Challenge
The stadium had an aging DAS in place that did not fully support all necessary frequency configurations and MIMO. The system was experiencing failures at an alarming rate. Challenges were plentiful and included:
Fiber Plant Redesign
The original system only included 4 fibers to each remote location. The customer wanted the redesign to be future proof with 12 dedicated fiber strands to each remote location. The DAS consists of a total of 69 remote location resulting in a total of 828 fibers terminated at the DAS headend. Using traditional methods this would require 3 full racks for termination and space was limited. Pathways and conduit were full in many locations eliminating the possibility of home running fiber from headend to remote.
GIANT Solution
Using Corning high density cassette splice racks and a combination of 144s, 96s, 72s, and 48s loose tube fiber we were able to reduce the headend splice space to just one rack and nearly eliminate the need for new conduit.
DC Power Plant
The existing system used a mix of stand alone DC power supplies powered from dozens of 120V outlets. There was no redundancy in the system so when one supply failed 1 or more remote locations would go down.
GIANT Solution
We engineered a carrier grade DC plant using 13 separate locations and dedicated AC circuits to power them. Each power supply has redundant, hot swappable rectifiers, and support SNMP alarming and battery backup.
Cutover from the old, operating system, to the new system
Once all the infrastructure was in place we needed to plan for the cutover to the new system. Space at remote locations did not allow for the new remotes to be installed in parallel with the old remotes. We could not allow extended outages in any area of the stadium.
GIANT Solution
After ensuring all new DAS headend work was complete we set up four teams of three technicians each with multiple engineers at the headend. Each crew would attack a different remote location, pull out the old equipment, install the new, and then work with the engineers at the headend to commission the equipment on the spot. The third technician in the crew acted as runner, bringing the old equipment to the disposal location and loading up with new equipment to keep his team supplied. The engineers at the headend also were tasked with re-directing the signal source equipment for all carriers from the old system to the new. The result was that no section of the stadium experienced longer than a one hour outage.
Indoor/Outdoor Environment
Conditions at the stadium range from luxurious box seating to harsh outside canopy areas. Even the headend is in a non-climate controlled and dusty area. The old system experienced failures due to temperature extremes and dust. We needed a solution to address both.
GIANT Solution
The DAS headend equipment was installed into airconditioned NEMA 12 cabinets. Splice, patch, DC power supply enclosures are in NEMA 12 rated cabinets with fan ventilation as needed.