Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
June 2014
CONTENTS
Executive summary
An evolving technology
Modular design
Re-farming
10
RF sharing
11
12
Baseband pooling
13
14
Network sharing
15
16
Multicontroller
17
19
Energy efficiency
21
23
23
23
24
25
25
26
Abbreviations
27
Page 2
Executive summary
The concept and the commercial reality of the Single Radio Access
Network (Single RAN) have been around for a few years. Yet such is the
potential of the technology to simplify the ever-growing intricacy of
the macro radio access layer that it is being developed rapidly and will
bring many new benefits for mobile broadband operators.
The idea behind Single RAN is simple operating different radio
technologies on a single multi-purpose hardware platform. In its most
developed form, Single RAN will comprise one radio installation with
common transport and operational and management system with
integrated unified security across radio access technologies (RATs). In
addition, it enables the coordination and operation of different RATs
in a unified way, as well as being able to use existing RATs to bring the
best performance by coordinating their advantages.
Modularity is a key enabler, allowing capacity to be scaled up in
line with demand, and new and existing spectrum to be used more
efficiently. In addition, operational efficiency can be improved through
network sharing, energy efficiency of the radio network will be raised,
and software can be used to define the functions of the hardware for
ultimate flexibility, performance and cost effectiveness.
Single RAN is already helping many operators to achieve substantial
benefits but the coming years will see the technology evolving
substantially. When it comes to Single RAN, the best is yet to come.
The pace of change in mobile radio access networks has been
accelerating since the first GSM radio networks in 1991 and the first
Single RAN implementations in 2008. This paper aims to demonstrate
the benefits of todays Nokia Single RAN Advanced solution and to
reveal some of the expected developments and their benefits.
Page 3
1Gbps@day
LTE 1800
GSM 1800
HSPA 900
GSM 900
LTE 800
Fig. 1: Example of the rising complexity of multiple radio access technologies, on many frequency bands,
potentially pushing up costs and complicating investment decisions
Page 4
An evolving technology
Although Single RAN has its roots in 2008 and is today simplifying
many radio access networks, the technology is clearly still far from
maturity and will evolve further to deliver substantial new benefits
for operators.
Single RAN is focused on simplifying the macro network resulting in
lower cost network evolution. Thats becoming increasingly important
as operators deploy LTE to meet the accelerating mobile broadband
boom. It is arguable that LTE was the main trigger for Single RAN as
the industry recognized the sheer complexity of adding another radio
technology to existing GSM and HSPA layers. Not only is a new radio
technology involved, along with a raft of new frequency bands, but
IP-based transport needed for LTE must be added to existing ATM
and TDM transport links.
Single RAN cuts through the complexity by running different
technologies on one hardware platform, to move from separate
installations for each radio technology with its own transport and
operational needs, to single installations with a common transport
and operational and management system.
Old way of working
Vendor A
GSM BTS
TDM
O&M A
Single RAN
Vendor B
Vendor C
WCDMA BTS
ATM
O&M B
Region 1
LTE BTS
IP
O&M C
Base Station
Base Station
GSM
WCDMA
O&M A
Region 1
Vendor A
LTE
GSM
IP
WCDMA
LTE
O&M B
Region 2
Vendor B
Fig. 2: Single RAN is changing network business by introducing much-simplified base station site structures
with common transport and operational support
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Modular design
One of the prerequisites for Single RAN is modularity, which
enables operators to start with small configurations and scale up
as markets grow. Modularity is increasingly needed because the
RF technologies are developed independently by standardization
(3GPP), because market needs differ and because technology
requirements develop differently.
A good example is that while the expected 1,000-fold increase
in data traffic is valid for LTE, it does not apply to GSM, which will
experience only modest growth or in some markets no growth
at all. Also, as LTE is initially rolled out to provide basic coverage,
there is no need for huge baseband capacity. However, this is likely
to change quickly and many LTE sites will need to evolve to larger
capacities. Modularity enables affordable capacity expansions.
Page 9
Re-farming
Re-farming some existing GSM frequencies with LTE and HSPA offers
great savings and expanded business opportunities for operators,
and the actual network rollout is much simpler with Single RAN. In
particular, implementing an additional HSPA RF module into the 900
MHz band instead of the 2100 MHz band may reduce the number of
required base station sites by 70%. This translates into a reduction
in HSPA base station Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) and Operational
Expenditure (OPEX).
In addition, operators can expect better network quality to help
reduce churn, as well as higher data ARPU from HSPA subscribers than
from GSM subscribers. Similar and even greater benefits can also be
expected with LTE re-farming.
Typical coverage area of 3-sector site in suburban area
2600 TDD
2600 FDD
1.3
1.9
2100
60%
3.2
1800
4.0
900
9.2
EU800
0.0
10.0
2
6
km2
10
12
Fig. 3: How the frequency band affects base station site coverage area
Re-farming in a narrow GSM frequency band can be painful because
the traditional way to introduce higher capacity after hitting the
spectrum limit is to split the GSM base station sites by building a
micro layer. This typically means a huge number of additional base
station sites with lengthy roll-out and lower GSM network quality.
