You know, in the old days when deployments were controlled by a tech who would oversee most of the work, things went very well, very smooth, albeit slower. I think that the broadcast engineers probably handle most of their deployments like this because they manage their sites very closely. In the cell carrier business the carriers don’t really have a site owner other than maybe the techs that work on it after handoff. When the site is being built they may notify them of the installation schedule to make sure the installation teams have access. It is very different today.
The PM will oversee the entire deployment. The RF Design team will create the design. The Site Acquisition team will find the sites and work with RF Design to fine tune the design and determine details like the antenna downtilt and power. The Site Design team will engineer and create drawings for each site. The Network design team will create all the back-end design for the core and the integration. Logistics will need to make sure that all the kits are set up properly and ready. The installation teams need to get it installed properly. The commissioning teams need to get the site powered up and the backhaul ready. The integration teams need to get the site updated and integrated into the core. The optimization team must make sure it is optimized into the cluster. Then you have site acceptance.
This is taken from the book I am writing, I thought you might appreciate this high level overview of the wireless deployments steps. Of course I write more detail in the book.
Deployment is more than just the installation. It will cover the RF design which should be done in the beginning but many companies forgo this because they feel that the system doesn’t need it. If someone feels that confident, great. Then you need to do the survey. Many now use Google Earth for this in today’s world and for indoor they use drawings. That usually is good enough but I still think that you should visit the site to make sure that everything is the way it is on the drawing or web. If you run into any issues then someone has to make changes and eat the cost.
Then you have the optimization, which is an art and a process. For the initial installation many of the installers are doing the preliminary optimization as part of the commissioning since they are on site. Having the installer do this is easy and cheaper than deploying a team to do the optimization immediately. The carrier may have some type of optimization tool or server then that will help with optimizing.
Deployment of the small cell, mini macro, and CRAN is very similar to the Macro cell but it will have to be cost-effective. This is something that many people did not understand I the beginning, including myself. We have to change our way of thinking. Backhaul was the real issue. Installation has a procedure and has to be done correctly, but the backhaul was an issue and when we started this we thought we had to have fiber at every site. We don’t, there are plenty of alternatives, which I will cover later. For now let’s just understand that you could use wireless, fiber, copper, or a cable modem for backhaul. The other issue is that many carriers wanted a dedicated dark fiber connection, which is a lot of money, but an awesome connection. That thinking has changed to save on costs.
Now that we understand that we need to be very cost-effective we know that we can be flexible on many issues that could have been show stoppers, but now they just slow us down. The small cell/CRAN is cheaper and very cost-effective and the mounting assets are plentiful. The backhaul is still an issue, but at least we have options.
RF Design – this is generally where the RF team will determine the need for coverage based of need, complaints, and holes. This is changing because now the carriers are filling holes by responding to customer need, not looking at RF holes anymore. Just because there is no coverage doesn’t mean they need coverage. So they look at statistics and complaints, then they fill the hole or place the sites as needed. Of course, a Greenfield deployment is going to follow every step possible.
Site Acquisition – this is where a team will look at the RF design and try to find sites that fill the need. They don’t just find sites, that is how it used to be. Now they need to look at the site, the owner, the permitting and zoning, the availability to fiber or some type of backhaul, and then pick a cost-effective site.
Site Design – this is where the site, the individual site will be looked at and the design will be done. They may need to do a site survey to determine what will be needed for the installation, the backhaul, and power. They may also need to create drawings for permitting and zoning.
Network Design – this is usually the part where they have to assign the name of the site, the IP information, the RF information, the expected neighbor lists, the addition of the site to the core, schedule the date of integration and adding this site to the rest of the neighbors and maybe the cluster. This is a “behind the scenes” task that most people forget about, but it is absolutely critical. It needs to be done.
Logistics – I would bet most people overlook this and think that it’s part of installation. The reality is that if someone isn’t paying attention to logistics there will be major delays. Usually the PM has to make sure that it is all coordinated properly but unless you have the logistics of where to put all the hardware and how they will get to the deployment crews, you will have major delays and lost costs.
Installation – now you can install the hardware, the backhaul, the fronthaul, and the power. Finally you see the equipment at the site and hopefully it will be ready for the next step.
Commissioning – this is where you will power up the cell, test the backhaul, make updates to the firmware if necessary.
Integration – this is where you will complete the upgrades, add it to the core, and possibly turn up the site if it’s ready. They may or may not go live. They will also do some testing with someone on site to insure it’s working the way it’s supposed to. With LTE they will do upload and download tests. If there is voice at the site they will be required to do an e911 test to make sure it works. It must be done at the site and it must connect to 911 for any emergency.
