Small Cell Forum improves HetNet integration to complete theurban small cell puzzle
Launch of Release Four also delivers evolved urban small cell architectureand learnings from early deployments.
June 2014. London, UK, 10th June 2014. The Small Cell Forum, the independent industry andoperator association that supports small cell deployment worldwide, has announcedthe launch of Release Four to help operators open up opportunities and overcomethe barriers associated with urban small cells.Building on Release Three: Urban Foundations, Release Four completes the contentto cover the full range of issues that may concern an operator wishing to deployurban small cells. There is a particular focus on learnings from market leading earlydeployments in North America and Asia across airports, theme parks, sportingvenues, subways and at street level. The release also reports progress on crossindustry activities to strengthen the ecosystem through multivendor interoperability.As a whole, Release Four clarifies key drivers to deploy small cells anddemonstrates how the business case can be evaluated. It identifies operators’ mainbarriers to commercial deployment and looks at the work underway across theindustry to address them, developing solutions in the different disciplines of networkarchitecture, radio access, backhaul, deployment, regulatory and services andsecurity.Small Cell Forum and partner ETSI’s ongoing roadmap of Plugfest interoperabilityevents is shown to play a key role in both debugging vendor implementations as wellas driving resolution of standards ambiguities and gaps. Within the release, currentstandards for multivendor HetNets are reviewed, demonstrating that whilst basicmultivendor HetNets are currently possible, further X2 standardization effort wouldenhance their performance. There is also an overview of the security issues forsmall cells, and the standards in place to address them.
“This Release is the outcome of a very fruitful collaboration between the operator andvendor communities to harness the significant potential of the urban small cellmarket,” said Gordon Mansfield, Chair of the Small Cell Forum. “The first sight of thatpotential is reflected in the diversity and success of the early urban deploymentscaptured in some of these documents.”“Today small cells are an essential part of urban networks and Release Three startedto address many of the challenges and perceived barriers to deployment faced byoperators and network managers,” said Sue Monahan, CEO at the Small Cell Forum.“What we’re announcing today is the final piece of the puzzle and shows how smallcells are already delivering capacity and coverage for operators and subscribersaround the world as part of multi-faceted urban networks.” Release Four also sees updates to the location services enabled by small cells,allowing venues or businesses to track the flow of people and potentially targetmessages or offers through data stored on the small cell.Release Four is available to download from the Small Cell Forum Releasesite www.scf.io
About the Small Cell Forum (SCF)
The Small Cell Forum (www.smallcellforum.org) supports the wide-scale adoption ofsmall cells. Small cells are low-power wireless access points that operate in licensedspectrum, are operator-managed and feature edge-based intelligence. They provideimproved cellular coverage, capacity and applications for homes and enterprises aswell as metropolitan and rural public spaces. They include technologies variouslydescribed as femtocells, picocells, microcells and metrocells. The Forum has inexcess of 150 members including 68 operators representing more than 3 billionmobile subscribers – 46 per cent of the global total – as well as telecoms hardwareand software vendors, content providers and innovative start-ups.
About the Release ProgramLaunched in February 2013 the Small Cell Forum Release program provides acomprehensive set of technical and business documents to help deploy small cells inthe home, enterprise, rural and urban areas. Each release includes detailed
documents on key areas such as market drivers, business case, and technologyinformation including standards, operator lessons, and a regulatory overview.The Release Program is driven by the knowledge that more than 98% of operatorsthink small cells are essential to their future. Whilst existing deployments havecentred on almost 50 pioneering large operators in developed markets, the ReleaseProgram aims to help every type of operator from across the globe to roll out smallcells.In 2015, the Forum will publish Release Five, themed around small cells for Rural &Remote deployments. View the roadmap here http://scf.io/doc/100Media contactsDarren Willsher/Chris Kingsmallcellforum@emlwildfire.com+44 208 408 8000
