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

Michelle Donegan

May 7, 2012

9 Min Read
Who's Big in Small Cells?

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 [email protected].

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. (Nasdaq: CSCO), 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.



— 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

About the Author(s)

Michelle Donegan

Michelle Donegan is an independent technology writer who has covered the communications industry for the last 20 years on both sides of the Pond. Her career began in Chicago in 1993 when Telephony magazine launched an international title, aptly named Global Telephony. Since then, she has upped sticks (as they say) to the UK and has written for various publications including Communications Week International, Total Telecom and, most recently, Light Reading.  

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