LTE performance in a hybrid indoor DAS (Active vs. Passive)

This paper analyses LTE performance of active and passive sections in a medium-size hybrid Distributed Antenna System (DAS), in real indoor conditions. Overall, the measurements have shown similar results at both sections, in terms of latency and throughput. The passive portion outperforms the active in average FTP DL throughput by 7.3%, while FTP UL throughputs are nearly the same, differing by less than 0.3%. The results indicate that the utilization of expensive active elements in small to medium-size In-Building Solutions (IBS) is reasonable for overcoming large cable lengths, but does not necessarily imply better LTE performance.