In-Building Takes Center Stage as DAS, DRS, and Small Cells are Increasingly Recognized as Core to 5G Vision

​In a provocative and insightful report, ABI research lays bare the impact of 3GPP Progression, Virtualization, Traffic Steering and Network Convergence on in-building wireless architectures as operators struggle with mobile broadband approaching 70% penetration. Next Generation In-Building Wireless: Converging, Virtualizing, and Balancing the Road to 5G, a companion to our recently published DAS Rises to the Small Cell Challenge, continues the discussion of innovations in Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS), Distributed Radio Systems (DRS) and small cell architectures for medium to large building verticals. This report builds on and outlines the impact of these major trends on DAS, DRS, and small cell architectures.

“In order to be included with the features inherent in the progression of the 3GPP standards, ABI Research asserts that in-building wireless systems of the future will deliver high bandwidth backhaul and fronthaul to accommodate the very high data rates inherent in LTE and LTE-Advanced,” commented Nick Marshall, Research Director, Networks at ABI Research. “We also expect that DAS and small cells will virtualize as a means of partitioning architectures to accommodate available transport and reduce system complexity.”

These “virtualized” DAS or small cells systems become DRS, which distributes the radio and antenna and centralizes the baseband. In contrast, DAS distributes the antenna, and small cells distribute the baseband, radio and antenna. In this way the DRS blends the best of both DAS and small cells to lay the groundwork for high data rate LTE-Advanced and 5G.

Part of ABI Research’s In-Building Wireless Market Research, this report discusses the market and profiles 18 companies active in this area. The small cell vendors discussed are Airvana, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, ip.access, NEC, Nextivity, Nokia, and SpiderCloud. The DAS vendors profiled are Axell, Commscope, Corning, Dali Wireless, Kathrein, SOLiD, TE Connectivity, and Zinwave.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.