Ubiquisys and the Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC) are working together to develop open source product-oriented LTE network simulator.

Ubiquisys and the Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC) are working together to develop open source product-oriented LTE network simulator.

The simulator will provide a common platform for LTE femto vendors and LTE macro vendors to evaluate their different solutions.  The advantage for operators is that they can be sure that large and small cells from different vendors will work harmoniously before they are deployed.

“Just like femtocells, the true value of LTE small cells is in their Intelligence, which minimises OPEX and maximises scalability,” said Will Franks, CTO and co-founder, Ubiquisys.

Simulator will enable multi-vendor interoperability in an open collaborative environment.

“We have been conducting research and contributed to relevant projects for the preparation of LTE systems since 2004. It is now a great honour to support Ubiquisys in the ambitious objective of leading the LTE femtocell revolution,” said Prof. Miguel Ángel Lagunas, Director of CTTC.

In WCDMA networks, femtocells and macro cells work independently, but in LTE all cells work together as a single SON.  This means that the adaptive behaviour of femtocells and macro cells is interdependent. Simulators are important because they can evaluate product behaviour in a mature, densely deployed and heavily used network, at a time when real deployments are in their infancy. Ubiquisys made extensive use of a WCDMA network simulator during the development of its first generation of intelligent femtocells.

The open source LTE simulator is based on the popular ns-3 network simulator for internet systems. The development of the LTE simulator will be open to the community in order to foster early adoption and contributions by industrial and academic partners.