Who's Big in Small Cells?

Light Reading Mobile compiles a list of public access small-cell products to track this developing wireless infrastructure market

By Michelle Donegan,  Light Reading
May 07, 2012
URL: http://www.lightreading.com/femtocells/whos-big-in-small-cells/240140268

The next big thing in wireless infrastructure is actually quite diminutive -- that is, the public access small cell.

Tiny base stations are all the rage right now because they could offer mobile operators a way to boost capacity for data services. And as a new generation of products has emerged to meet this need for better data capacity and user experience, Light Reading Mobile has compiled a list of these public access small cells to present an overview of this developing part of the wireless infrastructure market. (See LTE Small Cells to Surpass Big 4G Base Stations, It's a Small World After All ... and MWC 2012: Everything's Shrinking….)

The 32 base station products on our list are quite diverse -- with support for various wireless access technologies across a range of power output levels for many different use cases -- which suggests that this market is in an early phase of development. Indeed, Heavy Reading Senior Analyst Gabriel Brown described the current state of small cell product market as being in a period of "invention and innovation."

"There's no settled view at the moment of what a small cell is or will look like," he said. "There are lots of varieties in types of products and approaches that people are proposing. That might settle down over time."

For the purposes of this report, we used the Small Cell Forum Ltd.'s definition of a small cell as a guide, which is as follows: "Small cells are low-power wireless access points that operate in licensed spectrum, are operator-managed and feature edge-based intelligence."

Also, since the focus of this report is on public access small cells, residential femtocells were excluded from the list, even though some can be configured for open access rather than use in a private home, such as the Ubiquisys Ltd. G3 femto. Certain enterprise femtocells have been included, but only when the vendor assured us that their products could be configured for open access, thereby meeting our public access criteria.

As with previous reports, we ask you to help us complete the picture. If there are products or companies that we missed, or if any information is inaccurate, please tell us on the message boards or send an email to editors@lightreading.com.

A word about Wi-Fi
In this report, we did not include Wi-Fi-only access points, although several of the base station products on the list support Wi-Fi. It could be argued that any compilation of small cells is not complete without Wi-Fi access points. But this report focuses on small cells that operate in licensed spectrum, and Wi-Fi access points typically run on unlicensed spectrum.

However, Wi-Fi is no longer the black sheep of the wireless access market as mobile and cable operators show more interest in offering carrier-grade, service provider Wi-Fi services. The technology from the likes of Cisco Systems Inc., BelAir Networks Inc. and Ruckus Wireless Inc. already has been instrumental in the rapid growth of smartphone usage, from which mobile operators have greatly benefited. And when it comes to indoor hot spot access for wireless data, Wi-Fi has the head start over other small cells. (See Cisco’s Big Small-Cell Ambitions, More IPO Ruckus , Ruckus Guns for an IPO, Ericsson Adds Wi-Fi With BelAir Buy and Ericsson CTO Talks BelAir Buy.)

But many operators are trying to work out how to best harness Wi-Fi in order to provide a better service for their mobile data customers. (See Wi-Fi 'Wild West' Challenges Carriers, Mobile Ops Can Learn From Wi-Fi, Cisco Says , Mobile Operators Push for Wi-Fi Roaming, BT Tests Carrier Wi-Fi Roaming and Photos: Service Provider Wi-Fi.)

So which vendors are big in small cells? Click the next page to find out.

