Huawei used its Mobile Broadband Forum, being held this week in Tokyo, to announce the impending availability of the next generation of its distributed radio product, LampSite.
Hot on the heels of LampSite 2.0, which was only in demonstrations as recently as summer 2016, comes the announcement of LampSite 3.0. The chief differentiator of the third generation of LampSite is that it has more frequency band support, combining up to 240MHz bandwidths. This could deliver higher capacities and throughput speeds, but also allow operators to share spectrum or venue owners to provide neutral host infrastructure, as in DAS deployments.
Speaking to TMN, Huawei said the product would launch with support for 1800MHz and 2.1GHz bands, with 2.6Ghz to be added later. The product appears to address a gap in the market identified by Orange in the summer – a middle ground between single-operator clustered small cell solutions and full blown digital DAS. LampSite distributes capacity from a BBU via remote radio hubs to remote radio units. In that manner it is somehwat analagous to a DAS – as is Ericsson’s Radio Dot System. However, the architecture is somewhat more like a Cloud-RAN in miniature, in that it allows for control of multiple RRUs from a central point, with Huawei’s Service Anchor acting as a controller between the site deployment and the core network.
LampSite 3.0 also features a Lite version which is designed for use in smaller areas such as individual shops or restaurants.
