The Small Cell Forum has released its latest set of guidelines for commercial deployment of small cells in urban areas.
Release Three comprises 17 documents aimed at supporting operators in releasing devices in these areas.
Among the topics discussed are the effects of regulation, technical issues such as self-organising networks, backhaul, Wi-Fi integration and network architecture, as well as commercial issues such as the key market drivers.
The forum also released fresh research into the market from Maravedia-Rethink, which found that capacity, value-added services and the opportunity for Wi-Fi integration were the main reasons for deploying small cells in an urban area.
Operators were most concerned about backhaul, optimal site acquisition, monetising the deployment and managing their networks.
Gordon Mansfield, chairman of the Small Cell Forum, said: “Release Three focuses on establishing the need, evaluating the business case and identifying key barriers to commercial deployment of urban small cells. In Release Four and beyond, we will delve into the detail of the technical solutions that will speed deployments in this exciting new market.”
He added: “I believe small cells will have a pivotal role for operators in viable network densification – the development of HetNets that efficiently and cost-effectively combine macro and small cell rollout.”
The latest documents follow Release One, which examined the market for residential small cells and Release Two, which concentrated on the enterprise market.