Quintel has successfully tested its new SONWav antenna technology through simulations and trials with major North American carriers. The SONWav antenna uses elevation beamforming to increase LTE uplink throughput by up to 80% using standard base station antennas. This innovative solution makes it practical to deploy 4-branch receiver antennas for low spectrum bands in a compact form factor. SONWav allows a single antenna array to support multiple frequency bands simultaneously with high performance.

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Quintel Demonstrates SONWav™ Beamforming Antenna
Technology Which Provides Operators an Innovative and
Practical New Option to Increase Uplink LTE Throughput and
Spectral Efficiency.
Through simulation and live LTE network trials with Tier 1 North American Operators,
Quintel successfully demonstrated its Adaptive Elevation Beamforming using all
passive, standard size base station antennas.
ROCHESTER, NY ─ Feb 23, 2013 ─ Quintel®, a leading innovator of spectrum and
space efficient antennas for wireless networks, has successfully completed simulations
and trials of its new SONWav antenna. The SONWav antenna is part of Quintel’s
patented MultiWav™ antenna family, leveraging Quintel patented QTilt™ technology
which, when connected to any OEM’s 4-branch Receive Base Station, can transform a
conventional passive antenna array into an adaptive elevation plane Beamforming
antenna, which results in per-user self-optimization in the uplink path. In addition to
being totally technology agnostic, the simulations and trials have indicated that up to
80% throughput gains can be achieved with LTE. As 4-branch Tx Base Stations
become available (4T4R) the same self-optimization of the downlink can be exploited.
The exponential growth of wireless data traffic is challenging the industry to evolve LTE
rapidly to serve this demand with high quality. Radio Access Networks (RAN) will evolve
from 2T2R Base Stations with basic Self Optimizing Networks (SON) to 8T8R Base
Stations with advanced SON. Quintel’s SONWav will prove to be a critical component of
this evolution.
LTE 4-branch Rx at the high spectrum bands (e.g. AWS-1700/2100MHz & PCS-
1900MHz) using dual X-polar array antennas have gained operator and OEM interest
since this increases data throughput via essentially a simple Azimuthal Beamforming
action. However, there has been little operator interest in 4-branch Rx at low spectrum
bands (e.g. 700MHz, 800MHz or 850MHz) because the antenna products are
“impractically large” the form factor is far too wide. Quintel’s SONWav changes this
paradigm dramatically by allowing practical antenna solutions for 4-branch Rx at low
spectrum bands, as well as multiple high spectrum bands, in a single conventional form
factor antenna.

2. Quintel’s SONWav antenna technology makes practical, high performance antenna
products a reality. For example, in one all-passive standard form factor antenna (such
as 4ft./~1200mm, 6ft./~1800mm, or 8ft/~2400mm Height, by 1ft./~300mm Wide)
SONWav could support LTE 4 Branch at lowband frequencies such as 700MHz or 800
MHz, and two 4 Branch base stations at highband frequencies such as AWS or
2100MHz, and 1800MHz or 1900MHz. This product would have 12 ports connecting to
3 RRH’s. OEMs can also integrate their RRH’s into the antenna, resulting in a tri-band
LTE 4 Branch integrated radio/antenna unit with only fiber connection to the baseband
unit. SONWav also supports 8T8R at all 3 bands with only 2 Quintel antenna arrays
instead of 4. Many more configurations are possible with Quintel’s SONWav technology.
“Quintel’s SONWav demonstrates that Spectral Efficiency can be enhanced through a
smarter approach by Beamforming in the elevation plane; smart in the sense it is
passive and exploits simple 4-branch Rx architectures which are available and mature,”
said David Barker, Quintel’s CTO and VP of Strategic Marketing. “The industry doesn’t
have to wait for complex and costly fully active phased array antennas to come along to
exploit Beamforming in Elevation. Adding spectral efficiencies at Low Band Spectrum is
especially valuable since Low Band spectrum is typically an order more expensive per
MHz than high band spectrum.”
About Quintel
Quintel is an innovative leader in wireless network antenna technology development
and manufacturing solutions. The company’s products enable global wireless operators
to independently deploy and optimize multiple air interfaces or services on a single
standard antenna platform. Quintel is the only antenna maker whose products can
increase a wireless network’s capacity, and the number of services, without increasing
the number of antennas or size. Our core technologies originated in the United
Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence, and are now deployed throughout the world. Quintel is
headquartered in Rochester, New York with additional offices throughout North
America, Europe and Asia. More information about Quintel is available at
www.quintelsolutions.com.
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“Quintel” and the Quintel logo are registered trademarks, and “QTilt”, “MultiWav”, “New Dimensions in Wireless” and
“SONWav” are trademarks, of Quintel Technology Limited. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective
owners.