A growing number of industry experts are saying that small cell base stations could be central to the shape of future mobile networks. Because they provide their signal close to mobile users, the data speeds are close to maximum, battery life multiplies and the whole experience is more consistent. Their small range enables a more efficient use of scarce spectrum resources, and their use of commodity internet backhaul delivers an unbeatably low cost per GB and site-sharing integration with WiFi hotspots. Finally, their autonomous cognitive radio and self-organising mesh capabilities (features developed from femtocell technology) enable high density deployment, delivering a massive capacity boost with low operational costs.
All of this is becoming a reality today, because after years of development, a sophisticated level of autonomous intelligence has been built into small cell operating systems.
But there are side effects. Today, the limiting factor in mobile broadband performance is the air interface, because of the typically large distance between phone mast and mobile device. With small cells the air interface is short range, shared by fewer users and is running close to maximum rate. So it is much more likely that the backhaul, the route from small cell via the internet to the core network, will be the limiting factor.

That could be a problem, because one of the cost benefits of small cells is that they can use almost anything for backhaul, and it will typically be commodity fixed broadband. This is often already heavily loaded with a variety of traffic and its performance varies minute by minute.
So, while small cells can solve a very large capacity problem, they place new challenges on backhaul infrastructure – challenges that will need to be overcome if the technology is to deliver its full potential.
