@PCIA: Networks will change to accommodate 4G services

HOLLYWOOD, Fla.–Dr. John Saw, CTO and senior VP of Clearwire Corp., kicked off PCIA’s annual Wireless Infrastructure Show in 2010 talking about the trends driving today’s wireless data explosion. “If we give customers a more capable network, they will find a way to use the bandwidth,” Saw told the audience, noting that on average, Clearwire customers are using 7 gigabytes of tonnage per month. “In 4G, everything works better.”
The growth of data services is changing the network dynamics, Saw said. There are not enough macro-cellular towers today to support 4G services because 4G is just as much about finding enough capacity on the network vs. coverage. Saw envisions an underlying network of secondary structures including picocells, mini-cells and Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS networks) that complement the macro-cellular network. “It’s a paradigm shift,” in how 4G networks will be deployed, he said in an interview with RCR Wireless News. Saw explained that this does not mean that macro-cellular networks will disappear, but that going forward, more secondary structures will attach to the network. “It won’t obviate the need for towers.”
For example, in Manhattan, N.Y., Clearwire has deployed a three-tier network. “Midtown is hard area to cover,” Saw said. Clearwire has a macrocellular network on building rooftops, picocells and the like on utility poles and a third tier of antennas that help with in-building coverage.
Tower companies could help wireless operators by offering higher-capacity backhaul, and common services like sharing generator equipment instead of making each carrier have its own generator, as well as by making proactive upgrades so that towers can handle the additional equipment loads that will come from 4G equipment.
“We need a technology shift beyond 3G that can handle the penetration rates that are going to hit our cell sites,” Saw told the audience, siting the need for higher spectral efficiencies, fat channels, higher user speeds and lower latency. Cell sites need to be able to handle 50 to 100 megabits per second speeds. Streaming services, web browsing and peer-to-peer applications are the top traffic downloads for Clear customers, Saw said. Mobile Internet users will exceed desktop users within 5 years,” Saw said. If that prediction is true, the wireless industry needs to figure out how to deliver networks that can deliver that experience.