Two companies, one trend?
Patented outdoor Distributed Anetanna (DAS) technology, combined with indoor coverage and millimeter microwave backhaul can create the IP RAN to drive deeper coverage and capacity within urban and campus areas, two separate companies have told Mobile Europe this week.
First off the block with its vision of IP based coverage for micro-cellular areas was ADC, the company that acquired LGC Wireless in December 2007 and is now going about the business of integrating that company’s DAS product line with its own wireless solutions.
ADC says it has the key patent for pure digital outdoor DAS, a technology that enables it to cover outdoor areas, and some very large indoor areas, in a way that until now has been reserved for more traditional in-building coverage.
The solution, combined with repeaters, pico-cellular coverage and (in time – ADC is a strategic investor in ip.access) femtocells, is aimed at the “gaps in coverage” such as urban canyons, large campuses, conference centres, sports stadia and so on.
Hilton Nicholson, ADC’s head of wireless technology, said, “ I believe that traction in that market is now happening – and we want to participate and lead that market.”
Nicholson pointed out that as more 3G cell sites are rolled out, and certainly as operators start looking at 4G, they won’t simply be able to map sites on top of existing 2G coverage. Capacity demands as well as higher frequency bands will mean cell sites shrink, creating gaps in coverage. Gaining approvals for sites will also get harder – meaning operators will need other solutions than adding more base stations.
Running distributed coverage from a “base station hotel”, backhauled either with microwave, existing fixed broadband access or fibre, is the answer, Nicholson said.
And it’s not all about cost for operators – providing coverage will give them the means to hoover up large multi national companies’ business, as well as other enterprise customers.
Also chasing the self-same market is CommScoe, also via a recent (rather larger) acquisition – that of Andrew. CommScope’s plan is to marry its existing enterprise customer base in the datacenter, IP convergence and cabling markets, with Andrew’s antenna and wireless solutions. Its tools are remarkably similar to ADCs, running the gamut of repeaters, distributed antenna and radiating cables, microwave backhaul and the coining of the IP RAN terminology.
Ted Halley, head of sales for the group, said that CommScope was targeting the opportunities the upgrade to 3G in European markets would bring. Not just in basid antenna sales but in providing workable indoor and macro-cellular coverage, and the creation of the IP RAN.
“There is a lot of interest in in-building wireless, and the merged CommScope and Andrew has the most powerful model in that area in that we have the complete solution to be very successful in the enterprise,” Halley said.
Microwave backhaul another one area Halley targeted as being a “pleasant surprise” recently – providing a big boost to revenues