Urban small cell initiatives have been challenged by concerns about backhaul and site acquisition, but now more and more deployments are seeing the light of day. Small cells are moving beyond the home and enterprise and onto billboards, lamp posts, park benches and church steeples. Today at MWC 2014, the Small Cell Forum shared its best practices for maximizing the benefits of small cells in outdoor environments.
Release 3 is a collection of 18 new documents that address issues including backhaul, monetization, network architecture, Wi-Fi integration, and urban SON. Release 3 also addresses regulatory issues, synchronization for LTE small cells, and includes a small cell application programmers’ guide. However, the forum did not specific Release 3 as a complete technical roadmap.
“Release Three focuses on establishing the need, evaluating the business case and identifying key barriers to commercial deployment of urban small cells,” said Small Cell Forum Chairman Gordon Mansfield, who also runs AT&T’s small cell division. “In Release Four and beyond, we will delve into the detail of the technical solutions that will speed deployments in this exciting new market,” Mansfield said.
The Small Cell Forum’s work is complemented by industry initiatives that are expected to make deployment easier and more efficient for carriers. Alcatel-Lucent, for example, recently launched the Metrocell Express Certified Partner Program, to help operators identify and acquire sites for small cells. The company says it currently has several large commercial pilots underway.
Amdocs is another vendor that is actively engaged in facilitating small cell deployments for carriers. The company has a software tool that helps carriers plan and execute small cell rollouts. The software identifies sites that need more coverage, plans the use of resources during installation, combines project planning with network design, and delivers instructions to work crews via a mobile app.
