LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES SOFTWARE IMPROVES CAPACITY AND COVERAGE OF WIRELESS NETS.

Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU) has developed a software system that increases the capacity and coverage of wireless networks, which can dramatically reduce dropped or blocked calls. The OCELOT software system, offered as part of Lucent-built networks, also allows service providers to install their networks more quickly and to continually optimize them as they evolve.

Currently, deploying a wireless network is a painstaking process. Radio engineers with test gear drive around the intended coverage area, identifying spots where customers may have trouble making calls. Other engineers then make adjustments to base-station antennas for better coverage. However, because one adjustment can affect the performance of the entire network, engineers routinely take weeks to complete initial drive tests, and they continue the testing after a network enters service.

"The OCELOT software virtually eliminates the need for drive tests because it allows service providers to deploy networks in their optimized state," said Paul Mankiewich, vice president of wireless advanced technologies for Lucent's Wireless Networks Group. "This will allow a quicker migration to the next generation of wireless networks, which will bring the mobile Internet and a whole new range of personalized services to consumers."

The OCELOT software creates a mathematical model of a wireless network using such input as road maps and base-station locations. The software analyzes how each antenna should be pointed, tilted and powered to operate the network at maximum capacity, maximum coverage, or any desired tradeoff between capacity and coverage. This optimization can be done for voice, data, or a mix of voice and data services.

A multidisciplinary team of Bell Labs scientists and engineers brought the OCELOT software from the labs to the field in less than a year. The software has been used in several U.S. and international markets for second-generation wireless networks, and it will support all digital cellular standards, including UMTS and 3G-1X (cdma2000), as well as IS-95 CDMA, GSM, and TDMA.

Currently, some system settings recommended by the OCELOT software can be adjusted remotely, but antenna tilt and orientation have to be changed manually. Bell Labs engineers have developed self-adjusting antennas, which would -- when used with the OCELOT optimization tool enable wireless networks to reconfigure themselves in real time. Such a system could increase calling capacity along major highways during rush hour traffic or handle unforeseen changes in wireless network traffic patterns.

Bell Labs is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. One of the most innovative R&D entities in the world, Bell Labs has generated more than 27,000 patents since 1925. It has played a pivotal role in inventing or perfecting key communications technologies for most of the 20th century, including transistors, digital networking and signal processing, lasers and fiber-optic communications systems, communications satellites, cellular telephony, electronic switching of calls, touch-tone dialing, and modems.

Today, Bell Labs continues to draw some of the best scientific minds. With more than 27,000 employees located in 29 countries, it is the largest R&D organization in the world dedicated to communications and the world's leading source of new communications technologies.

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, designs and delivers the systems, software, silicon and services for next-generation communications networks for service providers and enterprises. Backed by the research and development of Bell Labs, Lucent focuses on high-growth areas such as broadband and mobile Internet infrastructure; communications software; communications semiconductors and optoelectronics; Web-based enterprise solutions that link private and public networks; and professional network design and consulting services.