3G Optimisation and UMTS 900 2008

A chance to get to know your peers before the start of the conference and set in a relaxed and informal atmosphere

• Why is 3G starting to take off?
• Statistics showing the projected growth of 3G and HSPA.
• How much investment will be needed to increase the capacity of the 3G network?
• What contribution will handsets make to this growth?
• Reviewing the status of HSPA deployments and developments
• Assessing the future demand for HSPA

• Why would anyone want to use their mobile phone at home?
• Why does this cause problems for the macro network?
• How can Femtocells (and Picocells) help to optimise the radio access network?
• How much can operators save on CAPEX and OPEX?
• What problems do femtocells create, and how can these be overcome?
• What are the advantages for the consumer?

• Examining network options, what are the commercially and technically viable solutions for indoor coverage?
• Establishing criteria on which to compare the options for indoor coverage: achievable cost of the infrastructure, required data densities, QoS and QoE
• Assessing the most important factors for customers (speed, reliability, cost...)
• What network enhancements are needed for HSDPA/HSUPA to guarantee QoS?
• Can HSDPA/HSUPA deliver a good indoor experience without the need for Femtocells?
• Where do WiFi and WiMAX fit in?

• Handing over from a 2G to a 3G, 3G to 2G and 3G to 3G, which is the most problematic?
• Achieving hard Inter-RAT handover seamlessly
• Impact of soft handover failure on QoS and customer satisfaction
• Assessing what the effects of having networks that are deployed by different vendors are
• Establishing whether handover problems are caused by network faults or the handsets themselves

• Limitations of drive testing network counters
• What are the challenges of developing advanced drive test tools and keeping costs down?
• How can automisation of drive testing yield more in depth knowledge about the network?
• Using UE to assess network performance
• What are the differences in network performance for different handsets?

• Comparing methods to measure QoS and QoE
• Producing extensive reporting of QoS/QoE per service, location and period
• Correlating user experience and RAN efficiency
• Evolving cost-effective RAN optimization methods responding to user expectations

• What are the potential problems associated with outsourcing?
• Is outsourcing cost effective?
• Is outsourcing a viable option taking into account: available resources, existing skills and knowledge and time constraints?
• Managing the supply chain when outsourcing

• Methodologies for deriving network metrics that relate to QoE
• Identifying and using QoS KPIs related to reliability: service availability, accessibility and continuity of services
• Identifying and using QoS KPIs related to comfort, ease of use and quality of session
• Which KPIs are best for determine and monitor the customer experience

• What are the current and future capacity problems expected with HSPA?
• Overcoming the challenges of moving to fasters speeds and HSPA+
• What will be the customer expectations and needs for future services?
• Evaluating optimisation techniques of how to upgrade services smoothly and ensure network quality

• Looking for parameters and KPIs for HSDPA and HSUPA
• Implementing a multi carrier approach for HSDPA, HSUPA and for mobile TV to increase capacity
• Examining the successful measurement results
• Exploring the technical challenges and how to overcome them
• Future outlook for optimisation processes to improve QoS and QoE
• DL/UL Performance with 7,2Mbps DL/1,5Mbps UL terminals (multiple carriers)
• Multi RAB performance monitoring and Multiple service performance (video, mobile TV and gaming)
• RTT and CQI measurement results
• Transmission capacity for HSDPA/HSUPA

• What is the impact in terms of capacity in the network?
• What are the challenges for a mobile operator and what level of QoS can be guaranteed?
• What additional investment is necessary in order to implement VoIP?
• Business case for VoIP over HSDPA, why optimise?

• The importance of measuring customer experience
• Specific KPI’s for IP service monitoring
• Techniques available for measuring and optimising IP data and video services
• New approaches to building a statistical view of end user experience in the network

• Predicting how the network will evolve under expected traffic and mixed service scenarios
• The need to prioritize voice and data traffic in 3G/HSPA vs GSM/EDGE
• Criteria to distribute voice and data traffic between the more than one WCDMA-carrier, when all carriers are able to do HSPA
• The need and possibility to move data traffic to other frequency bands 900MHz and 2.6GHz when HSPA 2.1GHz is overloaded.

• Market drivers and Operator’s requirements for delivering cost-efficient 3G mobile broadband services
• Solutions and services for 3G RAN Optimisation for broadband data
• Solutions and evolution strategies for backhaul network evolution towards IP
• Managed services for network delivery and operation to guarantee costs and SLAs

• The limitations of current backhaul technologies in handling increased levels of data
• Expanding 3G backhaul capacity without jeopardizing existing revenue streams coming from 2G networks
• Implementing core networks that can aggregate simultaneously 2G and 3G backhaul traffic
• Examining how operators can reduce the cost of increased capacity
• Evaluating current backhaul strategies around the world: Varying techniques and progress to date

• The use of pseudowires as a bridge between legacy technology and packet based technology
• Reducing backhaul CAPEX and OPEX throught network consolidation and effective system integration
• What are the challenges of introducing MPLS?
• Supporting an effective long term transition to Ethernet/IP

• Does it make sense to migrate to an all IP system at present?
• Can pseudowires and Ethernet/IP ever guarantee sufficiently reliable synchronisation for voice, given that IP is a best-effort technology?
• Is IP undoubtedly the most efficient solution for providing FMC?

