DAS is an exciting technology that replaces a single high powered antenna with an array of lower powered antennas covering the same area.   This solution allows for less power consumption but with more reliability and bandwidth as properly placed antennas can overcome coverage areas that traditional methods cannot such as higher powered antenna, line-of-site and cellular technologies, which can experience communication latencies, penetration in-building and ghosting losses.   DAS can effectively consolidate and distribute any wireless technology in any frequency band from FM to 2600 MHz, including LTE across all cellular carriers.  DAS environments scale from indoor to outdoor as coverage systems can include office buildings and parks, MDU’s, sports venues, metro street level, and flat terrain areas, all with dynamic turnover usability.  

A typical DAS architecture will provide connectivity via fiber between a base station and DAS aggregation point managing traffic from the antennas in the array.  Using fiber from the base station to the farthest reaching antenna in the topology provides for increased network bandwidth and reliability.  Utilizing fiber delivery technologies in challenging environments (established infrastructure with exhausted conduit space or limited/difficult route paths) requires methods that are rapid, asset upgradeable and with minimal impact/disruption to the environment they are being deployed into.  

However, the placement of fiber to each of these points can often be a challenge. With upwards of 80 percent of a telecommunications build being spent on labor, it is critical to the containment of deployment costs that a thorough analysis of how to control labor costs be undertaken. An emerging technology that can address this need for labor savings is pushable fiber coupled with a microduct solution.  Not to be confused with air-blown fiber, pushable fiber is a practical solution that not only allows cost-effective deployment of fiber in cellular backhaul and DAS networks, but also provides ongoing returns by reducing the costs of maintenance and restoration. 

By eliminating splicing, pushable fiber within a ruggedized microduct can eliminate hundreds of dollars in labor costs at every connected fiber. In its simplest form, ruggedized microduct is either aerially or direct buried and the pushable fiber is either pushed by hand or machine to its desired end-point – up to 1,000 feet. The pathway can transition from outside plant (aerial or buried) to an inside plant riser or plenum environment with a simple airtight and watertight coupler that requires minimal tools to install – allowing for a single and continuous pathway. Taking that protection a step further, ruggedized microduct and the associated pushable fiber can be installed directly to specially designed pedestals and vaults, further protecting the laid fiber.

A deployment will require a staff of planners, engineers, field crews and construction forces that are knowledgeable about the type of services to be offered and how they are to be delivered.  With such an extensive investment in labor costs, it is surprising (and irresponsible) that little attention has been placed on the underlying foundation of these networks – the protection and management of the physical layer. The physical fiber network must be protected as light passes from one point to the next, ensuring no degradation of performance. It is crucial that anyplace in which a fiber is terminated, connectorized or spliced, that adequate fiber management practices are followed. 

Johnny Hill is COO at Clearfield and a founding member of the company.