PCIA 2014: AT&T outlines network priorities

Orlando, Fla. – Bill Smith, president of network operations and AT&T Services, told his audience at this week’s PCIA 2014 Wireless Infrastructure Show that vendors should not worry that AT&T’s planned purchase of DirecTV could divert network spending. “I don’t think anybody should be concerned that this is a left turn by AT&T with respect to our investment in our network,” said Smith, adding that the growing consumption of video on mobile devices is the driver for the deal.
“The demand for capacity is insatiable,” said Smith. “We have been seeing 40% year-over-year growth on the network. The bottom line is we don’t see any end in sight. We have committed to be at 300 million [potential customers] by the end of the year, and that by and large is going to be the end of the summer.”
Distributed antenna systems and small cells
“I am really proud of what we’ve done with DAS,” said Smith. “We set up an organization that focused exclusively on getting into these venues,” he said, referring to AT&T’s Antenna Solutions Group.
Smith also said that small cells are a key part of AT&T’s initiative. “We’ve got deployments in over 30 states both indoor and outdoor,” he said, adding that one study showed that four small cells placed within a macrocell area could increase capacity by 56%. “Our planners have developed a tool that is designed to deal with the [heterogeneous network] planning and it will help us pinpoint the spots where we need to put in additional small cell capacity,” he said.
Self-optimizing networks
“Historically it has taken a lot of time to optimize the network,” said Smith. “If you think about it the needs of the network are changing almost moment by moment. Historically we have not been able to re-optimize that network. But now SON is doing a half million optimizations a day,” he said adding that the software checks the network in 15 minute increments. Smith believes that control plane capabilities like SON will answer some of the network’s pressing capacity needs in the years ahead.
Smith also looks forward to SON 2.0, which he says will offer dynamic interference management that can change the tilt of antennas dynamically. It will also shift network resources in crowded venues like football stadiums as the tailgate traffic moves indoors. SON 2.0 will also enable load balancing between carriers, he said.
Network function virtualization
Smith said that AT&T has a “broad initiative” to “move from special purpose hardware to virtualized capability running on white box hardware. If you look at our network there are dozens of special purpose pieces of equipment in our network. If you look at it, it does not have to be that way.”
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