lte ebook no 2 - exploring the cost of depoloyment

des

tinat

ion

LTE expressMOVE FAST AND OUTCOMPETE

“I need more coverage and capacity at less cost. Can LTE deliver that?”


Itin

erar

y

COST EFFICIENCY

Take the direct route to lower costs

Published February 2014

Choose LTE overlay: Reduce deployment costs by 48%

Get more coverage for less with network sharing

Add more capacity at less cost: Densify with metro cells

Reduce the cost of delivering voice: Deploy VoLTE

Evolve to virtualized RAN and significantly reduce TCO

Deploy LTE early, densify with metro cells, and evolve to virtualized RAN:

Reduce cost per bit by 57%

Why Alcatel-Lucent LTE express


LTE express overlay savings

48% cost savings over converged RAN

Caps 3G investment earlier

40-50% time savings

28% less down time

Choose LTE overlay: Reduce deployment costs by 48%You need to increase capacity to satisfy mobile user demand, but you also need an efficient cost structure. LTE overlay provides the foundation for both.

Bell Labs modeling shows that an

Alcatel-Lucent LTE overlay delivers a

48 % cost savings over converged RAN.

And according to Informa Telecom and

Media research, the cost advantage of

an LTE overlay solution compared to a

converged RAN lasts for close to seven

years. By then most of the traffic will

have moved to LTE.

With LTE overlay, there is only one new

network to install, configure and integrate.

There’s no need to decommission and

replace legacy 2G/3G hardware at each

cell site. And you eliminate the costs and

risks of disrupting the stability of your

2G/3G network.

If you deploy LTE overlay, you have less

need to continue to invest in your 2G/3G

networks because your LTE network can

handle growing traffic demand. You’ll

invest in LTE infrastructure that is future-

oriented and that can be depreciated over

the longer term.

RETURN TO THE ITINERARY


Gain 21% TCO savings per site with RAN sharing

Share backhaul

Share passive assets

(sites, towers, antennas)

Share active

modules (BBU, RRH)

Share spectrum (pooled, split, dynamically

split)

Get more coverage for less with network sharingWhy build it yourself, when you can share LTE deployment and costs?

Alcatel-Lucent LTE express can help

you lower your LTE deployment costs

by configuring optimal network sharing

options for maximum savings, while still

enabling you to retain control over the

performance of your network.

Network sharing can help you overcome

deployment challenges, such as limited

spectrum, lack of site availability and not

enough capital. Bell Labs modeling shows

that RAN sharing can reduce costs by up

to 21%.

There are many RAN sharing options,

ranging from sharing backhaul, eNodeB

passive assets such as sites and towers,

active modules such as the basebands

and radio heads, to also sharing spectrum.

Sharing spectrum allows you to optimize

your spectrum assets, while offering a

better peak throughput rate to users.

Alcatel-Lucent LTE express offers a

variety of spectrum sharing options

configured at the cell level. Spectrum can

be pooled, split, or dynamically split to

best fit your market requirements.



LTE express metro cell savings

31%savings with macro and metro cells vs. macro

cells only

Add more capacity at less cost: Densify with metro cellsOnce your macro LTE overlay is deployed, you’ll need a cost-effective way to densify your network in areas with the heaviest traffic. Which requires less investment — adding capacity with more macro cells only or with a combination of macro and metro cells?

A five-year Bell Labs simulation

compared the two approaches for

densifying a mobile network in the

U.S. that provides service to 12 major

cities, including New York City, Boston,

Dallas, San Francisco and others. Total

subscribers were 10 million throughout

the five years and the initial traffic per

subscriber was assumed to be 300 MB,

growing 30-fold to reach 9 GB at the end

of the five-year period.

The simulation shows that 40% fewer

macro cells were required to address

capacity demands with an Alcatel-Lucent

LTE express metro cell deployment

strategy. That translates into a cost

savings of 31% compared to adding

capacity with macro cells only.

Why?

Metro cells are low-power, small form

factor devices that can be placed in

almost any hotspot location. Once

deployed, they can offload up to 60% of

macro traffic. This makes metro cells ideal

for providing dedicated capacity to high-

use urban hotspots, such as hotel lobbies,

restaurants, malls, train stations, stadiums,

airports and city streets.



0 100 200 300 400 500

Source: Senza Fili 2012

CSFB

VoLTE

Network Costs in Millions

VoLTE has lower network costs than CSFB

Operators bene�t from VoLTE

Major Tier 1 operators are leveraging VoLTE for simultaneous voice and data, global roaming and a larger device ecosystem

VoLTE frees up spectrum for LTE deployment

Green�eld operators avoid CSFB roaming fees

71% Reduction in Network Costs

Reduce the cost of delivering voice: Deploy VoLTEAn LTE overlay built with Alcatel-Lucent LTE express enables you to immediately take advantage of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) to lower the cost of delivering voice service to your subscribers.

It is more cost-effective to carry voice

calls on LTE than on 2G/3G networks

because LTE is more spectrally efficient.

LTE Release 8 is up to 3 times more

spectrally efficient than 3G and up to

6 times more efficient than 2G Therefore,

carrying voice traffic on an LTE network

requires fewer carriers than carrying the

same traffic on 2G/3G networks.