Optimization – this is where they will have the site optimized for peak performance not only with RF, but also downloads, uploads, working with neighboring sites, and so on. The Optimization teams will consist of RF and DT, (drive teams), that will make sure that each cell site is operating properly and working in the cluster properly. The site will need to be integrated into the core. The handoffs will need to be tested. The cluster will be tested together and all the cell sites need to work together, seamlessly for the system to work well. Remember that voice, text, and data all need to be tested in the real world before the system can be accepted or brought live. This step is critical. The metrics and Key Performance Indicators, (KPIs) of this step will determine what changes need to made to the system. For instance, do the antennas need more downtilt? Does power need to be adjusted? Did a cell handoff to the wrong neighboring cell? This is all worked out and cleaned up in this step.
Project Management – PM is the overall management of the project. You will have several PMs, they have become an integral part of every aspect of deployment. You will have a PM that oversees the overall project, not one but several. Generally you have one for the customer and one for the company in charge of the project. Then you will probably have one for each aspect of the deployment and then each company may have their own PM to oversee the deployment and to be the interface between the customer and the work crew. It is the job of the PM to insure the project moves forward and to solve any issues in any aspect of the project and to set the proper expectations for delivery. No easy task.
Wrap up – So there you have a brief overview. I have more detail in the book but this is going to help you understand what is involved in these rollout. There are many more steps in each task. Some people think you build it and then turn it on, it is not that straight forward. It takes skills and talent. For all of you that do this, good job. It’s a shame these tasks don’t pay better.
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I have been looking at Sprint and working with them is very hard. They originally said they wanted to lower the number of vendors, which makes sense because they have to manage each one. However now they seem to be working with more companies than ever. I am not sure what they plan to do. Softbank is calling the shots now. So what they are doing in Japan they will do here in the US, that’s the reality. All the companies they work with there will have a great advantage over here.
I was readingRCR magazineandFiercewirelessand then I read the Sprint Blog put out by Dr. Sawand they keep talking about the deployment and what they plan to do. All I can say is crap or get off the pot! Let’s get moving already! For crying out loud we have been hearing about this and seeing the RFPs for the last year, and yet I don’t see any movement that wasn’t already planned in 2013. I assume they are looking around for the best price but I would think they would want to start showing progress at some point. They have 120MHz of the 2.5GHz band, band 41, that anyone would be happy to have, but let’s go! Get moving! We have hundreds of crews looking for work and they want to make sure that they are keepingbusy. I am glad that the Macro deployment is moving, slowly, but it is moving. I can’t believe the shareholders don’t notice this. Bandwidth is valuable and they are not deploying it to the best of their abilities. They seem to talk about it all the time but they still are just talking. That like talking about your new work truck while it sits in the garage and does nothing. Let’s get to work and build a great network! Let’s see if Softbank is as smart as they say they are!
I believe that Softbank is doing all that they can to make sure that the project takes off in an organized fashion. However, from the outside in it can look like paralysis by analysis. If Softbank did this before they should already have a plan, they just need to get the right contractors.
It looks like they will move ahead soon. I want to congratulate Airspanand Nokiafor the win of the small cell & mini macro deployment for Sprint. Way to go! I wish you the best and think that the solution will be impressive and groundbreaking here in the USA. Also, Mobilitiegot a big part of the offer and should be very happy with managing the offer. I believe they are also helping with the financing of the network. FYI – important note! Mobilitie is hiring!
Whatever they build out they will need to make sure that they have a plan in place to optimize the network. That is the key to making sure it performs. They also need to understand that voice is still a key part of the network. Do they have a good migration path for VoLTE or will they just worry about data? I hear about all of that spectrum but they need to make sure they have a plan in place to offer a voice solution as well. Some of us still make phone calls on our mobile phones.
I really like the fact they plan to use small cells to the maximum efficiency they can. I hope it is a success. If they can move up in quality in some urban areas then they have a real shot at growth. Don’t get me wrong, I may criticize Sprint but I am hoping that they can improve. That will push all the carriers to improve. Their coverage will need to improve not only outdoors, but indoors as well. Remember that a majority of urban calls are made in the buildings.
Welcome to the Reverse and Forward Auctions presented to you by the FCC! The FCC put all of this together to free up more spectrum for the carriers. Don’t we all want more spectrum? Doesn’t the world revolve around bandwidth? Don’t we all want to have live video streaming all the time on our smart phones? Isn’t that the American dream? Ask any teenager, isn’t that what they really want? Life, love, prosperity, and bandwidth is what we all desire.
