different applications installed on the users mobile device to create a new value for the user. however, it is not always a good idea to design a totally new application only for combining different application functionalities. What I mean by the application bundle is a small software installed on the users mobile device, which utilizes information from other applications in order to offer unique recommendations based on the users needs or interests. In my opinion, application bundle software will be created by mobile device manufactures based on requests from service providers. It will have an open source code, as well as an application programming interface (apI), so that it can be modified easily. It will also use real cellular network information from service providers. service providers constantly monitor the network and traffic usage patterns to understand the user preferences. based on this network intelligence, operators will send updates to this small software on the users smartphone. As time goes on, this software will gather accurate information about the users hourly and daily preferences and offer recommendations that can help utilize the users time more productively and efficiently. Service providers can share some of this information with third parties to better process the available data and develop more accurate recommendations. since network providers have all the data that is required as an input to this application bundle software, they can control the functionality of the software and the amount of information available to third
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ers will pay extra. this is just one example of how a real revenue generator for service providers can also provide better services to the users. the most important feature of an application, in my opinion, is whether it fits into the users real, daily life. this is the reason why operators should accurately identify customer segments, in order to better understand and cater to the needs and interests of their customers. Thus, a real-time traffic classification and different traffic pattern recognition can be a game changer for network operators. In order to monetize on every bit of information sent over the network, multidimensional data should be analyzed and information should be collected based on that data. this information includes, but is not limited to, the time of the day, day of the week, location, phone and application types, usage patterns for different applications, which base stations serve which types of users and applications most, high-demand but undelivered services (hd voice, hd video, hd video conferencing, hd gaming), interrupted or low quality services, the type
of requested high-quality services, the services that users are willing to pay for, and so on. application bundles should be updated based on this information frequently enough, so as to make the users life and mobile experience easier and more rewarding. In conclusion, creating application bundles based on the multidimensional network intelligence data will be ground breaking, if valuable information can be gathered out of the available data. this information should be updated regularly and frequently, including all the details about the network and the user. success in terms of customer loyalty, new customer acquisition, and revenue generation will come from the detailed analysis of the network resource usage and the promised and actually delivered network performance. application bundles will fill the gap between applications and network performance by matching what is requested and what is delivered, and by discovering unmet demand in terms of applications and service quality.
volkan sevindik holds bs degree in electronics and telecommunication engineering with first-class honor distinction from Istanbul Technical University, ms degree in electronics and electrical engineering from bogazici University, Istanbul, turkey, and a phd degree in electrical and computer engineering, University of massachusetts, lowell, ma, Usa. volkan is a systems engineer at airvana, Inc., as well as a technology expert at lte portal broadband solutions, Inc. he is deeply interested in next generation wireless networking technologies with a special focus on new quality of service (Qos) and quality of experience (Qoe) models. his current interests are admission control, scheduler design, traffic classification, radio resource management in cellular telecommunication networks. volkan also often posts relevant industry content on his blog at http://www.volkansevindik.com
LTE / LTE-Advanced Media Solutions Group
press icons and stay tuned
www.lteportal.com +1 415 230 0305 info@lteportal.com
38
2010: A Good Year for LTE

