Alcatel-Lucent unveils revolutionary mobile network architecture

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 08 February 2011 15:11

Business IT - Technology

Alcatel-Lucent has unveiled a new and dramatically different architecture for mobile networks that would replace today's plethora of different cell sizes, systems and antennas for different frequencies and technologies with a modular system based on small cube antennae and a base-station on a chip that, it claims, can support all frequencies and technologies and, by using multiple antennas, all sizes of cell sites.

If the technology lives up to the company's claims it will create a revolution in the world's mobile networks and, until competitors catch up, give the company a significant market edge. It could also significantly impact the economics of the wireless component of Australia's National Broadband Network.

The system, dubbed lightRadio, was developed in conjunction with chipmaker, Freescale and HP. A key component is a Bell-Labs developed small cube antenna that, the company claims, will replace today's clutter of antennas serving 2G, 3G, and LTE systems and that can be mounted on poles, sides of buildings or anywhere else where there is power and a broadband connection.

It will operate in conjunction with a base station on a chip, developed by Freescale that can be installed close to the antenna or remotely, in the cloud.

Mobile networks today range from in-home femto cells through small pico and metro cells to the large macrocells. According to Wim Sweldens, president of Alcatel-Lucent's Wireless division "What we are saying is that [with lightRadio] home cells, small cells, metro and macro cells all become part of the one family. You just use more elements. So we will have one seamless capability to go from small to big cells."

He said that multiple units of the small antenna cube could be used to meet all cellular network antenna requirements. "Just one of these cubes can serve an area of several hundred metres'¦This less than 300g cube enables an active antenna as small as 2 watts to an array of typical cellular capacity (30-60 watts). It can be deployed in big and small antenna configurations, all-around the city'¦These cubes can be stacked to build a macro cell or used singularly in a beam formation for targeted coverage.

"At the click of a button it can be turned from 2G to 3G to 4G and beyond and to any mobile frequency in use anywhere in the world'¦You do not scale by building bigger and bigger versions, you simply use more of them'¦In any configuration that fits your needs. You can add intelligence that dynamically adapts the radio signal and the radio power to the needs of the users."

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