Did you know that the FCC is trying to buy back the TV licenses in the 600MHz bands? All this so they can sell more bandwidth to the carriers. I would imagine the broadcasters would love this since they should make tens of thousands of dollars. Some may make millions! How you ask, read on my friends.
They are doing it with an incentive auction, how cool is that? It is supposed to happen March 29th, 2016, but dates tend to slip, especially when something is this complicated. Well, I think it’s complicated. I am sure the FCC has it all figured out, right?
Why would the carrier want 600MHz? I would think that for rural applications it would cover farther. 600MHz is great for rural coverage, the properties allow it to travel through the air very well with limited power. I believe that building penetration should be pretty good as well depending on the building walls and windows. Of course it’s more bandwidth, which in today’s world is worth billions according to the last AWS-3 auction.
Downside? 600MHz is going to make the cell coverage larger, so in an urban area it may cause self interference, where the cells will carry into the nearby cells causing self interference. With LTE you have ICIC, Inter-Cell Interference Coordination, which will really help you minimize it, but in the real world you need to put so much more work into self interference when it carries so well. It really will cause more work for the RF engineers and the optimization engineers. I would imagine that down-tilt will play a big part in this. As well as frequency planning, with all the bandwidth being used they probably want to push it all through, but with these issues they need to plan out each band carefully.
Why is the broadcaster willing to give them up? I believe many of them want to get out of over-the-air broadcasting since it is not as profitable as it used to be, especially in urban areas where everyone uses cable or broadband to watch TV. If they don’t see it as profitable then this is a way for them to retire or maybe fund a new broadcast model to start-up by partnering with someone else. I think that many of them want to get a piece of that $900M (or more) so to find a partner, someone who would be willing to work with them on the multiple channels available on the existing channels out there. I don’t know if many of you look at OTA, over-the-air, channels but the new digital channels allow 2 or 3 channels to be broadcast on one band. So why not partner with someone and share the costs. Each partner can broadcast their content on their channel and share the broadcast equipment expenses. To me it makes sense, but what do I know, I used to be in paging and I thought that was awesome. (For those of you who don’t know what paging is, you made my point.)
How will it work? Well, here is what I read.
Reverse Auction – This is where the FCC will request that broadcasters give their licenses back to the FCC. They will set a price for each license based on location, population, and I imagine coverage. They will release the details soon. I didn’t see them yet. They will have a price they will set to offer to the broadcaster to start at. The broadcaster will need to apply to have their license accepted into the auction. They must also be willing to relinquish the licenses, there is no going back if they get the minimum amount. Got it? They will have a minimum they will get, set by the FCC. So it isn’t like they will leave empty-handed. However, if the price drops below what they FCC says they should get or if no one bids on that license/frequency band, then the broadcaster gets to keep their license. They must get the bare minimum to give it up. From what I read the FCC will have $900M set aside for all of the auctions. All of them, but who knows what will happen.
Forward auction – This is where the FCC has reserved bands they got from the reverse auction and put them up to bid from the carriers to get. The carriers will bid on them based on location, bandwidth, and economic area. I was going to go over how the FCC is going to set the opening bids, but I am confused, that is why you hire consultants that handle this stuff. However, not to leave you empty-handed I will quote the FCC from their public notice found here. “Forward Auction Bidding. We adopt our proposal to offer two categories of generic spectrum blocks for bidding in the clock phase of the forward auction: “Category 1” blocks with potential impairments that affect zero to 15 percent of the weighted population of a PEA; and “Category 2” blocks with potential impairments that affect between greater than 15 percent and up to 50 percent. Prices for frequency-specific licenses will be adjusted downward at the end of the assignment phase of the forward auction by one percent of the final clock phase price for each one percent of impairment to the license……….. To implement the final stage rule established in the Incentive Auction R&O, we adopt the proposed average price and spectrum benchmarks of $1.25 and 70 megahertz of licensed spectrum, respectively. The benchmarks will help to ensure that winning bids for the licenses in the forward auction reflect competitive prices and return a portion of the value of the spectrum to taxpayers without reducing the amount of spectrum repurposed for new, flexible-use licenses. We also adopt our proposals for triggering an “extended round” to give bidders the opportunity to meet the final stage rule without moving to another stage, except that an extended round will not be triggered if the shortfall is greater than 20 percent.” Got it, good!
The carriers will get FDD 5+5 paired spectrum (or maybe 10+10). I am not sure why they don’t go with any TDD and hand over a 10MHz channel, but what do I know. Maybe that will change.
Then, the auction happens! The carriers will be bidding on the licenses that the broadcasters have based on need and what they really want. This is how the money is passed from carrier to broadcaster.
By the way, clause #287, “Paperwork Reduction Act Analysis”, they may reduce paperwork but they didn’t reduce any words, wow!
