3G in the Enterprise

The case for 3G picocells

Dr. Andy Tiller, VP Marketing, ip.access, December 2008

SUMMARY

As enterprises turn to 3G for mobile voice and data services, operators will face a significant challenge: getting enough coverage and capacity into office buildings. In the 2G world, picocells have proven themselves to be a cost-effective solution and are being widely deployed. But as the 3G enterprise challenge hits the radar screens of mobile operators, there is an apparent choice between using 3G picocells or alternatively adapting consumer-style femtocells to serve the enterprise. This paper analyses the issues surrounding enterprise 3G including user experience, cost and 1 operational management and concludes that femtocells will serve the SOHO market well, but that next-generation 3G picocells (sometimes called super-femtocells) are the clear choice for larger business premises.

THE ENTERPRISE 3G CHALLENGE

Desktop PCs and laptop computers will undoubtedly remain the primary means of accessing data services in the office, but business users increasingly rely on their mobile handset during meetings and other occasions when the computer is not conveniently accessible. Knowledge workers on the move are becoming familiar with 3G performance when using enterprise applications, downloading email attachments and accessing the Internet from their smartphones and HSPA-enabled laptops. As these workers get accustomed to 3G performance on their travels, they will expect and demand the same performance inside their offices. Unfortunately, thats a challenge for todays 3G networks. The walls and windows of office buildings absorb most of the radio energy transmitted by the outdoor network. The energy that does make it through to the user is typically as little as a fortieth of the outside power (and often much less). This results in customer dissatisfaction with patchy voice coverage, and especially with poor data performance (because high-speed data requires a very good quality signal). Mobile operators are vulnerable to losing business customers in places where their in-building coverage is poor for example, T-Mobile has found this is the top reason its customers switch to rival 2 networks . To make matters worse, since all users in a 3G cell share the available base station transmit power, a few indoor users consuming data services can significantly reduce the capacity of the entire cell and compromise service quality for outdoor users as well. Clearly, operators need a cost-effective way to deliver 3G coverage and capacity directly to enterprise users in their offices.

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Small Office / Home Office Business Week, 27 June 2007

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THE MARKET SWEET SPOT

The enterprise 3G market is bounded at the low end by SOHO offices roughly the size of homes in fact many of them are homes where 3G coverage can be provided by a single femtocell designed for residential use. A 4-channel femtocell could potentially serve an office of up to 10 3 mobile phone users . On the other hand, it might be sufficient for only four (or even fewer) handsets if mobile phone usage is heavy or if the quality of service needs to be better than the macro network outdoors (e.g. to match the quality of a rival fixed line network)4. At the high end of the market, the largest offices are covered by traditional in-building solutions such as Distributed Antenna Systems and micro basestations, often complemented by picocells where a rapid solution is needed with minimal disruption. The pay-back from keeping these important enterprise customers happy justifies the operators investment in in-building wireless solutions. Between the two extremes is a large market consisting of offices housing up to 100 staff, which accounts for more than half of all office premises (see Figure 1). Many of these smaller offices belong to large enterprises; mobile operators are highly motivated to provide a good quality service 5 to these customers. The remainder belong to Small to Medium Enterprises (SME ). Mobile and fixed operators are beginning to compete more aggressively for SME customers. As the trend to all-mobile office communications continues, mobile broadband has provided an entry point for mobile operators to target the SME market. But the fixed line carriers are fighting back with their own enterprise FMC offerings based on dual mode WiFi handsets. In this environment, its especially important that mobile operators can offer a cost-effective way to guarantee 3G voice quality and data performance in smaller office buildings.

Figure 1: size distribution of office premises in the United States

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4 channels deliver 0.87 Erlangs at 1% blocking, which is sufficient for 10 users at 75 mErlangs each in the busy hour. 4 channels deliver 0.70 Erlangs at 0.5% blocking, sufficient for only 4 users at 150 mErlangs each in the busy hour. Also called SMB Small to Medium Businesses.

