Home > Mobile and Wireless

IDG News Service - The age of monolithic cell-tower networks with a few Wi-Fi hotspots and home femtocells sprinkled in may come to an end at this year's Mobile World Congress, where a diverse range of small cells and integrated Wi-Fi systems will be on display.

One of the infrastructure vendors stepping up its game will be ip.access, the maker of AT&T's MicroCell consumer femtocell. On Thursday, the U.K.-based company announced plans for the E-100, its first combination 3G and 4G small cell, with a Wi-Fi upgrade slot, for enterprises and indoor public spaces such as malls and stadiums. It will demonstrate the E-100 at Mobile World Congress and expects to have it in field trials in the first quarter of next year.

Mobile operators are looking at smaller cells and Wi-Fi to better cover indoor spaces and crowded areas, with Wi-Fi offering the added benefit of taking users off the carrier's scarce licensed spectrum. New technology is emerging for managing these new types of infrastructure in a larger network and for subscribers to shift between different radios invisibly. But exactly how carriers will use smaller cells and Wi-Fi is still emerging.

Mobile World Congress, beginning Feb. 27 in Barcelona, is expected to become the stage for many debuts in this area. Already, Alcatel-Lucent has announced lightRadio Wi-Fi, a technology to more tightly integrate Wi-Fi with its cellular infrastructure, and will demonstrate it at the show. Last week, Stoke announced an appliance for shifting users onto Wi-Fi hotspots. Earlier this week, BelAir Networks announced performance and management enhancements to its GigXone lineup of small cells and access points. And on Wednesday, the femtocell industry group Femto Forum said it would change its name to Small Cell Forum to better reflect the diversity of smaller cells stretching beyond tiny femtocells designed for homes.

"These guys are doing this because they're hearing this from operators," analyst Peter Jarich of Current Analysis said.

 

The E-100 is a small cell designed for heavier duty than a consumer femtocell. The device is designed to serve as many as 64 subscribers with 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) and simultaneously support 32 users with 3G. It will include 3G UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service) technologies up to 42Mbps (bits per second) and will be able to offer 150Mbps on LTE, said Andy Tiller, senior vice president of marketing and strategy at ip.access. All the users on the small cell will share those capacities.

The E-100 will have an integrated antenna and a range of about 100 meters, Tiller said. An Ethernet port will provide both wired backhaul and the power to run the unit. Carriers will also be able to implement other types of backhaul as needed, he said.