Business drivers and trade-offs between Small Cells and RAN Virtualisation

Various RAN Virtualisation architectures have been proposed which balance benefits between spectral efficiency, backhaul/fronthaul and hardware platforms. David recaps the technical alternatives and shares insights into some of the deeper commercial drivers (and consequences) between them. Will virtualisation open up competition throughout the RAN or reinforce lock-in to mainstream vendors? What capabilities would be needed from backhaul/fronthaul technologies in support?