Network Functions Virtualisation

3GPP looks to close cooperation with ISG NFV

At the recent SA Plenary (SA#63, Fukuoka, March 2014), a liaison statement was issued, towards the ETSI Industry Specification Group on Network Functions Virtualisation (ISG NFG). This formal communication is the 3GPP mechanism for informing them that the 3GPP Telecom Management working group (SA5) will produce a Study Item on the management of virtualised 3GPP network functions.

SA5 will start work in their next meeting in March 2014. If the study is agreed there, it will be presented for approval at 3GPP TSG-SA#64 in June 2014 and the work (on agreed features) would proceed  following that meeting.

3GPP is also considering how the work in ISG NFV might impact 3GPP at the architecture and system level. The SA#64 meeting concluded that a separate 3GPP study item could be considered to address this, referencing those use cases in ETSI ISG NFV that include 3GPP network entities. The liaison statement to ISG NFV commented that potential work on 3GPP functional elements resulting from this study would be addressed from June 2014 onwards.

Heterogeneous Networks in LTE

by Jeanette Wannstrom, masterltefaster.com and Keith Mallinson, WiseHarbor

Effective network planning is essential to cope with the increasing number of mobile broadband data subscribers and bandwidth-intensive services competing for limited radio resources. Operators have met this challenge by increasing capacity with new radio spectrum, adding multi-antenna techniques and implementing more efficient modulation and coding schemes.

However, these measures alone are insufficient in the most crowded environments and at cell edges where performance can significantly degrade. Operators are also adding small cells and tightly-integrating these with their macro networks to spread traffic loads, widely maintain performance and service quality while reusing spectrum most efficiently.