Base Station Antenna needs for the 5G RAN

18th September 2018
David Barker CTO
Base Station Antenna
considerations for 5G

Copyright © 2018 Quintel.
All rights reserved.
2
Where we started from (2005)
3’s Base Station
Vodafone’s
Base
Station
Quintel
Combiner
Base Unit
O2
Cabinet
Quintel
Antennas
QinetiQ company era.
- 5x3G Ops in 1xAntenna
- Ind. Tilt per Operator
- Large Combiner Unit, but…
- Avoided site redevelopment
-Disruptive idea but very complex
Business Model.
-We don’t do these anymore
-Very different company
-We value these early years
and customers

3
Where we are today
Independent Tilt per Band
Maximum Service Optimization
Optimized
SPR & C/I
Best
Quality
Smallest Form Factor /
Lowest Wind-loading
• Base Station Antenna Supplier to T1 US Operators
• HQ in Rochester, NY, USA
• R&D in San Jose, CA
• Acquired by/merged with Cirtek – Aug 2017
• 17K Antennas 2017. 50% Growth YoY since 2013.
• Always adding innovation to our products
• Design for Manufacture and Deployment
• Thought leadership and value-add consulting
Leaders in High-Value, Multiport Antennas
6 Ports 12 Ports8 Ports 10 Ports 45 Deg HBW

4
Antennas K, H,& M
Worst Interference
Antenna P
Best Interference
Suppression
Antenna F
Best Coverage
Antenna J
Worst Coverage
T1 Operators Have Verified Quintel’s
Antenna Performance
Comparison of 13 Vendors
8’
6’
8’
6’
8’
8’
6’
6’
8’
6’
8’
6’
8’
8’
6’
8’
6’
8’
8’
6’
6’
8’
6’
8’
6’
8’
BetterInterferenceSuppression
Better In-Cell Coverage (Gain)
Optimized for Radiation Patterns
Best performing
antennas are
Quintel (8ft & 6ft)
Poorest
performing
antennas
are from
Vendors H,
K and M
Best performing
antennas are
toward upper right
Overlap regions
causes reduced C/I
Vendor M
C/I
25dB
-1dB
>30% Capacity Increase on Average

5
Innovation for Deployment
Optimized Wind
Loading
Antennas have a
profile designed to
minimize drag.
Simulations and now
wind tunnel tests have
demonstrated this
Highly Optimized Frontal Wind Loading
Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico
Our Antennas held out exceptionally well.
Credit to Mounts, Brackets, Integrity and Wind-Load of Antennas.

6
A brief history of the Base Station Antenna
1986 1992 1998 2006 2012 2018
G900 G900 G900
G1800
G900
G1800
U2100 + RET
G900
U900
G1800
L1800
U2100
All RET
L800 2T2R
G900
U900
L1800 4T4R
U2100
L2600 4T4R
All RET

7
10-Port
US Operator Example
850
B5
• L700 and L850 4T4R
• L700 4T4R
• CDMA850
• L1900 4T4R
• L2100 4T4R
• L2100 4T4R (AWS3)
• 3x Positions
• As above, but also
• Independent Tilt for L700 & L850
• 5G/NR850 4T4R
• 5G mMIMO Antenna
– Re-farm 2GHz: 1900 or AWS
– Possible 3.7-4.2GHz
– Both 2GHz and 4GHz
• 3x Positions
6-Port
2018
2021
6-Port
6-Port
AWS3700/850
B13/B5
AWS1
B66
1900
B25
6-Port
700/850
B13/B5
AWS1
B66
1900
B25
AWS3
B66
NR1900
MassiveMIMO

8
nTnR
8T8R
Passive
16T16R
AAS
32T32R
AAS
64T64R
AAS
Morecomplexity
WiderDistributionofUE’sinElevationPlane

9
US Passive Small Cell Variants for 4G/5G

10
Small Cells
Operator owns everything
Operator owns site
Operator owns all hardware
Op leases site from CCI
Operator owns active hardware
Op leases site, Antenna and
Fiber from CCI
Each Operator owns active hardware
Each Op leases site, Antenna and Fiber from CCI
Operator Host
Only
Operator Host
Lease only
Neutral Host
Single Op
Neutral Host
Multi-Operator
1 2 3 4

