Repeater Products

Repeaters, or wireless relay stations as termed by ETSI, allow the coverage and / or range of a base station to be extended, without the need to install additional wired base stations.  Deployment of repeaters can also allow traffic in high usage areas to be ported across to bases stations, allowing a flexing of capacity.  The technology is reasonably straight forward but sales volumes are small compared to the mass markets for cordless telephones.  Thus, at the start of 1999, these products are primarily being supplied by small players who have chosen to focus on these as niche markets, rather than by the major players. 

Two types of DECT repeater have been standardised by ETSI:

* The REP - Repeater Part - this requires a change in the frame structure in the base station.  It results in minimum audio delay but degrades overall system capacity

* The CRFP - Cordless Radio Fixed Part - with this implementation the frame structure in the handset and basestation remain unchanged.   It results in additional audio delay and requires special handling of encryption, but has good system traffic capacity. 

Dancall
Cordless repeater equipped with a special directional aerial. The repeater relays signals between the handset and base station and can double the range of the system.

Kirk Telecom A/S
Kirk Telecom are one of the few manufacturer to be actively promoting a range extender product. 
The repeater is GAP compliant and thus can be used with any manufacturers' DECT GAP telephones.  The product is specifically applicable to use in a business multicell environment, where it can provide improved coverage in black spots as well as flexing traffic capacity in high usage hot spots.

RTX Telecom A/S
Company website
RTX 4001 Early Product - now superceded by the RTX 4002:
The  4001 was a GAP compatible DECT repeater , following the ETSI Wireless Relay Station Specification prETS 300 700, GAP (TBR22), and CTR6 and thus suitable for operation with a range of manufacturers' DECT phones.  The design was based around the LMX3161 RF IC and the SC14402 Burst Mode controller, to provide a CRFP repeater implementation.  Supported 2 simultaneous connections, leaving further timeslots available for handover, with internal or directional antennas

Picture - More details on our News Page

Versions for the South American and Chinese frequency bands are available; a 2.4 GHz band version (presumably to support the WDCT products in North America) is rumoured to also be available, although we are awaiting confirmation of this from RTX.

Siemens
As a major in the DECT market, Siemens is supplying GAP compliant repeaters as part of its comprehensive  Gigaset equipment range.
Full information on the Gigaset repeater
See photo of the Gigaset repeater
Very easy to install -  'Plug & Play' - plug into the mains and register by pressing the paging button.
Up to six Gigaset Repeaters can be registered to a basestation and linked to an overall cordless system.

Smart Telecom Solutions BV
[Ed - this product no longer appears on the STS website - do any of our visitors know if the company is still supporting DECT ?  If so, please advise]
DPR - Digital Personal Repeater
Available as a module, the DPR is suitable for low data rate point- to-point connections. By implementing the GAP protocol, the DPR can operate with existing DECT installations, using the existing DECT infrastructure.

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