The current design of DAS systems via what we know of fiber based coaxial infrastructure simply will not be able to meet the network capacity and flexibility demands of LTE that are coming our way…very fast. Really when you look at all the companies in this space is really hard for a non-technical person to say, “what is what”? Then again, you had some unique start ups that wanted to show more valuation (since over the past five years there was none), to market like crazy about combining WLAN and every WLAN enabled medical device known to man on a DAS. As you can see from previous blogs, this simply is not the future. I have in the past and current promoted SOLiD and will continue to do so, because they are doing the best job out in the enterprise space. Within the current laws E=Mc2 or the laws of physics you can only do so much with the current DAS designs. SOLiD has tended to improve current architecture by providing fiber saving wave division multiplexing, surface acoutstic wave (SAW) filtering and easy to under SNMP DAS management. These small but noteworthy advances go a long way to improving the performance a DAS in any environment. All the major DAS companies are looking to try to figure out the next generation of creating more small cell networks called heterogenous networks”, or het-net. Imagine a fluid network whereby one network will extend from core provider to the base station to the outdoor DAS to the indoor DAS to the femtocell with seamless handoffs. This simply allows capacity and design to be built into the system to meet the needs of LTE where additional tower footprint is not allowed. DWDM-PON (digital wavelength division multiplexed optical network) will take hold in the marketplace delivery data speeds at 16 to 32 Gbps thus driving down the costs and increasing capacity.
The next generation (DAS) Distributed Antenna Systems will be more a revolution versus an evolution. The next generation will have
a. Much more efficient spectrum utilization through dynamcic capacity routing
b. Throughput will be available to support gigabit edge devices
c. A shared network will be available to support GBe, SONET, and CPRI networks.
d. Radiofrequency performance will be improved by reducing the noise and controlling overall system delay.
e. Real time management i.e. SNMP and real time management of quality of service service will be provided.
