Indoor Fiberisation & Small Cells

Mobile back haul technology Trade-Offs and Cablesmith Approach

Thanks to the information superhighway, mobile revolution and smarter technologies, we are living in a digital world where everything is connected and hence can be digitally activated world, is literally at our fingertips. The data boom that ensued has resulted in the transformation of certain technologies. One such example is the shift of interest from macro cell towers to small cells with a focus on indoor coverage and capacity as 80% of data traffic is generated indoors.

What are small cells?

Small cells, a growing technology, are low powered Radio Access Nodes that has a network range of 10 meters to a few hundred meters depending on the output power and frequency. The value of small cell market was $10.35 billion in 2016 and shot up to $12.5 billion in 2017. According to industry prediction, the small cell market will have a rapid growth, projecting a market of $58.7 billion by 2024.

Why are the advantages of Small Cell technology?

There is an immediate need to fulfil the increasing expectations of the consumers in terms of digital penetration. One obvious method is to increase the number of macro cell towers. But it is a tedious process which on one hand must clear regulatory hurdles and on the other is a costly affair. This is where small cells come in with several advantages starting from an improved network coverage to an increased capacity, in densely populated urban areas, helping a consumer to extend the battery life of handsets. They’re unobtrusive and consumes less power. Small cells overcome most of the limitations of the macro cell towers and clearly presents a solution for a demanding future.

Here are some factors that favours the growth of small cells technology: 

1.Growing demand of high data speed along with the growth in smart phone demand.

2.Need of ubiquitous indoor coverage.

3.Evolution towards 5G.

4.Allocation of higher frequency spectrum

What are the challenges?

One of the major challenges that the mobile operators are facing is the lack of available backhaul, especially indoors. This has a severe impact on network densification as well. The table summarizes how mobile operators rely on a variety of backhaul approaches to transmit their traffic to and from macro and small cell base stations.

Table 1: Mobile back haul technology Trade-Offs

MA

Source: GSMA

As the data suggests, with a significant inherent bandwidth carrying capability, Fiber Optic backhauling is the best future-proof option available for the operators. However, the lack of indoor fiberisation can be a hurdle here.

With network densification in the 5G era, and allied emergence of smart homes, connected cars, telemedicine, smart city-- automation will be a precondition along with the health monitoring of the cabling infrastructure. The traditional microwave cannot meet the backhaul requirements of 5G technology, leading to its dependency on fiberisation. The solution o this hurdle is hence a value added fiber optic structured cabling which is capable to serve all the back haul/front haul requirement of multi operators and multi technologies inside the building

How effective Cablesmith Platform in optimizing Mobile back haul technology Trade-Offs

The main limitations of fiber optics technology are the cost and logistics of deploying the material. However, Cable smith presents a solution that is cost-effective. By sharing and unbundling the fiber backhaul CS platform help to reduce the deployment cost to 50 per cent. While in general fiberisation might take several months to complete, cable smith platform is streamlined and deploys the technology within few days or even few hours.

Blog by :

Ragesh Puthusseri

Director- Technology and Innovation

Cablesmith