Small Cells Network Sharing

Network sharing makes sense for the operators in this day and age when ARPU keeps going down and users expect more from their networks. The picture above shows the different components that can be shared to increase the cost savings.

Small cells sharing has been on agenda for a long time and it is starting to be deployed in the networks. I an interview with the new Small Cell Forum chariman, Alan Law, ThinkSmallCell covered this as a question:

What's your view on multi-operator Small Cell solutions?

Historically, there were a number of factors holding back adoption of multi-operator Small Cells, ranging from commercial aspects to technical aspects such as managing how the available capacity is shared between operators.

However, two 3GPP standards (MORAN and MOCN) have been defined which allow the same Small Cells to be shared between networks.

A few vendors and operators have implemented these features today demonstrating that there is no reason why Small Cells must be tied to a single operator

In another article featuring Radisys:

Can't Small Cells support multi-operator without DAS?

There are two existing 3GPP standards which do make this technically feasible. Both are already in commercial use today.
MOCN (Multiple Operator Core Network) is a network sharing concept that is fairly straightforward to implement, similar to network roaming. MORAN (Multiple Operator Radio Access Network) is more involved, providing a deeper integration and requiring more software within the small cells.

Some of our key customers are already using MOCN, but I see MORAN being the long term future – sharing the RAN as an end-to-end resource rather than just connecting through the core network. I can see a major challenge as we move outdoors to the streets where practical deployment constraints won't allow multiple small cells to be strung from the same lamp-posts.

I covered this RAN sharing in the 3G4G blog earlier here.

While the above picture is for the UMTS network, the LTE network sharing would be similar. Embedded below is a research paper that discusses the various approaches and to small cells network sharing and also features some case studies.

Shared Smallcell Networks from Zahid Ghadialy

Here are some additional links on this topic that would make an interesting reading:

• 3GPP Network Sharing Enhancements for LTE - Unwired Insight
• Active RAN sharing business models can bring benefits to towercos as well as operators - Analysis Mason
• LTE Network Sharing - Alcatel Lucent
• BIPT guidelines for infrastructure sharing
• Active RAN Sharing - NEC
• Case Study: RAN Sharing in Poland