GigaOM » Femtocells

Cisco wades deeper into small cell waters with $310M Ubiquisys purchase

David Meyer — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:07:08 +0000

The networking giant Cisco has been into small cell technology for about five years, since it made a strategic investment in the picocell and femtocell outfit ip.access. However, Cisco was clearly not satisfied – its hunger for more small cell tech has now led it to offer $310 million in cash and employee retention incentives for UK-based Ubiquisys.

Small cells are effectively tiny cellular base stations that offload mobile data traffic onto a wired backhaul service. Along with good old Wi-Fi, they are seen as essential to warding off the so-called mobile data crunch, as they free up capacity on the macrocells that form the basis of cellular networks. Ubiquisys is something of a leader in the field, having recently been ranked number one (ip.access was number three) by ABI Research for enterprise and residential femtocells.

Ubiquisys is also into self-optimizing network architecture (SON). It also offers a “smart cell” system called EdgeCloud, delivered in partnership with Intel, that combines server and small cell functionality to deliver cloud applications from the edge of the network, a bit like a content delivery network (CDN) for mobile rather than fixed-line surfers.

This is the third major acquisition Cisco has announced in the last four months that is aimed at boosting its portfolio for mobile carriers — in December it was Broadhop (policy management) and in January it was Intucell (SON). According to a blog post on Wednesday from Cisco business development chief Hilton Romanski, the Ubiquisys deal “complements Cisco’s mobility strategy along with the recent acquisitions of BroadHop and Intucell, reinforcing in-house research and development, such as service provider Wi-Fi and licensed radio”:

“As carriers around the world increase cellular data capacity to serve the rapidly growing population of smartphone and tablet users, adding small cells is one of the most cost-effective ways to multiply data capacity and make better use of scarce spectrum assets. Ubiquisys’ indoor small cells expertise and its focus on intelligent software for licensed 3G and LTE spectrum, coupled with Cisco’s mobility portfolio and its Wi-Fi expertise, will enable a comprehensive small cell solution to service providers that supports the transition to next generation radio access networks.”

Ovum analyst Daryl Schoolar issued a statement after the deal was announced, pointing out that Ubiquisys would give Cisco “much greater market credibility when it comes to 3G and LTE small cells” — after all, Cisco currently has one big femtocell customer in AT&T, while Ubiquisys has over 50 vendor and operator customers including Japan’s Softbank and France’s SFR.

“Cisco will also benefit by having greater control over Ubiquisys’ product development cycle, freeing Cisco from having to rely on the development cycle of third-party partners like IP access,” he added. “Small cell vendors should take Cisco very serious. Not only is Cisco greatly improving what it can offer mobile operators in terms of a licensed small cell, Cisco can also offer those mobile operators other tools, like data analytics, SON, and evolved packet core needed to build a mobile network. This isn’t something all of Cisco’s competitors can claim.”

Assuming the deal goes through, it is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year. The Ubiquisys employees, who are based in the English town of Swindon, would join the Cisco Service Provider Mobility Group.

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To scale, telcos must learn from the ops community

Stacey Higginbotham — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:35:38 +0000

There are as many small base stations out in the world as there are large base stations attached to cell phone towers, according to an Informa Telecoms & Media report released Wednesday. That doubles the number of equipment telcos must monitor and manage to help deliver a crystal clear signal on your cell phone, but it also creates a management nightmare and perhaps, an opportunity.

The report states that between October and November 2012, the number of small cells reached 6.1 million with macrocells worldwide totaling 5.9 million. Most of the small cells at 80 percent are inside people’s homes helping improve the cell signal inside the house. But others are in crowded venues like offices and stadiums where the smaller cells act as a backup and signal booster for larger cell towers nearby. Sprint by the way has deployed a million of those small cells–up from 250,000 in 2011.

For operators who now have up to four times as many base stations to manage, the network complexity can be daunting. Sure these small cells boost the quality of the subscriber experience but managing all of those end points comes at a cost. And who will pay it? Some operators charge users for their in-home femtocells, which can frustrate people who believe that the operator should provide quality coverage as part of the basic service.

More cells, more technologies bring more complexity

But the problem will only get worse as more cells and more technologies are added to the network, and that’s why operators must look to their data center operations to understand how to scale out their networks at commodity server prices — not telco gear prices. For example, data center operators ranging from Google to Facebook have relentlessly focused on their infrastructure to eke out optimal performance at the lowest cost. Part of that is because their cost of goods sold (i.e. ads) are dependent on how much it costs to show a user a page.

