007 Wireless in Home and Office

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DOCUMENT

Wireless in the home and ofce

The need for both 3G femtocells and Wi-Fi access points

December 2013

007.06.02

SMALL CELL FORUM

RELEASE 6.0

Solving the HetNet puzzle

17 : 2 5

R U R A L & R E M O T E

U R B AN

E N T E R P R I S E

V I R T U AL I Z AT I O N

H O M E

scf.io







Report title: Wireless in the home and officeIssue date: 01 December 2013

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Contents

1. Mobile Data Traffic is Growing Fast ..................................1

2. Consumer Considerations .................................................3

3. Operator Considerations ...................................................5

4. The Challenge of Using Wi-Fi for CriticalCommunications ...............................................................7

5. Wi-Fi Penetration in Dual Mode Cellular Phones ...............8

6. Battery Life in Wi-Fi Enabled Handsets ........................... 11

7. Conclusions .................................................................... 12

References ................................................................................ 13

Tables

Table 2-1 Comparing 3G femtocells and Wi-Fi access points from the end user’sperspective .................................................................................... 4

Table 3-1 Comparing 3G femtocells and Wi-Fi access points from the operator’sperspective .................................................................................... 5

Figures

Figure 1-1 Femtocell network architecture ......................................................... 1

Figure 5-1 Smartphones as a percentage of total handset shipments (source ABI

Research) ...................................................................................... 8

Figure 5-2 Wi-Fi support in feature phones (source ABI Research ) ....................... 9

Figure 5-3 Global handsets with Wi-Fi support versus UMA support .................... 10




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1. Mobile Data Traffic is Growing Fast

Mobile operators around the world are experiencing a massive increase in mobile data

traffic on their 3G networks. According to ABI Research, global mobile data traffic

surpassed 1.3 exabytes (EB, or 1018 bytes = one billion gigabytes) in 2008 [2]. By2014, it is estimated that 1.6 EB of mobile data will be sent and received each month.

A leading US-based operator estimates that smartphones generate from 10 to 60times more data usage than other advanced devices, such as 3G feature phones. Therich multimedia functionality that smartphones enable, including streaming video andaudio, web surfing and email, allow consumers to enjoy an immersive contentexperience. In addition, network enhancements which make more efficient use ofexisting spectrum allocations are leading to increased wireless data rates and reduced

latency, thereby driving higher usage by creating a better user experience for mobiledata services.

70-80 per cent of mobile traffic is generated indoors, mostly in the home or office [3].

This creates another challenge for operators: delivering an excellent data experienceindoors requires excellent in-building signal strength. However, building walls andwindows significantly attenuate the signal from the outdoor macro network – by asmuch as 18 to 20dB.

As 3G traffic volumes continue to increase, operators are facing a major challenge tosupport this growth and at the same time meet customer expectations for an

enhanced user experience, particularly within buildings. Two options that operatorscan choose to help meet this challenge are deploying 3G femtocells and utilizing Wi-Fiaccess points.

3G femtocells work by using operator-licensed spectrum to connect a mobile device to

the 3G network. Because the 3G femtocell is part of the same network that the phoneuses outdoors, there is no need to make any modifications or change any settings in astandard 3G handset in order for it to operate with the femtocell. The 3G femtocellaccess point must be connected to a broadband internet connection (e.g. DSL, cable,fibre, etc.); the femtocell completes the voice call or data session by connecting to theoperator’s network through the broadband connection.

Figure 1-1 Femtocell network architecture

Wi-Fi access points work over unlicensed spectrum, and can be used by handsets that

have Wi-Fi capabilities. The handset may need to be manually configured to work with

a specific Wi-Fi access point. Any IP connection is then available on the phone via




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either Wi-Fi or 3G. However, in order to make voice calls and send SMS text messagesover Wi-Fi using the operator’s core network services, the handset (and network) willalso need to support either Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) [4], or a bespoke,

operator-provided SIP-based application. Alternatively, a voice over IP (VoIP)application, such as Skype, can be installed on the handset. The Wi-Fi access point

also needs to be connected to a broadband internet connection.

Wi-Fi has advantages over 3G femtocells in some areas or for specific usage scenarios.For example, it is inexpensive, operator independent, and already available in manyhomes, offices and public hotspots. However, there are a number of considerationsthat exist for both consumers and operators if Wi-Fi is to be used as the primary airinterface for mobile data on 3G phones and mobile internet devices.






