Mobile Data Explosion and Planning of Heterogeneous Networks

With the continuous increase in Mobile Data traffic, limited availability of wireless spectrum and increased pressure on unit costs, operators have been looking at heterogeneous network architectures as an opportunity to solve the capacity and cost issues of mobile networks. In this paper, we will address the expected growth in traffic, and how the use of a combination of macro, small 3G/4G cells and carrier-grade WiFi access points can provide an optimized architecture to handle the services and resulting traffic. The paper will also address the issues that need to be resolved to fully leverage the potential of heterogeneous networks including interference management, geo-location of Hotspots, low cost backhaul for small cells, and deployment cost.