A Reconfigurable Dual Band LTE Small Cell RF Front-end/Antenna System to Support Carrier Aggregation

Abstract

Abstract. In this contribution, the prototype of an energy efficient RF front-end combined to a miniaturized highly efficient antenna system is presented. This demonstrator is designed for LTE small cell base station applications and can address both LTE band 7 & 20. It supports carrier aggregation (CA) for capacity network improvement and is compatible with inter-band CA as well as contiguous and non-contiguous intra-band CA. The measurement results show an energy consumption saving of around 30 % and a size reduction factor of 3 for the antenna system compared to regular base station antennas. The proposed design demonstrates the possibility of increasing the energy efficiency as well as the level of integration of a small cell base station despite the use of new technology enablers such as CA technique.