More and more new technologies are being applied to small cells to help operators save investment, improve user experience, and provide better indoor and hotspot coverage, such as: nTnR technology to improve user experience, cell splitting, and application of unlicensed spectrum , multi-operator sharing, via mobile edge
Computing provides value-added services, etc.
1. nTnR
The nTnR network based on digital technology can bring users the ultimate high-speed experience. Although most operators’ indoor network construction is still dominated by 2T2R, users’ experience requirements are getting higher and higher. Through technological innovation, operators can Under the condition of increasing the cost of new hardware, the profit
The overlapping area covered by two 2T2R pRRUs forms a 4T4R virtual network, thereby bringing users a multiplied high-speed experience. Using V4T4R technology can effectively improve user rate, increase cell capacity, and reduce inter-cell interference. At present, V4T4R technology has been successfully commercialized. With the increase of network and service requirements, indoor digital room distribution can also evolve to V8T8R.
2. Cell division
Operators often face different capacity requirements in different time periods in the same scenario. If intensive deployment is carried out, it will lead to problems such as wasted investment and increased interference. If digital-based cell splitting technology is used, it can be adaptively adjusted according to user activity habits. The number of cells can be adapted to the capacity requirements of different sizes, so as to achieve accurate coverage and effective coverage. A typical example is a canteen. We can reduce the number of cells during working hours, save CAPEX, reduce interference, split cells during mealtimes, increase system capacity, and meet the needs of large data traffic.
3. Unlicensed spectrum applications
The resources of unlicensed spectrum are very rich. At the same time, the 3GPPR13 protocol LAA standard has been frozen in March 2016, and commercial chips supporting unlicensed technology were officially released in 2016. In order to effectively improve network capacity and user speed, more and more operators Businesses, communication equipment manufacturers and terminal chip manufacturers are studying LAA, LWA, MultiFire and other unlicensed spectrum technologies to promote commercial use. As the most suitable technology for operators to deploy indoors, LAA integrates unlicensed cells and licensed spectrum cells through carrier aggregation technology to jointly serve terminals. On the one hand, licensed spectrum cells can ensure user mobility, business continuity and important information. On the other hand, when LAA cells compete for less available resources on unlicensed spectrum, licensed spectrum cells can continue to provide users with guaranteed services. At the same time, under the same circumstances, LAA has more advantages than Wi-Fi, providing higher spectral efficiency and better coverage. The actual measurement has proved that LAA and Wi-Fi can also coexist amicably, and even their friendliness is higher than that of Wi-Fi itself.
4. Multi-operator sharing
Indoor multi-operator sharing technology can help operators achieve better ROI and share investment costs while building high-performance digital networks. At the same time, site sharing also alleviates the problem of site resource shortage, reducing the difficulty of property coordination and maintenance costs. , so multi-operator sharing is gradually becoming an important feature of indoor network construction. Mainstream manufacturers such as Huawei and Ericsson have successively launched indoor digital multi-operator sharing solutions, which rely on powerful full-bandwidth capabilities.
It can meet the various needs of operators such as ultra-high-speed indoor mobile broadband network construction and multi-operator co-construction and sharing. At present, multi-operator sharing mainly consists of two modes, operator investment and construction mode and third-party construction mode.
5. MEC provides value-added services
In the MBB era, more and more Internet applications such as precise positioning, instant messaging, e-commerce, and mobile payment have been widely popularized, and video services have gradually evolved from high-definition to ultra-high-definition. Technologies such as virtual reality, ultra-high-definition video, and mobile cloud provide a more immersive and extreme business experience, and these services will mainly take place indoors.
