Evolution to in-building 5G with CommScope OneCell®

Executive summary
5G presents a significant business opportunity,
as 5G operator-billed services are expected to
explode from $851 million in 2019 to $269 billion
in 2025—a six-year, compound annual growth
rate of 161 percent1. More than 400 uses cases
for 5G have been identified, and many—such
as industrial automation—are inherently
in-building applications. To capitalize on these
opportunities, operators must deliver reliable,
high-performance 5G service indoors in a way
that is economically sustainable. Historically, The in-building 5G market opportunity
this has been a challenge.
5G promises a feast of technical capabilities: multi-gigabit user
At the same time, 5G radio specifications, use data rates, millisecond latency, ultra-reliability on a massive
cases, business models and the timing of market scale and more. For mobile network operators, delivering on
adoption are all moving targets. Operators need
this promise will require a massive investment in infrastruc-
to invest in flexible solutions that allow them to
ture—as much as $250 billion in the U.S. alone2. Quantifying
adapt to this dynamic environment.
the return on that investment is difficult at best—although,
This paper describes the challenges involved in
typically, operator subscription pricing is not speed- or
meeting in-building 5G performance, capacity
performance-based.
and deployment requirements. This includes the
need to deploy and support LTE for the foresee- On the operations side, 5G offers potential cost savings
able future. through network functions virtualization and increased
It examines different approaches to in-building spectrum efficiency. However, these savings will take time
wireless and their ability to meet these require- to become significant, as will the penetration of 5G devices.
ments. Through this analysis, we demonstrate Until these benefits reach critical mass, operators must con-
that C-RAN small cells are uniquely suited to tinue to support their LTE, legacy 3G, and even 2G services
addressing the challenges—paving the way for a
for years to come.
more ubiquitous in-building presence and laying
1. 5G Market Strategies: Consumer & Enterprise Opportunities & Forecasts
the foundation for an in-building 5G business. 2017-2025, Juniper Research, July 5, 2017

2. 5G: In search of a viable commercial and infrastructure model,

by Sam Evans of Delta Partners in ITProPortal, March 26, 2018

1
 Enhance Mobile
Clearly, the return on investment (ROI) for 5G depends on Broadband
operators’ ability to offer new value-added services beyond
connection and transport. The now-familiar 5G triangle Gigabits/sec

3D/UHD Video
defines high-value services for each of the broad 5G
Smart home/
technical use cases. building Work/Play in the cloud

These services range from industrial automation

Augmented reality
to self-driving cars to smart buildings. The list
of use cases points to the large number of
Voice Industrial automation
applications that require 5G connectivity
Smart City
inside buildings. Examples include: Mission-critical apps

• Ultra high-density (UHD) video: Self-driving car

While these can be viewed outdoors,

Source: IEEE
people are more likely to consume
Massive Machine-Type Ultra-reliable and Low
long-form video indoors. UHD videos Communications Latency Communications

requiring the most data—such as

• Smart buildings: This category is, by definition, an indoor
telemedicine, training and real-time video
one. It includes services such as access security, lighting and
conferencing—are typically viewed indoors.
energy efficiency, and air quality sensing and monitoring.
• Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR): These tech-
The figure below shows the same 5G triangle—this time,
nologies serve indoor uses like training and product support
coded by indoors vs. out.
that require high speed and low latency.
For these reasons, the 5G business opportunity will be over-
• Industrial automation: This includes real-time robotic
whelmingly indoors. Operators seeking to take advantage
controls, sensors and inventory tracking, all of which take
of the business opportunities will need to deliver reliable
place in controlled indoor environments.
in-building wireless (IBW) service that is 5G enabled.

Enhance Mobile
Outdoor Broadband

Gigabits/sec
Indoor
3D/UHD Video

Mix Smart home/building Work/Play in the cloud

Augmented reality

Voice Industrial automation

Smart City
Mission-critical apps

Self-driving car

Massive Machine-Type Ultra-reliable and Low

Communications Source: IEEE Latency Communications

The majority of use cases identified for 5G will take place partially or exclusively indoors.