But as demand for data creeps up and if carriers want to maximize profits while continuing to invest, their current equipment and the way they manage it must change. It must become easier to put in the field (no more deploying engineers and spending a couple of weeks to adjust new base stations) and more automated. Vendors such as Alcatel Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks are trying to offer equipment that’s more flexible and can be deployed easily. Items such as Alcatel-Lucent’s LightRadio gear is an effort to make deployment easier. Gear from Intucell seeks to use self optimizing networks to make the network coverage more adaptive and automated.

And the same Informa report indicates that some operators are trying to build services that offer network access over small cells without the operator having to own the underlying assets. They call is Small Cells as a Service, or SCaaS, because of course they do. Virgin Media, Colt Telecom, Cloudberry Mobile and ClearSky are all testing products with a SCaaS model in mind.

Needed: Better and more programmability

Other than rethinking gear and introducing new business models borrowed from the cloud, telcos should also think about bringing more programmability into their core networks and operations. The software-defined networking craze in the data center could yield just as impressive benefits for carriers if they can bring themselves to adopt gear that uses commodity parts and relies more on the telco engineers as opposed to buying a box that Cisco or Juniper programmers tweak for them.

A mindset shift has to occur in the telecommunications world, but many are thinking about it both on the operator and on the vendor side. But as the complexity of networks increase most carriers know they have to do something.

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New solutions for the evolving mobile network

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:31:41 +0000

Cisco’s VNI graph shows mobile data growing 18 times over the next five years, and it makes a strong case for the need of mobile networks to evolve to reflect the transition from voice- to data-centric usage models. Yet to make these fundamental changes in operating networks, it is crucial to move beyond compelling graphics and understand what requirements new usage models impose on the network infrastructure. To successfully address the increase in data traffic, operators need to act on multiple fronts, because no single solution will be sufficient in isolation.

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Mobile 2012 and beyond

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 06:55:31 +0000

Few industries change at the pace mobile does. Whether it’s the iPhone 5, the importance of LTE, or BYOD trends disrupting the enterprise, there are always new technologies, trends, and companies changing the way we define mobile. Here, GigaOM Pro highlights a few segments of the mobile industry that will be important to watch in the coming months, from location-based shopping to wireless networks, and new business models for carriers.

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How femtocells are connecting the Congo

Kevin Fitchard — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:52:13 +0000

You thought it was hard to get cellular coverage in your basement — try getting it in the rain forests of the Congo. Pan-African satellite communications provider RascomStar-QAF has plans to ensure that remotest communities in the Republic of the Congo get mobile service using the smallest access node imaginable: the femtocell.

We tend to associate femtocells with spot coverage: Having trouble getting a signal inside your house? Well, call up your carrier and chances are it will offer you a femtocell, delivering a private signal in your home. But RascomStar is taking that same concept and extending to entire villages and towns in the Congo. This summer, it’s deploying a pilot network of 50 miniature base stations — supplied by U.K. femto vendor ip.access — in communities all over the Congo. RascomStar plans to expand the pilot into a larger-scale commercial launch in 2013, as well as extend it to at least 10 other African countries.

RascomStar’s satellite network plays a critical role here. Mobile communications may use the airwaves to deliver their voice and data payloads, but they rely on wireline networks to take over once those transmissions hit the tower. Since telecom infrastructure is scarce and far between in remote communities, RascomStar is contracting with ViaSat to backhaul those femtos, bouncing their transmissions off orbital satellites back to the RascomStar’s core network in Brazzaville, the capital of the Congo.

Operators all over the world use satellite to backhaul tower sites in remote locales, but the combination of femtocells with satellite adds a new twist. Femtocells and picocells are designed to (BE?) self-configuring devices that can be installed much like you would INSTALL a consumer Wi-Fi access point.

If RascomStar takes this trial to its logical conclusion, it could have a big liberating effect on network deployment. Rather than send engineers, technicians and trucks to individual communities to build towers and install costly base stations, a carrier could practically build remote networks via mail, shipping femtos out to isolated communities where someone with a basic technical knowledge could get a wireless network up in running in a matter of hours.

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HetNet step 1: More LTE microcells than base stations by 2014

Kevin C. Tofel — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:56:32 +0000

By 2014, you might be using an LTE network, but the signal may not come from the towers we’re so used to seeing. ABI Research estimates that there will be more LTE microcells in place than actual LTE base stations as early as 2014. These network devices typically supplement coverage but only in small areas filled with people, such as malls, large buildings and other highly trafficked areas.

