In 2011, DC Water who provides wastewater treatment for the greater Washington, DC region, retained Televate, LLC to upgrade their plant wide radio network by replacing their existing VHF repeaters with a Public Safety radio network compatible distributed antenna system (DAS). The upgrade extends the City’s 700/800 MHz P25 network throughout two miles of underground tunnel facilities employing a fiber optic distribution network and 50+ bi-directional amplifiers.
Project Tasks
Televate was engaged to survey the physical plant to assess the environment and to determine the extent of the coverage requirements; perform RF propagation studies; generate a preliminary distributed antenna system design incorporating the propagation findings; draft a Request for Proposal (RFP) to solicit responses from the DAS vendor community; evaluate proposals responses to support DAS vendor selection; provide project management for the DAS installation. Additionally, Televate worked with the selected vendor to review and improve the vendor proposed design; review all vendor documentation; coordinate integration of the DAS with the host radio system; host site selection; DAS Uplink power calibration; measure DAS isolation; measure host system noise contribution; and develop baseline DAS performance metrics to serve as the basis for annual DAS inspections.
Televate additionally provided ongoing support to expand the DC Water Blue Plains DAS functionality to include support for the emerging National Public Safety Broadband Network (NPSBN); Wi-Fi throughout the underground facilities; above-ground outdoor Wi-Fi services; commercial cellular services; and underground geolocation.