Workshop Background:

Almost every network operator has invested or is investing in high data rate overlay systems which coexist with previously installed 2G systems. Difficulties often arise when the operator is faced with the physical implementation of the two base stations. Restrictions on the number of antennas allowed on each tower can present difficulty and expense…but combining multiple standards and frequencies onto common antennas can introduce combiner loss which then requires external RF hardware to restore signal levels. Alarms and traffic from multiple systems and subsystems must be managed to coexist without conflicts. Antennas must be able to handle frequency bands from cellular and PCS to the AWS and WCS bands.

 

The end result is that capital and operating expense are higher than network operators expected. Because no single company can solve these issues on its own, many IWPC members have asked the IWPC to organize a collaborative meeting to address these challenges.

 

NOTE:  In organizing this meeting, several members requested a focus on femtocell technology and therefore a heavy emphasis has been placed on femtocell overlay solutions.

Workshop Goals:

To identify the most cost-effective techniques for implementing overlay systems, minimizing CAPEX for the operator upon installation of an overlay or upgrade system, and reducing OPEX in ongoing operation.

 

A second major goal of this workshop: To ensure that overlay systems and upgrades are “future proofed” to handle fourth-generation standards in the future.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

7:00 PM

Social and Networking
Reception & Registration

At Hotel

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

7:00 AM

Breakfast & Registration

8:00 AM

Opening Remarks

8:15 AM

Self Introductions

Each person will be asked to introduce him/herself and share how they can contribute to this process

8:50 AM

HOST Keynote REMARKS

An Introduction to Huawei

         Wireless CTO
         Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.

9:00 AM

Operator Keynote presentations

• Network Operators describe requirements for overlays or upgrades

• Highlight challenges in implementation and interoperability...how would operators like to see equipment more readily integrated?

• What are the specific challenges with femtocell interoperability?

• Describe issues with instantaneous bandwidth and instantaneous power limitations in the RF chain

• Describe challenges with the economics of data plans...flat rate pricing vs pay-as-you-go

• What is an acceptable form factor/functionality on a tower?

• How to work with in-building and distributed antenna systems?

• What is the key to “future proofing”?

• Describe the ways that the industry needs to cooperate

The need for integration and future proofing (working title)

Sr. Manager, RAN Engineering

T-Mobile USA

10:30 AM

Networking Break

Operator PANEL SESSION

• What are the most pressing challenges for today's overlays?

• What problems are anticipated with femtocell and 4G overlays in the future?

Confirmed

• T-Mobile USA

• Verizon Wireless

• US Cellular

11:45 AM

Networking Lunch

12:45 PM

Base Station OEMs

• Base Station equipment OEMs present a roadmap of infrastructure availability for overlays and upgrades

• Benefits of EV-DO, HSPA, UMTS, LTE and WiMAX roadmap options

• Highlight solutions to interoperability challenges...how does an operator integrate equipment from different vendors?

• How will femtocell deployments work?  How will they affect overlays in the macrocell/picocell network?

• Describe plans for “future proofing” and requirements for subsystems

• Describe the ways that the industry needs to cooperate

  • Antennas

  • Filters

  • Combiners

  • PAs

  • Other items…

Solving the Interoperability Challenges for High Data Rate Overlays with UMB-LTE-mWiMAX

Sr. Director,
Wireless R&D

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

Overlay of BSR products and interoperability (working title)

Director, Advanced Wireless Tech

Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs

A Smooth Upgrade Path to 4G (working title)

Product Management,
BTS Innovation
Nokia Siemens Networks

2:30 PM

Networking Break

3:00 PM

Equipment supplier Panel Session

• What are the most effective ways to deploy multi-band network overlays?

• What are the most effective ways to deploy multi-mode overlays?

• What about multi-vendor cell sites?   How can distinct base stations from multiple vendors be expected to share a common site?

• How can base stations and third-party equipment be set up to interoperate?

• What kind of cooperation and communication would be helpful to make overlays and upgrade deployments roll out smoothly?

Confirmed:

• Agilent

• Alcatel-Lucent

• Andrew Corp.

• Huawei

• Nokia Siemens Networks

• Powerwave

Antenna Technologies:

• Site calibration challenges

  • How to deal with tilt + other adjustments for multi-mode operation

• How to deal with multi-band operation

• Combinations of BTS OEMs and antenna vendors: is a common interface possible?

• What is the impact of future MIMO requirements? How to implement a multi-band, multi-standard MIMO antenna configuration?

• How can ongoing antenna installations be “future proofed”?

• Role of current and desired future industry standards

Antenna Solutions for Evolving Networks

Director, Antenna Engineering
Andrew Corporation

Future-Proof Antenna Solutions

Senior Manager,
Bus. Dev. & Technologies, and
Head of Engineering Dept.

KATHREIN-Werke KG

5:00 PM

Adjourn for Day

6:30 PM

Bus leaves for:

Dinner, Chicago Style

Thursday, August 2, 2007

7:00 AM

Breakfast

8:00 AM

RF Subsystem Technologies

• Describe solutions and roadmaps to RF challenges:

  • Sharing antennas with 2G/3G/4G overlay systems

  • Solving efficiency challenges in combining RF power

  • MCPA solutions for multi-mode operation

  • Future-Proof Filters and Combiners

• Can the installed 2G MCPA’s handle 3G and 4G traffic?

• How can complex base station combinations be simplified for multi-band coverage?   (Cellular, AWS, PCS, etc)

• How can new upgrades be “future proofed”?

