99810492; 790-6000 MHz Base Station Antennas - Romkatel

Kathrein’s Remote Electrical Tilt System
The answer to all current and future network demands
Network planning is becoming ever more complicated,
especially with the advent of 3G.
The challenge for wireless network operators is to
balance coverage, capacity, call quality and costs in
order to gain maximum revenue from their network.
Each of the above factors affects the others and so
network engineers use many different techniques
for establishing the right balance they are trying to
achieve.
One of these methods is adjusting the antenna’s
downtilt. Here, the engineer must take into consideration
certain facts, such as the weather, access to
the cell site, availability of specialized installation
teams and special equipment etc. Moreover, such
an antenna adjustment can typically take several
hours to perform.
Since the cell site is usually switched off for safety
reasons during such an adjustment, this results in
lost calls and therefore revenue whilst these changes
are being made. Consequently, operators tend
to make fewer adjustments and so networks are
often left operating unoptimized, which also eventually
results in lost revenue for the operators.
However, with Kathrein’s Remote Electrical Tilt unit
engineers can make the necessary adjustments without
shutting down the whole system!
RET
Further advantages of using Kathrein’s Remote
Electrical Tilt (RET) system:
– No need for specialized teams trained in altitude
work or with special safety skills
– Limited site access and/or time restrictions are not
so important
– No special platforms or other means of access to the
antenna are required
– Adjustments can be made and the relevant
measurements performed speedily
– Network alterations can be carried out irrespective
of weather conditions
– No reduction in coverage – cells remain fully
operational whilst changes are being made
– Operators estimate that approx. 20% of UMTS
equipment can be saved by using such a RET
system.
182