By Benjamin Horvath
In the past five years, carriers have been deploying small cells at an unprecedented rate. Of course, small cells aim to improve carriers’ coverage networks, especially in highly populated urban areas, but sometimes the opposite proves true.
Due to the relatively small geographical coverage area of small cells, and their high concentration in a specific area, signal interference is more commonplace among small cells than macrocells. In a recent article RCR Wireless by editor Martha Degrassee, Rohde & Schwarz applications engineer Paul Denisowski explained the precarious network challenge small cell deployment presents.
“We all tend to think of small cells from a user point of view as something good…you fill in the coverage holes, get more throughput, etcetera, but it is to a certain extent a planning nightmare because now you have all these little cells. How do you manage that?”
Due to this network difficulty, industry experts like Denisowski have said the development of self-organizing network technology, is something that has become commonplace for macrocells. Until such a technology is developed for small cells, however, Denisowski said “trial and error” is the best method carriers have to deal with this interference issue.
Small cell networks, because of their complexity, require regular testing and tweaking to mitigate signal interference. In particular, improved fiber testing standards is essential to maintaining small cell networks.
“We’re basically characterizing the fiber system, looking for a maximum throughput through the fiber, so an improperly spliced connector or poorly fusion-spliced cable in the system, or other losses that might be additive such as multiple connection points- those can be very detrimental to DAS,” Anritsu trainer Dennis Burt told RCR Wireless. “It does take somebody who’s really qualified and knows what they’re doing to make sure that fiber system is installed such that it meets or exceeds vendor and customer expectations.”
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