Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) are networks that enhance communication in areas that do not have good coverage. Real estate companies, building owners, and others are beginning to see wireless as a “fourth utility” after water, power, heating and cooling. Today, reception of mobile service indoors is a prerequisite in multitenant commercial and residential properties. Office environments in which individuals cannot check their smartphones or place a call during a break in a meeting or conference leave impressions—negative ones.

The challenge in both commercial and residential multi-tenant properties is that energy-efficient building materials interfere with RF signals and cell coverage is observed to be largely poor towards the top floors. For owners of high-end properties, poor mobile service coverage diminishes the appeal of a residential unit or prospective office location.

Having an in-building wireless strategy, such as a Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS), is a way that many building owners are combatting this problem and improving the signals in their properties, thus increasing their perceived value by tenants, employees, and customers alike.

Treating in-building wireless coverage like a fourth utility can be a way for building and venue owners to compete in the new wireless world. If you do not have a comprehensive wireless strategy, you are likely missing future revenue opportunities and can end up spending excess money on multiple systems if not designed to work and scale on one infrastructure.

Benefits of in-building DAS

• Improved coverage in an area that otherwise has poor signal or coverage.
• Have fewer coverage gaps.
• Greater coverage while using less overall power.
• Greater safety to the public, including people who work and live in a space, as well as First Responders in an emergency.
• Increases productivity by making in-building communication easier and more reliable.
• Enables consistent communication across crowded venues, thus enhancing public safety, security, and helping events run smoother.

Signs your venue or building will benefit from a Distributed Antenna System

• Frequently call drops – If cell phone calls and radio signals frequently drop inside of a building, a DAS may offer the appropriate solution. It is common for certain floors of a building to get better reception than others. If you must find a certain window on a certain floor to get okay service, it’s time to consider adding an in-building DAS.
• People go outside the building to get better reception – If everyone in the building resorts to huddling around the lobby or outside the building to make a call, efficiency could be improved with a DAS.
• Messages are difficult to send – Multimedia messages take more service to send and may be close to impossible to send or receive when inside of a building that needs a Distributed Antenna System.
• You do not meet local standards for First Responder communication – It’s imperative that First Responders can communicate in an emergency from all points of your building. A lack of radio signal can impair this from happening and could lead to dire consequences.

In the past few years, Power over Ethernet (PoE) has rapidly increased its penetration in the enterprise applications. This state of the art technology is being adopted more often today, due to the range of devices and applications that have become compatible with PoE, as well as its ease of installation and efficiency. PoE has already made huge advancements in health care, retail, security and the industrial sector, now high-power PoE is also becoming popular across the entire enterprise market. This is due to the following factors:
1) Reduced Cost – Compared to traditional cabling installation, Power over Ethernet offers a faster deployment solution and a significant reduction in cost. The reduced cost is not just limited to cabling, but also includes wiring installation supplies and components, as well as labour and maintenance. As there is only a single power and data cabling system to be maintained with PoE, the total operating cost of the system also drops.

2) Efficient Network Control – In any business network, downtime is a huge financial risk. The centralised control and simplified management capabilities of a PoE system can assist to reduce network downtime during unplanned maintenance. Power over Ethernet provides network administrators the freedom to continuously back up data from all connected devices on the network storage facility. The power sourcing equipment can be connected to an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) to prevent lighting, security, monitoring, and mission-critical systems from losing power during a localised power outage.

3) Increased Operational Efficiency- Devices connected by PoE, such as sensors and LED lights, are now capable of gathering data on a number of environmental factors, including humidity levels, temperature, and light. Power over Ethernet system has the capability to support applications that use data collection from employees’ cell phone devices and workspaces. Such data can then be analysed and used to make strategic business decisions for efficient staff management, improved space usage and maintain energy efficiency throughout a building.

4) Technology Scalability- Power over Ethernet is designed to support network enhancement and also the integration of next-generation applications. PoE mainly relies on a standardised RJ-45 connector interface across all network devices. This allows power and data connections to be made available anywhere in the enterprise with an efficient category rated cable. Such simple device integration and low technology enhancement costs help a business to add wireless application protocols, data collecting devices, lighting and numerous new technologies connected to the Internet of Things (IoT).

5) Future Networks- Power over Ethernet makes upgrades and enhancements less costly for an enterprise network. As an Ethernet-based protocol, PoE is inherently scalable and can easily meet the needs of a modern-day business as it grows. PoE systems can be efficiently designed to handle the demands of next-generation applications, making networks reliably future proofed.
High-quality connectivity is going to play a vital role in the current and future PoE network operations. i-connect PoE cables are designed to provide optimal performance, they are third-party tested and verified to meet and exceed industry standard performance, including higher bandwidth and power levels.

