Solving the HetNet puzzle The work of Small Cell Forum members continues to break new ground and drive commercialization at the network edge. It was clear from our discussions in Dallas earlier this month that small cells now set the agenda for network evolution. They are in the driving seat of the RAN architectural agenda and will be at the heart of 5G and IoT. It was a busy week for us all in Dallas, with the Small Cells Champions Workshop, the Small Cells Americas Conference and two days of working group meetings. A key highlight for me was the launch of our Crossing the Chasm report which details an industry which has already reached some 12 million small cells deployed, which is continuing to experience double digit growth in the SOHO and residential market, and is also facing an explosion of deployment in the Enterprise space. Our Dallas workshop, delivered to an animated audience in a packed room, comprised case study presentations from industry pioneers including AT&T, SoftBank, Nokia, SpiderCloud, Parallel Wireless and Airvana. If you missed it you can access all the presentations from our website. Our Champions also gave updates to the presentations they delivered in Rome on our six main work items: Licence-exempt, Virtualization, Het and SON, Multi-operator, Enterprise and M2M, IoT and 5G. The Small Cells Americas Conference itself was a runaway success, with a tight agenda and high caliber, relevant presenters, speakers and attendees. It made for an interesting, informative event and accurately reflected the positive buzz that is prevalent throughout the industry. Small Cell Forum continues to attract new members from every part of the ecosystem, with operators comprising over 40% of new recruits in the last year. It’s been fantastic to welcome new companies and individuals and see how they integrate and impact on our existing teams. More members mean more specialists to contribute to our expansive work program – further strengthening the quality and value of our output. I’ve been impressed by the drive and enthusiasm associated with our new work items and the focus on commercialization that informs them. And we will certainly need all that drive and enthusiasm over the course of the next six months. Small Cell Forum is committed to two releases, at MWC16 in February (themed around Enterprise deployment) and at Small Cells World Summit in May (HetNet and SON). These are not minor releases, but extensive research and analysis which will demonstrate the commercial viability of small cells and facilitate the deployment of small cells on mass scale. With your contribution to the Small Cell Forum Release Program, you have the opportunity to influence the way of the mobile industry. Your dedication and hard work is appreciated. Alan Law Chair, Small Cell Forum SMALL CELL FORUM DALLAS PLENARY 2015 REVIEW Small cells setting the agenda in Dallas
Transcript
Solving the HetNet puzzle
The work of Small Cell Forum members continues to break new ground and drive commercialization at the network edge. It was clear from our discussions in Dallas earlier this month that small cells now set the agenda for network evolution. They are in the driving seat of the RAN architectural agenda and will be at the heart of 5G and IoT.
It was a busy week for us all in Dallas, with the Small Cells Champions Workshop, the Small Cells Americas Conference and two days of working group meetings. A key highlight for me was the launch of our Crossing the Chasm report which details an industry which has already reached some 12 million small cells deployed, which is continuing to experience double digit growth in the SOHO and residential market, and is also facing an explosion of deployment in the Enterprise space.
Our Dallas workshop, delivered to an animated audience in a packed room, comprised case study presentations from industry pioneers including AT&T, SoftBank, Nokia, SpiderCloud, Parallel Wireless and Airvana. If you missed it you can access all the presentations from our website. Our Champions also gave updates to the presentations they delivered in Rome on our six main work items: Licence-exempt, Virtualization, Het and SON, Multi-operator, Enterprise and M2M, IoT and 5G.
The Small Cells Americas Conference itself was a runaway success, with a tight agenda and high caliber, relevant presenters, speakers and attendees. It made for an interesting, informative event and accurately reflected the positive buzz that is prevalent throughout the industry.
Small Cell Forum continues to attract new members from every part of the ecosystem, with operators comprising over 40% of new recruits in the last year. It’s been fantastic to welcome new companies and individuals and see how they integrate and impact on our existing teams. More members mean more specialists to contribute to our expansive work program – further strengthening the quality and value of our output. I’ve been impressed by the drive and enthusiasm associated with our new work items and the focus on commercialization that informs them.
And we will certainly need all that drive and enthusiasm over the course of the next six months. Small Cell Forum is committed to two releases, at MWC16 in February (themed around Enterprise deployment) and at Small Cells World Summit in May (HetNet and SON). These are not minor releases, but extensive research and analysis which will demonstrate the commercial viability of small cells and facilitate the deployment of small cells on mass scale.
