Wifi Revolution

CDMA2000 is now supported by the award-winning BelAir100SP Strand Picocell (News - Alert). BelAir’s innovative strand-mounted small-cell base station was launched in August 2010 along with a live demonstration. BelAir Networks released an announcement in this regard after the successful launch.

A wider range of mobile carriers will be able to deploy the BelAir100SP because of the CDMA2000 radio option. Subscribers will therefore be provided with improved broadband services. At the same time data from both their radio access and mobile core networks will be offloaded.

Available broadband IP infrastructure is leveraged by the BellAir100SP, which is a small-cell base station. This helps in delivering mobile broadband coverage. Both licensed and unlicensed wireless spectrums are used for the delivery. Existing mobile broadband coverage can be augmented or extended by deploying the BelAir100SP from aerial strand. They can also be deployed in pedestals, cabinets or vaults.

In a press release, Stephen Rayment, CTO at BelAir Networks, said, “Traditional tower and rooftop deployments yield macrocell coverage but the BelAir100SP addresses the explosion in data traffic by delivering targeted, high capacity small cell coverage where the macrocell either doesn’t reach or is overtaxed. Based on demand from leading mobile carriers and cable operators, we first introduced the BelAir100SP with GSM and WiFi (News - Alert) but the CDMA2000 variant was not far behind.”

Rayment added that carriers want to address their current networking challenges by leveraging cost effective small cell architecture. This will also provide a smooth evolution to LTE (News - Alert).

A range of licensed 3G radios are currently supported by the modular design of the BelAir100SP. A migration to LTE, along with dual 802.11n WiFi radios is also supported. A DOCSIS 3.0 modem, plant power supply, and power protection/splitter are included in the BelAir100SP. This will therefore allow direct integration with hybrid fiber coax or HFC infrastructure for power and backhaul.

Mobile traffic from 2G and 3G macrocells is backhauled by many mobile carriers. This is done by leveraging the HFC networks of the cable operators with whom they are partners or share common ownership. This mutually beneficial networking relationship is extended by the BelAir100SP to small cell deployments. The capacity of 3G and LTE macrocell coverage is therefore enhanced.