OK, so I simplified it. If you are going to get involved, then go to the links below and check it out. The best thing you can do is hire a consultant, not me, to walk you through this. Maybe a lawyer that knows and understands how the FCC is going to do this. If you want to learn more than read the documents and get involved. Let me tell you, I just skimmed the document. It is very, very long.
I would like to thank RCR and Fiercewireless for getting me to the proper FCC documents.
I don’t know if you know but there is a really cool service out there called Root Metrics. They have awebsite that shows the top ranked citiesfor cell coverage. Believe it or not, Atlanta and Chicago are #1 and #2 respectively. For the 2014 results gohere.
So when they say best coverage overall, they are looking at all the carriers. In Atlanta, the #1, Verizon and AT&T tie for tops but Sprint and T-Mobile did quite well. This is a tough battle to win because they are all so close.
So now let’s look at the bottom 10, so if you live here you may have problems, I don’t know.
115) Des Moines, Ia (best of the worst)
116) Bonita Springs, Fl
117) Bridgeport and Stamford, Ct
118) Denver, Co
119) Lancaster, Pa
120) McAllen, Tx
121) El Paso, Tx
122) Colorado Springs, Co
123) Omaha, Ne
124) Reno, Nv
125) Hudson Valley, NY (Worst market in USA, #125 in all the markets measured by Root Metrics)
Before you get mad about the worst cities, chances are they may have backhaul issues in those cities or there may be another reason. I just don’t know. I will say this, in Reno T-Mobile ranks #1 and Verizon #2, so what is up with that?
In Hudson Valley AT&T ranks #1 and Verizon #2, and I don’t know why because it is fairly close to NYC.
What they do is create a list for overall performance. They also compare carriers for performance in different cities, to see how they rank, go here. You can see that Verizon is clearly the top dog but AT&T is coming up fast. It also depends where you live, because T-Mobile does very well. What you need to do is click on the city and then it will show you the winner and you can click to go to the next page to see how close they all came.
When you go to the report scroll down and you can see the individual results, reliability, speed, data, calls, and test. For instance, if we check outHarrisburg, Pa, you see that Verizon is #1 overall. They win for reliability, network speed, and data. For calls it is a 3 way tie between Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T. For text, Sprint wins but not by much.
Curious aboutMiami? Verizon wins overall. They also win for Network speed and data. The calling is a 4 way tie but in text T-Mobile wins!
Denver? Verizon overall but Sprint wins Network Speed!
Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!
I am putting a deployment handbook that will be focused around small cells and CRAN. It will be geared towards deployment but a good reference overall. It will have most of what I post but also some extra notes is it. If your interested, feel free to sign up for my newsletter below.
Update #2: Friends and family are raising money for Tyler Bresnahan, the 20-year-old that fell from the tower. For more go here. They are looking to raise money to bury the boy. According to the news story he had climbed that tower several times before. The boy had a rough time with losing his home to fire. The fundraiser information can be found here.
Update: According to Wireless Estimator, in the link below, the death in Exeter was not industry related. Apparently no one knew why the young man was at the site or why he climbed the tower. He was identified as Tyler Bresnahan of Algonquin Tr. The assumption is that he climbed to the top of the tower and fell, for no good reason.
I found a story where a man died from a fall in Exeter. I don’t have any details yet. I only know that Rhode Island police are investigating. He is a 20-year-old man.
Note from ABC6 News, “Officials say a call came in around 2:43 p.m. saying that the victim had fallen from a cell phone tower off Yawgoo Valley Road”.
I don’t know how many of you have been reading about carrier aggregation but it’s pretty cool. This is where the carrier, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint to name a few, can take multiple channels of LTE and make them look like one big pipe for all of your data. How cool is that?
So the reason carriers would want Carrier Aggregation is to get the biggest bank got the buck by combining as many channels as they can to get a bigger pipe. Why does this matter to them? It matters because they have several smaller channels that they can combine to make all those channels look like one big pipe, sweet! One massive pipe for backhaul. See the gain for the end-user? More bandwidth! That is the “value add” for the customers. It means to the carrier that they can use all that spectrum they have once it is converted from CDMA to LET and put it together to look like one big awesome pipe for the Smartphone on steroids!
In theory you could have inter-band or intra-band carriers working together. What does that mean? Intra-band would be 2 channels in the same band and inter-band would be 2 channels in different bands. The cells putting this out do need to be co-located and have the same azimuth. Now they plan to have more channels aggregated in future releases. Someday they plan to have 2 uplink and 4 downlink channels all working together. Can you imagine getting 600Mbps down to your tablet or phone?
