China Mobile, Vodafone, AT&T, Verizon and NTT DOCOMO retain global top5 positions: From the revenue perspective, the $50 billion revenue club is retained by China Mobile, Vodafone, AT&T Mobility, and Verizon Wireless and NTT DOCOMO.

China and India demonstrated strong growth in absolute subscriber additions: The Global Wireless Markets continued to grow rapidly especially in India and China where the carriers (combined) are adding almost 30M new subscriptions every month.  China touched 757M wireless subscriptions while India crossed 525 M by the end of 2009.   China Mobile Reported highest wireless revenues (16B US$) followed by Verizon and AT&T in Q1, 2010.

China Mobile announced highest Q1, 2010 wireless revenues: China Mobile Reported consolidated wireless revenues of over US$ 16 Billion in Q1, 2010. Total number of 3G subscribers is reported somewhere around 7.60 Million. China Mobile’s aggregate ARPU during Q1, 2010 was $ 10.32.

Verizon and AT&T surpassed DOCOMO to become top three operators in the world. Verizon and AT&T reported strong quarters and generated revenues in excess of 13.5 Billion USD. AT&T led the customer addition during Q1, 2010 with net addition of 1.9 Million consumers during this period. Verizon wireless acquired 1.5 Million wireless customers in Q1, 2010.

Softbank reported over 50% of their revenues from data services: NTT DOCOMO reported steady growth in customers and data revenues. Data as a percentage of ARPU crossed over 45% during first quarter for DOCOMO. Softbank reported very strong data usage with over 50% or wireless revenues generated from data services. KDDI reported similar trend with over 42% of their revenues were originated from data services. AT&T and Verizon topped data ARPU revenues in US and announced over 30% of their wireless revenues from data services.

Bharti Airtel of India acquired Kuwait-based Zain Group to become the 5th largest telecom group in the world (at the end of 2009, it was 9^th). There are now 14 telecom groups with over 100M or more subscriptions. While China Mobile’s ARPU is 1/5th of its western counterparts, it operates its business at significantly higher revenues. Indian operator’s wireless revenues were 1/10^th of their western counterparts.

Data ARPU continues to fuel growth for operators in Q1, 2010. NTT DOCOMO was followed by AT&T , Verizon Wireless, China Mobile, AT&T, KDDI, Sprint Nextel, Softbank Mobile, T-Mobile USA, O2 UK, and China Unicom to round up the top 10 operators by wireless data service revenues.

Globally operators are aiming to reverse the decline of Aggregate ARPU through continued increase in packet ARPU. Most of the operators in the developed nations (DOCOMO, AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Softbank, KDDI, and Sprint etc) are contemplating future strategies to boost data revenues such that the decline in voice revenues is at least compensated for. There are very few operators who have experienced increase in overall ARPU in Q1, 2010.Data revenues for most of the Japanese operators are expected to supersede voice in early 2011.

Strong growth communicated by operators in India , China, US and Japan : While the countries like US, Japan, China, and India showed very little signs of pullback, most of Europe and the developing world experienced a decline in overall service revenues in 2009. Additionally, all the major markets have their data contribution percentages above 10% now. Major US and European operators are touching their 30% marks and Japanese operators are nearing 46% levels.

Operators from Japan and US reported highest aggregate wireless ARPU in Q1, 2010. Verizon Wireless, NTT DOCOMO, AT&T, Softbank and KDDI reported highest wireless data revenues among other global top 10. Most of the major operators around the world have double digit percentage contribution to their overall ARPU from data services. Operators like DoCoMo, and Softbank are over 46%. KDDI, 3 Australia, 3 Italy, 3 UK, Vodafone UK, O2 UK, Telstra, and 3 Sweden exceeded 35% and many others are on the verge of crossing the 30% mark

Lowest aggregate wireless ARPUs were observed by Indian and Chinese operators, however carriers are adding roughly 30 Million subscribers in India and China. China Mobile revealed highest number of net subscriber additions in Q1, 2010 at a monthly ARPU (US $10) roughly 1/5th of their western counterparts.

Smartphones with touchscreens, Wi-Fi connectivity, and advanced Operating Systems are growing in popularity^[1]. In May 2010, smartphones generated 46% of traffic in the operator’s network, up from 22% two years ago. 24% of wireless traffic in the US came over WiFi networks.

The iPhone is by far the leading devices; however, 7 of the top 10 Smartphone’s run on Android: By March 2010, there were 34 Android devices from 12 manufacturers made available to consumers. The Motorola Droid was the leading Android handset by May 2010 capturing 6.8% market share of Smartphone segment.

Android continues significant momentum and surpassed Symbian OS in Smartphone segment: Android operating system surpassed Symbian OS in Q1, 2010 to become second most widely used mobile platform for Smartphones. Apple iOS is leading mobile Smartphone OS market share, however steady decrease in market share were observed in last two quarters. Android surpassed Symbain in December 2010 to take become second most widely used Smartphone OS.

The launch of new Android devices over the past year has led to rapid growth in the Android platform. Traffic from the Android platform has grown 29% month-over-month since May 2009.

In Q1, 2010 Smartphone’s generated highest amount of web Traffic: Out of all mobile handsets category, Smartphone were generating over 45% of traffic consistently in last two quarters making itself as most preferred devices for web and applications.

The iOS and Android platforms show a higher usage than share of handsets sold, primarily due to strong app usage. Users of the iOS and Android platforms regularly spend at least 79 minutes a day using apps. Consumers on the iOS and Android platforms download approximately 9 apps a month reported by AdMob.

Download Report : Mobile Data Wrapup Q1, 2010

Figure : Quarterly Wireless Revenues (1 Jan 2010 to 31 March 2010)

AT&T Reported 29.8% wireless data revenue growth in Q1, 2010. AT&T reported wireless data revenues were up $947 million y-o-y, driven by continued rapid adoption of smartphones and industry leading access to applications. Driven by strong data growth, postpaid subscriber ARPU increased 3.9 percent versus the year-earlier quarter to $61.89.This marked the fifth consecutive quarter AT&T has posted a year-over-year increase in postpaid ARPU. Postpaid data ARPU reached $20.13, up 21.9 percent versus the year earlier quarter, and total postpaid subscriber revenues continued recent trends, with solid double-digit growth, reflecting increases in both voice and data.

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>Wireless network initiatives by AT&T to support growing wireless data

Nations largest Wi-Fi Network: AT&T has built the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network, with more than 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots in the U.S. and access to more than 125,000 hotspots around the globe. AT&T’s 3G network covers 80% of the US population and it has embarked and aggressive plan to further enhance its mobile network capabilities. The

AT&T announced their 4G partners to build LTE network. AT&T has announced their plans to build LTE network and contracted Alcatel Lucent and Ericsson as their LTE equipment suppliers. However the operator believes that LTE has its own time to come and may not be ready for a large scale deployment in near future. The operator is adopting a middle strategy to upgrade their current network to HSPA+ and LTE later.

HSPA as a short term strategy for immediate delivery: In January AT&T deployed HSPA 7.2 software nationwide. The company is now deploying additional backhaul connections to cell towers to support HSPA 7.2 and future LTE deployments.

These software and backhaul upgrades are expected to double the theoretical peak speeds of AT&T’s 3G network, although actual speeds will be less depending on location and environment. By the end of 2010, the company expects the majority of its mobile data traffic will be carried over the expanded fiber-based HSPA 7.2 and LTE-capable backhaul. AT&T offers 10 HSPA 7.2-compatible devices today, with millions of customers already using them.

>Wireless Innovation and driving data growth with application and devices

Introduction of tiered and flexible charging for data: AT&T introduced new wireless data plans that make the benefits of the mobile Internet more affordable for their consumers. Plans start at a lower price point and allow customers to migrate up as their data needs grow. Customers can pick the new data plan that best meets their needs — either a $15 per month entry plan (DataPlus) or a $25 per month plan (Data Pro) with 10 times more data.

Android based smart phones: AT&T Launched its first device on the Android platform, the Motorola BACKFLIP which offers AT&T customers a new way to connect to their favorite people, content and applications. AT&T announced the upcoming launch of the Dell Aero, which will be Dell’s first smartphone available in the U.S. and it will feature a new, custom user interface and with android OS.

Launch of new mobile data dongles supporting HSPA: Last quarter AT&T launched two new USB dongles capable of supporting HSPA and it come with inbuilt GPS. The built-in GPS functionality opens the door to location-based applications, making it easier than ever for customers to get to their desired destination.

Introduction of home femtocells: Announced national rollout plans for AT&T 3G MicroCell, which allows residential customers to route wireless phone calls and data connections across a home broadband connection.

Launch of Apple Ipad : Apple and AT&T announced breakthrough 3G prepaid data plans for iPad, with easy, on-device activation and management. The iconic device supports 3G and Wi-Fi access networks. AT&T offers a 250 MB plan for 14.95$ and 2 GB plan for $25.00.

In the recent years, the ARPU from voice service has been declining due to the factors of discounted services and shorter phone calls. DOCOMO has seen downward trend in aggregate ARPU and is planning to offset this by taking steps to increase packet ARPU. In FY 2010, the ARPU from packet service is expected to surpass voice ARPU. To strengthen packet based services and reverse downtrend of aggregate ARPU, DoCoMo is planning to promote usage of flat-rate service. In FY 2009, the revenues from voice declined 12.9% year-on-year and aggregate ARPU declined 6.3% year-on-year. Packet revenue grew 2.9% year-on year and expected to surpass voice ARPU in FY, 2010. DOCOMO is aiming to increase packet ARPU by 4.5% in FY 2010.

In FY 2010, revenue from data is expected to reach $ 29.30 surpassing voice ARPU of 29.10.

Initiatives to strengthen Data Services by introduction of Flat Rate Service: DoCoMo has taken initiatives to expand its packet usage to offset declining Voice ARPU by promoting monthly flat rate services like i-mode. I-mode packet service allows monthly flat rate which varies in accordance with monthly usage. The operator in July 2009, as well introduced a flat rate data plan for data cards to enhance its data services. It aims to increase packet flat rate subscription by more than 6 million to reach 31.70 million subscriptions in FY10, i.e. 63% of total consumers.

