Active antenna system supports DAS, macro and small cells

Ubidyne (Ulm, Germany) has announced that its advanced active antenna platform is now able to support what it calls "the first fully digital distributed antenna system (DAS) for extending mobile broadband coverage (LTE, UMTS) to indoor or outdoor data hot-spots. Based on its digital architecture, Ubidyne's new antenna system supports high-capacity, multiband, multi-standard and multi-operator installations for environments such as university campuses, airports, shopping malls, stadiums and offices as well as other dense urban indoor and outdoor deployments.

Up to 16 independent single-band to quad-band remote antennas can be strategically located and connected using any grade of fiber to a central hub (uBhub), based up to 10km away. Multiple hubs can be cascaded for coverage solutions in large buildings such as football stadiums or convention centers, for example.

See also:Q&A with a DAS expert

With full digital control of each transceiver/radiator, a single Ubidyne DAS solution can be used by different wireless carriers in the same location to meet specific coverage and capacity needs, says the company. Other benefits include rapid trouble shooting for reduced maintenance costs, self-calibration and easy health checks.

Ubidyne’s digital architecture also supports the combination of different radio solutions. For example, for indoor/campus locations, the DAS system can be connected with a high capacity small cell, also based on Ubidyne’s platform architecture. Finally, the digital architecture enables future-proofed cooperative antenna solutions with distributed MIMO for high capacity hot-spots.

“80% of all wireless traffic happens indoors but existing DAS solutions reach their capacity limitations and face operational challenges because of analogue distribution of the RF signal,” said Michael Fränkle, CEO at Ubidyne. “With the Ubidyne digital DAS platform, system and antenna vendors can now upgrade their solutions to meet growing capacity demands. Already, countries such as the US, Korea and Japan and some European regions where LTE is being deployed and where mobile broadband traffic is growing exponentially, are running out of capacity in hot-spots.”

“A majority of operators are using distributed antennas in their mobile networks for coverage, and despite all the talk about using small cells to boost capacity in large venues, operators we interviewed believe DAS will remain a fundamental tool for malls, airports, stadiums and the like,” asserts Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research, author of a recent survey which found that 80% of respondent operators currently use DAS in their cellular networks for coverage optimization.

“According to leading research companies, the market for active antenna solutions is expected to grow to over $2bn by 2016, and 26% of this is expected to be from distributed antenna systems,” adds Ubidyne's CEO Fränkle. “A major benefit of the Ubidyne platform is that it can be integrated and scaled to a multitude of applications from distributed antenna systems to small cells and macro cells to provide economies of scale and flexibility."

Visit Ubidyne.