NSN White paper

October 2013

Nokia Solutions and Networks

Active Antenna Systems:
A step-change in base
station site performance

contents

Executive Summary

Active Antennas for flexibility

Beamforming increases capacity

4
5

Efficient utilization of active antenna systems

Carrier-specific tilting
System-specific tilting
Multi-Operator Network Sharing
Intelligent Beamforming with SON
Lower overall site costs
Improved network availability
Higher energy efficiency and RF performance

6
6
6
6
7
7
7
7

NSN Flexi Multiradio Antenna System

Conclusion

10

Abbreviations

11

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Executive Summary
Active Antennas offer an innovative way to address capacity, coverage
and space requirements in the macro layer to cope with the rapidly
increasing use of data typical in smartphone-dominated networks.
Active antennas are characterized by radio frequency (RF) components
integrated directly to the antenna radiating elements, which results
in high power efficiency with zero cable attenuation. This is unlike
conventional passive antenna systems connected to separate RF
modules by cables that attenuate the signal and power. As well as
reducing the number of elements required on a mast or pole, RF
component integration enables electronic software-based beam
shaping and steering in various dimensions.

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Active Antennas for flexibility

In order to reduce cable and power losses, conventional base station
systems have evolved towards Remote Radio Heads (RRHs) typically
located close to the antenna with lighter and shorter RF cables. The
latest RRH development is the Integrated Antenna System or IAS, also
known as Antenna Integrated Radio (AIR), in which a separate RF unit is
housed physically inside the antenna casing, making the solution more
compact. Passive and static in nature, the IAS lacks the beam steering
and beam forming features of Active Antennas.
The Active Antenna System integrates several RF components (power
amplifiers and transceivers) directly to the antenna radiating elements,
and enables precise electronic individual phase and amplitude control
using signal processing to shape and steer radiated beam patterns
vertically and horizontally. This offers significant coverage and capacity
gains compared to the conventional static beams of passive antennas.
Smaller in size, the active antenna offers more practical and
environmentally friendly deployments for crowded urban hot spots
that often have limited and costly space, and where new sites are
difficult - if not impossible - to find.
Active antennas are also more efficient due to their lack of RF cables,
which increases the actual output power, making them even more
attractive to operators.
Eight Integrated RF components
p

Vertical beamforming (cell splitting)

TRX
TRX

Two independent cell sectors

from the same antenna
radome increases coverage
and capacity

TRX
TRX
TRX
TRX
TRX
TRX
Common

Fiber to baseband unit

DC power

Fig. 1: Integrated RF components enable intelligent beam forming, which boosts

base station efficiency

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Beam forming increases capacity

One main advantage of active antennas is their ability to create and
steer beams within one cell. Beam forming is achieved by constructive
and destructive interference propagation control to alter the phase
and relative amplitude of the emitted signal from each active radiating
element. While constructive interference amplifies the radiated beam
in a given direction, destructive interference is used to precisely steer
the beam.
With vertical beamforming one sector can be split into multiple cells,
each with its own dedicated resources, which improves overall sector
performance, even more so at the cell edge. By deploying vertical
sectorization and optimized inner/outer sector tilt separation, gains
of up to 70% in the downlink and as much as 160% in the uplink
have been measured in field trials and simulations under high load
situations. Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) active antennas deploy
Intelligent Beamforming (IBF) that adapts to changing traffic patterns
automatically according to real-time network traffic data feedback.

f1
er
inn

Digital beam steering

Cell splitting (vertical)

Operator-specic tilting

WC
DM
A

Receiver Diversity

SON

E
LT

Carrier-specic tilting

Separate Tx/Rx tilting

Op
.1

f2

.2
Op

f1

f1
ou
ter

Technology-specic tilting

Enabled

Fig. 2: Active antennas offer a wide range of beamforming options to

cater for varying traffic patterns across macro sectors

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Efficient utilization of active antenna

systems
Carrier-specific tilting
Carrier-specific tilting controls multiple carriers individually to address
various traffic demand scenarios. For example, an operator can tune
each of several carriers independently to optimize capacity or peak
rates to achieve the best combination of coverage and mobility.
System-specific tilting
System-specific tilting controls the tilt of different radio technologies
using the same frequency. It can be used to achieve better individual
control of interference and other performance characteristics of
different radio technologies.
Multi-Operator Network Sharing
Network sharing is a growing trend aimed at reducing costs by sharing
network infrastructure in a similar way to system-specific tilting; an
active antenna system can be used to manage transmission power
between operators sharing an antenna.
Operator-specific bandwidth can be tilted and resources allocated
independently to meet the needs of each according to subscriber
density or some other factor. For example, one operator could be
allocated 20W of an active antenna power, while the other would
need 40W.
Assymmetric tilt per carrier with separate
feature and performance focus

Assymmetric carriers and

power setting

Frequency

AAS
Cell 1 (outer):
- 1 to 2 carriers
20W + 20W

f4
f3
f2
f1

Inner Cell
Focus on high
performance

E.g. DC-HSDPA
+MIMO = 84 Mbps

Coverage
layers

Outer Cell
Focus on mobility
and coverage

Cell 1 (inner):
- 1 to 4 carriers
10W + 10W + 10W + 10W

Fig. 3: Carrier-specific tilting for optimizing coverage, mobility and

capacity

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Intelligent Beamforming with SON

