ISE Magazine, July 2019

ISE ICT SOLUTIONS EDUCATION 44 SMALL CELLS Step 6 Provision and Test Once the site equipment is installed field engineers will complete the deployment task by provisioning the small cell integrating it into the network and testing it to ensure it is working properly Testing requires fiber validation at the site To ensure proper quality of experience QoE drive testing of the area should be conducted Step 7 Quality Assurance Frequent inspections of the active work sites are required to detect and correct defects quickly to ensure installations are done per industry best practices standards and safety guidelines Step 8 Maintenance After the small cell site is tuned up ongoing maintenance and troubleshooting will be required to ensure service delivery is uninterrupted This is just 1 site so to estimate the full scope of a small cell buildout the number of steps in each site deployment will have to be multiplied by the total number of sites being installed While a small project may have as few as 10 sites larger deployments can involve hundreds of sites particularly as service providers get closer to launching commercial 5G services Some network operators choose to handle the entire process themselves others opt for working with a system integrator like Fujitsu to handle the end to end deployment process quickly and efficiently As an example of a typical project scope a recent small cell buildout conducted in Arizona involved 106 sites a project that took about 6 months to complete Best Practices Even the best laid plans can go awry so its important to adopt fail safe measures throughout your planning process For example before a technician heads out to the field they should check and recheck that everything is good to go for site construction Are the necessary consumable requisitions approved Is the site preparation completed including access to working fiber Are the materials at the warehouse and ready for pickup Have all the materials been checked and loaded have shortages been noted This simple but not always obvious best practice can help you avoid errors and delays keeping the deployment on time Delays cost money and may derail your business case and impact profit margins Proper preparation allows more time on site to address unforeseen issues thereby keeping the schedule on track 5G will reach critical mass in 2020 driving demand for ever greater speed and capacity so the time for planning is now As network operators prepare for this exploding demand densification via large scale small cell deployments will enable them to improve their networks capacity coverage and quality of service at relatively low cost as compared to macro cells The secret to achieving this successfully is to focus on the small details while keeping an eye on the big picture n Outdoor Small Cell Depl oyment StepsDesign Site SelectionSite Eng AcquisitionZoning PermittingSupply Chain ManagementConstruction Installation Provision TestQuality Assurance Maintenance Activated Small Cell 2019 Fujitsu Network Communications Inc Figure 1 Outdoor small cell deployment steps Ryan Pettijohn is Wireless Services Manager Fujitsu Network Communications He has more than 20 years of experience in solution development and network engineering For more information please email ryan pettijohn@ us fujitsu com or visit https www fujitsu com us products network Follow the Company on Twitter @ FujitsuFNC Gary Smith is Senior Project Manager Small Cells TrueNet Communications a Fujitsu company He has more than 25 years of experience in telecom project management Endnotes 1 GSMA Intelligence February 25 2019 The Mobile Economy 2019 https www gsmaintelligence com research 2019 02 the mobile economy 2019 731 2 CTIA To Meet Americas Wireless Demands Our Networks Are Evolving https www ctia org positions infrastructure