by alan hadden, president Global mobile suppliers association
GSA
add: Gsa secretariat po box 5817 sawbridgeworth cm21 0bh UnIted kInGdom +44 1279 439 667 +44 1279 435 443 info@gsacom.com
tel: fax: email:
Website: www.gsacom.com
this article charts the recent progress made by lte, drivers for lte deployments, the status of lte deployments worldwide for both fdd and tdd system modes, spectrum requirements, and the developing eco-system. an update is provided on the planned evolution of lte as an Imt-advanced system.
lte made excellent progress in 2010. by october 2010 a total of 156 operators were investing in lte. this figure included 113 firm commercial network deployments underway or planned, which has doubled in 12 months. In the same timeframe the number of countries where lte is being rolled out also doubled. there are an additional 43 pre-commitment technology trials, many of which will likely convert to commitments once tests are completed. seven lte networks were in commercial service by end october 2010. Gsa expects there at least 55 lte networks will be in service by end 2012.
chart 1: operator commItments to deploYInG lte compared to other technoloGIes
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The rapid increase in mobile data traffic which has been experienced over the past 3 years and widely documented, and which is currently supported primarily by hspa and hspa+ systems, is driving the interest in deploying lte as quickly as possible. The first HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) mobile broadband system was commercially launched just 5 years ago. hspa was the catalyst for the worldwide mobile broadband explosion. hspa technology established from the outset as the leading mobile broadband technology globally - and has continuously strengthened that position. five years on, the phenomenal growth and success of hspa continues. according to Gsa, the number of commercial hspa networks numbered 370 in 151 countries by October 2010. HSPA is the first evolution of Wcdma, and today 99% of Wcdma operators worldwide have deployed hspa on their networks. the eco-system of user devices is impressive too, hspa mobile broadband has clearly moved into the mainstream. the number of hspa-capable user devices growing quickly and extending into new product categories such as cameras, ebook readers, tablets, etc.. according to a related Gsa survey, more than 1,000 new hspa user devices were launched onto the market over the past year, representing year-on-year growth of 60%, and has lifted the total number of hspa products launched to 2,776 from 251 suppliers. mobile broadband network speeds are increasing. around two-thirds of hspa networks support a peak downlink data throughput of 7.2 mbps or higher, and 1,300 different user devices support this capability. on the uplink, more than one third of networks have commercially launched hsUpa (high speed Uplink packet access), with the number of user devices supporting hsUpa increasing in the past year by 140% to 825 products. a total of 55 networks support a peak uplink data speed of 5.8 mbps, and the majority (51%) of hspa user devices support this performance. most operators have a mobile broadband proposition in their service portfolio. Network traffic volumes, revenues and profit have all increased increase and operators across the world are reporting business successes with mobile broadband. the business case for mobile broadband is proven. With more than 600 million mobile broadband subscriptions now being supported by Wcdma and hspa operators, representing year-on-
year growth of 40%, the outlook is promising. big improvements in data speed, capacity and performance have arrived in the past couple of years with hspa evolution which is usually referred to as hspa+. GSA had earlier predicted that 2010 would be a significant year for hspa+ deployments, based on results from our industry survey in 2009 which sought views about which mobile broadband technology would enter the mainstream in 2010. Our research confirms the expectations that many respondents expressed in the survey. by october 2010 a total of 136 operators in 63 countries had committed to hspa+ deployments, including 81 commercially launched hspa+ systems in 48 countries. We expect there will be around 100 commercial hspa+ systems by end 2010. The worlds first HSPA+ system entered commercial service only in february 2009. that system was launched by telstra, in australia, with a capability of 21 mbps peak downlink data speed using 64Qam modulation. by october 2010 more than 1 in 5 hspa operators had commercially launched hspa+ networks to leverage the many significant performance benefits not just data speed, and increased efficiencies. the capabilities of many of these hspa+ networks have further evolved, and today more than 10% of commercial hspa+ support 42 mbps peak downlink performance. this is achieved by combining 64Qam with 2 x 5 mhz carriers (known as dc-hspa+). the uplink can be doubled to 11.5 mbps by using 16Qam instead of Qpsk modulation. Gsa predicts that more than 10% of hspa operators across the world will have deployed 42 mbps hspa+ technology on their networks within the next 12 months. hspa+ technology has a strong evolution path. some operators have already committed to the next step which is being standardized in 3Gpp release 9, which will combine multicarrier and mImo technologies in 10 mhz carrier bandwidth to deliver 84 mbps peak on the downlink. Using multicarrier on the uplink can double the peak rate to 23 mbps. further evolutionary steps for hspa+ are envisaged in standardization efforts beyond release 9. however for hspa+ to be regarded as a mainstream technology would require there to be a proportionate availability and choice of user devices in the market. for the large part this is already addressed by the current vast range and availability of devices which are com-
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patible with existing hspa systems (subject to network operating frequencies) , giving operators the capacity to support many more customers and at the same time improving the user experience thanks to higher average throughputs and reduced latency. there is also a growing range of hspa+ capable devices arriving on the market, enabling even higher user mobile broadband speeds which hspa+ can deliver. by early november 2010, Gsa had identified 68 HSPA+ user devices that had been announced by 13 suppliers, with peak downlink data speeds in the range of 21 to 42 mbps. the success of mobile broadband, fuelled by hspa/ hspa+ deployments, competition, attractive pricing, simplicity of usage, the mobile notebook, and the massive penetration of data-friendly user devices (especially smartphones) is driving operators in all regions to invest in lte. Increasingly video will account for more mobile data traffic, estimated by Cisco at 66% of global mobile data traffic by year 2014. In October 2010 GSA launched an online survey focusing on the mobile broadband future, asking visitors to the website to consider the various recent predictions about the increase in video that will be carried over mobile networks in the coming years. as mobile broadband data becomes an embedded con-
sumer service, we ask the question - how will mobile networks cope with large increases in data especially from the media and publishing industry? delivering video, news, magazines as well as basic browsing could push the limits of existing technologies. the survey results and analysis will be published in december 2010. While migration to hspa+ is the main trend in 2010, lte is the main direction. the industry is preparing now for large-scale introduction of lte systems and services over the next 1-2 years. the path to lte has been selected by mobile network operators who today may provide services on Gsm/Wcdma-hspa, cdma or WimaX platforms, or fixed telecoms players wishing to offer mobility. the list of committed operators is impressive, and includes the worlds biggest players. lte provides operators with several important benefits, including significantly increased peak data rates, increased cell performance, reduced latency, the ability to be deployed in scalable bandwidths, co-existence with Gsm/edGe/Umts-hspa/hspa+ systems, and reduced capeX and opeX. lte improves the experience of all Internet services, and enhances more demanding applications such as interactive tv, mobile video blogging, advanced gaming, and professional services. furthermore, lte is crucial to accommodate the expected
chart 2: maIn benefIts of deploYInG lte th e lte / lte -a d va n c e d GU Id e - n ov em ber 2010 back to table of contents
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huge data service traffic growth already discussed, and reduce the cost per gigabyte delivered to the user. this is essential in order to successfully address the future needs of the mass market. lte also brings an evolution to the core network to an all-IP architecture that benefits operators by reducing capeX and opeX costs and introduces more flexibility to handle the IP-services now coming to the fore. lte means more spectrum and more capacity, and when combined with legacy systems such as Gsm/edGe and hspawill in future ensure the capability to support billions of connected devices nationwide. lte and hspa/hspa+
are not competing but complementary technologies. 85% of lte operators also invest in hspa. lte is essential to address the forecast high capacity challenges and deliver the performance requirements for the next step in the user experience, not only because it brings faster connectivity and throughput capabilities and more capacity, but significantly, LTE reduces latency. Thus LTE opens the door to handling much larger file transfers and downloads, and enhanced services such as hd video streaming, hd videoconferencing, hd gaming, and more. 156 operators in 64 countries were investing in lte by end October 2010. This figure comprizes 113 firm com-
chart 3: lte netWork deploYment commItments, laUnches and trIals
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mitments by operators to deploy commercial lte systems in 46 countries, plus a further 43 pre-commitment trials or pilots in an additional 18 countries. at that time 7 lte systems had been commercially launched, by teliasonera (sweden, norway), a1 telekom austria, mts and Ucell (both Uzbekistan), mobyland & centernet (poland) and metropcs (Usa). at least 55 lte networks are expected to be in commercial service by end 2012. the prime frequency band for lte deployments in the Usa is 700 mhz (698-806 mhz), which was auctioned in 2008 as part of the digital dividend arising from tv broadcasters switching over from analog to digital transmission. verizon Wireless plans to launch lte in 38 metro areas of the Us in 2010, while at&t has announced launch of its LTE service mid-2011. The first launch of LTE in the US was in september 2010 by metropcs, and uses aWs spectrum (band Iv: 1710-1755/2110-2155 mhz). metropcs also introduced the worlds first LTE-capable handset from launch which is dual mode since it also works on their cdma network. In europe and most other parts of the world, the prime band for lte is 2.6 Ghz (band vII: 2500-2570/2620-2690 mhz), particularly for urban and capacity requirements. spectrum in this band is used today for example, for the commercial systems now launched in austria, norway and sweden. most lte networks will use this band, which offers the best opportunity for significant blocks of new spectrum in sufficient quantities to achieve the best performance from lte (with allocations up to 20 mhz for the maximum throughput speeds) and to support a number of competing operators. the 2.6 Ghz band has been auctioned in some markets of asia and europe and a number of auctions are imminent or planned. there are also instances of lte deployments in refarmed spectrum. for example in sweden tele2 and telenor are jointly building an lte network (net4mobility) which involves sharing of 900 mhz (formerly exclusive for Gsm service, but now liberalized in several markets) and 2.6 Ghz channels. In poland, mobyland & centernet launched the worlds first LTE1800 system, i.e. LTE deployed in refarmed 1800 mhz spectrum. the main motivation is coverage, which with 1800 mhz is about twice what is achieved compared to deployment in 2.6 Ghz spectrum. In a number of cases mobile operators with existing 1800 mhz spectrum will most likely have sufficiently wide allocations (up to 20 mhz bandwidth) which is needed to achieve the highest lte
data speeds and performance. csl limited is deploying a dual-band lte network in hong kong using 2.6 Ghz and re-farmed 1800 mhz spectrum. telstra (australia) and elisa (finland) are amongst several operators who are trialling lte1800. so lte1800 deployments are a practical market possibility, although that the eco-system of user devices will most likely follow 6-12 months after lte2600, since 2.6 Ghz is the prime band in most markets for lte deployments to meet capacity requirements. although spectrum re-farming is usually time-consuming, where possible it should be well worth the effort when translated into extended coverage and reduced capeX and opeX expenses. The digital dividend spectrum band identified for Europe is 790 862 mhz (800 mhz band) and is another key band for lte. the analog to digital tv switchover is phased across europe, and should be completed by end 2012. Germany has already switched fully to digital tv and this year auctioned and allocated 800 mhz spectrum, and the prices that were paid confirmed its high value to network operators. The first LTE800 systems (LTE in digital dividend spectrum) covering rural areas are expected to launch shortly, and will be combined with 2.6 Ghz spectrum for urban coverage requirement. several european countries are planning to auction 800 mhz spectrum, which in many cases will be combined with 2.6 Ghz, and in some cases will be part of a package which also liberalizes the use of 900 and 1800 mhz spectrum. a strong eco-system is currently evolving for lte which already comprises chipsets, dongles, netbooks. mobile phones, computer and consumer electronic devices including notebooks, netbooks, Umpcs, gaming devices, cameras, and pmps will have embedded lte connectivity. a huge growth in m2m applications enabled by lte is forecast. The LTE specifications provide handover and backward compatibility with legacy systems i.e. Gsm/edGe, Wcdma-hspa/hspa+ to ensure continuity of service for users outside of LTE coverage areas. Many of the first platforms and devices support multi-mode operation e.g. lte fdd and lte tdd, Wcdma-hspa/hspa+, Gsm/edGe and td-scdma. multi-mode Wcdma-hspa/lte Usb modems (dongles) were introduced in europe in mid-2010. The first dual mode CDMA and LTE handset is available (on the metropcs network). lte smartphones which will incorporate legacy Gsm/edGe and Wcdma/hspa technologies will arrive in 2011. many of the 250+ hspa mobile broadband device manufacturers are expected to evolve
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their businesses and product lines to participate in the lte market. all lte deployments and launches so far have been for the fdd mode. however, lte also includes a time division mode, lte tdd, which is the perfect choice for providing high speed mobile broadband access using unpaired radio spectrum. It is an integrated part of the set of 3Gpp standards implementing a maximum of commonalities with lte-fdd and offering comparable performance characteristics at similarly high spectral efficiency. LTE TDD is a real complement to lte fdd. furthermore, lte tdd has emerged in 2010 as a solution with a far wider range of potential applications, with interest being shown not only in china where the main impetus has been generated, but now in a number of countries including france, India, Ireland, Japan, malaysia, oman, poland, russia, taiwan and the Usa. Within globally assigned Imt spectrum bands for mobile (broadband) communications, there are significant spectrum resources suitable for lte tdd usage across a wide range of frequencies. the largest contiguous bands at present are at 2.3 Ghz (100 mhz) and within the 2.6 Ghz band (50 mhz according to the cept band plan). due to the recognized demand for radio technologies for unpaired spectrum bands and based on the commonalities as explained above, lte tdd will be able to exploit global economies of scale similar to lte fdd. the availability of spectrum and the technical pre-requisites will also allow a short time to market. hence, it is likely that lte tdd will eventually become a globally accepted technology which will also provide an excellent evolution path for td-scdma (as foreseen by china mobile) and WimaX systems. a large-scale trial lasting 6 months was undertaken by china mobile and their key industry partners at the shanghai World expo which recently ended, achieving several significant results including: Demonstration of LTE TDD HD video telephone in single 20 mhz spectrum with peak downlink speeds of up to 80 mbps Demonstration of VOD, video communication, and other high-speed mobile broadband apps Demonstration of 24-channel video streaming Mobile HD video conferencing between the trial network and another location Inter-Operability Test of multiple LTE TDD USB dongles in a single mobile network cell
China Mobile is reported to be planning multiple city field trials after the successful network demonstration at shanghai World expo, and expects lte tdd chipsets will be launched in first half of 2011. orange has deployed a trial lte network in paris, initially with 10 mhz bandwidth supporting both fdd and tdd modes, which was upgraded to 20 mhz in may 2010. fddtdd co-existence tests are on-going. lte tdd testing has been completed in Ireland. mobyland & centernet are testing LTE TDD in Poland in Aleksandrw dzki and d. In russia, leading operator Yota is shifting from WimaX to LTE TDD and plans to launch the first LTE base stations in moscow and st. petersburg in 2011. the company plans a transition to lte in more cities in the future. another russian operator, rostelecom, is also conducting lte tdd trials. India is a key market for lte tdd following the bWa spectrum auction. Qualcomm through its Jv with local partners is committed to lte tdd and anticipates commercial service from 2011. some other bWa spectrum winners are finalizing their technology choice, so more winners may also choose lte tdd. malaysian WimaX operator asiaspace currently owns a license to provide wireless technology services using 2.3 Ghz spectrum, and is exploring the deployment in the near future of lte tdd technology. In taiwan, chunghwa telecom has also completed lte tests on the high-speed rail system using both tdd and fdd modes, using the 2.6Ghz band. fareastone and china mobile are co-operating on an lte tdd trial network in taipei. In the middle east, omantel showcased lte tdd to visitors to the salalah tourism festival in July 2010. In the Usa, clearwire has requested 3Gpp to standardize lte tdd for operation in the band 2496 2690 mhz and announced plans for technology trials to test both lte tdd and lte fdd. lte evolution to 4G/imt-advanced the lte system also has a clear future evolution path. 3Gpp and the International telecommunication Union (ItU) have formally recognized lte and lte-advanced as a future-proofed roadmap for mobile operators who are deploying more and more advanced mobile broadband services. In october 2010 the ItU announced it had accepted and officially designated LTE-Advanced as an Imt-advanced (4G) technology. Imt-advanced provides a global platform on which to build the next-generations
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of interactive mobile services that will provide faster data access, enhanced roaming capabilities, unified messaging and broadband multimedia. lte market updates regular updates on lte developments and deployments worldwide and the developing eco-system are available in a Gsa report: evolution to lte which is a free download from www.gsacom.com about Gsa Gsa (the Global mobile suppliers association) represents mobile suppliers worldwide, engaged in infrastructure, semiconductors, devices, services and applications development, and support services. the website www. gsacom.com is used by industry professionals and organizations from 200 countries globally as a single information resource, targeted to the industry, including surveys, market/technology/subscriptions updates, information papers, Gsm/edGe-Wcdma/hspa/hspa+ network deployments, devices availability, applications/services, operator case studies, success stories, and latest developments in the evolution to lte/sae including lte network operator commitments. Gsa advises governments, administrations and policy-makers on optimum conditions for market development. Briefings are given to me-
dia and analysts. additional resources and opportunities are available for member companies. the new ventures program assists start-up wireless application developers to assist access to the global market. fixed and mobile network operators are supported in the operators Zone, and through practical information-sharing activities including the Gsa mobile broadband forum. Gsa is a market representation partner in 3Gpp and co-operates with other key organisations including coaI, etsI, Gsm association, IcU and ItU. Website: www.gsacom.com rss newfeed: www.gsacom.com/rss/gsanews.php4 twitter: www.twitter.com/gsacom dotmobi: http://gsacom.mobi visit http://www.gsacom.com/register to register for free surveys, information papers, technology and market updates. for more information on joining Gsa, please contact marketing@gsacom.com or telephone +44 1279 439667
Alan Hadden has 23 years experience in the mobile communications industry, and has been president of Gsa since its formation in 1998. previously he was on the senior management team of a pcn/Gsm 1800 operator (today called t-mobile Uk), involved in start-up, launch, and expansion phases. he assisted with discussions with key stakeholders and overseas regulators to establish 1800 mhz as a mainstream band for cellular and new mobile businesses. he represented the company at the Gsm association and the Umts forum. previously alan was Industrial Advisor to the UK communications regulator, and represented views influencing regulation and standardisation at national and international level. Alans 2nd book, Mobile Broadband with HSPA, LTE and Beyond: Services, Markets and business opportunities, will be published by Wiley and son in 2010.
HanseCom Media & Communication is a business media company. The company, led by an experienced management team head-quartered in Porto, was founded in Portugal in 2004. HanseCom Media & Communication, a leading IT & Telecom conference organizer, has earned itself a reputation of excellence, specializing in speci c themes, pertaining to the Information Technology community. HanseCom conferences are not only providing valuable updated information, but also insight on how a given technology is likely to pan out in the future. Under this perspective, a HanseCom event often is more of an interface between research and industry. It is an excellent occasion for bringing together these two worlds and it ensures a strong networking opportunity for delegates and speakers alike. In addition to these major conferences, HanseCom Media & Communication is organizing practical workshops o ering interactive opportunities to gain experience on various technological subjects. One of the most important event series by HanseCom at present is very well known for in the market is the "LTE Forum." Delegates, speakers and sponsors from all around the world are being attracted by these high level conferences and workshops.
HanseCom Media & Communication Praceta Lus Antnio Verney, 32 4100-312 Porto Portugal T +351 22 0159431 F +351 22 0119453 info@hansecom.net www.hansecom.net
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Is LTE Taking Off?

