Conference Agenda (times and content subject to change)
8:30 - 9:00
Registration & Breakfast
9:00 - 9:25
Introduction & Heavy Reading's View on Backhaul
Patrick Donegan, Heavy Reading Senior Analyst and Conference Chair
9:25 - 10:05
Mobile Carrier Keynote: Dave Mayo, Senior Vice President-Technology Strategy, Finance & Development, T-Mobile
T-Mobile has played a critical role in driving the growth of the Alternative Access Vendors (AAVs) whose backhaul services have been a key factor in the phenomenal success of 3G and 4G services in the United States. With a clear long term commitment to develop its network with GSM, HSPA+, LTE and LTE Advanced, T-Mobile now needs to expand the capacity, flexibility and performance of its backhaul network to keep up with consumer demand, albeit without materially increasing its capex and opex envelopes. Mr Mayo will provide an insight into T-Mobile's network architecture, and how the company's innovative backhaul network will need to evolve in the coming years to keep pace with changing patterns of demand.
10:05 - 11:05
Optimizing Cloud Services, Packet Transport, and the 4G Core
In this opening plenary session panelists will discuss the opportunities for mobile operators to optimize their packet transport networks to meet the demands of emerging cloud services. The panel will consider how the rapidly evolving characteristics of cloud services and the changing nature of content and application delivery models, underline the need for software-defined networks that can adapt to diverse traffic profiles and use cases. Among the subject that will be addressed are distributed cloud, EPC gateway deployment, the role of distributed CDNs and caching, the potential for Internet Offload, and optimal routing between data centers (content/applications/services) and end-users.
11:05 - 11:25
Coffee Break
11:25 - 11:45
Cisco Keynote
11:45 - 12:10
Heavy Reading's View on the Evolved Packet Core
Gabriel Brown, Heavy Reading Senior Analyst and Conference Chair
12:10 - 12:30
Featured Carrier Speaker: Ron Murdy, CEO, TowerCloud
12:30 - 1:45
Lunch & Tabletop Displays
1:45 - 2:45
Stream A
New Revenues and Business Models For Alternative Access Vendors (AAVs)
Alternative Access Vendors need to grow their revenues from enterprise customers while nevertheless continuing to meet the stringent SLAs they have committed to their mobile operator customers. This session will discuss which value added features mobile operators are going to be willing to pay extra for as their networks scale.
Stream B
Flexible Backhaul For A New Generation Of Public Access Small Cells
Mobile operators have been undertaking a lot of trials of public access small cells as a means of expanding capacity, particularly in urban areas. This panel will provide an update on where the operators are at in terms of their commercial deployment plans as well as which business models and technology options are seeing the most rapid adoption as regards the critical - and uniquely challenging - backhaul domain.
2:55 - 3:55
High Bandwidth 'Last Mile' Access Technologies For Ubiquitous 4G Services
Fiber to the cell site may be increasingly commonplace in many major NFL cities and some smaller markets but beyond them, copper still rules. This panel will discuss the rate of momentum behind fiber to the cell site builds in the U.S as well as the role that alternatives like microwave, Free Space Optics and Bonded Copper can play as the number of 3G and 4G cell sites continues to expand.
Next Generation Performance Assurance In Mobile Backhaul Networks
Mobile operators need to know exactly how their Ethernet backhaul services are performing - and how that is impacting their customers - in real-time. This session will discuss present day benchmarks and upcoming cutting edge milestones in mobile backhaul performance assurance as well as the new form factors that are required for the growing variety of different cell site types.
3:55 - 4:10
Coffee Break
4:10 - 4:40
Mobile Carrier Keynote
4:40 - 5:40
Plenary: Designing The S1 & X2 Interfaces To Scale The LTE Network
LTE is being rolled out to every macrocell, and new LTE small cells will be deployed too. As operators advance through each of the LTE release enhancements and onto LTE-Advanced, new challenges are going to be encountered in implementing and managing the S1 and X2 interfaces. This panel will look at how the S1 and X2 will evolve in the coming years in the context of different factors such as different physical layer backhaul pipes and the requirements for VoLTE, CoMP, synchronization and encryption.
5:40 - 6:30
Cocktails & Tabletop Displays
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