Promote packet communications by enhanced services and content: DoCoMo is working to expand its lineup services and content. The operator will take steps to expand subscriptions and usage among a broad range of customers by expanding to areas closely linked to lifestyles, such as tourism and health care. Mobile phone usage is expanding rapidly with the availability of higher speed networks and more advanced handsets, but most of the video content that is available for handsets user is not optimized to smaller screens. DOCOMO is moving ahead with development of content that suits well for mobile phones and smaller screens ( about 3 to 4 inch). BeeTV launched in May, 2009 was one of those initiatives. DOCOMO is developing handsets functions which would be more suitable for replaying videos and other contents by introducing inline Flash.

Promote smart phone adoptions to strengthen data services. The market strategy of promoting smart phones with advanced functions rivaling those of mobile PC’s, such as general purpose operating systems, Internet connections capabilities, schedule managers, and personnel information management, as well as PC data cards, is positioned as an important part of efforts to expand packet ARPU. DOCOMO, principally targeting enterprise demand to strengthen its promotion of smart phones and data cards for PCs.

Initiatives of more advanced networks by introducing LTE: In 2009, DOCOMO introduced HSUPA services, which has the capability to deliver maximum uplink transmission rate of 5.7 Mbps . DOCOMO plans to launch LTE based services in December 2010. It aims to install nearly 1000 Base Station in FY 2010. The rollout will be progressive with high demand areas (Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya) will be covered first using an overlay approach with existing 3G areas. Downlink speeds up to 37.5 Mbps will be offered at the time of launch. DOCOMO plans to introduce data devices first and smart phones are scheduled in 2011.

In FY 2010, DOCOMO will Launch LTE in high demand areas (Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya). It aims to install 1000 Base Stations in FY 2010

Verizon’s LTE Plans on track, all set to launch services in November 2010. Verizon is all set to launch LTE in 25-30 markets before year end (Boston and Seattle by 15^th , November) , covering about 100m citizens.  It is expected that operator will launch 4G iphone in Q1, 2011. Verizon and AT& T now controls over 69% of US mobile data market and  has seen biggest jump in data revenues along with Softbank, AT&T and DoCoMo(11%) in first Half 2010.

AT&T announced their 4G partners to build LTE network. AT&T announced their plans to build LTE network, and contracted Alcatel Lucent and Ericsson as their LTE equipment suppliers.  However the operator believes that LTE has its own time to come and may not be ready for a large scale deployment in near future. The operator is adopting a middle strategy to upgrade their current network to HSPA+ and LTE later.

T-Mobile all set with HSPA+ to answer immediate data demand. T-Mobile has rolled out HSPA+ services in more than 25 major metropolitan areas in last four month’s time to extend its 3G networks which will support 21 Mbps peak data rates. Their new HSPA+ network covers 75 million populations, and plans to cover 185 million people by the end of this year.

Clearwire has been expanding the network so fast that it has become the biggest construction company in the US. Clearwire strives to reach 2 Million customers by end of 2010. The network is now available in 44 markets in US covering over 50 million people. Things will get really interesting later in 2010 when Clearwire and Sprint take their 4G mobile broadband network to New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, the San Francisco Bay Area, Miami, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh for a 120 million person strong data footprint.

Reliance Industry marked its entry in telecom with nationwide BWA spectrum in India, after completion of five years agreement with younger brother. The operator paid close to $2.6 billion to win 2.3 GHz ( 20 MHz) nationwide spectrum in the country.

Qualcomm pumped $1 billion to protect TD-LTE: Qualcomm won 2.3 (20 MHz) GHz spectrum in four telecom circles of India in the recently held BWA spectrum auctions. Qualcomm’s final bid was INR 4912.54 crore or approximately USD 1.045 billion.

The Battle of LTE and WIMAX is fierce in India after auctions: Qualcomm protected entry of WiMAX in India by winning four circles and all the other players like Aircell ,Bharti, Augere and Tikona is watching Reliance controlled Infotel’s move for BWA technology choice.

Infotel holds the future of WiMAX in India. The WiMAX camp spearheaded by Samsung, Hauwei and ZTE is convincing Infotel for immediate WiMAX deployment to enter market in similar timelines as 3G. Their strategy is not impending from the fact that they do not have a LTE roadmap, but rather their eagerness to enter the agreement with Infotel and secure their mobile data business and do away with competition from Ericsson, ALU and Nokia.  Ericsson, Nokia , ALU and Qualcomm is taking every possible step to avoid WiMAX deployment in India.

LTE TDD Devices Availability for Indian BWA Operators: Our research indicates that the commercial availability of TD-LTE chipsets will start as early as Q3, 2010 by handful of suppliers and majority would be ready by Q1-2011 or later. Most reasonably it will at least take three to six months for ODM’s to supply finished products.  Expect first commercial shipment of TD-LTE chipsets after Q2/Q3-2011.

Teliasonera became world’s first operator to launch LTE network. Teliasonera launched two commercial markets last year covering about 400,000 people in the two countries’ capitals, Oslo and Stockholm. TeliaSonera has nationwide 4G/LTE licenses in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. During the first half year 2010, TeliaSonera has also opened up 4G for pilot customers in Finland, Denmark, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.

NTT DOCOMO LTE Plans on track, all set to launch services in December 2010: NTT DoCoMo has been at the cutting edge of the mobile data evolution by creating new markets and it is aiming to launch its LTE service in December 2010. DoCoMo plans to invest in the region somewhere around JPY343 billion in its new LTE network. The operator has indicated installation of 20,700 Base Station covering 51.10% of area by 2014. It strives to acquire massive 17.7 Million consumers in their new 4G network by 2014.

KDDI announced LTE plans and contracted Motorola and NEC to supply LTE equipment. KDDI Corp. has awarded contracts to Motorola and NEC Corp for the supply of base stations and ancillary equipment to build its next generation long term evolution (LTE) network. KDDI announced its plan stating investment of 515 Billion Yen in new LTE Network which will start in November 2011 and likely to reach full coverage by 2012. The operator has indicated installation of 29,361 Base Station covering 96.5% of area by 2014. It strives to acquire 9.84 Million consumers in their new 4G network by 2014.

UQ WIMAX growing steadily, 7000 base stations live on air. UQ Communications is already ahead of its deployment schedule as compared to LTE, and plans to cover 55% of the Japanese population (most major cities) by the end of March 2010, with the goal of covering more than 90% of the Japanese population by FY2012.

Softbank of Japan looks set to be the first major operator (outside of Philippines) with more revenues coming from data services than voice. Softbank is upgrading its 3G networks to support 42 Mbps Dual Carrier HSPA to cater its rapidly growing data business.  Softbank plans to invest in the region somewhere around JPY207.3 billion in its new LTE network.  The operator has indicated installation of 9,000 LTE Base Station covering 60.63% of the area by 2014. It strives to acquire 5.41 Million consumers in their new 4G network by 2014.

LTE-Advanced & IEEE 802.16m WiMAX both officially selected as 4G standard by ITU . LTE-Advanced and IEEE 802.16m WiMAX satisfied the ITU requirements as 4G standard, effectively being selected as the ITU 4G standards during ITU-R WP5D meeting which was held from June 9 through 16 in Vietnam

Korea Telecom plans LTE in 2011, it continues to expand WiBRO in five metropolitans and plans 27,000 WiFi Hotspots by September 2010. KT announced plans in May 2010 that it will work with electronic giants such as Samsung and LG-Ericsson for a high-speed LTE network. Investment for the LTE network could start in 2011 .

New investments are expected in Korea to promote WiBRO Adoption. KT to expand WiBRO in five metropolitans markets and established a joint venture with Samsung and Intel to promote WiBRO.

CMCC begins LTE trials with Shanghai expo, but for all practical purpose may only start large scale LTE deployment in 2012. CMCC kicked of TD-LTE network with shanghai expo. Motorola, ALU, Huawei, Sequans, ALU, ST Ericsson, ZTE , Nokia and Ericsson is testing their equipment.

CMCC rolled out 108,000 TD-SCDMA base stations and acquired 7.69 million 3G subscribers.   China Mobile set up 108,000 base stations in total, with a combined investment of over CNY90 billion (USD13.16 billion) by the end of March 2010 claimed 7.69 million 3G subscribers, from its total user base of 780 million.

Download Report : Global 4G operator update 1H-2010

OFDMA based 4G networks can support reuse one deployment through the use of;

• Ability to power control and vary the coding rate of control channel;

• Fractional power control with coordination with controller based overload control messages in UL;

• Support of very low code rates;

• Incremental redundancy based HARQ;

• DL and UL ICIC further enhance single cell frequency reuse;

• Multi-Antenna techniques.

One of the key goals is to increase spectral efficiency and overall SINR of the system. However, users at the cell edge are particularly susceptible to increased interference resulting in reduced throughput due to higher transmit powers required and inter-cell interference. Therefore Interference coordination as methods to reduce inter cell interference is gaining momentum and industry attention.

Figure 1: Intercell interference scenarios

Fractional Frequency Reuse

: In its simplest form is Fractional frequency re-use (FFR) implements a reuse scheme-n (n > 1) system. A reuse-n system partitions a geographical area into n regions, each of which is exclusively allocated to a band in such a way that cells physically close to each other are assigned with different bands to avoid dominant ICI. Cells that are sufficiently far from each other may reuse the same band, and how frequently the reuse is practiced is dictated by the reuse factor n. For instance, n = 3 if the same band is reused every three cells. However, segmenting frequency re-use suffers from reduced spectral efficiency.

Therefore FFR in 4G systems(LTE and WIMAX) tries to define a sweet spot where the cell center of neighboring cells share the same band, while their cell edge are separate on orthogonal bands. Besides, the cell-center and cell-edge bands in neighboring cells are non-overlapping. The colour on the spectrum is shown to match the colour of the geographical area.

Figure 2: Illustration of Fractional Frequency Reuse

Possible ICIC implementation in LTE

ICIC in downlink

Two common implementations that will be supported for Downlink ICIC are static and semi-static. Static ICIC is initially planned which also includes the need for some level of system planning. Semi-static ICIC utilizes an event triggered message (RNTP) over the X2 interface and reduces the system planning impact. Relative Narrowband Tx Power (RNTP) is transmitted when the Tx power exceeds a specified threshold. The frequency of the RNTP transmission is limited to no more than 200 ms to prevent overload of messaging.

DL Static ICIC implementation: Figure 3 shows the concept of DL ICIC using inverted Reuse scheme. Some restricted PRBs (also called non-preferred frequency zones) are defined per each cell and the base stations transmit at a certain constant nominal power across the entire bandwidth except for those restricted PRBs. The restricted PRBs can be transmitted at a lower power (e.g. 10 dB lower than the nonrestricted PRBs) which results in a soft fractional frequency reuse scheme or there may not be any transmissions at all in the restricted PRBs which results in a hard fractional frequency reuse scheme.

