Forum Taking Small Cells to the Next Level

September 22, 2015

By Ernest Worthman —

September 24, 2015 — The Small Cell Forum, one of the better respected entities of the industry, recently met in Rome to present their concepts for moving small cells ahead in 2016, and what it would take to do that. They came up with a number of specific developments that will help make the deployment of small cells easier for service providers.

One of the hottest topics was placed on integrating small cells into Hetnets and next-generation 5G mobile networks. There was also talk about the role small cells will play in the Internet of everything (IoE).

Small Cell Forum Chairman Alan Law said that what they discussed raises the platform to the next level of maturity for the small cell industry, What makes this so interesting is that it comes at a time when small cells are about to move to a new level of influence as demand for relief on increasingly dense networks ramps. Some of the high points include:

Using license-exempt spectrum to significantly increase coverage and capacity to boost mobile user experience while making optimum use of available spectrum
Addressing the growing move within mobile networks toward virtualization (NFV/SDN) to put network resources in the cloud, closest to where they’re most needed, for optimization and scale
Making small cells the preferred solution for delivering multi-operator (neutral host) applications across vertical markets
Meeting the enterprise small cell market opportunity, including the potential for a cost-effective self-service model designed for ease of enterprise IT deployment
Serving the exponential growth in mobile traffic while delivering a seamless customer experience across all elements of the wireless network through HetNet and SON (self-optimizing networks)
5G, M2M and the Internet of Everything