Jurisdictional issues

Public-safety DAS equipment is life-safety and mission-critical equipment. It must not be accessible to others, such as commercial DAS technicians and maintenance personnel. Keeping the two DAS separated allows proper access and security controls to be exercised by the public-safety agency.

Commercial-service maintenance personnel with access to the entire system, including switches and interconnection cables, could inadvertently interrupt public-safety service while making changes to their co-located cellular gear. Public-safety equipment should be under separate lock and key, with access by only authorized personnel.

Changes to a neutral-host DAS that includes public-safety services would require concurrence from all cellular services, as well as Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJ). This means the combined network has a commercial committee making decisions on system changes, maintenance schedules and technology upgrades. A public-safety system must not be controlled by commercial, for-profit entities; it must be controlled and maintained directly by the building owner and the responsible public-safety authority.

A look at these considerations shows that public-safety DAS should be kept separate from cellular DAS. While a casual look at the problem suggests that it’s more efficient to combine the two systems, the reality is that public-safety DAS is unique and should be deployed and managed separately.

John Spindler is the director of product management for TE Connectivity’s Wireless Business Unit. During his more than 20 years of industry experience, Spindler has held a variety of product management positions with companies such as Nortel Networks, GTE and InteCom. In these positions, he had responsibility for the areas of networking, network management, computer telephony integration and wireless technologies. He can be reached via email: [email protected]. For more information, please visit www.te.com/das.