SYNC™

SynC · Editorial revision

Distributed Antenna Systems

Revision5
EditedOct 19, 2026
StatusCurrent
Contents

View changes in this revision   Revision history

Current revision. This is editorial revision 5, the current text of this standard. Read it on the standard's page.

SynC Standards Team — Specifier (Platform Standards) ✓ OfficialDiscloses employment SynC (SynC Platform Team)
Remake batch 25 and its neighbor re-points, batch 24 where missing, and the adopted-electrical-code parameter: brought in line with the authoring repository

1 Scope

NOTE This standard covers the distributed antenna system from the point at which each carrier's signal enters the head-end to the indoor service antennas and radiating cable that deliver it, and, where the signal source is off-air, the donor antenna and the coaxial line that bring the macro signal into the building. (1.1)
NOTE Whether a building needs a DAS is settled by a survey of the macro signal inside the building as built or as modeled, not by its size alone; concrete cores, below-grade floors, metal-clad or low-emissivity envelopes, and large floor plates are the conditions under which the macro network fails indoors, and a building that already meets the design target on every floor has no use for one. (1.3)
1.5 Where a public-safety responder coverage system shares pathways, coaxial distribution, or antennas with the cellular DAS, this standard governs the cellular signal sources, the head-end, the combining, the cellular remote units, and the cellular acceptance test, and Public Safety Radio SystemsPublic Safety Radio Enhancement SystemsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/public-safety-radio-systems governs the responder amplifier, its listing, its standby power, its supervision, and its acceptance; a shared passive component shall meet the more stringent requirement of the two standards.
1.6 Cellular signals shall not be combined onto a public-safety amplifier, and public-safety signals shall not be combined onto a cellular amplifier.
NOTE The following are outside this standard and are governed elsewhere. (1.7)
  • Public-safety responder radio coverage, governed by Public Safety Radio SystemsPublic Safety Radio Enhancement SystemsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/public-safety-radio-systems
  • The structured cabling backbone, the horizontal cabling, and their testing and administration, governed by Structured CablingStructured Cabling SystemsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/structured-cabling
  • Telecommunications rooms, equipment rooms, entrance facilities, and the sleeves, trays, and supports that serve them, governed by Telecommunications Rooms And PathwaysTelecommunications Rooms and PathwaysResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/telecommunications-rooms-and-pathways
  • The telecommunications bonding backbone, the primary and secondary bonding busbars, and the bonding conductors to them, governed by Telecommunications BondingTelecommunications Bonding and GroundingResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/telecommunications-bonding
  • Conduit, raceway, and cable tray, governed by Raceways And ConduitRaceways and ConduitResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/raceways-and-conduit and Cable TrayCable Tray SystemsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/cable-tray
  • The uninterruptible power supply as a product, its topology, battery, and bypass, governed by Uninterruptible Power Supply SystemsUninterruptible Power Supply SystemsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/uninterruptible-power-supply-systems
  • The branch circuits and panelboards that feed the head-end and remote units, governed by Conductors And CablesConductors and CablesResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/conductors-and-cables and PanelboardsPanelboardsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/panelboards
  • The firestopping of DAS cable penetrations through rated assemblies, governed by FirestoppingFirestoppingResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/firestopping
  • Seismic bracing of the head-end racks and the remote units, governed by Vibration Isolation And Seismic RestraintVibration Isolation and Seismic RestraintResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/vibration-isolation-and-seismic-restraint
  • The lightning protection system to which a rooftop donor antenna mast is bonded, governed by Lightning ProtectionLightning Protection SystemsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/lightning-protection
  • Public address and paging, governed by Public Address And PagingPublic Address and Paging SystemsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/public-address-and-paging
  • The carrier's base station, small cell, GPS receiver, and backhaul, which the carrier furnishes and installs under its agreement with the Owner
1.8 The service area of the DAS, including the floors, the parking levels, and any exterior area to be covered and any area to be excluded, shall be as indicated on the DAS coverage area plans.
1.9 The licensed carriers to be served and the bands each carrier will deliver shall be as indicated on the DAS head-end block diagram.

2 Referenced Standards

2.1 Equipment, materials, and installation shall comply with the latest adopted edition of each of the following unless a specific edition is cited.
2.2 Where the contract documents, a carrier's written requirements, the Authority Having Jurisdiction, or two referenced standards impose conflicting requirements, the more stringent requirement shall govern unless the Engineer of Record directs otherwise in writing.
Standard Title
47 CFR Part 20 Commercial Mobile Services (Section 20.21, Signal Boosters)
47 CFR Part 15 Radio Frequency Devices
NFPA 70 National Electrical Code (Articles 300, 725, 770, 800, 805, and 810)
UL 2043 Fire Test for Heat and Visible Smoke Release for Discrete Products and Their Accessories Installed in Air-Handling Spaces
UL 62368-1 Audio/Video, Information and Communication Technology Equipment, Part 1: Safety Requirements
UL 444 Communications Cables
UL 1651 Optical Fiber Cable
UL 50E Enclosures for Electrical Equipment, Environmental Considerations
NEMA 250 Enclosures for Electrical Equipment (1000 Volts Maximum)
ANSI/TIA-568.0 Generic Telecommunications Cabling for Customer Premises
ANSI/TIA-568.3 Optical Fiber Cabling and Components Standard
ANSI/TIA-569 Telecommunications Pathways and Spaces
ANSI/TIA-606 Administration Standard for Telecommunications Infrastructure
ANSI/TIA-607 Generic Telecommunications Bonding and Grounding (Earthing) for Customer Premises
ANSI/TIA-222 Structural Standard for Antenna Supporting Structures, Antennas and Small Wind Turbine Support Structures
IEC 62037 Passive RF and Microwave Devices, Intermodulation Level Measurement
IEEE 802.3 Standard for Ethernet (Clause 145, Power over Ethernet)
3GPP TS 36.214 Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical Layer; Measurements
3GPP TS 38.215 NR; Physical Layer Measurements
NFPA 780 Standard for the Installation of Lightning Protection Systems
ASCE 7 Minimum Design Loads and Associated Criteria for Buildings and Other Structures (Chapter 13)

3 Submittals

3.1 Action Submittals

3.1.1 The Contractor shall submit the following for review and return before any DAS equipment or cable is procured:
  • The RF design report, giving the link budget for every band in each direction, the predicted downlink signal level and signal quality on every floor for every band as a color-scaled plot over the floor plan, the noise figure of the system at the base station interface, the uplink noise contribution at each carrier's receiver, and the assumptions made for wall, floor, and ceiling attenuation
  • A system block diagram showing every signal source, the point of interface for each carrier, the combining and splitting at the head-end, every remote unit and expansion unit, and every antenna with its zone
  • A riser diagram and floor plans showing the location of the head-end, every remote unit, every antenna, and every cable route, with the cable type and length of every run and the fiber strand count of every fiber route
  • Product data for the head-end units, remote units, antennas, radiating cable, splitters, couplers, combiners, attenuators, coaxial cable, connectors, fiber cable, and power supplies, giving for each active device its bands, gain, composite output power, noise figure, and ambient rating, and for each passive device its bands, insertion loss, return loss, and passive intermodulation rating
  • The head-end equipment room layout showing the racks, the carrier equipment space, the power circuits, the cooling, and the backhaul entry
  • The donor antenna mounting detail and the structural attachment calculation, where an off-air source is furnished
  • The carrier approval of the RF design, or the carrier's written acknowledgment that the design has been received for review, for every carrier to be served
Action Submittalscheckbox
☑ RF design report with coverage and signal quality plots
☑ System block diagram
☑ Riser diagram and floor plans with cable schedule
☑ Product data
☑ Head-end equipment room layout
☐ Donor antenna mounting detail and structural calculation
☑ Carrier approval or acknowledgment of the RF design
3.1.2 No remote unit, antenna, or distribution cable shall be procured until the RF design report and the block diagram covering it have been reviewed and returned.

