lightRadio™ Modernizes the RAN for a Service-Rich Environment
Mobile operators will never be able to keep up with consumer demands for more capacity and better performing services unless they modernize their networks. The radio access network, which still cobbles together antennas, amplifiers, processors and other components according to a complicated architecture that was established decades ago, is a glaring example of the need for 21st century solutions.
The need for more efficient and better performing RAN has stimulated innovation in the vendor community, which is responding with new architectures that can make the cell site equipment smaller and simpler while increasing capacity and lowering costs.
"The trend in industry toward smaller form factors is very important because the challenges of siting base stations are only getting greater," said Ken Rehbehn, principal analyst at Yankee Group Research.
"Architectures that allow for a reduction in form factor are important for making it possible to give consumers the high-speed mobile broadband experience at the quality level the consumers expect."
A new family of products called lightRadioTM, pioneered by Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs, is an early example of these new approaches and illustrates the benefits they will bring in delivering greatly enhanced capacity and a better quality of experience to users while lowering the cost per bit to deliver services. LightRadioTM simplifies the RAN by eliminating the need for traditional base stations and towers in urban environments and shifting the baseband processing into an operator owned network cloud. The platform will begin customer trials in the second half of 2011 and components should begin hitting the market in 2012. It is expected to give operators capability to potentially double the capacity on their macro networks while reducing the cost-per-bit by 50% compared to conventional 3G approaches. Savings come from substantial reductions in site rental, permitting and maintenance costs and reduced power consumption, among others.
The rapidly accelerating use of mobile data devices and the traffic they generate underscores the need for these types of performance improvements. For example, Alcatel-Lucent studies forecast that in 2015, the number of smartphones in urban areas will increase to 12,800 per urban square kilometer, compared to 400 per square kilometer today: a 32-fold increase. The studies also indicate that global wireless data traffic will grow 30-fold over the next five years.
Yet the surge in data consumption is not contributing to service providers' profitability; in fact, the costs to provide mobile data services is starting to encroach on wireless data revenues and profitability for many operators. According to Bell Labs models, the cost to offer mobile data services will exceed revenues in 2012 unless service providers employ solutions to drive down costs while introducing new revenue-generating services.
The lightRadio architecture, developed by Bell Labs, Freescale Semiconductor, and HP, introduces a new type of condensed base station to address these issues.
The two key components include an all-in-one antenna and amplifier that can fit into a small cube that is less than 2.5" square and weighs less than a pound. It can work in spectrum from 400 MHz to 4 GHz and serve all technologies, from 2G to 3G and to LTE. The cubes are stacked like building blocks at a site. As few as four cubes can be used, but more can be added depending on capacity needs of the location or the need to serve varying frequencies or cellular network technologies. A typical arrangement would include two columns of eight cubes.
The other key component is the baseband processor, a programmable system-on-chip from Freescale that can be remotely configured and modified to enable easy upgrades, add new features or incorporate changes in baseband architecture. The flexibility makes it possible to use a diversity of technologies, such as 3G or LTE, on the same hardware. Because it is remotely programmed, the unit also saves on site maintenance and preserves capital.
The lightRadioTM product family can be deployed in a mix of architectures and operators can change between these architectures. The architecture also has the flexibility to facilitate all-in-one deployment of a lightRadio antenna and baseband processor, in a standard configuration, at the site, or putting the baseband processor at a distance from the antenna and centralizing the processing in what Alcatel-Lucent describes as a cloud-like network.
The new RAN, tuned and controlled in the "carrier cloud," allows operators to balance the load or increase or decrease processing power according to demand, which also cuts costs. In addition, one of the greatest benefits of the architecture is the ability to coordinate multiple towers to reduce self-interference. The net impact is more speed-the potential to double LTE speeds-and a higher quality of experience, especially at the cell edge. In other words, lightRadio advances LTE.
Alcatel-Lucent has plans in place to conduct field trials of the cube-based antenna later this year. It will be commercially available in 2012 as the first release in the product family. The company will release components and software regularly, about every six months, as it builds more and more capabilities into the platform.
China Mobile is a partner in the trials and France Telecom/Orange and Verizon Wireless have each issued statements indicating support and interest in exploring its uses and benefits.
Tom Gruba, senior director for lightRadioTM marketing at Alcatel-Lucent, emphasized that the company is working closely with operator customers to bring the lightRadio solution to market in a way that best represents their needs.
"We've got a co-development process. That means we engage customers earlier in the process rather than just introducing the product and saying this is what it is."
Gruba noted that every operator's situation is different and their needs are different. Those that offer services in multiple countries, in particular, may need their radios or baseband products to fulfill certain needs.
"This will influence what we do. We have a roadmap and a plan but it is highly influenced by our customers," he said.
For more information, visit: www.alcatel-lucent.com/lightradio