business models & roadmaps: 207 million subscribers for lte by 2014 by frdric pUJol head of the mobile & spectrum practice
IDATE
add: alle Yves stourdz -34830 clapiers, bp 4167 34092 montpellier cedex 5 france +33 (0) 467 144 444 +33 (0) 467 144 400 info@idate.org
tel: fax: email:
Website: www.idate-research.com
Idate in a recent report Is lte taking off? analyses the lte (long term evolution) perspective as the next step towards 4G and real mobile broadband networks. It presents an in-depth analysis of lte deployment strategies through the elaboration of an original cost model. this study presents roadmap scenarios and forecasts up to 2015. It also assesses the impact of lte take-up on the overall mobile eco-system.
at end 2015, Idate expects 13% of the subscriber base to be accessing lte networks with discrepancies depending on countries. More specifically, LTE subscrib-
ers should grow in the 2012-2015 period from 27 million to close to 300 million at end 2015 (european Union 5 + scandinavia, Japan, south korea, china, Usa). data traffic is explodinG IDATE evaluation of the worldwide mobile traffic is based upon our figures on: Existing and projected number of subscribers % of broadband subscribers Voice and data traffic per user We anticipate that the total voice and data traffic will reach 32.5 ebytes in 2015 compared to less than 2 ebytes in 2009. this represents a 947% increase over the 2010-2015 period. lte roadmap lte has entered the commercial sphere: teliasonera launched the first LTE networks in December 2009
WorldWIde mobIle traffIc. soUrce: Idate
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maJor operator lte commercIal deploYment schedUle. soUrce: Idate
in sweden and in norway. even though these launches were restricted to the capital cities of stockholm and oslo, this is a very important landmark for the lte technology. In 2010, up to 22 commercial lte networks should be launched. This figure could rise to 37 LTE networks in 2011. lte chipset and devices availability: the competition
between mobile WimaX and lte seem to be leading to a much faster development of an end-user device ecosystem than was previously expected. latest lte market trends Idate forecast more than 207 million lte subscribers worldwide by the end of 2014 LTE services will be launched by late 2011/early 2012
tImelIne of development of lte and mobIle WImaX devIce ecosYstem. soUrce: Idate
Id ate conti nued
48
in the eU-5 and china, and before the end of 2010 in the Us and Japan. also factored in are the recent commercial launches in scandinavia. India, meanwhile, which announced 3G and 4G spectrum auctions in april 2010, cannot be ignored if only because of its huge population. but Idate does not expect to see a significant level of LTE adoption there any time before 2015.
As depicted in the table below, by the end of 2014, we expect more than 10% of the total subscriber base to be accessing lte networks albeit to varying degrees depending on the country. More specifically, LTE subscriber numbers are forecast to increase from 27 million to close to 207 million between 2012 and 2014 (eU-5+scandinavia, Japan, south korea, china and the United states).
lte market & forecast, WorldWIde. soUrce: Idate
about idate Founded in 1977, IDATE is one of Europes foremost market analysis and consulting firms, whose mission is to provide assistance in strategic decision-making for its clients in the telecom, Internet and media industries, through the following two areas of activity: consulting
& research (an independent consultancy and publication of a catalogue of market reports) and the digiWorld programme (a member-supported annual programme: digiWorld club, digiWorld summit, digiWorld Yearbook communications & strategies).
49
Expanding Online Access on the Road