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More than a third of SMEs have mobile phone coverage issues in their places of work , but historically, mobile operators have had no cost-effective in-building wireless solution for the majority of this market. A consumer femtocell lacks the capacity and range required to provide coverage in most of these offices, and the cost of DAS is prohibitive. Sometimes end customers try to solve in-building coverage problems for themselves by installing repeaters, causing a variety of problems for the outdoor network.

ENTERPRISE 3G OPTIONS

Operators getting to grips with the 3G SME opportunity are beginning to evaluate their alternatives. For all but the smallest and largest premises, the choice comes down to two approaches: either deploy multiple consumer-style 3G femtocells in each office, or deploy 3G picocells. In principle, both options deliver compelling benefits: o o o o o They bring a complete base station into the office, delivering targeted coverage and capacity exactly where its needed. They remove in-building users from the macro network, freeing up capacity and improving network performance for outdoor users. They use IP backhaul over a fixed line broadband connection to significantly cut the cost of installation and operation. They can be integrated to a local PBX, turning the mobile phone into a fixed line extension when in the office. In future they will be able to route data locally in the office to provide fast, secure access to 7 documents on the LAN from any meeting room on any device .

However, both solutions have traditionally had drawbacks. Early 3G picocells were large and expensive, requiring dedicated E1/T1 lines for backhaul and on-site installation by the operator. Meanwhile, femtocells were designed for residential use one per household with insufficient capacity and range for offices. But recent developments are changing this picture, making both options potentially a lot more attractive for the SME market.

4.1

Next generation 3G picocells

A new generation of 3G picocells builds on todays 3G femtocell technology. These picocells have higher capacity and range than femtocells, but they are based on low-cost femtocell technology platforms, and take advantage of auto-configuration techniques developed for femtocells to enable self-installation by the end customer. They also share a common network architecture with femtocells, and will use the new Iu-h standard8 for core network integration.

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Quocirca survey: UK, France, Germany, Sweden (June 2008)

This relies on Local IP Access Services (previously referred to as local breakout), which is currently an active topic of discussion in the standards bodies.
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Iu-h is the 3GPP standard for Home Node B (femtocell) integration with the core network.

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3G picocell (super-femtocell) Maximum transmit power Range Capacity Access control Handover Self-installation PBX integration ~ 250 mW (24 dBm) ~ 200 m 8-16 channels Typically open access Yes Yes Yes

Femtocell ~ 20 mW (13 dBm) ~ 30 m 4 channels Typically closed / semi-open Yes Yes Yes

Table 1: comparison of 3G picocells and femtocells These next-generation picocells are sometimes referred to as super-femtocells (i.e. femtocells with picocell capacities). Equally they can be thought of as picocells with femtocell attributes (see Table 1).

4.2

The intelligent femtocell grid

Some femtocell vendors are promoting the concept of an intelligent femtocell grid, which automatically configures itself to optimise performance in premises which require more capacity or coverage than can be provided by a single femtocell access point. These femtocells hand over calls between them as people move around the building, and support load balancing so that users are passed from one femtocell to another when one is at full capacity.

COMPARING 3G PICOCELLS AND THE FEMTOCELL GRID

Several factors must be considered when comparing 3G picocells with the femtocell grid approach. These include: o o o o o Cost scaling how many femtocells does it take to equal the coverage and capacity of a single picocell? The canteen effect how do femtocells and picocells handle the uneven distribution of users within the office at different times of day (for example in the canteen at lunchtime)? Interference how are capacity, coverage and user experience affected by interference between access points in the office? Auto-configuration and management how do the two solutions support self-installation by the end user, and management features for the operator? Access control how important is it for the end customer to have control over who can access the mobile network in the office?

