Tri-band antenna

A triple-band base station antenna set that offers speed of deployment and flexibility has been unveiled by Radio Frequency Systems.

Founded on factory-fitted and calibrated tri-band antenna/ACU sets, the solution has end-to-end compliance with the latest revision of the 3GPP-ratified Antenna Interface Standards Group open communications standard (AISG V2.0).

This compliance underscores precision control and monitoring of all beam tilts and tower-top components.

Available in three lengths (1.6, 2.1 and 2.6 m), the antenna comprises two broadband high-band arrays (1710 to 2170 MHz) and one low-band array (870 to 960 MHz), all in a slim-line package.

Because of the antenna’s step-by-step multi-band architecture, the 17.5 dBi high-band gain is consistent across both the high bands and across all three models.

It has good upper side-lobe suppression, showing first upper side-lobe levels of better than 18 dB on the low band and 15 dB on both high bands.

For premium optimisation and network management, the RFS tri-band antenna permits independent variable electrical tilt of 2 to 10° across all three bands. Beam tilt is controlled by the company’s Optimizer Universal ACU, which is available in two models: one compliant with AISG v1.1 and the second with AISG v2.0.

Each antenna dipole set is controlled by one ACU (to a maximum of three ACUs per BSA), providing independent tilt control plus a degree of scalability in VET application across the multi-band network.

The ACU is claimed to be the only ACU that permits field configuration of communication protocols. Simple connection to a tower-base PC permits the ACU’s communication protocol to be changed from AISG v1.1 to AISG v2.0, plus a wide range of OEM proprietary protocols — all without modification to the base ACU hardware.