lte connected car appeals to Younger United states consumers
ng connect program
email:
info@ngconnect.org
Website: www.ngconnect.org
along with always-on connection to the Internet, the lte connected car service offers an array of entertainment, traffic, navigation, car maintenance and safety features.
introduction In august 2009, alcatel-lucent market advantage conducted end-user research in the United states to assess
demand for the lte connected car service. the lte connected car is a solution concept of the ng connect program. our study focused on the following key objectives: determine the appeal of the lte connected car concept evaluate interest in individual applications Measure consumers willingness to pay among premium features, consumers are most willing to pay for augmented Gps and maintenance tracking.
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key research findinGs the lte connected car has the highest appeal for consumers under 35 years of age, and navigation is the most desirable feature overall. When considering these exciting new features, consumers across all segments show the greatest willingness to pay for the augmented Gps and maintenance tracking applications. their leading concerns include privacy issues and systemic failure. lte connected car concept this service package provides always-on access to the Internet, along with entertainment and real-time navigation systems. standard features include: access to social and communication information, as
well as streamed radio, tv and video content Live updated information about traffic and locations of interest accident and emergency assistance, along with stolen vehicle recovery systems enhanced features include: screens in front and rear of the vehicle Wi-fi access for portable devices device integration for mobile phones, media players, gaming and computers live map data video and audio services, such as on-demand movies and access to tv and Internet video location-based services, including Google maps
51
communication and messaging service access remote vehicle diagnostics, maintenance tracking and notifications systems natural language voice interaction for safety willinGness to pay the average amount respondents would pay for the complete lte connected car service is shown in figure 2, broken out by consumer age and preferred payment option. the majority prefer to pay a monthly stand-alone fee, while close to 30 percent would rather bundle the payment with their existing mobile subscription.
leadinG applications among lte connected car features, consumers are most willing to pay for augmented Gps. figure 3 shows the optimal monthly price point for consumers five favorite applications. seGmentation findinGs business travelers and early adopters rank wireless Internet access using Wi-fi as a leading feature of the lte connected car service. among all the market segments defined in Figure 4, 56 percent of early adopters are willing to pay for Wi-fi access, followed by business travelers and
52
aspirers, which both had 44 percent of respondents willing to pay. thirty-seven percent of active drivers are willing to pay for Wi-fi access and 34 percent of initiators. business travelers and early adopters are more likely to purchase the lte connected car service than consumers in the total market. sixty percent of early adopters and 28 percent of business travelers are likely to purchase the service, compared with 22 percent of the total consumer market. our study also analyzed whether the lte connected Cars appeal varies according to the type of car a respondent owns. We found that honda owners and ford loyalists find the service most appealing. conclusion the lte connected car service has strong appeal among the under-35 age group, and Internet connectivity is perceived as highly desirable. however, consumers need assurances on both privacy issues and safety concerns related to the distractions associated with an lte connected car. about the market advantaGe proGram and alcatel-lucent research initiative this research is part of a broader initiative by alcatelLucent to characterize the impact and potential benefits of telecommunications services globally. the alcatel-lucent market advantage program is an exclusive resource, working with service providers to analyze and identify new market opportunities, drive demand with effective marketing programs and speed the development of profitable new services. for more information on this study or how alcatel-lucent is working with service providers and stakeholders globally
to better understand consumer needs, please visit www. alcatel-lucent.com/map. about the nG connect proGram the ng connect program was founded by alcatel-lucent in 2009. today, with 32 members from diverse industries, it is the leading global ecosystem delivering innovative applications and business models for ultra-high bandwidth technologies. the lte connected car is perhaps the most widely recognized solution concept to be delivered by the program to date. this concept vehicle can be thought of as a smartphone on wheels, putting enhanced navigation, vehicle maintenance, home control, entertainment and communications at the users fingertips to deliver rich, personalized experiences through multiple touchscreens in the car. for more information on the ng connect program and the lte connected car, visit http://www.ngconnect.org. about bell labs business modelinG leveraging the primary market research performed for ng connect and complementing it with lte and automobile market data, allows alcatel-lucent to develop analysis that quantifies both traditional and new business models. These business models include partners developed as part of the ng connect ecosystem. this analysis permits us to demonstrate the market opportunities afforded service providers by offering the lte connected car solution to their traditional customers. These monetary flows are supplemented with new revenue streams from non-traditional customers such as automobile manufacturers. through this analysis, we estimate the end-user revenue opportunity from familiar business models, but also new revenue streams enabled by this solution.
orIGInal research featUred In thIs GUIde - lte connected car stUdY, Us: http://nGconnect.orG/docUments/eXecUtIve%20sUmmarY-lte-connected-car-stUdY-In-Us.pdf lte connected car stUdY, emea: http://nGconnect.orG/docUments/eXecUtIve%20sUmmarY-lte-connected-car-stUdY-In-emea.pdf
53
Voice over LTE: The Silence is Deafening