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5.1

Cost scaling

It takes several femtocells to match the voice capacity of a single picocell. A 4-channel femtocell can serve eleven users at 75 mErlangs with 1% blocking, which means that you would need a grid of four femtocells to serve an office of roughly 40 mobile phone users (ignoring other factors discussed below). A single 8-channel picocell has about the same capacity and could serve the same office. So at the simplest level you would need four times as many femtocells as picocells in this case. A single 16-channel picocell could serve as many users as 10 femtocells (see Table 2).
Number of APs required to serve N users at 75 mErlangs N=40 4-channel femtocell 8-channel picocell 16-channel picocell 0.87 Erlangs 3.13 Erlangs 8.88 Erlangs 4 1 N=115 10 3 1

Access Point

Capacity at 1% blocking

Table 2: voice capacity of femtocells and picocells The femtocell grid potentially offers greater data capacity (typically 7.2 Mbps per access point with todays femtocells versus 7.2 Mbps for the whole office with the picocell). However, interference between femtocells diminishes this advantage (see section 5.3 below). One final cost consideration is that the core network infrastructure for femtocells is designed for mass market scale. An operator without an existing consumer femtocell offering to build on might find the start-up costs for picocells are lower, especially for small scale deployments.

5.2

The canteen effect

People move around. For most offices, that means an uneven distribution of demand in different parts of the building at different times of day (for example, mobile phone use will potentially be heavy in the canteen at lunchtime). This uneven distribution makes it difficult to spread capacity evenly between femtocells. When users congregate in one area, demand for capacity can exceed supply.

Figure 2: more femtocells are required to provide sufficient capacity in usage hotspots

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A picocell serves mobile phone users wherever they are in the office, so users are covered under all circumstances. Femtocells only cover a small, local area, so you would need to put more of them into hotspot areas to provide enough capacity, adding extra cost (and creating more interference).

5.3

Interference

Femtocells interfere with each other in places where their coverage areas overlap (see Figure 3). In these interference zones, the user experience for voice calls can be very poor without diversity combining, and HSPA data services may not work at all.

Figure 3: coverage simulation for a femtocell grid deployment: bricked areas show poor radio performance A potential solution is to use soft handover between the femtocells, using additional radio paths from overlapping access points to combine multiple signals and protect against interference. Soft handover is a standard WCDMA feature (although it is not standardised for femtocells). But using soft handover means that a phone in an overlap region will occupy channels on two neighbouring femtocells at the same time (see Figure 4), thereby reducing the capacity of the femtocell grid. More femtocells will need to be added to restore the required capacity. However, adding more femtocells makes the problem worse by creating more interference zones (more femtocells in the same space means greater overlap of coverage areas). This in turn will increase the number of phones in soft handover mode, which in turn reduces the capacity of the femtocell grid even further, requiring even more femtocells to restore the required capacity.

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Figure 4: soft handover (SHO) between femtocells An alternative solution to the interference problem is to deploy a single picocell with appropriate capacity for the office instead of a femtocell grid. Potential interference between picocells is much more manageable as a single picocell will usually cover an entire floor of a building, allowing the floors and ceilings to provide effective isolation between the cells.

5.4

Auto-configuration and management

Self-installation by the end customer is key to bringing installation costs down to a point where the business case works for smaller SMEs. Low power consumer femtocells score well here, being designed for plugnplay installation by the end user and automatic registration on the network without any operator involvement. Picocells can use the same automated provisioning techniques as femtocells to enable selfinstallation by the end user. However, picocells are more powerful devices, so operators may want to fine-tune the network following a picocell installation. This network tuning can be done remotely, and may be semi-automated, but in principle there is still a higher operational cost than with femtocells. On the other hand, some operators prefer to take a more hands-on approach with enterprise customers. Consumer femtocells typically dont provide the kind of sophisticated fault monitoring, alarms and performance management that enterprise use calls for the management demands are quite different. Operators wouldnt want an alarm to be raised every time a residential customer unplugs the femtocell from the mains to vacuum the carpet. But if the picocell on the wall in a local bank branch goes offline the operator will want to be notified immediately, as this may affect a Service Level Agreement with an important business client. Its clearly important that the management systems can distinguish between business and residential customers so that alarms and performance triggers can be configured appropriately. Many consumer femtocell vendors specialise in the CPE devices (the access point itself), leaving the management problem to someone else. An enterprise 3G solution should incorporate an integrated management system appropriate to the business market.

