High Bandwidth DAS Enables Network Convergence in the Medical and Hospitality Verticals

Transcription

1 High Bandwidth DAS Enables Network Convergence in the Medical and Hospitality Verticals August 2014 ABSTRACT More and more wireless cellular customers depend on the mobility of their devices wherever they go and recent growth data confirm the increasing demand for a wide variety of wireless technologies in the indoor space today, especially for distributed antenna systems (DAS). Venue owners and wireless carriers wishing to provide a satisfying wireless user experience to consumers in verticals such as healthcare facilities, hospitals, resorts, and hotels realize the importance and need for low, mid, or high-power DAS with design requirements that allow them to carry a wide range of cellular and radio frequencies and technologies. One of the key trends in today s healthcare and hospitality environments is network convergence, which can accommodate any service protocol and modulation scheme and which is future-proof, all of which contributes to a significant reduction in TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). The purpose of this whitepaper is to examine present and future wireless technology requirements for DAS and examine their true bandwidth demands in verticals such as healthcare and hospitality. Furthermore, the whitepaper also discusses some highly innovative and impactful wireless applications that would be needed to satisfy the wireless needs for staff, hotel guests, patients, etc., in diverse infrastructure deployments. Table of Contents ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION DAS OVERVIEW HEALTHCARE/MEDICAL FACILITIES HOSPITALITY/RESORTS APPLICATIONS First Responder Wi-Fi and Carrier Wi-Fi Location-based Services, Building Automation and Other Applications BENEFITS OF NETWORK CONVERGENCE SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

2 The results of this research can be used to predict the growth and evolution of DAS in specific industry verticals and to build cost-effective and integrated end-to-end DAS solutions with highly functional features that would enable enhanced coverage and capacity. INTRODUCTION A DAS is a network of spatially separate antennas connected to a common source or remote via a transport medium, such as coaxial or fiber-optic cable to provide wireless coverage and capacity within a building structure. Traditional in-building DAS were deployed for coverage so that cellular signals could be efficiently transmitted to subscribers indoors for voice. Now, with the evolution of cellular access technologies to 3G and 4G, carriers and building owners are discovering that DAS must also provide voice and data capacity, as well as coverage. 2

3 (Petabytes) Chart 1: Worldwide Mobile Network Data Traffic by Technology Generation (Source: ABI Research) 200, , , , , ,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20, G Grows 25X 4G 3G 2G In the chart above, ABI Research forecasts mobile network traffic by access technology and it clearly shows that 4G mobile systems growth outpaces that of 2G and 3G, growing by 25X, according to ABI Research s estimates. Also, note that 2G and 3G technologies do not become obsolete in the near term and that carriers will continue to support these technologies throughout the forecast period. 3

4 (Petabytes) Chart 2: Worldwide Mobile Network Data Traffic by Type (Source: ABI Research) 200, , , , , ,000 Video Grows 13X Video Streaming / TV Web / Internet Audio Streaming P2P VoIP 80,000 60,000 40,000 20, In addition, the advent of LTE and its higher data rates when compared to 3G and 2G actually compounds this traffic growth challenge, as subscribers and users take advantage of increased bandwidth for new applications. One of the fastest growing traffic types is video traffic and, as shown in the chart above, video traffic will grow by 13X by Total mobile traffic grew 76% in 2013, reaching almost 23 Exabytes (EB) up from 13 EB in 2012 and mobile video traffic will grow to exceed 50% of total mobile traffic for the first time during This picture does not change significantly for North America, for which ABI Research forecasts a 4G traffic growth of 15X and video traffic growth of 11X. The exception for North America is that traffic on 2G networks remains negligible, with 4G traffic bypassing 3G traffic by the end of

