Smart 4G Wireless Deployments Will Couple Small Cells With Distributed Antenna Systems, Says ADC

Heading into this week’s International CTIA Wireless 2010 show, ADC (NASDAQ: ADCT) (www.adc.com) today refuted the prevailing wisdom that femtocells and picocells alone will resolve the looming coverage, capacity, and frequency management issues facing mobile operators. Instead, ADC announced that its wireless precision coverage and capacity solutions allow mobile operators to provide ubiquitous, high-quality 3G and 4G services at a savings over 30 percent compared to simply deploying fixed-location, single-purpose base stations alone.

ADC will showcase its microcellular solutions, including the new InterReach Spectrum™ product, FlexWave Prism™, and InterReach Fusion^® distributed antenna systems (DAS) in Booth 1515 at the International CTIA Wireless 2010 show being held March 23-25 in Las Vegas, Nev. In addition, ADC’s director of wireless engineering and research, Larry Fischer, will participate in a panel on deploying DAS solutions as part of the conference’s Tower Technology Summit.

As the proliferation of smart phones and other bandwidth-intensive mobile devices has made clear, 3G and 4G users demand far more data from the mobile network than today’s wireless infrastructure was designed to provide. Many industry pundits claim that operators and enterprises can simply deploy picoBTS or microBTS to deliver the needed capacity and coverage improvements, but using small radios alone will be extremely expensive and operationally complex because thousands of these units may be required even for a single urban area to serve the mix of services (2G, 3G, 4G) and frequencies that any given operator has today.

By significantly extending a small cell’s coverage and capacity to a broader area at a relatively low cost, ADC’s microcellular network solutions enable operators to deploy far fewer base stations while substantially reducing deployment, backhaul and management costs.

”Our solutions de-couple capacity from coverage, making it possible for service providers to optimize their investments in base station capacity and backhaul while extending coverage to a far greater area than the base station alone could reach,” said Dick Parran, president of Network Solutions business unit for ADC. "By coupling a small base station with our DAS products, operators can provide their full complement of services while maximizing the spectral assets to any indoor or outdoor area without the expense of multiple backhaul connections or complex multi-cell maintenance.”

Another advantage of using ADC’s solutions is that a single system can be used to deliver multiple frequencies, sectors and services. Multi-frequency support is now a fact of life for most mobile operators, who must provide 2G, 3G, and soon 4G services. Using small radios such as femtoBTS or microBTS alone to provide these frequencies, would require deployment of one cell for each frequency, leading to myriad installments of multiple BTS, each with its own backhaul connection. By using ADC’s DAS solutions to reduce the number of BTS required, operators can reduce their cost of deployment and operations by up to 25 percent over an all-macro site deployment.

ADC Solutions at CTIA 2010

ADC will showcase its entire portfolio of microcellular network solutions at the CTIA Wireless show.

• InterReach Spectrum, which is making its public debut at CTIA Wireless, is the world’s first DAS system to incorporate both indoor and outdoor antenna systems and the ability to distribute up to eight different frequencies through plug-in radio cards. InterReach Spectrum is ideal for wireless service providers, enterprises, and neutral host operators who must support multiple frequencies in a wide variety of facilities, large public venues, university and corporate campuses, dense urban areas, and large enterprises.
• FlexWave Prism offers the benefits of distributed antennas with the capabilities of a remote radio head to deliver 2G, 3G, and 4G services in tunnels, subways, on university campuses, in suburbs and in urban canyons. The need for small-cell topology to deliver 4G services in these environments requires a DAS solution that brings the next-generation signals closer to the subscriber while supporting legacy voice and data systems. FlexWave Prism accomplishes these things and offers more than 30 percent CAPEX and OPEX savings, on average, compared to a traditional cell-site build.
• InterReach Fusion in-building DAS is the world’s most popular in-building antenna system. Using an active architecture with standard structured cabling to deliver wireless signals in facilities of any size, InterReach Fusion ensures high and uniform signal strength at every antenna location.

ADC’s Larry Fischer to Present DAS Deployment Expertise

ADC director of wireless engineering and research, Larry Fischer, will speak as part of the CTIA Wireless educational program, Tower Technology Summit. Fischer will participate in the session "Deploying DAS” on March 23, 2010 from 3:20 to 4:20 PM in room N109.

About ADC Network Solutions

ADC’s Network Solutions Business Unit offers products that deliver high-performance wireless coverage and capacity to business and consumer subscribers in any indoor or outdoor location. ADC is the global leader in advanced in-building wireless solutions and compact network systems, and is a leader in solutions that enhance coverage in macro networks.

About ADC

ADC provides the connections for wireline, wireless, cable, broadcast, and enterprise networks around the world. ADC's innovative network infrastructure equipment and professional services enable high-speed Internet, data, video, and voice services to residential, business and mobile subscribers. ADC (NASDAQ: ADCT) has sales into more than 130 countries. Learn more about ADC at www.adc.com.

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