CONTEST

Mobile broadband network principles

EBU workshop May 12th 2011

Stein Erik Paulsen

Radio Technology Manager
Corporate Development
Telenor
stein-erik.paulsen@telenor.com
15. november 2022
 CONTENTS

Why use How can

indoor capacity be
antennas? increased?
How to avoid
interference?
What about
the future?
Why do we need
so much
spectrum?

How to build
a mobile
network?

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Radio access network evolution
-The journey has just started

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The future contains frequent
Techno-strategic decisions

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Ericsson:

In 3 years network
traffic has increased
by a factor of 10…

…and revenue
increased by 35%...

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 Example of
establishing a
GSM radio
network

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 The base stations
(BTS) are distributed
to give
RADIO COVERAGE

En

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 The base stations
(BTS) are distributed
to give
RADIO COVERAGE
– and Capacity
En

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Increased traffic drives cost

Network
cost

Challenge!

Start-up cost Phase 1: Coverage Phase 2: Capacity

limited network limited network

Requested traffic
Smaller spectrum Larger spectrum

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The challenge of mobile broadband

$
COST

Revenue

Traffic
With boosting data traffic there is a need for
more frequent network updates than before
Network cost

LTE

HSPA+

HSPA

Basic 3G

= Resulting network cost

Traffic load

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 Limited spectrum drives cost!
Example: Two operators with very different spectrum size
•Country 1: 8,8MHz band ->44 channels
– =>132 Erlang per base station
– => 40 base stations needed to handle total
traffic of 5190 Erlang
Area= 50km2
Population= 1 M
Subscribers= 346k • Country 2: 4,4 MHz band -> 22 channels
15 mErl/sub (*) – =>29 Erlang per base station
Tot. traffic= 5190 Erl – => 179 base stations needed to handle total
traffic of 5190 Erlang

=> Having only half of the spectrum can

mean 4,5 times the cost.

(*) Meaning that the average customer calls for 1,5% of the most busy hour of the day
For illustration purpose only – the conclusions and calculations are simplified
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Getting more spectrum essential for
meeting future service demand

Frequency spectrum for mobile communication

Digital
Dividend 3G
(UMTS2100)
CDMA Mobile broadband
GSM900 GSM1800 extension band

500 MHz 1000 MHz 1500 MHz 2000 MHz 2500 MHz 3000 MHz

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3G in new frequency bands - refarming
(WCDMA = UMTS/HSPA = 3G)

(HSPA)

In-Building
coverage area for
suburban terrain

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(Source: Nokia Siemens Networks & Elisa)
 Access to low frequency spectrum:
-High impact on mobile broadband

• Profitable coverage even outside

the urban areas
• Potential for saving 50-70% of site
costs
 Digital Dividend band: A desire and a curse:
Too little of something good can be bad!

800 MHz

2600 MHz
11%

800 MHz:
Very attractive for coverage, but how to
avoid traffic congestion if 89% of all
users only have coverage from the 800
MHz system?

=> A fair amount of low-frequency

spectrum per operator is a prerequisite.
 Network capacity is hard to predict Total
Capacity
10 Mbit/s

7.5 Mbit/s

5 Mbit/s

2.5 Mbit/s

1 Mbit/s
10 Mbit/s
0.5 Mbit/s
5 Mbit/s

0.2 Mbit/s
2 Mbit/s

0.05 Mbit/s
0.5 Mbit/s

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Growing need for indoor coverage systems

• Urban building walls block

99% of the outdoor signal
• Safe to re-use the same
carriers indoors
• Buildings with heavy data
traffic: Use indoor antenna
systems, WiFi or femtocells
• Need fixed broadband lines
to provide connection and
offload mobile network
The future

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 -Is the path towards LTE evident?

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-or will we need proper guidance?

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 LTE is defined for all relevant frequency bands

Digital
Dividend 3G
(UMTS2100)
CDMA Mobile WiMAX/ Fixed
EDGE900 EDGE1800 Mob. 3G extension band WiMAX
WiMAX

500 MHz 1000 MHz 1500 MHz 2000 MHz 2500 MHz 3000 MHz 3500 MHz

LTE
LTE LTE LTE LTE LTE LTEAdv.
Low Frequency High Frequency
Long range Short range

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Evolution in site capacity from GSM to LTE
- Downlink, sum of voice and data