Every cellular generation (2G, 3G & 4G) has represented the evolution of the mobile network. Every single one of us has been through the experience of these generations and is well aware of the disturbing problems regarding the network coverage and data speed, especially indoors or at large crowded venues. However, all of this is about to change in the coming future with the launch of 5G. Along with people, a number of devices and applications are also waiting for upgraded mobile internet with wider coverage, lower latency, and unbelievable speed experience, somewhat similar to the experience that we have on the Local area networks (LAN).

It is being said by many operators around the world that by 2020, 5G networks will be widely deployed. However, operators are already racing to etch their name in the history books as the first one to launch the 5G network. Users are also dreaming about the future of mobile data and how it will solve their problems regarding coverage, the number of connected devices, latency and bandwidth of mobile networks. The most important aspect to understand is that mobile networks and devices have been evolving from simple phone service infrastructures to more general IP service gateways, a perfect example of this is how 4G networks with bandwidth up to few hundred Mbit/s are being used by most services and applications on the mobile internet. In theory, the speed of 5G network will be more than 10 Gbit/s, and to prove this theory correct most operators are already successfully testing 5G with latency less than 10ms.

5G is designed to meet low energy consumption needs, meaning that more data can be sent while consuming less power compared to 4G and older generation networks. This show that 5G is very focused on the IoT and M2M sector, allowing them to take the most out of the ultrafast mobile internet, either while streaming ultra-high quality video or just sending a few megabytes of data in low power mode. Although 5G will not be the final frontier for mobile network upgrades, it will definitely open new digital doors for the future.

According to IEEE (Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineering), the new technologies for 5G will help to deliver data with less than 1ms of delay, much faster than today’s 70ms on 4G networks. However, to meet such high expectations, numerous problems need to be solved such as sharing bandwidth, less interference, and zero disconnections. To tackle these problems several new technologies are being developed and perfected: millimetre wave broadcast, small cells, massive multi-input-multi-output (MIMO); beamforming, which helps massive MIMO arrays make more efficient use of the spectrum around them and full duplex to transmit and receive data at the same time, on the same frequency.

Everyone is keeping a keen eye on the progress of 5G and anticipating that it will actually be the door to the future for mobile communication.

The word that is buzzing in the IT world is Internet of Things. The phrase Internet of Things, abbreviated as IoT, is a combination of two words “Internet” and “Things”.  The Internet is a global network based on interconnected digital networks that use the standard protocol (TCP/IP) to serve millions of users around the world. However the word Things can be any everyday objects which not only includes electronic devices but also “things” such as clothing, furniture, material parts and equipment, merchandise and so on.

There is no one accepted definition for Internet of Things, however in all the definitions put forward, the common point is that the initial version of the Internet was based on people creating data, while the newer version is based on data being created by different things. The definition that best describes the Internet of Things is “An open and comprehensive network of intelligent objects that have the capacity to auto-organize, share information, data and resources, reacting and acting in face off situations and changes in the environment”. People around the world have now admitted to the fact that the Internet of Things (IoT) will eventually have a huge impact on enterprises, consumers and the society as a whole. As the Internet of Things evolves (IoT), the smart connected devices will open numerous opportunities to provide life changing services for consumers (education, healthcare, safety etc.) and increase productivity for organisations.

However people around the world are completely underestimating the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is not just about making regular “things” accessible over the internet, it is not only about lights automatically turning on when the car approaches the driveway, the coffee starting to brew when the morning alarm goes off. The IoT will completely alter how people interact with the physical world as every object (Human beings, Enterprise, Cars, furniture etc.) will have a two way directional digital interface, that will serve as a representation of the object itself. These interfaces will then send out information about the object, as well as provide interaction points for other objects. With the adoption of IoT in our lives, the daily objects that we interact with will be digitised, due to which we will receive an extraordinary amount of information from all around us. The information received will be used to create daily dashboards that will guide our attitude and behaviour with regards to finances, healthcare, education, social life and much more.

In conclusion, the Internet of Things is not just about having more gadgets or things connected to the internet, it is about creating a two way connection between humans and other objects. The IoT will eventually turn objects from static to dynamic, making them fully interactive entities; this in turn will make our environment around us adjust according to our presence, desires and preferences. In the end it seems that the Internet of Things will eventually deliver a change in our quality of life through a widely distributed intelligent network of smart devices.