ABI calls for 127,000 LTE small cells sold, compared to 113,000 LTE macrocells, within the next two years, and there’s good reason to believe this will happen. Consumers and enterprise workers alike are fast migrating traditional computer activities to connected mobile devices. But large-scale networks are costly to maintain and expand and are limited by spectrum availability. It’s far less expensive to supplement broad coverage areas with smaller bits of infrastructure targeted at high traffic areas.

My colleague, Kevin Fitchard, suggests this forecast from ABI is a precursor to the coming emergence of the “HetNet”, or heterogeneous network. That model uses a network topology comprised of multiple access technologies: Wi-Fi, picocells, femtocells and traditional macrocell base stations. The idea is that devices can stay on the same network, even when roaming around, regardless of the specific access method. In order for that work, the number of microcells will have to far outweigh the number of base stations, so ABI’s forecast is a step in the right direction.

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The problems with app-based billing for data

Colin Gibbs — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:00:11 +0000

This week AT&T floated a plan to enable app developers to pay for the data that subscribers use in their apps. The model might resonate with some developers and subscribers, but it is likely to create more problems than it solves.

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2012: Data, spectrum and the race to LTE

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 08:01:37 +0000

The past year in mobile has been even more eventful than most of us would have predicted. Our appetite for mobile data grew dramatically; Google’s Android continued its march to worldwide dominance; Amazon joined the tablet bandwagon; and AT&T tried and failed to acquire T-Mobile USA, among many other things. All of that activity lays the groundwork for a very promising — and very challenging — 2012. This research note serves both as a review of the major trends and events of 2011 as well as a forecast for the coming year. Companies mentioned in this report include Millennial Media, Quattro Wireless and Samsung. For a full list of companies, and to read the full research note, sign up for a free trial.

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Opportunities still exist for femtocells

Colin Gibbs — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:30:12 +0000

Informa Telecoms & Media recently reported that a mere 2.3 million femtocells are in use worldwide, which is a laughably small figure compared to the sky-high forecasts from just a few years ago. Our consumption of mobile data is surging, but at the consumer level, femtocells are merely treading water. Nevertheless, there are opportunities in other areas for femtocells.

Femtocells have not been successful with consumers for three major reasons:

1. Price: AT&T charges $150 for its MicroCell, and Verizon Wireless’s Network Extender will run you $250. Network operators incur back-end costs in deploying femtocells, of course, but it’s no mystery why customers have balked at the thought of paying what amounts to a double dip.

2. Wi-Fi: Home-based femtocell technology is squaring off against Wi-Fi, which is supported by nearly every data-friendly smartphone on the market.

3. Advancing cellular technologies: Femtocell development has lagged behind the advancement of cellular build-outs; for example, Verizon didn’t offer a 3G femtocell until last October. And new technologies like LTE and even HSPA+ provide more capacity as well as faster network speeds. Capacity has been an important selling point for femtocells.

While the window for consumer-targeted, in-home femtocells is closing quickly, there are still segments in which they could thrive. As the Register noted earlier this week, manufacturers such as Picochip and Ubiquisys have begun unveiling public access products dubbed “metrocells” that fill network gaps where blanket coverage with traditional cell towers is difficult. Meanwhile, the market research firm Maravedis has predicted that public-access femtocells will fall from $100 to $70 or so this year and will continue to slide into the $50 range next year. Those colliding trends lay the foundation for long-awaited growth in the femtocell market.

Further opportunity also lies in the enterprise, where femtocells can be used to deliver better indoor coverage and multiple connections to smartphones, tablets and other connected devices. They can be a low-cost alternative to picocells or DAS (distributed antenna systems), for instance, and can route calls through an enterprise PBS to deliver them to four-digit office extensions or mobile phones. If carriers can integrate femtocells in a way that makes it easier and cheaper for businesses, the technology will see substantial adoption in the enterprise.

For more thoughts on why opportunities still exists for femtocells outside the residential market, please see my weekly column at GigaOM Pro.

Image courtesy Flickr user jtjdt

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2020 via time machine: networks and systems

Joe Weinman — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 15:00:53 +0000

Edit Note : This is the second of a two-part series on this event. The first post can be read here.

Last week’s IEEE Technology Time Machine Symposium brought together leading academics, engineers, executives, and government officials from around the world, to engage in presentations and dialogue regarding the evolution of technology over the next decade. In yesterday’s post, I reviewed some of the insights regarding devices and technologies. Today, we’ll address networks and larger-scale systems such as smart grids.

