4G and LTE antennas are suddenly becoming a hot potato! Customers are increasingly asking for 4G/LTE (we will use the term 4G for the purposes of this article) frequency band support for many 2G and 3G only antenna requirements. As 4G is topical, they see the 4G support as a must. In many cases it is not required and can simply compromise the antenna solution.
Let's look at the issues from an antenna perspective:
1. Size - Wideband antennas with frequency support for 2G, 3G and 4G are much more complex to design than quad band GSM or GSM/3G antennas. Often to increase the bandwidth for wideband antennas such as blade antennas, terminal antennas, low profile antennas, there is no alternative but to increase the size of the antenna from the normal form factors seen the GSM/3G market. Small stubby antennas covering 700/800-2700 MHz are unlikely to perform across the band completely to a satisfactory level (despite what the manufacturer may claim).
2. Performance - It is a typical trade-off situation, a very wideband antenna by its nature will have compromises. Mechanically if you keep the antenna small, you will forfeit performance. By having a larger antenna (see point 1 above) you have opportunities for better performance. So to keep the same form factors as GSM/3G antennas, antenna performance will generally suffer when designing 2G/3G/4G wideband antennas.
3. Frequency - Unfortunately for us antenna suppliers, 4G does not operate at a single frequency. Unlike Euro 3G at 2100 MHz, 4G networks are already operating at 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2600 MHz across Europe and LTE is operating at 700 MHz in North America. Not only does this confuse customers, it makes antenna solutions more complicated as customers and suppliers have to be very sure of the correct operational frequencies before committing to an antenna of choice.
We should realise there are going to be some technical challenges for everyone while we all acclimatise to the 4G applications and perhaps we should be prepared to accommodate our thinking in terms of form factors as we embrace wideband cellular antenna solutions.
EAD and Specialist Antennas are happy to work with customers through the maze of antenna options for multiband 2G/3G/4G applications. You can visit our websites at www.ead-ltd.com or www.specialistantennas.co.uk or contact us on +44 1280 824055. Some select 4G applications can be purchased online via our Connex Technologies website.
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