December 22, 2009

E-RAN for On-Campus Mobile Network Services

Today‘s 3G customers can consume up towards 5Gb+ per month with 60-70% of all mobile data and voice usage taking place indoors. Given the rate of bandwidth consumption and the growth of indoor cellular usage, it has become business critical to manage capacity smarter. This capacity dilemma is not easily solved by adding more macro cell sites outside to blast inside considering the expense and inefficiencies of deployment in this manner.

Campuses of all sizes require reliable cellular coverage, yet for most, it hasn‘t been a possibility because of the way cellular services are currently delivered--from the outside in. Whether cellular services are used for voice or data, campuses need a better solution. Outdoor cellular signals face numerous issues and challenges penetrating buildings and providing reliable voice or data communication access – often to thousands of people located in very dense areas.

Educational Facilities: Wireless IT Challenges

Campus IT systems support a variety of networks to support communication over desktop phones, computers and laptops (Wi-Fi). If Wi-Fi is present, then free or paid-for access includes Smartphones such as iPhones and Blackberries. Let‘s review some of the challenges faced by IT staff on campus:

• Everyone is a mobile worker or mobile student
• Everyone has a mobile phone but coverage and capacity are not reliable.
• Voice: whether essential staff are in the office or not, each office is wired for desktop voice at a CapEx of $300 to $700 with monthly OpEx ranging from $5 to $10
• Wi-Fi network: Every 75-100 feet, an 802.11abgn system is in use sporadically to provide reliable data access only for students, faculty and staff.
• Universities and extension sites are increasingly using ―hotel cube rather than offices and thus a mobile office (cell phone) is becoming increasingly important for them.
• IT departments are constrained due to budgets, resources and access to qualified personnel who understand unlicensed or licensed RF planning.
• Convergence of networks is of great interest: PBX integration with mobile devices, and the migration away from desktop phones.
• Predictable mobile voice charging: No surprise bills from the operator.
   

Current Cellular Solutions: Costly and Cumbersome

DAS, PicoCell and femtocell solutions are either too costly and require site and/or network planning or cannot scale to the demands of hundreds to thousands of fully-mobile subscribers. Existing solutions can either handle voice well or fixed data access– but not robust mobile voice and broadband inside a campus. The cost of adding macro-based cell sites with the associated deployment costs can be prohibitive, possibly leaving universities underserved with reliable 3G capacity and coverage inside As a result, only a very few large education facilities receive the attention of large mobile operators.

SpiderCloud Wireless Offers a New Approach

Educational facilities are not tapping into the revenue potential they have. The student population (500 to 25,000 in some cases) presents a revenue sharing opportunity with mobile device and subscriber plans – including flat rate campus zone billing. A dedicated 3G network deployed inside or on campus can provide reliable voice coverage and can augment existing Wi-Fi systems to better handle peaks in data consumption or to provide cost effective coverage while offering subscribers and employees reliable voice and data coverage throughout the campus. The challenges facing IT staff are whether or not to install and manage this network by themselves through the use of Fixed-Mobile-Convergence infrastructure, special devices or applications – or sign up for a wireless platform service from a mobile operator.

SpiderCloud Wireless, Inc. is a developer of wireless technologies and the pioneer of the Enterprise Radio Access Network (E-RAN) platform Based on a new vision for RAN architecture, the SmartCloud E-RAN solution enables mobile operators to deliver coverage and capacity from the inside out for campuses of all sizes.

Ronny A. Haraldsvik
Vice President of Marketing