Metawave Enhances CDMA Smart Antenna System

Trying to improve its place in the CDMA market, Redmond, WA-based N/A has unveiled two new features for its SpotLight 2000 smart antenna system. The enhancements, called Dynamic Sector Synthesis and SiteSculptor, improve the performance of the SpotLight 2000 smart antenna system when it is employed in CDMA network designs.

Metawave's SpotLight smart antenna system is designed to improve capacity by reducing interference in CDMA and AMPS base station designs. To accomplish this task, this system employs a beam forming technology that configures cell sectorization patterns to balance traffic loads among sectors.

SpotLight 2000 supports CDMA, AMPS, GSM, and narrowband AMPS (N-AMPS) base stations in a single platform that can be reconfigured as the network evolves. In addition to a software-defined phased-array antenna, the smart antenna system includes spectrum management hardware and a suite of multicarrier power amplifiers (MCPAs).

The SpotLight 2000 system's operation and maintenance functions are provided by a PC-based configuration tool with remote access capabilities. To optimize sector configuration, the software allows engineers to adjust azimuth (orientation) pointing angles, beamwidth, and gain settings using capacity data collected by SpotLight. A cell's sector configuration can be modified based on time of day, day of the week, or in response to an anticipated surge in traffic due to a porting or community event.

Enhanced features
SpotLight's new Dynamic Sector Synthesis enhancement enables operators to balance traffic loading among sectors at cell sites, even as the distribution of traffic changes over time. With Dynamic Sector Synthesis, SpotLight 2000 actively monitors the RF environment in real time to determine the distribution of traffic at a cell site. The system then automatically selects the optimal RF radiation pattern that best balances traffic loading across the sectors of the cell. Load balancing creates headroom for traffic growth in busy cells, or hot spots, which enables traffic growth across the entire network.

The SiteSculptor software solution is designed to ease network management. This software package, which is compatible with Windows 95/98/NT operating systems, combines antenna pattern modeling, system configuration, and system operation and maintenance functions in a single application.

The SpotLight 2000 smart antenna system interfaces with a range of CDMA base stations. To find out additional information on the product, contact Metawave at 425-702-5600.

Edited by Robert Keenan