BARCELONA -- Nokia Siemens Networks has invented a way to deliver mobile broadband across areas with a very high user density more efficiently than ever before. Multiple, locally managed access points are used to create a network of interconnected ‘small cells’* creating a ‘Flexi Zone’ of mobile broadband coverage with a single connection back to an operator’s network. Flexi Zones allow virtually unlimited scaling of capacity as each zone can have up to 100 access points and yet behave, from the network point of view, as a single base station. The company is launching its Flexi Zone approach at Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona.

Building on Nokia Siemens Networks’ Liquid Radio architecture, Flexi Zone is aimed at areas of high density usage, such as business campuses, shopping malls, or sports stadia. Flexi Zone can also reduce the cost per bit for operators by more than 50% compared to adding capacity through additional, larger, macro sites.

Nokia Siemens Networks Flexi Zone comprises multiple, inter-connected low-power small cells that use a common pool of resources managed flexibly by a zone controller**. These clusters of HSPA, LTE and WiFi access points complement the macro-cellular network to deliver the best coverage and capacity where and when required. Flexi Zone allows local offloading of Internet traffic, saving up to 80% of transport and mobile packet core costs.

Nokia Networks