How do they do it? Well, it is a combination of the core work to allow the aggregation and the RAN to understand what is going on. However, you also need to let the devices know what to do because you are going to make everything work together, like a concert where all the instruments play together to bake a beautiful song, or at least a song that sounds good, the entire end to end, (E2E), system needs to work together. Is that cool or what?
This is for LTE, but what about FDD and TDD, does it matter. At this time I believe it does, because they can aggregate the same formats and they are working to combine both a FDD channel along with a TDD channel.
Is it part of 3GPP? Yes, Release 10 and beyond. Currently it’s 2 carriers working together. I believe that the latest release is 14.x and maybe 15.x.
The downside is that the UE device will use more power. So the battery life may be shorter, but you will be able to download everything faster.
It means that once LTE-U takes off then they can add that in too, eventually. I know that they are already looking at ways to have LTE-U and LTE licensed all work as one. This could really change everything for shared carrier locations, like stadiums or large buildings where all the carriers, in theory, could share a common small cell. Just a theory at this point but I can see it coming in Wade’s World.
However, when it’s tested there need to be steps taken. For optimization in the past they had to test one device per channel. Now that device needs to be able to look across several channels and make sure that the all the information is calculated and put together properly. This is happening now. There is 2 carrier aggregation happening now so the optimization teams are already doing the upgrades. Great job Optimization teams!
If you wonder what is involved in optimization, then here it is. A few methods, like getting information from you system monitor, NOC, customer complaints, or anything that collects coverage data. You can make a determination on where to go to repair problems. However, when you first bring a site up and want to get it properly integrated into the cluster, then you need to optimize the site. I know that OEMs are working to make this automated with SON, but for now there are drive teams that drive around collecting data with device, usually some type of smart phone connected to a laptop and there is a software package, usually JDSU, that collects the data. With this data the RF engineer can tell if the antenna is pointed in the proper direction and if the down tilt needs adjusted. They also can change the power settings or make other adjustments as needed. In today’s eNodeBs there are so many adjustments they can make to have the site and cluster perform at its peak. They take this data and compare it to their Key Performance Indicators, KPIs, to see if it is performing as it should be.
If the RF Design team did their job right then it should work as planned but sometimes there are outside issues that cause problems. For instance a new building could go up or maybe there is a source of interference nearby or maybe they can’t penetrate a building like they had hoped, it is all possible. So that is why they do it.
Optimization is also done after the installation because carriers are always working to make improvements. This is a huge drain on resources but it needs to be done. The theory is that someday the Self Organizing Network, SON, server will monitor and make adjustments. I don’t this it is there quite yet. They do have SONs out there but they are not doing remote optimizations that I know of.
So, in today’s world you usually have a drive team that will drive around selected grids or clusters. Then you have the RF team that will make adjustments. And you have a PM that organizes everything. If you are a class operation you will have a solution architect handy to look at the system end to end and make recommendations. Pretty cool, right?
I am putting a deployment handbook that will be focused around small cells and CRAN. It will be geared towards deployment but a good reference overall. It will have most of what I post but also some extra notes is it. If your interested, feel free to sign up for my newsletter below.
That’s right, everyone was thinking that LTE and Wi-Fi would compete against each other for center stage in deployments. I know that the carriers favor licensed bands but the customer want bandwidth, they don’t care how they get it. They don’t want to pay too much for the connection either. So here is there the love story begins. They have a common bond, bandwidth for the user. This is something that anyone with a Smartphone loves, bandwidth!
I am hoping to get this out at a time when T-Mobile is making the push for VoWiFi along with the VoLTE. They really seem to moving ahead at full steam with this and I am impressed. Kudos to the OEMs working with them which I think is Ericsson, Nokia, and Cisco. I am sure there are more involved but the way this is rolling out in the urban areas is really impressive! Verizon Wireless has the capability to do VoLTE and it works well. I think the end game is to sunset the 3G network. Not many people are willing to pay more for VoLTE. Sure, it may sound better, but would you pay to sound better? I don’t think that most people would. I think that the real goal is to shut down the 3G system and save all that money. That is my opinion.
I congratulate T-Mobile for pushing the envelope with Voice over Wi-Fi, (VoWiFi). They are realizing how hard it is but they did it and it works! Who knew LTE would push the unification of Wi-Fi bands and the licensed bands even closer. That VoWiFi would be the rage after VoLTE. Actually, in Wade’s World, I see the cable companies pushing VoWiFi because they have it deployed everywhere. What a concept! I can’t wait until we see Wi-Fi only smart phones. We actually have Wi-Fi only tablets that can use apps, like Skype, to make calls over Wi-Fi. This was going to be a solution early on for the carriers with LTE, to have an app make the call, but there were too many issues, especially if there is an emergency, but I don’t know much more about why it didn’t succeed.