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5.5

Access control

A standard feature of consumer femtocells is support for access control, giving the end customer control over which phones can use the network. Most picocells will not be deployed at high power in closed access mode because this could potentially create coverage holes on the macro network for non-authorized users in the picocell coverage area. A low-power femtocell with a small coverage area has a potential advantage here if access control is important. On the other hand, its arguable whether the (sometimes non-existent) IT department in a small business would want the hassle of administering the access control list for all members of staff, contractors and visitors. It may be simpler to deploy picocells in open access mode with sufficient capacity to give passers by basic voice and Internet services. This is the normal mode of operation for 2G picocells today.

5.6

Practical considerations

Sprinkling consumer femtocells around a busy office may cause some practical difficulties. Access points may routinely get unplugged, moved, abused and splashed with coffee, leading to outages. Each time a femtocell is unplugged the femtocell grid will need to re-optimise itself to account for the change in the radio environment, with potential consequences for the user experience. In practice, wall mounted access points served with connectivity and power by a single Ethernet cable would be a more stable solution. Consumer femtocells could readily be modified to support power over Ethernet and wall mounting, but in these circumstances picocell deployment is more practical for the end customer, requiring far fewer installations than the femtocell grid.

CONCLUSIONS

A careful analysis of the options for deploying 3G in the enterprise has led us to the following conclusions: 1. Consumer femtocells are a good solution for the SOHO market, where offices are similar size to homes. 2. The right approach to 3G coverage in SME offices (and branch offices of larger enterprises) is to use a next-generation picocell (or super-femtocell) with range and capacity appropriate to the size of premises. Key strengths of the picocell approach are: o o o o A single wall-mounted picocell can provide coverage and capacity for the entire office Capacity is unaffected by users moving around or clustering in one area Interference issues are significantly reduced Advanced management features give the operator control over service quality for their important business customers.

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About ip.access
Based in Cambridge, UK, ip.access ltd. is a leading manufacturer of cost-effective picocell and femtocell infrastructure solutions for GSM, GPRS, EDGE and 3G. These solutions bring IP and cellular technologies together drive down costs and increase coverage and capacity of mobile networks. ip.access is the company behind the multi-award winning Oyster 3G femtocell, which dramatically improves the 3G experience at home. The ip.access nanoGSM is the worlds most deployed picocell solution, carrying over a billion minutes of voice traffic every year for operators all over the world, including T-Mobile, TeliaSonera, and Telefnica O2. It provides GSM, GPRS and EDGE coverage and capacity for offices, shops and using satellite backhaul passenger aircraft, ships and in remote rural areas. With deployments in more than 35 live networks around the world and growing, ip.access is the partner of choice for operators competing in the new converged marketplace. ip.access is an active member of the Femto Forum, ETSI and the Network Vendors Interoperability Testing Forum.

info@ipaccess.com

Copyright ip.access 2008. Oyster 3G and nanoGSM are trademarks of ip.access ltd. All other trademarks are acknowledged. This document contains advance information, subject to change without notice. No responsibility is assumed by ip.access for the use of this information, nor for infringements of patents or other rights of third parties. This document is the property of ip.access and implies no license under patents, copyrights or trade secrets. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form of any means, electronic, photographic, or otherwise, or used as the basis for manufacture or sale of any items without the prior written consent of ip.access.

ip.access ltd Building 2020 Cambourne Business Park Cambourne Cambridge CB23 6DW UK T +44(0)1954 713700 F +44(0)1954 713799 info@ipaccess.com www.ipaccess.com

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