Huawei releases site on demand solution to help operators bridge digital divide in emerging markets

London, UK, November 22, 2017: Huawei has announced a Site on Demand solution that helps operators in emerging markets cut site total cost of ownership (TCO) by breaking down the boundaries of infrastructure and network equipment to improve network capabilities using cloud and big data technology.

The Site on Demand solution enables operators to more cost-efficiently provide MBB coverage and capacity, improve MBB penetration, and deliver interconnections to a greater number of users. This aim is to help operators in emerging markets to bridge the digital divide.

Huawei’s long experience working in emerging markets means the company better understands the challenges and opportunities of mobile broadband in these countries. The emerging markets represent enormous population and traffic dividends, and operators face serious challenges in developing MBB businesses due to weak infrastructure, difficult, time-consuming site acquisitions, and high O&M costs.

"Emerging markets cannot simply copy the mobile network solutions of developed markets,” explained Cao Ming, Vice President of Huawei's Wireless Network Product Line. “Instead, they need to have their own network development plans tailored to their business and service requirements. They need to select the most appropriate products and solutions to serve their purposes. Huawei is committed to making innovative wireless network solutions to help operators deliver better MBB services to more and more users."

Huawei’s Site on Demand solution is designed to help operators in emerging markets address these challenges. The solution encompasses three new sites for a broad range of scenarios relying on innovations such as cloud technology, machine learning, and Site Hosting to save end-to-end (E2E) site TCO and improve investment efficiency for operators.

The new innovative sites include the integrated TubeStar solution for urban macro coverage, the PoleStar solution for suburban coverage, the RuralStar solution for accurate coverage in rural areas, and the VillaRadio solution for urban in-depth coverage. In these new sites, infrastructure and network equipment are tightly integrated, allowing for zero-site deployment, self-backhaul, and centralized power supply. This can reduce TCO by approximately 30% for urban deployments and over 50% for suburban network coverage.

TubeStar, RuralStar, PoleStar at Global MBB Forum

The Site on Demand solution supports all-cloud and machine learning technology, improves coordination among networks using radio access technologies, and reduces network O&M costs. For example, Site on Demand can be deployed on the same 900 MHz frequency band with CloudAIR, GSM, UMTS, LTE, and NB-IoT. This allows operators to shut down high-band equipment at night in line with traffic requirements to save energy consumption by up to 10%. Based on big-data technology, this solution can leverage machine learning to optimize macro coverage in response to nearby pole site and small cell increases or service unavailability. This can help ensure service continuity and reduce or optimize power backup configurations for nearby pole sites and small cells.

In emerging markets, site sharing is urgently needed due to difficult site acquisition, thus, Site on Demand is designed to support Site Hosting. With the assistance of established site alliances, operators can obtain in batches a massive number of site resources and carry out coordinated site planning. This will facilitate site sharing among operators and tower vendors to reduce network TCO.