Opening keynote at Small Cells Americas 2015, delivered by SCF Chair Alan Law

1. Crossing the chasm: Small cell industry 2015
Alan Law, Chair, Small Cell Forum

2. November 2015
Crossing the Chasm:
Innovators Early adaptors Early majority Late majority
Chasm
Plateau of productivity
Technology trigger
Trough of disillusionment
Slope of enlightenment

3. Important new report includes
data from:
• Market Status Report, Mobile
Experts, November 2015 – available
exclusively to SCF members
• Potential for small cells
infrastructure-as-a-service in the
US, iGR, Q3 2015
• Small cell operator survey Q3 2015,
Rethink Technology Research
Download the full report TODAY
at scf.io
Crossing the Chasm:
report published today
November 2015

4. • Shipments rise from 4.05m
to 10.37m units 2014-20
• Enterprise important engine
for growth – 110% upswing
in 2015
• Large urban rollouts starting
in 2015, shipments up
fourfold 2015
• 2014 – market matured;
2015 – growth accelerated
The big question is:
‘How do I monetize & deploy
at scale?’
Argument for small cells has been won
November 2015

5. By 2020 small cells can achieve significant
critical mass – installed base 7x macrocells.
This means:
• Small cells will drive the RAN architectural
agenda
• Small cells at the heart of 5G and IoT
• Attractive volumes for whole ecosystem,
driving innovation
This is a real turning point:
Small Cells now own the debate
42,500,000
6,400,000
0
5,000,000
10,000,000
15,000,000
20,000,000
25,000,000
30,000,000
35,000,000
40,000,000
45,000,000
Small cell Macrocell
units
Seizing the opportunity
November 2015
7x more
Small
Cells by
2020

6. • Small Cell Forum (Phase 1) provided
leadership for cooperation and addressing
barriers
• Small Cell Forum (Phase 2) is about
supporting:
• new architectures
• new spectrum options
• new business cases
• new service models
• a broadening ecosystem
• real world use cases
Delivering needed industry knowledge
through our new work program
Enterprise small cells
License-exempt spectrum
HetNet and SON
Virtualization
Multi-operator support
Delivering 5G and IoT
Our new work program:
answering the question HOW?
November 2015

7. November 2015
• Small Cell Forum achievement so far built on a single successful architecture and the
main engine for immediate and continued growth
• However, today no single architecture will suit huge range of future wireless use cases. A
flexible approach is required to:
• address range of operator scenarios and services
• provide choice of architectures in line with spectrum, fiber, other considerations, while
maintaining underlying common standards
Meeting future network needs –
broadening the remit
Base Station Densification Broader set of use cases NFV and SDN

8. Future generation deployments very
different: Dense, automated, multiband,
neutral host, separate layer, some
virtualized
Requires new approaches:
• Emergence of low-power radio heads, now
adopted within SCF definition
• First step in evolution towards virtualized
small cells with many split options
• Transition to virtualized RAN blurs
boundaries between conventional
neutral-host DAS systems and new
virtualized RAN architecture.
Today’s generation
Future generation
Ad hoc, opportunistic
A well-planned
second layer
Small numbers
Dense
Manually organized
SON
Homogeneous cells
Move to Virtualization
3G or LTE
Multimode including
Wi-Fi
Same spectrum as
macro
Many bands – including
licence-exempt
Single operator
Neutral host or shared
ownership
Meeting future network needs –
optimized network architectures
November 2015

9. Key drivers to
deploy small cells
2015-20:
• Cost capacity and
coverage still key
• Support new
revenue streams –
eg. M2M
• Harness new
spectrum bands
eg. 3.5GHz and
above
• First step to
Virtualization
We will deliver workable architectures
to address global drivers
Source: Rethink Technology Research
November 2015

10. Building for
the future
Small Cell Forum
work program
2015/16

11. November 2015
Small Cell Forum – work program roadmap
Multi-operator
2013 2014 2015 2016 20172012
WI
SI
LAA
SC Wi-Fi with WBA
Home
Enterprise
Urban
Rural and Remote
Virtualization
License-exempt
HetNet & SON
R1
R2
R3 R4
R5
R5.1
R5.2
R6
definition of nFAPI
China Mobile
Cisco, ip.access
Vodafone, Qualcomm
5G, IoT
Truphone, ip.access
AT&T, Ericsson, Airhop
Reliance Jio, Huawei
Kick-off
Deliverables Defined
Release
Enterprise
Orange
Spidercloud, Huawei
R2

12. • Installed base more than doubled 2015
(Source: Mobile Experts)
• Wide target market – ie. from venues to
factories to SoHo
• 62% of large US companies interested in
small cells (Source: iGR)
• Enterprise has higher than average
interest in small cells for indoor coverage/
voice, new services, IoT, Virtualization
(Source: Rethink)
• Drives new value chains – by 2020 only
20% of Enterprise small cells MNO-
managed
286,350
639,327
0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
700,000
Q314 Q315
units
Enterprise: small cells enable a more
effective Enterprise workforce
November 2015
+110%
growth
during 2015

