Integration networking strategies in the 4G era from international experience

Supply-demand relationships promote long-term demands for converged networking

With the rapid development of mobile Internet applications, the data traffic consumed by mobile communication users is growing rapidly. According to Strategy Analytics, in 2013, the average monthly consumption data traffic of global mobile phone users will reach 156 MB. The average monthly consumption of users in North America will reach 843.3 MB, making it the most advanced regional market. The East neighbor Japan will become the main market, and mobile phone users will consume the first national market with over 1 GB of traffic each month. In addition, with the gradual expansion of 4G services, the demand for data services will be further increased. As Vodafone pointed out in its financial report for the first half of 2013, 4G smartphone users consume almost twice the monthly data traffic of 3G smartphone users, verizon Wireless has about 31% of the total number of 4G users, but its data traffic consumption accounts for 59% of Verizon Wireless's total network traffic. It is expected that with the increasing popularity of 4G services, the promotion of traffic consumption will become more obvious. At the same time, the traffic characteristics of the mobile Internet era also show obvious asymmetry. According to the actual measurement data of some operators in the European, American, and Japanese markets, the downstream data traffic is generally 4 ~ of the upstream traffic ~ 9 times. It can be said that the rapid growth of data traffic consumption and obvious asymmetry reflect the main needs of users for mobile broadband systems in the mobile Internet era.

In the face of such surging user needs, the thickness of spectrum resources and the ability to adapt to asymmetric services have become an important issue that mobile operators must seriously consider. Figure 1 shows the spectrum resources of different carriers in the U.S. market. It can be seen that TDD spectrum (all the MHz spectrum resources of Clearwire) can provide spectrum resource thickness unmatched by other FDD operators.

Even in the European market where frequency distribution is relatively more inclined to the FDD system, TDD spectrum may become an important reserve resource for future business traffic development. Taking the UK market as an example, UK Broadband's 3.5 GHz LTETDD spectrum resources of MHz can also provide sufficient bandwidth for future mobile data businesses. As business traffic demand increases, it may become the target of major operators.

At the same time, TDD Systems naturally have flexible asymmetric transmission capabilities, which can better adapt to the asymmetric characteristics of mobile Internet businesses. Therefore, some international operators have begun to increase research and investment in TDD and FDD system converged networking, hoping to make full use of spectrum resources and improve business adaptability. China's domestic market also has rich TDD spectrum resources, and the TD-LTE industry chain is relatively complete, so that operators have the conditions to TDD/FDD convergence networking more actively explore, and lead the international innovation trend.

Short-term challenges and solutions for converged networking

Converged networking means that multiple wireless networks of different standards are deployed at the same time. In the process of converged networking, operators must first face the pressure of increasing capital expenditure. On the other hand, the ecosystem of different wireless technologies and the needs and expectations of these technologies are not exactly the same. Therefore, how to assign clear and accurate technology and market positioning to different standard wireless networks and reasonably plan the network investment and deployment pace based on their positioning should be the operator's integrated networking process, important issues.

In the existing cases of converged networking, leading international operators have clearly defined different technical standards based on the technical characteristics and the nature of the deployment frequency band. For example, after the US Sprint has full control over Clearwire, it is ready to deploy both the lte fdd and TDD networks. Based on the characteristics of different frequency bands, Sprint differentiated its spectrum resources and selected an appropriate technical system for converged networking. The original iDEN system uses the MHz band, which has good Propagation Characteristics and can achieve a wide range of network coverage at a low cost. However, the available spectrum bandwidth is narrow and only one 2 x5mhz LTE carrier can be deployed, it is difficult to provide competitive mobile broadband services in high-traffic regions. Sprint will deploy the lte fdd system in this band for expansion and supplement of network coverage. Sprint has abundant spectrum resources in the GHz PCS band, so it uses this band as the core band of lte fdd and provides nationwide mobile broadband services. The 2.6GHz band acquired by Clearwire has a MHz TDD spectrum and can become an important resource for differentiated competition in the mobile Internet era. Therefore, Sprint will deploy lte tdd in this band, provides a large capacity and high-speed user experience for high-traffic areas.

