DAS

Introduction: The smartphone revolution spanning in first two decades of 21st century has changed the way subscribers consume data on mobile devices. The very definition of mobile device has expanded to include tablets, wearables and other connected accessories including machine to machine. With Internet of Things (IoT) being major growth area for data demand, the coverage and capacity requirements of wireless networks will grow for foreseeable future.

Introduction: RF networks have evolved from tower-top and roof-top macro sites to a combination of macro, iDAS/oDAS (indoor/outdoor Distributed Antenna Systems), small cell and hetnets. The prime motivation for this network evolution is for the improvement in network quality demanded by subscribers. The propagation tools used for the initial design of these networks is typically inadequate in modelling and adapting to the evolving networks types deployed.

DAS systems are an effective way of adding coverage and capacity and have become an integral part of a wireless network to provide an effective solution in challenging RF environment. DAS solution deployed in various environments requires Optimization of the network in order to meet network performance requirements and excellent customer experience.

Coverage & Capacity: First consideration for a DAS design is type of venue/building that is the target of DAS deployment. A stadium will have a different requirements & challenges than a high-rise building in terms of number of sectors, coverage & capacity targets. An indoor arena would have to account for different event types to handle variably capacity compared to an airport. These different requirements will be key factor in determining DAS OEM, sectorization, Macro Interaction and DAS Handover zones.

Proper macro cell reduction brings numerous values in terms of engineering quality and cost savings for Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) design, deployment and performance. Engineering teams need to focus on macro cells interference mitigation to any iDAS, oDAS or small cells network during the initial design. Macro cells often were designed to provide the coverage at the venues with new DAS. In order for the new solution to effectively offload traffic and provide the network quality it needs to be on average 7-10dB stronger.