13. Many vRAN deployments will start in
small cell layer
• 43% of small cell deployers will also be
adopting Virtualization by 2018
Critical for Small Cell Forum members
to drive this work:
• nFAPI work will define best splits and
create unified platform; and
• Enable new deployment models which
lower barriers – eg. ‘as a service’,
per-AP licensing
Small Cell Virtualization – enabling new
deployment models
Conventional small cell Virtualized small cell
MAC
FAPI
P5 & P7
PHY
Vendor
Ext
nFAPI
P5 & P7
nFAPI
P5 & P7
PHY
Vendor
Ext
MAC
RF
Vendor
Ext
nFAPI Interworking
November 2015

14. November 2015
Small Cell Forum drives interoperability and unity while supporting flexible use cases
Small cell Virtualization –
answering the big questions
Topic Findings
What are the real business benefits of
Virtualization in the RAN?
Identified centralization benefits, transport
costs and MANO/automation elastic scaling
capabilities
Are current small cell architectures well
suited to Virtualization?
Yes – FAPI MAC/PHY decomposition well suited
to provide Virtualization baseline
Can Virtualization deliver a phased roadmap –
eg. aligned with longer-term 5G directions?
Yes – Flexible Virtualization over non-ideal
transport now emerging as core 5G
requirements
How do we ensure Virtualization supports
innovation across a multi-vendor ecosystem?
SCF’s nFAPI workstream set to accelerate
multi-vendor PNF/VNF interoperability

15. November 2015
Small cell Virtualization –
deliverables and timelines
nFAPI Definition
nFAPI Demonstration
PDCP/RLC Recom’tions
(ETSI ISG NFV) PoC
nFAPI Std Ownership
VNF SVC API/MEC
Multi-operator Scoping
2017
Placeholder for SVC
engagement
Placeholder for Multi-Op engagement
Kick-off
Deliverables
Complete
2015 2016
PNF Management
ETSI-MANO Recom’tions NET
Board
IOP
RPH
R5.1 R6

16. • SON becomes essential as
networks density
• By 2020, 40% of small cells deployed in
hyper-dense environments (150 per km2)
• SON must be interoperable and able to
work with all technologies and with
Virtualization
• Absolute priority is to avoid fatal
fragmentation – eg. Release 6 solutions
and requirements, Plugfests, services API
HetNet and SON –
enabling mass-market scale
November 2015

17. November 2015
• Small Cell Forum best placed to drive unlicensed as it is small cell-specific in higher
band
• LTE in 5GHz – only applies to small cells
• 25% of MNOs say leveraging unlicensed a top three driver to deploy small cells
• Work with Wi-Fi and other license-exempt technologies in unlicensed bands
• Work item includes FAPI support for LTE-LAA, Wi-Fi coexistence
• With 5G, look right up to 90GHz and beyond
Maximizing potential with
unlicensed spectrum
LTE Unlicensed
small cell
Unlicensed
Licensed Anchor
Carrier
aggregationLTE/LTE-U

18. Work stream mission: “To make
licensed radio small cells the
preferred solution for vertical
market, multi-operator
solutions”
Work items include:
• Business case
• Existing and upcoming technology
• Regulatory
• Spectrum licensing – existing and
new licensing regimes
• Existing deployments – Why they
work and why aren’t there more
of them?
Multi-operator/neutral host –
delivering new opportunities
Serves all the
building’s
customers
Cheap to
buy, install
and maintain
Competitively
worthwhile for
MNO
Works at the
highest traffic
densities
Small
Cell
✗ ✓ ✓ ✓
Small
Cell
(multiple)
✓ ✗ ✓ ✓
MORAN ✓ ✗ ✓ ✗
DAS ✓ ✗ ✓ ✓
MOCN ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓
Wi-Fi ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗
November 2015

19. • Small Cell Forum playing a leadership
role in 5G debate
• IoT and 5G networks – many areas
unclear but will certainly be small cell
driven
• Allow operators to differentiate on
standard platform
• Two key areas of Small Cell Forum activity
– ultra-density and fully service-oriented
networks with open APIs
• Forum submitted vision to 3GPP
• Work with NGMN, ETSI, GSMA,
4G Americas
Maximizing future potential in IoT and 5G
Service oriented
networks
• Enterprise use cases
• Open API
• Edge services
Ultra dense networks
• Deployment
• Backhaul/fronthaul
arch
• HetNet & SON
NGMN, MEC (ETSI, GSMA), 5GPPP
November 2015

20. November 2015
• Small Cell Forum has been successful in establishing deployments and growth –
enable the ‘HOW’
• Small cells are the primary method to address the capacity needs of the future
• We are driving critical work for the industry as part of our Release Program
(scf.io)
• Join us: Shape the future of the small cells and the integrated HetNet
Join us – seize the opportunity

21. Crossing the Chasm:
report published today
scf.io
November 2015