Despite the rise of femtocells and Wi-Fi to boost indoor wireless coverage, an older approach, DAS (Distributed Antenna System), is still popular with some operators, especially in the US. Mindspeed, whose Picochip unit was the pioneer of femtocell silicon, is embracing the enemy by incorporating DAS support into its small cell system-on-chip range.
The new offering allows equipment makers to create hybrid systems, which would typically see small indoor base stations feeding DAS systems, extending the capabilities of the small cells in large indoor locations such as shopping malls and airports.
The combination of technologies allows network planners to meet data capacity with collections of low cost, locally targeted small cells, and then to extend their coverage to all areas of large sites via the smart DAS. Signals would be ‘piped’ over coax cables to reach even the most difficult corners.
Mindspeed’s PC333 and PC3032 small cell SoCs have added DAS support to handle the delay characteristics of the long coax links as well as the specific antenna technology of DAS. The chip provider says they are the only small cell SoCs to support the 3GPP’s Local Area Base Station (LABS) performance and soft handover standards, important in areas which may be served by multiple antenna systems such as DAS.
‘Just as people have found with Wi-Fi, small cells and DAS should be seen as complementary technologies rather than competitive,’ said wireless CTO Doug Pulley. ‘Many retail complexes and offices have DAS systems installed which enable capacity upgrades and a migration path to 4G.’