Facebook Connectivity has been working with VoltServer to develop a new “SuperCell” technology to provide rural broadband coverage. SuperCell uses taller towers and high-gain, narrow-sectored antennas to increase mobile data range and capacity. Their field measurements found that a 36-sector SuperCell base station mounted on a 250-meter tower can serve a geographical coverage area up to 65 times larger than a standard three-sector rural macro base station on a 30-meter tower in the same topography. A SuperCell can replace 15-25 sites, and that resulted in about 33% lower total cost of ownership from the point of view of the mobile network operator that would want to cover that same area with alternative means.
Read the Fierce Wireless article here.
More details are provided in the paper published by Facebook Research: SuperCell: A Wide-Area Coverage Solution Using High-Gain, High-Order Sectorized Antennas on Tall Towers
Quoting from the paper published by Facebook Research: “The authors would like to thank American Tower Corporation, C Spire and VoltServer for their partnering contributions towards Facebook Connectivity’s Mississippi SuperCell trial. ATC for offering the use of a 180m tower, C Spire for offering Band 41 and Band 25 spectrum and VoltServer for offering their Digital Electricity™ power remoting solution for the trial respectively.”
Link to the complete research paper (PDF)
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