• Automatic loading and correlation in order to identify KPIs and network issues
• Automation of reporting and root cause diagnostics
• What is the most important problem in the network? Prioritisation
• How to control and measure the process
• Quantifying the efficiency gains from automising the optimisation process

• Will analysis of the results always be done manually?
• Are automated antenna settings effective or better done manually?
• Traffic marketing reports can only be produced globally at the moment, what future steps are needed to provide more detailed information?
• Is self healing possible?
• Creating a self optimising network, can it be done?

• Identifying the challenges involved in setting the most effective parameters for network optimisation
• Determining key parameters that should be placed under automatic optimisation
• Understanding the direct and indirect effects of parameters on network performance and QoS
• Standardising the automated process

• How interoperability and seamless communication will ensure the success of new services
• Assessing how VoIP will be commercially viable through an IP network
• How can SIP and IMS be utilised within the IP network
• Ensuring that new services are available cross-border to any user regardless of network, technical platform and terminal type

• Is there a need for Mobile Broadband Access technologies?
• The evolution path towards a Next Generation Mobile Network
• How to integrate MBWA technologies into the network

• What is different with LTE and why should operators deploy LTE.
• Enabling new sources of revenue and driving costs down
• Hyperconnectivity: Friend or Foe?
• LTE/SAE Trial Initiative: driving towards LTE industrialization

• What is the forecast rate of subscription migration from GSM to WCDMA in Western Europe?
• Analysis of traffic increases, will networks with their current capacity hold?
• Timetable for expiry of GSM licences
• Analysing the projected decrease in the usage of the GSM900 band, how much of the network will become available?
• Regulators outside the EU that have embraced UMTS900

• Replacing the GSM Directive as a reference point for the use of the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands
• Outlining the conclusions drawn from the ECC Report on the compatibility for UMTS to operate within the GSM 900 and the GSM 1800 frequency bands
• Reporting on how the spectrum will need to be redistributed amongst operators in order to provide enough bandwidth to deploy UMTS
• Highlighting the limitations of the EU Directive and how the EU does not dictate the means by which the spectrum is re-farmed

• What is the impact of these regulations on operators in Europe?
• Detailing the timescales for the re-farming of the 900MHz spectrum from a regulatory perspective
• Assessing the impact of liberalising the market
• What is the future possibility of bidding for more frequencies and greater bandwidths?

• Should we really have spectrum re-farming. Discussing the arguments for and against
• How should the 900MHz spectrum be re-farmed?
• Who will potentially loose out and who will have something to gain?
• Can UMTS900 co-exist with GSM900?
• Is there enough spectrum for everyone?
• Are the changes in the EU regulations fair to everyone?
• How will the regulators in the individual EU member states respond to the regulations?
• Is this just a quick fix, or does re-farming does it just offer a quick way into the market for competition?

• Spectrum Options for Next Generation Mobile Networks
• Status of 900MHz spectrum in Europe
• Options for 900MHz spectrum going forward
• GSM Evolution vs UMTS vs LTE in 900MHz

• How UMTS can help in countries where there has not been a deployment of 3G
• Implications on spectrum management and licensing
• What are the competing solutions in these areas?

• What procedures were used to test the UMTS 900 network?
• Coverage comparison and building penetration losses between UMTS900 and UMTS2100
• UMTS 900 performance for R99 and HSPA based services
• Conclusions drawn from the study
• Elisa Corporations experiences after deploying UMTS 900 for commercial use

• Assessing how indoor coverage can be optimised
• What will be the cost savings in deploying UMTS in rural areas?
• Will there be any need for femtocells for in-building use if UMTS900 is available?
• What is the ability of the 900MHz spectrum to support additional services other than voice?
• What will the supply of handsets that can work on UMTS 900 be like?

• Discussing the advantages and disadvantages of spectrum sharing
  • in rural areas
  • in urban areas
• How will operators that loose out in the bid for a piece of the 900MHz spectrum be affected
• How to share the spectrum successfully for the optimisation of all networks involved
• Discussing potential solutions for operators that only receive a limited amount of spectrum or no spectrum at all
• Examining strategies for spectrum trading between operators

• Results of RA-07 / WRC-07
• Spectrum for IMT / IMT-2000 / IMT-Advanced (e.g. 470-862 MHz)
• Impact on the existing UMTS bands (e.g. 900 MHz)
• Spectrum implications of WiMAX (IEEE 802.16e) after approval as the 6th radio interface for IMT-2000