5 This enormous growth in traffic stresses networks and drives densification efforts, as operators strive to meet the demand. Densification replaces macro cells in high traffic areas with multiple smaller cells, and by reducing the range of each cell, the carrier can support more users for a given unit area with fewer dropped calls and higher data speeds when compared to a single macro cell deployment. Densification comes in many forms, ranging from traditional macro sectorization and improvements, to full-blown Heterogeneous Networks or HetNets, which use multiple radio access technologies, architectures, and base stations of varying power all working in concert with the mobile network core to deliver high quality coverage and capacity. HetNet architectures include licensed small cells, Carrier Wi-Fi, and DAS. In-building situations, which are widely acknowledged by the Small Cell Forum and others, to represent the vast majority of mobile traffic, must account for these trends and accommodate future growth. Mobile networks must also respond to the nature of video traffic, which is low latency high bandwidth in comparison to other traffic types. In addition, traffic patterns are not constant, since bandwidth demand shifts according to the time of day and location, with more traffic generated during working hours in urban areas when compared to suburban areas. In the evenings, this traffic shifts to suburban or residential locations. The same is true in verticals such as hospitals with bandwidth demand peaking during the day or when the facility is responding to an emergency, while hotels and resorts may see a drop in traffic during the day. The in-building wireless system must be flexible enough to cater for this tidal ebb and flow of traffic. 5

6 Figure 1: Small Cell Categories (Source: ABI Research) In the figure above, ABI Research includes the traditional Wi-Fi and DAS solutions, alongside the emerging femto/pico/metro cells used for in-building wireless and venue coverage and compares them to carrier macrocells, which when relied on for in-building wireless coverage, must, by necessity, operate on an outside-in basis. Microcells are capable of handling hundreds of simultaneous users at a relatively high power level and are mounted fairly high up on rooftops. However, they still remain a relatively expensive solution for many deployment scenarios. DAS also handle hundreds of users at a cost, but with a big advantage of neutral host operation over traditional femto, pico, and metro cells. The neutral host capability is a shared-infrastructure operating model fully funded and operated by independent third parties or DAS aggregators for providing coverage and capacity that does not depend 6

7 on the carrier, i.e., multiple carriers can be accommodated on an equal basis by the DAS. Neutral host is typically viewed as a requirement for bring your own device (BYOD) operation for guests and staff. Pico and metro cells are deployed for capacity at a lower price point than DAS or micro small cells. However, until now, they have had no neutral host feature, which may turn out to be a problem in some enterprise or venue deployments for BYOD situations. Small cells can be a low-cost way of adding capacity, but need power, backhaul, and siting issues to be worked out for effective deployment. Femtocells are deployed by the user (all other types are deployed by the carriers) and, along with Wi-Fi, are among the least expensive types of small cell. The femtocell subscriber supplies the power and backhaul to the femtocell and therefore offers capacity to the carrier via the subscriber s own wired broadband connection. In most cases, the subscriber must register the phone numbers, which are allowed access to the carrier s network via the femtocell to form a closed subscriber group. Wi-Fi is also low-cost and has been traditionally dismissed by carriers because it has a relatively short range and operates in unlicensed spectrum, which is subject to interference. However, the recent standards advancements from IEEE n to IEEE802.11ac Wave1 and Wave2 actually compare favorably to 4G/LTE data rates. Now available and with proprietary enhancements to the RF transmit and receive chains from leading vendors, Wi-Fi has become a serious carrier-grade alternative for high data throughput applications. To summarize, this is not a hard and fast representation. Each category overlaps the other and some systems may have small cells driving DAS, which may be useful in situations where affordability and neutral host operation are the design goals, for instance. 7

8 In the discussion that follows, ABI Research considers two very different in-building deployment scenarios: healthcare/hospital and medical facilities and hospitality/resorts. DAS OVERVIEW As shown in the figure below, a typical DAS connects to RF sources, which are typically carrier basestations at the Headend in the telecom closet or basement. These sources can also include repeaters or antennas capturing multiple carrier cellular or public safety signals from a donor antenna on the roof of the building. The headend conditions these RF signals, converts them to RF optical signals, and propagates them over a high capacity fiber optic cable to remote DAS nodes on each floor of the building. These remotes in turn convert the signals back to electrical, inject power, and connect to the antenna units via coaxial cable in the horizontal for each floor. 8

9 Figure 2: Typical Hybrid Fiber Coax (HFC) DAS Installation (Source: ABI Research) Donor Antenna Antenna Remote Fiber optic cable Coaxial cable Headend Bi-directional amplifier New wireless platforms such as Corning s ONE distribute signals in the horizontal over fiber so that the complete system benefits from a high performance optical backbone. This platform is capable of converging and distributing core cellular technologies. It enables multiple applications such as WLAN, Location Based 9

