22 December 2017

Arqiva has upgraded mobile coverage and capacity in Glasgow city centre with the help of equipment maker Dali Wireless and system integrator Cellular Asset Management.

The UK communications infrastructure company replaced the network’s analogue components with Dali’s digital distributed antenna system (DAS) to support 2G, 3G, 4G and future 5G services. 

In comparison to traditional DAS, Arqiva says Dali’s digital DAS is able to provide the required performance to accommodate the ever-increasing high-capacity demands.

“Mobile connectivity is a fundamental requirement of city living, and networks are beginning to feel the capacity squeeze as demand for voice and data continues to increase,” says Jon Freeman, product and technology director, Arqiva. “Network densification in high footfall areas is the only way to alleviate these issues.”

The firm also claims Dali’s platform is “completely scalable”, meaning it can be used in all kinds of outdoor environments, as well as indoor locations such as shopping centres and multi-floor offices.

According to the company, the flexibility of the solution allows mobile operators to “effortlessly” update and expand their network in a plug-and-play approach. 2G, 3G and 4G services from multiple operators are delivered to 12 outdoor nodes from a central equipment room using CWDM technology over five optical fibre rings. The equipment is positioned in key locations in the city centre including a busy restaurant and a 300 year-old clock tower.

Based in California, Dali Wireless also has offices around the world including an R&D centre in Vancouver, Canada. The company claims its fully digital wireless signal routing solution “revolutionises” in-building and outdoor coverage and capacity by eliminating interference and maximising spectrum usage. 

The company describes its patented virtual Fronthaul Interface (vFI) as an “intelligent” aggregator-router and “key enabler” of RAN virtualisation elevating networks to 5G readiness.