How to Spot Sprint Antennas and RRUs (Ericsson)

[Wireless Junkie]

So these are poor quality images (for now), however I have noticed all NV 8001x and B26LTE + PCS1x + B25LTE look like this..

They all have 1 panel per sector, and this is in the Birmingham, Alabama market. I have noticed these even in "high congestion" area.

 

So is there any disadvantage to the one panel per sector vs. the other carriers or other Sprint sites with multiple panels on a sector?

 

Pics are middle setup, and this is an Ericsson market.

 

[lilotimz]

So these are poor quality images (for now), however I have noticed all NV 8001x and B26LTE + PCS1x + B25LTE look like this..

They all have 1 panel per sector, and this is in the Birmingham, Alabama market. I have noticed these even in "high congestion" area.

 

So is there any disadvantage to the one panel per sector vs. the other carriers or other Sprint sites with multiple panels on a sector?

 

Pics are middle setup, and this is an Ericsson market.

 

A typical older Sprint ERC NV setup has 3 RRUS11 + a single hex port antenna (2 sub 1 ghz + 4 1900 mhz ports). One RRUS11 is the B26 while two is B25 CDMA + LTE. A high capacity site adds an additional one or two B25 RRUS11s and combines them via RF combiners. 

 

Modern Sprint 65 mhz ERC NV setups have 2 RRUS with one being RRUS31 B25s and one being the RRUS11 B26 with high capacity setups adding an additional antenna + PCS RRU. 

 

A hex port antenna is mostly a cost saving / weight saving measure that efficiently streamlines Sprints network deployments since you don't have to contend with a plethora of different antennas with different technologies taking up space when one antenna per sector can do everythiing that Sprint needs. No need to remove or do extensive engineering if they need to add another antenna as well such as the 2.5 antenna setups. 

[jonathanm1978]

Not sure if it matters, wireless junkie, but this is also a southern Linc market, which may cause Sprint to deploy less hardware than in a market where they have sole band 26. I think SoLinc has 2.5Ghz in 800, but maybe someone can chime in and say for sure. I'd be much happier to see Sprint deploy here than SoLinc hang onto it. It would make the entire southeast much better in Sprint reception.

[Wireless Junkie]

Not sure if it matters, wireless junkie, but this is also a southern Linc market, which may cause Sprint to deploy less hardware than in a market where they have sole band 26. I think SoLinc has 2.5Ghz in 800, but maybe someone can chime in and say for sure. I'd be much happier to see Sprint deploy here than SoLinc hang onto it. It would make the entire southeast much better in Sprint reception.

Shockingly we recently had B26 5+5Mhz LTE and SMR 800Mhz 1x activated on almost every site throughout the Birmingham market all the way through Talladega!!

 

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

[Wireless Junkie]

 

Hoover, Alabama area

 

My iPhone 6 stays on B26 most of the time in lower signal where my previous non B26 phone had weak signal!!

[anthony.spina97]

Not sure if it matters, wireless junkie, but this is also a southern Linc market, which may cause Sprint to deploy less hardware than in a market where they have sole band 26. I think SoLinc has 2.5Ghz in 800, but maybe someone can chime in and say for sure. I'd be much happier to see Sprint deploy here than SoLinc hang onto it. It would make the entire southeast much better in Sprint reception.

I'm sorry, what?

 

Shockingly we recently had B26 5+5Mhz LTE and SMR 800Mhz 1x activated on almost every site throughout the Birmingham market all the way through Talladega!!

 

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

Just for future reference, it's 5x5 MHz, not 5+5. Having a plus is for aggregated spectrum, where-as having an x is for paired spectrum.

 

-Anthony

[Wireless Junkie]

I'm sorry, what?

 

Just for future reference, it's 5x5 MHz, not 5+5. Having a plus is for aggregated spectrum, where-as having an x is for paired spectrum.

 

-Anthony

I know, but I'm just going by my mathematics haha. 5x5 would be 25 so I just like referring to it as 5+5 myself.

[lilotimz]

I know, but I'm just going by my mathematics haha. 5x5 would be 25 so I just like referring to it as 5+5 myself.

Heh but here we typically denotes n+n for TDD carrier aggregation. It's a little confusing for members and lurkers so we've pretty much standardized into nXn for FDD denominations and n+n for TDD.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5

[Wireless Junkie]

A typical older Sprint ERC NV setup has 3 RRUS11 + a single hex port antenna (2 sub 1 ghz + 4 1900 mhz ports). One RRUS11 is the B26 while two is B25 CDMA + LTE. A high capacity site adds an additional one or two B25 RRUS11s and combines them via RF combiners. 

 

Modern Sprint 65 mhz ERC NV setups have 2 RRUS with one being RRUS31 B25s and one being the RRUS11 B26 with high capacity setups adding an additional antenna + PCS RRU. 

 

A hex port antenna is mostly a cost saving / weight saving measure that efficiently streamlines Sprints network deployments since you don't have to contend with a plethora of different antennas with different technologies taking up space when one antenna per sector can do everythiing that Sprint needs. No need to remove or do extensive engineering if they need to add another antenna as well such as the 2.5 antenna setups. 

Ok thank you, that's great information. Does a single panel provide as much coverage/range as multiple antenna's?

 

Lastly, how much less capacity does a single panel site provide vs. 2?

[lilotimz]

Ok thank you, that's great information. Does a single panel provide as much coverage/range as multiple antenna's?

 

Lastly, how much less capacity does a single panel site provide vs. 2?

