How Qualcomm plans to meet the 1000x data challenge

The phenomenal growth in mobile broadband has created a massive challenge for the industry to satisfy the thirst for data, yet it has also created an equally significant market opportunity. If leveraged effectively it could transform users’ mobile experience for the region. While it is a fact that mobile data continues to grow unabated, Qualcomm believes what the industry now needs is a focus on practical solutions to manage and grow from this trend

Hani Yassin is Qualcomm‘s Senior Director of Technology for the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia

The rapid and continuing growth of mobile data, fuelled by increased smartphone penetration and the proliferation of mobile computing, has the industry gearing up to meet a new challenge: providing a 1,000-fold increase in data capacity.

“Challenges very often present us with real opportunities, and the 1,000x challenge is a significant one,” shares Hani Yassin, Qualcomm‘s Senior Director of Technology for the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. “It’s an opportunity for the industry to really look at its network architectures and consider where it needs to be five years, 10 years, or longer down the road.”

For one thing, as mobile data grows, it will enhance the need for devices that are equipped to optimally support data services so as to deliver the best consumer experience. Additionally, growing consumption for mobile data usage and services will require industry players to develop better techniques and technologies for efficient data utilisation.

This also means that wireless operators will need to rethink their mobile data strategies because challenges of this magnitude need to be viewed from a fresh perspective and require not just marshalling of new resources, but also a completely different approach to acquiring, deploying and managing the resources that support data services and creation.

A Focus on Collaboration and Optimisation

Having set its focus on the 1,000x growth opportunity, Qualcomm is leading the industry by providing effective solutions to address the challenge facing the ecosystem. “We all know that mobile data usage will continue to grow across MENA and it’s important that the industry start thinking now about strategies for dealing with this growth,” Yassin explains.

“This trend is overarching, which means that it will affect every stakeholder across the industry from the consumers to device makers, operators, regulators and content providers. So there are two words that will govern the way forward – collaboration and optimisation,” he adds.

Qualcomm’s answer is to invest heavily in innovation and developing new technologies, building prototypes and demonstrating that a 1,000x increase is possible. With the MENA region lacking green-field markets, network optimisation also takes on new proportions, giving operators the much needed commercial edge.

“The big questions that mobile operators and the industry should be asking are; how can we continue to improve and maximise value from our existing assets; and how can we think differently about getting and deploying new resources?” Yassin says. Qualcomm believes that new efficiencies in wireless technology present the solution to this challenge.

One of the most important ways operators can improve network efficiency—and the first option they should consider—is to benefit from technology dynamism of their continually evolving 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi assets. These technologies are constantly improving and new capabilities for interference cancellation, spectrum reuse and other efficiencies can often be added on to an operator’s existing network architecture.

“We also need to consider the inter-relationship between networks and devices,” Yassin says. “The fact is that today mobile broadband offers more cost-effective connectivity than fixed broadband, and mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets that feature powerful 1GHz+ processors offer an equally cost-effective and fully mobile solution to access the Internet versus traditional PCs,” he says. “Additionally, mobile networks run on wireless spectrum, and the wireless industry is always eyeing to get more of it at bands that are suitable for its use in cost-effective ways.”

More spectrum offers headroom for growth

The timely availability of spectrum is crucial to meeting the needs and demands of existing and future customers.

Mobile broadband traffic in the MENA region is forecast to grow rapidly over the next 10 years. According to a recently published Plum Consulting report (The economic benefits from deployment 1.4 GHz spectrum for a mobile broadband supplemental downlink in the MENA region, published for Ericsson and Qualcomm in October 2012), it is possible that countries in the MENA region may face a spectrum shortfall in the coming few years .

However, the 1.4 GHz frequency range (also known as the L Band), largely unused in much of the MENA region will contribute to address this shortfall. The 1452-1492 MHz will be harmonised in Europe for mobile broadband supplemental downlink (SDL). It will provide additional downlink capacity to HSPA/LTE networks and this could reduce the costs of service provision and improve service quality.

In simple terms a SDL combines unpaired spectrum with the downlink of paired spectrum to enhance the downlink capability of mobile broadband networks. It does so by enabling significantly faster downloads and supporting a much greater number of users with mobile or portable wireless devices. This approach has not been used in mobile networks up to now because the technology was not available. With HSPA+ and LTE-Advanced standards this issue is resolved.

According to the Plum Consulting report, the benefits of the L Band use for a SDL include; reduced costs, by facilitating network expansion through deploying a 1.4 GHz SDL on existing base station sites (rather than building new base station sites); better service quality – in particular better in-building coverage; and higher downlink speeds with the ability to support a greater number of users.

“The Plum Consulting study shows that the use of the 1452-1492 MHz for mobile broadband SDL could generate economic benefits worth as much as US$26 billion for the MENA region. Other significant benefits include contributions to productivity improvements and broadband-enabled solutions. It also helps stimulate innovation and the development of new services and applications,” Yassin reveals.

“Based on joint industry studies, we were able to effectively quantify the benefits of re-allocating 1452-1492 MHz for a mobile supplemental downlink and this has been a successful project in the European CEPT body. We are now in a position to translate the recommendations and next steps to bring this into the Middle East and we are already actively engaging with infrastructure and equipment providers,” he adds.

Another spectrum policy innovation to address the 1,000x challenge is Authorised Shared Access (ASA). Although traditional licensing through the auction of cleared spectrum will remain the principal model for making more spectrum available, such auctions may not be feasible in some cases. “In some markets, this is taking longer and longer to achieve and we need to see how we can speed up access to make use of underutilised spectrum,” says Yassin. ASA is a new regulatory framework to share the spectrum in terms of time or location on an exclusive basis, without interfering with the incumbent’s operations.

Some spectrum holders, such as government users, may not be using the entire allocated spectrum in every part of their geographic boundaries on a 24×7 basis because of the nature of their operations. In such cases, ASA is an ideal approach for 3G/4G operators to access the underutilised spectrum in a mutually beneficial way. ASA already enjoys strong global, industry-wide support and it is currently considered in Europe to make the 2.3 GHz band available for mobile broadband.

Smaller cells offer evolution from Outside to Inside

Traditionally, operators plan cellular networks for coverage with macro sites and then expand it for capacity with cell splitting of macro sites and additional small cells. This is typically done by using an outside location approach, providing the capacity to both outside and indoor users. This strategy has worked well, but going forward an additional approach is needed.

“In order to meet the 1,000x challenge, there will need to be many more small cells everywhere using a combined inside-outside approach,” Yassin says. “Most of the data usage happens indoors. Therefore, it makes sense to think about how we can cost-effectively deploy more indoor small cells, and how far outside we can extend coverage from the inside.”

Heterogeneous networks with small cells have the major role to play in bringing the 1,000x increase and an efficient way to manage the interference among the small cells and between the macro networks is a major component in increasing their efficiency. “That is exactly what the evolution of the airlink technologies are also focused on. These combined with the next generation of advanced receivers will take the HetNets to the next level,” Yassin says.

New deployment models like the Neighbourhood Small Cells (NSC) approach are also enablers towards 1,000x capacity. The NSC model, innovated by Qualcomm, is a hyper-dense network of extremely low-cost, plug-and-play, open, indoor small cells. This network provides extremely high indoor capacity, along with good outdoor coverage and capacity in the immediate “neighbourhood.”

Industry studies on the potential of a neighbourhood small cell model have shown that one could get up to 500 times the capacity with a mere 9% household penetration and potentially 1,000 times with as low as 20% household penetration, with an additional 10 times spectrum than macro only deployment model. This model is suitable for higher bands such as 3.4 – 3.8 GHz, which were previously not mainstream bands for mobile networks, mainly because of their small coverage.

Ultimately delivering performance

Delivering higher efficiencies is eventually reliant on bringing in enhancements that can enable performance on all components of the system and facilitate intelligent interplay between each other thereby upping the user experience.

“Higher efficiency across the system, end-to-end, is also needed. So we have to focus on how to get higher efficiency from all the networks, devices, applications and services to squeeze more out of finite spectrum resources,” Yassin says.

“Enabling efficiencies across the value chain cannot be a one-point solution or effort, but will be a result of bringing in all the involved parties together to discuss and share important learning,” Yassin emphasises.

“The industry can expect to benefit from a mix of technology days and technology summits, organised by Qualcomm and supported by partners. These events will offer players the opportunity to discuss all the relevant aspects of the 1,000x challenge; how to understand it and how to formulate coherent strategies to benefit from the data explosion – rather than just look at network efficiencies,” Yassin says.

Rolling out a three-pronged strategy

“Conceptually, all the efforts can be summed up in three main groups: Leveraging more spectrum; integrating hyper-dense small cells that support 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi traffic; and enabling higher efficiency across the networks, devices, applications and services to squeeze more out of finite spectrum resources,” Yassin says.

While it’s clear that there is no single solution that could fulfil all stakeholder requirements, it is becoming critical for operators to devise a strategy that includes a mix of solutions, business models and market understanding to successfully achieve the 1,000x capacity increase. The end goal of the strategy is to demonstrate that the mobile wireless industry can face the challenge in a cost-effective manner, while continuing to provide the best possible mobile broadband experience to users.

“Qualcomm is at the forefront of developing and bringing solutions to the market that can enable the industry to deal with the 1,000x challenge. Therefore, through a mix of technology and products that include new deployment models, spectrum-based innovation and small cell deployments, we can make room for increasing the efficiency of wireless networks,” Yassin concludes.

A large part of Qualcomm efforts to explain its 1,000x strategy and the need for greater network efficiency will hinge on market and stakeholder education, an initiative the company expects to spearhead through its technology days, summits and other relevant events across the MEA region in 2013.