The drive toward the next generation of wireless technology is playing out in the infrastructure market with new features and capabilities being introduced in key radio access network equipment.
CommScope is leading base station antenna innovation with the first antenna on the market to cover 1400 to 2700 MHz, the broadest frequency band range available. The antenna — available now — also supports 4 x 4 multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO), a critical 5G-enabling technology for increasing network capacity, in all frequency bands.
The CommScope ultra-wideband antenna RRZZ-65B can support one or two antenna arrays in 1427 to 2690 MHz, a high band range no other antenna can match. It can also support a low band range of 694 to 960 MHz. The RRZZ-65B supports 4T4R operation, meaning four beams of transmit and receive signals in both the low and high band ranges, as well as frequency division duplex (FDD) and time division duplex (TDD). Operators can combine on one antenna the supplemental downlink band of 1400 MHz as well the primary band. It can also be used in conjunction with external filters to separate different licensed bands as needed, such as the 2300 TDD band, making it easier to customize for specific needs.
The RRZZ-65B is the first antenna available to the industry to support 4x MIMO for 1400 MHz. The market driver for the RRZZ-65B antenna is the 1400 MHz spectrum that has recently been auctioned in Europe. CommScope also expects to support 3.5 GHz, a likely 5G frequency band, with this antenna platform in the future.
Farid Firouzbakht, senior vice president for RF products at CommScope, said, “An antenna that covers this wide a range of frequency bands did not seem possible even one year ago, yet today CommScope is supplying them for deployment in Europe. Our speed in developing this antenna reflects the continued, pressing need wireless operators have for increasing capacity in LTE networks while readying for next generation 5G.”
“CommScope ultra-wideband antennas help operators support multiple wireless networks via space-saving equipment, minimizing leasing costs while delivering flexibility for future network configurations,” added Firouzbakht.
CommScope’s broad portfolio of wireless network solutions address all areas of the RF path for LTE, LTE-Advanced and beyond, including:
- Antennas: base station and microwave
- Connectivity: fiber, coaxial and hybrid power cabling
- RF conditioning: filters, tower mounted amplifiers, multiband combiners
- Equipment enclosures: C-RAN hubs, integrated platforms
- In-building wireless: distributed antenna system and small cells
- Spectrum management: spectrum access system, microwave planning