4G: Deployment Strategies and Operational Implications

Book description

As telecommunications operators and network engineers understand, specific operational requirements drive early network architectural and design decisions for 4G networks. But they also know that because technology, standards, usage practices, and regulatory regimes change on a continuous basis, so do best practices. 4G: Deployment Strategies and Operational Implications helps you stay up to date by providing the latest innovative and strategic thinking on 4G and LTE deployments. It evaluates specific design and deployment options in depth and offers roadmap evolution strategies for LTE network business development.

Fortunately, as you’ll discover in this book, LTE is a robust and flexible standard for 4G communications. Operators developing 4G deployment strategies have many options, but they must consider the tradeoffs among them in order to maximize the return on investment for LTE networks. This book will show operators how to develop detailed but flexible deployment road maps incorporating business requirements while allowing the agility that expected and unexpected network evolution require. Such road maps help you avoid costly redeployment while leveraging profitable traffic.

Telecommunications experts and authors Trichy Venkataraman Krishnamurthy and Rajaneesh Shetty examine various architectural options provided by the flexibility of LTE and their effect on the general current and future capability of the designed network. They examine specific features of the network, while covering specific architectural deployment strategies through example and then assessing their implications on both near- and long-term operations as well as potential evolutionary paths.

Besides helping you understand and communicate network upgrade and architectural evolution road maps (with options), you will learn:

  • How to plan for accessibility, retainability, integrity, availability, and mobility
  • How to balance loads effectively
  • How to manage the constraints arising from regulation and standardization
  • How to manage the many disruptive factors affecting LTE networks
  • 4G: Deployment Strategies and Operational Implications also outlines specific network strategies, which network features and deployment strategies support those strategies, and the trade-offs in business models depending on the strategies chosen. Best of all you will learn a process for proactive management of network road map evolution, ensuring that your network—and your skills—remain robust and relevant as the telecommunications landscape changes.

    Table of contents

    1. Cover
    2. Title
    3. Copyright
    4. Dedication
    5. Contents at a Glance
    6. Contents
    7. About the Authors
    8. Introduction
    9. Chapter 1: Network Planning
      1. Dimensioning Phase
        1. Configuration for the Site
        2. User and Traffic Volume Estimation
        3. Coverage and Capacity Estimation
      2. Planning and Implementation Phase
      3. Optimization Phase
        1. Coverage Planning
      4. Capacity Planning
        1. Improve Capacity for a Particular Service Area
        2. Radio Link Budget for LTE
      5. LTE Band
        1. Bandwidth Options
      6. TDD vs. FDD
        1. MIMO
        2. UE Capabilities
        3. Cell Sizes: Femto vs. Micro vs. Macro
        4. LTE Performance Testing
        5. Key Performance Indicator Verification
      7. Traffic Model Testing
        1. Dense Urban Model
        2. Urban Small Office Model
        3. Urban Residential Area Model
        4. Highway Model
        5. Rural Large Cell Model
      8. Overload and Capacity Testing
        1. Control Plane Overload and Capacity Testing
        2. User Plane Overload and Capacity Testing
        3. Long Duration Testing
      9. Summary
    10. Chapter 2: Self-Organizing Networks in LTE Deployment
      1. Introduction to Self-organizing Networks
      2. SON Architecture
        1. Centralized SON
        2. Distributed SON
        3. Hybrid SON
      3. SON Features
        1. Self-planning Features
        2. Self-optimization Features
        3. Self-healing Features
      4. Automatic Neighbor Relation
        1. Commissioned Neighbor Cell Configurations
        2. Automatic Neighbor Relation Updates
      5. SON and Self-Optimization Motivation of Intercell Interference Coordination
        1. Principle of ICIC and Frequency Reuse
        2. RACH Optimization
        3. Mobility Robustness Optimization
        4. Load Balancing
      6. SON and Self-healing
        1. Cell Outage Detection
        2. Cell Outage Compensation
        3. Benefit of Cell Outage Compensation
      7. Summary
    11. Chapter 3: Deployment Challenges in Evolving 4G
      1. Technology-Related Challenges
        1. Interference Issues
        2. Spectrum Harmonization
        3. Voice Over LTE Implementation
        4. Multivendor Interoperability
        5. Issues Related to Backhaul
      2. Environment Issues
        1. UE Maturity
        2. Feature Availability
        3. Standardization Delays
        4. Patent Costs
      3. Business Challenges
        1. Investment Issues
        2. Average Revenue per User and Return on Investment Periods
        3. The Changing Marketplace
      4. A Survey of LTE Deployments Around the World
        1. South Korea
        2. Japan
        3. Australia
        4. United States
      5. Traffic Profiles and Other Evolution Challenges
        1. Recent Trends in Telecom Customer Profiles Evolution
      6. Future Traffic Profiles and Trends
        1. The Internet of Things
        2. 4G and the Internet of Things
      7. Summary
    12. Chapter 4: Network Roadmaps
      1. What Is a Technology Roadmap?
        1. Understand Need for a Roadmap
        2. Formulation of a Technology Roadmap
      2. What Is a Network Roadmap?
        1. Network Options
        2. Deployment Options
        3. Usage Models
      3. What Influences Network Roadmap Planning?
        1. Key Stakeholders for Roadmap Inputs
        2. Known Factors
        3. Disruptive (Risk) Factors
      4. Summary
    13. Chapter 5: Network Roadmap Evolution
      1. Planned Evolution
        1. Network Resilience
      2. Reactive Evolution to Sudden Changes
        1. A Generic Template
        2. A Specific Example
      3. Anticipation of Changes in Industry
        1. The Decline of BlackBerry
      4. Future Goals and Services from a Business or Organization Perspective
        1. Organizational Factors
        2. Response Team in Place
        3. Business Continuity Planning
        4. Cultural Encouragement to Embrace Futuristic and Even Fantastic Scenarios
      5. Roadmap Mutability
      6. Roadmap Agility
      7. Summary
    14. Chapter 6: A Process for Network Roadmap Evolution
      1. Aspects of Network Roadmap Management
        1. Roadmap Development Cycle
        2. Roadmap Execution: Programs, Projects, and Portfolios
        3. Factors Affecting Roadmap Development
        4. Project Management Processes
      2. A Framework of Processes for Roadmap Evolution
        1. Develop Roadmap Management Plan
        2. Develop Roadmap Management Plan: Tools and Techniques
        3. Define Roadmap
        4. Execute Roadmap
        5. Perform Roadmap Review
        6. Perform Roadmap Change Control
        7. Plan Resilience Management
        8. Define Service Levels
        9. Perform Challenge KPI Impact Analysis
        10. Define Resilience Strategy
        11. Perform Network Resilience Review
        12. Plan Operability Management
      3. Summary
    15. Index

    Product information

    • Title: 4G: Deployment Strategies and Operational Implications
    • Author(s): Trichy Venkataraman Krishnamurthy, Rajaneesh Shetty
    • Release date: November 2014
    • Publisher(s): Apress
    • ISBN: 9781430263265