Evolution to in-building 5G with CommScope OneCell® 2

Those who cannot deliver it risk being “shut out”—literally The implication of this gradual migration is that, while
and figuratively—as over-the-top (OTT) service providers using operators will need to continue their LTE buildouts for years
alternate indoor networks monetize the value instead. to come, they will simultaneously need to ensure their LTE
systems are 5G ready. This requires the ability to be upgraded
Key challenges for in-building 5G
to 5G, easily and economically, while supporting mixed LTE
Performance challenges
and 5G operation. Complicating the challenge is the uncer-
Historically, RAN technology has been designed for outdoor
tainty regarding final 5G radio standards and the frequency
use and then adapted for use inside buildings. The most
bands each operator will use for 5G.
common approach has been to use the neighboring outdoor
Global mobile adoption by technology
macro network to serve indoor spaces on a best-efforts basis, R
Share of mobile connections, excluding celluar IoT
a practice known as “outside-in”. 30,000
53% 4G
Among actual in-building solutions, Remote Radio Heads 25,000

(RRH) extend the radios of an outdoor base station and then 20,000

connect them over coaxial cables to a series passive antennas

15,000
29% 3G
distributed throughout the building.
10,000

Alternatively, the RAN OEM vendor may connect their macro

14% 5G 5,000
base station to a set of indoor antennas using a proprietary
4% 2G
Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) connection. The result
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
is a distributed radio system (DRS).
Figure 1. Source: GSMA, The Mobile Economy 2018
Yet another approach adapts residential femtocells for use
Business challenges
within the enterprise and large venues. The femtocells
An often-quoted industry stat estimates that 80 percent of
connect to a centralized controller that aggregates backhaul
mobile data is consumed indoors, which makes sense consid-
and coordinates functions such as handovers.
ering most people spend the bulk of their time indoors. As a
These approaches have proven somewhat effective for result, mobile operators have invested in serving high-traffic,
supporting legacy 3G and LTE applications. However, high-profile buildings such as airports, railway/metro stations
CommScope does not believe—for 5G to reach its stated and stadiums.
performance
Globalobjectives—that
mobile adoptionthese adaptation strategies
by technology
RAN Infrastructure Investment By Technology 2015-2021 ($M)
Share of mobile connections, excluding celluar IoT
will be sufficient going forward.
30,000
53% 4G
Migration challenges 25,000

The migration of mobile networks to 5G will happen slowly. 20,000

The GSMA’s latest research suggests that, while 5G usage will 15,000
29% 3G
begin in 2018, by 2025 it will represent only 14 percent of all
10,000

global connections. Meanwhile, LTE connections will continue

14% 5G 5,000
to grow throughout this entire time—accounting for nearly
4% 2G
four times the number of 5G connections in 2025. Infrastruc- 2015 YR 2016 YR 2017 YR 2018 YR 2019 YR 2020 YR 2021 YR
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
2G 3G 4G 5G
ture investment, illustrated in Figure 2, is expected to follow a
similar pattern. Figure 2. Source: Gartner, Communications Service Provider
Operational Technology Worldwide, December 2017

Evolution to in-building 5G with CommScope OneCell® 3

The industry has made substantial progress in terms of Indoor is different
in-building wireless penetration. But, to fully support the While the objectives are common, the methods to achieve
customer demand for—and enhanced performance re- them are not. For example, outdoor networks are character-
quirements of—in-building 5G service, solution costs must ized by large open spaces, while indoor spaces are small by
come down further. To achieve this, deployment models comparison, and are divided into even smaller sub-spaces.
must evolve to become more flexible. Greater flexibility and Outdoor networks typically use dedicated fiber for backhaul
lower cost would allow enterprises and building owners, for and front-haul, while Ethernet is the de facto network in-
example, to deploy systems on their own behalf, or enable doors. The table below lists key differences between outdoor
operators to monetize small-cell-as-a-service offerings to and indoor mobile networks.
enterprises.3
Many of the enabling technologies being defined by 3GPP—
Defining an architecture for in-building 5G massive multiple-in multiple-out (MIMO), 0 millisecond han-
In establishing 5G radio standards, 3GPP and other industry dover and lean carrier design—have an implicit focus on the
standards organizations make no distinction between out- outdoor environment. But, in designing a network architec-
door and indoor applications. In fact, the objectives of 5G are ture to optimize these technologies, the distinct characteris-
the same indoors and out. These include performance ob- tics of indoor networks dictate a different architecture.
jectives such as ultra-high data rates and reliability, ultra-low 3. 5G’s network slicing presents an opportunity for operators to support differentiated
premium services, something LTE and legacy technologies have not offered.
latency and massive scalability. They also include operational
objectives such as C-RAN centralization, virtualization, and
graceful coexistence with LTE and legacy networks.

Element Outdoor Indoor Comments

Low power is needed for shorter distances and to meet safety re-
Power Medium to high Low
quirements in human-occupied spaces.

