Densification in mobile networks and the potential evolution paths of the base station

The base station (BS) is the element of a mobile network that connects a number of user equipments (UEs) from various vendors to a mobile network via a wireless interface. The network behind the base station was consistently a subject of many evolutionary steps. In recent system concepts like LTE and LTE-Advanced the network architecture had been required to be flat. Densification of the networks by a small cell underlay network, by picos, relays and femto may change the role of the macro base station. Depending on the evolution of small cell deployments, the function split between these nodes can imply functional enhancements like a control function for subnetworks. The paper discusses the potential implications and the possible architecture evolution with a base stations acting as a new central control element for various kind of sub-networks.