Co-site and Site Sharing

Infrastructure Efficiency through Technology and Operator Sharing

Typical Indoor Installation

Antenna Combiner and LNA
A major asset of a Cellular Operator is its Network Infrastructure, and it remains a challenge to use this asset to maximum advantage. One consideration is to share the infrastructure with other operators and to use the best positioned, highest revenue sites from each network and decommission non-cost effective sites. This can reduce the tower count and significantly reduce overall operational costs. Additionally, spectrum re-farming, by introducing new technologies onto the same spectrum (eg UMTS  on 900MHz band) can benefit from implementation without the need for new infrastructure , and all these possibilities require solutions which enable the existing RF equipment assets to be maximized and used in new ways.

A wide selection of products are available to provide cost effective, reliable combining solutions which enables site sharing and the addition of new base stations onto the same antenna and feeder line arrangement.

There is no need for climbing or changing existing equipment as the combining solutions can be fitted to existing sites. Solutions have very low insertion loss, excellent isolation, very small guard band and enable operators to maintain existing equipment thus ensuring fast deployment and future-proofing the site equipment for operator sharing or technology growth.

The product solutions are all fully proven and optimized for the combining of Tx and Rx lines of each operator or technology, and can be fully passive or include Low Noise Amplifiers to improve Rx sensitivity.

Features and Benefits

  • Ideal for combining operators or technologies in the same spectrum into common antenna
  • High power handling for full Tx combining
  • Very low loss (<0.5dB typ) and small guard band combining
  • Solutions for Dual Tx lines or Single Tx lines; maintaining Rx Diversity
  • Remote tunable filter option, to adjust to changing spectrum requirements
  • Full spectrum performance for GSM, E-GSM, CDMA and UMTS
  • Ideal for spectrum re-farming and maximising use of limited radio channels
  • Extends the life of existing equipment thereby yielding higher return on investment
  • Can consolidate to common RF antenna and feeder line for multi-operator sharing
  • A simple add-on to existing Base Station equipment
  • For indoor or outdoor deployment
  • Modular design makes it scalable and future-proof
  • Can be used to introduce 3G or LTE into existing GSM spectrum
  • Cost avoidance because no need for antenna or feeder line tower work
  • Exceeds international IM standards