Each cell can then schedule its cell edge users in the restricted PRBs of its closest neighbor and hence they can realise an improved SINR as the neighboring cell is transmitting with a lower power or not transmitting at all on those PRBs. The classification of users is done in two groups: cell inner users and cell edge users. Reporting of the users can be done based on some metrics such as path loss for UL or CQI reporting for DL.

Figure 3: Downlink ICIC static implementation

ICIC in uplink

Two implementations also exist for Uplink ICIC. Static ICIC includes the need for some level of system planning. Semi-static ICIC utilizes an event triggered message (HII and OI) over the X2 interface and reduces the system planning impact. High Interference Indicator (HII) and Overload Indicator (OI) are event triggered messages. HII is sent indicating the PRBs and subbands where the serving cell intends on scheduling cell edge UEs and thereby causing high interference. OI is sent indicating low, medium, or high interference levels. Care needs to be taken when utilizing ICIC in a multi-vendor eNB environment, as the behavior of the eNB is implementation specific when receiving ICIC related indicators.

Figure 4: Uplink ICIC implementation

DL Static ICIC implementation: In the uplink, the main idea is to concentrate all interference in specific portions of the bandwidth, known as the Trash Heap. Figure 4 shows the concept of the Trash Heap which consists in designating a portion of the bandwidth in each cell to bear the brunt of the interference from neighboring cells. As for DL, the users are classified in two groups, inner cell and cell edge users, using a any algorithm based on CQI reports for DL and path loss estimation for UL. And as for DL, the soft fractional frequency reuse concept is applied and included in the concept of Trash Heap. For cell edge mobiles, the uplink scheduler will assign resources in the Trash Heap of the mobile’s strongest neighbouring cell, which is identified by event triggered reporting. If the scheduler needs to assign the mobile outside the Trash Heap, it does so with a reduced transmit power spectral density (PSD) level, which is implemented through an absolute power control command in the UL scheduling grant. The idea here is to concentrate the bulk of the inter-cell interference in a small portion of the total bandwidth, thereby preventing the majority of the users from getting impacted by this interference which is now localized to certain sub-carriers.

Possible ICIC implementation in WiMAX

WiMAX Release 1.0 allows reuse 1 deployments, however most of the commercial systems are deployed in reuse3. The initial implementation of WiMAX in reuse 1 will be realized by FFR based techniques. Specific implementation of FFR techniques is presented in WIMAX 1.5 and WiMAX 2.0 papers.

The effect of inter-cell interference in reuse 1 systems of WiMAx results in MAP and traffic performance degradation especially in cell edge areas. Interference mitigation technique is needed to alleviate the cell edge performance degradation. Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (ICIC) may be used as the key technique for making reuse 1 work better.
ICIC implementation in WiMAX is possible with signaling information exchanges within Base stations over R8 interfaces.

Possible implementation of ICIC in downlink:

The WiMAX systems can implement DL ICIC to solve DL inter-cell interference problem in reuse 1 systems.

• It can automatically adjusts both frequency usage and Tx power pattern considering interference pattern from neighboring cells
  
• Edge user throughput is increased by coordinating inter-cell interference which is needed to exchange scheduling information among BSs
  

Possible implementation of ICIC in uplink:

• Automatically controls MS Tx power based on load information exchanged among BSs
  
• It is needed to exchange scheduling information and measurement reports form MS
  

Figure 5: ICIC implementation in WiMAX

Download PDF Version Enabling reuse 1 in 4G Networksv0.1

Global spectrum availability for LTE

The initial deployment in LTE is expected in 700 MHz for the US, 2.1 GHz for Japan and 2.6 GHz in Europe. The 2.3/2.5 GHz TDD band for deployment is available in China, India. The new LTE systems will support existing bands of GSM/W-CDMA/HSPA, as most of the devices will support multiband operation, and it will allow operators to smoothly introduce LTE services in dense markets and gradually proliferate for a national coverage. A brief update of spectrum availability for LTE is presented below.

United States: Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in April 2008 auctioned 62 megahertz of spectrum in the 700 MHz band for LTE services. The band is highly prized because the low frequency, as it allows signals to travel farther and provide better in-building coverage than higher frequencies such as 1900 MHz. As a result, operators need fewer base stations to cover an area, which translates into lower overhead costs—a major asset for any operator looking to be aggressive on the pricing front.

Verizon Wireless was the biggest winner in the 700 MHz auction. The other big winner of the spectrum was AT&T. AT&T bid for fewer licenses than Verizon, having won much of the spectrum it wanted in FCC auctions held in 2002 and 2003.

Europe: Norway, Finland and Sweden auctioned their spectrum in 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively. This year the Netherlands and Denmark have concluded their 2.6GHz auctions, the auction in Germany is completed and some point during 2010 (France, Spain, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland and Belgium are all expected to hold auctions this year).

Germany: A total of 41 spectrum blocks was sold in the auction, in the 800MHz, 1.8GHz, 2GHz and 2.6GHz bands. The three largest mobile operators, O2, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile, each won two paired 5MHz chunks of spectrum in the 800MHz band, considered key for rural coverage of mobile broadband.

China and India: 2.3 GHz TDD frequency is recently allocated to 3 operators in India. In china 2.3/2.5 GHz spectrum is available for LTE deployments. Both the spectrum in India and China is TDD type.

Japan: In Japan, 2.1 GHz and 1.5 GHz spectrum is available for LTE Deployments.

Download the full article here…Operators LTE spectrum and Deployment Choicesv0.1

The LTE camp is euphoric about Qualcomm wining four circles which further got comprehensive media attention as Reliance controlled Infotel expressed their interest towards LTE. All the other players like Aircell ,Bharti, Augere and Tikona is watching Reliance controlled Infotel’s move for BWA deployment

The WiMAX camp spearheaded by Samsung, Hauwei and ZTE will try to convince Infotel for immediate WiMAX deployment to enter market in similar timelines as 3G. The strategy is not impending from the fact that they do not have a LTE roadmap, but rather their eagerness to enter the agreement with Infotel and secure their mobile data business.

The companies which are involved in TDD LTE system development are ALU, Ericson, Motorola, Huawei, ZTE, Nokia and Samsung to name few. Huawei has a working trial network in china shanghai, followed by Motorola who has also deployed TDD LTE indoors. Nokia Siemens in a bid to be the part of big LTE ecosystem from China has opened a new lab Hangzhou R&D facility.

Most of the suppliers are working towards ensuring their base stations are ready as early as possible to grab markets share where WiMAX is gaining momentum especially at TDD space in India. In bid to accelerate uptake and proliferation of LTE, suppliers are aggressively developing LTE systems and strengthening ecosystem. The case of LTE in India is especially promoted by QUALCOMM, Nokia, ALU and Ericsson.

The new BWA operators are midst of this battle of titans who are ensuring their interests in mobile data business in India. In this short article I would like to present my own findings to provide new BWA operators with sufficient data to decide their technology choice and decisions. The data is collected from various research reports, direct discussions and Industry news.

TDD LTE Base Station availability for India BWA operators

Supplier who has WiMAX experience and are working for LTE products will become the first to supply LTE TDD trial equipments in Indian market. It is expected that ALU, Motorola and Huawei can quickly demonstrate a working LTE TDD systems followed by Nokia and Ericsson in a quarter or later. Trials are expected to happen in Q4-2010 time-frame. Readiness to ship equipment for mass scale deployment of LTE TDD is not expected to happen before Q1/Q2-2011.

LTE TDD Devices Availability

The most interesting of all is the LTE TDD device ecosystems. Let me report some broad time-lines based on my data which I have captured over period of time talking to industry experts and analysis reports.

• The commercial availability of chipsets will start as early as Q3, 2010 and most of them would be ready by Q1-2011.
• Most reasonably it will at least take one quarter more for ODM’s to supply finished products i.e. Q2-2011.
• We have experienced from wimax that time to complete device interoperability’s cannot be shortened beyond a specific period of time and hence the devices ecosystem would most likely to be ready by Q2-2011.Only USB dongles are expected in this time frame.
• Expect additional one quarter for Indoor Devices

When do we see handsets and Smartphone’s in LTE TDD?

• The commercial availability of chipsets for handsets and Smartphone’s is not expected before Q2- 2011.
• Most reasonably it will at least take one to two quarter more for ODM’s to supply finished products.
• It is reasonable to expect readiness of handsets by 2012

It is my estimation that most operators will launch their 3G services by November 2010. Four 3G operators per circle are expected to launch services apart from the old mobile data players who are operational with Ev-Do Technology.

• It is critical for BWA operator to launch their mobile data services in similar timelines otherwise the operator will face intense competition and early market entry benefit will be lost.
• If BWA is launched in similar timeline as those in line with 3Goperators the chances of mobile data from BWA technology ( WiMAX today, LTE later ) can succeed in winning a bigger market share.

  

• Ability to offer QoS , time and volume based unlimited plans will play an important role is customer behaviors in choosing mobile broadband networks as wireline is very limited in country.
• It is imperative to launch services before 3G operators or parallel with 3G operators to take that early lead and outperform competition to become market leader.

Finally, I have presented that it is reasonable to expect a mature TDD LTE ecosystem evolving around only after Q2-2011 for commercial deployments. Up to this period acquiring customers and retaining market share could be the best strategy for BWA operators. WiMAX could be explored for immediate deployment. It is imperative for BWA operator to start the services in the similar timelines when 3G networks are made available to compete and take the early market entry advantage. A long term strategy could be centered on or around TDD-LTE with initial deployment happening in WiMAX with migration plan towards LTE TDD. The Migration to LTE can be achieved in phased manner as suppliers are developing LTE products and in most cases it can be seamlessly upgraded with new software’s and channel cards. Operator can also look to 16m migration which has an added advantage of reusing existing devices.

Note: Views expressed here are my own and by no means reflect my company’s opinion. You can ask for more detailed analysis report at admin@beyond4g.org

He said in particular that tariff in 3G and BWA would remain high and large section of common people would not be able to afford it. This is not a win-win situation for government and people of India. The spectrum for broadband access in particular reached exorbitantly high levels with only two spots made available for auction and the vision of delivering affordable broadband to the masses in India looks challenging.

What would be the impact of high spectrum prices in Mumbai and Delhi?