High-frequency 5G signals cannot penetrate exterior walls; therefore,

Signal propagation Mainly LoS LoS and NLoS
signals must originate indoors.

Ethernet/IP is the standard network infrastructure for enterprises and

nearly all indoor spaces. Other formerly specialized overlays such as
Front-haul Dark fiber Ethernet LAN
CCTV are increasingly IP based and joining the Ethernet infrastruc-
ture.

Mobility Driving Walking Indoor users are slow moving or stationary.

Pure space-defined sectors are insufficiently dynamic to support user

Sectorization By space By user
population shifts that occur inside buildings.

Traffic density Low to medium Medium to high Indoor networks must serve many users in a small space.

It is not economically feasible for mobile operators to invest in cov-

ering a critical mass of commercial buildings. Also, the enterprise or
Business model Operator-led Multiple
building owner has easier access to interior spaces and supporting
infrastructure such as switching, ducting and power.

Evolution to in-building 5G with CommScope OneCell® 4

Keys to meeting 5G requirements indoors 3. Edge intelligence: A user-centric network requires

CommScope defines four foundational principles needed performance-critical functions, intelligence and user

to meet 5G objectives in the indoor environment: awareness at its endpoints—the radio access points.
The ability to respond intelligently to changes in user or
1. User-centric networks: Capacity—and the cell itself—
device location and behavior enables delivery of value-
must be defined and designed around the users (or things,
added services. These include emergency services and
in the case of the internet of things [IoT]), rather than the
AR/VR applications that take advantage of granular
space within a larger single physical cell. When compared
location awareness.
with densely-deployed standalone small cell networks,
the user-centric network eliminates border interference 4. Radio adaptability: Multiple mobile radio technologies are

and handovers.Through cell virtualization it dynamically already in play, while new ones are being introduced faster

matches capacity to user demand.This is critical to meeting than the legacy technologies can be retired. In addition to

5G performance and latency objectives. existing 3G, 4G and LTE technologies, networks must be
able to adapt easily to support 5G NR (which is not yet fully
2. Ethernet front-haul: Proprietary and dedicated network
defined), CBRS, Cat-M1 and other radio technologies. This
overlays are costly to design, deploy and maintain. 5G-
requires radio access points that are field programmable—
enabled IBW solutions that can be deployed over Ether-
able to adapt to new technologies with a software upgrade
net (the de facto in-building networking standard) enable
instead of having to be replaced.
use of commercial off-the-shelf switches. This approach
also allows network and facility owners to ride Ethernet’s
robust growth. This means easier migration as access layer
switches evolve from 1 gigabit to 2.5 and 10 gigabits; and
the ability to support emerging power over Ethernet (PoE)
standards.
Meeting performance Meeting migration Meeting business
challenges challenges challenges
User-centric • Eliminate handover and provide • Minimize network upgrade • Ability to provide premium
network consistent user experience everywhere cost to enhance user services and differentiation
experience from LTE to 5G
• Cell virtualization for capacity
• Simplify macro coordination

Ethernet • Ability to scale throughput at lower • Ride Ethernet industry growth • IT deployment model
front-haul cost curve
• Shared infrastructure vs.
dedicated overlay
Edge • Enabler of cell virtualization • No need to re-sectorize or • Granular location sensing
intelligence re-plan the system to improve
• Joint Tx/Rx • Ability to support emergency
location accuracy or to meet
services and other location-
• Distributed MIMO increasing capacity demand
based applications
over time

Radio • Guarantee optimal coexistence • LTE-to-5G NR radio migration • Flexibility in many-radio

adaptability between 4G and 5G bands with no/minimal upgrade cost future
• Investment protection

