Nokia Siemens Networks has won top honors at the Small Cell Forum Industry Awards 2012 in the “small cell network element design and technology innovation” category.

The Small Cell Forum has recognized the company’s Flexi Zonesuite for its innovative Hot Zone approach. This approach facilitates cost effective small cell deployment for increased capacity in congested mobile broadband networks.

“Nokia Siemens Networks’ Flexi Zone is undeniably ambitious, going beyond small cell deployments to adaptive clustering of small cell access points. More importantly, the solution was designed to deal with real world operator HetNet challenges including interference mitigation, handover engineering and backhaul,” said Peter Jarich, service director, Current Analysis.

Nokia Siemens Networks launched Flexi Zone at Mobile World Congress 2012. Based on the company’s Liquid Radioarchitecture, Flexi Zone comprises multiple, inter-connected low power small cells that use a common resource pool managed flexibly by a zone controller. These clusters of multi-radio access points complement the macro-cellular network to deliver the best coverage and capacity where and when required. Flexi Zone allows local offloading of internet traffic, saving up to 80% of transport and mobile packet core costs. By managing interfaces, simplifying backhaul and significantly reducing operational costs, it also reduces Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by 50% when compared with traditional small pico and micro cell deployments or the addition of new sites. 

“This award further strengthens Nokia Siemens Networks’ commitment to provide operators with cost-effective small cell solutions that extend network capacity and coverage in high density usage areas,” said Randy Cox, head of small cells product management, Nokia Siemens Networks. “Flexi Zone also ensures that users enjoy a far superior mobile broadband experience in congested Hot Zones.” 

Established in 2009, the Small Cell Forum Industry Awards recognize outstanding achievements within, and contributions to the small cell industry.