or network failures, even momentary connectivity loss can compromise incident response or delay recovery. Recognizing these challenges, many data center operators are now adopting dual-purpose cellular architectures that combine public carrier access for general communications with private cellular for mission-critical or latency-sensitive applications. Both can coexist within a unified DAS framework – seamlessly improving efficiency, safety, and security.
Traditional data centers were built for machines, not mobile users. However, today’s operations involve a mobile workforce of technicians, IT professionals, and security staff who depend on smartphones, tablets, and IoT devices for access, monitoring, and collaboration. industrial areas. Although outdoor cellular service typically exists, the heavy physical shielding of data centers—steel, concrete, and metalized glass—prevents reliable indoor reception. For facilities designed with security, privacy, and physical hardening as top priorities, these same features inadvertently inhibit wireless access. This presents more than a convenience issue. Without consistent cellular coverage, safety systems, IoT sensors, and maintenance personnel lose redundancy, while visitors may lose their primary means of communication. In emergency events
ROLE OF DAS AS FOUNDATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE
By Michiel Lotter, Colin Abrey, and Brian Ensign DAS-Based Private Networking and AI Sensing for Data Centers
A DAS serves as the circulatory network of indoor wireless, extending cellular signals via strategically placed antennas connected through coaxial or optical fiber distribution. While DAS was once viewed as a capital expense justified primarily for large venues, advances in intelligent repeaters, digital signal distribution, and modular DAS technologies have made deployment feasible and cost-effective for data centers of any size. Using a layered approach (Figure 1), the same physical DAS infrastructure can: • Support multi-carrier public cellular service, ensuring that personnel and visitors can communicate regardless of carrier.
Modern data centers are the beating heart of the digital economy, hosting cloud services, edge computing, and mission-critical applications that sustain commerce, healthcare, and public infrastructure. Data centers rely heavily on robust connectivity for their operations, security, and workforce efficiency, and while it is common to have Wi-Fi and wired networks deployed, in many facilities, cellular coverage remains an afterthought. Even when considered, the legacy challenges associated with delivering indoor cellular coverage continue to hinder the implementation of a complete wireless strategy for some data center operators. Thick, reinforced walls, underground or windowless construction, and remote geographic placement can limit cellular signal penetration, creating communications blind spots for employees, contractors, and critical first responders. The latest quick-install,
intelligent cellular distributed antenna system (DAS) has overcome these challenges, enabling affordable, secure, private, and AI sensor network deployment industry-wide. Forward-looking data center operators are reimagining in-building wireless infrastructure as a flexible, multipurpose platform—capable of supporting both public cellular access and private cellular networks. This approach, made possible by recent technological advances and regulatory changes, allows data center operators to treat DAS not as one-time signal boosters, but as extensible frameworks that can evolve and scale over time to meet changing needs. Properly designed intelligent repeater-based DAS can support carrier- grade mobile service, enable private 5G and internet of things (IoT) applications, and provide the foundation for safety and environmental monitoring—all while enhancing operational efficiency and reducing downtime. and IoT devices for access, monitoring, and collaboration. Increasingly, these devices require cellular connectivity to maintain service continuity when Wi-Fi is congested or unavailable. Complicating matters, many data centers are located outside dense urban cores, in low-traffic or remote
THE CHANGING CONNECTIVITY LANDSCAPE IN DATA CENTERS
Traditional data centers were built for machines, not mobile users. However, today’s operations involve a mobile workforce of technicians, IT professionals, and security staff who depend on smartphones, tablets,
FIGURE 1 : Layers of wireless connectivity in a data center. Source: Nextivity.
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January/February/March 2026
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