Multi-technology BTS Coming Soon

In the age of competing technologies like 3G, 4G and LTE taking over the telecom landscape, operators today have no choice but to innovate, and multi-technology BTS is the latest emerging trend to be gaining popularity with the vendors today.

Samsung is leading service provider which recently launched its 4G base stations, which can adopt a common platform capable of supporting mobile WiMax (802.16e), WiMax 2 (802.16m), as well as both FDD-LTE and TD-LTE. Samsung also supplies macro and pico base stations to provide quality of services and seamless mobile broadband coverage.

Huawei was one of the first vendors to emerge with its NGN Single RAN network that was also deployed by Bangladesh's grameenphone. As the core component of Single RAN, Huawei's 4th generation multi-platform all-IP solutions enables the convergence of RANs, providing a smooth evolution to 3G and LTE with NGN-ready equipments for quick deployment, and network upgradation with a distributed architecture. including 4G(LTE) The bare band unit of WiMax can also be used on Single RAN and as a part of the single cabinet solution. Several operators in India like Vodafone, bharti airtel, and Reliance Communications are also using Huawei's BTS equipments today.

Huawei recently provided China Telecom with a unified transport solution featuring a 1588v2-capable solution that integrates WDM/OTN, MSTP/Hybrid MSTP, and microwave systems, and achieves instant service provisioning over a large bandwidth. The 1588v2 clock solution provides accurate clock signals of the same frequency and phase for the base stations and it meets the strict clock requirements of 3G and LTE, while keeping mobile phone signals unaffected when switching between the base stations.

The explosion of smart connected devices with an increasing data and video content has created a tsunami for mobile datas. It requires OEMs and carriers to dramatically boost network performances while controlling capital expenditure costs, increasing power efficiency, and supporting the emergence of NGN technologies.

Freescale semiconductors introduced the QorIQ Qonverge portfolio of base station-on-chip products.These are based on a common architecture and integrates communication processing, digital signal processing, and wireless acceleration technologies into a single system-on-chip in various configurations optimized for next-generation femtocell, picocell, metrocell, and macrocell base stations. This integration lowers the part counts and delivers significant power, costs, and footprint reductions for base stations. The portfolio's products support multiple standards, including GSM, LTE-FDD & TDD, LTE-Advanced, HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, and WiMax. In addition, the family's flexible architecture allows support for evolving standards with the software upgrades.

Last but not the least, is the lightRadio solution from Alcatel-Lucent. Projected to signal the end of the mobile industry's reliance on masts and base stations around the world, and coming closer to provide universal broadband coverage, lightRadio represents a new approach. The base station is located at the base of each cell site tower, broken into its components' elements, and then distributed into both the antenna and throughout a cloud-like network. lightRadio also shrinks today's clutter of antennas serving 2G, 3G, and LTE systems into a single powerful bell labs-pioneered antenna that can be mounted on poles, sides of buildings or anywhere else there is power and a broadband connection. lightRadio is expected to reduce the energy consumption of mobile networks and TCO up to 50% over the current RAN equipment.

These innovations coincide with the growing demand for 3G and 4G mobile networks and devices, and the growing consumption of voice and data traffic. With 3G having made a recent entry in to the Indian market, operators today already offer 2G and 3G networks from a single BTS. With the evolution of technology, we shall soon see multi-technology BTS coming to India as well.

Beryl M

berylm@cybermedia.co.in