With your contribution to the Small Cell Forum Release Program, you have the opportunity to influence the way of the mobile industry. Your dedication and hard work is appreciated.
Our carrier members have set out six mission-critical priorities to commercialize the mobile edge – License-exempt Spectrum, Virtualization, HetNet and SON, Multi-operator, Enterprise and M2M, IoT and 5G. Each item has an operator and vendor champion to drive the work.
Having officially kicked-off their work items in Rome by setting out the broad objectives, the Champions’ challenge going into Dallas was to reach agreement with working group chairs on a set of deliverables for upcoming releases in 2016. Never before has the Forum seen so much engagement across so many different topics. The long initial wish-list of some 60 documents was negotiated down to an agreement to deliver approximately 40 items spread over three releases as shown in the tables below. The first of these will need to be ready in time for Mobile World Congress in February 2016 and then Small Cell World Summit in May. A third release, showcasing the developing ecosystem around the new nFAPI Virtualization interface, is anticipated for the third quarter – watch this space.
While these plans may seem ambitious to some, Small Cell Forum familiars will know from our track record that we will deliver. A quick scan down the list shows that we’re not starting from scratch – several of the documents are refinements of existing content, and many more are already well in flight. Coupled with the fact that we now have more active members than ever before, we’re set for a fruitful year.
Julius RobsonRelease Co-ordinator, Small Cell Forum
Release roadmap
smallcellforum.org 3Solving the HetNet puzzle
Release date: Mobile World Congress 22 February 2016
Deadline for working group agreed documents: 15 January 2016
Release 6
Work Item Owner Deliverable
Enterprise MKT Enterprise Release page facelift
Enterprise EN Enterprise overview update [102]
Enterprise MKT Enterprise Business Drivers Survey
Enterprise SVC Enterprise Case Histories
Enterprise MKT Easy Deployment Guide
Enterprise NET E-SCN Network Architectures update [067]
Enterprise SVC Small Cell Services API pt. 1
MONeH MKT Market Drivers for Multi-operator Small Cells
MONeH MKT Rethink Operator Survey Qs on Multi-operator
MONeH MO Use Cases for Multi-operator
MONeH REG Regulatory Issues for Multi-operator Small Cells
MONeH MKT Multi-operator Case Histories
IoT-5G 5G M2M/IoT Small Cells Business Opportunities
HetNet and SON DEP HetNet Capacity Planning
Licence-exempt MKT The Future of Voice: Wi-Fi & Licenced calling
Virtualization RPH Small Cell Virtualization Use Cases update [159]
smallcellforum.org 4Solving the HetNet puzzle
Release date: Small Cell World Summit May 2016
Deadline for working group agreed documents: 14 April 2016 (end of Asia Plenary)
Release 7
Work Item Owner Deliverable
HetNet and SON HS HetNet and SON Release Overview
HetNet and SON MKT HetNet and SON Market Drivers
HetNet and SON MKT HetNet and SON Case Studies
HetNet and SON RPH Enterprise SON Use Cases [066]
HetNet and SON RPH Urban SON Use Cases [077]
HetNet and SON NET Architecture Framework for HetNet and SON
HetNet and SON RPH X2 Interoperability for HetNet Coordination [059]
HetNet and SON DEP Extending SON into HetNet Deployment
HetNet and SON SVC Location based API for the HetNet
HetNet and SON RPH SON API for Small Cells [083]
HetNet and SON IOP Value of PlugFests (Update)
HetNet and SON IOP SON Test Cases
HetNet and SON REG LI and LIPA/SIPTO internal whitepaper
Licence-exempt LE Small Cells and Licence-exempt Spectrum: Carrier Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Calling, LAA and LWA [097]
Licence-exempt LE Combining benefits of Licensed and Unlicensed with LWA and LTE in unlicensed
Enterprise SVC Mobile Unified Communications
IOT-5G 5G SCF 5G vision – initial focus on use cases (SVC) and areas of significant architecture impacts (NET)
MONeH NET Multi-operator Technology Review [069] update
smallcellforum.org 5Solving the HetNet puzzle
Circa Q3 2016
Virtualization outputs – Release 8
Work Item Owner Deliverable
Virtualization V Virtualized small cells release overview update [106]
Virtualization RPH FAPI and nFAPI [082]
Virtualization NET Network aspects of virtualized small cells [161]
Virtualization NET MANO and infrastructure aspects of virtual SCs
Virtualization DEP Deploying aspects of virtualized small cell networks
Virtualization NET TR196 update to support nFAPI and Multi-operator [BBF update]
Virtualization V MEF support for virtualized small cells
Virtualization NET SCF Virt Input to ETSI NFV [EVE006]
smallcellforum.org 6Solving the HetNet puzzle
Virtualization had a productive Plenary with progress made in several areas. The RPH Group covered the definition of the nFAPI update to the previous release document on LTE eNB L1 API definition (SCF-082) as well as management of the Physical Network Function. NET Group spent
time discussing aspects of supporting real-time compute within a virtualized environment as well as ETSI NFV ISG cooperation. Deployment aspects were also discussed, and it was agreed that the Champions would look to source use-case agnostic NFV material to boot-strap discussions.