3.2 Informational Submittals

3.2.1 The Contractor shall submit the following with or before the action submittals:
  • The qualifications of the RF designer and the record of comparable in-building systems designed
  • The manufacturer's certification of the installing and commissioning technicians on the DAS platform furnished
  • The FCC equipment authorization for every signal booster, remote unit, and head-end unit that transmits in a licensed band, identifying the band class and the industrial signal booster designation under 47 CFR 20.21
  • The written consent of each carrier whose signal the system retransmits, or the executed carrier agreement that contains it
  • The acceptance test procedure, naming the test instruments, the walk route or grid, the bands, and the pass criteria for each measured quantity
  • The monitoring configuration plan, listing every alarm point, its severity, and the destination it reports to
Informational Submittalscheckbox
☑ RF designer qualifications
☑ Installer and commissioning technician certifications
☑ FCC equipment authorizations
☑ Carrier consent to retransmit
☑ Acceptance test procedure
☑ Monitoring configuration plan

3.3 Closeout Submittals

3.3.1 The Contractor shall submit the following before the system is accepted:
  • The acceptance test report, giving the measured downlink signal level and signal quality on every floor for every band as a color-scaled plot over the floor plan, the percentage of the service area meeting each criterion, every measured point that fails, and the instruments used with their calibration dates
  • The passive component test records, giving the sweep and passive intermodulation result of every coaxial run
  • The fiber test records for every fiber link furnished under this standard
  • Each carrier's acceptance of the system or its written statement of the items remaining before acceptance
  • The as-built riser diagram and floor plans showing every antenna, remote unit, and cable route as installed, with the label of every component
  • The final configuration of every head-end and remote unit, including the gain, the attenuation at each point of interface, and the alarm thresholds, exported from the management system
  • Operation and maintenance data, the management system credentials, and the warranty certificate identifying every active unit by serial number and the warranty commencement date
  • A signed receipt from the Owner for the spare parts delivered
Closeout Submittalscheckbox
☑ Acceptance test report with coverage and signal quality plots
☑ Passive component sweep and passive intermodulation records
☑ Fiber test records
☑ Carrier acceptance statements
☑ As-built riser diagram and floor plans
☑ Final head-end and remote unit configuration
☑ Operation and maintenance data, credentials, and warranty certificate
☑ Spare parts receipt
3.3.2 Record drawings and operation and maintenance data shall be assembled and delivered in the form required under Closeout ProceduresCloseout ProceduresResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/closeout-procedures and Operation And Maintenance DataOperation and Maintenance DataResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/operation-and-maintenance-data, and the items listed above are the DAS content of that package.

4 Quality Assurance

4.1 RF Design Responsibility

4.1.1 The RF design of the system shall be prepared by the party indicated in the datasheet.
RF Design Responsibilityradio
● Delegated design by the Contractor's RF designer to the performance criteria of this standard
○ Design by the Engineer of Record, confirmed by the Contractor's shop drawings
○ Design by the Owner's neutral-host operator, installed by the Contractor
4.1.3 The RF design shall be prepared with predictive modeling software that computes propagation through a three-dimensional model of the building, using wall, floor, and glazing attenuation values taken from the construction documents or from measurement in the existing building.
4.1.4 The RF designer shall have designed not fewer than three in-building cellular systems of comparable area and architecture that have passed carrier acceptance, and the record of those systems shall be included in the informational submittals.
4.1.5 Where the design is delegated, the Contractor shall revise the design at no additional cost to the Owner until the acceptance test criteria of this standard are met throughout the service area.

4.2 Installer and Manufacturer Qualifications

4.2.1 The technicians who install, configure, and commission the active equipment shall hold a current certification from the manufacturer of the DAS platform furnished.
4.2.2 The technicians who terminate coaxial connectors shall have been trained by the connector manufacturer on the connector family furnished, and the technicians who terminate optical fiber shall be qualified as required under Structured CablingStructured Cabling SystemsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/structured-cabling.
4.2.3 The manufacturer of the active equipment shall have produced in-building cellular systems for not fewer than five years and shall maintain a technical support organization reachable by the Owner for the life of the warranty.
NOTE A passive intermodulation failure on a coaxial run is almost always a connector that was prepared or torqued by a hand that had not done that connector before, and the retest and rework it causes cost more than the training it replaces. (4.2.4)

4.3 Regulatory Compliance

4.3.1 Every head-end unit, remote unit, and amplifier that transmits in a licensed cellular band shall carry an FCC equipment authorization as an industrial signal booster under 47 CFR 20.21 for every band it transmits.
4.3.3 Digital equipment furnished under this standard shall comply with 47 CFR Part 15 for unintentional radiators.
4.3.4 Active equipment shall be listed to UL 62368-1 by a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory.

4.4 Source Limitations

4.4.1 The head-end units, remote units, expansion units, and the management system shall be products of one manufacturer and one compatible platform.
4.4.2 Antennas, radiating cable, coaxial cable, connectors, splitters, couplers, combiners, and attenuators may be furnished from any manufacturer whose product meets the band, insertion loss, return loss, and passive intermodulation requirements of this standard.
NOTE Active units from one platform share firmware, a management system, a spare, and a warranty; passive components share none of those, and a passive component from a second maker that meets the ratings is interchangeable with the first. (4.4.3)

5 Carrier Coordination

5.1 Carrier Participation

NOTE Each carrier's participation is established by an agreement between the carrier and the Owner or the Owner's neutral-host operator, and that agreement, not this standard, fixes the carrier's capacity, its equipment, and its schedule. (5.1.1)
NOTE Carrier review of an in-building design and delivery of carrier equipment routinely take six to eighteen months from first contact, and the carrier's schedule is set by its own capital plan rather than by the construction schedule, so the building infrastructure is often complete and tested before any carrier signal is present. (5.1.2)
5.1.3 The Contractor shall submit the RF design to each carrier to be served, in the form that carrier requires, within fourteen days after the RF design report is returned reviewed.
5.1.4 The Contractor shall incorporate each carrier's design comments, shall resubmit the design to the Engineer where a comment changes a coverage plot, a remote unit, or an antenna, and shall track the status of every carrier approval in the progress reports.
5.1.5 Where a carrier has not approved the design or delivered its signal source by the date the building infrastructure is ready for test, the Contractor shall complete the passive and fiber tests and the system test on a test signal, and the acceptance test on that carrier's bands shall be performed when the carrier's signal is present.
5.1.6 The Contractor shall not be held in default of this standard for a carrier's failure to approve, deliver, or accept on the schedule, and shall not be relieved of the acceptance test criteria for a band once that carrier's signal is present.

