Utilize unlicensed spectrum and enhance your company’s revenue with SP Wi-Fi.

1. THE
Author: Ed Finger, Consulting Systems Engineer
OPPORTUNITY
NOW
IS
®
• SERVICE PROVIDER WI-FI •

2. EXECUTIVESUMMARY
|1www.cciwifi.com
The land grab is on! Small cell network architectures have already launched
a revolution in the wireless industry. Now an emerging architecture, Service
Provider Wi-Fi (SP Wi-Fi), offers significant opportunities in the unlicensed
spectrum. SP Wi-Fi can help you deliver a seamless user experience; enhance
your network footprint cost-effectively; and generate new revenues from mobile
carriers, analytics customers and verticals such as education, multi-dwelling units
and utilities. Construction is more affordable than for small cell solutions in the
licensed spectrum and can be completed in phases—but the time to act is now:
The first service provider to grab the“neutral host”position wins.
CCI Systems is ready to help you succeed in the SP Wi-Fi space. Our engineers
help you maximize network assets and plan your build step by step. BandWise,
our managed solution for monetizing bandwidth, gives you a cost-effective tool
for streamlining authentication, monitoring network traffic and turning analytics
into a new revenue stream.

3. Macro cells in the licensed spectrum. Cellular networks have been built using macro cells, with
a typical radius of one to 20 Km, operating in the licensed spectrum. Carriers obtain government
permits to use a specific frequency, from 800 MHz to 2500 MHz, in a specific location. The
larger the cell, the easier it is to deal with handoffs (roaming), backhaul, and installation and
maintenance costs.
Large areas can have many different devices competing for a cell’s bandwidth. And as a handset
or customer device moves away from the cell transmitter and closer to the cell’s edge, it must use
more power to transmit to the base station, shortening battery life.
The result can be a poor user experience, made worse by free path loss (reduced power as radio
waves travel farther from the cell base station) and signal attenuation (objects obstructing and
absorbing the signal). In shopping malls, stadiums and other large venues, the signal can also be
inhibited by concrete with rebar, window areas and other construction, as well as a large number
of users accessing services from one location—for example, food courts or cinemas or stadium
concession stands during halftime. It’s difficult to engineer networks for optimal coverage and
throughput in such areas.
Early small cell solutions.To combat these
issues, carriers have turned to a hierarchical
structure that splits the licensed spectrum
between macro cells and micro cells, which
have a typical radius of 200 to 2000 m.
Meanwhile, indoor coverage limitations
have fueled a growth in distributed
antenna systems (DAS) and femto cells—
small, low-power base stations for homes
and businesses.
There are a number of Tower Providers that
build out DAS networks as a “neutral host,”
offering “access” to their network for new
revenue opportunities. Wireless carriers
lease the antenna arrays for access to
venues without having to invest in network
constructionormaintenance.DASnetworks
typically support all frequency bands and
do not limit the number of wireless carriers
on the network. They also provide revenue
opportunities for the venue operator.
HOWNETWORKARCHITECTURESHAPES
THECOMPETITIVELANDSCAPE1.
|2www.cciwifi.com

4. Advanced small cell solutions. A newer solution to the coverage/
capacity challenge is small cell networks—licensed micro, pico and
femto cells. They have substantial use cases in the wireless carrier
network; however, they support only a single carrier (with micro
cells offering the potential for multiple frequencies). Providers
deploying these small cell technologies must take care to mitigate
interference with the macro cell.
Building a hierarchical network demands significant planning and
resources. And even the network architectures that take advantage
of small cell technologies still use the limited, expensive resources
of the licensed spectrum.
|3www.cciwifi.com

