LTE Base Station Manufacturers: A Comprehensive Guide

LTE Base station manufacturers and telecom service providers install base stations to provide cellular mobile and internet services to wireless mobile and internet users across the globe. In LTE technology, a base station is referred to as an eNodeB. This document covers LTE base station manufacturers, which are very useful for operators going to provide LTE service. We will cover equipment manufacturers such as NSN, Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson, Motorola, Huawei, ZTE, Tekelec, etc. The other suppliers are New Postcom Equipment Company as well as Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Company.

NSN

Model: Flexi Multiradio 10 LTE Base station

It is software-defined and hence supports LTE, GSM, and HSPA technologies, which provide voice and data services to the operators. The benefit to the operators is that it can be used in changing bandwidth and customer traffic conditions. It supports 3 sector RF modules and provides a data rate of up to 10Gbps. LTE-Advanced and HSPA+ software upgrades are also available. It is flexible to incorporate 6 separate base band chains and can cater speed of up to 2.6Gbps.

Alcatel Lucent

Model: 9100 Multi-standard base station

This equipment is used to deploy GSM, WCDMA, and LTE networks. It also supports EDGE and HSPA+ regarding internet connectivity. It follows a software-defined architecture and hence can be easily upgraded to the latest developments in the wireless technologies/standards as well as the addition of new frequency bands. It supports both LTE TDD and LTE FDD topologies. The power output per sector is about 2 X 60 Watt. It supports frequency bands 700, 850, 900, AWS, 1800, 1900, 2100, and 2600MHz. The 9700 Series of equipment is also available now.

Ericsson

Model: RBS-6000 Series LTE eNodeB equipment

It supports 2G, 3G, and LTE standards/technologies. Ericsson’s capabilities in backhaul for providing LTE solutions for operators include IP RAN, Evolved Packet Core, and mobile backhaul. This helps operators meet the end-to-end requirement to install LTE network. Due to support for 2G and 3G, service to their existing 2G/3G customers also been fulfilled. Ericsson is also working to provide support for changing requirements and enhancement in the technologies such as LTE advanced and support of any new frequency bands.

Motorola

Model: MTS4L TETRA / LTE Base Station

This series of base station equipment provides benefits to operators due to lower power consumption and reduction in costs due to support for E1 and IP over Ethernet capabilities. It provides secure high-speed data connectivity using TETRA enhanced data services. Supports UHF and 800MHz frequency bands. Transmit power of about 25W and 40W is available at the base station. It supports dual or triple diversity with duplex or non-duplexed configurations. Higher modulation schemes such as QAM are supported with 25 to 50 KHz of channel bandwidths. Operating LTE bandwidth of 5MHz and 19MHz is supported.

Huawei

Model: BTS3900/DBS3900 family

This series of base stations from Huawei support multiple technologies/standards. Support bandwidth of up to 100Mbps. It supports GSM, UMTS, LTE TDD, and LTE advanced technologies and corresponding RF frequency bands. It has flexible configurations to meet operators’ needs such as indoor, outdoor, and distributed network scenarios.

ZTE

Model: ZXSDR 8000 Family

This equipment supports GSM, CDMA, UMTS, HSPA+, and LTE compliant baseband and radio units. Due to SDR architecture, it can also be upgraded to any new standards or enhancement in feature. ZTE works with many telecom service operators including Reliance Communication in INDIA.

Samsung

Model: MBS

This LTE base station model from Samsung supports multi-standards and hence it will address requirements from network operators. It provides enhanced performance compared to previous BTSs. It provides support for 2G/3G and can be upgraded to migrate to LTE TDD and LTE FDD technologies. Samsung provides voice over LTE (VoIP), small cell, EPC, and so on.

Airspan

Model: Air4Gp Pico base Station

It is designed to incorporate Release 9 and WiMAX 802.16e tests as per specifications in the products. A data rate of 300 Mbps can be achieved, and 256 mobile subscribers can access the base station simultaneously. It supports LTE bandwidth such as 5, 10, 15, and 20 MHz bandwidths. 2 X 2 and 4 X 4 variants are also supported. This equipment also supports SDR technology.

Tekelec

Tekelec LTE Home Subscriber server provides authentication and roaming services to the LTE customers. It supports VoIP and video streaming services.

New Postcom Equipment Co. Ltd

New Postcom Equipment Co. is the leading supplier of TD-SCDMA and TDD LTE base stations. New Postcom mainly operates in the China region. They have partnered with Wintegra for TDD LTE compliant base stations. Wintegra provides networking and communication solutions and are widely used by manufacturers across the globe. New Postcom is also working with Wintegra towards enhancing the existing 3G network with 4G capabilities and infrastructures.

Datang Mobile

Models: TLB60A and EMB5116 TD-LTE base stations, TLE 3000 EPC

Datang Mobile is leading in the development of LTE TDD based solutions. Their TD-LTE Advanced solution is recognized by ITU. Datang mobile provides end-to-end solutions for LTE from eNodeB to UE to EPC. TLE3000 has been developed as per ATCA-based standard hardware architecture.