Overcoming urban small cell deployment challenges

Steve Greaves, CEO Small Cells Americas 4 November 2015

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Key barriers to deployment today

Overall business case:

•  Site acquisition •  Suitable backhaul •  Single-operator deployments

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What are we trying to achieve with small cells?

•  Increase capacity per unit area

•  Throughput per m² = cd * bw * η bits/sec/m² –  cd = cell density in cells/m² –  bw = bandwidth in Hz –  η is spectral efficiency in bits/sec/Hz/cell

•  Small cells: small, easy-to-install eNodeBs to increase cell density

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Site acquisition is difficult

Use fewer sites

Increase TX power

Larger form factor

Issues with planning approval

What do we seem to be doing?

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Suitable backhaul: rationale for Metnet

•  High capacity of V/E-band systems

•  Ease of deployment of sub-6GHz systems

•  High resilience for street-level environment

•  Small form factor that needs no planning approval

•  Ability to scale organically and rapidly with no re-planning

•  Operate in licensed spectrum that’s widely available

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Key system attributes

•  Fully self-organising

•  Multipoint-to-multipoint

•  “De minimis” form factor

•  Wide 270-degree field of view

•  Only one node per site

•  No frequency planning

•  No antenna alignment

•  Easy installation

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Deployment in London •  Small cell at bottom •  Antennas and backhaul at top •  Helps overcome loading issues

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•  Busy commercial area in Longyan

•  Narrow streets with tall, reflective buildings

•  Difficult RF and GPS environment

•  Distributed timing provides synchronisation resilience when GPS fails

Deployment for China Mobile

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Synchronisation challenge

•  Timing requirements more stringent for hetnets and virtualisation

•  Significant challenge below roofline

•  Separate GPS antennas add cost, planning and deployment issues

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Competing for real estate

•  Overlapping small cell deployments in the same hotspots

•  Limited space on limited street-level assets

•  Need equal access to street furniture to promote fair competition

6"Commercial"in"confidence"

NEC ePico Small-cell and CCS Metnet Backhaul CCS MetNet 28GHz Backhaul •  Dimensions: 185mm (H) x 202mm (W) x 202mm (D) •  Volume: ~ 5 L •  Mass: 4 Kg •  AC Power. 35W NEC 4G LTE ePico Small-cell •  Dimensions: xxmm (H) x xxmm (W) x xxmm (D) •  Volume: 8 L •  Mass: 8 Kg •  AC Power xxW

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Equipment Configuration for 1k Deployment

•  Two options considered to provide flexibility for different deployment scenarios (maybe different markets?)

•  Key difference is number of mounting points and level of integration that needs to be designed into the products

Separate deployments on pole, flexible deployment, but potential higher pole OPEX cost

Frontal mounting: Lower OPEX, but poor aesthetics

Airspan Synergy 2000, SBA antenna & CCS Umbra node (front & side views)

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Not just small cells…

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Neutral host model required

•  Reduced time-to-market and costs

•  City concessions for exclusive access to street furniture

•  Pooled licensed spectrum resource for urban small cells

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Summary

•  Address planning issues to accelerate deployment

•  Reduce size of form factor •  Enable neutral host model

The world’s first self-organising small cell microwave backhaul

www.ccsl.com