4G Outdoor Antennas

4G antennas for mobile networks emerged with the advent of mobile communications on the national landscape. They are a crucial element of mobile network infrastructure, ensuring the availability and quality of mobile services nationwide. Access to mobile services aligns with strong consumer expectations and plays a crucial role in the economic and social life of the country. 4G antennas not only enhance communication between individuals but also significantly improve the safety of goods and persons, especially by enabling emergency calls in areas without fixed-line coverage.

4G Antennas:

4G, using frequency bands ranging from 450 MHz to 3.8 GHz, employs LTE antennas. With a bandwidth of up to 20 MHz, it can achieve a theoretical bit rate of 300 Mbit/s in the downlink. The "true 4G," known as 4G Advanced, provides a downlink speed reaching or even exceeding 1 Gbit/s. This throughput requires the use of aggregated frequency bands with a width of 2 × 100 MHz, defined in LTE Advanced standards releases 10 to 15 (3GPP Releases 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15). In October 2010, the ITU recognized LTE Advanced as an independent 4G technology. In December 2010, it granted LTE antennas the standard defined for LTE before the "IMT-Advanced" specifications.

4G networks consist of thousands of cells, thanks to OFDMA (base to terminal) and SC-FDMA (from terminal to terminal), allowing the use of radio coding even in adjacent cells. This enables each cell to be assigned a larger spectral width than in 3G. The network typically comprises two parts: a radio part (eUTRAN) and an "EPC" core network (Evolved Packet Core).

Advantages of 4G Standards:

4G standards, derived from the 3GPP consortium, bring many changes and improvements compared to 3G standards, including:

• Theoretical downlink speed of up to 326.4 Mbit/s peak (300 Mbit/s useful) in 4 × 4 MIMO mode.
• Theoretical uplink rate of up to 86.4 Mbit/s peak (75 Mbit/s useful), supporting five classes of 4G devices with speeds from 10 Mbit/s (Category 1) to the maximum LTE standard downlink speed (300 Mbit/s for Category 5).
• Three to four times the data rate of UMTS/HSPA1.
• Spectral efficiency (bits transmitted per second per Hertz) three times higher than UMTS version called HSPA.
• Round Trip Time (RTT) latency near 10 ms (compared to 70 to 200 ms in HSPA and UMTS).
• Use of OFDMA coding for the downlink and SC-FDMA for the uplink (instead of W-CDMA in UMTS).
• Improved radio performance and speeds through the use of MIMO multi-antenna technology on the terrestrial device side (eNodeB) and on the device side (only for reception).
• Ability to offer an operator an assigned frequency band from 1.4 MHz to 20 MHz, providing greater flexibility than the fixed spectral width of 5 MHz of UMTS/W-CDMA.
• A wide range of supported radio frequency bands, including those historically assigned to GSM and 3G, and new spectral bands, especially around 800 MHz and 2.6 GHz: 39 bands are standardized by 3GPP (27 in LTE FDD and 11 in TDD).
• Support for more than 200 simultaneously active terminals in each cell.
• Good support for fast-moving terminals, with good performance up to 350 km/h or even up to 500 km/h, depending on the frequency bands used.

4G standards and antennas are gradually improving over time, positively impacting users.

Regulations for the Deployment of 4G Antennas:

Before establishing a mobile network, the Federal Network Agency allocates frequencies to a mobile network operator and grants them a national license with specifications. These specifications include various obligations, especially regarding coverage and service quality, subject to review by the Federal Network Agency. After the entire network is authorized, the operator can deploy the network by installing mobile masts. 4G antennas are not installed or activated freely. Each installation project is subject to several additional regulations, including property rights, urban planning, and site protection. Site coordination of radio stations, regulations on frequency management, and aspects of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) of transmitters are implemented. The construction of radio stations of all kinds across the national territory is coordinated to ensure the best use of available sites and compliance with limits on public exposure to electromagnetic fields. Regulations for the use of LTE antennas may change over time.

4G Networks:

With LTE and 4G, manufacturers and operators in Germany provide real average downlink speeds measured at around 30 Mbit/s and average upstream speeds between 6 and 8 Mbit/s. With device generations (Categories 4, 5, and +) since 2014, operators allow peak throughput of up to 150 Mbit/s (Category 4 devices), aiming for 300 Mbit/s and more in the medium term through Carrier Aggregation offered in the 4G Advanced evolution. The theoretical maximum throughput of 4G Advanced technology is over 1 Gbit/s.

The first 4G networks and devices, available in 2012/2014, could only transmit data over the radio network (similar to the GPRS and Edge protocols reserved for data transmission in GSM networks). The provided frequency bands for 4G and 4G Advanced, as per the 3GPP standards, are numerous (over 30) and range from 450 MHz to 3.8 GHz. Bands in the 450 to 900 MHz range can be used in all areas, especially suitable for rural areas due to their longer range than higher-frequency microwaves. The coverage radius of each cell varies from a few hundred meters (optimal flow rates in dense urban areas) to 30 km (rural areas). Mobile operators offering 4G access reuse their 2G or 3G network (CDMA or UMTS) to handle voice calls of their subscribers using a method called Circuit Switch Fall-Back (CSFB). A new standard is in use: Voice Over LTE (VoLTE), natively supporting voice in Voice-over-IP mode in the 4G network if compatible smartphones are used. It enables faster calls and offers better voice quality by using Adaptive Multi-Rate Wideband (AMR-WB) wideband codecs.