July 3, 2023
DAS or Distributed Antenna System is an extensive network of spatially distinguishable antennas connected to a common signal source designed to enhance cellular capacity and coverage under a specific area.
These antennas are strategically designed throughout the coverage area, capturing, amplifying, and distributing wireless signals through carriers and technologies like 4G, 5G, and LTE. The main elements of the DAS include the signal source, donor antennas, remote antennas, and power and cooling systems. So, today we will look into Active DAS vs Passive DAS.
DAS is often deployed across different environments, including larger commercial buildings, stadiums, outdoor areas, and airports, offering a reliable and consistent wireless connection. Eliminating the dead spots and enhancing the signal strength, a DAS makes sure that the users enjoy seamless voice and data services irrespective of their locations in this coverage zone by eliminating the dead spots and enhancing the signal strength.
While wireless technology is continuing with its advancements and the demand for better connectivity is growing, DAS has become an extensively popular solution for the owners of the building, facility managers, and wireless carriers to enhance their network infrastructure that meets the ever-growing requirements of the users.
The post will explore the different types of DAS or distributed antenna systems with their applications highlighting the major benefits they offer to enhance wireless connectivity.
The main aim of the DAS or the Distributed Antenna System is to improve the wireless coverage with the capacity in the specific area that overcomes the challenges posed by the materials of the building, challenging layouts, and signal interference.
The DAS makes sure that the users would enjoy a reliable and consistent connection even in areas with traditionally have weak coverage by distributing wireless signals evenly throughout the entire coverage area.
The other aim of the DAS is to support several carriers and technologies. A single DAS would offer better coverage across varied wireless carriers and numerous wireless technologies like the 3G, 4G, 5G and LTE.
The approach of the carrier agnostic enables the facility managers and the building owners to cater to the diversified needs of the users and the tenants without investing in separate systems for every technology or carrier.
DAS can enhance public safety by offering reliable wireless coverage for emergency responders and supporting emergency communication systems like the E911 services and the public safety radio networks. The DAS plays a significant role in safeguarding property and lives by ensuring seamless communication during important solutions.
We will now explore the main types of Distributed Antenna Systems. Each of its kind comes with distinctive characteristics, pros, and cons based on the specific requirements of the available budget and the coverage area.
Active DAS, also termed a wired DAS, is a system that uses coaxial cables or fiber-optic for distributing the signals. In this setup, the central hub, often called the headend, acts as the control center for signal distribution and transmission.
The headend would receive signals from the base station while delivering them to the remote units throughout the coverage zone. These remote units would convert and amplify the signals for more distribution to the independent antennas.
Active DAS offers some great signal quality, low loss of signal, and better scalability, making it the best for large-scale deployment in the areas like airports, stadiums, and shopping malls.
Passive DAS systems, even considered hybrid DAS, employ a blend of the passive components and the coaxial cables like the couplers, splitters, and combiners for distributing the signals. Unlike active DAS, passive DAS does not need remote units or power sources at every antenna location.
It would even depend on the carrier's base station for the required signal strength. Passive DAS is mainly used across smaller venues or buildings where the coverage is required over a restricted area. It offers a cost-effective solution to enhance cellular connectivity without requiring additional infrastructure.
As indicated by its name, hybrid DAS mixes the active and passive DAS components to offer optimal capacity and coverage. It is the kind of DAS that enables better flexibility of the active DAS in terms of amplification, signal conversion, and distribution while incorporating the cost-effectiveness and simplicity of the passive DAS across a few specific areas.
Hybrid DAS is specifically beneficial across scenarios where several carriers have to share a common infrastructure or whenever they are in different areas in the venue with varied coverage requirements.
Outdoor DAS improves wireless coverage across outdoor environments like urban areas, campuses, or open spaces. It is the kind of DAS using a network of strategically placed antennas mounted on rooftops, poles, or other structures to extend the reach of every cellular signal.
The outdoor DAS often employs an active or hybrid DAS configuration due to the massive coverage areas, and there is a growing need for stronger signal distribution.
Indoor DAS aims to enhance wireless coverage and capacities in buildings. It ensures reliable cellular connection across the areas where the building structural interference or the materials weaken the signals.
Indoor DAS is often deployed as an active, passive, or hybrid system as it relies on the size of the building and the required coverage level. It generally uses antennas, fiber-optic cables, or coaxial and remote units strategically placed throughout the indoor spaces.
Implementing a DAS or Distributed Antenna System in the facility of the building offers numerous benefits over conventional wireless coverage solutions. It is the part exploring the perks of a DAS and highlighting the used cases where DAS makes a notable impact on enhancing the user experience and cellular connectivity.
One of the notable perks of the CELFI DAS is its ability to offer enhanced coverage and better signal strength. Conventional wireless networks often suffer from weaker signals or dead zones in a few specific areas causing communication difficulty and frustrating the users.
Active DAS systems mainly resolve this issue by extending its coverage while strengthening the signals by ensuring reliable and consistent wireless experience across a specific area. It is specifically beneficial across stadiums, larger buildings, shopping malls, and other densely populated zones when the penetration of the signals is challenging.