Beamforming can be made intelligent through automation, such as
deploying Self-Organizing Networks (SON) algorithms. With SON,
dynamic beam steering enables capacity to be distributed where and
when needed. SON automates the adjustment and optimization of
active antenna parameters according to actual traffic mix, location and
user behavior based on real-time traffic measurements.
Lower overall site costs
Integrating RF components with the antenna offers major operational
cost savings. Without the need for Mast Head Amplifiers (MHA) and
Remote Electrical Tilt (RET) equipment, active antenna systems have
fewer external components, making them faster, easier and simpler
to install.
Improved network availability
With integrated RF components, active antennas feature greater
inherent redundancy than conventional antennas, as the failure of
one or more transceivers will not disrupt services. Even multiple
transceiver failures can be tolerated, maintaining network availability.
In the NSN active antenna solution, built-in intelligence detects any
failure and automatically adjusts the beam pattern to achieve the
best possible performance with the remaining available power and
RF resources. This soft-recovery feature helps reduce operational
costs by reducing emergency service call-outs and by enabling a more
flexible maintenance program to be deployed. A faulty module can be
replaced on-site without removing the entire antenna itself.
Higher energy efficiency and RF performance
The integration of the RF component in the antenna leads to less
coaxial cabling and fewer tower top components such as feeders and
connectors. Increased power efficiency also translates to lower carbon
emissions for greener and environmentally healthier operation.

NSN Active Antenna Solution

Active
antenna

Comparable solution needing

two Remote Radio Heads
RRH +
feeder +
antenna
RRH +
feeder +
antenna

Baseband

Baseband

Fig. 4: Less hardware and easier installation reduce overall site costs
compared to conventional integrated antenna systems
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NSN Flexi Multiradio Antenna System

NSN has pioneered Active Antenna Systems and publicly
demonstrated successful pilots of the technology since it was
introduced in 2008.
The NSN Flexi Multiradio Antenna System increases site capacity
and coverage with several advanced features such as verticalbeam
forming, higher order MIMO schemes and independent Tx and Rx
tilting per frequency or Radio Access Technology (RAT). Substantial
capacity and coverage increases can be achieved with vertical
beam forming.
Furthermore, when enabled with industry-leading NSN SON
functionality, the customer experience and service quality is greatly
improved. Intelligent Beam Forming (IBF) enables active traffic
optimization based on real-time network measurements, to address
changing end-user behavior during the day in a liquid manner.
High reliability and smart redundancy is achieved with swappable RF
units and self-healing features.
Future NSN active antenna development is focused on multiple
columns and 3D beam forming, to further enhance capacity and
address changing needs.
The NSN Flexi Multiradio Antenna System is designed to fit an existing
site solution. Seamless integration drives down costs and speeds
up rollout.

Fig. 5: The NSN Flexi Multiradio Antenna System

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 Power Amplifier for each radiator element inside the antenna

Optimized design with 8 transmitters/8 receivers with 8 x 10W
power amplifiers
High output power, up to 2 x 40W for macro deployments.
Flexible power configuration per carrier (1 carrier at 80W, 2 carriers
at 40W, etc)
High cell and carrier capacity, for example up to 4+4 WCDMA cells in
one sector
Integrated 2 x 2 MIMO
4-way Rx diversity

Fig. 6: Key elements of the NSN Multiradio Base Station using Flexi
Multiradio Antenna System

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Conclusions
Base station technology has undergone substantial development over
the last two decades. Reduced size and decreased power consumption
together with capacity and coverage gains have contributed to more
efficient radio networks running at lower operational costs. Active
antenna technology continues this trend
The benefits of an active antenna includes increased capacity and
coverage, better energy efficiency, lower wind load and optimized
operational costs as new radio technologies arrive and as additional
spectrum bands become available. As a result, active antennas help
operators to not only reduce site-related costs, but to also more costeffectively meet the dynamic demands of their mobile customers.
Active antenna systems will bring about a step-change in the evolution
of radio networks. As a vital part of the NSN Liquid Radio concept,
the NSN Flexi Multiradio Antenna System is leading the way. This new
technology helps operators to address unpredictable demand by
adapting instantly to changing customer needs, to help create new
revenue opportunities by unleashing frozen network capacity into a
reservoir of resources that can flow to fulfill demand, wherever and
whenever broadband is used.

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Abbreviations
3GPP
GSM
EDGE
HSPA
IAS
LTE
MHA
MIMO
RAN
RAT
RET
RF
RRH
SON
TRX
WCDMA

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Third Generation Partnership Project

Global System for Mobile communications
Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution
High Speed Packet Access
Integrated Antenna System
Long Term Evolution
Mast Head Amplifier
Multiple-Input Multiple-Output
Radio Access Network
Radio Access Technology
Remote Electrical Tilt
Radio Frequency
Remote Radio Head
Self Organizing Network
Transceiver
Wideband Code Division Multiple Access

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Nokia Solutions and Networks

P.O. Box 1
FI-02022
Finland
Visiting address:
Karaportti 3, ESPOO, Finland
Switchboard +358 71 400 4000
Product code C401-00838-WP-201310-1-EN
2013 Nokia Solutions and Networks. All rights reserved.
Public
NSN is a trademark of Nokia Solutions and Networks. Nokia is a registered
trademark of Nokia Corporation. Other product names mentioned in this
document may be trademarks of their respective owners, and they are
mentioned for identification purposes only.

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