November 2, 2009 | AirHop Communications a developer of systems software that enables the deployment of high performance and highly differentiated 4G wireless networks, today announced eSONâ„¢ (evolved Self-Organized Networking), the first solution that solves the installation, operation and performance challenges of dense, small cell deployments for 4G/LTE networks.

The explosive adoption of video-enabled smart phones has created a tidal wave of data traffic and exposed the capacity constraints of 3G networks, creating an urgency to deploy higher-capacity 4G networks. In order to achieve the full capacity promised by the standards, 4G networks will require a fundamentally different topology, relying on a dense mix of smaller cells including, microcells, picocells and femtocells. This approach will expose the network to significant interference and frequency reuse issues and will make network planning and operations much more complex and costly. Without new technology to deal with these issues, 4G networks cannot live up to their promise.

“AirHop recognized early on that small cell footprints are needed to address the capacity demands of 4G network deployment and the result of this topological approach would introduce massive complexity and network performance challenges,” said Yan Hui, founder and CEO of AirHop Communications. “We believe that eSON™ solves these critical problems and will play a vital role in the successful deployment of 4G networks by enabling infrastructure vendors and carriers to deliver differentiated networks and services cost-effectively and with confidence.”

“Automation is critical to reducing the lifecycle cost and optimizing the performance of mobile broadband networks,” said Gabriel Brown, Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading. “Operators deploying and evaluating LTE are very clear that advanced SON features are core to enhancing the performance of multi-layer radio access networks and are vital to the wider system architecture.”

"Operators will require 4G SON solutions to deal with the cost and complexity of deploying LTE networks with smaller overlapping cells", said Julien Grivolas, Principal Analyst at market research and consultancy firm Ovum. "When defining the LTE specification, OPEX reduction was a critical requirement from operators, however this should not be done at the expense of system performance. SON solutions will help operators achieve this balance".

Thought leaders in the wireless industry, including AirHop, believe that self-organized networking (SON) technology will be mandatory to automate planning, installation and the initial configuration of basestations. While current SON solutions stop there, AirHop’s patent-pending eSON™ technology extends SON well beyond this initial set-up phase to include comprehensive, distributed, real-time inter-cell coordination capabilities that allow neighboring basestations to communicate with each other to dynamically manage inter-cell interference, optimize frequency reuse, data throughput, and QoS during the operation phase.

In addition to the capabilities for self-configuration promised by current SON solutions, eSONâ„¢ also provides:

Direct inter-node communication and coordination that establishes neighboring basestation topology and inter-basestation communications via a unified application-level software platform.
Active real-time interference management based on coordination among the neighboring cells.
Enhanced Radio Resource Management (eRRMâ„¢) based on distributed algorithms and coordination among the cells. It optimizes frequency reuse, data throughput and QoS performance across the neighboring cells.
AirHop’s eSONTM software is platform-independent and runs on top of standard 4G protocol stacks. It can easily be integrated with LTE eNodeB or WiMAX basestations for macrocells, microcells, picocells and femtocells from multiple vendors.

AirHop's 4G eSONTM technology is available now for demonstration to customers and partners.

About AirHop Communications, Inc.

Founded in 2007, AirHop provides system software to enable the efficient delivery of services in 4G networks with self-organized networking, inter-cell coordination, real-time provisioning and management, and improved QoS technologies. The company is privately-held and based in San Diego, CA. More information is at www.airhopcomm.com.