Network congestion has become a common issue with the proliferation of tablets, smartphones, and other wireless devices. CELFI DAS handles this issue by increasing the network capacity and optimizing the network performance. It can help alleviate network congestion, allowing more users to connect simultaneously without affecting the data speeds or signal quality.
It is important in high-density urban areas or office buildings where several users compete for restricted network resources.
The CELFI DAS can easily allow the handover and roaming capabilities, ensuring uninterrupted wireless connectivity while moving across the coverage area. The DAS system can help facilitate a smoother handover between the antennas, ensuring the connection stays seamless whenever the user transitions from one region to another, indoors or outdoors, or vice versa. It is important for continuous connectivity applications like video conferencing, voice calls, or real-time data streaming.
Implementing CELFI DAS is a cost-effective solution for organizations and businesses. Instead of depending on independent cellular towers or small-scale repeaters, DAS would leverage the centralized system of distributed antennas, reducing the requirement for extensive infrastructure investment.
Using the existing cabling infrastructure and consolidating the several antennas into a single system, CELFI DAS offers a cost-effective approach to enhance wireless connectivity making it an alluring option for businesses of different sizes.
CELFI DAS offers a future-proof solution adapting to evolving wireless technologies. While cellular networks continue evolving and new standards like the 5G emerge, they can get upgraded or expanded to accommodate such advancements.
The greater scalability will ensure that businesses stay ahead of this curve while meeting the rising demands of wireless connectivity. Investing in CELFI DAS can help businesses future-proofing their wireless infrastructure and avoid expensive overhauls or future upgrades.
During emergencies, reliable communication is of great importance. CELFI DAS can ensure that this important communication stays operational even during high-traffic situations or areas with restricted cellular coverage.
It is important for the emergency services like fire departments, police, and healthcare facilities where reliable communication becomes a matter of life and death. CELFI DAS aids in maintaining a strong and reliable communication network allowing timely response and better coordination in emergencies.
Indoor environments often pose serious threats to wireless connectivity due to difficulties like floors, walls, and ceilings. CELFI DAS would often address the issues by strategically deploying antennas in buildings, ensuring that the users have a consistent and strong reception of signals throughout the areas.
It is specifically advantageous for businesses, healthcare facilities, educational institutions, and public venues where dependable indoor connectivity is essential for daily operations, customer satisfaction, and communication.
The CELFI DAS enables the users to experience an enhanced quality of the call, rapid speeds of the data, and highly dependable connections that results in an improved user experience.
CELFI DAS would often optimize the wireless experience for people and businesses, whether it is like making clear voice calls, browsing the internet without interruptions, or streamlining high-definition videos. By offering a strong and seamless wireless network, CELFI DAS often contributes to higher customer satisfaction and boosts the reputation of organizations and businesses.
Across a few industries, regulatory requirements often mandate reliable wireless communication capabilities. For instance, healthcare facilities should meet strict rules to ensure the best connectivity for medical devices, emergency communications, and patient monitoring systems. CELFI DAS offers a robust solution complying with the regulatory needs and offers the required wireless infrastructure to meet the regulations and standards of the industry.
CELFI DAS is designed specifically to optimize the consumption of power and reduce the use of energy. Employing these wise power management tactics and advanced algorithms can ensure efficient operation while reducing energy consumption and environmental impact. The energy-efficient approach aligns with the sustainable goals while contributing to the more eco-friendly and greener wireless infrastructure.
While DAS is evolving to support the 5G networks, numerous main capabilities are becoming important for these systems offering reliable and seamless wireless connectivity. The following are a few included in them:
5G DAS should be able to support a massive range of frequency bands that includes both the mmWave and sub-6 GHz frequencies to ensure better compatibility with the diversity of spectrum allocations used by the varied wireless technologies and carriers.
5G networks will drive a significant increase in wireless traffic and demand for capacity, requiring DAS solutions to offer higher capacity and more dense antenna deployments to meet these needs.
5G networks will use advanced technologies like the Massive MIMO and beamforming that need more sophisticated DAS equipment signal processing abilities to optimize network efficiency and performance.
Network slicing is the main feature of the 5G networks allowing the creation of virtualized network instances streamlined for specific use cases and needs. 5G DAS solutions should support network slicing, enabling the building owners and facility managers to offer customized wireless services to all their users.
Incorporating these capabilities into the designs enables DAS solutions to effectively support the evolving needs of the 5G networks delivering the complete benefits of the next-gen wireless technology.
After the proper knowledge of the Active DAS vs. Passive DAS systems for your building, it is important to ensure that the system meets the distinctive needs of your commercial space, offering optimal performance. It involves evaluating the varied kind of DAS, like active, passive, or hybrid systems while considering the different factors like the building layout, size, and materials.
It is where the DAS systems engineer of our platform, Metro Wireless, can aid you as a value engineer, where a DAS system can cover your requirements. Get in touch with us to know more about how we can help you to evaluate your requirement for the DAS system while designing a bespoke system working to meet the code requirements of your building.
Tyler Hoffman