Assuming an operator brought Mumbai and Delhi spectrum at combined price close to US $ I Billion for BWA application. My analysis predicts that price of mobile broadband services will shoot up 1.5 to 2 times of current levels. This is not an encouraging situation of India Consumers.

• Assuming BWA operator acquires 75 thousand subscribers every quarter in Mumbai and Delhi, which will take them to total of 3M at the end of Q4, 2014.

  

  (Note : Projected subscribers in Mumbai and Delhi)
  

• Using the current average price of Rs 905(US 18, Average price seen in Ev-Do) will make operators stand at negative Rs. 2000 Crores ( approx US$ 400 M) at end of five years. The exorbitantly high BWA spectrum cost would make impossible to offer services at current price levels in country.

  

  (Price in Crores)
  

• To compensate and make the business case viable, anticipate price to go up 1.5 to 2 times higher than current levels. Expect price of services to remain high in next 2-3 years as operators will try to recover the spectrum expenditures and other initial capex. With 1.5 times higher price operator has much better business case and in this scenario he will stand at cash flow positive of Rs.140 Crore (Approx 30 US$ M) .

  

  (Price in Crores)
  

What to expect in Indian wireless broadband market?

• To compensate and make the business case viable, anticipate mobile broadband service price to go up 1.5 to 2 times higher than current levels. Expect price of services to remain high in next 2-3 years as operators will try to recover the spectrum expenditures and other initial capex.
• Expect coexistence of Enterprise services in the same BWA RAN to make business case more viable and attractive.
• Expect low device prices to make entry cost as minimum as possible. Operators may subsidize devices or bundle low cost netbook to boost uptake of mobile broadband services. The low cost net tops from Intel and other variant may become popular.
• Without doubt India will have tiered pricing and differential QoS based services to gain every bit out of the network.
• The high cost of spectrum will require mass scale adoption among consumers. This is an interesting challenge of acquiring high volume subscribers, delivering true mobile broadband experience and remains competitive in offerings for BWA operators. I anticipate lot of innovation in technology, policy, charging, device and services.
• If WiMAX , which has upper hand today becomes natural choice for operators than 16m will have a very important role to play in India broadband market. It’s all about acquiring extra subscriber per base station with limited amount spectrum while remain competitive.

Finally, we could have worked out a win-win situation for both consumers and operators, if enough spectrum would had been made available for auction with encouragement for new players to make broadband as affordable as possible for the people of India. I am sure we can learn from Japanese regulator who has made spectrum available for free with only condition of a nationwide deployment, benefiting people of Japan and assisting economy.

(Views expressed here are my own and by no means reflect my company’s opinion)

Related Readings;

Why can’t we learn from mango traders?

Delivering affordable broadband in India

It’s not wise to sell Mercedes to everyone

When I first started observing people’s relationships and routines with television, things were rather straightforward: some people had DVRs while others still used VHS, some downloaded movies from file sharing sites while others bought pirated DVDS or rented from a local shop, some had TV on 24/7 while others consciously limited TV. The lines between TV, PC and mobile phones were rather firmly set with particular types of activities and content adhering to each device, content not typically shifting screens and communication between or among them infrequent or requiring a particular level of technical know-how. Today, as more people adopt new internet-enabled devices and services, people’s daily media consumption is extending far beyond the reach of the stationary, shared television sets offering TV channels.

Often people ask me, what is the base line bandwidth requirement to enable Internet TV? The amount of data rate required is dependent on number of factors especially type of video format, frames per second, resolution etc. On high level a standard definition based TV in MPEG 4 format will require at least 2 Mbps or a HD quality video will require an 8 mbps sustained connection.

And Video does not stop here ….

The web has completely changed the aspects with introduction of laptops and now with the introduction with Smartphone’s. But even, today the web has very limited adoption in the premier entertainments devices in your living room, the TV. So we stuck there, there are two completely different world. The one world has all your favorite web videos and your favorite websites, while other has the traditional TV experience.

Ways to provide video service over the 4G Networks

Unicast : Using a unicast services flow based on user request ( and attaching a QoS profile to the services class. ) . Signaling is carried out on every service flow while creating, change or deletion over air interface between BTS and MS. The required air resources increase in proportion with number of users.

Broadcast mode: The broadcast mode is a unidirectional point-to-multipoint transmission of multimedia data (e.g. text, audio, picture, video) from a single source entity to all users in a broadcast service area. The broadcast mode is intended to efficiently use radio/network resources e.g. data is transmitted over a common radio channel. Data is transmitted in the broadcast service area as defined by the network (Home environment).

Multicast mode: The multicast mode allows the unidirectional point-to-multipoint transmission of multimedia data (e.g. text, audio, picture, video) from a single source point to a multicast group in a multicast service area. The multicast mode is intended to efficiently use radio/network resources e.g. data is transmitted over a common radio channel. Data is transmitted in the multicast service area as defined by the network (Home environment). In the multicast mode there is the possibility for the network to selectively transmit to cells within the multicast service area which contain members of a multicast group.

However, whether to implement MBMS or to use Unicast Video for TV services should be carefully studied. I have personally not seen any MBMS commercial network case study yet, and have not heard any network with a committed implementation plan, either. Unicast-based mobile IPTV has commercial business cases and considered to be a more practical solution.

The unicast based IPTV is expected to be more widely accepted and has immediate takers. The new initiative by Google and their partners like sony,Logitech and intel called Google TV is testimonial to the trend. Mobile broadband networks like LTE and WiMAX will accelerate the adoption on video over internet. It’s a fascinating time in TV land. According to Google, more than 4 billion people are TV users. That’s higher than cell phone and computer users combined. Americans watch TV about 5 hours a day, and spend many more hours on the Internet – often doing both at the same time.And my guess is, we will see 10X more innovation on the TV in the next five years versus the past decade.

Watch this video featuring Google, Intel, Sony, best buy, Logitech, adobe and dish network CEOs talking about the new internet TV which will be released commercially this fall.

Suggested Reading;

Change is inevitable and growth is intentional

Managing Data Networks

The industry around 4G FDD is clearly evolving towards LTE as major operators committed their plans or intentions to move into LTE. However, the 4G TDD path for LTE is not going to be an easy ride owing to the competition from WiMAX. Most of the current WiMAX deployments are in TDD and operators would certainly like to recover their investments before migrating to any other evolving technologies in near future.

Operators have also realized that the investments made in building network based on WiMAX TDD cannot be turned in to LTE-TDD overnight even if they like to. Clearwire for instance acquired more than 300k subscriber last quarter marking its entry to 1 Million mobile broadband clubs. If they choose to migrate to LTE, what will happen to those 1M wimax devices? By the time TDD LTE matures clearwire will acquire anywhere between 3 to 5 Million subscribers and upgrading a 5 Million serving WiMAX network to a new TDD LTE RAN might just not be a practical case. I am sure Yota , UQ, Atheeb, Taiwanese WiMAX operators and new WiMAX deployments expected in India would also face with similar dilemma.

It appears like operators too has recognized the fact and asked leading 16e suppliers to take 16m research and development in priority and show them a working 16m system quickly. The ecosystem of 16m could be as large as TDD-LTE or better since all WiMAX TDD operators will naturally migrate to 16m, while the only operator who is behind TDD-LTE is China Mobile. If Indian BWA operators choose WiMAX path than odds are quite high that 16m TDD ecosystem may supersede TDD-LTE.

Samsung, Motorola and Huawei may demonstrate a working 16m trail systems to their operators by end of this year. IEEE standardization is on track and it is expected to release final 16m draft by Q1 2011. Sequans and Beceem plans to release 16e/16m based engineering samples in early 2011. The development effort for migrating core network elements like ASN-GW, AAA and others to 16m is estimated minimal and hence early readiness can be expected.

The whole battle of LTE vs WiMAX is basically turning around two facades. First, It is highly publicized that Performance of LTE –TD based system will be superior to 16e. Second, TD-LTE ecosystem will bring vast economy of scale to operators. I spent some time to figure out the performance of TD-LTE and WiMAX 16e. Since WiMAX 16e doesn’t support 20 Mhz channels, on a 10 MHz of channel bandwith following observations were noted.

• Most of the current WiMAX deployments are on a reuse 3 network. If WiMAX is deployed in reuse 3 network and LTE is deployed in Reuse 1 network, than performance of WiMAX systems is better than LTE Rel 8. Data presented below is measured in different commercial wimax networks and LTE is based in NGMN simulations.

  

• LTE Rel 8 was ratified recently (2009), and in LTE release 8 special attentions were given to introduce methods to circumvent interference and improve overall network efficiency. 16e if deployed in reuse 1 scenario will perform inferior as compared to LTE Rel8. This is one of the major rationales behind most of the 16e deployments in 30MHz of spectrum.
• 16m is expected to be deployed in reuse 1 networks and has more advanced interference mitigation techniques and supports even higher spectral efficiency than LTE Rel 8.

  

WiMAX Forum recognized these aspects and in the last general meeting at Taiwan, they have included features like interference mitigation, frequency reuse 1 support, downlink beamforming and 4X2 Mimo in their technology roadmap for 2010. Roadmap features will be further enhanced to support IMT-A requirement by 2012 with introduction to 4×4 Mimo, self organizing networks, multicarrier and enhanced locations services.

It would be interesting to see how the 4G TDD ecosystem shapes but definitely 16m has a important role to play.

Suggested Articles:

• 16m for operators
• IEEE expects WiMAX 2 standardization by summer
• MIMO Schemes in 16m

Mangos are my favorite summer fruit. I buy most of my mangoes in Mumbai at a nearby local shop. Back in my hometown we buy most of the mangos from local mango market; otherwise it comes from our mango farms. I am on vacations these days and visiting my parents in my hometown. Yesterday , in a cheerful mood my mother said, why don’t you sell those excess mangos to market? I was all excited to experience the selling session of mangos in the local mango market. Fortunately our mangos are of good quality and I was eager to make a good impression of skilled mango seller in front of my parents.

The way mango is sold in my hometown is quite different than here in Mumbai. Here you can sell them at one tenth of the price you will most likely sell in Mumbai. The rationale could be availability of low wage workers, low transportation and maintenance cost cost and mango farms etc. In fact the average monthly income of the people residing in Maihar(the name of my hometown) is 5 to 10 times lower than average monthly income of people in Mumbai. After selling my mangos it came to my mind, why can’t we have different charging mechanism in broadband for different cities based on their paying capabilities and social economic factors? After all you can’t sell Mercedes to everyone.

