The Technology Partnership (TTP) of Europe has designed a new small cell technology for outdoor street lights, working in partnership with Freescale. The group says its technology fits into a lamp post’s standard photocell socket. TTP’s prototype eNodeB is based on the Freescale BSC9131 QorIQ Qonverge processor and will be on display at Mobile World Congress.
Street lamps are a logical location for small cells, and already Ericsson and Phillips have partnered on a similar approach. Site acquisition is one of the biggest challenges operators face in outdoor small cell deployments, and leveraging existing physical infrastructure is one way to minimize the footprint of new cells. It also gives operators the opportunity to acquire a large number of sites through a single negotiation with one utility or municipality.
Other solutions for outdoor small cells include billboards and so-called “street furniture.” Alcatel-Lucent has partnered with outdoor advertising giant JCDecaux to help operators deploy small cells on billboards, and is able to cross reference carrier “heat maps” with a database that shows the location of municipal assets that could be suitable for small cell installations.
Radisys partners with Octasic
In other small cell news, Radisys has integrated its eNodeB LTE small cell software and its 3G femtocell software with Octasic’s dual-sector small cell SDR platform, creating a solution that combines LTE and 3G connectivity on a single piece of silicon. Radisys says its solution is targeted for niche markets such as aerospace and defense, test and measurement, ID catchers, and lawful intercept applications.
“Our OCTBTS 3500 dual-mode platform provides more range and portability than a commercial network, meeting our customers’ demands for a flexible mobile broadband solution,” said Doug Morrissey, CTO at Octasic. The companies added that customers can now leverage a common software and baseband processing platform to support any combination of GSM, CDMA2000, HSPA, LTE air interfaces, or custom air interfaces.
