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We visited seven major network equipment companies at Mobile World Congress and asked them the same question – so what did Ericsson say?
March 4, 2013
5 Min Read
What is the single most important network technology development for mobile network operators in 2013?That's the question we put to seven major vendors (Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson AB, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Juniper Networks Inc., NEC Corp., Nokia Siemens Networks and ZTE Corp.) at this year's Mobile World Congress, with the aim of identifying some (any?) mobile infrastructure trends and testing the quality of the communications of each company. It's also intriguing to know which current development is deemed to be the most important by each company. For some, it was directly linked to announcements made at (or ahead of) the event; for others, not. The rules were the same for all participants: They could only present one technology, the one they believed to be the most important for operator executives attending the show, and they had no more than 10 minutes in which to make their presentation. This is a slight variation on what Light Reading has done in the past. (See MWC 2012: Booth Tour Report Card.) The difference this time is that we forced the vendors to focus on a single development. As you can imagine, that was something close to torture for some of the executives we met, who wanted to talk about a number of developments but were forced to decide which one was the most important. This, then, is the first of seven articles to related to those 10-minute sessions, which we will publish (with a subjective grade based on perceived relevance and performance) in the order in which they were conducted. The first company running against the stopwatch was Ericsson. Continue to page 2 of this article to check out Ericsson's small cell pitch.
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Ericsson's presence in Hall 2 at Mobile World Congress 2013 was imposing but welcoming.Ericsson: A big focus on small cellsOur main contact at Ericsson's booth (OK, so it was more like a small village...) was Johan Wibergh, head of the company's Networks division. After a brief deliberation (he had been mulling a few options), Wibergh opted to focus on mobile small cells, the tiny base stations designed to extend and expand mobile networks in dense usage areas and inside buildings.He handed things over to Sheila Burpee Duncan (pictured below), one of the marketing executives on hand to provide product information.
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Sheila Burpee Duncan was on a small cell mission at MWC 2013.She noted that there are two important aspects to consider with small cells, the first being coordination with the macro network. According to Ericsson's tests in live networks, the best results are gained when having three small cells working in conjunction with a macro base station. "It's not in line with the prevailing industry view, but it's what we believe is optimum," she explained. The second main aspect to consider is the integration of Wi-Fi capabilities with 3GPP technology to enable, for example, mobile users to connect to Wi-Fi access points automatically based on authentication information held on a mobile operator's customer database. Having the technology to enable such integration was one of the factors that contributed to Ericsson's decision to acquire BelAir Networks a year ago. (See Ericsson Adds Wi-Fi With BelAir Buy.)Duncan noted that Ericsson's BelAir technology was one of the first to become Hotspot 2.0 compliant (that is, gaining Passpoint certification from the WiFi Alliance). (See Wi-Fi Alliance Tests Devices, Gear and Next Steps for Carrier Wi-Fi.)Essentially, Ericsson has a GTP (GPRS Tunnelling protocol) interface on its Wi-Fi controller to enable a connection with the mobile core, which means that the same AAA (authentication, authorization and accounting) and policy resources are used for Wi-Fi and 3GPP mobile access. Once macro coordination and Wi-Fi integration are in place, maximizing network experience for users connected to small cells is the next major challenge to overcome. For Ericsson, this involves being able to monitor device status on a per-user basis in real time and enable IP session stability, so that services such as video and VPN connections are maintained.
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Ericsson was showing off a range of small cell products, highlighting Wi-Fi integration.Wibergh noted that Ericsson has been focused on ensuring that all these capabilities are tried, tested and available from day one and that he expects to start shipping small cell products to customers this summer. "It's all part of the overall, package -- having a dense macro cell and coordinating with small cells that have integrated Wi-Fi. ... It's not a problem to make a small cell product -- the hard bit is getting it to work with the macro network efficiently. Now everything is ready."He added that the work Ericsson has been doing on its small cell capabilities is part of the vendor's efforts to ensure "coverage for applications all the way to the edge of the network -- it's a new way of thinking about coverage."With the 10 minutes used up, Wibergh relaxed with a spot of small cell wall mounting action.
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Networks head Johan Wibergh soon became known as the 'Driller Thriller of Barcelona'.There's little doubt that small cell architectures and the integration of Wi-Fi access are of immediate interest to mobile operators as they plan their 4G networks, so Ericsson opted to focus on a relevant network technology and delivered its pitch effectively, gaining it an "A" grade for its efforts. — Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor, Light Reading
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