Understanding The Working Of The Cellular DAS

By Edna Booker


The Distributed Antenna System (DAS) is the technology that is used to boost network coverage in areas where there is either no coverage or areas with weak coverage. In order to achieve this, the technology relies on a clustered installation of antennas for boosting the cellular network. The system is common in large facilities, underground transport systems, and in the areas with large gathering that leads to a high demand that overwhelms the available network coverage. As such, you are likely to find the cellular DAS in airports, sport arenas, large hospitals, and town city centers like Raleigh city among others.

Basically, the DAS system is able to increase the signal reliability with far much less power consumption. This is achieved by installing a network of separate antenna nodes. All the nodes are then connected to a common source via a coaxial cable or a fiber cable. In this way, the power gets transmitted to several antenna elements which results to the reduced power consumption with increased network signal.

The DAS systems are either active or passive. In the active systems, the signal is passed from the roof antennas through the fiber cables and the signals are boosted and amplified through the way. The passive systems on the other hands grab the cellular signals from the roof antennas and then run them through some leaky feeder cables that are located throughout the building.

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.

In any DAS project, the deployment stage is the most expensive. This is mainly due to the labor intensive process of antenna installation and stinging the coaxial cable or the fiber optic in between the antenna modules and the controller.

In the carrier-owned DAS, it is the job of the wireless service provider to pay for the equipment cost, the installation cost, and the cost of maintenance and upgrade. The DAS installer on the other hands has the exclusivity on it, and the competitors can only use it at a fee. However, it may also be installed by a third party that is neutral to all the players. In this case, the entity bears the costs and recoups it by charging the service providers that have the system access.

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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