An Era of the
Fourth-Generation
Base Station
Approaching
As expected, Apple Inc. was the ultimate
success story. Under their arrangement,
they receive 10% of the wireless operators’
profits earned through iPhone products.
Since then, the whole industry has focused
on the profit shift along the value chain in
the communications industry.
Meanwhile, multinational wireless operators are penetrating
their opponents’ markets to strive for a piece of the huge
“cake”, while the regional wireless operators are looking for
opportunities to boost their performance. The competition in
the industry has thus become increasingly fierce.
As analysts have pointed out, wireless operators and the entire
communications industry have been “standing right in the
center of the hurricane”.
On one hand, due to the fast growth of subscriber bases,
continuous increments of MOU and constant introductions of
new services, it has become imperative for existing networks
to provide enhanced services and performance. On the other
hand, high operating costs and depreciation of the ARPU
bring immense challenges to profit making for the wireless
operators. It is widely agreed that continuous innovation of
technologies and solutions is the only effective way to tackle
operators’ challenges, particularly in engaging in future-oriented
network solution building.
Effective solutions for the mobile networks
It took less then twenty years to popularize digital mobile
communication services. As one of the most important
network components, the BTS represents the way that mobile
networks were able to transform. This can be categorized into
four phases according to implemented key technologies in
BTS. In the middle of the 1990s, the first-generation BTSs,
featuring analog power amplification technology, enabled
subscribers to enjoy mobile phone calls. Around 2000, the
second-generation BTSs, featuring digital power amplification
technology, further facilitated the fast spreading of mobile
networks. After 2005, the third-generation BTSs, represented
by distributed BTSs, pushed forward wireless operators’ net-
working modes by leaps and bounds. In 2008, as fierce competition
and cost cutting impose greater pressure, the fourthgeneration
BTSs, featuring “multi-standard convergence, high
integration, All-IP, energy conservation and environmental
protection”, have come into being.
Multi-standard convergence, unifying the technical
systems
Nowadays, mobile communications is developing quickly, the
upgrade of technologies and products are being accelerated
and the protection of early investments is undergoing serious
challenges. As a result, GSM technologies are gradually
evolving to EDGE and EDGE+, WCDMA technologies are
evolving to HSPA, HSPA+ and LTE, and WiMAX is also being
adopted into 3G networks.
However, different technical systems, which come with their
own distinct advantages, also bring risks and confusion. In
this background, multi-standard convergence becomes a major
concern in the industry.
The multi-standard convergence of primary networks is developing
in two typical directions. First, the equipment room,
cabinet, antenna and feeder, power supply and transmission
system are shared. Second, software defined radio (SDR)
technology is adopted to unify the hardware of the BTSs in
the different technical systems in order to to bridge the gaps
between various standards.
Peculiarly, the fourth-generation BTSs of Huawei are futureoriented.
In this new generation, BTSs of different technical
systems share the same platform; conversions between the
technical systems can be performed just by upgrading the
software. This fundamentally protects the early investments
in equipment.
High integration, realizing small-sized BTSs with large
capacity through the multi-carrier technology
It took 15 years for mobile operators to cultivate the first 1 bil-
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