ORLANDO--Alcatel-Lucent announced at its annual press and analyst breakfast at Wireless 2007 that the company has developed a beamforming intelligent antenna solution for carriers using CDMA 1X networks that allows up to twice as much voice capacity as existing 1X architectures.

The intelligent antenna processing technology is included in the vendor’s CDMA Modular Cell 4.0 base station architecture and allows adjustments for greater voice capacity on 2G, 3G or missed-generation networks on a per user basis without requiring investment in more spectrum, according to Mike Iandolo, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s CDMA/EV-DO business.

“Our customers can be assured that we will continue to support their existing investments in CDMA2000 1X technology for years to come,” Iandolo said. “Our philosophy has always been to build products and solutions that provide a future migration path and significant investment protection.”

With beamforming, the base station sends a separate, dedicated, narrower beam to each active user, which adaptively follows them as they move through the base station's coverage area. However, Alcatel-Lucent’s intelligent antenna processing technique also is being used on the reverse link from the mobile device back to the base station, resulting in two-way capacity gains.

The company said it is actively applying advanced antenna technologies such as beamforming and MIMO into all parts of its wireless access portfolio.