Full-Optical Digital Indoor Distribution
A digital indoor distribution system built on fibre: SDR software-radio processing, edge computing at the remote unit, controllable Wi-Fi for IoT access, and every network element manageable from one cloud console.
Up to any four-band combination of the supported LTE and NR bands, chosen against the actual project requirement.
What traditional indoor distribution cannot do
Six structural problems with passive indoor distribution — each one is what the digital architecture is designed to remove.
- Traditional indoor distribution is unmanageable and uncontrollable, and carries only a single access service
- IoT sensor data is hard to collect and transport — it needs dedicated transmission lines, which are costly and hard to build
- Indoor distribution build-out is not well aligned with service development
- Passive indoor distribution nodes cannot be monitored when they fail
- High line loss and power consumption push operating cost up
- Supporting MIMO requires building several separate indoor distribution systems — complicated to deploy and expensive
The digital answer
The approach, stated as the solution document puts it.
A solution that upgrades traditional communication indoor distribution to digital indoor distribution. The Cellular Mate full-optical-network digital distribution system uses SDR software-radio technology and a flexible deployment architecture: fibre replaces conventional RF cables, splitters and couplers as the transmission path, and optical antennas replace passive antennas. It supports manageable access of traditional communication indoor-distribution signals and of new IoT service access points. Every network element is manageable and controllable.
Four units, one chain
Access unit takes in the sources, main unit converts to optical, extension unit distributes, remote unit radiates — and carries the edge computing that makes the coverage area itself an IoT node.
Takes in and manages the signal sources. Combines and separates them with high-intermodulation, high-isolation cavity filters, and uses FPGA plus a transceiver with SDR software-radio processing for sub-band switching, filtering, smart detection and network self-adaptation.
Converts the downstream RF signal into an optical signal and sends it to the extension units; receives the optical uplink from the EU and converts it back into an uplink RF signal towards the AU.
Regenerates, amplifies and distributes the downstream optical signal to the remote units, and combines, regenerates and amplifies the optical uplink back to the MU.
Converts the downstream optical signal into RF and amplifies it for coverage. Uplink signals from handsets in the coverage area are converted back to optical and sent to the EU. The RU also provides controllable Wi-Fi for IoT access in the coverage area, and runs an embedded edge-computing server that processes data and returns results to the AU over the dedicated wireless channel.
Supported topologies
IoT services carried over the same infrastructure: Cameras · Advertising screens · Handsets · Temperature and humidity sensors · Gas sensors · Pressure sensors · Smart meters
Supported bands
LTE and NR. The band set is chosen per project — up to four bands combined.
| System | Uplink / Downlink |
|---|---|
| Broadband / Mobile 700 MHz | Uplink 703–733 MHz · Downlink 758–788 MHz |
| Mobile 900 MHz | Uplink 889–904 MHz · Downlink 934–949 MHz |
| Mobile 1800 MHz | Uplink 1710–1735 MHz · Downlink 1805–1830 MHz |
| Mobile 1800 MHz (B3) | Uplink 1885–1915 MHz · Downlink 1885–1915 MHz |
| Mobile NR 2600 MHz | 2515–2675 MHz |
The full-optical-network system supports LTE and NR. Up to any 4-band combination of the bands above can be configured, so band sets can be chosen against actual project requirements.
Micro-DAS specifications
- 4G bands: B8 / B3 / B39 / B40, or 5G N41
- Band combinations available, e.g. B8+B3+B39 / B3+N41
- Per-band transmit power 100 mW ~ 200 mW
- Single-stream and dual-stream versions for different throughput
- Three-tier architecture — access unit, extension unit and coverage unit; all units powered by the extension unit, so single-point power supply is convenient
- Multiple enclosure styles to choose from
System advantages
- 01Simple networking, good compatibility, few supporting facilities
- 02Small footprint, easy to install; no core-network resources consumed and no complex multi-system back-office data commissioning
- 03Good scalability, low cost of construction, no additional licence fees
- 04Devices connect to the BS-architecture intelligent cloud OMC over Ethernet, so operations staff monitor and manage device state, adjust parameters, handle alarms and faults — manageable and controllable
- 05Low system power consumption — about 1/200 of a conventional base-station RRU, saving the operator ongoing electricity cost
System characteristics
- Flexible network architecture that adapts to many application scenarios
- Distributed amplifier design with a lower isolation requirement — users can install it themselves
- Small-signal transmission and distribution, so low-cost coaxial cable can be used — effectively reducing material cost and system power consumption
- Can interface with the operator dispatch system
- Kingtone intelligent cloud NMS: real-time device status, real-time parameter sampling, abnormality alarms, remote configuration and firmware OTA upgrade
- BS-architecture OMC supports multiple terminal logins, so device state can be checked anywhere
- Low system power consumption; custom intelligent energy-saving strategies can be set through the NMS to cut operating cost
End-to-end visual operations
Self-developed OMC: device location, cascading topology, live status and alarms — and it can also hand off to a third-party NMS over the northbound interface.
- Electronic map shows device location — with network connection, the geographic position of each small station is displayed from its latitude and longitude
- Device cascading relationships visualised — extension uplink port numbers, remote uplink extension port numbers and cascading information are all shown
- Device status visualised — online / offline / alarm prompts, alarm management, event management and batch data collection
- Self-developed OMC can manage devices from other manufacturers, and can also hand off to third-party NMS over the northbound interface (TCP / UDP / SMS) for protocol access and application management
Deployment spacing
Guidance from the solution document — the spacing depends on how the space is divided.
Small open space with partitions
Small shops, internet cafés. Coverage units spaced about 35 m (30 m) apart, in line of sight between them. Each unit placed where users tend to gather.
Large open space
Car parks, factories, basements. Coverage units spaced about 45 m (40 m) apart, in line of sight. Units placed along main aisles and near lift entrances.
Multi-partition space
Office buildings, star-rated hotels. Coverage units spaced about 25 m (20 m) apart in open areas and 20 m (15 m) apart in partitioned areas, in line of sight in both cases.
Request a digital DAS configuration
Tell us the area, the bands, the IoT services to be carried and the management requirements. We will confirm what is buildable and what it costs to run.
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