Evolution to in-building 5G with CommScope OneCell® 5

Approaches to 5G in-building wireless
There are a number of alternative approaches to bringing These challenges have existed for 3G and LTE but, in many
5G services indoors. Most of them involve adapting the cases, have been tolerated in order to deliver best-effort
outside macro network for use indoors. voice and data service. With 5G running mission-critical and
revenue-generating services—which require demanding latency
Outside-in
and reliability requirements—the performance degradation all
As discussed earlier, this approach uses the outdoor macro
but rules out outside-in as an in-building approach.8
network to serve the in-building space. Solutions range from
simply using nearby macro sites to cover as much of the Standalone small cells
indoor space as possible, to adding outdoor small cells in In a standalone small cell solution, each access point is a
high-density areas—a process known as “densification.” unique physical cell. Since most operators have a limited
number of channels to use indoors, standalone small cells
Likewise, the effort and cost associated with the outside-in
operate on a common channel, creating interference among
approach varies as well, from zero cost and effort involved
neighboring cells. For dense deployments in larger buildings,
in the macro-only solution, to multiple issues—site access,
inter-cell interference limits performance, making standalone
municipal zoning restrictions, availability of backhaul and
small cells unsuitable for 5G.9
power6 —that must be considered in cell densification.
Regardless of the approach, outdoor signal generation for With no coordination between cells, each small cell sees
indoor use has fundamental shortcomings that will increase the user independently from the others—the antithesis of a
as we move toward 5G: user-centric network. Similarly, since each access point acts
on its own, there is little opportunity for edge intelligence,
1. High-frequency path loss: 5G signals tend to reside in
apart from handover control.
higher frequency bands7 that lose signal strength rapidly
when attempting to penetrate exterior building materials. While many other in-building wireless solutions require
Additional losses occur as the signal moves deeper into the coaxial cabling and proprietary switching nodes, standalone
interior of large buildings. small cells are deployed over Ethernet—a big advantage in
terms of deployment simplicity. These systems also could,
2. Energy-efficient building design: Low-e window mate-
in theory, offer programmable radios. But, in order to keep
rials, increasingly in use, block RF signals more than tradi-
the price affordable, individual radio access points—which
tional glass—further limiting RF signal strength.
contain the entire baseband processing stack—are built on
3. Macro capacity impact: Serving indoor spaces from the
cost-optimized consumer-class chipsets whose functions are
outdoor network drains capacity from the macro cells.
static. The lack of programmability almost ensures they will
As in-building signals weaken, indoor users require more
need to be replaced or fully overlaid in the migration from
network resources to maintain connections. Under heavy
LTE to 5G.
traffic loads, this disproportionate demand from indoor
users can impair the performance of the outdoor macro
network.

6 Outdoor densification can be an excellent strategy for meeting intense outdoor mobile coverage and capacity needs. CommScope provides a range of outdoor
siting solutions for this purpose.

7 Here we are referring to sub-6 GHz bands that have been typically discussed for indoor 5G. Higher-frequency millimeter wave bands will almost certainly fail to serve indoor spaces
from outdoors.

8 From KT reveals Winter Olympics 5G lessons, Mobile World Live, 26 April 2018: “During the Olympic trial, KT observed poor outdoor-to-indoor coverage penetration”

9 AT&T recommends a professional RF design for deployments exceeding 3 small cells: Source: AT&T MetroCell Technical Requirements, February 2016

Evolution to in-building 5G with CommScope OneCell® 6

Distributed radio system (DRS) C-RAN small cells
A DRS uses a standard or pico-scale base station connected C-RAN small cells, such as CommScope’s OneCell®, are de-
to multiple access points through a series of intermediate signed specifically for high-capacity in-building environments.
CPRI-fed nodes. The base station, intermediate nodes, access OneCell performs baseband scheduling in a centralized
points and CPRI implementation all come from a single ven- baseband controller to create a single physical cell ID across
dor. multiple radio access points known as “radio points”. This
eliminates border interference and handovers, significantly
The access points in a DRS offer little in the way of edge
improving throughput, latency and connection reliability—
intelligence or user-centric behavior. This limits their ability to
key performance attributes critical for support of 5G.
perform advanced functions such as joint transmit/receive or
location sensing. They do offer digital front-haul over IT-style OneCell also employs an architectural split that places some
Category 6A or fiber cables; but, because they rely on CPRI, baseband processing intelligence in the radio points. This
they cannot cost-effectively meet 5G bandwidth requirements enables the radio points to operate in a coordinated fashion
nor can they operate over standard IP/Ethernet networks. and provide several important benefits:
Therefore, it requires a dedicated and costly network overlay.
• Cell virtualization: OneCell creates multiple virtual cells
In these systems, access points do not decode Layer 1 signals, within a single physical cell to effectively reuse spectrum
preventing them from performing any intelligent functions. without inter-cell interference. Thus, it can increase the
Instead, all Layer 1 decoding occurs at the base station with- data rates to individual users well beyond the nominal ca-
out the contextual information from intelligent access points. pacity of the physical cell. The ability to detect and provide
capacity based on user demand, instead of the physical
Remote radio heads
characteristics around the radio point, is important for a
A remote radio head (RRH) extends the coverage of a base
user-centric network.
station by separating the radio and baseband unit and con-
necting them via CPRI over fiber. In this sense, they are like • Joint transmit/receive and distributed MIMO: Multi-
a DRS, but lack in-building optimizations such as integrated ple radio points can simultaneously transmit to or receive

antennas. Remote radio head systems leverage a passive from an individual user, enabling better signal quality and

coaxial network and antennas. This prevents location track- higher data rates. For 5G, the ability to support distributed

ing and degrades uplink performance due to passive cable MIMO will be critical indoors, where the high frequencies,

losses. It also presents significant frequency band limitations high power and large antenna size associated with massive

due to high coaxial/passive component attenuation at higher MIMO will be impractical.