 

This isn't a whole lot of difference between most antenna panels these days like the hex ports or quad port multi band ones that everyone uses as they're mostly agnostic. Radios matter a lot more but most vendors have pretty similar performance and capacity capability with the major exception being Sprints custom made 8T8R antenna and radios. 

 

Capacity is less because they run the radios in dual mode operations ( CDMA + LTE) which limits the radio to 2 FDD-LTE carriers and about 4-6 CDMA carriers. Running in single mode though enables a ton more capacity like 10+ CDMA carriers or 4 FDD-LTE carriers. 

[david279]

High capacity setup in new Orleans

currently being deployed all over N.O.L.A.

Edited July 25, 2015 by david279

[david279]

Pics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JWMaloney]

 

Tim, any info on the Ericsson RRUS 82 B41 that is starting to be deployed in place of the Nokia FZHJ?

[lilotimz]

Tim, any info on the Ericsson RRUS 82 B41 that is starting to be deployed in place of the Nokia FZHJ?

Si. I can drag out the info later.

 

Basically looks like a rrus 32 externally.

 

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[lilotimz]

Tim, any info on the Ericsson RRUS 82 B41 that is starting to be deployed in place of the Nokia FZHJ?

 

Designed 2 years ago. 

 

8x20w as typical. 60 MHz per port limitation. 

 

 

 

 

Also the FZHJ has been succeeded by the FZHN, 

[RAvirani]

Designed 2 years ago.

 

8x20w as typical. 60 MHz per port limitation.

 

Also the FZHJ has been succeeded by the FZHN,

How do they compare performance wise?

[andrewc2]

Wow! I never realized these things were so big! 

[mdob07]

Anything new for Ericsson B26 or are they still using the old RRUS11 model? All the sites around me still have the old RRUS11s up, most even still have the old filter attached though it was bypassed years ago. I saw where some of the markets are going to 2T4R for 800, but since these only have 2 ports per radio I'm assuming these are limited to 2x2 mimo only, unless I'm misunderstanding how that works.

[RAvirani]

1 hour ago, mdob07 said:

I saw where some of the markets are going to 2T4R for 800, but since these only have 2 ports per radio I'm assuming these are limited to 2x2 mimo only, unless I'm misunderstanding how that works.

The current RRUS11 are limited to 2x2 as the radio only has two ports. 4x would require an RRH swap/addition. 

[mdob07]

15 minutes ago, RAvirani said:

The current RRUS11 are limited to 2x2 as the radio only has two ports. 4x would require an RRH swap/addition. 

That's what I was thinking. Do we know if there is a new B26 RRU coming anytime soon? We have a decent number of the 16 port antennas around here from the Ericsson B41 installs.

[RAvirani]

2 minutes ago, mdob07 said:

That's what I was thinking. Do we know if there is a new B26 RRU coming anytime soon? We have a decent number of the 16 port antennas around here from the Ericsson B41 installs.

16 port antennas in Ericsson markets should feature two RRUS11 which are virtually chained together to act as a single 4x RRU.

I don't recall if Sprint is deploying a single 4-port radio in Ericsson regions. Maybe @lilotimz can chime in and clarify this. 

[lilotimz]

16 port antennas in Ericsson markets should feature two RRUS11 which are virtually chained together to act as a single 4x RRU.
I don't recall if Sprint is deploying a single 4-port radio in Ericsson regions. Maybe [mention=4387]lilotimz[/mention] can chime in and clarify this. 

There is no B26 + CDMA model for ALU, Nokia, or Ericsson. They will continue to use those RRUS11 B26s and 2x50 800's unless Ericsson decides to make a 4x4 44xx series radio.

To date for all carriers, Ericsson is super impacted for 4x4 radios of the newest gen. They've been using 2x2 22xx radios and software bonding them to leverage 2x4/4x4 while additional 4x4 44xx radios are being produced and delivered.

Only Samsung produced a new 800 MHz CDMA+LTE radio and its probably because they had to make a 750mbz + cdma radio for the PR VI region and it wasn't a big deal to make it for 800.

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[mdob07]

3 hours ago, lilotimz said:

There is no B26 + CDMA model for ALU, Nokia, or Ericsson. They will continue to use those RRUS11 B26s and 2x50 800's unless Ericsson decides to make a 4x4 44xx series radio.

To date for all carriers, Ericsson is super impacted for 4x4 radios of the newest gen. They've been using 2x2 22xx radios and software bonding them to leverage 2x4/4x4 while additional 4x4 44xx radios are being produced and delivered.

Only Samsung produced a new 800 MHz CDMA+LTE radio and its probably because they had to make a 750mbz + cdma radio for the PR VI region and it wasn't a big deal to make it for 800.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
 

I keep forgetting that they are running 1x800 and LTE on the same radio. Both AT&T and Verizon use Ericsson equipment here also and both have been adding B5 everywhere with their recent upgrades, so I wasn't sure if Ericsson had developed a newer 4x4 capable radio for them. Given the number of LTE bands AT&T has deployed here I wouldn't think they'd want to accommodate the weight and space of a 2nd radio to get 4x4 MIMO if that was the requirement. But I'm also not sure if they're even doing 4x4 on low band.

I was going through some of my old tower pics and that's what got me thinking that these are the same radios that were deployed on the original NV installations 5-6 years ago. And for some sites they're the only remaining original equipment as the B25 RRUS11s were swapped out for the RRUS31s and a lot of the original antenna panels have been swapped out also for newer models with the B41 installations and modifications.