10 Services (LBS) and traditional LAN. The system supports Wi-Fi with its built-in Gigabit Ethernet and Power over Ethernet (PoE+) capability and it is also compatible with Passive Optical LAN (POL), a point-to-multipoint optical network in which a single aggregation switch provides more than 7,000 IP voice, data, and video network connections to any Ethernet-based device or system. Neutral host DAS are compelling solutions for in-building coverage and capacity because they are scalable and flexible and can be configured to support multiple wireless service providers signals in a wide range of frequency bands. DAS networks are often driven by the same basestation equipment used in outdoor carrier tower or macrocell sites and can direct these resources to the target areas where they are most needed and capacity can be shifted to the parts of the DAS network where it is in most demand, according to subscriber location. DAS can be configured to simultaneously handle multiple wireless frequencies and technologies for multiple wireless services or service providers. DAS can be designed to handle 2G, 3G, and 4G commercial frequencies, typically from 700 MHz to 2500 MHz, in addition to public safety. HEALTHCARE/MEDICAL FACILITIES As the world s population ages and grows, it is set to force medical resources to new limits as we move into the future. Today, there are intense pressures on the healthcare industry to boost efficiency and one of the ways that many healthcare organizations have found to do this is to embrace wireless technologies and inbuilding wireless as part of an overall solution for improving efficiency and communications throughout their facilities. Until recently, hospitals did not permit staff or visitors use cell phones out of fear that the handset signal would interfere with sensitive medical equipment. As a result, 10

11 many hospitals deployed in-house or public receive-only paging systems as an alternative. It turns out that the fear that a handset could perturb medical equipment is largely unfounded when the facility has deployed in-building DAS. Since the handset now receives a high signal strength level of 5 bars it can operate at a much lower RF transmit power than when the hospital relied on signals penetrating indoors from the carrier s outdoor macrocell sites. In essence, DAS provides 5 bars all the time, requiring less power from the terminal for uplink. The use of DAS in healthcare will actually decrease electromagnetic interference with medical equipment and improve the battery life of user devices. Since an increasing number of clinicians use personal or hospital-issued phones for mission-critical functions, the demand for good signal strength has increased dramatically. The outside-in method of receiving cellular signals does not work, since RF signals do not propagate well from outside the building to indoors. RF signals are attenuated by building materials, such as glass, shielding, and concrete, the effects of which are further exacerbated by the move to modern green design and construction materials. This is a situation where indoor DAS comes into play. Cellular signal propagation throughout the facility enables physician and nurse mobility by enabling them to efficiently use their laptops, smartphones, and tablet electronic healthcare records (EHR) applications. Hospitals are notoriously one of the worst environments for RF signal propagation, with multiple separate wireless systems on separate frequencies typically deployed departmentally. As medical facilities move more and more toward mobile imaging and diagnostics, every room potentially becomes an imaging space and, as hospitals reorganize and adapt to this, shielding is actually increasing, which provides a further incentive for DAS. A hospital is typically a very dynamic environment with frequent physical 11

12 reorganizations and repositioning of partitions, making the environment very challenging for cellular signal propagation. The use of multiple systems and separate networks and their maintenance, which often involves removal of ceiling tiles for inspection of DAS or wireless access points, can create the risk of infection in a medical facility. The wireless system installation and maintenance staff must obtain Infection Control Risk Assessment (ICRA) approval before and after any work. The ICRA also defines specific work procedures to be undertaken during system installation and construction. Hospitals frequently require other types of radio communication systems, such as in-house mobile radios, first responder, building automation, and Wireless Medical Telemetry System (WMTS) communications and Real Time Location Systems (RTLS). A hospital typically needs in-building wireless systems coverage for all carriers, applications, and frequencies. A DAS solution is one option for providing this coverage and hospitals are finding DAS indispensable in guaranteeing wireless coverage and capacity. 12

