HELIOS^® Multi-Band Digital FTTA™ Fiber to The Antenna

Innovative In-building Multi-Band 4G & 5G Cellular Solutions

A Next-Generation CPRI Active DAS that solves small & medium indoor coverage for 4G LTE and 5G NR together

Statistics show 70% of 4G mobile services takes place indoors. Considering the diversified 5G mobile services and expanded mobile industry boundary, this figure will increase to 85%. Therefore, the quality indoor network will be the core competitive edge of mobile operators in the 5G era. As the network evolves from 4G to 5G, it will face multiple challenges in indoor mobile network, such as user experience, capacity expansion, network coverage, etc. 5G mobile network uses C-band and mmWave that are on much higher frequency than 2G, 3G, and 4G counterparts. Higher frequency bands lead to greater link losses. The signals on the even higher mmWave band will experience difficulty in penetrating through a wall as the link loss exceeds 60dB.

Generally traditional RF cables and indoor network couplers do not support new frequency bands of 5G NRs (including the C-band and mmWave bands). Deploying new RF cables in indoor areas is costly and in a number of unique cases can prove impossible due to a lack of extra room for new cables. In addition, in traditional indoor distributed network, RF signals are carried over feeders, and each antenna needs dedicated feeders. This limitation requires multiple parallel RF feeders for multi-antenna solutions such as 5G 2T2R or 4T4R MIMO. If MIMO is used for extra expansion, new feeders must be routed, leading to a linear increase in engineering and deployment costs. And high-frequencies signals are subject to huge link loss when transmitted over traditional RF cables, which mean a much narrower coverage area and deteriorated performance. Therefore, it is difficult to use traditional indoor distributed network to increase network capacity. So, operators must use transmission cables that are easy to deploy and deliver high bandwidth. The best option is to use optical fiber to replace RF cables in order to meet the potentially huge bandwidth demand while ensuring superb 5G services.

Utilizing ultra-wide bandwidth RF front-end design with Software Define Radio (SDR) architecture, Helios^® Digital Multi-Band FTTA™ (Fiber to The Antenna) system enables the most flexible, scalable and complete solution for addressing small & medium coverage and capacity needs for 4G LTE and 5G NR together. Helios^® Multi-Band Digital FTTA™ is a three-tier architecture consisting of the Radio Access Unit (RAU), CPRI HUB Unit and Active Antenna Units (AAUs):

• Radio Access Unit (RAU)

The outdoor roof-top RAU has up to 3 * 2T2R RF paths and each RF path supports max 100MHz bandwidth and can be configured to be FDD or TDD mode in factory, which will very easily address a Single-Band 5G NR 4T4R or Dual-Band 4G LTE 2T2R + 5G NR 2T2R or even up to Tri-Band 4G LTE 2T2R + 5G NR 2T2R together. It has two 10Gbps SFP+ digital optic ports and supports up to 7 indoor remote AAUs via indoor CPRI HUB by star network topologies for small & medium size coverage needs. It generally accesses & synchronize outdoor 5G gNB signals on air via embedded MIMO donor antenna, the signal is filtered, amplified and then converted to a digital CPRI data stream as well as synchronization signal. The digital CPRI packet data stream is transported via single mode fiber and received by the indoor remote Single-Band/Dual-Band/Tri-Band AAUs.

• FTTA CPRI HUB

Helios® FTTA™ CPRI HUB Unit is an indoor expansion element in Helios® Digital Multi-Band FTTA™ solution, it has eight 10Gbps SFP+ optical ports to provide expandable connectivity up to seven indoor Distributed Active Antenna Units (AAUs) and one outdoor roof-top RAU over hybrid fiber-copper cable based on CPRI protocol by star topology for small & medium coverage needs. It receives the CPRI data from RAU and transmits to the Distributed AAUs after shunting, the uplink CPRI data stream from AAU will be sent to the RAU after routing processing. It’s also able to provide innovative Power Over Fiber (PoF) features for outdoor roof-top RAU and indoor remote Distributed AAUs to enable flexible & simplifies installation both for RAU and AAUs through hybrid fiber-copper cable.

• Active Antenna Unit (AAUs)

The indoor remote AAUs then convert the digital CPRI packet data stream back to RF and control the switcher to DPD PA based on synchronization signal from RAU, then amplify the signal to the embedded 2T2R or 4T4R MIMO services antennas. On the reverse path (uplink), the AAUs and RAU perform the inverse functions and delivery the signals back to the corresponding 4G & 5G Base Stations.

Innovative Power-over-Fiber (PoF) feature enables flexible & simplifies installation both for the indoor remote AAUs and outdoor roof-top RAU through fiber by star topology, the outdoor roof-top RAU and all AAUs adopt compact & fashion design with very low power consumption, typical mounting options include pole-mount, wall-mount and ceiling-mount.

The 5G Multi-Band Digital FTTA™ utilizes an embedded central WEB management system for system configuration and network monitoring. The embedded WEB management system collects alarm information from both Outdoor Roof-Top RAU, CPRI HUB and AAUs.

• Support Single-Band 5G NR 4T4R or Dual-Band LTE 2T2R + 5G NR 2T2R or even up to Tri-Band 4G LTE 2T2R + 5G NR 2T2R together
• Compact & Fashion distributed Single-Band/Dual-Band/Tri-Band AAU design embedded 2T2R or 4T4R MIMO omni-directional Service Antenna for wall-mount, pole-mount and ceiling-mount
• Full digital software and hardware platform with Ultra-wide RF front-end design and enables 4T4R RF path or 2 * 2T2R RF path (Single-Band or Dual-Band version) or 2 * 4T4R RF path or 3 * 2T2R RF path (Tri-Band version) and each RF path supports maximum 100MHz bandwidth to meet the potentially huge bandwidth demand while ensuring superb 5G services
• Ultra-wide RF bandwidth (400MHz DL and 400MHz UL on one fiber core, dual cores double to 800MHz DL and 800MHz UL) adaptable to all Global Communications Bands, 2T2R and 4T4R MIMO, now and future 5G NR
• Patented 5G NR TDD synchronization algorithms based on SDR technique
• DPD, CFR, and AGC for better sensitivity and communication quality and very low power consumption to save total CAPEX & OPEX cost
• Low modulation EVM, ALCR, and spurious emission
• High system gain Min. 85dB (From Donor Antenna to Service Antenna) to delivery significantly improving 4G and 5G network coverage
• RF composite DL Output power up to +24dBm per port
• RJ-45 Port for Local Control and Alarming on an IP Web Browser GUI
• Each RAU has two 10Gbps SFP+ digital optic ports and supports up to 7 AAUs via indoor CPRI HUB by star network topologies for small & medium coverage needs
• SNMP V2 & V3 support with a MIB File
• Innovative Power-over-Fiber (PoF) feature enables flexible & simplifies installation by star topology both for outdoor roof-top RAU and indoor Distributed AAUs
• Peaceful coexistence with current 5G NR macro network without any change & update on core network
• Support remote monitoring by SMS or Data Link via external 5G or 4G Router/DTU/RTU (Option)
• Details repeater parameters and status can be monitoring by built-in web interface, such as RSSI, temperature, channels witch, PA switch, output power level, gain, ATT, return loss, VSWR etc.
• Built-in AGC & ALC function continuously monitors path loss and transmit power to deliver max gain
• iBwave VEX component files are available for your in-building wireless and fiber network design and deployment projects
• SNMP V2 & V3 support with a MIB File