Released

1Q 2012

Product Code

VM-FEMT-105

Price

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The Indoor Small Cell Vendor Matrix compares small cell access point vendors and ranks them based on various criteria linked to innovation and implementation. This matrix primarily covers the competitiveness of vendors that provide access points for indoor residential and enterprise small cells. However, it does recognize the capability of vendors around outdoor metro and rural small cell solutions. ABI Research evaluates vendors on the basis of innovation and implementation by selecting multiple criteria related to product/company characteristics that serve as proxies for the vendors' performance in these two areas. Upon evaluation, vendors are assigned numerical scores that are aggregated and analyzed to provide overall rankings of each vendor on the innovation and implementation axes. The criteria specific to the evaluation of small cells include: Implementation • End-to-end solution capability: measures ability of vendor to provide end-to-end solutions from chipset access point through to system integration. • RFP, trial, and rollout activity: measures commercial activity of vendor including participation in RFPs, trials, and commercial rollouts, with larger weight for live commercial rollouts. • Ability to scale and commoditize quickly: measures ability to scale operations to match upcoming spikes in demand for small cell access points. • Carrier relationships: measures existing relationships with carriers—including tier one, two, and three carriers—with larger weight given for tier one carriers. • Overall financial and organizational health: measures financial health of the vendor. • Silicon strategy/partnerships: measures the silicon strategy, silicon partnerships, or internal ability of a vendor to develop silicon. • Software stack capabilities: measures the software stack strategy, software stack partnerships, or internal ability of a vendor to develop software stack. Innovation • Cost: measures innovation and effort in reducing the cost of the small cell access point. • Interference mitigation techniques: measures innovation and techniques involved in reducing interference from small cells. • Standards-compliant network interface: measures efforts to provide a standards-compliant small cell, including participation and submission to the standards themselves. • Gateway/handset IOT: measures effort of vendor in terms of handset and gateway IOT. • L2/L3 software stack: measures innovation on the L2/L3 software stack. • Hand in/out support: measures effort and innovation to provide hand-in/hand-out support on small cells. • Module support: measures the ability of a vendor to provide modular versions of its small cell that can integrate into third-party platforms. • Femtozone service/application framework support: measures innovation and development of femtozone services and application framework. • Support for multiple form factors: measures innovation and capability in providing multiple form factors (DSL/Wi-Fi integrated, set-top box integrated femto). • Enterprise small cell capability: measures innovation and capabilities for enterprise/business grade small cells. • Metro/rural small cell capability: measures innovation and capabilities for metro/rural grade small cells. • Small cell network and operations management: measures capabilities and innovations around small cell network management systems including fault diagnostics, device management, collecting network statistics, and performance management.