Techniques for diminishing latency in a distributed antenna system

1 . A distributed antenna system (DAS) serving a base station, the distributed antenna system comprising:

a donor card configured to communicatively couple the base station to the DAS and to communicate time-domain digital data therebetween;

a plurality of radio units (RUs); and

an Ethernet network coupling the plurality of RUs and the donor card;

wherein the DAS is configured so that the time-domain digital data is communicated over the Ethernet network in packets, wherein each packet has a fixed, minimum latency when each packet comprises a payload block of N′ bits and an application layer header of H bits, wherein N′=b*R*H/(C−b*R), wherein b is a number of bits representing an IQ data sample, C is an available link capacity, and R is a sample rate of data.

2 . The DAS of claim 1 , further comprising a master unit communicatively coupled between the donor card and the Ethernet network.

3 . The DAS of claim 1 , wherein the fixed, minimum latency, Lmin, equals:

H /( C −( b*R )).

4 . The DAS of claim 1 , wherein the Ethernet network is a switched Ethernet network.

5 . A method of reducing latency in an uplink path and a downlink path of a distributed antenna system (DAS), the method comprising:

determining a bit size, N′, of a payload block of each packet, wherein each packet comprises an application layer header of H bits and the payload block, wherein N′=b*R*H/(C−b*R), and wherein b is a number of bits representing an IQ data sample, C is an available link capacity, and R is a sample rate of data; and

transmitting, in the uplink or the downlink path of the DAS, each packet of time domain-digital data over an Ethernet network, wherein each packet has a payload block bit size of N′ and an application layer header bit size of H.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein each packet has a fixed, minimum latency, Lmin, equal to:

H /( C −( b*R )).

7 . A distributed antenna system (DAS) serving a base station, the distributed antenna system comprising:

a donor card configured to communicatively couple the base station to the DAS and to communicate time-domain digital data therebetween;

a plurality of radio units (RUs); and

an Ethernet network coupling the plurality of RUs and the donor card;

wherein the DAS is configured so that the time-domain digital data is communicated over the Ethernet network in packets, wherein each packet comprises a payload block of N″ bits and an application layer header of H bits, wherein N″=Lmin*b*R, wherein Lmin is a minimum acceptable latency, b is a number of bits representing an IQ data sample, and R is a sample rate of data.

8 . The DAS of claim 7 , further comprising a master unit communicatively coupled between the donor card and the Ethernet network.

9 . The DAS of claim 7 , wherein the Ethernet network is a switched Ethernet network.