by steve shaw with kineto Wireless, a volGa forum member company
VoLGA Forum
Website: www.volga-forum.com
as lte roll-out plans around the world become clearer, the strategy for voice continues to be cloudy.
telia launched a laptop service in stockholm in december 2009, and is slowly expanding the service to cover other major scandinavian cities. In the Us, verizon and at&t both laid out plans for lte deployments. verizon plans to cover 38 markets in 2010, and at&t is planning to initiate service in mid 2011. Upstart metro pcs launched an lte Usb dongle service in las vegas in mid 2010 and recently expanded service to dallas. yet these data-only offers are likely to be unprofitable until the operators introduce a voice service. speaking at the broadband World forum in paris this week, alcatel-lucent cto marcus Weldon said: Wireless voice revenue is still offsetting the cost of delivering mobile data this cannot go on. the massive capital outlays required for lte demand higher revenues than basic data plans can provide. With voice and sms accounting for roughly 70 percent of a mobile operators total revenue, its obvious the voice component should be added to lte. voice: the silence is deafeninG In many of these early lte launches, operators have been mum on the topic of when and how voice will be delivered. sprint in the U.s. is the only operator to offer a 4G smartphone today. The HTC EVO is a technological marvel and has received many positive reviews about its
impressive technical attributes. Yet sprint does not offer voice over the 4G (WimaX) network, instead employing a dual-radio strategy whereby the cdma 1xrtt connection remains active while the phone is attached to 4G. this, among other things, results in significant power drain, resulting in reviews like If the EVO has a flaw, its battery life. volte expected pendinG standards during a recent presentation at the 4G World show in chicago, a speaker from at&t presented that the company would support the GSMAs Voice over LTE (VoLTE) initiative in 2013, with the caveat that it is expected, pending standards. With more than 50 operators and vendors signed up to support the VoLTE initiative, its clear there are way too many cooks in the kitchen, especially when manufacturers like ericsson, alcatel-lucent, huawei and nokia-siemens have already sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into developing their own flavors of IMS telephony. for equipment vendors, test vendors, handset manufacturers and all the other pieces of a commercial voice service, it will take time after completion of these pending GSM specifications to develop the software and systems to support these new standards. It just takes time but can operators afford to wait? mind the Gap the industry is realizing the need for a low-cost, highperformance voice solution to fill the gap between LTE service launch and the market availability of a full-fea-
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tured Ims telephony solution. the 3Gpp has offered up cs fallback, a deeply flawed approach to providing voice service. the massive costs associated with network upgrades (mscs, mmes, enodebs, sGsns, rncs/bscs, and so on), as well as the significant impact of the additional signaling burden, has caused many operators to question the interim investment in CSFB. Meanwhile, marketing departments are finding it hard to position and brand a new lte phone which needs to fall back to GSM just to make a phone call. Its like putting toyota corolla tires on your new ferrari. of course, the risk of offering an lte phone without an operator-branded voice over lte solution is that another service provider will step in to fill the gap. Skype, available for every smartphone operating system in the market, runs well over 3G and undoubtedly will run flawlessly over lte. throw in free skype-to-skype calls with video chat, and in a couple of years people may forget that mobile operators ever offered a voice service. volGa fills the Gap VoLGA, based on the 3GPP release 6 GAN specifications, fills the voice over LTE gap. VoLGA turns an operators existing circuit voice service into a packet voice service overnight. It ensures that an operator maintains ownership of voice services over lte during the period
leading up to the volte/Ims expected pending standards. volGa delivers the voice experience subscribers expect because its the same GSM voice service they get today, packetized and streamed to them over lte. volGa provides: Feature parity with the GSM/UMTS network check. Full, seamless handover between LTE and UMTS/ Gsm check. Use of existing billing systems with no modification check. Use of existing operational and business support systems check. Accordance with existing regulatory requirements check. Technology based on existing 3GPP standard check. Technology proven and available today check. volGa is the lowest cost, highest performance solution for voice over LTE available today. It fills the gap, and ensures a continuous voice revenue stream for all lte devices. for more information about the volGa forum, please visit http://www.volga-forum.com/
steve shaw is a frequent speaker, blogger and general evangelist for the volGa efforts. he has nearly 20 years experience in product, marketing, and business development roles with telecommunications companies. he blogs at http://www.voiceoverlte.com
#1 CASE STUDY
FACTS-AT-A-GLANCE
CLIENT HEADQUARTERS
Marlborough, MA, USA
CTS DOUBLES PRODUCTIVITY WITH IBWAVE DESIGN
FOUNDED
1990
SERVICES OFFERED
Nationwide, turn-key integrator of wireless communications
END-CLIENTS
All the major US wireless operators, system integrators, and equipment manufacturers, enterprise/end-users
BENEFITS
iBwave Design helped CTS to:
iBwave Design allows me to quickly change