5. Service Provider Wi-Fi is an emerging network architecture that uses public spectrum to provide
clients connectivity. Operating in the unlicensed ISM and UNII bands, in the 2.4 and 5.0 GHz
frequency ranges, these networks use lower-cost Wi-Fi access points to improve coverage and
better manage the ubiquitous nature of Wi-Fi user devices.
As a service provider you gain the ability to augment network capacity without the complexity
and cost of adding DAS, micro, pico and femto cells. SP Wi-Fi can be implemented in three phases:
1. Build out the Wi-Fi enabled network.
2. Offload data from the macro cell architecture to the
SP Wi-Fi network.
3. Integrate Wi-Fi and cellular data for seamless roaming
between the two network architectures.
Cost-effective structure. SP Wi-Fi combines outdoor and
indoor wireless access points (APs) to create hotspot
(single area) and hotzone (contiguous area) coverage in the
unlicensed spectrum. An outdoor AP’s range is around 250-
300 ft for client access and 600-1200 ft for backhaul.
The APs are connected through wired or wireless (mesh)
networks to a central controller that gathers information
about the surrounding RF environment. The controller can
then adjust the parameters of each AP to support optimum
performance. The network licensing capacity is based on
the number of APs controlled, rather than the number of
concurrent user sessions. Because unlicensed bands are
allowed only limited transmission power, good coverage
requiresagreaterdensityofAPs.Thiscanincreasedeployment
costs but also adds benefits: greater density improves the
ability to locate client devices and to mitigate interference.
Multiple networks can be advertised from a single AP (although that sends more management
messages into the airspace). That means you can offer multiple carriers access to the SP Wi-Fi
network, providing a front end and offering tiered quality of service (QoS).
Enhanced speed. There’s also a speed rush in the unlicensed Wi-Fi space. 802.11ac, the next
generation of Wi-Fi access, is expected to offer speeds up to 1.2Gbps. Clients will be able to attach
to more streaming services (video, live broadcasts). 802.11u (Hotspot 2.0 or Passpoint) will let Wi-Fi
devices automatically log onto a carrier’s network, much as cell phones do today. This increases
the opportunity to use CCI BandWise as both an authentication entity and a bandwidth monitor.
INTRODUCINGTHEALTERNATIVE:
SPWI-FI
|4
2.
www.cciwifi.com

6. Service Provider Wi-Fi gives you new ways to make or save money. Here are just a few (keeping in
mind that tomorrow will bring new opportunities no one has envisioned).
Retain customers. Early deployments of SPWi-Fi for Tier 1 multi-system operators (MSOs) focused
on stemming the flow of customers to FiOS offerings. FiOS offered hard-to-match high speed data
delivery, but there was no connection between wired and wireless networks. MSOs seized the
opportunity to offer an integrated experience with ubiquitous Wi-Fi access. Customers could have
cable Internet at their home/office and use the same authentication credentials to access the Wi-Fi
network for free.
Of course this drove the need to build the Wi-Fi infrastructure - currently about 30,000 APs. With
this network in place, other MSOs could establish roaming agreements to give their clients access.
MSOs are also establishing more roaming agreements between their networks to create a seamless
Wi-Fi customer experience.With the advent of HotSpot 2.0, users will be able to log onto a network
automatically. CCI’s BandWise used onsite
or in a hosted environment should make
authentication and bandwidth management
easier for service providers.
Offload data. The cost of acquiring sites,
building and maintaining macro-cell networks
is increasing, but so is user demand for data.
Mobile service carriers facing this dilemma
can use a SP Wi-Fi network to offload data
from the mobile network. As customers come
within range of a hotspot or hotzone, they can
use the less-expensive Wi-Fi network for their
data traffic-freeing up the more expensive
licensed frequencies for other customers.
Grab the neutral host position. As with DAS,
in which different carriers share the antenna
array, Wi-Fi offers revenue opportunities for a
neutral host. If you’re the first service provider
to build a wireless infrastructure, you have a
good chance of winning the land grab. You
can establish different QoS tiers, lease service
set identifiers (SSIDs) or wireless network
names to Tier 1 mobile and MSO carriers, and
charge for backhaul data services.
HOWSERVICEPROVIDERS
CANMONETIZEWI-FI
|5
3.
www.cciwifi.com

7. Makemoneyfromanalytics.You can also leverage infrastructure
analytics for new revenue opportunities. Using RF fingerprinting
and signal strength values from client devices, your Wi-Fi network
can plot locations and client movements, identifying how
frequently and how long a client is at a particular location. That’s
valuable information. For example, picture a shopping mall that
offers free Wi-Fi (which you supply). The mall is divided into Wi-Fi
coverage zones. As a client device nears a particular store, the
network pushes down a special sale item, enticing that client
into the store. Once the client is inside, the network could push
more items to the device. It also could track the device over time
and send an updated store map – similar to a personal shopper
– based on time spent in a particular location. CCI’s BandWise,
used with analytics, can help you give premium customers more
bandwidth access for such activities.
|6www.cciwifi.com

