THE PLETHORA OF NEW mobile devices and data-rich applications has forced mobile operators to consider new ways to create capacity and ensure the quality of their wireless signals. According to new research from In-Stat, distributed antenna systems (DAS) can bridge several key areas in cellular coverage.
DAS represents a versatile indoor/outdoor approach for mobile transport by routing radio frequency signals through fibre or copper cabling from a single base station to multiple antennas located throughout a building or through antenna nodes.
In the report Distributed Antenna Systems Worldwide—DAS to Fill In Gaps, In-Stat found that 15,000 new nodes were deployed in metro area outdoor DAS in 2010, and predicts that total global revenue from DAS will surpass 13 billion in 2015.
“Femto-, pico-, micro-, and macrocells all augment cellular services and each provides a specific solution for a specific application”, said analyst Chris Kissel, in a press release. “However, for each nodeB, latencies must be accounted for, and each nodeB requires its own backhaul. Wi-Fi alleviates capacity issues on cellular networks and provides terrific data rates, although there are limitations with interoperability and there are distance limitations. At this point, DAS becomes an unconventional, but practical answer where multiple airlinks need to be supported.”
The research also forecasts:
– By 2012, the value for all DAS projects in North America, with the exception of metro area outdoor DAS, will near $2 billion;
– In the Caribbean and Latin America regions, DAS revenue will increase 20% or more over the forecast period;
– By 2015, hospitals and healthcare will represent almost half of the DAS revenue opportunities for indoor deployments in Western Europe; and
– In Eastern Europe, the build-up for DAS starts modestly, but will eventually grow to 3,897 new deployments in 2015.
