Shared infrastructure provider ExteNet Systems continues to rack up wins in the connected sports/entertainment venue market, this week marking its 25th operational deployment with more in the pipeline.
According to the company, this milestone in what they term “distributed network systems” deployments includes total coverage of more than 25-million-square feet, as well as some 1,500 acres of outdoor space. These venues run the gamut from homes to NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and NCAA teams, and include marquee spaces like Madison Square Garden, Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, and the Barclays Center.
In a wide-ranging interview with ExteNet Systems CTO Tormod Larsen conducted during the Wireless Infrastructure Show in May, the executive discussed the centrality of not just technology, but also broader architecture in support of increasing network densification.
“It’s not about just the technology. The components of architecture here are densification, the transport network, which is fiber, and the last element is how do you start distributing the routing and switching side of the core to be able to meet the requirement of 5G? The same kind of applies to 4G. If you look technology-wise at what 5G is, it’s on the same path there, it’s just how do you create an architecture that provides much higher bandwidth and lower latency and some of the mission critical elements, which security seems to be coming up more and more frequently.”
He expounded on a holistic, industry-wide approach: “You have tower companies, fiber companies, content providers, cable companies and so on. We need to start collaborating more and understanding how all of these different components work together to get there faster and more cost effectively and with a better result. Then you need to understand the bigger picture, not just I need a site at this location and I”ll lease it up with the four carriers. That’s where we see the industry headed. If you look at what we’ve done, that’s kind of what we’ve done all along. If you think about just the carriers themselves…they have had very different goals and objectives serving different demographics, their willingness to spend money and how. Bringing that together, we’ve done that for a long time, part of it is realizing that things will not be perfect. What’s the best solution? It’s where you get that intersection. And maybe not trying to do all of it at once. When we try to build a network today and it’s what we’ve seen with smart cities and the struggles they’ve had is trying to get everything perfect out of the gate. But that’s fine. It’s finding that balance of taking it in bite sizes and knowing that the overall purpose here is to support more customers.”