• Page 2: Public Access Small Cells

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Light Reading Mobile

Table 1: Public Access Small Cells

Company	Product Name	Air Interface Support	Power Output	Target Use Case	Commercial Availability
Airspan	AirSynergy	WiMAX (802.16d and 802.16e), LTE; TD-LTE planned for Q4 2012; integrated Wi-Fi also planned	2 Watts	Outdoor, urban and rural	Commercially deployed with WiMax operators; LTE product shipped to customers
Airvana	LTE Femtocell	LTE, CDMA2000, UMTS, Wi-Fi	250 milliwatts	Indoor, enterprise and public spaces	Mid-2013
Alcatel-Lucent	lightRadio* 9363 Metro Cell Indoor V2	WCDMA, HSPA	250 milliwatts	Indoor	Commerically deployed
	lightRadio 9364 Metro Cell Outdoor V2	WCDMA, HSPA	250 milliwatts	Outdoor	Commercially deployed
	lightRadio 9764 Metro Cell Outdoor W-CDMA 1W	WCDMA, HSPA, Wi-Fi	1 Watt	Outdoor, urban hotspots	Summer 2012
	lightRadio 9768 Metro Radio Outdoor	LTE	500 milliwatts	Outdoor, urban hotspots; indoor (stadiums, event centers, subway stations)	Summer 2012
	lightRadio 9764 Metro Cell Outdoor LTE (2x5W)	LTE, Wi-Fi	10 Watts	Outdoor, urban hotspots or rural	Summer 2012
	lightRadio 9764 Metro Cell Outdoor LTE (2x1W)	LTE, Wi-Fi	2 Watts	Outdoor, urban hotspots	Summer 2012
ip.access	nanoGSM BTS	GSM, GPRS, EDGE	200 milliwatts	Indoor, enterprise	Commercially deployed in more than 60 networks
	S-class nano3G, S8	HSPA+, Wi-Fi optional	20 milliwatts	Indoor, small enterprise	Commercially available now
	S-class nano3G, S16	HSPA+, Wi-Fi optional	100 milliwatts	Indoor, small enterprise	Q3 2012
	E-class nano3G, E16/24	HSPA+	250 milliwatts	Indoor, medium/large enterprise and public spaces; outdoor version also available	Commercially available now
	E-class nano3G, E100	HSPA+, LTE, Wi-Fi optional	250 milliwatts	Indoor, medium/large enterprise and public spaces; outdoor version also available	Q1 2013
	R14, rural product	GSM, GPRS, EDGE	Up to 4 Watts	Outdoor, rural	Q2 2012
Ericsson	Micro RBS (mRBS)	GSM, WCDMA, HSPA, LTE and Wi-Fi	5 Watts	Outdoor and indoor, high-capacity hotspot areas	Q4 2012
	Pico RBS (pRBS)	WCDMA, HSPA, LTE and Wi-Fi��(802.11n Wi-Fi simultaneously with 3GPP)	1 Watt	Indoor, high-capacity hotspots	Q4 2012
Huawei	AtomCell	UMTS, HSPA+, LTE, Wi-Fi, CDMA	4 Watts or 8 Watts	Indoor and outdoor, hotspots	H1 2013
NEC	NEC FPA1624	Standalone HPSA+ or LTE; integrated HSPA+/WiFi; or integrated HSPA+/LTE	100 milliwatts -250 milliwatts	Indoor, hotspots	Standalone HSPA+ version commercially available; standalone LTE version available end 2012
	NEC FMA1630	Standalone HPSA+ or LTE; integrated HSPA+/WiFi; or integrated HSPA+/LTE	1 Watt - 4 Watts	Outdoor hotspots, urban and rural	Standalone HSPA+ version commercially available; standalone LTE version available end 2012
Nokia Siemens Networks	Flexi Zone	HSPA+, LTE, Wi-Fi	2 Watts	Indoor and outdoor, hotspots for capacity	Beginning 2013
	Flexi Lite	HSPA in 2.1GHz spectrum (initially); other versions for HSPA and LTE will follow	10 Watts	Indoor and outdoor hotspots for capacity; urban or rural areas for coverage	Q3 2012
	3G Femto (enterprise)	HSPA in 2.1GHz spectrum	100 milliwatts	Indoor coverage for enterprises	Commercially available now and deployed in Europe and North America
Powerwave	LTE Picocell	LTE, Wi-Fi	4 Watts	Outdoor, urban hot spots; indoor (stadiums, event centers, subway stations)	Commercially available now
Public Wireless	Monterey UMTS small cell	UMTS, HSPA	4 Watts	Outdoor, rural and urban	Q3 2012
	Laguna CDMA small cell	CDMA 1x/EVDO	4 Watts	Outdoor, rural and urban	Q3 2012
	Venice multi-RAN small cell	LTE; LTE and UMTS, HSPA	10 Watts	Outdoor, rural, suburban, urban or dense urban, shared RAN	Q4 2012 for LTE version; Q2 2013 for LTE and UMTS, HSPA version
Ruckus Wireless	SmartCell 8800	HSPA, HSPA+, LTE and Wi-Fi	1 Watt - 2 Watts	Outdoor, urban	H2 2012
Ubiquisys	G5 Enterprise	UMTS HSPA, Wi-Fi optional	100 milliwatts - 250 milliwatts	Indoor, small/medium enterprise and larger buildings	Commercially deployed
	G7 Indoor Hotspot	UMTS HSPA, LTE optional, Wi-Fi optional	250 milliwatts	Indoor, public spaces	Commercially deployed
	G7+ Smart Cell	UMTS HSPA, LTE optional, Wi-Fi optional	250 milliwatts	Public hotspot	Q3 2012
	G9 Outdoor Rural	UMTS HSPA	250 milliwatts - 1 Watt	Rural and remote areas	Commercially deployed
ZTE	ZXSDR metro cell	LTE; HPSA+ and Wi-Fi optional	2 Watts and 10 Watts	Indoor or outdoor, including rural	Q3 2012
Source: Company information. *lightRadio is the brand for Alcatel-Lucent's small cell portfolio of products, but only the 9760 series will use the vendor's cube technology.

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Light Reading Mobile

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