Mobile broadband gateway developer Stoke has become the first new member of the Small Cell Forum(formerly The Femto Forum), underscoring the increasingly close alignment of both organizations’ goals. Announcing its name change in February, the Small Cell Forum stated it would support the crossover between small cells and other relevant technologies in the heterogeneous network (hetnet) environment, including Wi-Fi, cloud RAN and macrocells. Stoke’s solutions deliver the industry’s broadest range of support for multiple types of access technologies, providing standards-based, cost-effective and high performance functionality including IPSec and aggregation at the Evolved Packet Edge (a critical boundary between the radio access network and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC).The hetnet – a varied backhaul network that leverages multiple types of small cell and Wi-Fi backhaul technologies – is a fundamental solution to help contain costs and improve mobile broadband service delivery. However, as detailed in The Small Cell Forum’s white paper, ‘Integrated Femto Wi-Fi Networks’, the industry needs to look beyond simply rolling out Wi-Fi hotspots and small cells in isolation. By integrating the technologies at the network level, they open up valuable new traffic management opportunities that will create a hetnet that is greater than the sum of its parts.
“We welcome Stoke as an innovative new member,” said Professor Simon Saunders, Chairman of the Small Cell Forum. “Stoke is doing valuable work so we expect them to play a valuable role in our Working Group activities, supporting the organization’s goal of influencing the future of the industry at large.”
“The Small Cell Forum is championing the integration of key functions into a single network element, something that Stoke can deliver today, and we are excited to join the organization at this pivotal time in its development” said Dave Williams, CTO of Stoke. “The new LTE environment is in urgent need of streamlined, high performance solutions supporting multiple functions at the Evolved Packet Edge. We look forward to working together to validate the role of multi-service security and het net aggregation functionality at the optimal point in mobile broadband networks.”
Williams added, “Stoke brings real world LTE deployment expertise to the Small Cell Forum, having been installed in one the largest LTE networks in the world over the last 2 years. Stoke has proven support for multiple types of RAN equipment and device types in a LTE environment.”
The Stoke Security eXchange platform interoperates with the widest range of small cell/femtocell/picocell technologies in the industry, as demonstrated through extensive operator performance testing.
Without sacrificing performance, Stoke’s multi-service gateway solutions today deliver the required, critical functions including small aggregation, Wi-Fi access and RAN backhaul encryption and decryption at the Evolved Packet Edge: the aggregation point between the radio access and the core network domains. Stoke eXchange platforms deliver best-in-breed secure Wi-Fi access and secure LTE backhaul solutions that combine the aggregation requirements of small cells, femtocells, macro cells, and Wi-Fi.
