Main Topic

Realizing the full potential of SingleRAN

Realizing the full

potential of SingleRAN
Delivering exible resource usage and reduced OPEX, the SingleRAN solution has been playing a key role in building
an efficient radio network, and its continual improvements can help achieve the full potential of SingleRAN.
By Bernhard Scholl

O
Bernhard Scholl joined T-Mobile
International (now DTAG) in 2006.
He is now Vice President for Radio
Network System Design responsible
for the GSM, UMTS and LTE radio
network design in the various
Deutsche Telekom affiliates. Prior to
his current position he worked for
Siemens Communications as Product
Manager for UMTS base stations.

perating in 50 countries,
we have about 150,000
base stations on different
networks, with the
smallest network having about 300 base
stations, while larger countries have
more than 50,000 base stations. We
have nearly 100% 2G coverage in all
our operations, but 3G is less; typically
it is between 60 and 90% in different
countries. We are adding LTE into our
network portfolio by starting limited
deployment.
We also have around 4000 hotspots
covered by WLAN. Additionally, we
have Flash-OFDMM, 3G TDD, and
CDMA systems; however, these three
have been deployed on a smaller scale.
Our major technologies are GSM,
UMTS and LTE for wide coverage and
macro deployment, due to the mature
ecosystem.
We a r e d e p l o y i n g S i n g l e R A N
currently to all GSM sites, which are
subject to the network modernization
in Germany, hence 12,700 sites. The
SingleRAN solution will make our
network flexible and cost-efficient, while
providing the best customer services.

Accommodating
different standards
As an operator, when we deploy
LTE or carry out modernization, we

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would really want everything we build

to accommodate other technologies
such as GSM and UMTS, or combine
the modernization directly with LTE
deployment.
When building a radio network, we
previously selected a supplier for GSM,
a second one for UMTS, and may be
a third one for LTE. SingleRAN has
enabled us to move away from this
multi-supplier model by using multiple
technologies per site. Huaweis base
station, for example, can accommodate
900MHz and 1800MHz in one
rack. Being highly integrated, these
installations occupy much less footprint
compared with the previous generations
of RAN equipment.
SingleRAN modules can be reused
for different standards. This helps us
reduce significantly the operational
costs regarding spare parts, logistics,
and training, while providing higher
f l e x i b i l i t y f o r i n c re a s i n g t r a f f i c .
In a d d i t i o n , t h e s i m p l e n e t w o r k
architecture has also protected our
investment, thanks to its single
transport interface for all backhaul
and the capability of handling either
GSM, UMTS, or LTE in the current
application case.
Accommodating multiple standards
in both the RF and transport layers,
however, the current SingleRAN BTS
architecture can be further improved
at the baseband layer, which is still
composed of standard specific modules.

Huawei Communicate

In the future, the baseband should

be capable of handling multiple
technologies and provide redundancy
across the modules.

Enhancing resource
efficiency
Another major benefit brought by
SingleRAN is flexible resource usage,
including spectrum usage and using the
air interface in the most efficient way
with different technologies in parallel.
Today, the most efficient power
amplifier is the small narrowband power
amplifier. On the one hand, we require
increased power amplifier bandwidth
to cover full band or multiple bands,
and cope with fragmented spectrum.
In addition, as we want to prepare
for network sharing and protect our
investment, we need to have a power
amplifier with a full frequency band,
which we can use for the flexible design
of network sharing and have the highest
efficiency in power consumption. We
also need increased output power to
cope with increasing traffic. On the
other hand, we need to reduce power
c o n s u m p t i o n t o d e c re a s e c a r b o n
footprint and OPEX in general.
In order to solve this dilemma and
achieve the optimal balance between the
output power, bandwidth and power
consumption, SingleRAN should evolve
and offer a more flexible power amplifier
solution by which operational state is
changeable via software.

Changing O&M mindset

SingleRAN calls for a change of
mindset. There are separate GSM,
UMTS and LTE standards, and we
usually assign separate expert terms and
operation teams to tackle GSM, UMTS,
and LTE networks. SingleRAN has
enabled us to unify our O&M teams
into one. We are also expected to have
a single operation system, which can

researching the software management

SingleRAN has enabled
of SingleRAN, which aims to keep the
us to unify our O&M teams software dependency between the GSM,
UMTS and LTE parts as low as possible
into one. We are also
and minimize the downtime due to
software upgrade.
expected to have a single
operation system, which can
Single transmission
exibly handle SingleRAN.
helps to reduce the
In this case, every SingleRAN t r aSingleRAN
nsmission costs and helps the
network architecture migrate to single
network element can be
IP-based transmission. Take Deutsche
controlled by one network
Telekom for example: we currently have
more than 500 BSCs in Germany, and
element manager.
about 22 RNCs. In the future, we will
flexibly handle SingleRAN. In this case,
every SingleRAN network element can
be controlled by one network element
manager, while a consistency check
can be delivered for multi-standard
configuration management.
Other features are also important, for
example, plug and play when you plug
a network device, e.g. a base station,
it will be configured and network
integrated in an automatic procedure.
This functionality has currently been
provided for the LTE as part of the
SingleRAN solution, and the same
functionality for the GSM and UMTS
parts should also become available. This
can greatly enhance operation efficiency.

Decrease software
dependency
In t o d a ys t y p i c a l d e p l oy m e n t
situation, we would have three
independent software packages, each to
manage GSM, UMTS and LTE system.
SingleRAN combines the individual
packages, and a software upgrade enables
the smooth evolution from GSM and
UMTS to LTE. The introduction of
LTE means an upgrade of the GSM
b a s e s t a t i o n s . So m e t e s t e f f o r t i s
required to ensure the high reliability of
the SingleRAN radio network. We are

have only one transport network and a

co-location or co-rack solution of BSCs
and RNCs. We will also introduce the
IPSec solution for GSM and LTE traffic,
including UMTS O&M traffic.

Enhancing resilience
To a v o i d s i n g l e - p o i n t f a i l u r e ,
SingleRAN requires additional
redundancy and resilience concepts
depending on the site priority and
the required network quality. In this
case, a network swap becomes quite
c o m p l i c a t e d . In a b i g a re a , a s i n
Germany, a swap will involve about one
million customers on GSM, UMTS and
LTE networks. We need an intelligent
redundancy mechanism. For LTE, we
can easily connect two different core
networks; but for GSM and UMTS, it
is not available yet. We are looking into
these challenges and trying to improve
reliability in order to avoid one single
fault on a site causing massive loss of
communications.
Delivering flexible resource usage
and reduced OPEX, the SingleRAN
solution has been playing a key role
in building an efficient radio network.
We have already reaped the SingleRAN
benefits and we expect to see more
improvements to achieve the full
potential benefits of this solution.
Editor: Michael huangzhuojian@huawei.com
SEP 2011 . ISSUE 61

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