Multi Vendor HetNet:

Interoperability, Plugfests

NEC Corporation

Neeraj Gupta

Kreso Bilan

▐ Multi Vendor HetNet: Introduction

▐ Multi Vendor HetNet: Requirements and Considerations

▐ Industry initiatives

▐ Issues/Recommendations

▐ Small Cell Forum Plugfests

Agenda

For the Network to meet today’s requirements in coverage, capacity, end user

experience and services the mobile network operator must consider numerous

techniques and deployments:

Multi-frequency

Multiple deployments for coverage and capacity

Multi-RAT / Multi-technology

Multi-platform (macro, micro, pico)

To be competitive, Operators must work within their OPEX and CAPEX budget

criteria, which means the following considerations:

Competitive pricing from vendors

Superior End User Experience

Innovative Approach to Technology and Services

Flexible Deployments

Multi Vendor HetNet? Reality of Modern LTE Network Deployment Needs

Need for

Heterogeneous

Networks

Need for Multi-vendor

networking

It can work by enabling

Multi-vendor coordination: ‘Good’ S1/X2 interface compliance with 3GPP’

Multi-vendor alignment of

Exchanged value meaning to enable interpretation

SON function monitoring and reporting periods

3GPP optional measurement reporting to enable other vendor’s algorithms

‘Best practice’ guidelines and proof of concept projects to ensure inter-operability of

SON multi-vendor HetNet environments.

▐ Organisations

How Can It Work? Requirements and Considerations for MV HetNet

Industry Initiatives

3GPP

3GPP specified functional interfaces to enable macro-micro interaction in the context of SON, Mobility

Enhancements of OAM aspects of Distributed SON are studied in SA5

NGMN

NGMN identified and addressed deployment challenges of multi-vendor HetNet with focus on SON features.

Two deliverables are available to define a methodology aiming at ensuring a minimum performance level for multi-vendor HetNet

‘Recommended Practices for Multi-vendor SON Deployment’ (released in Jan. 2014)

‘Test Specification for Multi-vendor SON Deployment‘ (utilized in the LTE Plugfest)

Small Cell forum

Small Cell forum has established different working groups to speed up small cell deployment and addressed

issue as co-channel interference, HetNet

deployment etc. Regular LTE Plugfests are organised by Small Cell Forum last one being a joint plugfest with

NGMN

NGMN Whitepaper: Recommended Practices for Multi-vendor SON Deployment

Small Cell Forum Whitepaper: X2 Interoperability

Issues / Recommendations

Issues

X2 interface not implemented

Where implemented a full compliance has not been observed

Too many optional information elements in the X2 specification leading to mismatch

between the vendors

Recommendations

Best Practice guidelines published by NGMN and Small Cell forum need to be

implemented

More interoperability testing events between macro and small cell vendors

Small Cell Forum Plugfests

▐ Small Cell Forum Interoperability and LTE groups have been working with ETSI to conduct

Plugfests since the first event in 2010.

▐ Each event conducts a number of essential tests to ensure interfaces are correctly

established and key functionality achieved. In addition, each event introduces new testing

around a given theme

▐ Test reports are provided which provide further detail on the tests conducted and statistics

on the results.

▐ Plugfest Events

Mar-10: First 3G Femtocell Plugfest (Iuh)

Jan-11: Second 3G Femtocell Plugfest (Home NodeB Management System)

Jun-11: Third 3G Femtocell Plugfest (mobility)

Jun-13: First LTE small cell Plugfest (S1, X2)

Jun-14: Second LTE Plugfest (SON)

2nd LTE Small cell plugfest

▐ Small cell forum interoperability event held in June 2014, Paris

ETSI (organised the event for Small cell forum)

NGMN forum (provided SON test cases)

▐ ETSI report: LTE SmallCell Plugfest 2 (2014)

Handover, Mobility (Outbound, Inbound), Voice Support via CS Fall-

back schemes, Voice and Video over LTE, CMAS and SON

26 different organisations with 65 engineers onsite

• Airspan, Airvana, Alcatel-Lucent, Broadcom,

Casa Systems, Cavium, Cisco, Com4Innov,

Contela, Fujitsu, IP.access, Ixia, JDSU,

NEC, Node-H, One2Many, Orange, Public

Wireless, PureWave Networks, Qosmotec,

Qucell, Quortus, Radisys, Sistel Networks,

SMEC and Stoke

• E.g. NEC tested picocell eNodeB, HeNB

and HeNB-GW

(3-men team for two-weeks ~ £40K or less)

2nd LTE Small cell plugfest – remote lab

▐ with remote lab (VPN platform) we have pre-testing period in the

same IP address space, as during the event setting up

connectivity during the event takes half a day (together with

briefing participants and taking first problems on-board)

Small cell forum plugfests

▐ Value of Small cell forum plugfests

SCF Release Four of Small cell forum

(SCF Release One-Four: Home, Enterprise, Urban, Rural)

▐ The rest of the plugfest reports:

UMTS FemtoCell Plugfest 1 (2010), Iuh interface, Sophia Antipolis

• NEC: HNB-GW

UMTS FemtoCell Plugfest 2 (2011), TR-196, Sophia Antipolis, France

• NEC: HMS

UMTS FemtoCell Plugfest 3 (2011), macro mobility, Lannion, France

• NEC: HNB-GW

LTE SmallCell Plugfest 1 (2013), S1, X2, Kranj, Slovenia

• NEC: HeNB

LTE SmallCell Plugfest 2 (2014), SON,… Paris, France

• NEC: HeNB-GW, LTE Small cell, HeNB

3rd LTE Small cell plugfest – LTE-A – planning

▐ Remote plugfest: February 2015

LIPA/SIPTO

LTE-A Carrier Aggregation

▐ Face to face plugfest: June 2015

eICIC (F2F)

LTE-A Carrier Aggregation (face to face)

and any remaining untested SON feature from below

18-Feb-13

Small cell forum plugfests – KPIs – test execution rate

Plugfest Participation Test case

execution rate

1st Iuh 21 10 minute/test

2nd HMS 13 7 minute/test

3rd 3G mobility 13 8 minute/test

1st LTE S1,X2 16 8 minute/test

2nd LTE HeMS/SON 26 23 minutes/test

? 3rd LTE-A ? ? 25 sec/test

▐ The test case execution rate is relevant for the certification centres

Small cell forum is potentially ready to transfer the technical know-how

to the companies interested to run Small cell certification centres

Small cell vendors will take advantage of both types of events:

• Plugfest: testing new features against established market players

• Certification: speeding up IOT tests with tier 2/tier 3 operators