Networks

Wireless continues to get better, with more bandwidth in more places. LTE offers a several-fold improvement over HSPA or HSPA+ in data rates as well as a ten-fold reduction in latency. However, operator executives such as Telstra CTO Dr. Hugh Bradlow and NTT Docomo VP Dr. Minoru Etoh pointed out that peak bandwidth is what customers tend to focus on, but total network capacity is the main challenge in providing an excellent customer experience: it’s nice to own a Lamborghini, but won’t get your there any faster at rush hour.

A single user may easily be able to get an HD video stream wirelessly over LTE, but Telstra studies have shown that only a few dozen end-users of a base station can do that simultaneously: due to LTE sector throughput limitations under good conditions. Moreover, this is not some temporary technology glitch or fault of underinvestment, but a challenging limit due to usable frequencies based on radio signal propagation characteristics and information theory.

This insight calls into question the approach being proposed where millions or billions of very “dumb” thin-client devices are wirelessly linked to entertainment and intelligence in the cloud. For devices, networks, and the cloud to function effectively at scale, smart trade-offs will need to be made in real time between when to render computationally challenging scenes in the cloud and send the scene over the network, and when to send raw information over the network for local rendering. Operators will also have to figure out how to manage priorities across users. Consequently, Bradlow sees intelligent traffic management as the key challenge of emerging wireless networks.

On the other hand, putting more cells with a smaller coverage radius could work, such as femtocells or even using Wi-Fi, but this means more wired networks to backhaul the traffic, reducing some of the ease-of-deployment benefits of wireless networks. Prof. Hequan Wu, former vice-chairman of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, pointed out that China Unicom’s mobile data traffic had recently grown 62 percent. In a single quarter. China Mobile’s grew 10 times its previous rate — in a single year. Mobile video is the challenge to solve, everything else is just rounding error.

For the Shanghai World Expo 2010, 10,000 mobile video cameras were installed on trucks and buses for security purposes. Consider the future hurdle of every passenger car sending or receiving several mobile video streams, as each passenger streams an on-demand movie or participates in a video conference. Moreover, Wu said that in some large Chinese cities, densities were up to 140,000 users per square kilometer.

HP’s Dr. Peter Hartwell dove into sensor networks, pointing out that the Internet of Things becomes really useful when dynamic data is used for real-time decision-making. A broad variety of sensors (temperature, humidity, power use) will all be integrated with processing and wireless connectivity into a single chip, enabling new applications, ranging from eHealth to smart grids. Hartwell pointed out that, as with cell phones, size will shrink and features will multiply. A variety of technologies are being incorporated here, such as “energy harvesting” to scavenge power from the environment, e.g., from vibration.

Putting it all together.

While the status and trends of many point technologies was addressed in depth, the consistent theme running through the conference might be said to be a more intelligent world, based on more information from more devices being used in real time to optimize the human experience while enhancing efficiency and environmental sustainability. Nokia Services EVP Dr. Tero Ojanpera stated that anonymized, real-time data from mobile devices is the “ultimate collective intelligence,” enabling everything from optical vehicular traffic routing to locating a popular restaurant to creation of accurate maps. George Arnold, national coordinator for smart grid interoperability at NIST, observed that smart grid efforts will turn the traditional approach of building capacity to meet demand on its head, focusing instead on shaping demand to fit within capacity. Light bulbs with embedded Wi-Fi chips will be able to not only report that they are on, but reduce their output when the power infrastructure is stressed. And, the smart grid approach — which Arnold observed is the use of IT and communications technologies for utilities — isn’t limited to just electricity, but is also being applied to other utilities such as water and natural gas.

Telecom Italia’s Roberto Saracco described the potential of a “mirror world,” a virtual world that is not just a play world in another galaxy or for social networking, but an exact virtual duplicate of the real-world populated with data from a variety of sensors. Such an environment might mean that by the time this conference is held in 2020, everyone will have the opportunity for face-to-face interaction—without having to physically travel to Hong Kong, or wherever, and the ability to shake hands—remotely, via haptic interfaces.

A hopeful, positive attitude was pervasive at the event, with NEC’s President Dr. Nobuhiro Endo outlining a strategy and future which is “friendlier to people, and friendlier to the planet.” Pervasive information and insight, emerging technologies, crowd-sourced intelligence, cloud-based global optimization, greener approaches, reduced power, and ease of use through natural interfaces may yet help solve some of the problems facing the world today.

Joe Weinman leads Communications, Media, and Entertainment Industry Solutions for Hewlett-Packard. The views expressed herein are his own.

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