Multi Vendor HetNet:
Interoperability, Plugfests
NEC Corporation
Neeraj Gupta
Kreso Bilan
▐ Multi Vendor HetNet: Introduction
▐ Multi Vendor HetNet: Requirements and Considerations
▐ Industry initiatives
▐ Issues/Recommendations
▐ Small Cell Forum Plugfests
Agenda
For the Network to meet today’s requirements in coverage, capacity, end user
experience and services the mobile network operator must consider numerous
techniques and deployments:
Multi-frequency
Multiple deployments for coverage and capacity
Multi-RAT / Multi-technology
Multi-platform (macro, micro, pico)
To be competitive, Operators must work within their OPEX and CAPEX budget
criteria, which means the following considerations:
Competitive pricing from vendors
Superior End User Experience
Innovative Approach to Technology and Services
Flexible Deployments
Multi Vendor HetNet? Reality of Modern LTE Network Deployment Needs
Need for
Heterogeneous
Networks
Need for Multi-vendor
networking
It can work by enabling
Multi-vendor coordination: ‘Good’ S1/X2 interface compliance with 3GPP’
Multi-vendor alignment of
Exchanged value meaning to enable interpretation
SON function monitoring and reporting periods
3GPP optional measurement reporting to enable other vendor’s algorithms
‘Best practice’ guidelines and proof of concept projects to ensure inter-operability of
SON multi-vendor HetNet environments.
▐ Organisations
How Can It Work? Requirements and Considerations for MV HetNet
Industry Initiatives
3GPP
3GPP specified functional interfaces to enable macro-micro interaction in the context of SON, Mobility
Enhancements of OAM aspects of Distributed SON are studied in SA5
NGMN
NGMN identified and addressed deployment challenges of multi-vendor HetNet with focus on SON features.
Two deliverables are available to define a methodology aiming at ensuring a minimum performance level for multi-vendor HetNet
‘Recommended Practices for Multi-vendor SON Deployment’ (released in Jan. 2014)
‘Test Specification for Multi-vendor SON Deployment‘ (utilized in the LTE Plugfest)
Small Cell forum
Small Cell forum has established different working groups to speed up small cell deployment and addressed
issue as co-channel interference, HetNet
deployment etc. Regular LTE Plugfests are organised by Small Cell Forum last one being a joint plugfest with
NGMN
NGMN Whitepaper: Recommended Practices for Multi-vendor SON Deployment
Small Cell Forum Whitepaper: X2 Interoperability
Issues / Recommendations
Issues
X2 interface not implemented
Where implemented a full compliance has not been observed
Too many optional information elements in the X2 specification leading to mismatch
between the vendors
Recommendations
Best Practice guidelines published by NGMN and Small Cell forum need to be
implemented
More interoperability testing events between macro and small cell vendors
Small Cell Forum Plugfests
▐ Small Cell Forum Interoperability and LTE groups have been working with ETSI to conduct
Plugfests since the first event in 2010.
▐ Each event conducts a number of essential tests to ensure interfaces are correctly
established and key functionality achieved. In addition, each event introduces new testing
around a given theme
▐ Test reports are provided which provide further detail on the tests conducted and statistics
on the results.
▐ Plugfest Events
Mar-10: First 3G Femtocell Plugfest (Iuh)
Jan-11: Second 3G Femtocell Plugfest (Home NodeB Management System)
Jun-11: Third 3G Femtocell Plugfest (mobility)
Jun-13: First LTE small cell Plugfest (S1, X2)
Jun-14: Second LTE Plugfest (SON)
2nd LTE Small cell plugfest
▐ Small cell forum interoperability event held in June 2014, Paris
ETSI (organised the event for Small cell forum)
NGMN forum (provided SON test cases)
▐ ETSI report: LTE SmallCell Plugfest 2 (2014)
Handover, Mobility (Outbound, Inbound), Voice Support via CS Fall-
back schemes, Voice and Video over LTE, CMAS and SON
26 different organisations with 65 engineers onsite
• Airspan, Airvana, Alcatel-Lucent, Broadcom,
Casa Systems, Cavium, Cisco, Com4Innov,
Contela, Fujitsu, IP.access, Ixia, JDSU,
NEC, Node-H, One2Many, Orange, Public
Wireless, PureWave Networks, Qosmotec,
Qucell, Quortus, Radisys, Sistel Networks,
SMEC and Stoke
• E.g. NEC tested picocell eNodeB, HeNB
and HeNB-GW
(3-men team for two-weeks ~ £40K or less)
2nd LTE Small cell plugfest – remote lab
▐ with remote lab (VPN platform) we have pre-testing period in the
same IP address space, as during the event setting up
connectivity during the event takes half a day (together with
briefing participants and taking first problems on-board)
Small cell forum plugfests
▐ Value of Small cell forum plugfests
SCF Release Four of Small cell forum
(SCF Release One-Four: Home, Enterprise, Urban, Rural)
▐ The rest of the plugfest reports:
UMTS FemtoCell Plugfest 1 (2010), Iuh interface, Sophia Antipolis
• NEC: HNB-GW
UMTS FemtoCell Plugfest 2 (2011), TR-196, Sophia Antipolis, France
• NEC: HMS
UMTS FemtoCell Plugfest 3 (2011), macro mobility, Lannion, France
• NEC: HNB-GW
LTE SmallCell Plugfest 1 (2013), S1, X2, Kranj, Slovenia
• NEC: HeNB
LTE SmallCell Plugfest 2 (2014), SON,… Paris, France
• NEC: HeNB-GW, LTE Small cell, HeNB
3rd LTE Small cell plugfest – LTE-A – planning
▐ Remote plugfest: February 2015
LIPA/SIPTO
LTE-A Carrier Aggregation
▐ Face to face plugfest: June 2015
eICIC (F2F)
LTE-A Carrier Aggregation (face to face)
and any remaining untested SON feature from below
18-Feb-13
Small cell forum plugfests – KPIs – test execution rate
Plugfest Participation Test case
execution rate
1st Iuh 21 10 minute/test
2nd HMS 13 7 minute/test
3rd 3G mobility 13 8 minute/test
1st LTE S1,X2 16 8 minute/test
2nd LTE HeMS/SON 26 23 minutes/test
? 3rd LTE-A ? ? 25 sec/test
▐ The test case execution rate is relevant for the certification centres
Small cell forum is potentially ready to transfer the technical know-how
to the companies interested to run Small cell certification centres
Small cell vendors will take advantage of both types of events:
• Plugfest: testing new features against established market players
• Certification: speeding up IOT tests with tier 2/tier 3 operators
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