|
The hard cell
|
08/12/2005
|
| |
Basestations are, to a certain extent, the Cinderellas of the mobile communications world. Whilst handsets get all the attention, basestations do an awful lot of the work.
But the arrival of 3G communications has changed that. Now, basestations are widely known as the crucial element – and will become even more important as features such as HSDPA are rolled out.
Rupert Baines is vp of marketing with PicoChip, which develops technology to support a range of wireless communications technologies. He said the first couple of waves of basestations were done to ‘get things out’. “The whole pace of the 3G industry was driven by spectral options and service launches; getting things in place that worked was critical.” In terms of signal processing, 3G places a far greater load on the basestation. In Baines’ view, it is probably two orders of magnitude greater than that of 2G: “It’s an absolutely massive jump and completely disproportionate to data rate.”
Because of this challenge, the basestations originally rolled out to support 3G communications were neither cost optimised nor particularly elegant solutions. “As time has gone by, things have got better,” Baines observed, “but the pace of change has been staggering.”
|
| |
Author
Graham Pitcher
|
| |
| |
|
This material is protected by Findlay Publications copyright 2008.
See Terms and Conditions.
One-off usage is permitted but bulk copying is not.
For multiple copies contact the sales team.
|
| |
|
| Email this article |
| |
|
|
|
|