By evening we sold our mangos and I was talking to my old school acquaintance, a mutual friend of ours asked me, is there a way to take lessons in civil engineering without attending college, since my parents cannot afford expenditure of a formal education? He further explained that to me that in his past he has worked in building state roads, small dams, culverts and duplex houses. I actually consoled him by saying, “Nor Bill Gates or Steve Jobs had formal engineering degrees but they generated more jobs than others”. Nurture your passion with persistence and backed by a burning desire, I am sure nothing in the world will come in your way. However I was eager to show him the free lessons available in the internet by the top professors of the country in the field of civil engineering. The lessons were recorded and brought to the people of country by a new initiative by government of India. (Website: http://www.youtube.com/user/nptelhrd )

The only internet connection available for most of the citizen of country residing in other than top 100 cities is through 2G networks like CDMA 1X or GPRS. My CDMA 1X connection was not capable to show him a working streaming video, however he got the suggestion that internet has many promising possibilities for him. If he can get a working internet connection he might learn continuously and improve himself while taking care of his farms.

I do not see a rationale of charging similar broadband prices which is applicable in metro cities to other parts of country. The cost of spectrum, tower rentals, maintenance and manpower is low as compared to metro cities in rural cities and charging mechanism shall apportions these factors. Everyone is interested in showcasing the grandeur speeds of LTE networks or their new 4G WiMAX RAN. It is true that the first LTE network in Telisonera are capable of supporting over 70 Mbps in 10 MHz channels and over 130 Mbps in 20 MHz channels in Sweden and Norway.

(Note : 1 USD is equal to 7.1 SEK)

For a 30 GB connection the monthly broadband price of US$ 85 in Sweden is less than 3% of their gross domestic product at purchasing power parity per capita. The cost of a 3 GB wireless data connection in rural India is roughly more than 10% of their gross domestic product at purchasing power parity per capita.

I am sure you will recognize that the debate of tiered charging, data offloading and other business models of 4G data is good for intellectual minds, but we need more common sense from the people who has the power to change
the scenario of broadband in country. At least I understood that the mango traders of Mumbai and Maihar know for sure that the charging mechanism of metro and rural India cannot be made same. I expect more common sense from government, operators and broadband policy makers to enable some of my school mates to take civil engineering lessons while taking care of their farms and cattle’s.

Suggested Reading:

• State and opportunity of broadband in India
• It’s not wise to sell Mercedes to everyone

When Albert Einstien was asked on what got him to introduce the theory of relativity to the world he said “It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception.”

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. Its said there’s a boundary line to music. But with the collaboration of Pandora and Facebook , the boundary is indefinite. Pandora is the perfect destination for anyone who wants to listen to Internet radio catered to their interests and their particular mood at the time. Its a web 2.0 radio station based on radio genome project. By analyzing the essence of music and capturing aspects such as melody, harmony, rhythm, arrangement and lyrics among other musical identities, Pandora and the Music Genome Project are able to predict musical interests based on a sample selection. Pandora assembles literally hundreds of musical attributes or “genes” into a very large Music Genome.

The leading online radio service and world’s biggest social network have now come together which solidify both companies’ dominance, while offering music fans a way to share music with each other that appears to lack any significant downside. The upside for Pandora users is significant, due to the ways in which it broadcasts their taste, helps them discover and enjoy new music through their friends. There are countless ways to do these exact same things elsewhere on the web, and users have already been able to share Pandora stations with friends. But Pandora + Facebook = such an easy math that even the busy or excessively lazy can integrate it into their lives.

Making the listening experience more social was also employed by Pandora, but who would want to make to create a whole set of friends manually on Pandora? Facebook is the social networking king and rules the kingdom defined by web 2.0, so it makes more sense to grab people’s friends by coming into alliance with the ruler.

With the “open social graph” unveiling and the sprinkling of “like” button across the web, Pandora is able to increase its user space, capture its user’s habits and hence assemble more music for the music lovers. Facebook has always focused on building ways for people to connect with each other and share information with their friends. People are shaping on how their information moves through their connections. This collaboration and introduction of “open social graph” puts people at the center of the web. And now, users get the power to create a smarter, personalized web that gets better with every action taken.

These new generation compact BTSs can be installed in single-sector or multiple-sector configurations as alternatives to Macro BTSs with remote radio heads (RRHs).Unlike traditional macro BTSs, compact BTSs do not require ground shelters and cooling equipment, yet they need not compromise on high-performance features such as support for multiple antennas and beamforming.

The new genre of base stations has the following characteristics which will help operators to remain profitable in data networks. The business of data networks is quite different than voice. Typically operators have to support 100 times more data delivery in almost similar ARPU as compared to Voice. Advancements in MIMO technology and larger chucks of spectrum are playing an important role in shaping evolution of mobile broadband networks; however the emergence of new generation of compact base stations is supporting operators to reduce capex and opex.

• Support for larger channel bandwidths upto 20 MHZ with typical processing capability of over 170 mbps per channel cards in baseband. Multiple 20 MHz carrier aggregation can be supported in this new genre of base stations with multiple channel cards and Remote radio heads.

• Support of the multi-carrier technology (With software configuration, one sector supports multiple carriers to provide larger capacity. In this way, the number of new sites required for capacity expansion decreases, and the capacity expansion cost is cut down.)

• The advancement in Power amplifiers efficiency has helped operator to reduce their power requirement at least by a factor of half.

  

• The Remote radio heads can be extended up-to 1 kilometers as their connectivity is based on CPRI/OBSAI interface and has fiber as a interface.

• New distributed base stations works in natural cooling mode without any cooler and reduces power consumption.

• Migration

  • WiMAX 16e to WiMAX 16m: This can be easily achieved by replacing the channel cards and upgrading the software to WiMAX 16m. If WiMAX 16e and WiMAX 16m use the same frequency, the RRH need not be replaced. Otherwise, the RRH must be replaced.

  • WiMAX 16e to LTE+/TDD: This configuration can be supported by replacing the channel cards and upgrading the software to LTE. If WiMAX 16e and LTE use the same frequency, the RRH may not be required to change. Otherwise, the RRH must be replaced.

• The new 4G base stations are compact ,light, and supports multiple installation modes to reduce the footprint and the labor cost. The RRH are mostly small and light (<21 kg), and thus it can be installed on a pole, tower, wall, or support. In addition, the RRH can be installed near the antenna system to decrease feeder length and loss so that the feeder cost is reduced.

• The Baseband units can be installed in the 19-inch cabinet such as the GSM cabinet or outdoor shelter to avoid extra investment, as shown in below figure.

  

An Excellent White paper written by Monica Paolini from Senza Fili Consulting highlightsing advantages operators can achieve by using these new compact base stations. With a smaller footprint, lighter weight, and much lower power consumption, they cost less to install and to operate. Operators can save 38% to 47% in capex and opex over a five-year period as per the report.

Download paper here

Picture Source: Motorola

Suggesting reading: Wireless access strategies for operators

]]> http://www.beyond4g.org/innovation-driving-4g-networks/feed 1 http://www.beyond4g.org/td-lte-gaining-momentum http://www.beyond4g.org/td-lte-gaining-momentum#comments Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:12:05 +0000 BP Tiwari http://www.beyond4g.org/td-lte-gaining-momentum The industry around TD-LTE is gaining momentum and the appeal of TD-LTE has widened well beyond China. The recent announcement of Qualcomm to bid for TDD spectrum in India to support a TD-LTE deployment confirms the emergence of TD-LTE as global technology, likely to command a substantial market share.

First of all, China mobile is behind TDD LTE global adoption. The operator has announced that it will establish three experimental TD-LTE (time division-long term evolution) networks separately in three coastal cities – Qingdao, Xiamen and Zhuhai – beginning the third quarter of 2010, according to the China-based China Business News and it will migrate its TD-SCDMA based network to TD-LTE as their next evolution.

Second,

Clearwire paved the way for LTE in US when they submitted a proposal to adopt the 2496MHz-to-2690MHz frequency band in the US for TD-LTE, and it was accepted at a 3GPP meeting earlier this month. The acceptance is significant because it will enable Clearwire and other spectrum holders to deploy TD-LTE, which is the time division duplex (TDD) version of LTE, in the US. Clearwire was not alone in asking for the 2.6GHz spectrum to be defined as a TDD band for LTE. Indeed, there was broad industry support for the proposal from other companies, including: Sprint Nextel Corp. , NII Holdings Inc. , China Mobile Communications Corp. , UK Broadband Ltd. , Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. , TD Tech Ltd. , WiChorus Inc. , ZTE Corp. , Chinese Academy of Telecommunications Technology , Nokia Siemens Networks , Cisco Systems Inc., Sequans Communications , Alcatel-Lucent , Alcatel Shanghai Bell Co. Ltd. , and Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co. KG .

Third,

Japanese cell-co Softbank Mobile is considering deployment of TD-LTE standard as a 4G network. Senior executive vice president Ted Matsumoto told telecomasia.net that the company could deploy it in the 2.5GHz spectrum it had gained access to ,when it bought a stake in failing PHS operator Willcom last month. But he said Willcom’s next-gen PHS technology, XGP, and mobile Wimax were also under consideration.

Fourth, As Qualcomm prepares to bid for broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum in India with the intention to deploy TD-LTE, the world’s largest infrastructure supplier, Ericsson has begun making the case as to why LTE in the band makes more sense than WiMAX for BWA operators in India.

Fifth, the Taiwanese operator Far EasTone said it will jointly develop a next generation TD-LTE mobile network in Taiwan for testing purposes with China Mobile.

Sixth, suppliers are getting ready to demonstrate their readiness to support TD-LTE based deployments. Motorola demonstrated end to end readiness to support LTE TDD with USB dongle devices in Shangai Expo. In a parallel move, Nokia Siemens Networks has inaugurated a TD-LTE Open Lab at its Hangzhou R&D facility and are trailing their base stations with China Mobile. Huawei will deploy TD-LTE demo network along with Motorola in China. Ericson, Alcatel lucent, ZTE and Samsung are developing LTE-TD based systems for commercial deployments.

