We are also responsible for advanced antenna systems for all mobile standards. Active antennas are used in the Maxite base stations in order to make installation easy and save energy. Power amplifiers are integrated in the antenna and thus a base station with big coverage can be built using small, outdoor mounted units. Adaptive antennas are used to increase capacity in networks that are limited by interference. The system divides the normal 120 deg. sector into eight sub-sectors.
Network capacity is improved as transmission is made in a narrower beam-width.
Integration and Verification is an important part of the design work. For these purposes we run a full GSM verification lab, where we certify base station products. The lab is used by many other Ericsson organizations. Customized passive antenna systems are used to fulfil some operator requirements like multiband functionality. Based on our experience in antenna design, we currently have development programs ongoing in this area.