Base Transceiver Station

A base transceiver station (BTS) is a piece of equipment that facilitates wireless communication between user equipment (UE) and a network. UEs are devices like mobile phones (handsets), WLL phones, computers with wireless internet connectivity, WiFi and WiMAX devices and others. The network can be that of any of the wireless communication technologies like GSM, CDMA, Wireless local loop, WAN, WiFi, WiMAX, etc.

BTS is also referred to as the radio base station (RBS), node B (in 3G Networks) or, simply, the base station (BS). For discussion of the LTE standard the abbreviation eNB for evolved node B is widely used.

Though the term BTS can be applicable to any of the wireless communication standards, it is generally associated with mobile communication technologies like GSM and CDMA. In this regard, a BTS forms part of the base station subsystem (BSS) developments for system management. It may also have equipment for encrypting and decrypting communications, spectrum filtering tools (band pass filters), etc. antennas may also be considered as components of BTS in general sense as they facilitate the functioning of BTS. Typically a BTS will have several transceivers (TRXs) which allow it to serve several different frequencies and different sectors of the cell (in the case of sectorised base stations). A BTS is controlled by a parent base station controller via the base station control function (BCF). The BCF is implemented as a discrete unit or even incorporated in a TRX in compact base stations. The BCF provides an operations and maintenance (O&M) connection to the network management system (NMS), and manages operational states of each TRX, as well as software handling and alarm collection. The basic structure and functions of the BTS remains the same regardless of the wireless technologies.