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Area Wi-Fi Solution 3G Femtocell Solution

Advantages summary • No new CPE required• Operator-independent• Can be used in any

geographical location•

Improved environmentalfriendliness from 802.11n

onwards

• No handset configurationrequired

• Universal 3G handset support

(within operator)•

Better handset battery life• Reduced radio interference

• Seamless security• Single support point for

device and service•

Environmentally friendly

Table 2-1 Comparing 3G femtocells and Wi-Fi access points from the end user’s perspective

Wi-Fi access points have been commercially available since 1999. Setting up Wi-Fiaccess points in the home and office has become much simpler over the past fewyears. Consumers are familiar with Wi-Fi, and it is easy to use.

However, Wi-Fi usually requires some configuration on the mobile device, and onsome phones there are application level settings that need to be changed when usingthe Wi-Fi network. The extra simplicity 3G femtocells bring in this regard can

potentially make a big difference to whether consumers will adopt the service or not.By analogy, the phenomenal success of push email services on mobile phones, andthe corresponding failure of manually retrieved email services, demonstrates that thedifference between requiring the user to do something apparently simple (clicking abutton to retrieve email) and doing nothing at all (receiving email automatically) canhave a significant impact on user adoption.

Some existing handsets, like the Apple iPhone, manage the switch from licensed

cellular networks to Wi-Fi networks very well indeed for web browsing and otherinternet services, creating a seamless experience for the end user. However, this

comes at the expense of increased battery drain as the handset is continuouslyscanning for Wi-Fi access points. In addition, many older smartphones require the enduser to manually make the switch between networks, which can be cumbersome.

Seamless service continuity for voice calls and SMS over Wi-Fi is harder to achieve.VoIP applications exist for the iPhone (e.g. Skype), but due to the lack of multi-tasking

in the current operating system, if an SMS message is received while Skype is activethe VoIP call will drop. Other smartphones with multi-tasking capabilities do not havethis restriction, but still require a VoIP client to be installed.




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3. Operator Considerations

Table 3-1 provides some operator considerations on the use of femtocells and Wi-Fiaccess points to support in-building voice and data services:

Area Wi-Fi Solution 3G Femtocell Solution

Offloading data Bypasses the wireless carrier'snetwork entirely (except withUMA or iWLAN). No need toutilize the operator’s licensed

spectrum at all.

Offloads user data from the radioand backhaul networks (futurefemtocells will also offload the corenetwork).

Customer Premise

Equipment (CPE)

Many customers with broadband

already have Wi-Fi at home or inthe office.

Customer must obtain a femtocell.

Device support Many 3G handsets don’t haveWi-Fi (see section Error!Reference source not found.).

Femtocells support all 3G handsets.

Operator managedservices

The operator may or may not bethe Wi-Fi / internet provider.

The operator remains involved inthe femtocell service and canprovide support to end users.

Operatormanagement ofQuality of Service(QoS)

Wi-Fi operates in unlicensedspectrum and service quality cannot always be ensured.

Femtocells use the operator’s ownlicensed spectrum, allowing theoperator to maintain control overinterference and service qualityover the air interface.

New marketingpropositions (e.g.home-zone tariffs)

Wi-Fi can support homezonetariffs with Unlicensed MobileAccess, but UMA requires newequipment in the network and is

supported only on a small

number of devices.

All customer information isavailable through the femtocell;new tariffs and marketingpropositions are easily

implemented.

Seamless servicecontinuity

Wi-Fi does not support operatormanaged voice, SMS or MMSservices, or seamless handoverwith the macro network (exceptwith UMA).

Femtocells support all theoperator’s services, with seamlesshandover between the femto andmacro networks.

Operator familiarityand ease of service

deployment

Carriers will have to consideroperational aspects of

introducing new services to bothcellular and Wi-Fi networks (e.g.support for content services –see below).

3G femtocells simply extend anoperator’s existing network further

into the home or office.

Advantages Summary • Does not require the use

of the operator’s licensedspectrum

• Offloads data traffic• New CPE often not

required•

Available in the majority

of smartphones today

• Offloads data traffic•

Supports all the operator’s3G handsets

• Enables managed servicesand QoS

• Enables new tariffpropositions

• Extends operator networkinto the home or office

Table 3-1 Comparing 3G femtocells and Wi-Fi access points from the operator’s perspective

Operators face the challenge of expanding the coverage and increasing the capacity of

their mobile networks, while providing an exceptional user experience to their




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customers. In addition, operators are continually looking for new revenueopportunities. As Table 2 shows, 3G femtocells provide operators with advantagesover Wi-Fi for some of these areas. Femtocells complement the operator’s businesscase more naturally than Wi-Fi, and simplify the management of new services.

In addition, femtocells extend the mobile operator’s brand into the home of thecustomer, and can reinforce reliance upon the operator’s managed services. This canenhance the ‘stickiness’ of the operator’s products and services, positively impactingthe lifetime value of the customer. By contrast, if customers are educated to use Wi-Fiin the home as an access point for mobile data, they may increasingly use Wi-Fi awayfrom the home as well. This can potentially reduce the operator’s revenues, and maydeliver a variable user experience affected by factors beyond the operator’s control.

