5 Ways to Reduce Tower-Related Expenses

By Dudy Cohen, Head of Marketing at Ceragon

Leasing cell tower space for antennas is an expensive proposition. Pricing depends on various factors, including, of course, site location. Equally important is the impact the antenna will have on the tower structure, in terms of size, weight and added wind load, each of which is an added consideration. To reduce these costs, operators in the industry have opened a dialogue about introducing fiber networks. However, fiber also requires an extensive infrastructure investment, a long implementation period and significant delays in the ability to provide effective remote connectivity. All considered, the setbacks of fiber today make it an impractical alternative.

But, what if you could reduce the costs of your antennas and squeeze more juice out of your existing networks? There are numerous ways you could substantially save on tower leasing fees by halving the size of your antennas and still squeezing every last bit of capacity out of existing spectrum. 

Below are 5 ways to reduce the high costs of cell tower leases while gaining more capacity:

• Use 4×4 Line-of-sight Multiple In, Multiple Out (LOS MIMO) technology: this creates an artificial multi-path, which transmits four different signals over the same frequency channel. This allows you to split your traffic between multiple carriers and use lower modulation, achieving additional system gain. With the additional system gain of LOS MIMO, you can then install smaller, simpler antennas, with substantial CAPEX and OPEX savings.

• Use Cross-Polarization Interference Cancellation (XPIC) microwave technology that transmits in both horizontal and vertical directions. Such a configuration creates interference, which must be mitigated to ensure smooth transmission. XPIC filters and combines the two data streams, transmitting them both over the same channel and cancelling any interference. You can then split your traffic across the two carriers, use lower modulation, add system gain and reduce the size of your antenna.

• Increase the bandwidth of your links through Header De-Duplication, minimizing repetitious or extraneous packet header information to reduce the amount of information that needs to be sent. With this technology, you can use less spectrum to accommodate your capacity requirements, add gain and reduce antenna size.

• Save 25% of long haul radio equipment with the multi-carrier adaptive bandwidth control (MC-ABC), which combines SDH and Ethernet traffic on the same carrier. This capability not only removes the need for a dedicated SDH protection carrier, but also enables more capacity per carrier – allowing you to use fewer carriers for reduced tower loads.

Minimize your tower footprint while delivering ultra-high capacity in bandwidth-hungry, dense urban environments.  You can use low footprint, ultra high capacity solutions based on millimeter-waves (such as E-Bands), which provide multi-Gpbs in one single radio.