Find out more about small cells and small cell technology, and why its popularity is on the rise. Ubiquisys is a femtocell industry pioneer, specialising in femtocell access points, small cell technology and our unique Femto-Engine system. View our presentations for more information on femtocell technology, industry news and opinion.

1. The Rise of Intelligent Small Cells
Chris Gilbert
CEO Ubiquisys
Telco 2.0 Santa Monica
27 October 2010

2. The smartphone-driven traffic explosion
• Exponential growth in mobile data usage
• Forces radical thinking on network design
Source: Signals Research Group

3. The conventional answer is LTE
• But LTE alone is not enough to provide the 1000x
data capacity required:
– HSPA and LTE vs. WCDMA 10x
– Spectral efficiency improvements 2x
– More allocated spectrum 5x
– ~3 times smaller cell radius 10x
(but see SoftBank strategy)
Small cells have a central role to play in meeting the capacity demand
Source: Ericsson

4. What are intelligent small cells?
• Use massively abundant, cheap IP backhaul
• Automatic set-up and autonomous operation
• Automatic RF planning
• Form Self-Organising Networks (SON)
• Local signalling – authorization, handover
• Peer routing for both voice and data
• Support any size, any shape of device
• Low unit cost, low operating costs
Residential
8 calls
HSPA
Metro/rural
4x24 calls
3km range

5. Case study: SoftBank Mobile in Japan
• 22M subscribers, 100% 3G
• First operator with data ARPU > 50%
• 300,000 residential, business and retail small cells
– Free, open-access, with free ADSL and WiFi
• 10,000 public space, rural and metro small cells
– Strategy is 40 small cells: 1 macro cell

6. Self-organising networks: the “super-grid”
Enterprise grid
Super-grid of residential and metro cells
Ad-hoc networks of intelligent small cells will transform mobile in metro areas

7. Super-grid will drive cellular-led growth
in location-aware services
• Battery friendly: presence triggers
without GPS or polling
• Automatic: invisible sign-on
anywhere in the world
• Universal – all customers, all
phones
Retail
•Automatic
push offers
•Local social
networking
Metro
•Social network
auto check-in and
tags
•Location
advertising
Residential
•Home media integration
•Security and automation
•Remote control
Easy for app
developers
•Global directory
•Simple APIs
Cell intelligence provides easy
presence and media integration
for mass market apps

8. Where’s the value in this new ecosystem?
Systems Integration
Gateway
Software
(intelligence)
Hardware
Chipset
• Automatic configuration
• Interference mitigation
• Adaptive voice and data performance
• Self-organising networks (SON)
• P2P routing
• Local data and voice offload
• Presence app capabilities
• Media sharing app capabilities
The shift towards intelligent cells is increasing the strategic importance of software

9. Super-grid & edge intelligence implications
• Unpredictable backhaul routes and ownership
– Dedicated: macro, metro
– Traffic-managed IP: metro, retail, enterprise
– Customer: enterprise, residential
• Policy not planning dictates network behaviour
– Femto software algorithms decide in real time
– Algorithms follow policy profiles

10. The Rise of Intelligent Small Cells
Chris Gilbert
CEO Ubiquisys