NGMN Recommends Base Station Antenna Standards
Frankfurt, Germany – February 20, 2013
The NGMN Alliance has today published its White Paper “Recommendation for Base Station Antenna Standards”. The White Paper demonstrates the NGMN Alliance’s commitment to enhance next generation networks’ performance and quality of service. It is available for download at www.ngmn.org.
Currently ambiguities in antenna specifications resulting from a lack of standards make it difficult for today’s RF engineering departments and supply chain managers to competently compare antenna products. Miscommunication during the procurement process on specification definitions and compliance to them is likely commonplace. All this will be reduced to a minimum by adopting the NGMN recommendations.
The performance of a Base Station Antenna is a key factor in the overall performance and quality of the cellular communication link. Introduction of globally accepted Base Station Antenna standards into the wireless industry will facilitate more informed and accurate cost/benefit decisions on antenna selection. Hence, standardisation in the marketplace will drive quality and improved performance into antenna products and result in positive impact to coverage, capacity and QoS.
The NGMN Alliance recommendations are the first comprehensive, global set of guidelines and principles focusing on the Base Station Antenna and are supported by major Base Station Antenna manufacturers as well as the world’s leading Mobile Operators.
The recommendations address in particular the following topics:
§ Comprehensive recommendations on standards for electrical and mechanical parameters.
§ Detailed methodologies for the analysis, calculation, and validation of antenna specifications.
§ Guidance on best practices used in measurements for design validation and in production testing.
§ Recommendations on applying existing environmental and reliability standards to Base Station Antennas.
Dr. Peter Meissner, NGMN Operating Officer, emphasized that “the white paper “Recommendation on Base Station Antenna Standards” is the result of many months of intense work by the NGMN Partners. The NGMN Alliance is more than happy to further promote the adoption of these ground-breaking recommendations in the whole wireless industry. The recommendations demonstrate the NGMN Alliance’s commitment to enhance next generation networks’ performance and quality of service.”
In addition, Kevin Linehan, VP, CTO Antenna Systems for CommScope, and Project lead mentioned “the NGMN is an excellent forum for facilitating the kind of expert collaboration that was needed to generate an industry consensus on a topic as complex and network-critical as antenna performance. We believe that the adoption of these guidelines will provide significant benefits to wireless operators and their customers.”
The White Paper that contains these recommendations is available for download from the NGMN website.
About NGMN Alliance (www.ngmn.org)
The NGMN Alliance was founded by leading international network operators in 2006. Its objective is to ensure that the functionality and performance of next generation mobile network infrastructure, service platforms and devices will meet the requirements of operators and, ultimately, will satisfy end user demand and expectations. The NGMN Alliance will drive and guide the development of all future mobile broadband technology enhancements focusing on LTE & EPC and its evolution. The targets of these activities are supported by the strong and well-established partnership of worldwide leading operators, vendors, universities, and successful co-operations with other industry organisations.