5.2 Carrier Equipment Room Provisions

5.2.1 The head-end equipment room, the carrier equipment space within it, and the pathway from the entrance facility to the head-end shall be as indicated on the telecommunications plans.
5.2.2 The provisions furnished under this contract for the carrier equipment shall be as indicated in the datasheet.
Carrier Equipment Room Provisionscheckbox
☑ Floor space and equipment racks for each carrier's base station or small cell
☑ Dedicated branch circuits at each carrier's rack position
☑ Conduit or innerduct from the entrance facility to each carrier's rack position for backhaul
☐ Pathway and coaxial line from the roof for each carrier's GPS timing antenna
☐ Cooling for the heat release of the carrier equipment
NOTE A base station needs floor space, power, cooling, backhaul, and a GPS antenna with a view of the sky, and a carrier that arrives to find any of them missing leaves and reschedules; a small cell needs a shelf, one circuit, and an Ethernet backhaul, and a neutral-host operator furnishes some of these under its own agreement, which is why the list is selected per project. (5.2.3)
5.2.4 The number of carrier rack positions and the branch circuit rating at each shall be as indicated on the head-end equipment room layout.
5.2.5 The room construction, lighting, door, and environmental conditioning of the head-end equipment room shall comply with Telecommunications Rooms And PathwaysTelecommunications Rooms and PathwaysResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/telecommunications-rooms-and-pathways.

5.3 Carrier Approval and Acceptance

5.3.1 The Contractor shall furnish each carrier the measurements, the configuration data, and the site access it requires for its own acceptance testing, and shall correct every deficiency the carrier identifies that lies within the work of this standard.
NOTE A carrier's acceptance test confirms that the system does not harm the carrier's network and that the coverage meets the carrier's own criteria, and the carrier runs it with its own instruments and on its own schedule; the acceptance test of this standard is the Owner's test and is run whether or not a carrier has run its own. (5.3.2)

6 Environmental and Service Conditions

6.1 Enclosure Rating

6.1.1 Remote units, expansion units, power supplies, and head-end enclosures furnished under this standard shall carry at least the enclosure rating indicated in the datasheet, rated under NEMA 250 or UL 50E.
Minimum Enclosure Ratingselect
NEMA Type 1
NEMA Type 12
NEMA Type 3R
NEMA Type 4
NEMA Type 4X
NOTE Nearly every remote unit sits above a ceiling, in a telecommunications room, or on a wall in a conditioned space, which is why Type 1 is the default; the clauses that follow raise the rating for the locations that need more, whatever the datasheet selects. Type 12 excludes dust and dripping non-corrosive liquid indoors; Type 3R excludes rain and sleet outdoors; Type 4 excludes hose-directed and wind-driven water; Type 4X adds corrosion resistance for salt air and chemical fumes. (6.1.2)
6.1.3 Remote units and power supplies installed outdoors, in an open parking structure, or in a loading dock open to the weather shall be rated NEMA Type 3R, Type 4, or Type 4X.
6.1.4 Remote units installed where they are subject to washdown or hose-directed water shall be rated NEMA Type 4 or Type 4X.
6.1.5 Remote units installed in a coastal location, a natatorium, or another location with salt or chemical vapor in the air shall be rated NEMA Type 4X.

6.2 Ambient Temperature

6.2.1 Remote units and expansion units installed indoors above a ceiling, in a shaft, or in an unconditioned interior space shall carry their full composite output power continuously at the design ambient temperature indicated in the datasheet.
Indoor Unconditioned Design Ambient Temperaturerange
Not less than
°C
40455055
NOTE The space above a ceiling on a top floor under a dark roof, a mechanical shaft, and a return air plenum each run well above the room below them in summer, and a remote unit that throttles its output at its thermal limit does so in the afternoon, when the building is fullest. The value depends on the building and the climate, so the field carries no default. (6.2.2)
6.2.3 Remote units, power supplies, and donor antenna equipment installed outdoors or in a space that follows the outdoor temperature shall operate within their published performance between Site Ambient Temperature MinimumSite Ambient Temperature MinimumParameterEach project supplies its own value.site-ambient-temperature-minimum and Site Ambient Temperature MaximumSite Ambient Temperature MaximumParameterEach project supplies its own value.site-ambient-temperature-maximum, including solar gain on an unshaded housing.
6.2.4 Head-end equipment shall be installed in a room conditioned to the equipment manufacturer's published operating range, and the heat release of the head-end equipment and the carrier equipment shall be reported to the Engineer for the cooling design of the room.

6.3 Air-Handling Spaces

6.3.1 Antennas, remote units, power supplies, and every other discrete product installed in a space used for environmental air shall be listed to UL 2043 or shall be installed in an enclosure that NFPA 70 300.22(C) permits in that space.
6.3.2 Coaxial cable installed in a space used for environmental air shall be plenum-rated and listed to UL 444 as Type CMP, and optical fiber cable in such a space shall be listed to UL 1651 as Type OFNP, in accordance with NFPA 70 Articles 770 and 805.
6.3.3 Cable installed in a riser shaft shall be listed as Type CMR or Type OFNR at minimum, and cable installed in a general-purpose space shall be listed as Type CM or Type OFN at minimum.

6.4 Seismic Restraint

6.4.1 Head-end racks, wall-mounted remote units, and antennas shall be anchored and braced for Seismic Design CategorySeismic Design CategoryParameterEach project supplies its own value.seismic-design-category in accordance with the seismic provisions of Adopted Building CodeAdopted Building CodeParameterEach project supplies its own value.adopted-building-code and ASCE 7 Chapter 13, under Vibration Isolation And Seismic RestraintVibration Isolation and Seismic RestraintResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/vibration-isolation-and-seismic-restraint.
6.4.2 A ceiling-mounted antenna shall be supported independently of the ceiling grid where the ceiling grid is not rated to carry it, with a safety wire to structure.

7 System Architecture

7.1 Distribution Architecture

7.1.1 The system shall be of the distribution architecture indicated in the datasheet.
Distribution Architectureradio
○ Passive, coaxial distribution from head-end amplifiers
○ Active, analog radio over fiber to remote units
○ Hybrid, fiber to zone remote units and coaxial within each zone
○ Digital, digitized radio over fiber or Ethernet to remote units
NOTE A passive system carries RF on coaxial cable from a head-end amplifier through splitters to the antennas, has no powered device beyond the head-end, and loses signal with every foot of cable and every split, which limits it to the area one amplifier's power can reach; an active system converts each band to light at the head-end and back to RF at a remote unit near the antennas, so distance costs almost nothing and every remote unit is a powered device that needs a circuit, a fiber, and monitoring; a hybrid system runs fiber to a remote unit per zone and coaxial from there to a handful of antennas, trading some of the active system's remote unit count for some of the passive system's loss; a digital system carries the signal as data, so it is routed, split, and re-pointed by configuration rather than by cable, and it is the architecture that carries wide 5G channels and multiple-input multiple-output streams with the least degradation, at the highest equipment cost per antenna. The floor area, the number of carriers and bands, and whether capacity will later be moved between zones are what decide between them, so the field carries no default. (7.1.2)
7.1.4 Where an active, hybrid, or digital system is selected, the system shall support the addition of remote units and the reassignment of capacity between zones through the management system without replacement of the head-end.
7.1.5 The capacity sectoring of the system, meaning which antennas and remote units are served by which sector of each carrier's signal source, shall be as indicated on the DAS head-end block diagram.

