Open Base Station Architecture

1
Open Base Station Architecture

• OBSAI, CPRI, etc
• Can They Drive Innovation?
• Larry Fischer
• October, 2008
  

2
Are Standards Driving Innovation?

• The Standards are not really Open- competition
  will not happen until the TOTAL interface
  specifications are readily available
• Market Forcasts for Remote Radio Heads are very
  positive
• Emergence of new companies that have focused on
  Remote Radio Heads have sparked innovation in RF
  development

3
Advantages of a Standardized Remote Radio Head

• Economic
• Competition for RRH markets from smaller, dynamic
  companies drive competitive prices.
• Overall Network Providers like NSN, Ericsson,
  A/L, etc would be free to focus on network
  features
• Siting you still have to place the antennas but
  not the equipment hut
• Cheaper feeder runs no RF cables
• Better Utilization of Base Band Signal
  Processing

• Technical
• Reduced RF losses
• Enables deployment of configurable systems
• Smaller RF Power Amplifiers
• Lower interference levels
• Easier to achieve uniform coverage
• Lower overall power consumption

4
Two Approaches to Remote Radio Heads
OBSAI Standard
5
Distributed Antenna Systems and Remote Radio
Heads

• DAS
• RF to RF at a remote location
• Modulation agnostic
• Wide Frequency range
• Fiber Optic Analog and Digital Transport Systems
• May include frequency translation and A/D and D/A
  systems

• RRH
• Remote Radio Heads are Baseband to a remote
  location
• One RF carrier or limited number of RF carriers
• Specific to one Modulation type
• Digital Fiber Optic Transport
• Includes A/D and D/A

6
Innovation in Distributed Antenna Systems and
Remote Radio Heads

• RRH are now seen as vendor-specific
• DAS and RRH can be seen as both competitive and
  cooperative products
• DAS can be fed RF by RRH units
• DAS and RRH features can be combined in a Digital
  DAS that accepts both wideband RF and baseband RF
• If the Interface Specifications are more open,
  more intelligence can be added to the DAS