As smart phones and other portable devices increasingly become ubiquitous, and data usage increases, macrocell base station devices and existing wireless infrastructure in turn require higher bandwidth capability in order to address the increased demand. To provide additional mobile bandwidth, small cell deployment is being pursued, with microcells and picocells providing coverage for much smaller areas than traditional macrocells.
Additionally, demand for higher bandwidth internet services delivered to residences and commercial establishments continues to grow. Typically, such services have asymmetric bandwidths for uplink and downlink communications, the downlink communications, for example, being faster than uplink communications. This has been an accepted practice due to the demand for data downloads (e.g., streaming video) exceeding demand for data uploads.