the way I con gure a design, to see if theres a more cost-effective way to build it out. Its just an outstanding tool that has helped us double our productivity and reduce the overall costs of our installations. Kely Davis
Director of Business Development, Wireless Division Communication Technology Services (CTS)
Double productivity for the entire team in the creation of in-building wireless infrastructure designs Decrease the overall costs of their installations Increase the pro tability of the company with more accurate designs Reduce training and travel costs
WIRELESS INFRASTRUCTURE COMPANY MAKES WAVES BY INCREASING PROFITABILITY WITH IBWAVE DESIGN
Sometimes being too good at something can cause you more headaches than you expect. Thats what CTS discovered as they won more and more contracts to design and install wireless infrastructures within buildings for their customers. They desperately needed a tool that would help them better manage the huge amounts of data they were using in their designs, and, most importantly, keep accurate. One small mistake early on in the project can turn into real problems at the end, explains Kely Davis, design engineer and Director of Business Development for the Wireless Division at CTS. One-eighth of an inch on my scaled drawing can translate into 15 feet of cable too much or too little at installation theres exponential potential for issues.
Highly qualified engineers spending valuable time on clerical tasks

Initially, CTS was using mostly manual methods to create their designs. Design engineers used Microsoft Visio to show the types of equipment and its placement within a building on a scaled drawing of the structure. They then used a spreadsheet application to create link budgets a list of calculations of the predicted signal strength across the site based on equipment used, structural in uences, and other factors. The link budget is a very technical calculation that is easy to make mistakes on, says Kely. There are so many points of failure when entering, tracking, and amending this data. To ensure accuracy in their designs, the engineers were laboring over their calculations. The design engineers felt like
CSCTS-041109
data entry clerks they were spending so much time just managing spreadsheets, says Kely.
iBwave Design, with the propagation module,

pays for itself very, very rapidly. Someone starting fresh could easily see ROI within three months
CTS doubles productivity with integrated tool

CTS decided it was high time they found a way to get better value from their investment in their design engineers. They implemented iBwave Design, a complete software tool that fully automates the design, planning, and management of indoor wireless networks and predicts their performance. It provides RF engineers with the right mix of usability, control, and exibility to simulate real project situations and accurately predict the network quality of service. We considered Wireless Valley, but the license fees were cost prohibitive, says Kely. I used iBwave Design when I was working at another project, and I was blown away by what it could do. With iBwave Design, engineers are now putting their best skills and intelligence to work, spending less time managing spreadsheets and diagrams and more time designing. iBwave Design has literally doubled our productivity in design engineering, Kely enthuses. Each design engineer can now handle at least double the amount of work they could have done using Visio. And Im able to do more for my staff: when they get stuck, I can help them more easily. We are a much more ef cient machine now, he says.
Easy-to-use software reduces internal costs