Currently, operators gain a significant amount of revenue supporting content deliveryservices, such as selling ringtones, music, videos, games and applications. When

connected to the operator’s own network (including femtocells) the customer canpurchase these types of content easily and with greater speed and a better user

experience than Wi-Fi. A Wi-Fi access point does not automatically reveal the identityof the end user, which is required for billing, and also does not automatically revealthe type of device the customer is using, which can be required for automaticallyselecting the correct content format. Because a femtocell automatically provides thistype of data (just as the macro network does), content downloads and purchases from

the operator’s content portal are provided to the customer seamlessly (and theoperator is able to take a share of the revenue).




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4. The Challenge of Using Wi-Fi for Critical Communications

Communications via Wi-Fi are inherently less reliable than communications over a 3G

network. The unreliability stems from the fact that Wi-Fi operates in unlicensed

frequency bands. In unlicensed bands, no device has protection from interference, andthere is no centralized network manager to monitor, resolve, or mitigate interference.According to the FCC’s rules in the United States, an unlicensed band device must

accept interference “caused by the operation of an authorized radio station, byanother intentional or unintentional radiator, by industrial, scientific and medical (ISM)equipment, or by an incidental radiator” [6].

The unlicensed frequencies in which Wi-Fi operates are used for many additionalpurposes, including baby monitors, security cameras, VoIP telephony, car alarms,

some North American cordless telephones, gaming systems and remote controls.Microwave ovens also operate in this band.

An Ofcom-commissioned report [7] recently revealed a variety of problems with Wi-Fi

performance in the UK, concluding that interference from baby-listeners, TV-sendersand the “Free Public WiFi” virus are slowing down connections and that in some places(notably London) there are too many Wi-Fi networks interfering with each other. Thereport concludes that dealing with the interference from legal AV transmitters andbaby-listeners is “a hard thing to do in unregulated spectrum”.

However, in practice general internet access using Wi-Fi works extremely well for most

people in most situations – hence its widescale adoption. The interference problemsrevealed by Ofcom affect relatively few people today (although it’s likely that thiscould increase in future as Wi-Fi is used by more and more smartphones andconsumer electronics devices). Furthermore, Wi-Fi is improving all the time with theevolution of standards. It is likely that Wi-Fi will remain very well-suited to data

applications for which a “best-efforts” level of service is acceptable, including webbrowsing and general internet access for most users.

On the other hand, licensed spectrum has a significant advantage for applications thatrequire guaranteed QoS, including many voice and video services. A mobile operator

owning licensed spectrum may not want to deliver managed services in an unlicensedband. Femtocells offer the operator greater control over the customer experience (andtherefore greater protection for the operator’s brand). With continuing use ofunlicensed spectrum by more and more devices, the differentiation offered by licensedspectrum will become increasingly apparent. In fact, it can be envisaged that thecontinued growth and success of Wi-Fi will increasingly support the case for femtocellsto deliver managed services, even in devices that have both 802.11 and 3G/4G.




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5. Wi-Fi Penetration in Dual Mode Cellular Phones

With Wi-Fi Access Points a part of many home and office networks and Wi-Fi access

becoming more ubiquitous in public areas (such as airports, malls, etc.), utilizing Wi-Fi

as a complementary access mode to the macro network can make a lot of sense for amobile operator. For example, AT&T in the United States has configured its iPhones toautomatically connect to its own Wi-Fi hotspots when in range (although AT&T data

services such as MediaNet, AT&T Mall and AT&T Music are only available on the 3Gnetwork).

But despite increasing penetration in smartphones, Wi-Fi is unlikely ever to address anoperator’s entire 3G handset base. ABI Research forecasts that smartphones will peakat less than 25% of total handset shipments (Figure 5-1), and a large number of 3G

feature-phones will continue to be produced without Wi-Fi capabilities (Figure 5-2);popular examples currently on sale include the Samsung Tocco and the LG Viewty. These feature-phones typically generate much lower volumes of traffic than

smartphones today, but consumers are rapidly adopting data services even on basic3G handsets. For example, owners of INQ Mobile’s low-end (Wi-Fi-less) 3G handsetson the 3 UK network are aggressively using social networking applications, mobileemail and instant messaging in a manner normally expected of smartphone owners.About 65% of them use Facebook on their phone almost every day [8].