Network models show the cost benefits

of VoLTE over a Circuit-Switched Fall-

Back (CSFB) approach where subscribers

are rerouted to the 2G or 3G network

for voice calls. One model shows that

CSFB requires 9,500 carriers to transport

voice traffic, but a network that leverages

VoLTE requires only half the amount of

carriers. This translates into a 71% cost

savings over CSFB.

Combining voice and data on one LTE

network with Alcatel-Lucent LTE express

not only improves spectral efficiency, but

also increases network utilization, which

further reduces costs.



VirtualizedBaseband

Up to

55% TCO savings

RNC

SC GW

MME

OTHER

Fronthaul Optimization

Optical

IP/Ethernet

Up to

25% TCO savings

Centralized Baseband

Evolve to virtualized RAN and significantly reduce TCOA virtualized RAN architecture enabled by Alcatel-Lucent LTE express can deliver substantial Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) savings, enhance reliability, and increase scalability and capacity. Consider two examples.

With a virtualized RAN, centralized

basebands bring Baseband Units (BBUs)

into a pooled, coordinated and virtualized

cloud that can be shared by hundreds

of Remote Radio Heads (RRHs). Because

fewer BBUs are needed, site, energy,

transport, maintenance, and upgrade

costs are all reduced. And because BBU

resources are shared among many RRHs,

centralized BBUs also offer high capacity

and scalability, while simultaneously

increasing BBU utilization and

performance.

With a virtualized RAN architecture,

substantial savings are also achieved with

virtualized basebands, which consolidate

many network elements into one industry

standard, high-volume server. With

virtualized basebands, network elements

are network applications that run on

the same server. Virtualizing network

elements reduces deployment, site,

energy, and maintenance costs. There is

less hardware to deploy and maintain, the

hardware has a smaller footprint, and it

uses less power.

Virtualization offers infinite scalability,

allowing deployments to start small

and scale as needed without limits. It

provides high availability. And it improves

disaster recovery options because there

are fewer elements in the network that

must be replicated. RETURN TO THE ITINERARY


COST

TRAFFIC GROWTH

Start

3G

2x 4x 5x

57%LOWERCOSTPER BIT

10x

TCO advantage from LTE early deployment

LTE

LTE Small Cells

Virtualized RAN architecture

Path 1: Grow 3G. deploy LTE later

Path 2: Overlay LTE, densify with small cells, evolve to virtualized RAN architecture

Deploy LTE early, densify with metro cells, and evolve to virtualized RAN: Reduce cost per bit by 57%Network costs are driven by the need to increase network capacity to satisfy the seemingly insatiable demand for mobile data. You have to grow capacity to satisfy user demand, but at the same time you must consider your TCO to remain profitable. How you choose to evolve your network to meet growing capacity demands has a major impact on your TCO.

A Bell Labs study that compares the

cost of two technology evolution paths

provides insight into the best approach,

assuming a 10-fold increase in traffic

over a five-year period.

On the first path, the operator continues

to densify a 3G network to meet growing

data demand and deploys LTE later.

On the second path, the same operator

overlays LTE immediately on existing

3G sites to satisfy capacity requirements,

densifies the network later with LTE

metro cells, and finally moves to a

virtualized RAN architecture.

The study shows that Path 2 achieves a 57% lower cost per bit than Path 1. Why?

LTE is more spectrally efficient and has

higher bandwidth than 3G. Therefore,

by deploying LTE early, the operator

can leverage the network longer before

costly cell splitting and/or other capacity

upgrades are required. Densifying the

network with metro cells improves the

economics by placing cost-effective

capacity directly where it is needed

most. And finally, evolving to an efficient

virtualized RAN architecture further

reduces capital and operational costs. RETURN TO THE ITINERARY


To learn more about how Alcatel-Lucent LTE express takes you to LTE sooner, contact your local Alcatel-Lucent sales representative.

Why Alcatel-Lucent LTE expressYour destination is LTE, and we’ll get you there on an LTE overlay route that is faster, simpler and future proof. We have the

products, the experience and the services to help you rapidly deliver the outstanding LTE experience your consumer and enterprise

customers are demanding.

FasterAvailable now: We deliver the fastest and furthest-reaching high capacity network.

Faster time to market: We have the right wireless and IP experience, expertise and services gained from deploying the world’s largest LTE networks. Our complete LTE overlay solution can be deployed in record time, beating all market estimates.

SimplerTurnkey solution: Market and network planning, site selection, network design, integration, backhaul, power, maintenance, SON and more.

Expertise of the world’s specialist in IP Networking and Ultra-Broadband Access with a leading portfolio spanning macro, small cells, backhaul, packet core and applications. We have built — and continue to build — the largest, highest capacity LTE networks in the world.

One throat to choke: We worry about project dependencies so you don’t have to.

Future-proofScalable architecture: LTE overlay architecture designed for huge signaling and data plane scale.

Scalable networks: Near invisible and low power small cells increase network capacity up to 10x.

Scalable operations: Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT) delivers massive near term turn-up of resources when and where needed.

Ongoing innovation: Backed by our innovation powerhouse Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent continues to bring advanced lightRadio™ technologies and products to market. Our LTE investment is shaped by the world’s largest and most aggressive FDD and TDD operators deploying Carrier Aggregation, VoLTE, eMBMS, virtualized RAN and small cell HetNets.


lte ebook no 2 - exploring the cost of depoloyment

Technology