In its latest Release 8 documentation, the Small Cell Forum makes the case for using sharing models to enable enterprises to take advantage of small cells. The key to multi-operator small cells, according to the industry advocacy group, is virtualization – separating the network functions from the radio and moving management and optimization to the cloud.
“The benefits to the mobile industry of virtualization are clear, with a range of major advantages including cost reduction, scalability and the ability to offer a broad range of new services,” said David Orloff, chair of Small Cell Forum. “However, as with many new technologies the threat of fragmentation is very real.”
Given the bring-your-own-device trend, most enterprises need a multi-operator solution. “In BYOD environments, the opportunity for an in-building enterprise solution to offer coverage and capacity from a plurality of network operators can be seen as beneficial as it is able to support the widest range of devices and associated subscriptions,” the report states. Then, for a nationwide enterprise, employees “may find themselves operating in markets that are preferentially covered by one particular operator and in other markets where the spectrum allocations favor another operator.” Again, having a choice of operators is a boon to business.
Further, in the case of an enterprise that uses temporary employees or contractors, multi-operator access is needed. And, according to Release 8, sometimes an enterprise may need to provide service for the general public. “Examples include shopping malls, concert venues, transport hubs, health care environments, education establishments, etc. In such environments, the enterprise may desire to offer services to all their visitors, irrespective of carrier affiliation.”
So the need for a multi-operator small cell to support a wide range of enterprise activities is clear. But how do we get there?
Virtualization enables for multitenant small cells. Sharing the core network “can be recreated using a virtualized architecture, a new option becomes available with virtualization corresponding to the shared physical network function that is then parented to different virtual network functions operated by separate [mobile network operators],” according to the report, which was released earlier this month in conjunction with the group’s SCWS Americas event in Dallas.
Specific to physical network functions, carriers can share baseband processing, digital front-end and radio transceiver functions. This requires management based on agreed terms, Small Cell Forum suggests.
The paper further covers the challenges and opportunities associated with multi-operator small cells, including 3GPP-defined network sharing techniques, WLAN architectures, the role of distributed antenna systems and operational aspects of sharing physical network functions.
