Techniques for improving in-building radio coverage using fiber-fed distributed antenna networks

The characteristics of an in-building fiber-fed distributed antenna network are addressed by simulation of an indoor non-shadowed radio environment at 900 MHz, 1.8 and 1.9 GHz. The performance of the network is discussed in terms of the number and placement of antennas, and the method of diversity combination used. Statistical analysis of the radio environment shows that the arbitrary placement of two fiber-fed antennas in the room is as good as conventional half-wave diversity. Furthermore, the performance of multiple distributed antennas (>3) is typically superior to non-distributed architectures.