With Nokia Liquid Radio GSM Software Suite, operators can perform
re-farming in the macro layer, which is much faster to do. The
Nokia solution also uses less GSM spectrum than other solutions
and maintains high GSM network quality. Today, Nokia Liquid Radio
Software Suites enable GSM services to run the equivalent of 4+4+4
GSM RF module capacity in 3.8 MHz bandwidth, freeing up 35%
of spectrum capacity for re-farming to HSPA and LTE for mobile
broadband. In the future more efficient software will squeeze GSM
traffic into less bandwidth our target is as little as 1 MHz ultimately
with similar capacity and network quality.
Page 10
RF sharing
RF sharing is enabled by Single RAN base station hardware, in practice
changing from Single Carrier Power Amplifiers (SCPA) in GSM to Multi
Carrier Power Amplifiers (MCPA) as used in LTE and HSPA networks.
This opens the door for re-farming because with a simple software
upgrade, the existing base station RF can now be used simultaneously
for both GSM and LTE, or GSM and HSPA, depending on the frequency
band. HSPA and LTE RF sharing is commercially available today.
Current products also support triple sharing, but this has not
materialized in commercial networks yet, possibly because the GSM
frequency band is typically too narrow or fragmented for triple
sharing. When the same spectrum is shared, RF power and front haul
transport can shared by different RF technologies and we can expect
these capabilities to develop further in future product generations.
Two dedicated RF
RF sharing
LTE RF
GSM RF
WCDMA RF
GSM RF
LTE
WCDMA
ATM
GSM
TDM
WCDMA-GSM RF
LTE
WCDMA
LTE RF
WCDMA RF
Page 11
LTE-WCDMA RF
GSM
IP/Ethernet
One shared backhaul
are
Multiple Software
WCDMA SW
GSM SW
Software
dened
LTE SW
LTE SM
3xLTE
FBBA
3xHSPA
Triple RFGSM
Baseband
Sharing
SM
3xGSM
WCDMA SM
Evo
Evo
LTE,WCDMA,GSM
SM
Today,WCDMA
all vendors
baseband products support one RF technology at
a time, GSM
but SM
baseband miniaturization will enable baseband module
sharing to further reduce the number of modules and simplifying
networks even more.
LTE SM
WCDMA SM
Evo
LTE,WCDMA,GSM
GSM SM
Baseband pooling
Increasingly, cloud technologies will make Single RAN more flexible
and more efficient. This applies to the control components of the
network as well as the baseband, allowing innovations to lead to more
optimized architectures.
The baseband will become increasingly flexible to enable processing
resources to be dynamically allocated and shared to improve the
end-user experience and network performance, including the
Single RAN component. As the pool of resources deployed from
macro sites becomes very high, integrating all future RATs, sectors,
spectra, antennas and even small cells as remote radio heads,
new opportunities for pooling resources will arise by using the
distributed baseband architecture in place today. Orchestration of
these resources will be further simplified using well known tools like
virtualization. These will embrace a mix of hardware technologies
to deliver uncompromised performance while enabling the required
flexibility. Nokia Liquid Applications is a first example of generalized
computing capabilities added to a commercial baseband solution.
Centralized baseband processing (pool), for example for multiple
base stations in a local datacenter, can increase baseband resource
efficiency further than is currently possible at macro sites. However,
additional savings are typically minor because of the necessary
high capacity, low latency fiber optics required between the
centralized baseband and RF transceivers. Hence, a dominating
driver for Centralized RAN is expected to be optimized radio network
performance and the related OPEX savings for baseband equipment.
Baseband pooling
Traditional BTS site
RF
OBSAI/CPRI
SM
SM
Page 13
OBSAI/CPRI
RF
WCDMA RF
OBSAI/CPRI
SM
GSM RF
OBSAI/CPRI
LTE RF
WCDMA RF
GSM RF
New fronthaul
One shared bre
RF
RF
Fig. 9: Evolving front haul transport sharing will further simplify networks
WCDMA
ATM
GSM
TDM
LTE
WCDMA
GSM
IP/Ethernet
One shared backhaul
Page 14
OBSAI/CPRI
SM
Network sharing
The sharing of the RAN between two or more operators has been
shown to be an effective way to increase operational efficiency and
reduce the cost of delivering mobile broadband by up to 50%. In
remote and rural areas, where coverage is the primary design criterion
for radio network deployment, significant CAPEX savings are easily
achievable by sharing the RAN between two or more operators.
Network roll-out and time-to-market also speed up, since only one set
of new sites needs to be acquired and built.
Nokia provides network sharing solutions for all 3GPP-defined radio
technologies (GSM, HSPA and LTE) in any combination, including Multi
Operator RAN (MORAN) and Multi Operator Core Networks (MOCN)
functionality. The Key difference between MORAN and MOCN is the
frequency band which is dedicated for MORAN and shared in the case
of MOCN.
Spectrum re-farming may significantly reduce the set of frequencies
allocated to GSM. As a result, MOCN is the most suitable RAN sharing
method when there is insufficient spectrum.