Disclaimer: Values should be taken as indicative. Performance will vary greatly with deployed solution,
surrounding environment, terminal penetration and size of frequency spectrum. HSPA assumes 14,4 Mbps
version. HSPA+ assumes 64QAM feature, not MIMO or Dual Carrier.
Source: CONTEST, Telenor.
Competitive power
-Determined by spectrum

10
2600
MHz

2600

20
800
MHz
Fakecom
LTE deployment strategy
must be tuned to our
relative ability to compete.
 To summmm up…

26
Key take-aways

• Convergence: Usage and interactions between mobile and fixed

networks will continue to grow to ensure optimum service
offerings
• Cost curves: Mobile technologies are much less suited for flat-
rate subscriptions than fixed broadband technologies
• Hybrid networks: Operators need to utilize more than one
mobile technology to secure cost-effective deployments
• Mobile Broadband: Mobile networks keep offering higher data
rates but within limited coverage range, especially indoor
• Indoor coverage: Indoor mobile broadband users represent
majority of the traffic and should to a larger extent be connected
via indoor antenna solutions.
• New spectrum: Mobile Broadband at low frequencies is a cost-
effective solution for areas with lower population density, as long
as a healthy traffic balance is maintained.

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LTE:
Customers expect high performance
…and they expect coverage
Thank you for
your attention!
Backup slides

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Abbreviations
BSC Base Station Controller IP Internet Protocol
BSS Base Station Subsystem ISDN Integrated Services Digital Network
BTS Base Transceiver Station ITU International Telecommunication Union
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access IMT-2000 International Mobile Telecommunication
CSD Circuit Switched Data MSC Mobile Switching Center
CN Core Network PLMN Public Land Mobile Network
D-AMPS Digital-Advanced Mobile Phone System PSK Phase Shift Keying (Modulation)
EDGE Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network
E-GPRS Enhanced - GPRS RNC Radio Network Controller
ERAN EDGE Radio Access Network SCP Service Control Point
ETSIEuropean Telecommunications SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node
Standards Institute TDD Time Division Duplex
FDD Frequency Division Duplex TDMA Time Division Multiple Access
FDD-DS Frequency Division Duplex – UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunications
Direct Spread System
FDD-MC Frequency Division Duplex - MultiCarrier UTRAN UMTS Terestrial Radio Access Network
GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node VHE Virtual Home Environment
GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network VLR Visitor Location Register
GMSK Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol
(Modulation) WAP Wireless Application Protocol
GPRS General Packet Radio System W-CDMA Wideband -CDMA
GSM Global System for Mobile 2G 2nd Generation (mobile network)
communication (2,5G GPRS)
HLR Home Location Register 3G 3rd Generation (mobile network)
HSCSD High Speed Circuit Switched Data 3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership
IN Intelligent Network Project

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Sites, BTSs and cells…

• A SITE is the physical location of which a base station is

placed. Includes all equipment put up by the operator
(mast, antennas,cabin, base station rack etc.)
• A BTS is the base transceiver station, normally just
called base station, i.e. the cabinet(s) containing the 1-3
cells belonging to a site.
• A NodeB is the term used for BTS in UMTS
• A CELL is each uniquely identified GSM or UMTS capacity
source in a BTS or NodeB, defined by its own coverage
footprint (or coverage cell)
• A TRX is a single transmitter/receiver unit able to provide
one single GSM frequency to the cell’s coverage footprint.
Each cell has 1-12 TRXs depending on the capacity need.

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Typical user data rates

LTE-
Advanced 30 – 300 Mbit/s

LTE
5 – 60 Mbit/s

HSPA
1.0 – 5 Mbit/s

3G basic
150-350 kbit/s

100 kbps 1 Mbps 10 Mbps 100 Mbps

Target for the network evolution:
All IP broadband network
 Basic network interfaces
Fixed
network
Authentication

Media Subscriber
Core Gateway profiles ChargingService Platform
Network
Intelligent Network
Core
Packet
Transport
Internet
Switch
Base Gateway
Statio Packet
n Switch
Contro Serving
Transport Backhaul l Node
Network

Base station

Radio / network domain

Access
Network user domain

Marie Anne
 Cost distribution in mobile networks

Core & Backbone network Transport network Radio Access network

BTS
MSC BSC
ISP internet
connection BTS
Hub
Core
Backbone network Access network
m*E1 n*E1
E1 BTS
MGW
Backhaul

CAPEX share for

greenfield voice 30% 20% 50%
CAPEX share for
greenfield MBB 10% 45% 45%

15. november 2022