A breakthrough in radio technology by Bell Labs, the research arm of Alcatel-Lucent, could mean the end of unsightly mobile network masts and antennae. The new system called lightRadio, breaks up the major componentry of mobile masts to allow for much smaller installations to form a cloud like network, where hardware is small enough as to be mounted on bus shelters, light poles and unobtrusively on public buildings.
The work was led by a team in Bell Labs Dublin, where Sam Samuel, executive director, was a key researcher in the development of femotcells.
The lightRadio system represents a new architecture where the base station, typically located at the base of each cell site tower, is broken into its component elements and then distributed into both the antenna and throughout a cloud-like network, said Alcatel-Lucent. Additionally the current clutter of antennas serving 2G, 3G, and LTE systems are combined and shrunk into a single powerful, Bell Labs pioneered multi frequency, multi standard Wideband Active Array Antenna that can be mounted almost anywhere there is power and a broadband connection.
Another major element of the lightRadio system is a significant reduction in power consumption and thus carbon emissions, up to 50% according to the maker. This, combined with lower signal power due better coverage with a larger range of smaller devices, means that the entire system has a far better environmental footprint than even the most efficient of the current generation of mobile networks.
In addition, Alcatel-Lucent says that there is also a significant reduction in the total cost of ownership for mobile operators.
“Today’s and tomorrow’s demands for coverage and capacity require a breakthrough in mobile communications,” said Ben Verwaayen, chief executive officer, Alcatel-Lucent. “lightRadio will signal the end of the basestation and the cell tower as we know it today.”
“lightRadio will help mobile operators evolve their networks to address the mobile broadband deluge,”
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