Small Cell Architecture

7/23/2019 Small Cell Architecture

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Small Cell

rchitecture

By Koyeli Majumder



INTRODUCTION

Small cells are low-powered radio access nodes that operate in

licensed and unlicensed spectrum that have a range of 10 meters to

1 or 2 kilometers. They are "small" compared to a mobile macrocell,

which may have a range of a few tens of kilometers. With mobile

operators struggling to support the growth in mobile datatraffic, many are using Mobile data offloading as a more efficient

use of radio spectrum. Small cells are a vital element to 3G data

offloading, and many mobile network operators see small cells as

vital to managing LTE Advanced spectrum more efficiently

compared to using just macrocells. ARCchart estimates that by 2017

a total of 5 million small cells will ship annually.





Types of small cells

Small cells may encompass femtocells, Pico cells , and microcells. Small-cell networks can also be

realized by means of distributed radio technology using centralized baseband units and remote radio

heads. Beamforming technology (focusing a radio signal on a very specific area) can further enhance or

focus small cell coverage. These approaches to small cells all feature central management by mobile

network operators.

Small cells provide a small radio footprint, which can range from 10 meters within urban and in-buildinglocations to 2 km for a rural location. Picocells and microcells can also have a range of a few hundred

meters to a few kilometers, but they differ from femtocells in that they do not always have self-organising

and self-management capabilities.

Small cells are available for a wide range of air interfaces including GSM, CDMA2000, TD-SCDMA, W-

CDMA, LTE and WiMax. In 3GPP terminology, a Home Node B (HNB) is a 3G femtocell. A Home

eNode B (HeNB) is an LTE femtocell. Wi-Fi is a small cell but does not operate in licensed

spectrum therefore cannot be managed as effectively as small cells utilising licensed spectrum. The detail

and best practice associated with the deployment of small cells varies according to use case and radio

technology employed.



LTE dvanced eNB Small Cell

rchitecture



LTE Advanced Small Cell Design Physical

Requirements



LTE Small Cell Integrated with Backhaul

Integrated Small Cell for Rural Communication is a cost effective solution



LTE Small Cell Design and Deployment Scenario



LTE Carrier Aggregation impact on Small Cell Design



LTE MIMO Adaptive impact on the Small Cell Design



LTE Positioning & Tracking impact on the Small Cell

Design



LTE Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) impact on the Small

Cell Design



LTE Het Net impact on the Small Cell Design



LTE Advanced Small Cell Design Challenges

• Seamless Hand-off & Mobility management:>Soft hand-off process between 3G, 4G and WiFi>Inter-RAT and Intra RAT between legacy and Advanced LTEeNB>Non-Cellular Radio’s inter-working with LTE for trafficoffload

• Service Level QoS and SLA support>Early deployments focused on data only. Ensuring Voice, Video, and Gamming etc QoS has certain limitations.>SLA Enforcement for the different types of services

• Self Configuration, Plug and Play

>LTE Small cells required today lot of hand crafting andtuning for performance



Conclusion

Small cells are an integral part of future LTE networks. In 3G networks, small cells areviewed as an offload technique. In 4G networks, the principle of heterogeneous

network (HetNet) is introduced where the mobile network is constructed with layers of

small and large cells. In LTE, all cells will be self-organizing, drawing upon the

principles laid down in current Home NodeB (HNB), the 3GPP term for residential

femtocells.

Future innovations in radio access design introduce the idea of an almost flat

architecture where the difference between a small cell and a macrocell depends on

how many cubes are stacked together. With software-defined radio, a base station

could be 2G, 3G or 4G at the flick of a switch, and the antenna range can easily be

tuned.

9.6 million residential femtocells have been deployed, representing 56% of all base

stations globally, as of February 2013. In total, almost 11 million small cells

encompassing public, enterprise and residential have been deployed by 47 operators

worldwide.



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Small Cell Architecture