What are dBTS systems?

Mobile and fixed wireless networks are built by distributing a number of radio base station sites over an intended coverage area, such as for example a city. Base station sites comprise various types of equipment, including the radio base station itself, cabling, power supplies, air conditioners, antennas, towers, transmission equipment, and more.

Legacy cellular base stations

Traditional base station systems – such as those of GSM and first generation UMTS – consist of one or more heavy racks equipped with radio equipment. Base station sites often require large, sturdy shelters and strong structural support.

Sites like this can often be difficult to acquire and costly to construct with prices sometimes extending into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.Traditional base stations also consume a lot of energy. This is costly because network service is required 24/7.

Building radio coverage the intelligent way

Distributed base station systems are an entirely new way of building mobile networks. Instead of heavy rack units, a distributed base station consists of two compact parts: the base station server and the remote radio head. Base station servers are typically small units a fraction of the size of traditional base stations.

The remote radio head - such as Radiocomp’s RRH for WiMAX - is an ultra-compact unit that can be installed almost anywhere.