CTS has also dramatically reduced training times using the new software. Kely uses the tool to explain the abstract concepts of in-building design to eld technicians, using visual images that demonstrate key concepts. iBwave Design is a very good tool for me to put up a simple design, walk them through a link budget, and show them how that budget is re ected in their daily activity, says Kely. It de nitely increases how quickly you can teach, he adds. It has cut our training time out in the eld by a third to a full half. CTS is also cutting down on travel costs, since now they can rely on staff other than their specialized design engineers to conduct the on-site survey of a building. I can use other personnel that are located across the country to collect the essential data the engineers need to start designing, says Kely. They then send that data to our half-dozen or so design engineers, who can crank out designs from wherever theyre located. We are just bowled over by this product, he concludes. We cant say enough good things about it.
Creating more cost-effective designs

Remarkably, in addition to their increase in productivity, CTS has seen a simultaneous decrease in cost estimates for their designs. The software helps them analyze signal levels across a structure more accurately, and thus eliminate extra equipment previously put in to cover the margin of error. The propagation model allows us to look at environments and much more con dently cut equipment out without fear of failing to cover an area suf ciently, Kely says. If I can cut three, six, or even nine antennas out of a project, I can create an estimate that is much lower in cost. That makes our bids more competitive and ultimately saves our client a lot of money. The CTS engineers are developing more cost-ef cient designs using iBwave Designs propagation modeling. They quickly compare different con gurations of equipment to develop the most cost-ef cient model possible. In about twenty minutes, I can take a fairly good size building and ip it to a different technology, to see what the signal propagation will look like with different technology, says Kely. That level of comparison used to be cost prohibitive it just would have been too time-consuming. iBwave Design houses an internal database of more than 4,000 equipment components available on the market today as well as their technical speci cations. We work with about 40 different antennas and about four or ve major equipment types. We have to be very well versed in hundreds of pieces of equipment, connectors, and cables, etc. and more or less aware of about 1,000 others, says Kely. iBwave Design helps us stay on top of all that.
T +1 514 397 0606 F +1 514 409 2499 7075, Robert-Joncas, Suite 95 St-Laurent, Qc H4M 2Z2 Canada info@ibwave.com www.ibwave.com
Copyright 2009, iBwave Solutions Inc.
iBwave 2009. All rights reserved. Printed in Canada.
iBwave Solutions Inc.
57
Femtocells A Market Status Update

by simon saunders chairman of the femto forum
The Femto Forum

add: the femto forum po box 23 Gl11 5Wa Uk info@femtoforum.org
email:
Website: www.femtoforum.org
femtocells have started to move from being potentially disruptive to being genuinely disruptive, we are now seeing the technology radically reshape live mobile networks. Informa telecoms & media recently announced that femtocells now outnumber macrocells in the USA - it wont be long before they do the same in several other markets. the nature of this small cell revolution means that such markets will soon have more cells than currently exist on the whole planet. these dramatic changes arent just taking place in todays 3G networks, as well see operators are at the centre of calls for lte femtocells too. Here we look at whats driving the rapid ascent of the market and what we can expect in the future.
femtocells have started to move into the mainstream following deployments by major operators in europe, asia and north america. the latest heavyweight to rollout services was telefnica with its offering for businesses and consumers in spain. this follows hot on the heels of Vodafones trailblazing femtocell launches in Europe in fact the operator now offers services in the Uk, spain, and Greece. progress has been even quicker elsewhere with the three largest operators in the Us and Japan all
offering femtocells as well. In total there are now 17 operators that have deployed femtocells double the number there were this time last year. This influx of major operators has created a corresponding rise in major telecom vendors entering the space. While large infrastructure manufacturers such as alcatel lucent, nokia siemens networks, huawei and nec have been offering femtocell products for some time, were now seeing the major semiconductor players also entering the space. Qualcomm recently launched its femtocell chipset while Broadcom has made the first major acquisition in the femtocell space in the shape of Israeli chip start-up percello. Over the past few months weve also seen an important evolution in the consumer proposition. several mobile operators around the world have started offering femtocells for free, or at highly discounted rates, either as a customer retention tool or as a means of rapidly increasing market share. for example, softbank mobile in Japan is giving away free femtocells and adsl connections to its customers while several others are offering packages where the femtocell and associated service are provided for free to loyal customers. a recent consumer research project by analysts parks associates found that 56% of Us consumers (with mobile phones and broadband) consider femtocells appealing with two thirds of these finding the technology either very or extremely appealing. This number rose to 89% when asking those already familiar with femtocells, suggesting that as awareness of the technology grows, so will interest. the primary driver for consumer interest was improved in-home coverage followed by improved battery life, ad-
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vanced femtocell services and home-zone tariffs. In fact, femtocell services, which use the presence of the mobile device in the home to trigger different events, could drive a new revenue stream for operators. of those interested in femtocells 72% were very interested in at least one femtocell service; half of these respondents would be willing to pay $4.99/month for their single favourite service or $9.99/month for a bundle of their favourite three illustrating a potential new revenue opportunity for operators. examples of such services include a virtual home number, which calls all mobiles in the home, or receiving personalised reminders when entering or leaving the home. the study also revealed that femtocells can be used to improve consumer satisfaction and loyalty. among consumers who consider themselves likely to change operator in the next 12 months, 44% said that they would be very likely to reconsider if their current operator offered a femtocell. similarly, 35% of consumers in multi-operator households said they would likely consolidate their services around a single provider who offered femtocells. although over 90% of those who found the technology appealing expressed willingness to pay upfront for the device, respondents demonstrated sensitivity to the actual price level. this means that operators are likely to be more successful if they build their business model around market share gains and new service revenues rather than simply by charging for the device. this burgeoning consumer appetite coupled with continued operator take-up suggests that the future looks bright for consumer femtocells. however, not content with that, femtocells are branching out into exciting new environments. the deployments we have seen thus far have been largely limited to residential 3G offerings but this looks set to change as deployments shift beyond the home into the enterprise and outdoors, and lte & WimaX femtocells come to market. at the recent broadband World forum europe event in paris in october, deutsche telecom and telefnica, pointed out that lte will not meet the rocketing demands for increased mobile capacity. the reality is that next Generation networks will rely on femtocells just as much as todays 3G networks perhaps even more so. the femto forum found that not only do femtocells provide the best possible lte & WimaX user experience but they also offer alternative rollout models thereby im-
proving the business case for the new networks. this included a radio study which concluded that with femtocells, users consistently receive much closer to the headline lte/WimaX data rates than those connected to macrocells. this is because femtos deliver a whole cells capacity rather than sharing this out among a much larger number of people. they also as would be expected eliminate the in-building penetration issues associated with the use of high frequencies for mobile broadband. On the financial side, the business case for lte or WimaX actually improves with femtocells due to their offload capabilities. such is the demand for lte and WimaX femtocells that the standards have both recently been updated to fully support the technology. this means that femtocells are now built into the leading 3G standards, from 3Gpp and 3Gpp2, as well as the next-generation of mobile standards. Already, these are undergoing verification in the first femtocell plugfests.This work will ultimately ensure that operators can cost-effectively multisource femtocell technology safe in the knowledge that they will effectively interoperate. With femtocells ready for the next generation of mobile technologies, they are also increasingly moving into other new areas. In an effort to improve services for high value business customers, operators have already started to deploy enterprise femtocells which feature an array of additional features including increased capacity and femto-to-femto handover. however, more dramatically, operators have led calls for vendors to develop outdoor femtocell solutions to patch coverage gaps and capacity shortfalls. The first of these deployments have already taken place with vodafone Qatar and softbank mobile in Japan. needless to say these new models cover larger areas and support larger numbers of users thanks to newer more powerful femtocell chipsets. this represents a fundamental evolution not just of femtocells, which have traditionally only been associated with indoor coverage, but also of mobile networks in general. In future, outdoor femtocells will serve as an important complement to macrocells by helping to deepen coverage and extend the lifetime of existing cell sites. It is also easy to see how this evolution could have a dramatic impact in developing markets when paired with satellite backhaul to bring mobile services to areas where it was previously deemed uneconomical. In
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densely populated urban areas where mobile broadband is rocketing, femtocells have the potential to be truly revolutionary. new macro base stations can take two years to deploy, whereas femtocells can be deployed significantly quicker. this is crucial when, for example, a new starbucks store opens and its customers, browsing the internet on their handsets or laptops, drain all of a local macro cells capacity. In this instance femtocells serve as the cellular equivalent of a rapid response team. by incorporating large numbers of femtocells, alongside their existing base stations, operators dramatically increase the capacity of their networks and therefore significantly improve their users experience.
Evidently, femtocells arent the radical, niche technology they were once positioned as. Increasingly, they are being thought of as the natural progression of mobile networks not just by vendors with a vested interest, but also by major operators. the fundametal premise of cellular is to reuse spectrum, by installing greater numbers of cells, in order to maximise resources and improve the user experience. While the size of jump brought about by femtocells may be considered radical the trend itself is entirely normal. Where once the femtocell industry had to justify the need for femtocells, it is now fairer to ask if there is any reason for operators not to deploy them?
Professor Simon Saunders is one of the worlds leading authorities on femtocells and is currently chairman of the femto forum. as chairman simon works to drive the uptake of femtocell technologies through open standards, market education and ecosystem development. he is an independent wireless communications specialist with more than 20 years industry experience. simon has consulted for a range of companies including o2, ofcom, ntl, bt, motorola, bbc and many others. he is the author of books and articles and is a regular speaker at industry conferences. In May 2007 Simon was appointed to Ofcoms Spectrum Advisory board.
Thank you! THE LTE GUIDE - NOVEMBER 2010

