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4G : deployment strategies and operational implications
Krishnamurthy T., Shetty R., Apress, Berkeley, CA, 2014. 188 pp. Type: Book (978-1-430263-25-8)
Date Reviewed: Jun 11 2015

For most people, 4G (or 4th generation) evokes the latest commercially available public wireless communications technology with associated services. But in technical terms, a more precise reference would be long-term evolution (LTE), which stands for the set of standards having evolved from previous technology generations and variants. This short volume intends to address deployment strategies and operational implications, with field engineers as the target readership chosen by the authors. It is indeed a challenge for these field engineers in concrete, real cases to ensure the proper dimensioning of mobile networks and to make them resilient and future-proof.

The chosen style is either one of bullet-style summaries of issues grouped under relevant headings, to serve as checklists for the aforementioned field engineers, or of market analysis report summaries of general issues, both sometimes illustrated by simple examples. In a way, despite good intentions, the main use of this volume may be more in crafting presentations, and discussions around them, than providing tools and methods to solve concrete situations.

Network planning basics is the theme of chapter 1 with some example data for LTE networks and user equipment (commonly called mobile terminals). Traffic model testing attributes are described for different deployment environments: dense urban, urban small office, urban residential, highways, and rural cells. No calculation model or traffic simulation software is provided or referenced.

Chapter 2 introduces the role of self-organizing networks (SON) in LTE deployment, including architectural principles, basic configuration protocols, and random access optimization for user equipment. Chapter 3 is mostly a discussion on general deployment challenges for technology, business, systems maturity, traffic profiles, and worldwide LTE deployment as of 2011-2012. The connection between LTE and the Internet of Things or cloud computing is also discussed. In chapter 4, network roadmaps are paralleled with technology roadmaps, and the many possible options are listed including in general terms some risk factors. These issues are further elaborated upon in broad terms in chapter 5 for four criteria: network resilience to faults, reactive evolution to sudden changes, response team setup, and business continuity planning. Finally, chapter 6 addresses network roadmap management, listing the many facets thereof at the project level.

The volume includes no references (except a few URLs from years 2011 and 2012) and an index heavily biased to road-mapping aspects.

It indeed appears that the authors may have been torn between a wish to help out in concrete cases and a desire to cover the complex issues with breadth; in both cases, a different style and much more depth would have been required. It is a pity that the crucial specific data, formulas, and tool architectures required to address heavily data-traffic-dominant LTE business models were ignored; in many real concrete cases, it is from that end that the deployment and network sizing normally take place. In other words, for LTE deployment and operations, an in-depth, complete, case-solving approach, with subsequent generalizations and options, would have been more advisable than listing issues.

Despite its shortcomings, this monograph is still, for a while, relevant to a different audience than the one chosen by the authors. By providing functionality in a concise way, some of it linked to LTE network infrastructure and core service management, this book might help marketing specialists identify at the functional level some new product or service functionality linked to the migration of existing networks toward LTE.

Reviewer:  Prof. L.-F. Pau, CBS Review #: CR143518 (1509-0740)
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