This was very hard to research, at least for me, it just gets so confusing and I have yet to find one document that can really explain all of this without crossing lines and adding confusion. Even the Mobile Broadband Evolutions document found here didn’t add much clarity for me. I read this and I think to myself that I used to be an engineer, now I can’t even spell E-N-G-I-N-E-E-R without getting a headache.
If you’re wondering why this is going to happen, then you might not realize that the data demands of the public are crazy! Everyone is using more and more data on their devices. Why shouldn’t they? I mean there was a day when we had to “plug-in” to do anything. There was a day when the only reason to get on a computer was to work. Now, look at all the online communities and all the apps and Facebook. It’s a crazy world full of data demands that will only get worse as people want to watch more and more streaming video on their devices. It’s already happening! Remember when we thought gaming would sink the network, well, let’s look at video. It’s very demanding but only the tip of the iceberg!
So the OEMs had to figure out a way to get LTE and Wi-Fi to play nice together. Really it was Qualcomm who came up with the plan, (with some help from Ericsson), and they have several different ways to do it. Whether you think it’s good or bad, let’s look over the different options.
By the way, most of these will likely be used in a small cell environment, usually inside a building or a stadium where the heaviest data usage happens. I would expect this to be used out on the street unless it’s like a city street with outside seating. This really covers the licensed band sharing the load with the unlicensed band. They will be working together. Now remember that the backhaul is still an issue, so if the Wi-Fi and the carrier share the backhaul then there is a new bottleneck that could constrain data. Just keep that in the back of your mind when reading this.
Wi-Fi offloading – this is how it is currently being done, basically you offload the data to the Wi-Fi if you have coverage. If you make a call or if there is no readily available Wi-Fi, then you use the carrier’s bands.
Wireless Unified Networks or Wi-Fi Integration – Think of Wi-Fi as it is now just working with LTE as a partner. Alcatel-Lucent calls this Wi-Fi boost and Cellular boost. Wi-Fi could provide the bulk of the downlink and the LTE carrier provides the bulk of the upload while providing little download to clean up the spectrum. This would require no change to Wi-Fi as we know it today. Pros are if the Wi-Fi is clean you can use all the bandwidth to carry data, for instance if you are in your home with no interference and the kids aren’t streaming video. The con is if you are competing for bandwidth or the backhaul stinks or if there is interference on the Wi-Fi, then there are issues. This works with your existing Wi-Fi, it’s just an upgrade the carrier has to do on their system and a software upgrade in your Smartphone. This would be up to the carrier to make the changes on their network, the way I understand it.
LWA – LTE & Wi-Fi Aggregation – so here is where it is the similar to the above but the LTE adds a carrier for download, hence the aggregation. This will need the carrier to upgrade the small cell but the bandwidth is increased even more to the device. This may require an upgrade to the Wi-Fi AP. LWA likes to have the Wi-Fi and LTE together, at this time, for synchronization purposes. This will change as evolution happens. I believe this would need to be a new or upgraded device for the end-user, (maybe a firmware upgrade will do it), I am not clear on this right now. Pros are that the speeds should be great and that the Wi-Fi can remain the same. Cons are that the UE needs to be upgraded or changed out. This is being trialed as we speak by carriers and OEMs.
LTE-U – LTE Unlicensed – This is going to work on its own or with LAA, so I thought I would give a brief overview. This works in the 5.8GHz unlicensed band. You know, where Wi-Fi resides. To be clear, it ain’t Wi-Fi but the LTE protocol that must learn to coexist with Wi-Fi. It is literally LTE transmitted in a license free band, probably in the 5.8GHz band in the USA. In theory, it could have 2 to 5 times the throughput of Wi-Fi along with better coverage. The Wi-Fi advocates are worried about interference, which I think is funny because Wi-Fi coverage and interference causing quality issues, so seriously, this is the argument? I know it has listen before talk, but anyone who worked on Wi-Fi and sees about 8 other hotspots in the same area has to realize that interference is there whether you admit it or not. Did you ever try to connect in a train station or airport? Look at all the hotspots on your smart phone and just think that they are all trying to coexist in that one area. To me the one company that I know of that made a great inroad in the problem is Ruckus with their smart antenna technology, pretty cool that they control the signal based on interference. Ruckus has more information here.
