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Increased enterprise reliance on mobile cloud computing has increased the pressure on IT professionals to simplify wireless access inside large and medium enterprises. The 'bring your own device' trend has led to high demand for mobile access to voice and data anywhere via personal smartphones and tablets.

What mobile operators that serve these enterprises need is a rapid and cost-effective system for flexible deployment that addresses IT's wireless challenges.

That's where small cells or low-powered radio access nodes are helping operators to improve cellular coverage, capacity and applications as well as pave the way for new mobile services that detect presence, connect and interact with existing networks. These cells operate in a frequency band that is typically outside the mainstream wireless spectrum.

A key player in the small cell technology development, NEC Corp, recently added the SmartCloud system from SpiderCloud Wireless to its end-to-end small cell solution offering, which also includes products for the residential and small enterprise market segments.

The system provides mobile operators with a consistent management interface, automated radio frequency planning, inter-small-cell mobility, quality of service, wireless intrusion detection and prevention, 802.1x-based authentication and 802.11u. 

The SmartCloud system comprises of a services node that centrally controls a number of radio nodes deployed throughout an enterprise. The services node provides traffic aggregation and session management for all mobile sessions delivered through the radio nodes over the enterprise LAN.

Based on SpiderCloud's Enterprise Radio Access Network (E-RAN) platform, the SmartCloud system enables mobile network operators to deliver scalable indoor mobile access and application services for medium to large enterprises. NEC plans to support 4G long term evolution (LTE) in future releases of the E-RAN system.

With centralized architecture and provisioning, the services node enables access control, radio node management, auto configuration, self-optimization, interference management, local data offload, soft-handover, and core network integration functions.

"With NEC's small cell footprint covering more than 20 carriers worldwide, we can accelerate the deployment of E-RANs to help our customers serve their client base with a premium mobile services platform that is free from the capacity, time to market and cost limitations of a distributed antenna system," said Anil Kohli, General Manager at NEC Europe Ltd. 

"With NEC's proven infrastructure and core gateways, we can jointly scale to help mobile operators meet enterprises' wireless needs," said Mike Gallagher, SpiderCloud's CEO.