INTELLIGENT MOBILE TECHNOLOGY
deployment in 2017. Dubai is a perfect
example of a dense city where metro cells
will help connectivity, especially as it gears
up to host the Expo 2020 and become a
complete smart city.
The in-building wireless market
continues to move from a carrier-funded
to enterprise-funded model. We’ve been
talking about this transition for a while,
but it continues to make headway. The
big challenge here is getting the MNOs
and enterprises on the same page in
terms of roles and responsibilities,
deployment quality and other logistics.
CommScope continues to strengthen
its extensive partner network to better
serve and empower enterprises in their
wireless needs.
Densification also includes adding
more spectrum to existing sites. For macro
network base-station antennas, we continue
to place more ports on antennas (up to 8,
10 or 12 ports) to help push more capacity
to existing sites. The evolution to the 4.3-
10 connector size is important here. The
industry is also exploring the millimetre
wave spectrum, which we see playing a role
in fixed wireless access networks.
Virtualisation
Everything is being virtualised in wireless
networks. The first step towards capacity
virtualisation is deploying centralised
radio access networks (C-RAN), which pull
baseband processing into a centralised
location serving multiple cell sites. A US
MNO is already utilising C-RAN to link up
three macro sites and 30 metro sites across
the downtown area of a major city. Fibre
cabling links all of these sites. In the future,
such a deployment will enable true C-RAN,
meaning Cloud-RAN, where network
capacity can be moved around to hot spots
throughout the day.
At the cell tower site, the C-RAN
architecture makes it possible for operators
to use smaller cabinets and platforms at
the bottom of the tower because there is
less equipment at the edge. CommScope
now offers pre-assembled steel platforms
with cabinets and generators already
46
None of these
trends —
densification,
virtualisation,
optimisation and
convergence — is
brand new. But
2017 will see
more work being
done and more
resources being
deployed for all
of them.
Network convergence
Optimisation Looking down the road a bit further, an
emerging trend – and a buzz word for the
past 10 years – is network convergence. It’s
been talked about a lot, but I see it truly
happening in 5G. Network convergence
means wireline and wireless networks
coming together to best serve users. Fibre
networks will become more pervasive in
carrying wireless network traffic, moving
from the core to the network edge. The
last mile can be fibre or wireless, with
millimetre wave competing with fibre
for short drops in the RAN. Wireless has
clearly won in user preferences, but it will
be a combination of wireless and fibre that
links them back to the core.
None of these trends — densification,
virtualisation, optimisation and
convergence — is brand new. But 2017
will see more work being done and more
resources being deployed for all of them.
More cell sites, capacity, virtualisation,
spectrum and fibre will all continue. The
one constant in the wireless industry
is ‘more’. Users want more bandwidth,
MNOs need more capacity and vendors
like CommScope are rushing ahead to
develop more solutions. While 2017 might
look like more of the same, I expect to
see significant developments in laying the
foundation for 5G.
Operators are still highly focused on
controlling the user experience, and rightly
so. Keeping customers happy is the core
of their businesses. How to best use the
unlicensed spectrum is a question to be
sorted out in 2017. The rudimentary first
steps involved offloading traffic onto Wi-Fi,
but that does not enable the quality control
MNOs want. LTE-Unlicensed and Licence-
Assisted Access make carrier-controlled
use of the unlicensed spectrum possible.
MNOs still get the benefits of offload but
can control the experience. Ultimately
there will be a co-existence of Wi-Fi, other
unlicensed technologies and the licensed
spectrum, especially inside buildings.
Managing the spectrum to minimise
network performance issues remains a
mission-critical concern. By 2020,
projections
suggest there will
be around two
zettabytes of data
in the Middle East;
greater than the
estimated number
of grains of sand
covering the entire
Arabian Desert.
installed to address this market need.
MNOs will hopefully enjoy some cost
savings due to lower power requirements
and leasing costs in the C-RAN model.
Issue 06
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS