From quantitative change to qualitative change, the small cell industry has entered an explosive growth period

From quantitative change to qualitative change, the small cell industry has entered an explosive growth period

Recently, the industry report released by the Small Cell Forum (Small Cell Forum) showed that the shipment of Small Cell devices worldwide reached 2015 in 4.1 million, an increase of 2014 from 80%; the volume of small cells in public regions such as enterprises is surging, with a growth rate of 110%, hitting a record high. If the year 2014 was the first year of the small cell industry, many operators started small-scale commercial deployment of small cells from "0" to "1, then in 2015, the small cell industry experienced a process from quantitative change to qualitative change, and entered an explosive growth period from "1" to "N.

Small cells stimulate high traffic Value

Large Capacity, small size, and easy to deploy, these features are incorporated into a small cell. In the past, macro cells often complement this identity. However, as the global 4G network deployment expands, small cells are playing an increasingly important role in Deep coverage, especially in scenarios with ultra-high density and ultra-large capacity, it helps telecom operators cope with the huge challenges posed by traffic surge, build high-quality services, and build differentiated competitiveness.

Data shows that after one year of deploying TELUS, a Canadian carrier, the number of its small cells has already exceeded the macro base station. By the end of 2015, only China Mobile in Beijing had deployed more than 10 thousand small cells, with a 1-to-1.3 ratio to Acer. At the same time, the reporter learned that, in 2015, more than 70 large stadiums in 28 provinces and cities in China used the small cell solution to upgrade the 4G network, successfully ensuring the smooth holding of hundreds of major events, such as the 2015 IAAF World Championships, the AFC Champions League, the Super League, the good Voice of China, Jay Chou concert, etc.

Bird's Nest, World Championships, 80 thousand spectators, average downlink rate of individual users over 40 Mbps, total traffic reached 243 GB on the opening day; Zhejiang Lishui sports center, Jay Chou concert, Jay Chou just appeared in just one minute, the total network traffic for the whole site surge to 5 GB, which means that tens of thousands of HD images and videos are shared through mobile networks in a short time. In the end, the total traffic for the whole concert is as high as 493 GB. Beijing Workers' Gymnasium, in the Super League in Guoan, the total traffic for a single event exceeds 600 GB, and the user access rate is as high as 99.76%. in Jinan Olympic Sports Center, after the deployment of small cells, the event is guaranteed for 16 major events, including two sub-champions, over 8 concerts and 6 concerts, with an average total traffic of over 300 GB. For the Luoyang New District stadium and Jay Chou concert in September, the number of 4G Access users on the site was April of the number of small cells that were not activated in 170%, during busy hours, the traffic was 230% of the traffic in February. It is these beautiful data that makes major operators realize the value of small cells. At present, the development of mobile broadband (MBB) has shown a new trend. Users are no longer satisfied with a single voice communication, and they have higher requirements for Mobile Data businesses to watch high-definition videos, demand for sharing images and videos on social platforms is surging anytime and anywhere. Under this trend, telecom operators are facing great challenges in indoor coverage in high-density and large-capacity scenarios such as transportation hubs, large shopping centers, and large stadiums. The outstanding performance of small cells in these scenarios makes it not only a supplement to the macro cellular network, but also the explosive tide effect of data by telecom operators in the mobile broadband era to ensure the user's network experience, it is an excellent way to stimulate users' traffic usage demands, promote the further growth of LTE users, gain differentiated competitiveness, and seize high traffic value.

Comprehensive acceleration of commercial deployment

The small cell industry is experiencing an important historical opportunity for explosive growth, and global deployment is accelerating. In China, the three major operators have accelerated the research and collection of small cell technology, and continuously increased investment in small cell networks and strategic layout.

In the phase iii lte base station equipment collection that has been completed, China Mobile lists small cells as one of the collection base station types. The phase iv lte collection is about to begin, and the proportion of small cell procurement is expected to increase. At the same time, china Mobile also proposed a development strategy to achieve deep coverage in the hotspot areas. China Unicom has proposed the LIGHT-Net development plan, which uses macro-micro collaboration, macro-micro integration, and intelligent networking technology to build a LIGHT asset, intelligent, green, and efficient network, to cope with the explosive growth of mobile data. Currently, China Unicom plans to include small cell products in the unified equipment procurement platform of China Unicom group. All provinces can purchase as needed. China Telecom has completed separate collection of small cell devices by the end of 2015. Up to now, China's three major operators have completed the formulation of small cell enterprise standards.

It is also known that China Unicom took the lead in deploying a small cell network based on the Huawei LampSite solution at Beijing Capital Airport in 2014, which has brought huge benefits to it, after one year of deployment, the data traffic in a single month has increased by 27 times. In 2015, China Mobile launched the LampSite network upgrade and deployment at Beijing Capital Airport. According to data from Huawei, the delivery volume of LampSite in China increased exponentially in 2015.

According to the latest report from Gartner, a global authoritative consultancy, global operators are focusing on how to effectively improve the user experience in hot spots. Gartner pointed out that the development of mobile broadband technology has brought about significant changes in the user data traffic usage model. Currently, it is as high as 70% ~ 90% of the traffic occurs in 20% of hot spots, especially indoors. Numerous network deployments indicate that there are still a large number of coverage holes in the network after the macro-cell scale is deployed, while the interior is always in the "edge zone" of the macro network ", traditional indoor distributed systems (DAS) targeting coverage cannot meet the surging indoor capacity requirements. However, simply adding macro cells is not an economical and effective method. It has been confirmed that WiFi-based traffic delivery cannot effectively improve user experience. The small cell solution with large capacity, small size, and ease of deployment effectively matches the user needs in hot zone, and helps operators leave more traffic in high-quality cellular networks, this further stimulates users' traffic usage requirements, which makes cell networks more and more popular and brings a high-speed historical opportunity for the small cell industry. Currently, more and more airports, gymnasiums, shopping centers, large and medium-sized enterprises and other places have begun to deploy small cells. It has become a consensus to deploy small cells in bus stations, street lamps, phone booths, and other new site sites. At the same time, Gartner's research on the Top 16 equipment vendors in the small cell industry shows that various equipment vendors are constantly increasing their investment in research and development of small cell solutions, the industry has basically reached consensus on solutions in various mainstream scenarios. For example, large and medium-sized indoor hotspot areas are dominated by digital distributed architectures and outdoor areas are dominated by integrated multi-frequency and multi-mode architectures, form a benign industrial landscape with fierce competition and mutual promotion in mainstream scenarios. Mobile Expert, an analyst institution, predicts that by 2016, the global volume of indoor cell solutions will exceed the traditional indoor Distributed System (DAS) targeting voice services ). We will wait and see if the small cell industry will continue to grow strongly in 2016.