Virtual small cells set the stage for 5G

Mark Grayson

Distinguished EngineerCisco Office of Mobility CTO

Virtual small cells set the stage for 5G

2© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public

Everything connected, everywhere, all of the time

Adaptive capacity, directed towards demand

Automated network deployment and operation

Wireless access service managed by the venue, fulfilled by the service provider

What should the future small cell networks deliver?

3© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public

Blurring of Small Cell Access Technologies

Passpoint/NGH, TWAG/EPC

Improved Efficiency

< 1 GHz

Higher (outdoor) delay spreads

Performance Management

More Like Wi-Fi More like CellularPower,

Spectrum Exclusivity

Combo:LAA, LWA, MP-TCP

Virtualized controller>6 GHz

Listen-before-talkMulti-Operator

As-a-service consumption

4© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public

Blurring of Wireless Architectures

RANController

Wireless Access NetworkOrchestrator

Wireless Access NetworkAnalytics

Service Provider Portal

Infrastructure Layer

Virtualized Service LayerService Orchestration Layer

NFV Infrastructure

Co-ordinated Radio Service

Physical RadioNodes

5© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public

Meeting Verticals’ Expectations

RANController

Wireless Access NetworkOrchestrator

Wireless Access NetworkAnalytics

Venue Portal Service Provider Portal

Infrastructure Layer

Virtualized Service LayerService Orchestration Layer

CommonNFV

Infrastructure

SlicedRadio Service

Shared Physical Radio Nodes

6© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public

Addressing Consumption Realities

2019: 96% of Data Consumed Indoors…

Home

50%

Work

35%

Hotspot

11%

On the Go

4%

© 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public

7© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public 7© 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public

Transforming the access network in advance of 5G

8© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public 8© 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public

Focus on…

Architecture Scaling the businessAutomation

9© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public

• Decomposed RAN with Small Cell/Controller• Multi-technology, Multi-Operator• Evolution to virtualization through centralization

Cisco Universal Small Cell: Laying the Architectural Foundations

Infrastructure Layer

Multi-Tenant Service Layer

Co-ordinated Radio Service

Multi-tenant RANController

Split Base StationFunctionality

10© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public

Cisco SON: Automating the Multi-Vendor, Multi-Technology HetNet

• Facilitates mass densification via SON auto configuration

• Auto-tunes each cell for optimal HetNet performance

• Reduces interference and improves cross-layer mobility

• Overcomes limits of X2 multi-vendor interoperability

• Sees entire network and synchronizes all layers

LTE OSS UMTS

OSS

Small cells OSS

NodeBseNBs dSONdSON

Quantum SONSON

RNC

MME

Orchestrate dSO

N

Orc

hest

rate

dSO

N

Small cells GW

11© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public

Enterprise

WiFi

VASMobile

Cisco Channel Enablement:Scaling Vertical Solutions with a New Marketplace

Mobile infrastructure packaged into vertical tailored solutions

Solution Innovation Value chain Disruption

+Sold to and deployed by enterprises as IT projects

Cisco / SP

SPCisco

12© 2016 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco Public

Setting the stage for 5G!