Signals Ahead: 4G World Recap

Exploring The World Of Wireless
4g World: More Lively Than The Mortician’s Convention

This year's 4G World was held during the last week of October in Chicago. Signals Research Group has leveraged the event to identify key themes that were of interest in order to identify topics for future reports and to provide preliminary perspectives in this issue:

- Sprint's Vision. The LTE story is well known, as is the operator's relationship with LightSquared. However, the operator's plan for its legacy network is where the real story lies. With a [non-free] do-over, Sprint has the opportunity to do what it couldn't achieve before: 1X Advanced, multi-carrier DO and certain DO Advanced features, plus global implications.

- VoLTE. VoLTE may not have been widely discussed, but we have some updated perspectives, which are largely cautionary in nature regarding the market opportunity and widespread availability of the burgeoning voice service. Thanks to Release 9 features, CSFB may not be so bad after all.

- HetNet. HetNet seemed to be the single biggest theme with the largest percentage of the exhibitors focused on it, including virtually every single backhaul solution and strategy known to mankind. The big question for us is whether or not HetNet creates an opportunity for new entrants or if the spoils will be divided among an operator's incumbent infrastructure suppliers.

- MIMO. The pendulum has shifted the other way. HSPA+ with MIMO can still happen, but it may not be until DC-HSDPA (84Mbps) takes center stage.

- Pushing Content to the Cell Edge. On the heels of our user experience benchmarking study, it was also nice to hear that the industry is looking at innovative ways to push content to the edge of the cell, including down tothe macro eNodeB or even to the femtocell.

The report "Signals Ahead: 4G World Recap" is included as part of a subscription to Signals Ahead or it can be purchased separately.

ABOUT SIGNALS AHEAD SUBSCRIPTION

Signals Ahead is a research-focused product that is published on a periodic basis. Its clientele include all facets of the wireless ecosystem, including some of the largest mobile operators, the top handset suppliers, the major infrastructure vendors, subsystem suppliers, semiconductor companies and financial institutions, including Wall Street, Private Equity and Venture Capitalists, spread across five continents. SHOW LESS READ MORE >

Sprint’s Vision Steals a Page out of an Operator’s Playbook
MIMO cometh and MIMO goeth
VoLTE and CSFB Facts, Beliefs and Unknowns
HetNet and Cloud RAN in a Multi-Vendor Environment
Pushing Content to the Network Edge
Final Thoughts

Index of Figures

Figure 1. Smart Carrier Management in Action
Figure 2. Network Load Balancing in Action

This year’s 4G World was held during the last week of October in Chicago. Signals Research Group has leveraged the event to identify key themes that were of interest in order to identify topics for future reports and to provide preliminary perspectives in this issue:

The most interesting takeaways pertained to Sprint’s Network Vision. The LTE story is well known, as is the operator’s relationship with LightSquared. However, the operator’s plan for its legacy network is where the real story lies. By completely replacing its legacy network Sprint will be able to take full advantage of the 3GPP2 roadmap, including 1X Advanced, multi-carrier EV-DO, and even certain DO Advanced features. This strategy, which steals a page out of other operators’ playbooks, gives credence to the longevity of legacy 3G technologies, and, for Sprint, it will help drive further network efficiencies while creating a far more compelling user experience. Signal Ahead discuss.

Not surprisingly, HetNet seemed to be the single biggest theme with the largest percentage of the exhibitors focused on it, including virtually every single backhaul solution and strategy known to mankind. The big question for us is whether or not HetNet creates an opportunity for new entrants or if the spoils will be divided among an operator’s incumbent infrastructure suppliers. In a similar vein, the RAN cloud continues to be a hot topic, although pretty much anything that includes “cloud” is considered hot these days.

On the heels of our user experience benchmarking study, it was also nice to hear that the industry is looking at innovative ways to push content to the edge of the cell, including down to the macro eNode B or even to the femtocell. VoLTE may not have been widely discussed, but Signals Ahead has some updated perspectives, which are largely cautionary in nature regarding the market opportunity and widespread availability of the burgeoning voice service.

Finally, the HSPA+ with MIMO pendulum has swung in the other direction. HSPA+ with MIMO can still happen, but it may not be until DC-HSDPA (84Mbps) takes center stage.

Potential topics for the coming year include:

- The Mother of all Network Drive Tests (LTE, DC-HSDPA, HSPA+, Rev A and Mobile WiMAX)
- The challenges of delivering video in a mobile network
- How network performance (throughput and latency) impacts the user experience
- Embedded modules/netbooks
- TD-LTE network performance benchmark results
- CoMP and LTE Advanced
- Going Green – financial implications and challenges
- Smartphone signaling implications and LTE
- LTE chipset performance benchmark test results
- The impact of Type 3i receivers on UE performance (includes chipset benchmark tests of leading solutions)
- Whatever happened to IMS?
- LTE Amer icas
- 4G World and GSMA MAC
- HSPA+ (MIMO) network performance benchmark results
- The impact of latency
- Public Safety Options with 700MHz
- EV-DO Rev B network performance benchmark results
- LTE chipset landscape