Nokia Networks claims world first with 1 Gbps-capable small cell base station

Nokia Networks said it has developed the world's first modular outdoor small cell base station to deliver peak data rates of over 1 Gbps, as it announced a bundle of services it said can cut the cost of deploying small cells.

The Finland-headquartered equipment vendor said its new Flexi Zone G2 Multi-band Carrier Aggregation Outdoor Micro/Pico Base Station platform features three RF module slots to enable operators to deploy and aggregate between various radio access technologies and spectrum combinations.

Those groupings cover up to three licensed LTE carrier bands, unlicensed LTE bands and Wi-Fi, the company said.

Nokia Networks also announced the launch of the HetNet Engine Room, a service that uses 3D street level maps to calculate the likely return on investment of new small cell sites.

The approach can enable operators to deploy small cells 30 per cent faster and 20 per cent cheaper than existing rollout methods, the vendor said.

Randy Cox, head of small cell product management at Nokia Networks, said the company is offering a fresh approach to small cell deployment "that enables operators to pick the best sites and then deploy small cells and their backhaul quickly and at a much lower cost."

Cox added that the HetNet Engine Room makes it easier for operators to justify the business case for deploying small cells. "Deploying a small cell on one side of a road can cost ten times more than at a location just a few meters away on the other side of the road," he said.

The company also detailed other initiatives it said can help to overcome the technical and cost barriers of deploying small cells, including a point-to-point non-line-of-sight wireless backhaul system produced by its partner Tarana Wireless that Nokia Networks said delivers fibre-like backhaul capabilities.

Other initiatives include new intelligent SON capabilities the company said enables rapid small cell deployments with backhaul over public networks or for operators not using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, and an integrated grand master clock function in the Flexi Zone Controller that the company said can deliver significant capex and opex savings by eliminating the need for an external timer or GPS antenna on each small cell.

The company rounded out its cost-saving theme by detailing an energy-saving feature for its Flexi Zone kit that allows operators to reduce capacity underlay in small cells at specific times, and at low loads.

For more:
- see this Nokia Networks release

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