Potential Architecture for Future Generation `Green' Wireless Base Station

Current radio frequency power amplifiers (PAs) in 3G base stations have very high power consumption leading to a hefty cost and negative environmental impact. In this paper, we propose a potential architecture design for future wireless base station. Issues associated with components of the architecture are investigated. A comparison of PA with pulse width modulation drive and PA with envelope elimination and restoration (EER) drive is offered. EER-driven PA promises high efficiency over a wide dynamic range but has bandwidth expansion problems. A novel approach which reduces bandwidth expansion on the envelope by 54% is proposed. A modulator is used to convert amplitude and phase information into the edges of a pulse train. The modulator also eradicates some analog components present in traditional base station design.