Whether it's an office building, an airport, a shopping mall or a stadium, wireless networking has become a basic requirement for employees, customers and tenants. In the enterprise, the Portable Personal Equipment (BYOD) policy, which is designed to improve mobility and employee productivity, poses a huge challenge for IT departments to respond to highly available data access capabilities.

There are more and more people using smartphones and tablets today. However, only about 2% of the 30 billion square meters of commercial properties in the world can provide in-building mobile wireless network systems. There is a gap between the continuous increase in the usage of mobile devices in the building and the coverage capability of indoor mobile networks, resulting in weak signals or signal blocking areas and dead zones with no connection signals. Poor wireless network connections reduce the productivity of employees carrying personal mobile devices, so building owners and businesses must consider the quality of indoor network coverage within the building.

Wireless solution

There are a variety of wireless solutions available to improve connectivity: Carrier-managed small cells – low-power wireless access points (WAPs) operating in licensed spectrum for a wide range of applications, from stand-alone femto and pico for small office buildings Cellular, to small cellular clusters for large buildings, hotels, shopping centers and campuses. Small cell solutions that enable in-building coverage within the licensed cellular band include distributed antenna systems (DAS) and distributed radios. Small cell clusters are typically used to enhance the capacity and coverage of traditional macrocell sites, manage high-density traffic, and share the traffic of macrocells.

These solutions have their own advantages and disadvantages, but the lack of support for multi-operators, multi-band and multi-technology still exists. Small cell technology is still evolving; dual-band, dual-technology and dual carriers are waiting to be developed.

The future of distributed antenna systems

The active distributed antenna system will have a place in the future. The system provides wireless network connectivity for multi-operators, multi-band and multi-technology, and is expected to achieve greater coverage and capacity in large and small buildings. Significant features of distributed antenna system technology include flexible routing, scalability, and easy headend upgrades.

Active distributed antenna system solutions can be deployed by the enterprise, unlike passive distributed antenna systems that transmit radio frequency (RF) signals from base stations or repeaters using coaxial cables, transmitting signals over long distances over standard Cat6A copper cables to remote locations. Before the access site and antenna, the active distributed antenna system uses single-mode or multi-mode fiber optic cables for long-distance transmission of RF signals. Low-power distributed antenna systems with fiber optic cables increase capacity for complex indoor buildings, while high-power distributed antenna systems that also use fiber optics are suitable for large buildings such as shopping centers or high-rise buildings that require precise coverage.

Even so, distributed antenna system solutions are still considered an expensive solution for high-end projects. The main issues include cost, ease of installation, and deployment time. Because of this, IFLY designed indoor and outdoor antennas to simplify installation and ease of deployment. These antennas can be deployed effectively in areas such as high-rise office buildings that are difficult to cover the network, as they are in parking lots, stadiums, airports, and shopping centers. CommScope's distributed antenna system solution features a multi-band design that supports a wide frequency range and enhances wireless network coverage in high-traffic areas by adding hardware and accessories.

In an indoor environment, distributed antenna systems are evolving into a unified wireless infrastructure that is designed around an IT-based structured cabling architecture; it is easy for wireless network operators and enterprise or building owners to install and deploy; flexible and scalable It is simple enough to meet the needs of rapidly increasing indoor coverage and capacity. Ultimately, the goal of all this is to ensure ubiquitous cellular coverage through distributed antenna systems. In this way, building owners and businesses can solve the problem of poor network coverage and ensure that employees who need to stay online at all times can increase productivity regardless of the equipment used.