13 HOSPITALITY/RESORTS The lodging and resort industry also views wireless Internet and cellular coverage and capacity as an increasingly important amenity for guests and staff. Expanding and improving Wi-Fi access is one area that is typically top priority for hotel owners and management. With both business and leisure travelers identifying Wi-Fi as a significant factor influencing hotel selection, it ranks among the top competitive differentiators for the hotel or resort. In addition, hotels are exploring what the best mix of free versus paid Wi-Fi is, with some hotels offering tiered Wi-Fi services and also moving to the latest technology generations on high bandwidth 5 GHz systems. Hotels may offer tiered bandwidth with free access for basic bandwidth, but for those guests willing to pay a premium, a faster connection can be provided. For example, the business traveler will require fast access and would find it difficult to conduct business on basic low speed links. The Hospitality industry identifies three areas in which improved mobility and mobile broadband access can lead to improved amenities for guests and opportunities for monetization for the hotel/resort owner. In the first of these areas: Guest Services, the trend is to offer personalized promotions and awards, virtual check-in/out, and social media access and feedback, all of which can leverage seamless cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity. In the Back Office, the trend is to improve security, safety, and response management, to facilitate reservation management and marketing, and to offer employee productivity tools and services access. Again, many of these trends can be aided by efficient wireless connectivity. The third area identified by the hospitality industry for improvements is in Room Services with features including smartphone key, entertainment, guest Internet 13

14 access, lighting and air conditioning control, customizable content, IP phones, TV, Virtual Concierge and Point Of Sale Mini Bar all desirable amenities. Wireless can help the hotel/resort owner meet these needs with in-building wireless systems designed to support multiple Internet-connected smartphones and tablet devices. Also allowing users to connect laptops, tablets and games systems to inroom resources like TVs or speakers is a priority. In order for this to be successful the in-building wireless systems must be designed for ubiquitous coverage with multiple access technologies such as Wi-Fi and cellular so that the hotel/resort becomes mobile friendly. With these goals in mind the hotel/resort in-building wireless systems need Wi-Fi and cellular connections available throughout the facility including in the rooms, lobby and in front of the pool for example. High bandwidths available to the guest are a must for applications like gaming or HD movie streaming and allowing guest devices to wirelessly pair with the TV in the room. Operational efficiency for management can be found in guest access to IP television and telephone, POS and applications for housekeeping. An in-building system designed for hospitality deployments must therefore offer ubiquitous mobility, be able to accommodate shifting demand patterns across the facility and with time of day, be able to support diverse technologies, support the ever increasing bandwidth demanded by guests and be able to converge multiple networks onto one system. Advanced converged DAS/LAN systems with their wire-in-once feature minimize disruptions to the facility for future ready upgrades and offer gigabit Ethernet support. Furthermore, these systems are RF agnostic and modular for scalability and offer flexible sectorization to match traffic patterns that are being used today to help the hospitality industry, which offers these advanced amenities for its guests and employees. 14

15 APPLICATIONS First Responder First responder (police, fire, and ambulance) communications have traditionally been based on narrow band/voice-centric wireless technologies. Frequency bands used by first responder networks vary from VHF and UHF to 700 MHz and 800 MHz. With in-building first responder networks, a critical communications requirement, redundancy, and uninterrupted service are mandatory and indoor cellular service is required for accurate E911 location. Code-compliant public safety DAS must meet mandatory performance criteria, such as non-interference with other licensed wireless networks, guarantee coverage to 99% of critical areas, accommodate network changes to the frequency plan, provide for remote monitoring and failure reporting, and also provide for emergency backup power. Additionally, federal and state regulation dictates that public safety communications services be available before building occupancy can be permitted. Public safety and commercial wireless operators may choose to share DAS, although that can involve trade-offs, including cost and management responsibility. These legacy narrowband systems were primarily designed to provide dispatch, simple messaging, and mission critical voice. Now, first responders have the opportunity to leverage advances in wireless, such as LTE, to provide high-speed, low-latency data communications and advanced features. In the United States, the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 directed the establishment of a state-of-the-art, nationwide, interoperable broadband network for use by first responders and public safety workers. The Act set aside 20 MHz of spectrum and US$7 billion in funding to create the network under the supervision of the First Responder Network Authority or FirstNet. The 15

