Prepare Your Network Site For 5G And IoT In A Changing World

The wireless industry is always changing, which means networks need to as well. Whether it’s because of emerging technologies like 5G and IoT, or simply the ever-growing demand for capacity and bandwidth, there’s a lot to consider when designing, engineering, deploying and optimising networks, and those considerations aren’t static.

That’s where CommScope’s Site Solutions for Techies ebook comes in. It leverages the company’s 40+ years of industry experience and expertise to fill you in on best practices, the latest technologies, and more, to help you solve operational challenges, whether that’s through optimising current cell sites or preparing for future changes.

The Site Solutions for Techies eBook includes four chapters, each of which addresses a specific issue that could be affecting the efficiency and performance of your network sites – while showing a best-practice approach to overcoming said issue and building a network that’s both great now and ready for the future.

High capacity site solutions

Chapter one is titled ‘High capacity site solutions’, and covers the need to accurately design and forecast for future capacity needs.

In this chapter you’ll find a guide to selecting and utilising the right RF components to optimise your network capacity in order to meet both your current and future capacity needs, to ensure the network is future-proofed.

The chapter includes a look at dimensioning challenges, cell densification, the use of ultra-wide band antennas to support new spectrum, and using high-performance BSAs and 4×4 MIMO to improve spectral efficiency, and its suggestions are backed up by performance data and include part numbers for each component.

Site sharing and leased towers

Chapter two is concerned with site sharing on leased towers. This looks at the realities of multiple networks sharing RF resources at the same cell site – a practice with both up and downsides.

There’s also an overview of the various network sharing models, along with a closer look at passive sharing, including the use of RF combiners and multiport antennas.

Of course, this ebook is all about solutions, so there’s also a section on overcoming challenges in antenna sharing and co-siting, along with numerous case studies highlighting possible approaches.

Operational challenges and solutions

In chapter three you’ll read about various operational challenges and the best solutions to them. This includes site considerations, performance requirements, and the technical solutions needed in the RF path.

The chapter also looks at controlling interference with IMF filters, understanding and minimising PIM (passive intermodulation), tower-top power solutions, and overcoming link imbalance, among other things.

Small cell solutions

Finally, chapter four discusses the use of small cells to solve capacity, coverage and latency problems, as well as their use for spectrum offloading, finishing off with small cell deployment challenges and how to solve them. – 5g.co.uk