A Supercell
® is created when a Nextivity CEL-FI QUATRA cellular DAS uses the small cell of one or more carriers for the donor signal. A Supercell distributes uniform signals from the small cell(s) throughout a building without coverage gaps.
A QUATRA Supercell
® is useful in densely populated sites that will benefit from the additional capacity delivered by a dedicated small cell donor.
Other use cases for a Supercell include these scenarios where the off-air signal from the macro network isn’t sufficient as a donor signal source:
- a congested macro network in metro areas results in insufficient capacity and/or poor signal-to-noise ratio
- buildings taller than the 25-30 ft, generally in metro areas
- pilot pollution from too many visible cell sites, with no dominant donor cell
- an extremely weak signal outside the building in rural, mountainous, or other areas with external obstacles
- no place to attach external donor antennas at optimum locations or building owner won’t allow them
- LEED or shielded buildings or rooms and energy efficient windows in combination with any of the other scenarios above
- Carrier reluctance to approve a rebroadcast agreement due to concerns with overloading the macro network
Many major carriers offer enterprise small cells as the solution to the above situations. While a small cell can deliver the additional signal capacity to a building, small cell deployment can be challenging and not a plug-and-play fix.
Depending on the carrier and the deployment model, users may require a dedicated data feed for each small cell, creating a recurring expense, for the owner. Other potential deployment complications include:
- Interference between multiple small cells in a space
- coverage gaps on the edges or between the coverage bubbles of each unit
- technical complexity
- slow delivery times
- high costs
- single operator only
The CEL-FI QUATRA Supercell eliminates these issues, creating a flexible, scalable solution for coverage and capacity at a fraction of the cost of legacy DAS.