Operator A
PLMN 124
SIB1:
PLMN 124
SIB1:
PLMN 344
MME SAE-GW
Base Station
Operator B
PLMN 344
MME SAE-GW
Fig. 11: Network sharing example: MOCN
Page 15
TRS BM ASW
ASW
BM ASW
RF
Evo
TRS
TRS BM ASW
RF
Evo
BM ASW
Legend
TRS = Transport functionality
BM = BTS management functionality
ASW = RAT application SW
Fig. 12: Single RAN base station architecture evolution steps
Page 16
Target
BM
TRS
RF
ASW
Multicontroller
Also coming under the umbrella of Single RAN is the radio network
controller function required by GSM and HSPA radio technologies. A
multicontroller uses common modular hardware with software-based
configurations to meet varying traffic profiles.
BTS site
RNC site
Scalable
capacity
Scalable
capacity
Scalable
capacity
CS Core
PS Core
3G capacity
requirements
GSM capacity
requirements
Page 17
RNC mode
modules
BSC mode
modules
Using the latest multifunctional hardware leads to designs that are far
more space efficient than traditional controllers. For example, typical
configurations can handle traditional RNC site capacity with only 70%
of capacity being used and in less than 10% of the volume. Ultimately
this means that Multicontrollers will be easier to site and cheaper to
run than their forebears.
Unlike GSM and HSPA, 3GPP standardization for LTE radio access
eliminates the need for a controller network element, because the
controller functions are split between the LTE base station and LTE
core network. There is some industry discussion that implementing
a centralized LTE scheduler, or controller, could improve cell edge
performance. However, not only would this additional network element
increase LTE network complexity, but the same gains in cell edge
performance can be achieved today more cost effectively by smart
scheduling software within and between LTE base stations. In addition,
the geographical deployment of the BSC/RNC might differ from the
LTE centralized scheduler considerably, reducing any potential benefits
of a centralized LTE scheduler.
The current understanding is that centralized LTE scheduling and
a new controller network element could be beneficial in the small
cells layer, but not in the macro base station layer, but this requires
further investigation. Current Nokia Flexi Multiradio Base Stations are
already ready to implement such central coordination functionality
and to integrate small cells both as remote radio heads and via X2
connectivity for optimal HetNet performance. The award-winning
Nokia Flexi Zone architecture is one additional example where a cluster
of small cells can be software upgraded and enhanced with servercapable controller functionality as capacity needs increase.
Page 18
Traditional
LTE WCDMA GSM BTSs
Page 19
Automation
Workforce
GSM
GSM+WCDMA
GSM+WCDMA+LTE
Page 20
Energy efficiency
In mature markets, 10%-15% of network OPEX is used on energy.
In developing markets, this can be up to 50% with a high number of
off-grid sites. Over the last two years the largest network operators
have reported a growth of 15-35% in their network energy use.
Before discussing the opportunities for improvement it is important
to first identify the main factors influencing energy consumption in
radio access sites. Starting at the base station site, up to 30% of the
energy entering a site will often be consumed by site level facilities
such as cooling. Another 20% is dissipated in power systems, leaving
around 50% of the sites energy consumption to run the base
station itself.
Operators adding overlay LTE base station sites have seen that base
station site energy consumption is increased typically by 20%. With
Single RAN capable base stations, the rise in energy consumption
caused by the LTE rollout can be reduced by modernizing the old
GSM and HSPA base station components. For example, a Single
RAN base station consumes up to 60% less energy compared to
traditional single technology base stations.
6000
5000
4000
60%
LTE 1+1+1@40+40W
3G 1+1+1@40W
GSM 4+4+4@15W
3000
2000
1000
0
UltraSite+FMR
10BTS
FMR 10BTS
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
SGW
Base Station
Cert
Certicate Authority
Fig. 21: Overview of Nokia IPSec end-to-end solution
Page 24
SAE-GW
CSPnet
Internet
LTE/WCDMA
GSM
Page 25
Products
Multicontroller
LTE-A
HSPA+
GSM
Single RAN
Transport
GSM
WCDMA
Common IP/Ethernet
Backhaul for
GSM, WCDMA, LTE
Refarming Solutions
RF sharing Software
One purpose
LTE SW & HW
GSM SW & HW
LTE/WCDMA
Page 26
GSM
Abbreviations
3GPP
AAS
ANR
ARPU
ATM
BSC
BTS
CAPEX
CPRI
FD-MIMO
GSM
HSPA
IP
IPsec
iSON
LTE
LTE-A
MCPA
MIMO
MOCN
MORAN
O&M
OBSAI
OFDM
OPEX
PKI
QoS
RAN
RAT
RF
RNC
SCPA
SON
TDM
HSPA
Page 27
Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks
or trade names of their respective owners.
Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy
P.O. Box 1
FI-02022
Finland
Visiting address:
Karaportti 3, ESPOO, Finland
Switchboard +358 71 400 4000
Product code C401-01007-WP-201406-1-EN
Nokia Solutions and Networks 2014