frequencies. Consequently, while an RRH system can • Location sensing: Each OneCell radio point can detect and
leverage macro baseband units and form a single cell, its report the signal strength of a given user device, allowing
passive infrastructure prevents it from distributing the signal the system to identify the device’s location more precisely
throughout a building with any of the intelligence required than systems in which all intelligence resides in the central-
for 5G. In addition, all the limitations that apply to DRS ized baseband unit.
apply equally to RRH.

Evolution to in-building 5G with CommScope OneCell® 7

OneCell’s architectural split is designed to allow front-haul Summary of approaches to in-building 5G
over standard IP-based switched Ethernet networks. This The table below provides a summary of the in-building
allows it to leverage commercial switch products whose wireless approaches and the degree to which each meets
evolution will provide continual advancements in speed and the 5G criteria as established.
power (PoE). It also enables facility and network managers to
Based on this analysis, the C-RAN small cell approach,
utilize an existing ecosystem of network integrators who can
embodied by CommScope’s OneCell, is the only solution to
perform all aspects of design, installation and configuration.11
deliver on the foundational principles for a viable 5G in-build-
In its latest release, OneCell introduced the RP5000 Series of ing solution. Outside-in, remote radio heads, and distributed
programmable radio points. RP5000 Series uses a field-pro- radio systems all suffer in one way or another from their
grammable gate array (FPGA) for baseband processing, reliance on outdoor or macro-optimized architectures. Mean-
enabling “future-proof” baseband processing that can be while, standalone small cells suffer from the reverse prob-
changed from LTE to 5G NR or other radio technologies, such lem—they are based on consumer architectures that do not
as CBRS and Cat-M1, through a software upgrade. In its first scale to the needs of enterprises or large venues.
version, in multi-carrier and multi-operator deployments, one
RP5000 unit can host up to four radio modules to support
Laying the foundation of indoor 5G
up to four carriers and frequency bands in 2x2 MIMO con- with OneCell
figuration. RP5000 uses a multi-gigabit Ethernet interface to The migration from LTE to 5G represents an opportunity for

support the front-haul requirements of multiple simultaneous mobile network operators to expand their participation in the

LTE or 5G NR carriers. value chain by offering enhanced applications and services.

Many of these offerings will require in-building connectivity
The RP5000 Series provides an attractive migration path to
with assured high levels of reliability and performance.
5G. The entire signal distribution network—Ethernet switch-
es, cabling and radio points—can be deployed for LTE, then As evidenced by CommScope’s OneCell, C-RAN small cells

upgraded with a software update to support 5G NR. In this are uniquely designed to meet 5G reliability and performance

way, it helps lower the cost to deploy and maintain the signal requirements while also providing an economical migration

distribution network—by far the most expensive portion of path from LTE to 5G. OneCell’s IT-style deployment methodol-

the network. ogy enables enterprises and building owners to take a greater
role in leading and funding these deployments.

11 CommScope has more than 2,000 PartnerPro® partners globally who perform these services.

Standalone Remote Distributed

Outside-in C-RAN small cells
small cells radio heads radio systems
User-centric network No No Limited Limited Yes
Ethernet front-haul No Yes No No Yes
Edge intelligence No Limited No No Yes
Radio adaptability Yes No Limited Yes Yes
Cannot meet Multi-cell impairs Distributes Reliance on CPRI Meets all
5G performance intelligence while signal but adds forces proprietary requirements
Key implications requirements system-on-chip no value front-haul; no
indoors (SoC) design edge intelligence
means fixed radios

Evolution to in-building 5G with CommScope OneCell® 8

About CommScope
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technology with game-changing ideas and ground-breaking
discoveries that spark profound human achievement. We
collaborate with our customers and partners to design, create
and build the world’s most advanced networks. It is our
passion and commitment to identify the next opportunity and
realize a better tomorrow.

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© 2018 CommScope, Inc. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise noted, all trademarks identified by ® or ™ are registered trademarks, respectively, of CommScope, Inc. This document is for planning purposes only and is not intended to
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