Macro and Small Cell/Wi-Fi Networks - An Analysis of Deployment Options as the Solution for the Mobile Data Explosion

With the tremendous growth in mobile data traffic, triggered by increases in data subscriptions, powerful devices and richer applications, operators are seeing Wi-Fi as not only a complementary technology to offload cellular data traffic but also as a seamless extension of their mobile networks. The advent of Hot Spot 2.0, enhanced Wi-Fi QoS techniques and transparent authentication mechanisms between Mobile and Wi-Fi networks will pave the way for seamless mobility and roaming between these two technologies and provide a better quality of experience to the end user. With web-based applications like Skype, GoogleTalk and WhatsApp becoming mainstream media for communication, operators are looking at the combination of licensed band and Wi-Fi technologies to meet capacity demands. This paper discusses the evolution of basic network Wi-Fi based Hot Spots to become the trusted partner of mobile operators. Architectures and required features for data offload and seamless mobility are presented as well as an in-depth techno-economic analysis comparing various deployment alternatives of data offload in a heterogeneous network.