Huawei Launches Ambient Site to Build a Foundation for Intelligent Wireless NetworksHuawei Launches Ambient Site to Build a Foundation for Intelligent Wireless Networks

Huawei launched its Ambient Site solution at the Global Mobile Broadband Forum 2024 (MBBF 2024). The solution upgrades base station's key antenna units and site infrastructure such as power supplies and transmission devices by making them intelligent, to ensure full-domain site parameter sensing and control and multi-dimensional site equipment coordination. Such capabilities play an important role in building the foundation for energy-efficient intelligent wireless networks that deliver premium experience and support simplified O&M.

Solari Yu, President of Huawei SRAN Product Line, launching the Ambient Site solution

Mobile AI has gained momentum in 2024. Combined with the rapid shift in many networks towards AN L4 automation, this has increased the demand for real-time sensing and multi-dimensional control of site parameters in wireless networks.

However, in traditional networks, there are a large number of passive devices that are not sensable or are sensable but not controllable, and the antennas connecting the networks and users are 'dumb' too. The sites that use such passive devices and 'dumb' antennas struggle to adapt to the Mobile AI era without the digital and intelligent upgrade. Moreover, using intelligent technologies to upgrade existing site infrastructure such as power supplies and transmission systems is important to build end-to-end sensable and controllable sites as the foundation for intelligent wireless networks.

Huawei's new Ambient Site solution is designed to address these challenges. It links main equipment with digital and intelligent infrastructure to enable site parameter sensing and control, helping operators achieve site-level intelligence. The solution upgrades three new sets of infrastructure equipment to achieve this:

Intelligent antennas: Upgraded with intelligent technologies, antennas automatically acquire site engineering parameters, such as azimuths, mechanical downtilts, longitudes, and latitudes, to enable beam directivity and width to be adjusted in all dimensions. This shortens O&M and maintenance cycles from days to minutes, making networks more responsive to user mobility and improving user experiences by 30%.

Intelligent power supplies: The intelligent site digitalized unit (iSDU) automatically identifies the type of main equipment of a site and adapts the voltage of its power supply accordingly. This shortens the time needed for network expansion and upgrade by eliminating the need for power cable changes — which used to take one day and cost about US$1,000 per site and now can be completed for free in just an hour.

Intelligent transmission units: Huawei has developed the industry's first optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) for intelligent fronthaul optical path detection, helping identify the location of optical path faults within a few meters. This helps engineers locate a fault in just minutes, rather than in days, making O&M 90% more efficient and minimizing service downtime.

Solari Yu, President of Huawei SRAN Product Line, said, "Site intelligence is the foundation of intelligent wireless networks. Ambient Site is a milestone breakthrough that will help wireless networks get to AN L4. The current boom in mobile AI is forcing network sites to handle more application scenarios and environmental information. Site intelligence will enhance the foundation of intelligent wireless networks to bring us closer to AN L4."