Tuesday 30 June 2015

The Working Of The Cellular DAS And Its Benefits

By Edna Booker


In order to deal with the isolated spots that have poor network coverage inside a large building, a network of small antennas are usually installed in the building to serve as repeaters. This is known as the distributed antenna system (cellular DAS). The technology is very important in the areas that have a weak coverage or no coverage, such as the underground transportation system, and college campuses. It also offers a suitable solution in places with large gathering where the existing network coverage is overwhelmed by the demand such as in the sport gatherings, airports, and hospitals among others that are common in the Raleigh city.

In order to increase the signal reliability while reducing the total power required doing so, the DAS installation is made of a network consisting of several antenna nodes that are separately installed. The nodes are then connected to a single common source using fiber or a coaxial cable. This means that power is transmitted among several antenna elements which in turn reduces the power consumption and increases the network signal reliability.

The additional antennas mean better network coverage. The additional antennas are able to increase the line-of-sight channel that is responsible for a better network coverage. In normal systems, the provision of the cellular signals can be very power consuming since the system has to overcome the shadowing effect and penetration problems all which lead to the loss of signal.

The DAS on the other hands relies on the active-repeater amplifiers and the passive splitters as the means of feeder configurations. As a result, the efficiency is highly increased while the power consumption is reduced.

Since the installation is quite expensive, the industry is an option for the long contract terms. The most common of these is the ten year contract that is quickly becoming the industry standard.

In most cases, the cost of the equipment, installation cost, maintenance cost, and upgrading of the system are all borne by the carrier. This means that a carrier is likely to accept to bear the cost if the deployment fits within its network plan and is able to cover a large number of the subscribers. In most cases, the DAS system is shared with multiple carriers to keep the cost down.

However, in the case of a carrier-owned DAS, the wireless service provider is the one to pay for the cost of equipment, the equipment installation cost, and the maintenance and upgrade of the same. The installer, in this case, has the exclusive rights on the system. As such, the competitors have to pay the installer to use it. In some cases, the installation is done by a third party entity that bears all the costs and recoups the cost by charging the service providers in order to get the system access.

The technology comes with the main advantage of less power consumption in network boosting. It is also associated with ease of zoning and antenna placement, reduced site development planning, and reduced number of the BTS (Simulcast reduces Backhaul needs).




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