Virtualization
License-exempt Champions presented proposed work plans to the NET, MKT, RPH and REG groups at the Dallas Plenary. There was active discussion regarding the decision to revisit several of the existing Release Program documents related to License-exempt, as well as refinements made to new document
plans covering ‘Combining the benefits of Licensed and Unlicensed with LWA and LTE in Unlicensed’ and the ‘Future of Voice.’ Work will continue between now and the next Plenary both in the working groups and among several companies who have signed up to help contribute to this important work item.
License–exempt
Work item updates
smallcellforum.org 7Solving the HetNet puzzle
The Dallas meeting saw another wide-ranging and constructive set of sessions addressing the Multi-operator Neutral Host topic. We crossed an essential threshold in agreeing a set of deliverables from each of the working groups – MKT, NET, RPH, DEP and REG. Such a comprehensive set of inputs will deliver compelling argument and
technical detail to answer the Why and How of Multi-operator Neutral Host deployments. Why will the market embrace the Multi-operator model? Who will make money from it, and how? How will vendors deliver product to it? How will it be deployed? Stay tuned for answers to all these, and more...
Multi-operator Network Host (MONeH)
HetNet and SON Champions held sessions with DEP, MKT, IOP, RPH, SVC, and NET. All sessions were focused on concluding commitments from the working groups to support work items for a May 2016 Release proposed by the HetNet and SON Champions prior to the plenary. These sessions resulted in a definitive list of documents and topics to be addressed by the referenced owner working groups.
Notes from specific working group sessions are provide as follows:
l DEP: DEP agreed to include HetNet capacity planning in the capacity planning paper and established the initial scope of a new deliverable ‘Extending SON into HetNet deployment’.
l MKT: We agreed with MKT the scope of a ‘Market Drivers’ document and to include HetNet and SON case studies in Release 6.
l IOP: IOP agreed to include SON test cases in Release 6.
l RPH: Existing RPH documents – 083, 066, 077 and 059 will be included in HetNet and SON but no updates were identified.
l NET: NET agreed on a new document ‘Architecture framework for HetNet and SON’ that includes LTE and Legacy Wi-Fi.
l SVC: SVC will update the main Services document to include support of services over legacy Wi-Fi. Any identified API changes to achieve this extension will also be included in the May Release.
HetNet and SON
Work item updates
smallcellforum.org 8Solving the HetNet puzzle
5G-IoT had a joint session with NET and SVC to review the proposed work plan. It was agreed that the activity on 5G-IoT needs to be balanced against other work item and Working Group deliverables and that we should take a measured approach in the coming months. Three main deliverables have been identified:
l SVC will generate a paper on IoT business opportunities for small cells.
l 5G-IoT Champions will create a Small Cell Forum 5G vision document. which NET and SVC will contribute to. The initial focus
will be on use cases (SVC) and areas of significant architecture impacts (NET). Proposed areas for NET to look into are IoT (e.g. GW), analytics and mmW.
l 5G-IoT will provide input IoT (e.g. GW), analytics, mmWIoT (e.g. GW), analytics / mmW5G bodies with SCF recommendations. We have already submitted recommendation to 3GPP 5G planning around the areas of Multi-operator, Virtualization and service API and we will follow a similar approach with other organizations.
