CREATING A RF PREDICTABLE ENVIRONMENT

Situation

Living in an increasingly connected and wireless world, everyone expects to have 100% access to the internet and other communications via their mobile devices.  The moment one needs to make a call, make a purchase, or get directions, and the coverage is weak or completely non-existent, it becomes a major inconvenience.  But it is not always about business or personal inconvenience.  Rather many times, life-safety can be at risk, and first-responders and witnesses to events need to be able to communicate clearly and efficiently in a crisis.

The in-building wireless (IBW) and distributed antenna systems (DAS) industries have evolved over the last decade or so, to ensure communications are consistent throughout a facility, whether it was below-grade parking garages, ‘dead-spots’ in certain areas of an office, or an entertainment venue hosting tens of thousands of visitors for a few hours.  But even as these systems have been improved and refined, they are now colliding with competing neighboring systems, public-access systems, wireless building controls, IoT/IoE, and soon, 5G.  Thus, our wireless ecosystem is getting more crowded and dense, thus posing further risk to efficiency loss, interference, and of course, security breaches.