Emerging markets are quickly growing in the mobile internet era. These markets feature large population and rapid service growth, with users posing higher network requirements. However, network deployment costs in these markets remain high due to expensive and limited spectrum and site resources. In urban areas, this is due to difficult traditional site deployment and acquisition, scarce spectrum resources, and high site costs, which cause common network congestion, traffic suppression, and poor user experience. In remote and rural areas, coverage requirements cannot be fulfilled due to arduous site deployment caused by a lack of basic network infrastructure, low single-site revenue, and a long ROI period. At this critical juncture of digital transformation, the capability of deploying low-cost highly efficient wireless networks using limited resources has manifested as the core competitiveness of operators.

As the MWC 2017 is imminent, let us explore what innovative solutions Huawei will release to combat spectrum and site conundrums seeking network efficiency maximization.

Multi-Layer Network Solution: Comprehensive Coverage in Urban Areas

The experience of cell edge users (CEUs) is poor in urban areas with insufficient intensive coverage due to troublesome traditional macro site addition. Huawei's latest multi-layer network solution facilitates batch site acquisition and innovate site forms to achieve multi-layer network coverage in urban areas.

• First layer: wide, continuous, and shallow coverage provided by traditional macro sites fulfills basic coverage and capacity requirements
• Second layer: quick, comprehensive, and intensive coverage provided by pole-mounted sites offloads hotspot traffic
• Third layer: intensive indoor coverage provided by outdoor micro sites offloads part of hotspot traffic
• Fourth layer: high-value intensive indoor coverage provided by indoor sites offloads outdoor site traffic

This outside-in top-down multi-layer network fully enhances coverage and further absorbs traffic to effectively resolve coverage and capacity issues in urban areas while providing ubiquitous and superior user experience.

Multi-sector Multi-channel Technology: Liberation of Suppressed Traffic

This multi-sector multi-channel solution enhances network capabilities without site addition in densely populated urban areas. This solution helps to deploy 6-, 9-, and 18-sector xTxR UMTS networks negating the addition of new spectrum or sites to release suppressed traffic. The solution also supports smooth GSM/UMTS/LTE evolution and software-defined antennas for flexible switching among multiple frequency bands, sectors, and channels, effectively protecting customers' UMTS and LTE investment.

GU@5 MHz Solution: Maximizing Spectral Efficiency

Statistics show that 15% of operators around the globe only access 5 MHz to 6 MHz on the 900 MHz band. The number of GSM users remains high in markets where MBB is developing. Operators struggle in reallocating spectrum of legacy RATs for MBB deployment and cannot provide basic UMTS coverage. The GU@5 MHz solution adopts the innovative interference suppression technology and helps to simultaneously deploy GSM and UMTS networks on 5 MHz without spectrum migration, facilitating rapid UMTS deployment and providing ubiquitous basic MBB coverage. The GU@5 MHz technology has been successfully verified in India and Nigeria and will be continually innovated in the future to maximize spectral efficiency for operators.

Innovative Site Form Solution: Maximizing ROI

Huawei develops a wide range of scenario-specific innovative site form solutions to help operators tackle horizontal site addition bottlenecks, acquire site locations in batches, rapidly deploy networks, lower OPEX, and maximize ROI. These solutions are classified into the following five categories:

1.Lamp pole-mounted sites

These sites are deployed on existing lamp poles which are centrally negotiated as opposed to one-by-one negotiation, significantly lowering site acquisition costs and achieving low-cost rapid deployment.

2.Integrated pole-mounted sites

These sites are integrated into poles and are environment friendly, facilitating deployment in sensitive regions, lowering the site area, and saving OPEX.

3.Intelligent sites

These sites invigorate site economy and achieve sharing and value addition of social resources, facilitating site acquisition, lowering total costs of ownership, and increasing site acquisition rate.

4.Aggregation sites

Aggregation sites simplify the process of obtaining transmission and power resources.

5.VillaRadio

VillaRadio provides improved intensive coverage.

Site Alliances: Facilitating Quick Batch Site Acquisition

Operators are confronting challenges presented by difficult site acquisition, various regulations, and high costs. Site alliances allow operators to fully leverage existing social resources including governmental resources and tower companies, while encouraging collaboration among all sectors of society. This will subsequently facilitate the establishment of site ecosystems and interest sharing, and achieve quick batch site acquisition. Huawei has partnered with operators and tower companies in Indonesia to establish a site industry alliance. The alliance helps to significantly lower the single-site rental cost and attain multi-win results and mutual benefits.

New Rural Network Solution: Rapid ROI

Operators encounter issues of high site deployment costs, low single-site income, and long ROI periods in scarcely inhabited rural areas. Huawei's new rural network solution labeled RuralStar has multiple advantages over the existing solution. This involves replacing several technologies and hardware components such as the satellite and microwave technology with relay technology, traditional towers with simple poles, and traditional diesel generators (DGs) with solar panels. These advantages help to reduce rental fees, DG, maintenance, and transportation costs while reducing operators' ROI period to less than five years.

In 2017, Huawei will continue to provide technological innovations with a strict focus on customers. The primary aim of this endeavor is to create value for customers and help customers perform digital transformation in the MBB era and achieve business success while continually improving network efficiency. Huawei is ready to impress customers with powerful and innovative solutions at the upcoming MWC 2017.