Besides the obvious connection these 3 words have (yes, they all start with the letter C) ….. clouds, cells and cool all refer to trends we see on the horizon for the wireless infrastructure market.
Throughout some informal conversations I’ve had with our multicore team members over the past few weeks, there seems to be a general consensus on a few key trends we believe will emerge in the wireless infrastructure market over the next 12 months:
- The adaptation of small cells for increased capacity coverage and cost effective coverage in rural areas will continue to grow. In parallel, heterogeneous networks incorporating macro and small cells will become the network of the future.
- Green technology will continue to drive base station development requirements - not only driven by the need to reduce the operators’ costs, but also to enable the base station to be powered in developing areas where the electricity is less stable and battery operation is a requirement.
- Batteries that do not need to be environmentally controlled (thereby alleviating the need for air conditioning) will start to see the light of day.
- While still dependent on a variety of factors, such as the availability of backhaul and the cost of power site acquisition, cloud base station architectures may turn out to be more cost effective than the traditional distributed networks of today.
We’re obviously VERY excited by the opportunities these trends present to us – and our customers. But I’d like to hear your take. What multicore (and other) technology breakthroughs are necessary to enable this continued pace of innovation in clouds, cells & “coolness?”