Similar to Sprint, its parent company, Japan Softbank, also adopted a multi-band converged networking strategy. Softbank deploys lte fdd in the GHz band and expands network coverage in the MHz band. At the same time, lte tdd is deployed in the GHz band to provide capacity and service delivery for high-traffic urban areas. It can be seen that the characteristics of the spectrum resources and their corresponding technical systems are the key factors that determine whether the operators integrate the networking and how to integrate the networking.

In addition, in the process of converged networking, making full use of existing infrastructure or infrastructure co-construction and sharing is also a common way to reduce capital expenditure and accelerate network deployment. In the process of deploying TD-LTE, Microsoft bank completely reused the original PHS site, so as to quickly achieve the scale deployment of TD-LTE, 34000 TD-LTE base stations have been deployed in less than two years. Sprint has also developed a Network Vision Plan to promote the deployment of multi-mode multi-band base stations. It also cooperates with infrastructure companies to quickly complete Network deployment by renting towers and other infrastructure.

When carriers choose converged networking, they will inevitably put forward new requirements for terminal devices. Multi-mode and multi-band terminal devices will be a huge challenge to the actual operation and business development of converged networking. Microsoft bank TD-LTE network in Japan, although the network deployment Speed is fast, but the user development is not satisfactory, the main reason is the lack of high-end smart phone support. Therefore, when selecting a converged networking strategy, carriers also need to work out clear and reasonable terminal development strategies based on the market positioning of different networks, so that the terminal industry chain has sufficient time to prepare for development. At the same time, operators should actively carry out international cooperation to promote the mature development of the terminal industry chain together with international operators with similar situations.

Accelerating the transition will facilitate information consumption and promote the development of integrated networking

As described at the beginning of this article, international market experience shows that after a user upgrades from 3G to 4G, the data consumption will be significantly improved. The good user experience and QoS control capabilities provided by LTE also help operators develop new business models, promote the development of mobile Internet businesses, and ultimately boost the level of social information consumption.

For CDMA operators, speeding up the transition to LTE also helps to reverse the 3G competition in the EV-DO relative to HSPA + disadvantage, regain the initiative in the network competition. Verizon Wireless, the world's leading CDMA operator, has adopted a fast transition to LTE. After completing the nationwide coverage of LTE, Verizon Wireless plans to launch LTE single-mode smart terminals next year. Compared with multimode terminals, the cost and implementation complexity of single-mode LTE terminals are expected to be significantly reduced. In addition, the terminal industry ecosystem is expected to be significantly improved and enhanced as there is no need to pay intellectual property fees for the 3g cdma model, so as to obtain better industry chain support. Sprint is preparing to deploy lte in the MHz band with limited bandwidth. It is also designed to quickly achieve a wide range of network coverage, prompting users to switch to 4G services.

With the rise of user data consumption and the growth of the terminal industry chain, operators will certainly have more demands for the network capacity and spectrum resource thickness in High-business areas, this will ultimately promote the expansion and popularization of the integrated networking solution. To achieve the rapid transition from 3G to 4G, not only do 4G networks need to be able to achieve the same coverage as 3G as soon as possible, but also LTE Networks and terminals need to be able to independently provide voice services, the VoLTE solution is supported. Verizon Wireless plans to deploy VoLTE in the second half of this year to prepare for the promotion of single-mode LTE terminals.

With the rapid development of mobile Internet services, radio spectrum resources are becoming increasingly important. With its flexible asymmetry, TDD spectrum resources can more effectively adapt to and serve the development of mobile Internet businesses. Therefore, when operators have the right spectrum resources, FDD/TDD converged networking will become a necessary and natural choice for operators.

In order to make rational and effective use of spectrum resources and make full use of the characteristics of different technical standards, operators need to clearly differentiate between different technical standards. As a leading mobile operator in the market, Softbank/Sprint's integrated networking strategy will be of reference value to domestic operators.

At the same time, reasonable use of the combination of different frequency bands can quickly achieve LTE network coverage, promote the migration of users from 3G to 4G services, and fundamentally improve the industrial environment and boost information consumption, this will ultimately promote the popularization and development of converged networking.