According to SNS Research, spending on activities pertaining to the small-cell-as-a-service (SCaaS) concept is expected to reach $15 billion between 2013 and 2020.
The firm added that to deploy this concept in their networks, fixed-line operators typically oversee the most complex aspects of small cell deployments for wireless carriers. This may encompass (but is not limited to) site acquisition, providing power supplies, and backhauling traffic. SCaaS providers would then permit wireless carriers to host small cells running in their own allocated spectrum.
Given that aggregating outdoor small cell backhaul with macrocell infrastructure is a challenging task, the demand for small cell backhauling offers lucrative opportunities, as per the firm. This space will be valued at close to $6 billion by 2020.
Small cell backhaul infrastructure transports traffic between the outdoor small cell site and either the node connecting to a macrocell backhaul network, or the node connecting to the carrier/internet network.
Small cells are often mounted on street poles, building walls and traffic/streetlight poles among other ad-hoc locations. Driven by the relative ease of licensing and the short distance characteristics of millimeter waves, wireless carriers are expected to adopt the technology for their future small cell rollouts.
SNS Research expects milimeter wave-based small cell backhaul infrastructure to account for nearly 63 per cent of all small cell backhaul spending by end-2020.
