US / Europe : Alcatel-Lucent announced the expansion of its CDMA/EV-DO portfolio with a new distributed base station that gives mobile operators greater flexibility for third-generation (3G) network deployments while lowering power consumption and reducing operating expenses.
The Alcatel-Lucent 9234 Base Station d2U Distributed is designed to support CDMA2000 1X and 1xEV-DO Revision A (Rev. A) services, enabling both high-quality voice and high-speed data services such as streaming video, Web browsing, voice over IP (VoIP) and more.
This "zero footprint" distributed base station seamlessly integrates into existing networks and can be deployed in a wide array of physical locations such as utility poles, the sides of the buildings and tower tops, without taking up any floor space at an existing site, or with minimal space at a new site, thus minimizing real estate costs, a key expense for operators. The platform effectively separates baseband and radio frequency components into a baseband unit and remote radio heads (RRH) allowing a wide variety of configurations, and enabling different elements of the base station to be separated by miles. This provides exceptional flexibility for operators facing physical site constraints and site acquisition challenges, allowing them to provide seamless coverage to their subscribers.
"The concept of remote radio heads is not new, and W-CDMA operators have been introducing compact baseband units for some time," notes Peter Jarich, Research Director with Current Analysis. "Carrying this combination forward to the CDMA market, however, promises operators the zero-footprint capabilities necessary for growing their networks - in terms of capacity and coverage - cost effectively."
"The introduction of this new platform highlights our continuing focus on bringing the latest innovations to market to help mobile operators maintain their competitive edge," said Mike Iandolo, President of Alcatel-Lucent's CDMA/EV-DO activities. "This new distributed base station gives our customers exceptional flexibility to deal with the most challenging deployment scenarios, enabling them to quickly and easily close coverage gaps to ensure that their subscribers enjoy the same high-quality experience no matter where they are."
Alcatel-Lucent's RRH portfolio complies with the strictest environmental standards. As all of the RRH products are fanless, they are silent, and combined with a 50 percent improvement in power saving over earlier generation products they bring a significant reduction in energy consumption.
These lower power requirements enable this new base station to operate on alternative energy sources such as solar or wind power, a considerable advantage in remote locations where access to power can be limited. Finally, this new platform can substantially reduce the number of base stations needed to cover a given area, further reducing the overall environmental impact of the network.
Alcatel-Lucent is the first company to adapt the Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) specification to CDMA. It allows the company to better support customers by leveraging development across multiple wireless technologies (CDMA and W-CDMA), and support a smooth, and consistent evolution path to 4G. The distributed portfolio reinforces Alcatel-Lucent's customers' investment protection with a hardware platform common across both the CDMA/EV-DO and W-CDMA/HSPA portfolios, and is ready to support future technology upgrades including LTE and UMB.
As a global leader in the development and deployment of third-generation (3G) networks, Alcatel-Lucent has deployed commercial 3G (UMTS/HSPA and CDMA2000) systems for more than 70 operators worldwide.
