BT publishes white paper on multi-vendor LTE SON
Nov 8th, 2016: BT has published a white paper on multi-vendor LTE SON based on tests performed at BT Adastral Park using LTE small cells provided by Node-H and Qucell. The white paper can be found here: BT LTE SON White Paper
The white paper focuses on the important issue of interference management between small cells. The paper is the result of a joint effort by British Telecom's Research and Innovation group and the technical teams of Qucell and Node-H. It addresses some of the major challenges of LTE HetNets and expands on the work of the 2016 ETSI Plugfest, which was run under the auspices of the Small Cell Forum. The authors’ conclusion is that interoperability between different vendors' SON implementations is achievable and so operators can look forward to robust, seamless and tailored solutions from multiple vendors.
The white paper shows that it is possible to operate mobile networks in which the individual LTE cells execute different ICIC algorithms. These findings challenge preconceptions about SON that are common in the mobile industry and make the case towards larger multi-vendor deployments of LTE small cells and call for bolder efforts in multi-vendor SON testing.
The ICIC algorithms used during these tests have been developed independently and without exchange of technical details between two separate HeNB vendors. Despite this, it has been shown that both algorithms can gracefully co-exist in the same LTE network. ICIC standardization efforts within 3GPP, along with the Small Cell Forum's Plugfest activities, have been key to this success.
About Node-H
Node-H GmbH is a pure-play small cells software company covering UMTS, LTE and dual-mode small cells technologies for residential, enterprise and public small cells. The company’s portable software runs to the maximum platform capability on the leading chipset platforms. The high-performance, fully integrated software was designed for cost-optimized SoC small cells platforms to help device manufacturers achieve fast time-to-market with a high-quality solution. Node-H is a member of the Board ot the Small Cells Forum. Node-H is privately funded and based in Munich, Germany. For more information about Node-H, please visit www.node-h.com.