Mobile operators have invested hundreds of billions of dollars into spectrum licenses. Sources of external and unintended internal RF interference such as PIM, faulty equipment, bi-directional amplifiers, RFID scanners, jammers, industrial noise, tropospheric ducting, and unauthorized equipment are degrading this precious spectrum. Within typical mobile networks, these interference events, on average, are active approximately 25% of the time across 10% of cells at 40% of sites and impacting key KPIs by 40-80%. The result is degraded quality of experience for subscribers, elevated operational costs and diminished spectrum value.
Operators have little information about external RF interference that originates from outside of their deployed networks, including interference from networks in bordering geographies, emissions from industrial equipment and unauthorized devices/nodes/repeaters. Little information is available about unintended internal RF interference, which originates from within deployed networks but is unexpected and unaccounted for during routine network optimization. Sources of unintended internal interference include faulty equipment at a tower site (e.g. causing PIM), consumer bi-directional RF amplifiers, and distant cells within the network via tropospheric ducting.
Without the necessary tools in place, these RF interference sources degrade network capacity and increase OPEX as operators struggle to address even the most obvious service impacting instances. The net result is a material adverse impact on an operator’s business. In the future, the magnitude of this problem will intensify with the need for clean spectrum to achieve the much higher spectral efficiency targets with 5G NR as well as with the challenges of shared spectrum deployments.
No mobile operator would think twice about protecting their offices with qualified security personnel, yet their most valued asset, licensed spectrum, remains unguarded. That now changes, thanks to Spectrum Effect’s groundbreaking solution, Spectrum-NET.
Spectrum Effect’s revolutionary solution, Spectrum-NET, helps operators make the most of their valuable spectrum assets by rapidly identifying, locating and mitigating sources of RF interference and optimizing networks for future sharing opportunities.
Spectrum Effect has developed the key technology building blocks needed to rapidly maximize and monetize limited spectrum resources on today’s networks.
As data demand steadily escalates, Spectrum-NET provides operators with the deep network visibility needed to protect their sizable investment in licensed spectrum and ensure ongoing service quality.
Spectrum Effect’s breakthrough, Spectrum-NET, addresses this dilemma by enabling mobile operators of shared spectrum networks to rapidly identify, characterize, and locate sources of external interference during normal network operation with no downtime.
Spectrum Effect’s Spectrum-NET solution has the advanced technology needed to provide a clear picture of complex, overcrowded 5G networks.
As spectrum sharing solutions such as LTE-U, CBRS, and LSA are deployed, the external interference will dramatically increase by design making Spectrum-NET’s external interference management capabilities an even more critical asset for operators.