Operator benefits

Besides improving network performance at a lower cost, consolidating the baseband-processing functions is expected to make a significant impact on operational procedures and costs (see chart). In the traditional cellular model, considerable maintenance and upgrade work on the network has to be done at each cell site, some of which can be difficult to access for technical personnel.

Under the Alcatel-Lucent model, this would remain the case for work being done to an antenna or amplifier. However, baseband-processing maintenance and upgrades could be done much more quickly, because a technician could address multiple sites in a geographic region by driving to a single “hotel” hub, Gruba said.

“If I have to roll a truck through New York, Chicago or even Milwaukee and go to every one of those buildings, stop the truck, find parking, get the keys and convince the building owner to let me into that room, that’s a huge amount of effort,” he said. “If I have one place where I have 25 sites worth, I go to one spot, and I do my maintenance there.

“Two things happen: I’ve just reduced my maintenance cost, and I can do network changes faster than ever before.”

This architecture also provides another notable benefit, in that it is expected to cut in half the massive electricity bills that network operators pay, for numerous reasons, Gruba said.

“I got rid of the air conditioning [in the cell-site hut], which saves power,” he said. “I moved the amplifier up to the top of the radio head, and I can now use an amplifier that is half the size, so that saves power. I no longer need the heating unit. [And] I can take the baseband unit and pool them somewhere else, which is energy efficient from a different perspective.”