Indoor Applications - Airports
In addition to outdoor deployments, our repeaters can be utilized indoors where there is a need for strong coverage and robust capacity due to the number of users. There is a large range in the quality of coverage at different airports due to user density and available spectrum. And this doesn't even account for airports where the shape or interior design of the building leaves some areas severely lacking in quality coverage.
At the airport shown in the image to the right, the existing gNB only covered a portion of the airport. If a traveler's gate was at one of the far ends of the airport, they were out of luck. Of course another gNB or two could have been installed, but this is a time-intensive and costly process. With two Pivot installations — one of them a dual service installation to service the two gates to the right —high speed mmWave coverage can be provided to more gates, and more travelers.
Airports pose other unique challenges such as structural shadowing due to beams or walls along the concourse. The image below shows how concrete walls at the gates led to a dramatic reduction in throughput — as low as 18 Mbps during our testing — when users were waiting for their flights.
A dual sector Pivot (one donor unit, two service units) was deployed at both the North and South concourses with the service units pointed diagonally at the gate areas. At eight testing locations, four at each concourse, average throughput rose from 42.6 Mbps to 817.6 Mbps, an incease of 1,818%. You can see speed tests at one of our testing locations in the photo below. This shows how just one or two Pivots deployed indoors can provide a dramatic improvement in the user experience at an airport and other large or uniquely shaped buildings.
Speed tests taken at one of our test locations in the north concourse.
To read our white paper on this deployment, click here.