News | May 23, 2005

OBSAI Launches Base Station Test Specifications; Adds WiMax To Interface

London -- The Open Base Station Architecture Initiative (OBSAI) announced the availability of product compliance test documentations for the OBSAI open interface specifications. The documentation contains a full set of compliance test procedures, specifications, and test cases to cover all the essential modules and interfaces of the current OBSAI specifications. Companies can use the test specifications in their own test facilities or in independent test laboratories.

The provision of test specifications is a key benefit of the OBSAI standards initiative and allows operators to have confidence that products from different manufacturers, working to the OBSAI standards, have been tested for interoperability.

OBSAI has also shown how versatile the OBSAI open interface specifications are through the completion of work on the integration of WiMax technology into the baseband - RF interface specifications. One of the chief benefits of OBSAI's specifications is that they are air interface agnostic and are compatible with WCDMA, CDMA, GSM, and GSM/EDGE technologies. The vast superiority of the OBSAI BTS architecture made it very simple to add WiMAX to the RP3 interface.

"OBSAI has achieved a first in the industry by creating these specifications by using our expert members across the BTS, component, and module vendor domains," John S. Csapo of the OBSAI Management Board said. "True interoperability and a horizontal mode of operation are getting closer and closer. In fact, the first OBSAI components already meet the requirements of the OBSAI specifications.

"OBSAI is the only base station initiative to have built a robust set of interface specifications for key parts of the base station subsystem that can be used with GSM/EDGE, CDMA, and WCDMA air interface applications," he continued. "The OBSAI BTS architecture enables less complex designs to be realized for single, or multi-mode base stations supporting GSM, GSM/EDGE, CDMA, WCDMA, and WiMax."

OBSAI members now have access to the following:

  • Test specifications and procedural documents,
  • All versions of the interface specifications related to the control, transport, baseband, and radio areas of the base station (identified as RP1, RP2, and RP3 -- including remote RF Head) together with a system reference document, and
  • Module specifications related to the mechanics and functionality aspects of key modules, transport, baseband, and control.

The public will gain access to the first versions of the interface specifications related to the control, transport, baseband, and radio areas of the base station (identified as RP1, RP2, and RP3) together with a system reference document.

The Open Base Station Architecture Initiative (OBSAI) is a forum of 115 telecommunications companies, spanning module, component, and base station vendor activity. Together they have created both open internal interface specifications for base station architecture and module specifications covering the areas of transport, control, baseband, and radio.

To find out more about OBSAI or download some of the specifications, visit http://www.obsai.org.

Source: OBSAI