WARRENVILLE, Ill. [April 12, 2011] – As LTE continues to emerge as the dominant platform for delivering next-generation wireless services, Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson and the global leader in enabling Business-Critical ContinuityTM, has identified three opportunities for progressive telecommunications providers to leverage this new architecture to increase bandwidth and meet consumer demand for the faster, more robust wireless services.

Providers can make the most of the widespread transition to LTE for 3G and 4G service delivery by considering these recommendations:

Go nodal: LTE has service providers rethinking their current deployment strategies in order to provide the highest data speed throughout their networks. One way to accomplish this is to move to a nodal infrastructure throughout the network. This increases the number of sites and introduces higher-density electronics, which helps decrease the power requirements at each site. These changes increase network reliability while drastically reducing:

• amount of DC power required per site;
• overall cooling requirements;
• site footprint;
• stress on the infrastructure.

Embrace alternative power options: Since nodal architectures reduce the power requirements at each site, alternative and hybrid energy sources not only become realistic, they can provide significant cost savings. Hybrid site architectures reduce grid energy use by approximately 25-30 percent per site, and U.S. sites utilizing renewable energy sources can realize an additional 30 percent federal energy tax benefit. Several states offer tax incentives as well.

Remember the wires in your wireless network: LTE brings with it dramatic increases in network data-carrying capability, meaning more data is processed back to the wired network and a more robust network backhaul is needed. In the past, wireless networks relied heavily on T1 backhaul at each wireless site, but these copper-based systems are limited and at times unreliable. An ethernet-based fiber or high-speed microwave backhaul system allows the wireless provider to maintain the link back to the wired network, increasing reliability and reducing infrastructure costs.

“In the ultra-competitive wireless marketplace, the days of high prices for high technology are fading in the face of insatiable consumer demand,” said Manish Bhandari, vice president of global sales and marketing for Emerson Network Power's Energy Systems business. “LTE is forcing a convergence of the wireless, wireline and cable networks and moving the industry to a new, still-undefined topology. Successful wireless providers will be differentiated based on their ability to provide cost-effective, energy-efficient, flexible solutions as the network transitions fully to that topology .”