16 FirstNet network will be built to public safety standards and be based on LTE wireless technology and promises the ability to share high resolution imagery or exchange video of disaster scenarios, in addition to the traditional first responder functions of dispatch, voice, and messaging. For the medical profession, the adoption of LTE for FirstNet networks promises advanced features, such as audio/video/data interfaces to monitor patients in a home setting and automated dispatch based on criteria related to the patient. Also, the possibility of being able to access patient records, images, or data and provide physician-mediated interface among EMS dispatch, EMS crews, and nurse call centers to optimize patient diagnosis and treatment while on route to the hospital will be highly desirable. Because these features require a broadband signal to penetrate all locations within a medical facility, DAS can provide the ideal broadcast mechanism for reaching public safety personnel. For some deployments, the system designer may define an architecture that demarcates the first responder system from the DAS in a dedicated network overlay. This has the benefit of ensuring maximum up-time from the system and can readily accommodate the public safety codes described by NEMA (National Electronics Manufacturers Association), which differ from commercial DAS. Wi-Fi and Carrier Wi-Fi Since hospital Wi-Fi networks carry sensitive patient data, these networks must ensure the privacy of the data in line with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA). That means ensuring that the Wi-Fi network uses the latest encryption, which today is Wi-Fi Protected Access or WPA-2 encryption. In addition, hospitals often require network intrusion detection systems (IDS) to monitor the network for malicious activities or policy violations and report any suspicious activity to network management or administration for corrective action. In order to 16

17 comply many hospitals need to upgrade the access points to more advanced n and ac, this requires new cabling and new infrastructure. The traffic carried on a hospital WLAN can be segmented into guest or health practitioner, medical records, images, location data, and medical equipment. Generally, network administrators segment this traffic into separate and distinct virtual private networks (VPNs) across several Wi-Fi channels with differing quality of service guarantees. In the hospitality industry expanding and improving Wi-Fi access is one area that is typically top priority for hotel owners and management. With both business and leisure travelers identifying Wi-Fi as a significant factor influencing hotel selection, it ranks among the top competitive differentiators for the hotel or resort. Hotels are also exploring mobile point of sale (POS) terminals on tablets for staff and resort personnel at pools, beaches, and outdoor locations to process transactions. For a hotel or resort, Wi-Fi represents a large opportunity to build customer loyalty by offering guests reliable, secure Wi-Fi. Business travelers view Wi-Fi as a fundamental requirement for any hospitality establishment and a failure to provide it would likely prevent a traveler booking the hotel. Carrier Wi-Fi and next-generation hotspot (NGH) technologies are rapidly expanding categories of Wi-Fi. This allows carriers to directly manage, monetize, and control Wi- Fi access and set the ability for the subscriber to roam onto third-party networks transparently and seamlessly using cellular, SIM-based credentials. In medical and hotel settings, patients, guests, and staff will demand this service and expect that their Wi-Fi-equipped handsets and terminals will work seamlessly. This BYOD facility will be a popular feature and the IP traffic from the Carrier Wi-Fi access point network can easily be backhauled using DAS. 17

18 Location-based Services, Building Automation and Other Applications Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) track people or objects within a specific area. RTLS are wireless with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags attached to items or personnel being tracked. Hospitals have found multiple uses for RTLS, in addition to locating patients, personnel, or assets. RTLS can be integrated on devices containing Personal Health Information (PHI), so that if the device leaves a defined location, it will auto log out of the network, thus helping to conform to HIPPA and privacy protection of PHI. Hospitals can leverage RTLS to save money by accurately tracking assets and helping ensure that the facility purchases no more equipment than it needs. In the operating room, hospitals use RTLS to track equipment and ensure it has received the appropriate decontamination before a procedure starts. RTLS must be integrated with the hospital s LAN/WAN or DAS. RTLS is not the only location technology available for use in healthcare. As Wi-Fi has proliferated throughout the facilities, it can form the framework for a viable location and tracking system. Other systems being used are low-cost passive RFID tags and readers for inventory management. GPS and traditional barcodes are also viable techniques, enabling medical facilities with differing levels of staff expertise and budgets to implement tracking and location in some form. The advent of high bandwidth wireless communications on portable and mobile equipment has meant that the transmission and retrieval of medical images becomes increasingly feasible. The Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) traffic consumes network bandwidth when transporting high-resolution medical images and the in-building wireless system should have sufficient bandwidth to carry these images and wireless PACS access should be part of a 18

