Small Cell Forum Chairman Alan Law discusses deployment strategies and more during Small Cells Americas event
DALLAS – Small cells broke out in 2015, Small Cell Forum Chairman Alan Law told RCR Wireless News during an exclusive interview, and virtualization is the key to keeping that momentum going.
A study compiled by the Small Cell Forum from three independent research bodies found that the enterprise small cell deployment market is entering a new phase in its evolution. The report, called “Crossing the Chasm,” said the enterprise small cell market made the transition from the “market-testing” phase to the “market-deployment” phase in 2015. The report also said that by 2020, the enterprise market will be the largest market for small cells.
“This report effectively signals the end of the first phase of the small cell industry – the ‘why’ phase,” Small Cell Forum Chairman Alan Law said at the Small Cell Americas conference in Dallas. “What matters now to operators all over the world is not why, but ‘how?’”
He continued: “Really the hub to doing that is automating that process beyond self-organizing the network, but including every aspect of workflow management to really drive scale.” He said the rapidly evolving small cell market is going through “a fascinating time.”
“How do you [create a scalable process] in that simple way? What we’re working very hard at in the Small Cell Forum is continuing to evolve effectively the SON and hetnet techniques that enable you do that. We’re also working very much on neutral host and how you extend that capability to open up an entirely new set of the market.”
In a discussion about best practices when deploying small cells, Ericsson’s Stevan Filipovic, head of network design and 0ptimization product management, hit on virtualization; he described a small cell unit with a barcode that, when scanned, links the unit back to the OSS and initiates a self-configuration that reduces operational expense.
As to scale, Filipovic said: “We have lots of know-how that helps us improve the process. We have streamlined this a lot, but there is another thing that is coming, which is scale. That’s also finding the right partners, the local guys who have access to the buildings and who can do, for example, the cabling. This efficiency will come when you present the complete product as simple as the infrastructure. The complete ecosystem, [among] the real estate owners, property owners, enterprises and operators, still needs to mature a bit. In the ideal world, everybody understands the value of having an excellent user experience indoors but it’s a little bit the question. For example, I see very soon in the future, operators will be licensing certain types of equipment. Basically, if you are using certain types of equipment, enterprise can go and deploy with some of the system integrators. This can speed up the local presence and the local know-how. These are the guys who are shovel-ready to foot. These are the guys [who] are already doing business with the enterprises. I think when the whole ecosystem matures a little bit and it’s very clear – the rules of the game to everybody – we can get there. The need is there.”
Law said 2015 was a big year for small cells and “that growth will continue to expand as we move forward. We’re there now and we’re there with the products that we’ve got, which are good for where we are and what we’re doing, and right now what we’re doing is really making sure the small cell technology evolves and meets the future needs.”
