Potentially revolutionary new mobile network infrastructure technology has been unveiled at the CTIA technology conference in Florida
European vendor Nokia Siemens Networks unveiled its “LiquidRadio” technology, which will enable operators to take the…
Potentially revolutionary new mobile network infrastructure technology has been unveiled at the CTIA technology conference in Florida
European vendor Nokia Siemens Networks unveiled its “LiquidRadio” technology, which will enable operators to take the base band currently used in base stations and put it in a centralised pool, where it can be directed to wherever it is most needed in a network.
NSN’s head of Market Channels for Network Systems, Bareld Meijering, told TelecomFinance that this would represent “liquid capacity for operators”.
Liquid Radio was just one of the initiatives announced by NSN.
Meijering also discussed NSN’s Flexi Multiradio active antenna system, which will allow operators to steer capacity in a network to the user demand.
He said that this could lead to a 65% increase in capacity in a cell.
Meijering claimed that NSN’s initiatives will result in a better service experience for end users and will allow operators to reduce costs.
NSN’s announcements follow the launch of a rival “lightRadio” mobile network architecture by the French-American vendor Alcatel-Lucent in February.
The lightRadio technology, which Alcatel-Lucent claims will halve the cost of owning mobile network infrastructure, effectively divides the traditional base station into its component parts and divides them through the network.
It also means that the antennae for 2G, 3G and LTE can be combined in a single antenna that can be attached to a pole, building or anywhere with an adequate power connection.
Both could be seen signs that the increasing demands for bandwidth are pushing technological innovation in network design.
NSN’s Bareld Meijering said that if mobile traffic was like “the ebb and flow in a sea”, then the growth of data usage on mobiles was like a storm meeting that ebb and flow: it made the peaks and troughs of usage vary much more widely.
But a VP at Finnish vendor Ericsson dismissed both these product launches as PR stunts.
Ulf Ewaldsson, the head of the radio product area at Ericsson, told TelecomFinance that it was “misleading” to give new names to these technologies when they are not really so new at all.
Speaking about the Alcatel-Lucent’s lightRadio technology, Ewaldsson said that this “technology is also old and has been done before”.
He said this technology is already in use on a small-scale and may be used more widely if it is economically feasible.
He also said that Ericsson is already selling technology similar to the Liquid Radio products launched by Nokia Siemens Networks yesterday.
Ewaldsson also dismissed speculation that these products could signal the end of the traditional base station, as he said that towercos will still have to build very large installations in the future.