Figure 5-1 Smartphones as a percentage of total handset shipments (source ABI Research)

http://www.samsungmobile.co.uk/mobile-phones/samsung-tocco-specification



http://www.mobile-phones-uk.org.uk/lg-viewty-ku990.htm








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Figure 5-2 Wi-Fi support in feature phones (source ABI Research 9)

Furthermore, while future smartphones will have a more seamless integration with Wi-Fi (like the iPhone) many existing smartphones provide a relatively poor Wi-Fiexperience, with complex configuration and manual steps required by the end user.

Therefore, femtocells have an advantage in providing a better mobile data experienceto 3G feature-phones and to the existing installed base of smartphones. Even when asmartphone does provide excellent Wi-Fi integration, some consumers will choose not

to configure Wi-Fi, or will leave the Wi-Fi radio switched off to preserve battery life.These subscribers can only be served from the 3G macro network or a femtocell.

It should be noted that Unlicensed Mobile Access solves many of the issues with usingWi-Fi on mobile phones highlighted in Table 2-1 and Table 3-1. UMA enables seamlessservice continuity with the macro network, allowing all of the mobile operator’s

services to be accessed over Wi-Fi. But as well as requiring additional equipment to beinstalled in the operator’s network, UMA relies on the handset having a UMA client aswell as Wi-Fi capability.

Although a number of operators have implemented UMA in their networks, the numberof handsets with UMA remains a small percentage of the number of Wi-Fi enabledhandsets (see Figure 5-3).




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Figure 5-3 Global handsets with Wi-Fi support versus UMA support 10

Integration of a UMA client in handsets is becoming simpler, but until a much greaternumber of UMA-capable handsets are available to consumers, the success of UMAservices is likely to remain limited.

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M u l l i o n s o f U n i t s

Wi-Fi for data UMA




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6. Battery Life in Wi-Fi Enabled Handsets

According to IMS Research, the gap between the power demands and the battery

capacity of smartphones is already a significant problem for the mobile phone

industry, and the gap is set to widen over the next few years [11]. Therefore it’simportant that the network should be very efficient in delivering services in order topreserve handset battery life as much as possible.

In order for a handset to receive calls and SMS messages from the macro network,the 3G modem must remain switched on. When a consumer with a Wi-Fi enabled 3Ghandset enters the coverage area of an accessible Wi-Fi access point, either the phonewill automatically switch over to utilize the Wi-Fi access point for data services, or theuser can manually configure the handset to use the Wi-Fi network. In both cases, the

handset’s Wi-Fi modem must be switched on in addition to the 3G modem forcontinued seamless delivery of voice calls and SMS. Generally speaking, a handsetthat has both its 3G modem and its Wi-Fi modem active will drain its battery fasterthan a handset that has only its 3G modem active.

Interestingly, Apple Computer has published on its website [12] suggestions on howto extend the battery life of the iPhone. Included among common-sense ideas such as

“turn off push notifications” and “minimize use of location services” is “Turn off Wi-Fi:If you rarely use Wi-Fi, you can turn it off to save power.” This acknowledges that

having two radios on simultaneously (both the 3G radio and the Wi-Fi radio) drains thebattery faster than having only the 3G radio switched on. The suggestion goes on toread “…if you frequently use your iPhone to browse the web, battery life may beimproved by using Wi-Fi instead of cellular data networks.” However, this presupposes

that no femtocell is available for the iPhone to access, and that only the macronetwork is available. Accessing a local femtocell is significantly less taxing on aphone’s battery then accessing the macro network.




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7. Conclusions

It is clear that Wi-Fi will remain an important component of many operators’ mobile

data strategies and some analysts have expressed the view that Wi-Fi alone is

sufficient to meet the needs of operators and consumers, and that femtocells aretherefore not needed [13]. However, in practice femtocells and Wi-Fi havecomplementary strengths. This paper emphasizes the role that femtocells will playalongside Wi-Fi in providing the best possible mobile data experience to consumers.

Femtocells offer many advantages to both operators and consumers, including:

• Femtocells work with all 3G handsets.• Femtocells provide seamless service continuity with the macro network

(including support for the operator’s voice, SMS, MMS and content services).

• Femtocells need no configuration or special settings in the handset.

•

Femtocells operate in licensed spectrum, allowing the operator to provide amanaged service and maintain control of QoS.

•

Femtocells do not require use of a second radio on the handset, therebypreserving phone battery life.

Wi-Fi has complementary strengths, including low cost, ubiquity and operator

independence. Therefore in future we see Wi-Fi and femtocells co-existing in harmony– often integrated into a single home gateway box.

This view has been eloquently expressed by Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobility, “It’s not going to be one thing; it will be a combination of things: taking fibre closer tothe home, Wi-Fi and femtocells. A combination of all of those is going to help usmanage bandwidth and provide a great experience to our customers no matter wherethey connect” [14].



007 Wireless in Home and Office

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