LAA – Licensed Assisted Access works with LTE-U, LTE Unlicensed. This is all new equipment, so the investment is in hardware as well as software. Truly a Greenfield deployment, the way I see it anyway. The Wi-Fi access point would be replaced with the LTE-U access point, therefore no Wi-Fi, just LTE in unlicensed bands. This would require a new user device, (new chipset). There are also many issues with how it would co-exist with Wi-Fi. Ericsson has an entire presentation here. The theory is that with carrier aggregation the uplinks and downlinks would all work together in sharing the load. This way you appear to have an awesome pipe, so much data passing through multiple bands that all appear to be one pipe. WOW!
MuLTEfire – which is Qualcomm’s new offering where LTE could be completely unlicensed, but could also work with the licensed band, I really don’t know. It’s very new. Qualcomm is always thinking about how to make better wireless chips. They know they need to build in the WOW factor. I have to admit, I said wow! I see great possibilities with new bands that are lightly licensed because they could open up new markets for backhaul and other last mile services. Remember that 5G is moving ahead and will be here in 5 years or less, Probably arriving around 2020 in time for 5G.
At some point Qualcomm is going to have to pick one or two, but it appears they have all their bases covered, I mean how many more options will they create? Will they promote all of these? I have no idea but Dr Paul Jacobs at Qualcomm probably has a pretty good plan.
I am no expert and this is something that takes some more research. I am learning so much about bringing it all together. The one thing that is really going to help is carrier aggregation. The carriers are trying to make the spectrum they have become more efficient. That is also the theory around densification, it has to add so much value and when spectrum costs billions, yes billions, then you need to figure out how to get the biggest bang for each Mega hertz.
So as you can imagine there are Wi-Fi groups who are not happy about this, I mean after all, Wi-Fi has been around forever and they are constantly updating the Wi-Fi protocol to make it faster and more efficient. I am impressed with how they constantly improve what they have. They have done all they could to make it better for the carriers. They probably worry that LTE-U may replace it. I would think that there is so much Wi-Fi out there that this probably won’t happen. The way I see it, if Verizon Wireless has their way they will be using LTE-U all over so they can improve the customer experience without buying any more bandwidth than they need to.
I am putting a small cell handbook together, it should be out soon. It will be geared towards deployment but a good reference overall. It will have most of what I post but also some extra notes is it. If your interested, feel free to sign up for my newsletter below.
This is a quick overview on the 2 earnings calls, T-Mobile and Sprint, and how they may affect the field for design, installation, integration, commissioning, and optimizations. Yes, those 2 hours of my life I will never see again but I wanted to share them with you. I have much more commentary in the podcast, so if you’re interested make sure you listen!
So, first the T-Mobile call.Earnings call here. I have to tell you that I really enjoy listening to Legere, he is just a cool guy. He is fun and he not only answers the questions to the press but also to Twitter, which was really cool his call was loose and fun. So they basically said that they plan to continue the rollout at the pace they are going. I take this to mean that he will continue to build out the LTE system as needed, concentrating on the larger urban markets and working their way down. He also mentioned that the Voice of Wi-Fi will be pushed but they need other carriers to catch up. So, LTE and VoLTE is a priority, VoWiFi as a priority. For deployment teams, including installation, commissioning, design, integration, and optimization teams, this will continue.
Sprint? Earnings call here. They are a very uptight bunch, that call had so much tension on it. I admire Claure but come on, lighten up a little. Softbank’s Son was there and he seems like a very smart guy. I hope he can make things happen in the US like he apparently did in Japan. That guy thinks all of the networks stink in the US, and he admitted that Sprint did not have a good network, it stinks too! So I guess he intends to make the densification project a success no matter what. So here is how I interpret that for deployment, commissioning, installation, integration, design, and optimization. I expect them to go balls to the wall in 2016 to make this happen. Will they pay top dollar, hell no, but this will be all new sites along with the upgrade of the Macro sites, that is what I heard. So get ready, they expect to build out big time, but not macro. They expect to use mini macro and small cell. This is going to be s blast for deployment but not for the existing OEMs in the USA. I think that they are going to use people they trust. When I say they, I mean Softbank, let’s face it, Softbank is going to run the company. So the success or failure will ride with Mr. SON. He will be the one to take the glory or the blame. I would imagine he will work with vendors that they trusted in Japan to offer a reasonable price and results. So get out-of-the-way! Make room for Softbank USA! Let’s get busy and build! Just keep it simple, when you did network vision it was too complicated! This was Sprint’s fault! They have no one to blame but themselves, even though now they point fingers, that’s all history, let’s move ahead!
History – let me tell you how in the beginning Sprint had all the cool feature, and they had Nextel. Well, now Nextel is gone, along with the subs they had with Nextel. They also are on a level playing field with the rest of the carriers, and they dropped to #4. They desperately need leadership! I think that Mr. Son will provide that. My opinion!
