Airvana, a provider of small cell wireless technology, has unveiled its Device Management System (DMS), a comprehensive management system that enables wireless operators to deploy and support small cell networks. The DMS platform builds upon Airvana’s first-generation Femtocell Service Manager (FSM) system, which the company says has helped wireless operators exceed 99 percent voice and data session success rates across millions of small cells in the field.
The DMS platform supports all of Airvana’s small cell products, including OneCell, an LTE Cloud RAN small cell system for enterprises and public venues. Airvana says the system provides a centralized view of the small cell network, empowering operators to deliver an optimal subscriber experience. Operators can control key functions such as plug-and-play device configuration, self-organizing network (SON) settings, problem diagnosis and resolution, and system-wide management.
The DMS’s intelligent SON algorithms consistently achieve the best possible voice and data performance, claims Airvana. These field-proven algorithms also ensure the macro network is not negatively impacted, even in markets where the operator has nearly 1,000 small cells within the footprint of a single macro cell. “Operators need to efficiently manage high volumes of small cells while ensuring tight integration with the macro network and back-end operational systems,” notes Joe Madden, principal analyst with Mobile Experts.
Madden adds, “In particular, operators need better tools to enable rapid deployment of small cells, and it’s important for new management software to include features to handle configuration changes gracefully over large numbers of devices. Systems like DMS are critical in enabling operators to reduce costs of deploying small cells at high volume.”
Key benefits of Airvana's DMS platform, as stated by the company, include:
Optimized Subscriber Experience: A hybrid SON design enables operators to optimize small cell performance in response to network and spectrum changes. Enhanced neighbor cell information accelerates handovers and Circuit-Switched Fallback (CSFB). Because changes to macro cell configurations can severely impact small cell performance, Airvana’s SON automatically re-optimizes affected small cells, resulting in up to 90 percent performance improvements. Key performance indicator (KPI) metrics are collected to report on service level agreement (SLA) compliance.
Streamlined Network Operations: Plug-and-play intelligently configures over 100 parameters on air interface, security, quality of service (QoS), and core network configurations. Operations, administration, and management (OAM) tasks can be performed on a regional or network-wide basis. A suite of northbound interfaces (NBIs) using SNMP, SOAP and other standards provide easy integration with operational support systems (OSS) and network management systems. DMS supports small cell management standards TR-069, TR-196, and TR-157.
Simplified Technical Support: DMS helps support personnel quickly identify, diagnose and resolve problems – often before they affect subscribers. DMS provides all information about a device’s status and configuration including a map-based view of neighboring cells.
Pay-As-You-Grow Scalability: DMS software runs in a distributed fashion allowing in-service expansion with network growth and full redundancy, ensuring real-time performance and high availability at large scale. Its modularized architecture can flexibly scale different functions at different levels to reduce overall cost. As the small cell network scales, DMS load-balances small cells across core network elements.
“Management systems are the unsung heroes of successful small cell deployments,” concludes Rod Gatehouse, vice president of marketing and product management at Airvana. “As operators increasingly leverage small cells to deliver LTE service to subscribers and enterprises, a comprehensive management system is essential in providing a quality subscriber experience while maintaining full network visibility.”
Airvana DMS will be commercially available in Q2 2015. For more information, visit www.airvana.com or see Airvana from March 2-5 at the Mobile World Congress 2015, Hall 2, location 2B29MR. Email [email protected] to request a meeting at MWC.
