Ubiquisys, a developer of intelligent cells, and the Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC), the leading research organisation in communication technologies, are working together to develop the world’s first open source product-oriented LTE network simulator.
The simulator will provide a common platform for LTE femto vendors and LTE macro vendors to evaluate their different solutions. The advantage for operators is that they can be sure that large and small cells from different vendors will work harmoniously before they are deployed.
Ubiquisys is a provider of WCDMA intelligent femtocells which continuously sense and respond to changes in their radio environment, and form self-organising networks (SONs) in enterprise and outdoor deployments. Ubiquisys says it had a head start when it comes to LTE femtocells because it is the only vendor with a commercially deployed WCDMA SON product, which provides enterprises with seamless coverage from a grid of self-organising femtocells. Because SON is a cornerstone of LTE, the company has built on this experience it says.
CTTC is an advanced research centre, created under the auspices of the Regional Government of Catalonia in 2001. Research activities, both fundamental and applied, mainly focus on technologies related to the physical, data-link and network layers of communication systems.
“Just like femtocells, the true value of LTE small cells is in their Intelligence, which minimises OPEX and maximises scalability,” said Will Franks, CTO and co-founder, Ubiquisys. “We are delighted to be working alongside CTTC creating a simulator that will both prove out Ubiquisys’ unique SON techniques and enable multi-vendor interoperability in an open collaborative environment.”
“We have been conducting research and contributed to relevant projects for the preparation of LTE systems since 2004. It is now a great honour to support Ubiquisys in the ambitious objective of leading the LTE femtocell revolution,” said Prof. Miguel Ángel Lagunas, Director of CTTC.
In WCDMA networks, femtocells and macro cells work independently, but in LTE all cells work together as a single SON. This means that the adaptive behaviour of femtocells and macro cells is interdependent. Simulators are important because they can evaluate product behaviour in a mature, densely deployed and heavily used network, at a time when real deployments are in their infancy. Ubiquisys made extensive use of a WCDMA network simulator during the development of its first generation of intelligent femtocells.
The open source LTE simulator is based on the popular ns-3 network simulator for internet systems. The development of the LTE simulator will be open to the community in order to foster early adoption and contributions by industrial and academic partners.