Leading Simplicity and Efficiency: The Evolution of ZTE's UBR (Ultra-broadband Radio)

As networks evolve, CSPs (communication service providers) demand higher efficiency, lower costs, and greater flexibility. ZTE FDD UBR (Ultra-Broadband Radio) solutions address these challenges, enabling 4G modernization, RAN sharing, and seamless upgrades with always simple and efficient sites. In response to emerging difficulties in more networks, Shen Jianda, the Vice President of ZTE, emphasizes that ZTE’s latest generation of UBR products, launched earlier this year, has made significant strides in energy efficiency, radio integration, and intelligence. These advancements deliver the greenest, lightest, and smartest site solutions, offering unmatched product diversity and superior performance. And AI powered features also help improving user experience and system capacity.

Industry’s leading UBR products with highest radio integration

ZTE pioneered the FDD ultra-broadband radio (UBR) market, releasing the first UBR in 2014. After continuous innovation, the next generation of UBR series since the end of 2022, featuring the highest output power, 20 - 30% carbon down, and 80% footprint down, has been successfully deployed in more than 50 projects worldwide.

To meet diverse network demands, ZTE introduced its most competitive UBR series earlier this year, pushing the boundaries of technology. The new multi-band UBRs include the unique quad-band, penta-band, and unique mid-band and low-band tri-band models, featuring a compact design for simplified deployment. The release of the new UBR products reveals that one single UBR module can cover from two to six frequency bands in one sector. Combined with tri-sector models of the unique 12TR and leading 6TR UBR, ZTE’s highly integrated product portfolio offers leading flexibility. It allows CSPs in complex markets worldwide to easily evolve their networks.

For multi-channel integration, ZTE releases the dual-band and tri-band 8T radio units with multiple band combinations and highest output power of 8×180W. It achieves nearly twice the network capacity for 4G and three times 5G capacity.

While expanding the product portfolio, ZTE continues to optimize existing UBR products and has introduced the industry's lightest and most compact products for mainstream frequency band combinations, reducing both size and weight by over 25%. The lightweight series contains the spectrum combinations of n1 and n3, n8, n20 and n28, and more options.

ZTE UBRs support not only instant modernized deployment for greenfield, but also smooth and gradual transition of brownfield sites. There are flexible and diverse band combinations in ZTE UBR, allowing CSPs to upgrade individual parts of existing infrastructure without redesigning the entire sites.

ZTE UBR-based site modernization solution delivers exceptional value in several ways. ZTE UBR enables extreme integration on three fronts, multi-sector-in-one, multi-band-in-one, and multi-transmission-channel-in-one. This lowers space requirements by 50-80%, leading to a reduction in rental costs.

CSPs consume 2-3% of global energy, with 41% of that used by power amplifiers (PAs). By innovatively improving PA efficiency, ZTE further reduced UBR power consumption by 35-40%, a substantial reduction in the energy cost for CSPs.

Breakthrough Innovations

ZTE’s latest UBR series redefines simplicity and performance through three core advancements: most efficient Super-N 2.0 PA architecture, advanced framework, and leading AI algorithm.

·Leading power efficiency to lower power consumption

In 2022, ZTE released RRU with the very efficient PA platform Super-N 1.0. Simply rely on this innovation, the RRU has 8 to 10 percentage points improvement in PA efficiency compared with traditional ones, and a 20% reduction in the RRU power consumption, which has demonstrated leading performance in multiple projects.

Since 2024, ZTE has introduced industry’s unique PA architecture of Super-N PA and keeps improving the architecture Power Amplifier 2.0. This is a unique ZTE innovation. Super-N divides bulky power amplifiers into smaller units, smartly managed for efficient output like EV batteries. ZTE's amplifiers maintain optimal efficiency at all loads, particularly tripling low-load efficiency compared to industry standards. When the load is beyond 30%, the power efficiency goes almost constantly at high level. In summary, the Super-N 2.0-based RRU can effectively decrease power consumption for customers across all levels of usage, with a 35-40% reduction in RRU ETSI power consumption compared with industry average level. Enhanced power efficiency also drives a 20% reduction in circuit layout complexity, resulting in smaller form factors of UBR modules.

·Leading AI algorithms to improve user experience

AI-DPD enables higher power efficiency of power amplifier. Based on AI predictions of load and power fluctuations, it more rapidly counteracts non-linearities, achieving higher power amplifier efficiency and reducing unnecessary energy dissipation.

UBR uses the AI power scheduling to achieve the market-first cross-sector and cross-mid-low frequency coordinated power sharing. According to the actual traffic load and cell distribution, UBR intelligently adjusts the transmit power of active cells and shares casual output power cross the sectors or cross mid-low frequency bands. Overall, UBR can potentially achieve up to 20% higher bit-per-watt, achieving higher throughput and ensure better user experience.

In addition, AI algorithms even unlock the full potential of Massive MIMO for ZTE leading multi-band massive MIMO radios, optimizing spectrum efficiency and network performance in dense urban areas. AI-powered beamforming technology precisely tracks users and channel conditions, ensuring accurate signal transmission. User-level smart scheduling technique enhances resource allocation, improving service quality. AI-driven MU-MIMO technology maximizes resource multiplexing for TDD Massive MIMO (TMM) and FDD massive MIMO (FMM) when work at 5G NR mode, while smart 6-split cells for FMM helps optimize 4G capacity and user experience. By identifying the best MU-MIMO algorithms, AI boosts spectrum utilization, increasing cell capacity by up to 30% for more efficient, high-capacity connectivity.

Large-scale Proven Market Success

ZTE UBR product series is experiencing strong adoption. UBR is widely deployed worldwide to handle fragmented spectrums, simplify radio deployment, use green equipment, and boost network capacity. CSPs view UBR as a key pillar for smooth evolution toward the next generation, enabling sought-after software programmability in 5G and beyond.

Prominent operators like CelcomDigi, True Corporation, ZONG, Tim have reported robust commercial benefits from deploying ZTE’s UBR in their networks, to enhance network performance, reduce operational demands and improve overall customer experience.

Moreover, as RAN sharing is becoming increasingly popular, UBRs with high output power and wide bandwidth play a crucial role in addressing the challenges of multi-technology, multi-band services, and traffic management.

Looking Ahead: A Future Built on Collaboration

Innovation is more than just technology. “Our latest UBR series reflects our commitment to building smarter, greener, and more efficient networks. ”, Shen Jianda said. “As a leader in UBR technology, we collaborate closely with customers to build simplified, high-performance site networks using innovative solutions. Our goal is to support customers in reducing costs, enhancing efficiency, and delivering exceptional service experiences, all while working together to create a more inclusive and high-quality communication environment.”