19 hospital s future plans. This allows physicians to access images on mobile laptops or tablets when consulting with their patients. At the other end of the scale from high bandwidth applications are the low bandwidth machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. Advances in medical device technology have created equipment that monitors vital signs or other metrics at any time and in any location. These remote monitoring devices rely on a cellular data connection to send data from the device to the nurse s station or medical analytics system. These devices typically transmit small bursts of data to the medical facility s application server using 2G or 3G cellular networks, so that coverage can be guaranteed in any location. As the build-out of 4G/LTE networks finalizes coverage in the United States, ABI Research anticipates that this traffic will transition to 4G. The use of 4G can potentially open up new applications, such as performing a complete range of tests in the ambulance as it makes its way to the hospital and the sensors can stream patient information to the ER allowing physicians to be ready to care for the patient by the time he or she arrives for treatment. These data may include video and images transmitted over FirstNet, in addition to the medical device sensor data, and will drive an increase in bandwidth requirements on in-building wireless systems. Building automation, as its name implies, automates, monitors, and manages equipment, such as security, fire, lighting and emergency lighting, heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), and humidity control systems, within a building. A Building Automation System (BAS) uses a network of sensors and electronic devices interconnected back to a common control point. The BAS is typically used to maintain a building s indoor climate within specific ranges of temperature and humidity according to the time of day, provide lighting in areas based on occupancy schedules, monitor performance and detect failures and 19

20 alarms, and alert building facility staff and engineering. A BAS can reduce building energy and maintenance costs when compared to a building without a BAS. Most BAS networks consist of primary and secondary bus, which connects high-level controllers to lower-level or equipment-specific controllers. Modern systems use the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to track events, building on decades of history with SNMP-based protocols in the computer networking world. Physical connections between devices can be by optical fiber, Ethernet, or special purpose wireless networks. Modern systems use IP-based networking and can integrate power line networking over AC circuits, Power over Ethernet (PoE) circuits, or use high bandwidth wireless networks, such as LTE and IEEE802.11n or ac, and often integrate the building-specific open standard wireless mesh ZigBee protocol. An Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange (IP/PBX) is a feature connecting telephone extensions inside the medical or hotel venues to the public telephone network, as well as to mobile networks. It provides audio, video, and instant messaging for its internal network. IP/PBX functionality is relatively inexpensive and has seen the addition of desirable features, such as video conferencing, interactive voice response, speech recognition, find me/follow-me, integration with office systems, and many more. Many organizations see IP/PBX functionality as a way to lower costs and increase organizational effectiveness. A growing trend in the surveillance industry replaces legacy analog closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems with IP-based systems. An IP surveillance system uses digital cameras to distribute digitized video content over an IP network. Since the images are digitized, many organizations are attracted to the improvements in search capability, ease of use, image quality, and compression for improved storage that the IP surveillance can offer. Because the surveillance system is networked, distribution and viewing of the data from any location can easily be 20

21 accomplished. When combined with wireless networks, such as DAS, an IP surveillance system can be set up rapidly without laying new cable runs and can leverage the facility s existing IT investment. BENEFITS OF NETWORK CONVERGENCE Traditional DAS are designed to distribute cellular signals up to the 1900 MHz frequency and their purpose was to propagate cellular, PCS, and public safety signals throughout the building. Over the last several years, we have seen a proliferation of wireless services, which a DAS vendor can converge onto the inbuilding network. Services such as public safety two-way radios, Wi-Fi, and WMTS, are all viable candidates for transport over DAS. One DAS infrastructure and one installation with all access points and antennas connected back to the same wiring closet is an attractive proposition. New converged wireless platforms have been designed to unify cellular, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet in one system. Healthcare facilities deploying and purchasing DAS must also future ready the system design by considering emerging and evolving wireless technologies and how they could overlay onto the DAS with minimum cost or disruption. For example, IEEE ac is now emerging as a carrier-grade viable unlicensed alternative to LTE and LTE-Advanced. With innovations, such as MIMO and Multi- User MIMO (MU-MIMO), being standardized, access points must now use multiple antennas for both transmission and reception to ensure optimum communication performance. This is true for not only Wi-Fi, but for 4G LTE, which adopts similar multiple antenna MIMO schemes. Proper antenna selection and careful system design becomes critical to future-proofing DAS. Also, since channel bandwidths and, consequently, data rates are now in the Gbps range for full feature LTE-Advanced or IEEE802.11ac, ensuring that sufficient bandwidth is available to the remote and the antenna becomes critical. The use of 21