Seventh, Qualcomm, Altair, Sequans, Innofidei, Wavesat has indicated availability of TD-LTE chipsets in 2.3/2.5 GHz. Others like Beceem , Runcom are also developing chipsets and release dates are not committed/known. Possibly QUALCOMM would the first to release LTE-TD samples. QUALCOMM is will put together available TD-LTE engineering samples ( MDM 9600) most likely in 2Q 2010. Commercial availability of chipsets is planned one quarter later. Other chipset supplier will have commercial readiness by Q4 2010. Assuming 2 quarters for ODMs for finished products, it is reasonable to assume availability of LTE-TD devices in Q2 -2011.

Finally

It looks like the time to market advantage for WiMAX is still not over as we see Q1/Q2 2011 as the most optimistic initial deployment timelines of TD-LTE system and initial device would never compete the current prices of WiMAX , however the ecosystem behind LTE can drive significant volume and has the ability to quickly create a competitive ecosystem of device supplier and operators.

Suggested Reading:

1)WiMAX and LTE Performance

2) WiMAX or TDD LTE in India?

One of the most well enjoyed human endeavors these days is social networking. It is mainly because we get to communicate with anyone from any part of the worldwide web by texting, chatting and VOIP or voice over internet phone. There are both great opportunities and huge risks in social networking, similarly to what has occurred with other extremely useful capabilities and technologies that have emerged and gained popularity in society. Using social networks have gained the opportunity and ability to influence many more people than before.

“On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” (Steiner, 1993), suggests that identities are so hidden online that opportunities would be widely open to all, regardless of background characteristics that may have traditionally disadvantaged some people compared to others. The idea that people would be on an equal footing online assumes that offline characteristics are not mirrored in people’s online pursuits. Social networking websites provide a variety of services, such as users’ own unique “space,” as well as enabling them to share photos and videos, maintain blogs, and encourage group interactions through chat rooms, instant messaging (IM), and e-mail. This seems to say that our society is much more open now, and much more open to posting intimate information online, but it also is rather anonymous in a way, because users never see, meet, or touch the person they communicate with, and so, even though they know intimate details, they do not really know the person at all.

But have we ever given a thought on the fact that we have a lot more friends than we used to. All these not-real friends we have on Facebook, MySpace, Orkut etc — we had them before, we just didn’t count them. So, we can now measure things we couldn’t measure before.

Social networking may sound fluffy, but it can translate into real benefits for business. It’s taking the internet by storm and is revolutionizing the way society connects and interacts with each other. What once was thought to be an internet fad is now commanding the attention of people and businesses around the world. Although social networking began primarily as a medium to allow individuals with similar interests to interact on a social level, it has since evolved to give businesses and professionals a place to connect and grow their network of contacts and even careers.

In a social networking arena, world is governed by what is called as “three degrees of influence” — that is, your friend’s friend’s friend, most likely someone you don’t even know — who indirectly influences your actions and emotions and this is changing the advertising profoundly, not just by cutting into the traditional media budgets but also by revolutionizing the way advertisers reach consumers. Social ads let Facebook users share their interactions with different brands throughout their peer network through news feeds. Facebook lets local and national businesses and organizations, such as restaurants, bars, cafés, sports teams, artists, churches, health and fitness centers, and even politicians, create pages with which users can interact by adding them to their profile. They also can choose to share this information with friends in their network through news feeds.

These are just some of the ways in which Social networking websites engage consumers by letting them create content and become the vanguards of different brands. Even more interesting, advertising on Social networking websites generally is highly targeted and relevant. Because the information comes from a friend they perceive they can trust, users are more likely to pay attention to messages that come through the news feed.

Hence, with the gaining popularity, social networking websites are just programmed to bring you a friend. But is also programmed to make money, and they make money by data mining and by selling virtual ads.

Things do spread to social networks because social networks online are much more clearly defined than the offline connections. And hence despite dire predictions from naysayers who warned that spending too much time online would be damaging to real-life relationships, the opposite appears to be true. The rise of social networking websites indicates a shift in the organization of online communities. While websites dedicated to communities of interest still exist and prosper, social networking websites are primarily organized around people, not interests.

Suggested Reading : Do you have a location strategy ?

]]> http://www.beyond4g.org/presence-is-everything/feed 0 http://www.beyond4g.org/whitepaper-state-and-opportunity-of-broadband-in-india http://www.beyond4g.org/whitepaper-state-and-opportunity-of-broadband-in-india#comments Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:24:04 +0000 BP Tiwari http://www.beyond4g.org/?p=966 Executive Summary

It’s been a dream run for voice in India. India positions itself as number two nation in new world order. However the broadband leadership is dominated by Southkorea, Japan, Hongkong, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, Singapore, Luxemburg, Denmark and Norway.  

India ranked 62 in global broadband leadership scale, with average download and upload speeds recorded way below than the needs of current internet applications. The current internet visual applications require consistent 2Mbps downlink and 1 Mbps uplink data rates.

In our analysis we found that the average broadband speed in country is below 600 kbps in downlink and 300 kbps in uplink. The leading broadband nations were found above 8 Mbps in downlink and 2.5 Mbps in uplink and the access latencies were found below 80 milliseconds[1].

Broadband penetration by number of households was estimated between 5 to 6 %. The availability of broadband networks has especially improved after beginning of Ev-Do services in country.  The mobile broadband networks were deployed in top 100 cities by four wireless operators i.e. Reliance, TATA, BSNL and MTS.

The data collected from Ev-Do Networks in five metro cities imply average delivery of 300 kbps in downlink and 150 kbps in uplink. On average, Hyderabad performed best with 250-350 kbps average download speed and 100-125 kbps average upload speed and New Delhi was at the bottom with 240 kbps for download and 130 kbps for upload.

The number of broadband connections in country is less than 10 Million, which is fewer than 2 % of the total number of voice subscriptions in India. Total internet connection in India is about 15 Million as per statistics released by regulatory of India, representing less than 1% of total population.

The principal challenges in delivering broadband to masses are excessively high right way charges, fragmented cable operators, non cooperation in last mile copper unbundling and low data ARPU. The total amount of spectrum allocated by regulators for broadband application in country was too little to support proliferation of broadband services.

The new 3G/BWA spectrum and the advent WiMAX and LTE based 4G technologies will play crucial role in shaping broadband industry in India. Our analysis in this paper exemplifies the competence of 4G technologies like WiMAX and LTE to deliver broadband in most competitive manner. 4G technologies has the potential to bridge the digital data gap in India and will play very similar role  what 2G technologies played in Voice.

A need for strong national broadband policy is felt to foster social and economic development in India and accomplish broadband leadership. Analysis presented in the paper estimates allocation of at least 270 MHz of new spectrum in next five years and over 450 MHz of spectrum in next 10 years for broadband applications would be inevitably required to take India to top broadband nations.

State and Opportunity of Broadband in India v1.0

Expected average data consumption for iPad users will stay around 3 GB/Month as per my estimates. Average monthly data consumption will remain somewhere between iphone and notebooks. The increased data consumption of iPad users can present wireless operators with some serious challenge to deal with in coming days. We already hear about 3G cellular networks being swamped with growing data traffic from millions of Apple iPhones. Although carriers are optimistic of offloading a large amount of iPad traffic to Wi-Fi access points when using services indoors and charge a different tariff for that. However I am really unconvinced about availability of Wi-FI networks all the time. Although , AT&T has scored a deal to offer unlimited 3G data on 3G-capable versions of the iPad for $29.99 a month. I still suppose that MACRO networks will serve most of the user generated traffic from iPads .

iPad is a real nice data centric deice which is capable of doing almost everything a net-book can perform. I think real drivers of data in iPad would be social applications especially photo sharing, streaming video like YouTube and movie downloads from Netflix etc. In his new whitepaper “STATE OF THE (MOBILE) BROADBAND NATION” Chetan reported that average performance of 3G networks in US is around 250 kbps in downlink and 120 kbps in uplink.

I suggest if you come across to watch you tube video at these 3G networks than expect some delay, buffer and degraded performance. Although this is not anticipated in Wi-Fi zones but serious video challenges is expected in 3G Macro zones. If you not leveraging video in iPad and then you are underplaying.

Nevertheless the real beauty of iPad is the fact that device is fully unlocked and there is no contract. I suggest you go ahead and test the new 4G WiMAX RAN available in to AT&T price, than even better as you will be able to connect your 3G iphone, your laptop and iPad and get unlimited Wi-Fi US with the 3G/4G hotspot device available with sprint or clearwire. It would be a good idea to test these handy 3G/4G hotspots which can really take your iPad experience couple of times higher with new 4G based WiMAX RAN. If you can find an unlimited data plan similar data.

GIGAOM reported average data rates of 1.2 to 1.7 Mbps in downlink and .6 to .8 Mbps in uplink from sprint 3G/4G mobile hotspot in WiMAX coverage zone. That’s what I am saying; WiMAX and iPad compliment each other when it comes to data.

As LBS become more intuitive to use, require regular updates when on the move and have access to the sophistication of applications like Google Maps and Google Earth, they are expected to drive network traffic to considerable volumes. Operators are strongly interested in LBS as a route to provide true personalized services, and, with true broadband connectivity, they will be able to take advantage of devices with embedded GPS to offer their own and third party services, e.g. using Google Maps or similar. Services such as these raise the possibility of new business models to be developed for charging users or specialist service providers for use of network capacity.

While location detection, location disclosure, proximity search, micro-blogging with geo-tagging, and embedded sensor based location services will become hugely popular and some of them will become enablers of new services in 4G networks. I am particularly excited about the object and image recognition techniques which are regarded as one of the most significant development of the decade.

What is OR(object Recognition) for mobile devices?
OR-M is fundamental to “visual Search” (e.g. Google Goggles), which given its ease of use and intuitiveness, will soon come to dominate search on mobile devices. We have seen Google acquiring Naven Vision in 2006, which specialized in image recognition and betting high in this technology.

“Neven Vision has developed a suite of mobile recognition technologies that enable images to become the interface to digital content—photos of advertisements become hyperlinks to branded content portals, while your camera phone can snap a picture of your face to secure verification of identity and control access to your private data. By equipping customers with an intuitive visual interface that anyone can use, this technology is unlocking vastly untapped market opportunities in Mobile Marketing and Commerce, Personal Security, and Biometric Identity Verification” The goal is to recognize every image.

How does OR works in mobile devices?
OR-M matches an image viewed through the lens of a mobile device’s camera to image in a database by identifying the image’s “feature points”, where shapes, pixels, colors, or brightness change. These are used to establish the unique “Fingerprints” or “visual signature” of an image – in essence a mathematical expression that can contain 10,000 variables. These images’s signature is then compared with that of other known objects in a database.

