Spectrum is a finite resource. And it is a resource that has become extremely useful – necessary, in fact – to virtually all of us: individuals, businesses, public agencies. Picture what would happen if, for a single day, all wireless connections ceased to work.
Yet...
Wi-Fi carries a significant portion of enterprise and consume data traffic and increasingly, voice. Mobile operators are increasingly looking to unlicensed spectrum to supplement their licensed holdings to boost performance and improve experience while keeping costs down. Some wireless networks, such as those of...
Fiber will enable next-generation networks, smart cities and the internet of things. Fiber to the tower has already separated radio heads and antennas from base station equipment, and now that same architecture is being leveraged for centralized radio access networks, or C-RAN. When radios...
After years of planning and pilot projects, the national public safety wireless broadband network known as FirstNet is poised to soon become a reality. RCR Wireless takes stock of FirstNet's status, short- and long-term goals, as well as technical issues including spectrum sharing and...
City governments around the world are increasingly adopting schemes to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions in order to tackle several challenges for the city’s management and to improve the quality of life of citizens and the efficiency...
While some futuristic IoT applications will take years of R&D before being commercialized, many other IoT applications are creating business value today. Let's take a look at how carriers are using the internet of things in the real world. From agriculture to smart city...
Location, location, location. Multiple-access Edge Computing (MEC) and edge computing in general are gaining acceptance in both fixed and mobile networks as we increasingly realize the power of location in wireless networks – and especially in virtualized networks. This does not mean the centralized...
The concomitant push to virtualization, and the heightened requirements for latency and QoE are changing the way mobile operators decide which functions and what content have to be centralized, or can be moved towards to the edge.
The “Power at the edge” report discusses...
Smart manufacturing describes the ongoing shift in industrial production marked by ever-increasing efficiencies realized through the introduction of technology. In a smart factory, the manufacturing process will be more intelligent, dynamic and flexible compared to processes seen at present. The perpetuation of smart factories means...
One underlying tenet of the move towards virtualized platforms using NFV, SDN and cloud technologies has been the need for open source architectures that can allow for greater interoperability between vendor solutions and a broader platform for innovation.
This report looks at the challenges and...
C-RAN and 5G create much stricter latency and capacity requirements for backhaul and fronthaul, and expand the role of fronthaul in transport. In this webinar, we talk about the evolution of backhaul and fronthaul, the emergence of xhaul/midhaul models, and the use of mmW...
Services beyond connectivity are expected to play a large role in how operators derive value from adding millions of connected vehicles to their networks, from billing and analytics to software updates and more.
RCR examines the services side of the connected car ecosystem, including what...
Consumer demand for mobile connectivity and cloud-based platforms has resulted in mobile networks transmitting more data than ever, which puts carriers in a prime spot to use analytics in order to glean insight into what is actually moving across their networks. However, growing demand...
Networked devices are at the heart of building smarter cities. Connecting a smart phone to the Internet is one thing, but connecting an industrial asset—like a transformer or a stop light—is another. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and the connection among industrial devices...
Small cell and distributed antenna system deployments require careful planning and coordination of a number of different processes. Zoning, permitting, lease agreements, backhaul, power and "negative assets" all need to be evaluated when a site is chosen. A new site's planned performance needs to...
As more "things" from watches to sensors to vehicles are given connectivity, there are two fundamental goals: make sure the technology works as expected, and make sure it is secure. In different devices, the testing to ensure those two aspects can look very different.
RCR...
Densification is more than small cells. Or DAS. Or Wi-Fi. The demand to carry more traffic, to more device types, with more reliability and lower latency creates the need for networks that not only have a higher density of RAN access points, but that...
"5G" is one of the biggest buzz words in the mobile telecom space, but what exactly is 5G? With true 4G networks now just coming to market, and plenty of runway left in terms of LTE-based 4G development, what is 5G at this point...
Network and service assurance remain a top priority for telecom operators, though views on what those assurance levels need to be in a virtualized environment remain in flux. Assuring virtualized networks will be critical going forward.
This report looks at some of the challenges telecom...
This report highlights the types of tower technology amendments that carriers foresee in the months ahead and ways that the tower companies can support the carriers as networks evolve. Carrier aggregation, C-RAN, and eventually 600 megahertz spectrum deployments will all mean more tower activity. In...
How do you make a small cell financially viable? The technology has been slower to ramp than expected, after meeting substantial cost, logistics and RF challenges in the real world. RCR Wireless News looks at the status of the small cell market from home femtocells...
Despite the fact that voice does not boast the same traffic growth as data and accounts for less than 10% of mobile, it still plays a crucial role in mobile operators’ networks. In this report we review trends in the adoption and technology developments...
As the world becomes more and more urban, mayors and municipalities are striving to make their cities smarter. In theory at least, information and communications technologies can keep traffic moving, detect and prevent crime, monitor the condition of roads, lighting, parks and other urban...
Each outdoor deployment is a learning lab for operators and vendors, and this report digs into the specifics of site acquisition, network design, equipment selection, installation and testing. Metro deployments that are in both the planning phase and the installation phase are discussed, as...