22 fiber-optic connections in active DAS to the remote and antenna ensures that virtually unlimited bandwidth is available, no matter what type of RF is being distributed. As one of the major cost items in any DAS installation, the cabling must accommodate future technologies and be able to scale for more services, coverage, or features. ICRA must also be planned for and appropriate approval obtained before, during, and after construction to lower infection risks. Systems that minimize ceiling invasions with cabling and equipment that is wired once for future-proof operation will be best here. The key trends that are emerging in today s healthcare and hospitality environments are driving DAS owners to realize that IT can be leveraged to reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and improve coverage, capacity, mobility, connectivity and quality of service. This converged or unified DAS network forms a solid foundation upon which to deliver on these promises. The benefits of a converged DAS result from the system being installed that is future proofed. Since all interconnect between headends and remotes is by high bandwidth fiber, the platform can accommodate any service, protocol and modulation scheme without replacing cables. Unlike legacy DAS systems, a converged DAS does not require the owner to invest in costly dedicated and proprietary networks for each supplementary wireless system that is required and which increases the complexities of mitigating interference between the differing systems. The evolving requirement to provide capacity, connectivity and telemetry for all wireless systems across the complete hospital or hotel footprint plays to the strengths of a converged DAS system. A converged DAS is inherently scalable and can offer configurable sectorization so that capacity can be directed to where the demand is according to the time of day or other criteria. This is also a TCO reduction in that DAS systems no longer need to be designed for peak capacity in all locations within the building. Peak 22

23 demands are handled by altering the configuration of the system remotely thus saving on hardware costs. DAS owners and operators can now right-size capacity for the facility without the need to design in the peak requirement for every part of the building thus providing major savings in CAPEX and OPEX. In addition, the benefits of network convergence for the hospitality industry offer the potential of modernizing in-room technology with full Internet access and the ability to interact with other guests and employees to accomplish tasks like streaming HD video, gaming, ordering extra towels, or viewing menus, for example. For the hotel staff, streamlined and secure voice and data communications become possible with a push-to-talk capability. By integrating cellular, Wi-Fi, and POL together, today s DAS can provide high capacity at much lower cost than legacy HFC systems. In the future, the all optical DAS can also integrate security HVAC and building automation functions also at a lower cost with no rip and replace cable infrastructure upgrades required. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION DAS today can offer major benefits to healthcare facilities by providing high quality 5 bar cellular and public safety communications coverage inside facilities. DAS are complex and require healthcare professionals to work closely with a systems integrator and the carriers to ensure the system is adequately designed and engineered. Coordination on modeling, installation, commissioning, and ongoing support and maintenance will all be required. When considering combining other systems, such as Wi-Fi or WMTS, with DAS, evaluating critical technical and cost considerations will help with understanding the value proposition of a converged DAS solution versus multiple separate 23

24 systems. A reasonable approach may be for a hospital to provide broadband cellular, public safety coverage, and non-mission-critical IP transport using DAS and to separately provide systems for WMTS and RTLS, as these systems may include life-critical medical applications. Properly implemented DAS can offer improved wireless coverage throughout the facility and, in hospitals, offer a wire-free patient bedside and 24/7 patient monitoring. DAS will improve communications between staff and guests and support first responders at all locations in the facility. Vendors like Corning are at the forefront of innovation when it comes to advanced DAS equipment. In 2013, Corning launched an all-optical DAS that targets enterprises, hotels, convention centers, medical facilities, and other venues that need high-speed, high-capacity wireless hubs. Built on an optical backbone, Corning s ONE wireless platform is designed to handle core cellular technologies and enable multiple applications, including wireless LAN, public safety, and location-based services. In addition, it offers Wi-Fi support through its built-in gigabit Ethernet and PoE capability. The platform leverages fiber-to-the-edge technology to deliver more bandwidth, services, and applications. Along with greater data speeds, CAPEX and OPEX decrease and disruptions for upgrades are reduced. 24

25 Published August 13, ABI Research 249 South Street Oyster Bay, NY USA Tel: Fax: ABI Research. Used by permission. Disclaimer: Permission granted to reference, reprint or reissue ABI products is expressly not an endorsement of any kind for any company, product, or strategy. ABI Research is an independent producer of market analysis and insight and this ABI Research product is the result of objective research by ABI Research staff at the time of data collection. ABI Research was not compensated in any way to produce this information and the opinions of ABI Research or its analysts on any subject are continually revised based on the most current data available. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. ABI Research disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. 25