Distributed Antenna System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 1 of 2

Distributed Antenna System

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As defined by PCIA - the Wireless Infrastructure Association, and

its DAS Forum, A Distributed Antenna System, or DAS, is a
network of spatially separated antenna nodes connected to a
common source via a transport medium that provides wireless
service within a geographic area or structure. DAS antenna
elevations are generally at or below the clutter level and node
installations are compact.

Contents DAS diagram

■ 1 Concept
■ 2 Use in Wifi Networks
■ 3 Regulatory Challenges
■ 4 References

Concept
As illustrated in the figure, the idea is to split the transmitted
power among several antenna elements, separated in space so as
to provide coverage over the same area as a single antenna but
with reduced total power and improved reliability. A single
antenna radiating at high power (a) is replaced by a group of low-
power antennas to cover the same area (b). The idea was
described in a paper by Saleh et al.[1] in 1987. These antennas
have recently been employed by several service providers in many
areas around the United States.

The idea works because less power is wasted in overcoming

penetration and shadowing losses, and because a line-of-sight A typical DAS node for the
channel is present more frequently, leading to reduced fade depths Videotron 3G network in Montreal,
and reduced delay spread. Quebec

A distributed antenna system can be implemented using passive

splitters and feeders, or active repeater amplifiers can be included to overcome the feeder losses. In
systems where equalization is applied, it may be desirable to introduce delays between the antenna
elements. This artificially increases delay spread in areas of overlapped coverage, permitting quality
improvements via time diversity.

If a given area is covered by many distributed antenna elements rather than a single antenna, then the
total radiated power is reduced by approximately a factor N1–n/2 and the power per antenna is reduced by
a factor Nn/2 where a simple power law path loss model with path loss exponent n is assumed. As an

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Distributed Antenna System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Page 2 of 2

alternative, the total area covered could be extended for a given limit of effective radiated power, which
may be important to ensure compliance with safety limits on radiation into the human body.

Use in Wifi Networks

Using a distributed antenna system to create an area of wireless coverage, it is possible to use this
technique to propagate indoor WiFi for commercial uses. It is estimated that only about 5% of
commercial WiFi use a distributed antenna system.[2]

Regulatory Challenges
There are several regulatory challenges that arise out of DAS deployments. DAS is used in scenarios
where alternate technologies are infeasible due to - terrain, zoning challenges for cell towers, infeasible
cell tower placements, etc. Regulatory challenges arise at the federal, state and municipal levels. Recent
academic works address this. [3] Other industry resources like The DAS Forum also address regulatory
issues in their conferences. More details can be found on their website. [4]

References
1. ^ A. A. M. Saleh, A. J. Rustako and R. S. Roman, Distributed Antennas for Indoor Radio Communications
(http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=1096716) , IEEE Transactions on Commun., vol. 35,
pp. 1245-1251, Dec. 1987
2. ^ Estimate made by LComm Global http://lcommglobal.com/Distrubuted_Antenna.php
3. ^ Establishing a Regulatory Framework for Distributed Antenna Systems Available at SSRN:
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1161209
4. ^ http://TheDASForum.org
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Categories: Data transmission

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