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It’s funny to think that only a short time ago, cell phones had one purpose – simply handle phone calls. These days, computing power and capabilities once possible only through large desktop CPUs have crept into consumers’ pockets, and it’s putting unthinkable stress on their supporting mobile networks. Smartphones and tablets, and their data-rich videoconferencing, live streaming and applications, are driving the surge in today’s data demands. Such evolution has forced service providers to rethink mobile infrastructures that for years had worked fine.
Thanks to innovations like small cells, low-profile nodes that live just about anywhere at the edge of a network, and WiFi-offloading strategies, large carriers now have a way to alleviate the pressure of their core networks.
Small cells have come a long way in recent years. According to Informa Telecoms and Media, 97.5 percent of mobile operator respondents believe that small cells are key for the future of mobile networks. Examples of small cells include outdoor metro cells deployed on utility poles or building facades, indoor picocells improving the coverage in areas such as public transport hubs, distributed antenna systems used in public venues like campuses and stadiums, and femtocells providing improved indoor mobile network experience in residences.
Initially used to expand the coverage of mobile networks in remote locations, small cells are now being utilized by service providers to alleviate network congestion in busy urban areas caused by ever increasing consumer data demands. Of note, in high-density cities, some studies indicate that 20% of the cell towers handle 80% of the mobile traffic, reducing network performance for the end user.
But, as it is said, with great power comes great responsibility. Throwing more nodes into the network fundamentally changes how operators must ensure their system is running according to plan and consumers are receiving the services for which they’ve paid. A carrier needs visibility into what’s going on with the new cells, which are being deployed in huge numbers at the edge of their networks. Doing this while keeping costs down and performance high will prove a challenge for mobile carriers in coming months and years. There are several ways to achieve this.
Roll-out Planning
Operators can get the most out of small cell deployments through the surgical placement of small cells and mastering the interaction between the small cells and the traditional macro network. In addition, small cell site locations must be determined based on actual, localized data traffic demand.
Geo-locating customer experience is also important to reveal data hot spots and customer experience “black holes” to intelligently drive the process of planning small cells and data-offload solutions. Efficient planning leads directly to a significant improvement in customer experience, and return on capital investment.
Remote Testing
Small cells cost a fraction of what macro cells cost, meaning service providers can scatter many more of these systems. But because of their sheer quantity and reach, it’s testing their effectiveness that becomes a cost problem. It’s expensive to send out a field technician in a truck to troubleshoot each cell when there’s a problem, so remote testing strategies will not only make things easier, they’ll become a crucial part of small cell engineering. Carriers will have to start increasing the degree of automation as it pertains to small cell service turn up, ongoing performance monitoring, and network optimization.
Additionally, as operators augment their networks further with LTE, Wi-Fi, small cells, etc., it can create more complexity. Software-Defined Networking, which shifts the brains of networking to central software systems from hardware, will also become more prominent for carriers as they work to reduce complexity and increase agility.
Application Testing
To dive deeper than the typical “green light means good; red light means bad,” providers must leverage new technologies to quickly and cost effectively solve more complicated service issues and keep customers happy.
Since testing is becoming more software-based and allows providers to see much deeper into networks, content-aware testing is the next logical step. New solutions are being released that allow providers to see what the customer is experiencing – all the way down to the individual radio access networks or small cells. Awareness of what the end user is actually doing with their mobile devices layers in helpful context for network operators. After all, a jittery video feed and a slow-to-send text message yield drastically different customer-service issues.
Better understanding of the customer experience is vital to ensure successful service delivery. Operators need to delve deeper into performance networks, protocols, services, and applications by device, location and customer in order to enact the right policy and network optimizations resulting in superior performance.
Location-based network awareness, which can give service providers a view of their networks down to the individual user, is also becoming more prominent. Carriers can now get a sense of exactly which systems (small or macro cells) are handling the heaviest load to inform automatic re-routing of traffic. Think of it like using a scalpel instead of a sledgehammer. Such precision yields incredible benefits for carriers looking to streamline network management.
Ethernet Backhaul
IP-based Ethernet will slowly replace traditional cables for small-cells backhaul – that is, moving data between the core and edge networks. Conventional backhaul links are reaching their effective limit thanks to today’s massive data processing, so Ethernet is becoming a common choice for small cell backhaul. It can deliver layers of service quality and can be carried over many physical media such as xDSL, fiber, cable, and microwave.
Not only is Ethernet scalable to handle the ever-increasing traffic, it can also lower backhaul costs to make small cells more financially viable. Ethernet allows for rapid activation of each small cell, better segmentation of backhaul networks, and the ability to simultaneously manage more cells in a network.
Ethernet also allows for more backhaul flexibility, unlike earlier approaches. Ethernet is ideally suited to transport the native IP services LTE requires, and it inherently supports more flexible traffic management and quality of service capabilities allowing the same backhaul network to be used for a variety of voice, video, and data services. However, this flexibility also increases the need for remote service testing and performance validation.
Installation
Just because small cells cost significantly less than macro cells doesn’t mean they don’t require testing. On the contrary, given the pace of deployment it’s probably even more important to perform test to ensure quality. For example, the use of smart instruments to emulate end-user behavior such as generating voice call, connecting to websites, and uploading and downloading files will provide instant Pass/Fail indication, with results that can be transferred to a central location for analysis if a problem is found. That type of simple test takes only a few minutes and allows installers to feel confident that when they leave the site they know services are being delivered, or that someone has the data required to identify the fault should one be indicated.
In addition, effective testing of small cell networks during the installation phase must reveal radio frequency (RF) measurements for not only the current cell but also all of the invisible neighbor cells, and the upload/download test should show the throughput. Installation test allows operators to verify the service coverage and capacity during the planning phase.
Conclusion
Small cell adoption is inarguably increasing. These new deployments have the potential to quickly increase capacity and coverage where it is most needed. Leveraging Ethernet for backhaul and today’s new test and measurement solutions will help providers turn small cells into a competitive advantage, minimizing the time to revenue and maximizing the quality of experience.
Such solutions increase revenue potential by accelerating deployment, offering much higher quality of service and allowing providers to monitor service-level agreements. They also minimize deployment costs by simplifying testing and service activation and providing visibility from the core to the network edge.
It is fundamental for mobile providers to implement such solutions correctly the first time through efficient planning and optimization. This results in a tremendous amount of time and money saved in the long run, and ultimately a better user experience.
