EDX releases SignalPro v8.0 network design tool for small cell network designers

Confronted with the growing complexities of BWA, M2M, and mobile backhaul deployments, EDX Wireless recently announced the release of the v8.0 version of its EDX SignalPro wireless network design and optimization software.

"Version 8.0 of SignalPro has been designed with the needs of increasingly complex Broadband Wireless Access (BWA), Machine-to-Machine (M2M) and backhaul deployments in mind," said Mark Chapman, CEO of EDX. "Looking forward, we see this release as a critical step in supporting the automation of small cell deployments as they emerge. We are pleased to be able to offer this level of wireless network analysis and design automation to our customers," CEO Chapman said, and added that SignalPro's newest version "will greatly simplify the design and optimization of large and integrated networks."

v8.0 improves SignalPro's Point-to-Multipoint (PtMP) planning capabilities. It also adds a good number of new features as an inline upgrade for the entire EDX range of products.

SignalPro v8.0 supports native 64-bit operation, allowing it to rapidly process data for the kind of large projects usually found in traditional Smart Grids and the new small cell systems. Enhancements to the EDX product's PtMP design and analysis capability will allow it to be used for large-scale BWA, M2M, and integrated backhaul design.

Like previous releases, v8.0 also supports an extensive range of study types. Multipoint system links can thus be analyzed using virtually any type of technology.

In addition, the SignalPro + Network Design Module package also has the Automatic Frequency Planning. This assignment mode considers a comprehensive set of system constraints that can be thoroughly programmed to coordinate CPE channel and server assignments, thus optimizing the channel plan. Meanwhile, its Automated Site Selection utility picks hub sites and CPE's from a candidate list based on an RF-optimized site selection algorithm. This simplifies project design for systems with known candidates, initial estimates, presales analysis, and RFP responses.

In addition, SignalPro v8.0 has a fully programmable query function and statistical analysis utility, allowing it to show key statistics and study results.

2.5M distributed antenna system nodes sold by 2017, says report

A new report suggests that the rapidly increasing popularity of mobile devices will lead to the purchase of 2.5 million Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) over the next five years.

According to "Global DAS Market: DAS combined with Public Safety, WiFi, and Small Cells," the DAS landscape will greatly expand over the next few years. The report's author -principal analyst Joe Madden of Mobile Experts- predicts that there will be about 2.5 million DAS nodes shipped by the end of 2017.

"The DAS market will roughly double in size over the next five years,” analyst Madden predicted, “with a dramatic increase in the combination of DAS with Wi-Fi, public safety radio and LTE networks. In addition,” he opined, “when high-capacity small cells such as picocells are more widely available, we can expect small cells to replace macrocells as the primary signal source for indoor DAS systems."

Madden’s report also warns that DAS node providers are barely able to keep up with the demand for their products, especially given the rate the world is adopting wireless networks. (This is in line with the related demand for more bandwidth and the mobile backhauling techniques employed by operators to generate more capacity in an existing network.)

Subscribers were shown to prefer wireless networks that let them network multiple mobile devices to achieve better communications at their leisure. As more and more people embrace the use of mobile devices, laptops, and ultrabooks, the demand for faster, more capacious wireless networks –and the Distributed Antenna Systems that generate those networks- will only continue to grow until 2017, when the economic system is expected to hit its ceiling and demand tapers off.