Enabling location in your 4G networks can allow a whole set of new applications. Are you ready with your location strategy to monetize internet or would you rather experience content by selling dumb pipes?

Clearwire Location update ( download pdf)

Fortunately, I had the opportunity to meet executives from Qualcomm, Ericson and Nokia as the spectrum auctions are approaching. We discussed range of interesting topics especially their intentions for pushing TD-LTE and maturity of TDD-LTE for a commercial deployment in a very price sensitive market.

Data Point 1 : China Mobile is shifting from their current plans of 2.3 GHz to 2.5 GHz as 2.3 GHz is extensively used by military of China and hence suppliers claim that CMCC will provide enough ecosystem development opportunity for India to achieve economics of scale is not very rosy. This is a fresh development and will have impact on TD-LTE products in 2.3 GHz frequency. Immediately, CMCC, Clearwire and other TDD proponent submitted new work item in 3GPP group to prioritize the development of TD-LTE in 2.5 GHz.

Data Point 2: India is a price sensitive market and current prices of LTE TDD devices are way too high for a meaning full deployment. I am told that the price of devices in Teliasonera Network is in the range of US$ 150 which is too far above the ground as compared to current prices of WIMAX dongles. Current prices of WiMAX dongles are in the range of sub US$ 30 . The curve of device prices to reach sub US$ 30 would be essentially be same as we witnessed in WiMAX, and it may take up-to 12-24 months to reach those levels. Situation is further worsened by limited operators planning to deploy LTE TD in 2.3 GHz.

Data Point 3 : Ericson and Nokia believes that TD-LTE is ready , but Huawei and ZTE has very different view and as per them it will take at least two more years for TD-LTE to reach current levels of WiMAX as CMCC is still deploying their TD-SCDMA networks and they will actually wait sometime until capex incurred in up gradation from TD-SCDMA is recovered. CMCC will continue showcasing TD-LTE trials and other competitive advantages as they are also interested in controlling TD-LTE IPRs.

Believe it or not, the price which Indian operators will pay for acquiring BWA spectrum would be in the range of US$ 500M to 1 B. The chance of operators waiting for TDD-LTE to get matured for deployment is not a practical case. Operators will instead develop a strategy of smooth migration towards their next evolution with approach to acquire customer today and remain profitable in coming year. As I also reported earlier that number of broadband connections in India is less than 2% of total voice subscriptions. The market has potential and what 2G has done in voice; 4G will repeat the story in Data.

WiMAX migration towards LTE Rel 8 is possible with major suppliers like Huawei , ZTE , Motorola and Samsung committing a path towards TDD LTE in case market dynamics favors TD-LTE. Radio is LTE capable and with replacement of baseband units, same hardware can be migrated to LTE Rel 8.

Thanks,BP

Kevin C Tofel wrote an interesting article in Gigaom about the killer combination in Netflix and apple’s new device iPad. Bollywood in India is massively popular and you will find traditional movie stores every corner in Mumbai. These traditional movie rental stores normally have collection of Indian movie titles and some popular Hollywood titles which can be rented at monthly fees of less than US$ 8. I talked to one of the local stores in my neighborhood to get an idea about the number of titles they have in their stores. The percentage was even less than two digits as compared to the number of online titles Netflix (12,000) has for streaming. A US$ 8.99 for unlimited access to enormous collection of titles is a convincing deal. I was apprehensive about my neighbored book and movie stores who nave not realized that “change is inevitable and growth is intentional”.

We Love it or hate it; it’s hard not to be astonished by the Hollywood blockbuster-style opening day enjoyed by the iPad. Apple just announced that it sold 300,000 of the devices. At a base price of $499 (for the 16 GB model), that translates into some $150 million on day one. Add to the fact that Apple says nearly a million apps and 250,000 e-books were downloaded.

Estimated sales of iPad is supposed to reach 7.1 million units worldwide in 2010, according to research firm iSuppli, whereas our GigaOM Pro analysts estimate that the conservative sales of the device will be around 6.1 million.

Two aspects which I am curios to analyze is the effect of IPAD on carrier’s wireless data network and changes in traditional business models. The current data consumption of Notebook and other internet centric devices is 4 to 6 GB/Mo as reported by some of the HSPA operators. WiMAX operators, Yota and Clearwire reported 10 and 7 GB/Month of average data traffic in their new 4G networks. A typical Iphone user in US consumes .4 to .8 GB/Month in their 3G enabled iphones. It is generally expected by industry analysts that the consumption of average monthly data in iPad’s would lay in between iphone and notebook consumption.

Independent wireless industry analyst Chetan Sharma estimates that a 3G-enabled iPad will consume about two-thirds as much network capacity as a 3G iPhone. If Apple sells 2.7 million 3G iPads this year, as Piper Jaffray & Co. (PJC) analyst Chris Larsen forecasts, that could be the equivalent of 1.7 million iPhones hitting AT&T’s network.

Startlingly, my own estimates advocate that the consumption of data from iPad’s would be around 4-6 times higher than current iphone consumption. The biggest driving factor is streaming video (Youtube , Netflix etc.) and Social media. To watch one DVD quality streaming video consumer will require anywhere around 1-2 Gigabytes of data.

Expected average data consumption for iPad user will stay around 3.1 GB/Month as per my estimates. iPad consumers could give wireless operators a headache in coming time. We already hear about 3G cellular networks being swamped with growing data traffic from millions of Apple iPhones. Although carriers are optimistic of offloading a large amount of iPad traffic to Wi-Fi access points when using services indoors, which might not as rosy at it, looks.

Change is something which is inevitable and it would be interesting to watch to impact of iPad in operators wireless data networks and my corner book and movie stores.

• The Indian wireless market grew at 32% Y/Y in the period between December, 2008 to 2009.
• India continues to be the hottest market on the planet in terms of net-adds with (again) a world record-setting month in Jan 2010 with 19.9 million net adds.  For the year 2009, India added 177 million subs vs. 106 million for China. Combined, one year of growth in these two market is equivalent to the size of the third largest market – the US, to date.
• Total Wireless customers in India surpassed 575 Million in Feb 2010.
• India became number two wireless market and the world order is : China, India, US, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Germany, Pakistan and Italy.
• 3 Members joined the 100M subscription club from India :Bharti , Reliance and Vodafone .
• For India, data ARPU continues to stay below $1.0 as most of the new adds are voice only subscribers and there is continued price pressure in the market.
• In Q4 2009, Bharti Airtel was leading wireless operator in country with average ARPU of US$  3.94.
• India wireless Industry has witnessed heavy competition and operators wireless ARPU has declined at 8 % Q/Q.
• Reliance and TATA DoCoMo launched GSM services this year and fueled intense competition in Voice traffic.

India Internet Market Update

• Total internet customers in country were approximately 14.6 Million by Q4 2009.
• BSNL/MTNL is leading internet market share in India with over 10.9 Million consumers controlling approximately 75% of the internet market.
• Number of broadband connection in country was approximately 7.5 Million in Q4,2009. The number of broadband connections is less than 2 % as compared to number of current voice subscribers in India.
• Observed average ARPU of Mobile broadband service  2-3 times higher than voice as it stands at US$ 12 current
• With new 3G and BWA operators expected to launch services in 2H 2010, average data ARPU of mobile broadband service is expected to decline 2% Q/Q.
• TATA , Reliance, BSNL and MTS launched Ev-Do based mobile broadband services in top markets and robust growth in mobile broadband access ( dongles ) were witnessed.

What is expected in 2010 and 2011?

• Wireless subscribers are expected to grow to 747 Million by Dec 2010.
• Ev-Do (dongle) based subscribers are expected to surpass 2 Million by Dec 2010.
• 3G spectrum for four operators and launch of 3G services in top markets
• BWA spectrum for 3 operators and Mobile broadband services in top markets in India.
• Data growth in expected with new BWA operators deploying WiMAX/LTE.
• BSNL WiMAX launch in 3 circles and expected to expand to more circles
• For India, Growth of 3G and BWA technologies is expected to be limited in 2010 due to limited initial markets.
• In 2010, Mobile broadband growth is expected to be fueled by Ev-DO systems.
• Starting at a low base, India will experience the highest increase in smartphone penetration, which will triple over five years, and number of smartphone users, which will grow 5.5 fold by 2014. The growth of smart-phones will be driven by 3G and BWA networks.
• 3G iphone will fuel growth with availability of 3G networks in 2011.
• USB Dongles for Mobile data is expected to become mainstream device for mobile data.
• In 2011 , wireless broadband is expected to surpass number of wire-line connections in India.
• WiMAX could get significant foothold if three BWA operators deploys nationwide Mobile broadband market.

I got a request to present difference between WiMAX and 3G. Please find couple of slides which will give perspective of 3G vs WiMAX .If you have particular question, do email me at admin@beyond4g.org .

Thanks,BP

With over 70 mobile WiMAX deployments worldwide in 2.3 , 2.5 and 3.5 GHz and continuously growing , the role of WiMAX 2.0 is pivotal for operators to support humongous projected growing data demands and stay competitive in mobile data networks. The time to market and early competitiveness of WiMAX release 1.0 was successful in getting initial attraction from operators but there triumph will largely depend in continuous innovation and new suite of standards which will enable affordable and reasonable data services for their consumers.

16m will play important role to provide evolutionary path to Mobile WiMAX Release 1.0 operators to remain competitive in ever challenging mobile data networks and provide a platform for delivery of new services. It will also play an important role in shaping 4G mobile networks by supporting IMT-A requirement by updating its IEEE Std 802.16 standards to meet the requirements of next generation mobile networks targeted by the cellular layer of IMT-Advanced.

WiMAX 2.0 or 16m standards work will be completed by the end of this year and the first 16m release will be available for industry by July, 2010[1]. Based on the inputs from supplier and past standardization experience it appears that operators will have WiMAX 2.0 systems for deployment as early as 2012. Work on the standard has been progressing very quickly, the experiences with 802.16e and even some of the learning’s from LTE  has enabled quick completion of standards.

Following are the key vital features of WiMAX 2.0 which is incorporated in standards and presented in this whitepaper.

