At this year’s Mobile World Congress, Huawei has released LampSite 3.0 for indoor mobile broadband (MBB) scenarios. By removing longstanding technical bottlenecks, this futureproof solution enables full bandwidth on multi-frequency bands and extends digital network sharing among operators to indoor scenarios. It also supports a number of innovative technologies, including flexible multicarrier aggregation, distributed MIMO, and 256QAM, paving the way for evolution to 5G networks.

MBB is growing, and statistics indicate that 80% of mobile data traffic is generated indoors. In most cases, indoor network deployment as requested by proprietors and regulators needs to be completed with a single site visit, especially in hotspot areas. Operators thus seek cost-effective solutions to site addition and network construction.

LampSite 3.0 supports full bandwidth and indoor network sharing to reduce costs. Once an indoor network is built by one operator, it is available for lease by other operators for network and TCO sharing. A network shared among four operators reduces each operator’s TCO by as much as 70%. As well as giving operators digital dividends, indoor network sharing attracts more investors, enterprises, proprietors, tower companies, and other interested parties. All these contributors increase capital, policy support, and property resources, facilitating network deployment. Operators can in turn lease their indoor networks to recoup deployment cost and share benefits. The resultant win-win ecosystem promotes the development of indoor MBB business. In the Netherlands, a new cooperative model that involves investors, operators, and vendors has already been successfully implemented.

With rapid MBB development emerges new applications. Interactive high-definition services, artificial reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) are typical applications that require higher network standards for the best user experience. LampSite 3.0 features flexible multicarrier aggregation, distributed MIMO, and 256QAM. These revolutionary technologies enable a throughput of up to 2 Gbps and an excellent experience for mobile users. This solution also supports high bandwidth and dynamic capacity adjustment, allowing operators to easily cope with rapid traffic growth and network evolution simply by constructing a single network. The per-bit cost is reduced by 30% to 40% with LampSite 3.0 compared with existing indoor distributed networks.

LampSite-based indoor digitalization enables innovative applications through capability openness. Network "pipelines" create new value and explore vertical industries and markets. For example, location-based services add value to services for enterprise users, a big market available for operators to tap.