Third design release of Ericsson's WCDMA macro radio base stations

摘要

The market for WCDMA has taken off in several regions around the world. Europe, East Asia and Australia, for example, are each reporting accelerated growth in subscriber uptake. Many operators, after a successful rollout of coverage, are now also offering high-quality networks that carry steadily increasing loads of voice and data traffic. Three 3G standards are competing for subscribers: WCDMA, CDMA2000 and TD-SCDMA. To sustain continued growth in regions where customers are accustomed to excellent 2G handsets, services and high-speed fixed broadband access, operators of 3G networks must offer even better services and greater mobility. Moreover, they must keep their tarrifs competitive. Consequently operators are very interested in peak performance, capacity, and cost-effectiveness. This article discusses how Ericsson's new, third release of its WCDMA macro radio base stations (RBS) capitalize on advances in technology to improve the architecture of the RBS node to meet the challenges described above and to help operators target new business opportunities. The new design enables operators to double node capacity, increase coverage, simplify maintenance, and dramatically reduce power consumption. The combined effect of these enhancements yields considerably lower capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operating expenses (OPEX) in the radio access network (RAN).