7.2 Carrier Service Model

7.2.1 The system shall be configured for the carrier service model indicated in the datasheet.
Carrier Service Modelradio
● Multi-carrier neutral host
○ Single carrier
NOTE A neutral-host system carries every participating carrier on one distribution plant, with each carrier's signal source combined at the head-end, so the Owner builds one system and each carrier joins by agreement; a single-carrier system carries one operator's bands only, is usually funded by that carrier for its own subscribers, and serves no one else in the building. An Owner-funded system in a multi-tenant building is a neutral-host system in almost every case, which is why it is the default. (7.2.2)
7.2.4 Where a neutral-host system is selected, the head-end shall provide a separate point of interface for each carrier, with the attenuation and the isolation between carriers set so that no carrier's signal source is exposed to another carrier's transmit power above the level that carrier permits.

7.3 Signal Source

7.3.1 Each carrier's signal source shall be of the type indicated in the datasheet, unless the head-end block diagram designates a different source for that carrier.
Signal Sourceradio
○ Off-air donor antenna and repeater
○ Carrier base station at the head-end
○ Carrier small cell at the head-end
NOTE An off-air source captures the carrier's macro signal with a rooftop donor antenna, amplifies it, and redistributes it; it needs no carrier equipment and no backhaul, costs the least, and gives the building only the capacity and quality the macro cell outside already has, which fails in the dense venue the DAS was built for. A carrier base station at the head-end adds dedicated capacity and the carrier's full band set, and needs the carrier to fund, deliver, and backhaul it, which is the long lead on the schedule. A carrier small cell at the head-end delivers dedicated capacity in a smaller package over an Ethernet or fiber backhaul, with fewer bands and less power than a base station, and is the source the carriers now offer most readily for mid-sized buildings. Which source a carrier will agree to is the carrier's decision, which is why the field carries no default. (7.3.2)
7.3.3 Where an off-air source is furnished, the isolation between the donor antenna and every service antenna shall exceed the system gain in that band by not less than 15 dB, measured before the system is placed in service.
7.3.4 Where an off-air source is furnished, the repeater shall include automatic gain control and oscillation detection that reduces gain or shuts the band down when the isolation margin is lost, and the event shall be reported as an alarm.
7.3.5 Where an off-air source is furnished, the donor signal level and quality at the donor antenna shall be measured and recorded for every band before the design is finalized, and a band whose donor signal falls below the level the repeater manufacturer publishes for its rated output shall be reported to the Engineer before equipment is procured.
NOTE A repeater amplifies whatever reaches its donor antenna, including the noise and the neighboring cells, so a weak or congested donor signal is redistributed as weak and congested service through the whole building, and no amount of gain inside the building improves it. (7.3.6)

7.4 Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Configuration

7.4.1 The system shall carry the multiple-input multiple-output configuration indicated in the datasheet on every band for which the serving carrier delivers it.
MIMO Configurationradio
○ Single stream
○ 2×2 MIMO
○ 4×4 MIMO
NOTE A single-stream system carries one path per band and runs on one coaxial cable or one fiber channel and a single-port antenna; 2×2 MIMO carries two independent streams and doubles the data rate for a handset that supports it, at the cost of a second path through the distribution, a dual-port antenna, and roughly twice the remote unit radio count; 4×4 MIMO carries four streams and is what the carriers deliver on their mid-band 5G channels, and is carried in a digital architecture or with four-port antennas and four paths. The configuration cannot be upgraded later without replacing the antennas and the paths to them, so the decision is made for the bands the building will carry over its life. (7.4.2)
7.4.3 Every antenna, coaxial path, fiber channel, and remote unit radio shall provide the number of independent paths the selected configuration requires, end to end from the point of interface to the antenna.

8 Frequency Bands

8.1 The system shall carry the frequency bands indicated in the datasheet on every path from the point of interface to every antenna.
Frequency Bands Carriedcheckbox
☐ 600 MHz (Band 71, n71)
☑ 700 MHz (Bands 12, 13, 17, and 29)
☐ 700 MHz Band 14 (FirstNet)
☑ 850 MHz (Bands 5 and 26)
☑ 1900 MHz PCS (Bands 2 and 25)
☑ 1700/2100 MHz AWS (Bands 4 and 66, n66)
☐ 2300 MHz WCS (Band 30)
☐ 2500 MHz BRS/EBS (Band 41, n41)
☐ 3.5 GHz CBRS (Band 48, n48)
☐ 3.7 GHz C-Band (n77)
NOTE The 700 MHz, 850 MHz, PCS, and AWS bands are the bands every national carrier operates and the ones every multi-carrier system has carried for a decade, which is why they are checked by default; 600 MHz and 2500 MHz are each one carrier's spectrum, Band 14 is the public-safety broadband network operated on a commercial carrier's equipment and is served by the cellular DAS rather than by the responder radio system, CBRS is shared spectrum a building can use for its own private network or that a carrier can bring, and C-Band is the mid-band 5G spectrum that carries the highest capacity and attenuates fastest through walls, so it needs more antennas than the low bands to reach the same area. A band left out at construction is added later only by replacing the remote units and, on a passive system, often the antennas and the splitters, so breadth here is bought once. (8.2)
8.3 Every passive component, including antennas, radiating cable, splitters, couplers, combiners, and connectors, shall be rated for continuous operation across every band checked, and the system shall be constructed so that an unchecked band within the passive components' rating can be added at the head-end without replacement of the distribution.

9 Coverage and Signal Quality

Downlink Design Target, Reference Signal Received Powerrange
Not less than
dBm
-95-90-85-80-75
NOTE A reference signal received power of -85 dBm is the design target most carriers publish for in-building service and the value a handset needs to hold a high-order modulation with margin for the body of the user and the walls between measurements, which is why it is the default; -75 dBm or -80 dBm is written for a stadium, a trading floor, or another venue where thousands of handsets contend for capacity and every decibel of margin is capacity; -90 dBm or -95 dBm is written for a parking structure or a warehouse where the service is voice and messaging and a lower target saves antennas. Each 5 dB of target roughly halves the area one antenna covers in the high bands. (9.1.2)
9.1.3 The design target shall be met with the remote unit composite output power at or below its rated value and with every band and every carrier carried simultaneously at its share of that power.
9.1.4 Where a carrier's approval states a design target for its bands more stringent than the datasheet value, that target shall govern for that carrier's bands as required under Carrier Approval and Acceptance.

9.2 Coverage Area

Coverage Area Percentagerange
Not less than
%
90959899
NOTE A 95 percent criterion is the one most carriers accept and most Owners write, and it leaves the stair landings, the elevator lobbies against the shaft, and the corners behind the mechanical room as the five percent that would each cost an antenna to reach; 98 or 99 percent is written for a hospital, a venue, or a tenant that will not accept a dead corner; 90 percent is written for a parking structure or a warehouse. The percentage multiplies the antenna count faster than the signal target does once it passes 95, because the last few percent are the hardest areas in the building. (9.2.2)
9.2.3 Areas within the service area for which a higher coverage percentage or a higher signal target applies, such as an executive floor, an operating suite, or a trading floor, shall be as indicated on the DAS coverage area plans, and each shall be reported in the acceptance test as its own area.
9.2.4 The coverage percentage shall be computed from the measured points within each floor of the service area, and a floor that fails the criterion shall fail the test regardless of the percentage achieved over the building as a whole.