• Role of current and desired future industry standards

MCPAs as a Cost Effective Option for Deploying Overlay Networks

Principal Sales Engineer,

Powerwave

RF Subsystem Solutions for Evolving Networks

Technical Marketing Manager,

Andrew Corp.

Multi-Band Solutions for Evolving Spectrum

Sr. VP and CTO,

Superconductor Technologies

Adaptive Front Ends

CTO,

ISCO International

10:00 AM

Networking Break

Component and Testing Technology

• Building 4G capability into the 3G and 3.5G components

• Scalable components for easy redesign

• Verifying performance in base stations

• Testing for Passive Intermodulation (PIM)

A New Approach to PLL/VCO's, Supporting Multiple Air Interface
Standards
           Senior Director,
           RF Engineering
           Skyworks Solutions

Highly linear semiconductor devices to future-proof for OFDM(working title)

Product Line Manager

Peregrine Semiconductor

Passive Intermodulation in Overlay Scenarios

President,

Summitek Instruments Inc. and

Manager, Triasx Colorado LLC

12:00 PM

Lunch

1:00 PM

What about Femtocells?

• Femtocell synchronization issues

• Handover between femtocells and other network equipment

• Handover between femtocells

• Indoor coverage expectations

• Cost effectiveness in CMOS integration

• How to overlay femtocells in the network?

Delivering Cost Effective Femto BTS Design

Director of Product Marketing,

Xilinx, and
General Manager of
OEM Products Group,
Brilliant Telecommunications

The Role of Semiconductor in Enabling Low Cost Femtocells

Technical Business Manager

Analog Devices

Femtocells

VP, North America,

Sales and Marketing

ip.access

Eliminate "guessing" with fastest femtocell time to market

Sr. Technical Marketing Engineer

Altera Corporation

3:15 PM

Networking Break

3:45 PM

CLOSING PANEL

Panel session, OEMs and Operators

The hosts will be asked to recap the extent to which the workshop has addressed their wish lists.

• Network operators:  Have we answered your questions? 

• What are the economics of "future proofing"?   How can a balance be achieved, between the capability of "future proof" equipment and near-term cost requirements?

• Is it possible to build an economic model to compare network alternatives for key scenarios?   How should the industry cooperate toward a more common set of scenarios for cost modeling?

• What impact will femtocell deployment have on overlay/upgrade roadmaps?

• What can the IWPC do to help promote more industry cooperation and communication?

Host, OEMs and Operators

5:00 PM

TakeAways & Closing Remarks

5:45 PM

Adjourn

7:00 PM

Dinner (Dutch*)

* = in this context, Dutch is a term which means that each person will be responsible for their own dinner costs.

For those who desire to join us, we get together to enjoy good friends, good food, good wine and [really] bad jokes

Friday, August 3, 2007

8:00 AM

Tour:
 
New Andrew Corp. Plant
Coaxial Cable Manufacturing Facility 

Base Station Antenna Lab

and

Near-Field Testing Facility

Note:  Restrictions may apply--tour attendance subject to Andrew Corporation approval

Bus Transportation provided from and to hotel. 

DEADLINE FOR HANDOUT MATERIALS:

Deadline for electronic version of handout materials: 

July 13, 2007

COSTS/REGISTRATION FEE:

ALL Hosts, Speakers, Panel Members and Attendees will be asked to cover out of pocket workshop costs such as conference room costs, food (Social Reception plus First Day breakfast/lunch/dinner plus Second Day breakfast/lunch plus 4 Breaks), booklet copying, audio/visual costs, etc.

We estimate that these costs will be $ 749.00 (USD) per person. (For IWPC Members, only.)

ALL Hosts, Speakers, Panel Members and Attendees will be asked to pay this fee in advance with either Visa, Mastercard, American Express, cash, personal check or business check.

Make checks payable to IWPC.

HOTEL:

Hyatt Regency Woodfield
1800 E. Golf Road
Schaumburg, IL  60173
Pone: 847-605-1234

Fax: 847-605-8641

Please contact the hotel directly for reservations. Mention the IWPC room block rate of $165. USD single occupancy.

Cut-off date for reservations is July 13,  2007. After that date rooms cannot be guaranteed at the IWPC rate.

TRAVEL OPTIONS FROM AIRPORT TO HOTEL:  The hotel is only 9 miles from O'Hare Airport.  For transportation details:  Click Here

AUDIO VISUAL:

A Computer Projector will be available for the speakers.

In addition, we audiotape all presentations and the interactive discussions. Post workshop, presentations are made available to IWPC Members on the IWPC WEB site, along with “movies” of all presentations and panel sessions.

BUSINESS CARDS:

Business cards will be collected at the door from all attendees. We will make copies of these cards, which will be available to all who provided a business card.

DRESS:

Business casual suggested. No ties, please !!

HANDOUT MATERIALS:

IWPC prepares a handout binder with ALL presentation materials delivered to the IWPC on or before the deadline.

For ALL IWPC members:

All IWPC members are invited to submit a maximum of 4 pages of materials to include in this handout binder. These pages should NOT BE SALES MATERIALS. Rather, we suggest it contain technical information about your technology as it relates to the workshop topics.

For all companies who will be making a presentation at the Workshop:

You are invited to submit an advance copy of your presentation, complete with graphics and illustrations.

These materials will be copied and handed out at the workshop and included in the IWPC Web site.

Please submit these materials either by email, as a Word for Windows file, Power Point files or PDF files.

Please send electronic materials (any size file) to:

[email protected]

or use one of these FREE FTP Sites

IF your email system cannot send large files:

www.SendThisFile.com

www.DropLoad.com

www.avvenu.com

Click HERE to Register