LTE Networks

Issues and challenges

Shyam Mardikar
Chief – Strategy, Architecture & Engineering
Bharti Airtel
The world has gone digital.
 10 Billion (mobile, broadband and internet) connections for 7 Billion people
 India has almost 1 Billion devices active
 Digital natives have arrived
Changing Landscape
Global mobile user
Billion
6 billion
Global MBB user

1 billion

Last 20 years, the growth base on subscriber scale The next 20 years, value services is key

 Subscriber scales will not the drive the growth

 The focus will shift towards selling more to the same customers
 I Need Internet More Than
Alcohol Car Chocolate Coffee

Highest % Indonesia 89 China 56 Japan 86 China 85

Lowest % UK 65 South Africa Brazil 59 Germany 55
& U.S. 65
Exercise Fast Food Sex Shower

Highest % Japan 60 UK 91 Japan 56 Indonesia 78

Lowest % France 42 India 67 Brazil 12 France 5

Source BCG, “THE INTERNET ECONOMY IN G-20”

The new business challenge
Bandwidth / Revenue Divide

Support For New Services

 Challenge 1
Where is the Spectrum
Spectrum – in line with onion prices
 Challenge 2
Infrastructure and backhaul
Propagation and penetration

Significantly more number of sites needed for a decent indoor coverage – Small cells
A layered small cell network
Top level
Viewing
Cell 1 Rhub platform
1

Hotel

Rhu
b2

Cell 2 Office

Rhu Theater
b3
mall
Cell 3
Rhub
4
BBU park
Front haul - last mile is first mile now
Wireless Mesh
2G 3G
Macro Site
Wireless Router
Point to Multi-Point TDM?
4G
Macro Site PTN?

The edge pushed closer to the user

Ethernet Router OTN?
IP? Pre-aggregation
Node IP
RAN
Mobile
IP
Ethernet
Macro Site Aggregation Core Mobile Core
Router Agg Node Node
Dedicated Fibre
Baseband
Processing Pool

Via Fixed Broadband

Fixed (DSL/GPON/DOCSIS) Aggregation
Node
Carrying apples, oranges & pears
Any Access Any Synchronization Any Topology

End to End OAM

 Challenge 3
Delivering Quality of service
The new DNA of telecom

The control is not limited to network systems

Devices Network Applications

Service aware network
Best-Effort (default)
Internet
Video (Non GBR dedicated)

VoIP (GBR dedicated)

Corporate Best-Effort (default)

VPN Email (Non GBR dedicated)

Complexity now starts in your hand

The new Network ecosystem

 Flatter architecture – Last mile is first mile – ip’fication

 Dynamic and on demand capacity – real time analytics
 Network closer to user – Scale and granularity
“ ….your phone today
has more computing
power than all of
NASA in 1969…..”
A tweet by George Bray