8. Concentrate on profitable verticals.
Consider monetization opportunities in
verticals such as the following.
Education. More and more school districts
are implementing wireless technologies,
moving away from computer labs and
traditional wiring toward tablet education.
Imaginewhatitcouldmeanforanyeducator
in a unified school district to be able to
access network services from any location.
As a service provider, you can use a hosted
model to connect school districts across
the entire service area. You can also use
the school district network to increase
your network footprint, using a model of
hosted SSIDs. Data can be secured for the
school district and private networks through network access control and cloud-based solutions.
The school district gains a state-of-the-art wireless network without burdening its IT resources.
You gain economies of scale in network footprint, IT resources and wireless controller equipment.
Multi-Dwelling Units (MDUs). Most MDUs and even entire subdivisions have not leveraged the
opportunity of wireless. Providers typically bring services to the demarc point and then try to sell
to individual customers. Add wireless to your offerings, perhaps splitting revenues with developers
and property managers, and let them manage tenants through homeowner association fees or
monthly maintenance fees.
You gain single account management instead of an individual sales model, and better network
penetration as you optimize mounting locations, spectrum use and efficiency. Add analytics
to the picture and uncover new opportunities—for example, selling home monitoring and
management services. Combine analytics and cameras, and you can offer options such as
checking common areas, or delivering real-time play information for a golf course. Operators can
even use your network to provide snack and beverage services from anywhere on the course via
a smartphone app.
Utilities. The “smart grid” is growing as more homes use smartphones and wireless technologies
to monitor power status and control heating and cooling, lighting and security. Utility companies
favor the smart grid because they can better manage service demand without building new power
generators. But not all utilities can handle the data traffic from these connected homes.
As a service provider, you can help utilities implement and maintain a complex network that
includes wireless. It’s also a chance to perform backhaul and maintenance of the utility network.
You leverage your networking expertise to provide a service, freeing the utility company to focus
on its core service delivery.
|7www.cciwifi.com

9. Here are a few approaches to launching your wireless
play. CCI Systems can help you develop a business plan
based on your specific network and market.
Make the most of existing capabilities. Look at
your readiness to sell new services. For example, does
your company have a hotspot play for restaurants and
retailers? Leverage that coverage into more hotspot
locations. Offer existing hotspot customers a premium
analytics service, providing data you gather such as
customer count/time of day, how often a customer visits
an area (hourly, daily, weekly), and dwell time in the area.
Building more hotspots eventually creates a hotzone
that gives you even more data to mine.
Form partnerships. Work with residential and business
property developers to make Wi-Fi an integral part of
theirapproach.Developersgainabenefitforprospective
tenants and a single point for communication services.
You gain potential new subscribers as well as business
analytics for future premium services (turning
subscribers who constantly use their networks for over-
the-top applications into a source of analytics and thus
potential revenue).
Linkenterprises.Toovercometheinitialcostsofbuilding
an SPWi-Fi network, look to the growing demand among
enterprise businesses for deploying Wi-Fi. With a unified
Wi-Fistrategy,youcanlinktheseenterprisesandusetheir
coverage areas to augment your own Wi-Fi offerings.
Lease and earn. Once you’ve built your network, you
can sell or lease SSIDs.This business approach very much
models the cellular backhaul that service providers now
offer to other service providers.
BUILDINGTHE
BUSINESSARCHITECTURE
|8
4.
www.cciwifi.com

10. ARE YOU READY?
CONTACT:
While licensed spectrum proponents say they’re uncertain about unlicensed
spectrum use, CCI and Cisco have found success with SP Wi-Fi. We see enormous
revenue potential for Tier 2 and Tier 3 service providers—and as the market
matures, we expect to uncover opportunities as yet unimagined.
The expertise and resources you need to successfully deploy SPWi-Fi are here, from
CCI’s engineering know-how to our Cisco expertise to our BandWise managed
solution for authentication, walled gardens and tiered services.
The land grab is happening now. Are you ready to build the network, or are you
going to let another service provider seize this opportunity?
855-337-9299
info@ccisystems.com
www.cciwifi.com
|9www.cciwifi.com