M2M, IoT and 5G
During the Dallas Plenary the Enterprise deliverables were in most parts agreed with each working group. MKT will tackle the Nemertes Enterprise survey which has been thoroughly reviewed during a dedicated session. An Easy Guide to Deployment document has also been agreed where MKT will own the format and DEP own the content. It has also been agreed to significantly revamp and simplify the release document ‘constellation’, seen as too daunting to date, by removing content to its core.
NET will deliver a refresh of various documents, namely on network architecture, IT consideration
for Enterprise and potentially on alternative technologies (although work load still needs to be committed).
On the SVC side, API plans, mobile unified communications and also a review of Enterprise case histories will be produced. The idea behind the case histories is to illustrate successful deployment of small cells for various verticals, on a voluntary basis from operators and vendors. A template will be delivered to unify the outputs and steer contributions. Finally an updated Enterprise overview deliverable will serve as an umbrella document to the Enterprise release to be issued by the MWC 16.
Enterprise
Work item updates
smallcellforum.org 9Solving the HetNet puzzle
RPH CHAIR
Nick Johnson, ip.access
MKT CHAIR
Lisa Garza, Cisco
The Radio and Physical Layer Group tackled many topics during the Dallas Plenary, addressing the Champions themes where the radio or radio management is concerned. For Multi-operator Neutral Host, we asked ourselves, ‘How should radio resources be shared in a multi-operator network?’ Sounds an easy question. You share them fairly, right? But put five radio engineers in a room for ten minutes and you realize the answer ‘fairly’ begs a rich seam of questions about what fairness really means when it comes to radio
resources. Clue: it’s much more than ‘equal throughput’. Yet it’s key to the commercial deployment of multi-operator cells.
Beyond that, we couldn’t help but progress the work on the virtualized MAC-PHY interface for small cells (nFAPI), begin the consensus forming around the RPH view of License-exempt, and continue to define the TR196 extensions to guarantee C-SON interoperability. Sounds dry, but if you’re into the radio aspects of small cell deployments, this is essential stuff. See you next time!
Radio & Physical Layer Group
The Marketing Group finalized its strategic marketing plan for 2016, aligning our initiatives with the SCF Release roadmap. We progressed work in key areas, including a global survey of Enterprises aimed at identifying the demand for small cells by vertical markets, and characterizing the market drivers for multi-operator small cells in
particular and HetNet and SON overall. We finalized our plans for Mobile World Congress 2016 taking place in Barcelona Feb 22-25, and we continue to seek members to promote your solutions by joining us there in the Small Cell Zone. Please contact Elizabeth McMahon for more information.
The REG Group held three sessions during the Dallas Plenary, including one joint session with the NET Group. The main focus was to establish a clear vision of the required regulatory inputs to the multi-operator and Licence-exempt work items.
Following session discussions involving the respective work item champions, the shape, content and timeframe for the regulatory material was agreed. A document containing a first appraisal of regulatory considerations relating to multi-operator will be completed in time
for MWC16. A regulatory section for inclusion in the licence-exempt white paper will be completed in time for the Release in May 2016.
REG also held discussions on the new small cell EMF measurement project which will be jointly managed with the MMF. This will kick-off early next year and be completed in time for publication of results in Q4 2016. Work was also progressed on Lawful Intercept for LIPA and SIPTO, with a view to completing an internal white paper by middle of next year.
Regulatory Group
NET had a busy Plenary with six NET sessions, which were devoted to the new Champions work items and three joint sessions. The joint sessions were with REG to discuss lawful intercept topic, with DEP to discuss virtualization and SVC & RPH for TR196 gap analysis.
As a result of the discussions, we identified the NET deliverables for each of the upcoming releases. Specifically, NET is planning to refresh the existing Enterprise-SCN Architectures document (SCF-067) with aspects of ETSI-MEC and virtualization, targeted for the MWC16 release. For the May 2016 Release, a new document will be generated providing an overarching architecture framework for HetNet and SON, addressing small cell interactions with macro-cellular and Wi-Fi networks. This will be followed by a new document addressing the infrastructure and MANO aspects
of virtualized-SCNs as part of Release 6.1. Additionally, the existing SCF-069 document on multi-operator scenarios for E-SCNs will be refreshed significantly to comprehensively address the various network sharing options. This document will also address DAS, which has the intrinsic characteristic of neutral host and supporting multiple operators.
