www.WirelessFederation.com/news: NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, announced that it has begun the deployment of new W-CDMA base stations equipped with newly developed Remote Radio Equipment (RRE)
units. Besides, the operator is also preparing for the launch of ultra-high speed Long Term Evolution (LTE) services.

The company is planning to launch the 4G mobile network in December 2010 using the 2GHz band. RREs enable a single larger base station to cover a wider area by utilising extensions via fibre-optic cabling from major base stations situated in other locations. This is very different from BTSs that are equipped with an antenna and switching equipment in a single location.

BTS which are equipped with RRE comprise a master unit (slave station) for signal processing and maintenance functions and the RRE for modulating and demodulating both W-CDMA and LTE signals transmitted and received via antenna.