Next Generation Wireless Optical Enterprise Convergence in Healthcare

The proliferation of wireless devices via BYOD (Bring your own device) and other wireless solutions is driving demand beyond the current network and spectrum capacity. Over the past decade many healthcare facilities have completed two to three DAS (Distributed Antenna Systems),upgrades (some forklift), because the traditional coaxial based architecture simply lacked flexibility and the overall bandwidth to accommodate the fast evolving wireless requirements. So in hindsight the thought process and premise for separating the coaxial based DAS from the WLAN Ethernet has it seems to have made financial and technical sense. For an example when a combined DAS with the WLAN was engineered and designed for 802.11b/g for say data; it then had to be redesigned for wireless voice over IP; then if 802.11a was considered, additional re-design had to be provided for amplification. Finally, another major total re-design if ever needed to have to happen for any type of support for MIMO. So at the end of the day, it just probably is lot less headache and expense to keep every separate. However the move in 2013 and forward is toward a complete converged optical infrastructure. This provides unlimited bandwidth due to the use of fiber, pre-connectorized fiber designs ease deployment; and composite media can deliver power and unlimited bandwidth which means you never do you have to replace cabling infrastructure. Now for the first time an ability to enable Gigabit Ethernet support can become a reality by unifying WiFI and cellular over a single optical media to enable Ethernet backhaul and POE. Stay tuned