PARIS, Feb. 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcatel-Lucent
(Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is launching a new portfolio of LTE
radio access network technologies that will enable operators to
make a smooth transition to next-generation network architectures,
including the application of Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)
and the introduction of 5G services.
The new LTE RAN portfolio aims to address the biggest challenge
mobile operators will face in the near-future – the ability to meet
demand for capacity-consuming data services such as video.
In particular, Alcatel-Lucent's new 9926 eNodeB – comprising a
digital baseband unit and radio frequency (RF) platform - provides
the flexibility to utilize existing radio spectrum and deliver the
high-bandwidth LTE services needed to meet increasing demand. In
the process, it allows operators to increase capacity and improve
spectrum utilization more efficiently, while simplifying
deployments and lowering costs.
The new digital baseband unit (BBU) will help operators balance
operational costs while meeting increased demands by consuming 50%
less energy and almost tripling existing capacity - supporting up
to 24 radio cells and 16,000 users in one unit. Supporting both
LTE-TDD and LTE-FDD 4G technologies, the baseband unit can be
deployed with existing BBUs, allowing operators to maximise
existing investments in radio access technology. The baseband unit
has also been designed to allow operators to deploy a centralized
network architecture, providing a smooth evolutionary path towards
next-generation networks, including the implementation of
virtualized RAN - or vRAN infrastructure - as well as the
eventual launch of 5G networks.
The portfolio's RF platform is offered in an ergonomic, modular
design optimized in terms of size, power, bandwidth, performance
and reliability. Using common hardware and software assets across
spectrum bands, it allows for simple adaptation to meet specific
customer needs, reducing time-to-market and leveraging innovation
developed for other bands or configurations. Wideband capabilities
allow operators to utilize fragmented spectrum, covering entire
bands with one radio, while remote software configuration of
transmission modes means it can easily and quickly be adapted in
the field to meet changing market demands and traffic patterns.
Glenn Booth, Senior Vice
President and General Manger of Alcatel-Lucent's LTE Business Unit
said: "Understanding our customers' biggest challenges and
delivering solutions to meet them better than anyone else is our
mission. Our refreshed RAN portfolio is targeted to meet
exactly those challenges by addressing LTE networks densification
particularly in urban environments in a sustainable and cost
effective way. This new platform also sets the stage for a
smooth transition to a virtualized RAN and, ultimately, to a 5G
family of solutions."
"Working closely with Alcatel Lucent, Freescale has created the
industry's highest-performance SoC solution enabling full
basestation-on-chip functionality," said Tom Deitrich, Senior Vice President and General
Manager of Freescale's Digital Networking group. "A
multi-year, multi-generation hardware/software partnership is
helping to deliver world-class network performance, throughput and
capacity for Alcatel Lucent's RAN portfolio."
About the Alcatel-Lucent 9926 eNodeB: Technical
Aspects
The Digital Baseband Unit (BBU):
- Two new boards are introduced, both based on Freescale's® QorIQ
Qonverge™ B4860 base station-on-chip SoC.
- No compromise in performance - BBU supports up to 24 cells
(fully loaded at 20MHz) in a compact d2U chassis
- Increases capacity of previous generation BBUs by 260%, while
consuming up to 50% less power
- Supports RAN sharing business models
- Optimized for LTE-A, supporting carrier aggregation across FDD
and TDD modes
- Backwards-compatible with Alcatel-Lucent's existing BBU chassis
and current generation boards
- Forwards-compatible with virtualized RAN architectures and BBU
pooling
- The new digital BBU is already deployed in a large-scale
commercial TDD network application.
The Radio Frequency (RF) Platform:
- Common building block assets across the TDD and the FDD Radio
Units allows faster time-to-market
- New power amplifier and filter technology designed to fit
common interfaces allowing rapid development of new frequencies and
band retuning
- Small form factor, standardized interfaces across radios and
reduced weight making it easy to install on site
- Wideband/dual band capabilities provide support for
multi-carrier or multi-band deployments in a single unit.
- Remote software configuration of transmission modes (2T2R,
4T4R, 8T8R) enables operators to meet changing market demands.
- The high output power (up to 160W) and wide bandwidth supported
(up to 194MHz) greatly increases deployment flexibility
- PIM-free blind mate connections allow operators to easily mix
and match radios to support different active antenna
configurations.
- Cost-effective support for optimized low power RF interfaces to
Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS)
- Reliability/Fail Safe – provides soft fail redundancy in the
power amplifier (PA) in the event that one fails
- Supports RAN sharing business models
- The TDD platform is already commercially deployed and the FDD
platform will be made commercially available during Q1 2015.
ABOUT ALCATEL-LUCENT (EURONEXT PARIS AND NYSE: ALU)
Alcatel-Lucent is the leading IP networking,
ultra-broadband access and cloud technology specialist. We are
dedicated to making global communications more innovative,
sustainable and accessible for people, businesses and governments
worldwide. Our mission is to invent and deliver trusted networks to
help our customers unleash their value. Every success has its
network.
For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on:
http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the
Alcatel-Lucent blog http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow
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SOURCE Alcatel-Lucent