9.3 Signal Quality

Downlink Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratiorange
Not less than
dB
351015
NOTE Signal level alone does not make a connection usable: a handset that reads a strong reference signal from two cells at once, the DAS and the macro cell leaking through the glass, or two remote units overlapping, sees interference, and the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio is what measures that. A value of 10 dB or more is where the high-order modulations run; 5 dB is where voice and basic data hold; 0 dB is the edge of a usable connection. What the building needs depends on the macro signal that leaks into it and on the capacity the carriers deliver, so the field carries no default. (9.3.2)
9.3.3 Where a measured area fails the signal quality criterion because of macro signal entering through the building envelope, the Contractor shall raise the DAS signal in that area or re-aim the remote unit serving it until the criterion is met, and shall not rely on the carrier adjusting the macro cell.

9.5 Signal Containment

9.5.1 The DAS signal measured outside the building envelope at grade and at the property line shall not exceed the level each carrier permits in its approval, so that the system does not capture handsets on the street or interfere with the carrier's macro cells.
9.5.2 Antennas within one antenna spacing of an exterior wall or of exterior glazing shall be oriented or attenuated so that the signal through the envelope is minimized, and the acceptance test shall include a measurement along the exterior of the building at grade.

10 Head-End Equipment

10.1 Point of Interface and Combining

10.1.1 The head-end shall provide a point of interface for each carrier's signal source, with the attenuation, the filtering, and the isolation needed to bring that source to the common level and to protect each carrier's equipment from every other carrier's transmit power.
10.1.3 Combining of carriers and bands shall be by low-loss, low-passive-intermodulation combiners rated for the composite power of every source combined, and the composite power at the output of the head-end combining shall be stated in the RF design report and shall not exceed the rating of any downstream component.
10.1.4 The attenuation at each point of interface shall be set to the value the RF design report states for that carrier and shall be recorded in the closeout configuration.
NOTE The point of interface is where the carrier's equipment and the Owner's system meet, and it is the demarcation at which responsibility changes hands; a level that drifts there is argued between the carrier and the integrator for months unless the as-set value is written down and a monitoring port lets either party measure it. (10.1.5)

10.2 Head-End Power

10.2.1 The head-end equipment shall be supplied from dedicated branch circuits as indicated on the head-end equipment room layout, with no other load on any circuit serving the head-end.
10.2.2 Each circuit breaker serving the head-end or a remote unit power supply shall be identified at the panelboard as serving the DAS, with the legend "DAS: DO NOT DE-ENERGIZE WITHOUT NOTICE TO THE OWNER", in accordance with Equipment LabelingElectrical Equipment LabelsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/equipment-labeling.
10.2.3 Each circuit breaker serving the head-end or a remote unit power supply shall be furnished with a handle lock-on device.
10.2.4 Where a surge protective device is furnished at the panelboard serving the head-end, it shall comply with Surge Protective DevicesSurge Protective DevicesResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/surge-protective-devices, and the head-end power strips or power distribution units shall include surge protection listed for that purpose.

10.3 Remote Monitoring and Alarms

10.3.1 The system shall include a management system that monitors every head-end unit, remote unit, expansion unit, and power supply, that reports every alarm with the identity of the unit, the time, and the severity, and that holds the configuration of every unit.
10.3.2 The management system shall report alarms to the destinations indicated in the datasheet.
Alarm Reporting Interfacescheckbox
☑ SNMP traps to the Owner's network monitoring system
☐ Dry contacts to the building management system
☐ Manufacturer's or neutral-host operator's remote monitoring service
☐ Email or text notification to the Owner's designated staff
NOTE A failed remote unit in a DAS is silent: the handsets in its zone drop to the macro signal or to nothing, and no one knows until a tenant complains. SNMP puts the alarm on the same screen as the Owner's switches and servers; dry contacts put it on the building management system where the operating staff already watch; a remote monitoring service puts it in front of the party who will dispatch the repair; notification by email or text reaches staff who watch none of those. The choice follows who in the building will act on the alarm. (10.3.3)
10.3.5 The management system shall be reachable by the Owner over the Owner's network and by the manufacturer or the neutral-host operator over a connection the Owner controls, and every account on it shall be turned over to the Owner at closeout.

11 Remote Units

11.1 Output Power

11.1.1 Each remote unit shall deliver, per band, the composite output power indicated in the datasheet while meeting the noise figure and the spectral emission limits of its FCC authorization.
Remote Unit Composite Output Power per Bandrange
dBm
2024273033374043
Derived — the RF design link budget for the zone each remote unit serves, with every carrier and band carried simultaneously (by default)
11.1.4 Remote units shall include automatic level control that holds the composite output at or below the rated value as the input level rises, and shall report an input overdrive as an alarm rather than clipping the output.

11.2 Noise Figure

System Uplink Noise Figurerange
Not more than
dB
34568

11.3 Remote Unit Power Method

11.3.1 Remote units and expansion units shall be powered by the method indicated in the datasheet.
Remote Unit Power Methodradio
○ Power over Ethernet from the head-end or an intermediate power sourcing equipment
○ Centralized DC over a composite fiber and copper cable from the head-end
○ Local branch circuit at each remote unit
○ Local DC power supply in the nearest telecommunications room
NOTE Power over Ethernet carries power and the digital signal on one cable from a power sourcing device, with the wattage that IEEE 802.3 Clause 145 permits per port and the 100 m reach of the cabling, so it suits a digital system with low-power remote units; centralized DC over a composite cable carries the fiber and the power conductors in one jacket to any distance the DC drop allows, with one power plant and one standby source at the head-end, and it is the usual method for a fiber-fed system with medium-power units; a local branch circuit at every remote unit gives each unit its own power with no distance limit, and puts a receptacle above every ceiling the remote units sit in and a circuit on the electrical drawings for each; a local DC supply in the telecommunications room serves the remote units on that floor from one power supply over low-voltage cable. The method sets the electrical scope, the standby power design, and the cable plant, so it is decided with the architecture. (11.3.2)
11.3.3 Where Power over Ethernet is selected, the power sourcing equipment shall be of the IEEE 802.3 Clause 145 type that delivers the power each remote unit draws at the end of the cabling furnished, and the cabling shall be of the category and construction the remote unit manufacturer publishes for that power level.
11.3.4 Where centralized DC or a local DC supply is selected, the power conductors shall be sized so that the voltage at the farthest remote unit at full load is within the unit's published input range, and the circuit shall comply with NFPA 70 Article 725 for its class.
11.3.5 Where a local branch circuit is selected, each remote unit shall be served by a receptacle within 6 ft of the unit on a circuit dedicated to DAS equipment and identified as required under Head-End Power, and the receptacle locations shall be as indicated on the electrical plans.