• New spectrum in FDD and TDD band
• Support of IMT-A frequency bands
• At least two fold increase in average data throughput from the current Release
• Advanced interference management methods to support true reuse 1 deployments as compared to current reuse 3 deployments
• Round trip access latency is reduced to less than 10-20 ms levels which will allow more demanding services like online gaming etc.
• Support for self organizing networks
• Support for femtocells
• Support of Relays stations
• Support for Location services
• Support for enhanced multicast and broadcast services
• Multicarrier aggregation upto 100 MHz
• Co-existence of 16e and 16m base stations and backward compatibility
• 2-3 fold improvement in VoIP calls per MHz ( Optimized for voice)
• Coexistence of multi-technologies like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and WiMAX
• Inter Radio Access technology handovers( 3GPP)
• Improved scheduling and new QoS class

It is more apt for operators who have already deployed their networks with release 1.0 to migrate to WiMAX2.0  as the release 1.0 devices are backward compatible with 16m systems and the performance of 16m systems is adequate to support the requirements of IMT-A and other competing technologies like LTE and LTE-A.

While this paper will cover all the aspects of 16m performance and features for operators , aspects of coexistence of release 1.0 and release 2.0 systems  is presented for WiMAX operators.

Download white paper here:  WiMAX 2.0 for operator v1.0

SU-MIMO: Single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO) schemes are used to improve the link performance, by providing robust transmissions with spatial diversity, or large spatial multiplexing gain and peak data rate to a single AMS, or beamforming gain.

Both open-loop SU-MIMO and closed-loop SU-MIMO are supported for the antenna configurations presented above.

For open-loop SU-MIMO, both spatial multiplexing and transmit diversity schemes are supported. For closed-loop SU-MIMO, codebook based precoding is supported for both TDD and FDD systems. CQI, PMI, and rank feedback can be transmitted by the mobile station to assist the base station’s scheduling, resource allocation, and rate adaptation decisions. CQI, PMI, and rank feedback may or may not be frequency dependent. For closed-loop SU-MIMO, sounding based precoding is supported for TDD systems.

MU-MIMO: Multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO) schemes are used to enable resource allocation to communicate data to two or more AMSs. MU-MIMO enhances the system throughput.

Multi-user transmission with one stream per user is supported for MU-MIMO. MU-MIMO includes the MIMO configuration of 2Tx antennas to support up to 2 users, and 4Tx or 8Tx antennas to support up to 4 users. Both unitary and non-unitary MU-MIMO linear precoding techniques are supported.

For open-loop MU-MIMO, CQI and preferred stream index feedback may be transmitted to assist the base station’s scheduling, transmission mode switching, and rate adaptation. The CQI is frequency dependent.

For closed-loop multi -user MIMO, codebook based precoding is supported for both TDD and FDD systems. CQI and PMI feedback can be transmitted by the mobile station to assist the base station’s scheduling, resource allocation, and rate adaptation decisions. CQI and PMI feedback may or may not be frequency dependent. For closed-loop multi -user MIMO, sounding based precoding is supported for TDD systems.

Multi BS MIMO

Multi-BS MIMO techniques are supported for improving sector throughput and cell-edge throughput through multi-BS collaborative precoding, network coordinated beamforming, or inter-cell interference nulling. Both open-loop and closed-loop multi-BS MIMO techniques can be considered. For closed-loop multi-BS MIMO, CSI feedback via codebook based feedback or sounding channel will be used. The feedback information may be shared by neighboring BSs via network interface.

COMP – Coordinated multi-point (CoMP) is a new class of transmission schemes for interference reduction in the 16m technology. Enabling features such as network synchronization, cell- and user-specific pilots, feedback of multicell channel state information and synchronous data exchange between the base stations can be used for interference mitigation and for possible macro diversity gain. The collaborative MIMO (Co-MIMO) and the closed-loop macro diversity (CL-MD) techniques are examples of the possible options. For downlink Co-MIMO, multiple BSs perform joint MIMO transmission to multiple MSs located in different cells. Each BS performs multi-user precoding towards multiple MSs, and each MS is benefited from Co-MIMO by receiving multiple streams from multiple BSs. For downlink CL-MD, each group of antennas of one BS performs narrow-band or wide-band single-user precoding with up to two streams independently, and multiple BSs.

Downlink MIMO Modes

Uplink MIMO Modes

Performance of Different MIMO Schemes

1. What are the driving factors for next generation wireless access networks?
2. What are the strategies operators will adopt for their next generation wireless access networks?
3. As an operator, how do we remain profitable in cut throat competition? Can we identify new ways to generate new sources of revenue for wireless operators?

During part one of the presentation we will identify top factors which are driving access wireless network strategies for operators globally.

In second part we will identify operator strategies for building next generation wireless access networks. In this section I will cover how LTE and WiMAX as a technology are playing a key role for operators to deliver the need of growing mobile data. I will also cover the key technology, performance and deployment trends of both the technologies.

Finally, we will identify what are the key strategies in access networks to remain profitable in coming decade.



There were plenty of questions raised about the importance of Radio access networks in shaping future communication and how would the forum member prepare themselves to prepare for Wireless access technologies.

One such certification which I would like to put into notice of all the attendees who were present in RST forum is IEEE WCET program. The IEEE WCET certification shows that the individual has demonstrated mastery of the internationally recognized body of wireless communication knowledge and has accepted the challenge to stay informed of new developments in the wireless field.

The IEEE Communications Society (IEEE ComSoc) has designed the IEEE WCET certification program to address the worldwide wireless industry’s growing and ever-evolving need for qualified communication professionals who can demonstrate practical problem-solving skills in real-world situations. Individuals who achieve this certification will be recognized as having the required knowledge, skill, and ability to meet wireless challenges in various industry, business, corporate, and organizational settings. You can read more about this certification at http://www.ieee-wcet.org/.

The new advisor to prime minister of India, Sam Pitroda today said broadband penetration should connect 100 million people in the next five years from the current 10 million. “For 1.2 billion people, 10 million broadband connections is a meager figure. I hope 100 million people are connected in the next five years through broadband,” Pitroda, who was responsible for the first telecom revolution, said.

It was expected that wireless operators like Tata Communications, Bharti, Reliance and Aircell would certainly contend to grab as much spectrum as possible. The submission by Orange has sent some early signals of international participation and we might expect some more competition by other leading global data operators. Google also said to be keen on joining the race, the BWA auctions could well be a closely fought affair as the government has said it will auction only two slots of airwaves.

Just before the auction, Private equity (PE) funds agreed to infuse $823 million (Rs 3,730 crore) into two Indian companies on Wednesday, signaling the return of big-ticket deals in a sign of growing investor confidence in the nation’s economic growth prospects. Goldman Sachs Strategic Investment Fund, Oak Investments Partners and Indivision India Partners, the PE fund promoted by Future Group chairman and India’s organized retail pioneer Kishore Biyani, bought a 73.95% stake in Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd for $398 million. Capital infusion just before the auction is expected to pull new entrant in the spectrum rush.

QUALCOMM bid for BWA spectrum has actually raised eyebrow in industry making clear intention of preserving LTE TDD spectrum until the technology get matured for large scale deployment. Please note the most of the wireless LTE deployments are planned in either 700MHz, 2.1 GHz,1.6 Ghz and 2.5 GHz in FDD bands. The ecosystem for LTE TDD in 2.3 GHz might take 1-2 years from now to reach the level of product prices that WIMAX has reached by now. Indian broadband market is at nascent stage and 4G technologies like LTE and WIMAX has the potential to repeat the same growth which was witnessed in voice with 2G technologies.

The battle between WiMAX and LTE supporter is expected to grow as Chairman of WiMax Forum India, CS Rao said: “This move by Qualcomm, if it emerges as winner in the bid, may result in the hoarding of precious spectrum. Thus, India would lose an opportunity to serve 20 million subscribers on a slot of 20 MHz by 2012. India cannot afford losing such precious resource of spectrum for immature, untested and unproven technologies. All Indian operators have tried and tested WiMax and they understand the potential of WiMax for broadband services growth in India.

The base price of the spectrum is roughly US$ 350 Million and it is expected to reach US$ 1 Billion in view of the number of operators willing to get hold of the spectrum. The amount of money operators will have to pump will naturally push immediate deployment to get their investment returned as soon as possible. WiMAX as being more matured has the distinctive advantage of immediate deployment.

US government raised the Setting of universal floor to 4 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps by 2020 as the minimum requirement for broadband definition. The new plan calls for making 500 MHz of spectrum available for broadband in the next 10 years. Much of this is likely to come from broadcasters, who aren’t likely to give back any spectrum voluntarily and would prefer being allowed to sell it in private sales. They’re like to find friends on the left who will be concerned about such impact would have on the public interest.

ITU Report M.2072 provides a summary of the market analysis and forecast of evolution of mobile market and services for the future development of IMT-2000, systems beyond IMT-2000 and other systems. This Report has derived market related parameters and provided forecasts for 2010, 2015, and 2020 for the mobile market. These parameters are essential inputs in developing a spectrum estimate, for future development of IMT-2000 and systems beyond IMT 2000 in preparation for the World Radio communication Conference 2007.This report also provides examples of potential services and applications of future development of IMT-2000 and systems beyond IMT2000 from the year 2010 onwards.

So the natural question that we have in mind is , how much spectrum do we need in next decade to support growing data from mobile networks ?

I estimated with best known spectral efficiencies from LTE Rel8 based systems and Mobile WiMAX based systems moving to LTE A or IMT A. Most of the technology available by the time frame 2010-2015 would provide spectral efficiency of 2 Bit/Hz . This is based on simulations carried out by IEEE and 3GPP groups in particular evaluation methodology .From 2015 more advanced MIMO systems and higher antenna configurations would be supported to improve the amount of data that can be transmitted in similar amount of spectrum to 4 Bits/Hz which will get even higher by 2020.

My analysis based on specific parameters and it shows that regulators would require additional 400-500 MHz of spectrum in next decade to support the growing need of mobile data networks.

Surprisingly, the new US national broadband policy also calls for making 500 MHz of spectrum available for broadband in the next 10 years. And, finally how much spectrum an operator will require to support its growing data needs. Certainly I would say Grab Everything!

Thank, BP

Chetan Sharma Mobile industry prediction: Mobile industry prediction 2010

Mobile Revolution: The Next Mobile Revolution by Rob Glaser

Billing & OSS World – Mobile Data Doesn’t Have to be Expensive

Businessweek – The Truth about Bandwidth

TelecomAsia – Mobile Broadband: Still growing but realism sinks in

Connected Planet – Youtube dominates mobile Internet traffic; mobile VoIP on the rise

Business Journal – The Apple effect on AT&T brings good times and bad

Thanks