Simplified Installation

IMT2000DS indoor picocells do not need to have a GPS reference. They can be
reclocked by handsets moving into the building. This makes installation substantially
easier. An engineer can walk into a building, fix a node B to the wall, plug it into a
mains power outlet, plug it into a telephone line (the Node B has its own ADSL
modem), turn it on, and walk way. If GPS was needed, the engineer would have to pipe
a connection to a window so that the GPS antenna could see the sky. Small Node Bs do
not incur the same neighborhood resentment as larger Node Bs (for one reason, they
do not look like base stations), and the site is sometimes provided for free by the landlord,
which is rarely the case for large outdoor sites.
Radio planning, as we will see later in this chapter, is also partly determined by the
product mix of Node Bs available from each vendor. Typically, power outputs will be
40 W, 20 W, 10 W, 5 W, or less. Although some planners would argue the case for
smaller numbers of larger, more powerful Node Bs, this goes against existing product
and installation trends, which clearly point toward the need to maintain a small form
factor (small volume/low weight). This in turn determines the choice of architecture
used in the Node B design.