11.4 Standby Power

11.4.1 The head-end equipment and the remote units shall continue to operate on standby power for not less than the duration indicated in the datasheet after loss of utility power.
Standby Power Runtimerange
Not less than
minutes
153060120240480
NOTE A commercial cellular DAS carries no life-safety load and no code requires it to run through an outage, so many Owners furnish none and accept that cellular service in the building rides on the macro network during an outage; 15 to 30 minutes rides through utility switching and generator start; two to eight hours keeps the service up through an outage in a hospital, a hotel, or a venue whose occupants have no other telephone. The responder radio system, where one shares the infrastructure, carries its own code-required standby under Public Safety Radio SystemsPublic Safety Radio Enhancement SystemsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/public-safety-radio-systems, and that requirement is not met by the value selected here. (11.4.2)
11.4.3 Where a standby runtime greater than zero is selected, the standby source shall be either an uninterruptible power supply complying with Uninterruptible Power Supply SystemsUninterruptible Power Supply SystemsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/uninterruptible-power-supply-systems, sized for the connected load of the head-end and of every remote unit powered from the head-end, or a connection to the building standby system, whichever is indicated on the electrical one-line diagram.
11.4.4 Where remote units are powered by local branch circuits and a standby runtime greater than zero is selected, the circuits serving the remote units shall be fed from the standby source as well as the head-end.

12 Antennas

12.1 Indoor Service Antennas

12.1.1 The location, type, and orientation of every indoor service antenna shall be as indicated on the DAS antenna plans.
12.1.2 Indoor service antennas shall be rated for every band carried, shall have the number of ports the MIMO configuration requires, shall have a passive intermodulation rating not worse than the value required under Passive Components and Passive Intermodulation, and shall have a gain and a pattern that match the values the RF design assumed for them.
NOTE An omnidirectional ceiling antenna radiates evenly around it and serves an open floor plate from its center; a directional panel antenna radiates in one direction and serves a corridor, a perimeter zone, an atrium from its wall, or a parking deck from a column, and keeps the signal off the glass behind it; the RF design places each by the geometry of the space, and the plans show the result. (12.1.3)
12.1.4 An antenna may be installed within 5 ft of the location shown on the antenna plans to clear a light fixture, a diffuser, a sprinkler, or a structural member, and any relocation beyond 5 ft shall be re-predicted by the RF designer and submitted before installation.
12.1.5 Antennas shall be installed not less than 3 ft from a fire alarm notification appliance, a wireless access point, or another radiating device, unless the RF design documents a closer spacing.

12.2 Antenna Mounting and Appearance

12.2.1 Indoor service antennas in finished spaces shall be mounted as indicated in the datasheet.
Indoor Antenna Mountingradio
● Exposed, mounted on the finished ceiling
○ Concealed above the ceiling
NOTE An exposed antenna radiates into the room with no loss between it and the handset and is a low-profile disk or dome a few inches across that reads, to most occupants, as a smoke detector; an antenna concealed above the ceiling radiates through the ceiling tile or gypsum board, loses roughly 2 dB through mineral fiber tile and 5 dB or more through gypsum board and the ductwork and conduit above it, and is placed where the ceiling plenum allows rather than where the design wants, so it takes more antennas to cover the same area and can be inspected only by lifting the ceiling. Exposed mounting is the default because it is what nearly every project does outside a space the architect has reserved; the exception is selected for that space. (12.2.2)
12.2.4 Indoor service antennas in finished spaces shall have the housing finish indicated in the datasheet.
Indoor Antenna Housing Finishradio
● White housing
○ Paintable housing, field-painted to match the adjacent ceiling
○ Factory finish in a color selected by the Architect
NOTE A white housing matches a white ceiling and is the finish every antenna ships in; a paintable housing takes a field coat in a dark or colored ceiling, with a paint the manufacturer approves because a metallic or heavily filled paint attenuates the signal; a factory finish gives the Architect's color without a field coat, at a lead time and a premium per antenna. (12.2.5)
12.2.6 Where a paintable housing is selected, the paint shall be a non-metallic coating the antenna manufacturer approves, and the antenna gain after painting shall be verified on one sample per color before the remainder are painted.
12.2.7 Antennas in unfinished spaces, parking structures, mechanical spaces, and above-ceiling locations shall be furnished in the manufacturer's standard finish whatever the datasheet selects.

12.3 Radiating Cable

12.3.1 Radiating coaxial cable shall be installed where indicated on the DAS antenna plans, and its type, coupling loss, and mounting height shall be as the RF design states.
NOTE Radiating cable is a coaxial cable with slots cut in its outer conductor so that it leaks signal along its whole length, and it is the antenna of choice in a tunnel, a parking ramp, an elevator hoistway, or a long corridor whose walls would block a point antenna every few meters; it is hung with standoffs that hold it a fixed distance from the wall or the deck, because the coupling loss the design assumed depends on that distance. (12.3.2)
12.3.3 Radiating cable shall be supported on non-metallic standoffs at the spacing and the distance from the mounting surface the cable manufacturer publishes, with no metallic object between the cable and the area it serves, and shall be terminated in a load or an antenna rated for the band set at its far end.

12.4 Donor Antenna

12.4.1 Where an off-air source is furnished, the donor antenna for each carrier shall be a directional antenna mounted on the roof or an exterior wall at the location indicated on the roof plan, aimed at the serving macro cell the RF design identifies.
12.4.2 The donor antenna mount shall be designed for the wind load of the site in accordance with ANSI/TIA-222 and the structural provisions of Adopted Building CodeAdopted Building CodeParameterEach project supplies its own value.adopted-building-code, shall be attached to structure through a roof penetration or a non-penetrating ballasted mount that the roofing manufacturer accepts, and the attachment shall be shown in the action submittals.
12.4.3 The donor antenna coaxial line shall be grounded and protected at the building entrance in accordance with NFPA 70 Article 810, with a coaxial surge arrestor bonded to the building grounding electrode system under Grounding And BondingGrounding and Bonding for Electrical SystemsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/grounding-and-bonding.
12.4.4 Where the building has a lightning protection system, the donor antenna mast shall be bonded to it in accordance with NFPA 780 under Lightning ProtectionLightning Protection SystemsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/lightning-protection.
12.4.5 The donor antenna shall be installed with its line of sight to the serving macro cell unobstructed by rooftop equipment, screens, or parapets, and the donor signal shall be re-measured at the installed location before the repeater is commissioned.

13 Coaxial Distribution

13.1 Coaxial Cable

13.1.1 Coaxial cable furnished under this standard shall be 50 Ω cable rated for every band carried, with a solid or corrugated copper or copper-clad aluminum outer conductor, a foam dielectric, and a jacket listed for the space in which it is installed as required under Air-Handling Spaces.
13.1.2 Trunk coaxial cable from a head-end amplifier or a remote unit to the first splitter and between splitters shall be of the nominal size indicated in the datasheet.
Trunk Coaxial Cable Sizeselect
3/8 in.
1/2 in.
7/8 in.
1-1/4 in.
NOTE Half-inch cable loses roughly 2 dB per 100 ft at 700 MHz and 4 dB at 2 GHz, bends around a ceiling obstruction, and takes a connector a technician can make above a ceiling, which is why it is the trunk cable on most systems; 7/8 in. cable halves that loss for a long passive riser or a parking structure at the cost of a 10 in. bend radius and a connector that is made at a bench; 1-1/4 in. cable is run for the longest passive trunks where an amplifier cannot be placed; 3/8 in. cable is the trunk of a small passive system where the runs are short and the plenum is tight. A short drop from the last splitter to an antenna is run in smaller cable whatever the trunk size. (13.1.3)
13.1.5 Coaxial cable shall be installed with no bend tighter than the manufacturer's published minimum bend radius, shall be supported at the spacing the manufacturer publishes, and shall not be kinked, crushed, or pulled over an edge.

