ChannelVision Magazine

Building owners are typically pleased with the size,” says Harrington. Overcoming the obstacles Washington D.C. is a very con- gested environment with a lot of inter- ference from other cellular traffic. “In the heart of D.C., no matter where you are, inside buildings the signal doesn’t always give you a good signal-to-noise ratio,” explains Harrington. “It was pretty bad on the roof, and we had to move the antennas many times to get the best signal.” According to Harrington, the com- pany used the installation tools pro- vided with the system to determine the best positioning of the antennas. “We used the Cel-Fi MIMO antennas, with data and voice on separate ports, and moved the antennas many times to get the best signal. We used Nextivity’s AntennaBoost solution to determine the best direction. Then we went into the individual NUs with Cel-Fi WAVE to see the signal-to-noise ratio and looked at the RSRQ and RSRP, RSSI and SINR to see the gain we were get- ting. In the end, we had to point the external roof antennas down to get out of the noise area.” Hard ceilings in the building were another issue encountered. This was resolved by putting the CUs in stra- tegic locations, such as lights and access panels. Harrington explains that because the system utilizes Power over Ethernet (PoE) and RF over Ethernet, there was a lot of flexibility on where the coverage units could be placed. “With PoE it is easier because you don’t have to find a source to light up your coverage unit. Not too many companies have power sources in the ceiling. You would have to get an electrician out to either put in power or power cables hanging from the ceil- ing, which wouldn’t work,” says Har- rington. “The client also really liked the way the coverage units look. They look like access points, so blend in well with their existing infrastructure.” Atlantic Technology Group also was able to use the newspaper’s existing Cat 5e and Cat 6 runs. “This saved the client money and saved us time. I like working with Ethernet cable more than coax – it costs a lot less. It’s also thin- ner, so it doesn’t snag as much if I have to go through holes. It’s also easier to run. The installation would have taken at least an extra week to run the cable if we didn’t use the existing cable.” Almost one year after installation, Harrington reports that the client hasn’t called with issues relating to cellular coverage. o Tim Lewis is senior director channel sales, North America at Nextivity. Mobile & Wireless Consider KADENCE Circuit Management Fiber networks represent a substantial asset and once construction is complete the essential task of managing that network and generating an ROI ensues. KADENCE Circuit Management (KCM) has been enhanced with functionality specific to the management of optical equipment, mapping of fiber assets and the tracking of outside plant (OSP). gokadence.com 866-877-4373 Customizable Workflows Maintenance Notifications Manage SLAs via NMS Power + Space Management Contract Management Network Discovery SLA MSA Your fiber construction project is complete… now what? July - August, 2018 | Channel Vision 35