11
Antenna Category Fragmentation
PassiveAAS
Macro Cell
N/A
Passive+AAS
Small Cell mmWave
Not considering Indoor DAS and Speciality Solutions (Multi-Sector, etc)
Multi-Band
Single-Band
Single-Band AAS
Multi-Band Passive
Open Interfaces, e-CPRI and ORAN vital for evolving eco-system

12
The Future of the Base Station Antenna in 5G
2018 2024 2030
L800 2T2R
G900
U900
L1800 4T4R
U2100
L2600 4T4R
NR700 4T4R
L800 4T4R
L900 4T4R
L1500 4T
L1800 4T4R
L2100 4T4R
L2600 4T4R
NR3500 16T16R
mMIMO
NR700 16T16R
NR800 16T16R
NR900 16T16R
L800 8T8R
NR1500 32T
NR1800 64T64R
NR2100 64T64R
NR2600 64T64R
L1800 16T16R
NR3500 64T64R
mMIMO
• Continued innovation and development for
Passive Antennas for next few years
• Complex multi-array environments
– Many challenges
– PIM, Isolation, beam integrity
– Size, weight, wind-load
• Massive MIMO AAS predominately Single
Band (2300, 2600, 3500). AAS needs to meet
TCO targets.
• Evolution to 2030 takes us to using all of the
aperture for all of the bands
• In 2030 there still could be a need for hybrid
Passive and AAS arrays
• Will Open RAN interfaces prevail? Will OEM’s
take over the antenna function. New players
(e.g. Blue Danube), New partnerships?

13
Some Market Predictions
Source: Mobile Experts
CBRS Small Cell Growth
IA/AAS Penetration
Source: ABI Research
MIMO Installed by Platform
Annual Antenna capex

14
Antenna Design Innovations
Optimized Rooftop Antenna
No Rooftop Diffraction
With Rooftop Diffraction Conventional
Antenna
Optimal for
Rooftop

15
PIM Interference Engineering
Bidding for Optimal new spectrum
blocks
Identifying Optimal RF combining
options (existing Spectrum)
Troubleshooting Interference issues
(existing Spectrum)
Quintel PIM Tool can be used for many applications; Strategic to
Tactical to Troubleshooting

16
Massive MIMO
• mmWave propagation needs classic beamforming for raw gain
and radio channel is more reflective rather than dispersive.
• Massive MIMO with TDD at sub 6GHz Spectrum allows higher
order MIMO to be much more efficiently exploited
• Massive MIMO can be one of various array structures or
distributed, or indeed a composite
Precoding
96
96
H1,1
H1,96
Massive MIMO for Next Generation
Wireless Systems; IEEE Communications Magazine, Feb 2014
• Several 100’s Antennas MRC/MRT is best
• Many 10’s of Antennas ZF/MMSE is best

17
MIMO Techniques
Classic Array with ZF Beamforming
Example above illustrates that data intended for one User can be precoded such that
9 Nulls can also be created where the other (co-channel) users are.
Tx
Precoding
for UE1
means
UE2-UE10
will be in
deep nulls
Tx
Precoding
for UE2
means
UE1,3-UE10
will be in
deep nulls
-50dBm
-100dBm

18
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
-10-9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
MIMO Techniques
Distributed Massive MIMO – 5.5G?
Tx
Precoding
for UE1
means
UE2-UE10
will be in
deep nulls
-50dBm
-100dBm
5m2
Distributed Massive MIMO produces highly interferometric radiation patterns.
ZF Beamforming would also ensure UE’s are in nulls.

19
How cell optimization has evolved
Inter-cell Interference Increases
2004 2016 2022 2028
SON
ICIC
eICIC
CoMPMove to LTE
C-RAN
Exploiting Inter-cell Interference
25dB
-5dB
C/I
2010
Inter-cell Interference Minimized
Radio
Planning
Tilt
Settings
ACP
As more cells are added, more
interference seen (sub-6GHz)
C-RAN architecture provides a
means of interference
suppression or coherent signal
addition; the notion of the cell
blurs or even disappears.
C-RAN needs significant
fronthaul capacity

20
When wireless is pushed to the limit
the answer isn’t more of the same
The answer is
more innovation

Base Station Antenna needs for the 5G RAN

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