Mobile operators need both Wi-Fi offload and small cells to create the capacity underlay required to address explosive traffic growth. Initially, these two approaches were viewed as alternatives – with Wi-Fi offload relieving congestion in the short term and small cells providing the long-term, carrier-grade solution for a sustained capacity injection. The two approaches are in fact complementary, and operators have come to consider both Wi-Fi offload and small cells necessary to achieve their capacity targets. When used jointly, Wi-Fi offload and small cells can minimize the cost-per-bit of data traffic and improve overall performance, as long as operators decide opportunistically in which locations to deploy only one and where to deploy both.

This webinar will look at the benefits and challenges of deploying each individual approach, as well as the combined solution, all this in the perspective of radio access network and the packet core.

Topics covered:

• Small cells and WiFi offload
• Trusted vs. untrusted Wi-Fi offload
• Aggregating increased authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA) traffic
• Incorporation of protocol aware firewalling and enforcement of interconnection agreements
• Transport Security
• Evolved Packet Data Gateway (ePDG)