[394] Antenna System Will Increase Wireless Coverage, Capacity On MTSU Campus

April 5, 2011
CONTACT: Tom Tozer, 615-898-2919

ANTENNA SYSTEM WILL INCREASE WIRELESS COVERAGE, CAPACITY ON MTSU CAMPUS

MURFREESBORO—In December of 2010, Middle Tennessee State University signed a contract with Longent LLC to install a Distributed Antenna System throughout campus to add wireless communication coverage and capacity to campus. A design for the placement of antennae is currently underway, and the system should be fully operational by fall.
Wireless carriers have sought ways to expand their coverage area because of increased wireless use on campus. The building of another communications tower required space that just didn’t exist. The DAS replaces the need for a large tower with strategically placed smaller antennae on rooftops.
If external antennae do not provide the needed coverage, some antennae, resembling a smoke detector, will be placed inside certain facilities.
“When you start to look at the growth of the use of the Smart Phones and the increasing demands, there are many dead spots on the campus,” said Bruce Petryshak, MTSU vice president of Information Technology. “We’re trying to future-proof the university as best you can with regards to this kind of technology.”
The elimination of dead zones on campus will be particularly important with emergency notification, he noted. The basement of the Cope Administration Building, for example, is the designated “safe place” for tornado warnings. However, cell phones often don’t receive a signal in that area. The DAS will allow building runners in Cope and other more isolated areas to communicate with public-safety officials to find out when an all-clear has been issued.
“Longent is a neutral partner providing the infrastructure for the system,” noted Steve Prichard, telecommunications director, who helped prepare the RFP and is working closely on the project. “Longent makes it possible for the carriers to connect into this antennae system, and their signal is then broadcast over the network. It’s a very localized system. … It’s focused much more on getting coverage within a small geographic area. It’s designed to cover the core campus.”
Prichard said DAS is referred to as a micro-cell system, whereas the traditional large towers are macro-cell systems.
“Distributed antenna systems were first used in sports venues, stadiums, arenas and also airports,” Prichard said. “It has now expanded to universities, hospitals and convention centers, places where masses of people come together and want to use their phones for voice or data purposes.”
“At a football game, for example, you can have a lot of people and density suddenly becomes important,” Petryshak added. “Everyone is looking up a web page or posting photos. The beauty of it is it’s not vendor-specific. Whatever carrier you have on campus that participates on the network will have top connectivity.”
Prichard said he anticipates that AT&T and Verizon will come on board. Those two carriers comprise about 80 percent of those registered with RAVE Wireless, the emergency-notification system on campus. He said the DAS will accommodate four or more carriers, so he hopes other phone services will become part of the DAS.
“The carriers have seen the growth at MTSU and figured out that it would be nice to serve that market,” Prichard said. “They have anticipated this explosion in Smart Phones, wireless devices, tablets and so on. They see that people are pulling more and more traffic from the wireless carriers than ever before. They want to give the user the best possible service.”
And it won’t cost the university a dime.
“As the carriers come on board, they will pay an access fee,” Petryshak pointed out. “We have a third-party company that’s putting in the system. They will make the arrangements with the carriers, and that’s how they get paid.”
“It’s been estimated that it would cost $1 to $2 million to install the DAS,” Prichard said. “If only two carriers sign on, it would be a fifty-fifty cost. If we get two carriers to come on right away, it will make it more lucrative for additional carriers to come on. Everyone would share the cost. Each carrier would have its own specific equipment to carry a signal, but they would share a distribution infrastructure put together by our third-party provider.
“We should see a big improvement in making and receiving phone calls and the use of data devices,” Prichard said.

Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. MTSU now boasts one of the nation’s first master’s degree programs in horse science, and the Council of Graduate Schools in Washington, D.C., acclaims MTSU’s Master of Science in Professional Science degree — the only one in Tennessee — as a model program. MTSU recently unveiled three new doctoral degrees in the sciences.

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For head shots of Petryshak and Prichard, email ttozer@mtsu.edu.