Your commitment to advance mobile broadband is much appreciated!
LTE Portal
About LTE Portal lte portal (www.lteportal.com) is a leading provider of the 3Gpp lte (long-term evolution) and lte-advanced (4G) technology news, industry resources, analysis, expert opinion, and other materials that are relevant to the next generation mobile broadband technology and the telecommunication industry as a whole. LTE Portals mission is to foster the development and further commercialization of the lte technology by facilitating information sharing, collaboration, and networking. lte portal also offers a full range of media solutions for your marketing and advertising needs: online, digital print, content promotion, dedicated email services, sales function support as well as customized options tailored to your specific needs. copyright 2010 lte portal.com broadband solutions, Inc. all rights reserved.
this publication contains materials provided by contributing organizations, sponsors, supporters, partners, and other relevant entities that specialize in lte / lte-advanced / 4G and other telecommunication technologies. the lte Guide and any of its editions do not intend to be a substitute for detailed research or the exercise of professional judgment. lte portal does not accept any responsibility for loss occasioned to any person acting or refraining from action as a result of any material in this publication. on any specific matter, reference should be made to the appropriate and / or original source.
In line with LTE Portals commitment to minimize its impact on the environment, this document has been created in a user-friendly .pdf format to avoid printing and its potential impact on the environment. please recycle if you print this document or any portion of it.
lte portal.com broadband solutions, Inc. po box 191314 san francisco, ca 94119 Usa
email: info@lteportal.com telephone: +1 415 230 0305 Web: www.lteportal.com
copyright 2010 lte portal.com broadband solutions, Inc. all rights reserved.

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The LTE / LTE-Advanced Guide

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Gsa: 2010 - a Good Year for lte

11 Wireless Intelligence: Asia Pacific

Idate: Is lte taking off?

15 maravedis: the new paradigm of

ng connect program: expanding online access on the road

lte connected car appeals to Younger United states consumers

volGa forum: voice over lte: the silence is deafening

agilent: lte-advanced test challenges

ibwave: case study

cts double productivity With ibwave design

4G americas: the road to 4G in the americas

the femto forum: femtocells

lte company directory

lte portal: application bundles in the lte networks

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THE LTE & WiMAX EQUIPMENT ANALYSIS SERVICE

Custom Research & Consulting

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LTE-Advanced Test Challenges

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HELPING YOU DELIVER INDOOR WIRELESS CAPACITY & COVERAGE

KNOWLEDGE DRIVEN EXPERTS:

RADIO PLANNING SOLUTIONS:

CONTROL YOUR INDOOR ENVIRONMENT:

IN-BUILDING WIRELESS TRAINING

IN-BUILDING DESIGN SOFTWARE

IN-BUILDING ENTERPRISE PLATFORM

operations from initial design to

nationwide indoor coverage footprint.