Tens of thousands of people from around the world are heading out to Barcelona this weekend to attend GSMA Mobile World Congress 2013 (MWC13) which will take place at new venue this year, Fira Gran Via.  Back in November we did a MWC13 preview that was made up of contributions from 3 leading test/measurement companies and 3 component companies.  Agilent, R&S, Anritsu, RFMD, TriQuint and Skyworks all wrote pieces about what they expected to be hot topics at the show.  The main ones covered by T&M companies were carrier aggregation, LTE-A, WiFi offload, MIMO OTA testing and small cells.  The component manufacturers pointed out topics such as envelop tracking/high efficiency amps, broadband devices, distributed antenna systems and higher levels of integration.  Here is a link to the article, Wireless Trends to Look for at MWC 2013.

There has already been quite a bit of pre-show news which can be found here.  On the T&M side, Agilent, R&S and Azimuth had recent announcements and on the components side, Maxim, Freescale, RFMD, TriQuint and Cree had recent news.  They ones that involve companies teaming together intrigue me as Maxim and Freescale have collaborated on a small cell base station platform design that is field deployable by mobile operators and also serves as a production-ready reference design to accelerate time to market for equipment manufacturers.  In addition, Cree and Eta Devices are teaming up to demo the world’s most efficient PA (70%+) for mobile base stations.  I am excited to see a demo of this technology and will include it in my post show report.

Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) have been a hot topic recently as a solution to capacity constraints.  Today I posted a nice article by Udi Gordon of Ceragon Networks, entitled Heterogeneous Networks Solve Capacity Problems in Mobile Networks.  It discusses Holistic HetNet Hauling (3H) which organizes the entire HetNet’s wireless hauling requirements and allows network operators to meet accelerating demand for cost-effective capacity.  I am sure we will hear more about this approach at the show.

The impending capacity constraints that are projected to happen soon can also be alleviated by deployment of small cell so we have seen many articles and announcements on this subject.  So many have come out that we have established a Small/Pico/Femto Cell Channeldedicated to information on this subject.

An additional solution is using high capacity networks such as off loading to WiFi or using mmWave radio links, which offer much higher throughput than existing wireless backhaul systems.  mmWave radios have matured now and offer a cost effective solution in many cases.  Today I also posted an article from Emmy Johnson of Sky Light Research entitled Mobile Data Backhaul: The Need For E‐Band.  The article takes an in-depth look at the market for E-Band radios and the major players.

So there is a lot to absorb in a week and still try to enjoy Barcelona a little.  Let me know what Hot Topics you expect or see at the show.