Wireless inside the enterprise

June 5, 2008, 10:01am PDT | Length: 00:04:20

With the rise of PDAs, Blackberries and mobile phones, the demand for wireless service inside large buildings is increasing every day. Leila Nouri, director of product marketing at MobileAccess, discusses one wireless infrastructure option called Distributed Antenna Systems, or DAS, which is both scalable and cost-effective.

Transcript

Wireless inside the enterprise

Lelanne Noori: Hi, my name is Lelanne Noori and I am Director of Product Marketing with MobileAccess. And I am going to talk today about "wireless inside the Enterprise." So over 80% of the population subscribes to cellular services and they want their devices to work indoors. There are public safety requirements, there is new 4G technologies coming out, building automation applications indoors, so there is going to be a lot more wireless in the Enterprise, not less, which makes it the perfect time to consider your wireless infrastructure options.So ironically, it takes wires to make wireless work indoors. Generally, in larger buildings over 250, 000 square feet, outdoor wireless signals are blocked by the building's glass, steel and concrete construction. So IT managers need to ensure good coverage by considering one of their options, also known as Distributed Antenna Systems or DAS.And how DAS work are they take the outdoor operator signals and they bring them inside, then they establish a centralized RF signal source in the building. From there, cabling media is used to distribute signals vertically and horizontally. And lastly, antennas broadcast those signals where users are in the building.When considering your wireless infrastructure options, you basically have two decisions to make. The first one being the type of media that you use. The second one is the type of architecture that you are going to go with.So your first option is to go with narrow band media. And with narrow band media, you can carry between one to two wireless services which over the same cabling which is very cost effective for smaller organization. Now if you want to add other wireless services at any other point, you are going to have to build a separate parallel network. That can disrupt the workplace. It can also impact your aesthetics.Your second option is broadband cabling, which generally carries anywhere from 400 MHz to six GHz of services. So all services that are currently in operation. And the nice thing about that is while it is a little more costly to install, you can add additional wireless services at any point to the same wiring, so it is very scalable, especially for a larger building.Now your other choice that you need to make is around architecture. And your first option is to go with a passive solution, which doesn't use electronics. So essentially, signals are powered up at their source and as they travel over distances, they lose some of their power. Cost effective because you don't have electronics but the coverage you get on floor 10 isn't always going to be as good as the coverage you got on floor 4. It also lacks management capabilities.Now with the alternative, which is an active solution, it uses electronics throughout. So it is able to ensure that the signals you get on floor four and floor 10 are absolutely equivalent for an even covered building. It also offers end to end management capabilities. So IT managers can proactively monitor the system and ensure maximum uptime.When considering your wireless options, there are three things to keep in mind. First, you want to engage the wireless operators early. Second, you want to decide on the right infrastructure based on your building size, building topology, service mix and of course future services you may need.And lastly remember that DAS is a good investment as compared to other must have infrastructure like carpeting. And it runs generally between $0.40 to $1.00 per square foot. By taking a strategic approach to wireless inside the Enterprise, you have a mobility strategy that is built to last.