In-building mobile infrastructure for Optus HQ

When Optus built a new campus-style headquarters in Macquarie Park, Sydney, the company selected Andrew Wireless Solutions to design and install an in-building wireless mobile communication infrastructure system.

With the campus spread across eight hectares and 84,000 m² of office space in six separate buildings, the campus is the largest of its kind in Australia.

“With the new campus serving more than 6000 Optus staff, it’s key for the facility to have an effective and efficient wireless system for seamless communications,” says Jon Wilkie, director of corporate services, Singtel Optus.

The new system uses the Intelligent Optical Network (ION) series, an optical distribution system for carrying radio signals loss free over fibre optics. This installed system contains two main components: the master unit and the remote unit. The master unit is collocated with the base station (or repeater) and connected via an RF interface (coaxial cable).

The system is designed to include 75 dual-band remote units to extend and enhance coverage across a total building area at the new campus. It also has 14 UMTS sectors running HSDPA and six GSM sectors to cover the wide and densely populated area and address any multi-band, multi-carrier applications.

These remote units are connected to a master unit collocated with the base station up to three kilometres away. The remote units can transport radio frequencies regardless of protocol and modulation, allowing for future network expansion. In addition, the automatic gain control feature reduces design, installation and optimisation time.

The system is also capable of transporting frequencies from 800 to 2500 MHz regardless of protocol and modulation.

Andrew began installation of the system in April 2007 and completed the project by July 2007.

According to Wilkie, the wireless mobile system has met Optus’s requirements for speed and coverage.

“Andrew’s products for in-building mobile coverage and capacity will provide our people with highly reliable communications that enable them to communicate, interact and work anywhere within the campus,” he says.