So lessons learned? KISS – keep it simple stupid! Keep the build and network as simple as possible for the deployment. T-Mobile figured it out! They learned quick after UMTS problems. Keeping it simple makes it profitable. That is the secret. When you penny pinch and do all that you can not to pay the people who are installing and commissioning and integrating, you have problems. Just deploy, test, and pay your vendors. That way everyone is happy.
Dan Hesse regrets all the outages that he had with the NV cut over. Let me tell you, they made things so much more complicated and caused more problems than they needed to. I know for a fact they wanted it their way, so how did that work out? If they would have done a clean overlay roll out it would have worked so much better, it may have looked like it cost more in the beginning, but in the long run it would have been so much more profitable. Just because you think it’s cheap, doesn’t mean it’s profitable. Well, was it worth losing all those subs? Was it? I don’t think so but I am a fan of a clean and organized roll out.http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/former-sprint-ceo-hesse-unexpected-disruption-network-vision-was-very-painf/2015-08-05?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!
I am putting a small cell wireless deployment handbook together, it should be out soon.
Feel free to sign up for my newsletter below while telling me what you think.
So what is a mini macro? Well, let’s look at it as a single sector cell site that you would mount on a pole or up on a rooftop. It would be a standalone site. Softbank is tossing around the idea, which they have done in Japan, to have Sprint do it here in the USA. Why? Because it’s cheaper than a full-blown cell site and it helps you concentrate your signal in a specific area.
So in this mini macro you would have everything you would at a cell site or a small cell site. You would have backhaul, a router, BBU, RRH, antenna, hybriflex and RF cables. The difference would be that you would just have one BBU and RRH and the backhaul could be anything to tie the eNodeB into a core. It would look like a single sector cell site. with an OMNI on top.
So let me break it down, on a small pole, monopole, utility pole, or on a rooftop you would have a very small BTS with the router and battery all-inclusive. The backhaul could be anything, copper, fiber, or wireless. All in a small form factor. Well, that sounds like a small cell, doesn’t it? Well, it is but the power will be well above 5 watts, probably around 20 watts. It would be just one sector, possibly one antenna. In the case of TDD it would just be one antenna whereas with FDD you would need to have 2 antennas or maybe a combiner and filter.
So imagine if you will, it will be a small cabinet, with or without batteries. It will cover more than a small cell. So you will want to have a little more height to get the biggest bang for your buck. The key is to maximize signal for the least amount of money possible. So think back to the days of paging when you put the site in where you needed it the most, this is very similar. You want to cover an area. I would say that a Macro site would cover about 35 Kilometers, (about 21.5 miles), and an outdoor small cell would cover about 2 kilometers, (about 1.25 miles). I would think that a mini macro would cover somewhere in between, about 12 kilometer, (about 7.5 miles).
If the deployment is managed right, I would think the mini macro would be put together as a unit and then deployed as a kit so it should be very close to plug and play. The power would need to be connected, the antenna would need to be connected, then all you need is backhaul, let’s say wireless so it has to be connected and aligned.
In my world the station would power up, the backhaul would be connected, and then the station would come up and be integrated. The commissioning should be just like a small cell so it should be ready for plug and play, again, in my eyes. Integration would be done remotely while the installers are still on site. Then the installers could test the commissioning and verify the unit is working by testing it with a Smartphone device, just like they do for small cells now.
OK, I know this was a high level explanation but I think you get the picture, right? What I didn’t tell you is that this is the Sprint plan for densification, just like what Softbank did over in Japan. They had great success over there in getting these deployed and covering a densely populated region. This is probably the plan over here now that Softbank is taking over Sprint. I just hope they remember KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid! I think that looking at the Network Vision deployment you realize how complicated it became. If the mini-macro can be simple to install and simple to turn up and simple to test, you have a winning combination. Network Vision was anything but simple for most of the deployment teams that I talked too. It was a huge learning curve for many of them. When going to the lowest bidder it’s hard to get experienced crews repeatedly that can handle something like that.
So there you have it, some way to explain something new in the USA. I hope it helps. What do you think?
I am putting a small cell wireless deployment handbook together, it should be out soon. It will be geared towards deployment but a good reference overall. It will have most of what I post but also some extra notes is it. If your interested, feel free to sign up for my newsletter below.
that Softbank is taking over Sprint. I just hope they remember KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid! I think that looking at the Network Vision deployment you realize how complicated it became. If the mini-macro can be simple to install and simple to turn up and simple to test, you have a winning combination. Network Vision was anything but simple for most of the deployment teams that I talked too. It was a huge learning curve for many of them. When going to the lowest bidder it’s hard to get experienced crews repeatedly that can handle something like that.