Better Access, Technology, Standards Needed in Small Cellsite Expansion, FCC Forum Told

Optimization, better spectrum management, capability to support multiple technologies and backhaul are the key, said Brian Daly, AT&T director-core standards. Interference between carrier network and femto network is a big challenge, he said. Companies also need to look at how different technologies can be integrated onto a universal femto network, he said. Sprint-Nextel wants to see more infrastructure and cost sharing in the small cellsite market, said Iyad Tarazi, vice president-network engineering and development. Meeting changing capacity demand is a major challenge, said Tormod Larsen, Chief Technology Officer of Extenet Systems, a provider of DAS systems. “There’s a great deal that needs to be done” and “we are far along in the process,” said Dennis Roberson, vice provost of the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Seamless transition from cellular networks to small cell networks like Wi-Fi is a major issue, said Steven Glapa, senior director of field marketing at Ruckus Wireless, which focuses on Wi-Fi solutions. Wi-Fi is increasingly used for data offload by wireless carriers, which aren’t looking for best session continuity, he said. Additionally, device makers tend to use very inexpensive Wi-Fi chips that aren’t designed for seamless network transition, he said. Standards bodies are working on the best way to handle automatic roaming between networks, he noted. The industry will get to automatic roaming, though it will take a while, he said. Even if the technology for true seamless roaming isn’t ready, operators should get started deploying Wi-Fi access points now, he said. The space for small cells is limited, so site acquisition could be time consuming, in addition to a competitive ground between carriers, Glapa said: “It’s a land grab."

In LTE in particular, carriers are interested in targeting the high bandwidth services on areas of strong demand and creating hotzones, with low-cost femtocells complementing macrocells to achieve high capacity, said Jim Seymour, Alcatel Lucent senior director of strategy. That brings up the challenge of managing radio frequency interference, said Roberson with the Illinois Institute of Technology. RF interference between femto-femto and femto-macro can create dead spots and the potential of degrading the performance of the macro network, he said. Because traditional RF planning solutions for macro networks won’t work for femtocell, femtocell systems will need the ability to configure themselves with frequency bands, he said.

Small cell sites are critical for real estate management companies which are frustrated with wireless coverage and reception, speakers said. Wireless is increasingly a utility and expected to be ubiquitous, said Robert Juliano, vice president and chief information officer with Brandywine Realty. The challenges for Avalon Bay, a real estate management company, include local public safety requirements for cell equipment implementation, increased demand for cellular coverage, multiple providers in a single location with fractured customer base and subterranean areas that typically have reception issues, said Lyn Landsdale, vice president of strategic business service. The company hasn’t had much success from the carriers solving the problem, she said. Scale is a big issue, she said, noting many carriers struggled with low penetration numbers.

On the policy side, regulators should facilitate the deployment of small cell sites, educate local authorities to ensure that they don’t block access and that access is treated non-discriminately, said Daly. Revamping access rules is critical, said Paul Mankiewich, Juniper Networks chief architect. Regulators should also encourage spectrum efficiency, said Russ Gyurek with the Office of the Chief Technology Officer at Cisco Systems. Expanding the deployment of small cell sites also depend on how quickly spectrum is allocated, said Jesse Russell, CEO of INC Networks. There isn’t enough spectrum for companies to deal with bandwidth demand, he said. A solution that doesn’t need regulatory changes is utilizing unused spectrum, he said. The national carriers have the spectrum to help small cell initiative, he said. Daly claimed AT&T is using all of its spectrum and it needs more.