User Manual

Users Guide - Andrew InCell™ Fiber Optic Distributed Antenna System
6-2
Note to Customers and Installers
This installation guide is to inform customers and installers of the special requirements for
installing the fiber optic cables used for the InCell™ Distributed Antenna System (DAS). This
guide discusses several key differences that customers and installers should be aware of before
starting the installation.
The fiber optic connector type used by the InCell system and other high performance RF over
fiber systems are not the industry standard connector types typically used for digital fiber optic
networks. Customers doing the installation themselves or those hiring local fiber optic cable
installers to do the installation should carefully evaluate these connectors and installation
requirements.
Correct fiber optic cable installation is more critical to the performance of an RF over fiber
system than for a digital network. Great care should be taken in pulling and installing the fiber
optic cables and connectors or system performance will be greatly degraded.
InCell Fiber Optic Cables
• For maximum flexibility, the InCell DAS can use standard duplex fiber optic cables or
composite fiber optic/copper cables that provide signals and power to the ERAU.
Composite cables provide all signals to the ERAU; the use of standard duplex fiber
cables requires that DC power be supplied to the ERAU from another source.
• The InCell DAS uses single mode fiber optic cable for lowest loss, highest performance.
• InCell uses SC/APC connector type for low back reflection. This connector type is
commonly used when sending high frequency digital and RF signals over fiber and is
higher performance than standard SC type connectors.
• Plenum rated cables must be used in US buildings to meet fire safety codes.
• Andrew can provide composite fiber optic cables in bulk or as assembled and tested cable
assemblies. The cable assemblies are cut to customer specified length, assembled and
then tested. Cable assemblies provide a low risk plug and play system connection. The
cable assemblies are typically used when the cable length is very well defined or when
the customer does not have fiber optic installation and measurement equipment. Andrew
recommends buying tested cable assemblies to avoid the many potential problems
encountered when doing field terminations of fiber optic cables.
• Duplex cable or cable assemblies can be bought from a wide range of vendors. Things to
specify are: single mode fiber, a duplex cable, core size of 9/125, high quality SC/APC
connectors with a 125um hole size, plenum rated cable.
• Most cable vendors use a fiber optic cable color code where yellow outer jackets denote
single mode fiber cable and orange outer jackets are used for multimode fiber optic
cables. Ensure that only single mode fiber is used for the InCell DAS.