Passive and Active Infrastructure

[DouglasC]

Hello!

I'm doing an assignment for ITE, in which we have to deisgn a smart home. We are asked what passive and active infrastructure is required, however, I have no idea what these are, and our teacher is away, and we have had reliefs who aren't IT teachers.

Does anyone know this, and are they willing to share? Thanks!

[Aegis]

I'm poking around now, Douglas.  I have some ideas, but I don't want to "say" much, yet.  I used to work in telecomm, and I never heard those terms.  Let me see what I can find...

Here's a start:  http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1312297/

From the article:

So far, Indian telecom companies were permitted to share only passive infrastructure such as towers, repeaters, shelters and generators. Active infrastructure sharing will allow operators to use all key electronic components including antennas, feeder cables, nodes, radio access network, transmission systems and backhaul, with the exception of spectrum. ET had reported about DoT giving its nod to the active infrastructure sharing policy in its edition date February 21.

"Active infrastructure sharing will be limited to antenna, feeder cable, Node B, Radio Access Network (RAN) and transmission system only. Sharing of the allocated spectrum will not be permitted. The licensing conditions will be suitably amended wherever necessary to permit such sharing," the DoT said in a statement.

Put simply, the DoT announcement means that apart from spectrum (radio frequencies), telcos can now share all physical infrastructure.

The policy will give a boost to the new entrants who have bagged licences for telecom operations who can now share both active and passive infrastructure of existing players and launch services within a short span. The quick rollout is likely to trigger off a fresh tariff war which may lead to cuts in call rates.

Now, this is wireless, I know...I'm still looking...

Another article:  http://voicendata.ciol.com/content/broadband/108050107.asp

From this article:

Passive infrastructure sharing refers to sharing of physical sites, buildings, shelters, towers, power supply, and battery backup.

Active infrastructure sharing, in addition, involves access to common antenna, feeder cable, Node B, radio access network (RAN), and transmission system. Sharing of allocated spectrum, however, is not allowed as of now.

From wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecom_infrastructure_sharing

Passive Infrastructure Sharing Passive Infrastructure sharing is nothing but sharing non-electronic infrastructure at cell site. Passive Infrastructure is becoming popular in telecom industry world wide.

Active Sharing Active sharing is nothing but sharing electronic infrastructure.

Every reference I found was for wireless.  I don't know if these concepts apply to other forms of networks, but I suppose they could, just as well.