13.2 Coaxial Connectors

13.2.1 Coaxial connectors on trunk cable, splitters, couplers, combiners, and remote unit ports shall be of the interface indicated in the datasheet.
Coaxial Connector Interfaceradio
○ 4.3-10
○ N-type
○ 7/16 DIN
NOTE The 4.3-10 interface was designed for low passive intermodulation, mates by hand or with a low torque, and is the interface the current remote units and low-intermodulation passive components ship with; the N-type interface is the one every technician knows and every test instrument carries, and holds its intermodulation rating only when torqued to specification with a wrench; the 7/16 DIN interface carries the highest power and the best intermodulation performance of the three on a large connector that suits a high-power head-end and a 7/8 in. trunk. A system is built on one interface, with adapters only at the test instrument, because every adapter is an intermodulation source. (13.2.2)
13.2.3 Connectors shall be of the type the cable manufacturer lists for the cable furnished, shall be installed with the manufacturer's preparation tools and torque, and shall not be field-adapted between interfaces except at a test instrument port.
13.2.4 Connectors installed outdoors, in a parking structure, or in any location subject to moisture shall be weatherproofed with a self-amalgamating tape and a cold-shrink or butyl wrap, or with a boot the connector manufacturer lists, after the connection has passed its sweep test.

13.3 Passive Components and Passive Intermodulation

13.3.1 Splitters, directional couplers, hybrid combiners, attenuators, and terminations shall be rated for every band carried, for the composite power at their location with margin, and for a passive intermodulation level not worse than the value indicated in the datasheet when measured with two 43 dBm carriers in accordance with IEC 62037.
Passive Intermodulation of Passive Componentsrange
Not more than
dBc
-160-155-153-150-140
13.3.3 Every passive component shall be of a construction with no ferrous material in the signal path, and every unused port on a splitter or coupler shall be terminated in a load of the same intermodulation rating.
13.3.4 Every splitter, coupler, and combiner shall be mounted to structure or to a backboard, accessible from a lay-in ceiling or an access panel, and labeled as required under Identification.

14 Fiber Distribution

14.1 Fiber Type

14.1.1 Optical fiber furnished under this standard between the head-end and the remote units shall be of the type indicated in the datasheet.
DAS Fiber Typeradio
● OS2 singlemode
○ OM4 multimode
○ OM3 multimode
NOTE Singlemode fiber carries the analog or digital optical signal of a DAS over any in-building or campus distance with no bandwidth penalty, and it is the fiber the active DAS platforms are designed for and ship their optics for, which is why it is the default; OM4 multimode serves a short run inside one building where the platform offers multimode optics, and OM3 serves a shorter one, and each is selected where an existing multimode backbone is to be reused rather than for a new installation. A platform whose optics are singlemode only cannot use a multimode strand at any length. (14.1.2)
14.1.3 Fiber cable, connectors, and terminations shall comply with ANSI/TIA-568.3, shall be of the jacket listing required under Air-Handling Spaces, and shall be terminated in the connector type the DAS manufacturer specifies for its optical ports.
14.1.4 The fiber strand count on each route shall be as indicated on the DAS riser diagram, and shall include not fewer than two spare strands on every route to a remote unit location.

14.2 Fiber Provision

14.2.1 The fiber between the head-end and the remote units shall be provided as indicated in the datasheet.
DAS Fiber Provisionradio
○ Dedicated fiber furnished and tested under this standard
○ Strands assigned in the structured cabling backbone, furnished and tested under the structured cabling standard
NOTE Dedicated fiber runs directly from the head-end to each remote unit, is owned by the DAS, is tested by the DAS installer, and leaves the structured cabling backbone untouched, at the cost of a second fiber plant in the risers; strands assigned in the structured cabling backbone use fiber that is already being run to every telecommunications room, with patching from the room to the remote unit, and make the DAS depend on the backbone's strand count, its patch panels, and its administration. Which is wanted depends on whether the backbone has the spare strands and whether the Owner wants the DAS separable from the data plant, so the field carries no default. (14.2.2)
14.2.3 Where strands in the structured cabling backbone are assigned, the strands shall be identified as DAS strands in the administration records under Structured CablingStructured Cabling SystemsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/structured-cabling, the patch cords and the patching from the telecommunications room to the remote unit shall be furnished under this standard, and the demarcation between the two standards shall be the backbone patch panel in each telecommunications room.
14.2.4 Where dedicated fiber is furnished, it shall be installed in the pathways indicated on the DAS riser diagram, and shall be tested under this standard as required under Fiber Tests.

15 Testing

15.1 Passive Component Tests

15.1.1 Every coaxial run from a head-end amplifier or remote unit port to an antenna port shall be swept over every band carried for return loss, insertion loss, and distance to fault before its antenna is connected, and the voltage standing wave ratio shall not exceed the value indicated in the datasheet at any frequency within the bands carried.
Voltage Standing Wave Ratio of Installed Coaxial Runsrange
Not more than
ratio
1.21.31.41.5
15.1.3 Every coaxial run shall be tested for passive intermodulation with two 43 dBm carriers in accordance with IEC 62037 after its connectors are made and before its antenna is connected, with the far end terminated in a low-intermodulation load, and the measured level shall be not worse than the value required under Passive Components and Passive Intermodulation.
15.1.4 A run that fails the sweep or the passive intermodulation test shall be corrected by remaking the failed connector or replacing the failed component and retested, and the record shall show both the failed and the passing result.

15.2 Fiber Tests

15.2.3 Every fiber connector end face shall be inspected and cleaned before mating, and a connector that shows a scratch or contamination in the core zone shall be re-terminated.

15.3 Coverage Acceptance Test

Coverage Acceptance Test Methodradio
● Continuous walk test with a calibrated scanning receiver logging against the floor plan
○ Grid test at fixed points with a calibrated scanning receiver, not fewer than 20 points per floor
NOTE A walk test logs a reading every second or every meter along a route that covers every corridor and room, and produces a plot that shows the signal everywhere a person goes, which is what the carriers' own acceptance tests do and why it is the default; a grid test divides each floor into equal cells and measures at the center of each, which produces a number per cell that is compared to the criterion and is the method the fire code uses for responder coverage. The grid test is selected where the Owner wants a result in the same form as the responder radio test, or where the service area is a parking structure the walk route cannot cover evenly. (15.3.2)
15.3.3 The scanning receiver used for the acceptance test shall be calibrated within the twelve months preceding the test, shall measure the reference signal received power as defined in 3GPP TS 36.214 or TS 38.215 rather than a handset's displayed value, and shall be carried at 1.5 m above the floor.
15.3.4 The acceptance test shall be performed on every floor of the service area, in every stair, elevator lobby, and parking level within the service area, and along the exterior of the building at grade as required under Signal Containment.
15.3.5 Where the test is performed before every carrier's signal source is present, it shall be performed on the bands present, and shall be repeated on each remaining band within fourteen days after that carrier's source is connected.
15.3.6 Where a floor or an area fails a criterion, the Contractor shall correct the system and retest that floor or area, and the acceptance test report shall show both the failed and the passing result.

