PARTNER FEATURE: At present, 5G has entered a stage of scaled construction. With indoor places being essential for the applications of 5G, 5G digital indoor solutions have been deployed in various heavy-traffic indoor areas, such as airports, railway stations, metros, and shopping malls. However, in office buildings, hotels, and other similar indoor scenarios, deep indoor coverage is still a challenge. These scenarios are usually characterized by:

  • Relatively low traffic demand, yet a high proportion of high-ARPU users who demand high-quality access to network services anywhere, anytime.
  • Dense partition walls in internal space, creating significant signal attenuation to a level that in-depth coverage becomes extremely challenging.
  • It is estimated that office buildings and hotels account for over 60% of the total indoor scenarios. This means that operators will face pressure to heavily invest in providing mobile coverage for these areas.

Therefore, operators are eagerly seeking cost-effective digital solutions that balance performance and coverage demands, while also enabling future-proof transformation for such indoor scenarios.

Based on DIS (Digital Indoor System) architecture and scenario-specific design, Huawei released LightSite solution for deep coverage in scenarios with medium-low traffic and multiple partitions. It also features multimode integration and supports flexible coverage expansion.

LightSite provides series modules so that operators can choose to use internal or external MIMO antennas and deploy one or two bands. This makes it more adaptive to diversified scenarios, such as office buildings, hotels, and other similar scenarios.

In open scenarios, 2T modules with built-in antennas are used to extend coverage with a higher output power.

In multi-partition scenarios, external antennas are connected, allowing a single headend to transmit power at three locations in 2T MIMO mode, widening the coverage by three times without increasing the number of pRRUs used.

LightSite concurrently supports multiple radio access technologies (RATs): 3G, 4G, and 5G on multiple bands, including C-band and all sub-3 GHz bands. It allows mobile networks to provide capacity multiple times higher than traditional DAS (distributed antenna system). By using IT cables instead of feeders, LightSite significantly simplifies engineering deployment, while also supporting smooth evolution over the following 5 years. Another advantage of LightSite over traditional DAS networks is end-to-end visibility and management, including for the external antennas connected to pRRUs. This makes it possible to implement fault visibility and management, which cannot be completed on DAS networks.

LightSite has gained broad recognition among operators. Deployment experience has proven that, in partition-filled scenarios with a medium-low traffic demand, LightSite can greatly improve operator’s investment efficiency. On top of that, LightSite allows for higher capacity, better 5G experience, and a higher deployment efficiency than DAS.

Huawei continues scenario-specific innovation and has launched a series of 5G DIS solutions to help operators address challenges arising from various scenarios and achieve indoor 5G construction with maximized return on investment.

Huawei’s 5G DIS has evolved into the criteria and an industry consensus for indoor network construction. It has been deployed by more than 150 operators worldwide.