ADVERTISEMENT
The Cube: Answer to Cell Towers?04-06-11 | News
img
 

The Cube: Answer to Cell Towers?




The 2.3-inch, 1.5-watt lightRadio cube powers about a two-block radius.

Because cell towers are in the landscape and sometimes cause controversy, LASN has periodically written about the erection of these towers and the public?EUR??,,????'?????<www.landscapearchitect.com/research/article/10703

According to Alcatel-Lucent, the global wireless industry is spending $210 billion a year to operate their networks, and another $50 billion to upgrade them. Consumers, of course, are paying for big chunks of this spending. Further, mobile data usage is predicated by the industry to grow 30 times in the next five years and 500 times in the next 10 years. Keeping up with such growth with the current cell tower technology seems challenging, to say the least.

Besides the esthetics of cell towers in the landscape, there?EUR??,,????'?????<

In this computer/electronic age, we?EUR??,,????'?????<

How could this work? The engineers at Alcatel-Lucent transferred the big, heavy power equipment that controls cell towers and moved them to centralized stations. This allows the lightRadio cubes to be miniaturized and placed on buildings, light poles, etc. The signals from the cube can be controlled (directed) remotely to maximize their potential. The units have multi-antennas to relay 2G, 3G and 4G network signals all from the same cube.

Testing of the lightRadio begins in September 2011, followed by volume production by 2012. Sprint Nextel plans to try out the cubes later this year.

Big antennas still serve a purpose: to provide long distance signals down a long stretch of road in under populated areas, for instance.

img