15.4 Test Witnessing and Retests

15.4.1 Witnessing of the coverage acceptance test shall be as indicated in the datasheet.
Coverage Acceptance Test Witnessingradio
○ Witnessed by the Owner's representative or the Engineer
○ Certified test report without witnessing
NOTE A witnessed test lets the Owner's representative see the route walked, the instrument used, and the readings taken, and commits that person to a day or more on site for a large building; a certified report records the same results without the attendance and leaves any question about the route or the instrument to be settled from the logged data. Which the Owner wants depends on whether it will rely on the report to settle a dispute with a tenant or a carrier later. (15.4.2)
15.4.3 Where witnessing is selected, the Contractor shall give not less than ten days' notice of the test, and the test shall not proceed without the witness unless the witness waives attendance in writing.
15.4.4 The cost of repeating any test under this standard after a failure, including the witness's time for a witnessed retest, shall be borne by the Contractor.

16 Installation

16.1 Cable Installation

16.1.1 Coaxial and fiber cable shall be installed in the pathways indicated on the DAS riser diagram, in conduit, cable tray, or J-hooks furnished under Raceways And ConduitRaceways and ConduitResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/raceways-and-conduit, Cable TrayCable Tray SystemsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/cable-tray, and Telecommunications Rooms And PathwaysTelecommunications Rooms and PathwaysResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/telecommunications-rooms-and-pathways, and shall not be laid on the ceiling, on ductwork, or on another system's cable.
16.1.2 DAS cable shall be separated from power conductors in accordance with NFPA 70 Articles 770 and 805, and from fluorescent and LED fixtures and their drivers by not less than 12 in. except where crossing at a right angle.
16.1.3 Every penetration of a fire-resistance-rated wall, floor, or smoke barrier by DAS cable shall be firestopped under FirestoppingFirestoppingResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/firestopping with a listed system for the cable type and the assembly.
16.1.4 Cable slack of not less than 3 ft shall be left at every antenna and every remote unit, coiled to not less than the minimum bend radius and secured.

16.2 Bonding

16.2.1 The chassis of every head-end unit, remote unit, expansion unit, and power supply, and every metallic coaxial cable shield at its entry to a telecommunications room, shall be bonded to the nearest telecommunications bonding busbar with a conductor sized in accordance with ANSI/TIA-607, and the busbars and the bonding backbone shall be those furnished under Telecommunications BondingTelecommunications Bonding and GroundingResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/telecommunications-bonding.
16.2.3 Where a remote unit is installed where no telecommunications bonding busbar is within reach of a bonding conductor of the length ANSI/TIA-607 permits, the Contractor shall report the location to the Engineer and shall bond the unit as the Engineer directs.

16.3 Identification

16.3.1 Every antenna, remote unit, expansion unit, splitter, coupler, combiner, and power supply, and both ends of every coaxial and fiber cable, shall be labeled with a unique identifier in the administration scheme of ANSI/TIA-606 as applied under Structured CablingStructured Cabling SystemsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/structured-cabling, and the identifier shall match the as-built drawings and the management system.
16.3.2 Labels on antennas in finished spaces shall be placed on the face of the antenna that is concealed in service or inside the ceiling adjacent to it, so that no label is visible from the room.
16.3.3 Each remote unit and head-end unit shall carry a label stating that it is part of the DAS and giving the Owner's contact for service.
16.3.4 Equipment nameplates and circuit identification at the panelboards shall comply with Equipment LabelingElectrical Equipment LabelsResolves to the current adopted revision.sync/equipment-labeling.

16.4 Head-End and Remote Unit Mounting

16.4.1 Head-end equipment shall be mounted in equipment racks or wall-mounted enclosures in the head-end equipment room as indicated on the head-end equipment room layout, with the clearances the manufacturer publishes for airflow and service.
16.4.2 Remote units shall be mounted to structure or to a backboard at the locations indicated on the DAS riser diagram, with the manufacturer's published clearance for airflow, accessible from a lay-in ceiling, an access panel, or the floor without a lift where the location permits, and oriented so that the status indicators are visible to a technician at the unit.
16.4.3 A remote unit shall not be mounted on a ceiling tile, on ductwork, on a pipe, or above a hard ceiling with no access panel.

17 Delivery, Storage, and Handling

17.1 Active equipment shall be delivered in the manufacturer's original packaging with its serial number visible, and shall be stored indoors in a dry conditioned space within the manufacturer's published storage temperature range until installed.
17.2 Coaxial cable shall be delivered on reels with both ends capped, shall be stored upright on the reel, and shall be paid off the reel rather than pulled from a coil.
17.3 Fiber cable and fiber connector ends shall be capped until termination, and fiber shall not be bent below its minimum bend radius or loaded beyond its rated pulling tension at any point during handling.
17.4 Antennas shall be stored in their packaging until the day of installation, and an antenna whose radome is cracked or whose connector is damaged shall not be installed.
NOTE A coaxial cable that was kinked on a reel or dragged over a slab edge sweeps clean and fails its passive intermodulation test, and the fault is found only by replacing the run, so the cable is protected from the day it arrives rather than tested into compliance. (17.5)

18 Warranty

18.1 The active equipment, the antennas, the passive components, and the installation shall be warranted against defects in materials and workmanship for the period indicated in the datasheet, measured from the date of system acceptance.
Equipment and Installation Warranty Periodrange
Not less than
years
1235
NOTE A one-year term is the manufacturer's standard on most active DAS equipment and costs nothing beyond the purchase; a two-year or three-year term is bought as an extension and covers the period over which infant failures of remote units and power supplies show themselves; a five-year term is bought where the Owner wants the equipment covered until the first carrier technology change is likely to replace it. The term the Owner wants depends on who will maintain the system after the warranty ends, so the field carries no default. (18.2)
18.3 The warranty shall cover repair or replacement of the failed unit, antenna, or component, the labor to replace it, the reconfiguration of the replacement, and the retest of the affected coverage area.
18.4 Where a unit is repaired or replaced under warranty, the repaired or replaced unit shall carry a new warranty of the same term from the date of the repair, or the remainder of the original term, whichever ends later.
18.5 During the warranty period the Contractor shall furnish and install the firmware updates the manufacturer releases for the platform, and shall update the management system to match, at no additional cost to the Owner.
18.6 The warranty shall not cover a change in a carrier's signal source, band plan, or channel configuration, which is the carrier's work under its agreement with the Owner; the Contractor's warranty obligation on such a change is limited to reconfiguring the system to the new inputs at the Owner's request and expense.

19 Spare Parts

19.1 The Contractor shall deliver not fewer than one spare remote unit and one spare power supply of each type installed, matching the installed units in model, band set, and firmware, at system acceptance.
19.2 The Contractor shall deliver spare indoor service antennas of each type installed in the quantity indicated in the datasheet, as a percentage of the installed quantity of that type, with not fewer than one of each type.
Spare Indoor Antennasrange
Not less than
%
2510
NOTE A spare remote unit lets the Owner restore a zone the day a unit fails rather than the week the manufacturer ships one, and a spare antenna replaces the one a ceiling contractor breaks; the antenna quantity a project wants depends on how much ceiling work it expects over the life of the system, so the field carries no default. (19.3)
19.4 The Contractor shall deliver two spare factory-terminated coaxial jumpers of each length and connector interface installed, and one spare fiber patch cord of each type and length installed.
19.5 Spare parts shall be turned over against a written inventory signed by the Owner's representative, and the inventory shall be included in the closeout submittals.

Written and maintained by SynC. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.