Finally, NET will be providing contributions to multi-operator & neutral host (MONeH) and Licence-exempt white papers. The group has also committed to driving the topic of existing TR-196 gaps and enhancements needed for future developments such as virtualized small cells, multi-operator scenarios etc, as well as their standardization in cooperation with BBF & 3GPP. NET will also be continuing the ongoing collaborations with WBA and ETSI-NFV ISG.
Network Group
Work item updates
smallcellforum.org 11Solving the HetNet puzzle
IOP CHAIR
Kreso Bilan, NEC
SVC CHAIR
RAY Williamson, Huawei
IOP Group continued the work on SON test cases and towards the next Plugfest in March 2016 (to be formally announced shortly).
IOP met with MKT to better promote Small CellForum Plugfest activity to the wider membership.
Summaries of outcomes from recent events will be added our ‘Value of Plugfests’ paper [SCF085], and test cases for the upcoming March 2016 event will be aligned to the HetNet and SON Release 7. IOP meeting minutes are summarized here.
Interoperability Group
The SVC Group participated in a total of seven sessions only one of which was a service only session (on SDO/liaisons). The new structure around work items has been very useful with services being discussed with more Forum members and in various contexts as outlined below.
l Enterprise: This is the work item that is most closely linked to the SVC Working Group with the goal of stimulating the adoption of small cell enabled Enterprise services. Actions were agreed to publish and promote the APIs that are already completed, to engage OMA to complete API in the pipeline (Gary Jones, a plenary guest from T-Mobile and OMA Chair, has kindly agreed to help us with this) and to complete the specs for the unified communications API.
l HetNet and SON: SVC proposed an approach based around MEC architecture to enable location services to be delivered
across both cellular and Wi-Fi. The approach was agreed with the HetNet and SON Champions and NET and we will now drill into the detail to assess any impacts on the existing API.
l M2M, 5G and IoT: SVC have agreed to generate a paper on IoT business opportunities for small cell and will also review existing small cell use cases for possible extension with 5G.
l Multi-operator network host (MONeH): SVC joined the MONeH session with MKT and also had a brief discussion with the MONeH Champion on project Sesame. Although services are of interest to this work item there are no specific actions for SVC at this time.
In addition to the above SVC also discussed our engagement with ETSI-MEC, GSMA and the TR196 update request to Broadband Forum.
The ‘Capacity management in HetNets’ paper is essentially ready for final review and acceptance by the group. It is intended that we send this out by Friday 13 November for a response by Wednesday 25 November, easily meeting the deadline of mid-January.
The Deployment Group also discussed at length the topic of ‘Extending SON into HetNets’ and created a straw man for the document we need to write during Q1&2 of next year. ‘Best practice for Enterprise’ in conjunction with a starters guide for MWC16 was put into perspective and a little road map produced to show how we can cover the necessary
topics. We didn’t get quite as far as having a straw man but we did make a lot of progress in this area.
The Deployment Group offered to help on the topic of multi-operator, by first collating existing networks using this sort of technology and reporting back to the Champions
Finally, the virtualization topic was reviewed. We didn’t have the right people to contribute to the answering of the questions proposed (see below), so NET kindly agreed to see what they could do within their own roadmaps. It still leaves some topics currently unanswered but at least we know the right questions.
Deployment Group
Work item updates
Call for experts – can you or your company help? Small Cell Forum is embarking on an ambitious work-plan to virtualize, orchestrate and automate the HetNet. Part of this transition is the revolution in the tools and methodologies for virtualized workload deployment, workflows and operational policies.
Small Cell Forum is reaching out to experts in TMForum Zero-Touch Orchestration, Operations and Management (ZOOM), TOSCA NFV profiles and Openflow HEAT orchestration to help lead the definition of the new flexible approaches to HetNet deployment. If you are interested in contributing to this important, groundbreaking work item – or know someone who might be – please contact [email protected] for more details.
![Sketchnotes for Small Business Forum 2012 [Enterprise Toronto]](https://static.documents.pub/doc/80x56/5441e546b1af9f860d8b4570/sketchnotes-for-small-business-forum-2012-enterprise-toronto.jpg)
