Telecom equipment vendor TE Connectivity on Monday announced its new solution to speed up installation, powering, and communication with small cells and other network access devices.
TE, which will demo the new solution at the forthcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014, said the powered fiber cable system eliminates the complexity of small cell installation and allows small cell devices to be placed exactly where they are needed for maximum 4G wireless coverage.
Telecom operators will benefit the new solution combines power and optical fiber communications into one system. The system incorporates everything needed to power and communicate with a small cell – including the power supply, a hybrid cable and a remote powering unit that corrects for DC line loss to eliminate the need for electrical design calculations.
The main advantage from the new TE solution is that the powered fiber cable system has a reach greater than 10 times the distance of POE+ (power over ethernet) cables. The ability to transport power farther makes it possible to place small cells exactly where they are needed to focus wireless capacity.
There is no need for local powering. This eliminates the complexity of determining how to obtain power from building owners, utility companies or municipalities. Instead, negotiations of who pays for the small cell powering and how power consumption is monitored, becomes obsolete.
TE claims that this new system can reduce up-front planning and engineering time for many small cell deployments by 50 percent or more. The system is designed for low power DC transmission (NEC Class II) eliminating the need for highly-skilled electricians.
The system simplifies installation as remote powering units can be factory terminated onto the hybrid cable with exactly the correct connectors for a given small cell. To place a small cell exactly where it is needed, the customer simply plugs in the connector, mounts the remote powering unit, and installs the cable back to the power supply located up to 1km away.
