Small Cell & DAS Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Concentration at the top. The top 5 assignees hold 42.8% of all 484 records in scope, and the top 10 hold 58.1% — a small group has staked out most of the claim space.
- Filing has cooled since 2019. Filings peaked at 52 in 2019 and had fallen to 15 by the 2022 midpoint, with the leading assignees showing 0 filings or -100% year-on-year in the latest year of the dataset.
- Wireless-network claims dominate the IPC mix. H04W covers 91.7% of the 484 records, while adjacent classes like antennas (H01Q, 3.1%) and telephonic communication (H04M, 2.7%) are comparatively thin.
What this landscape covers
This dataset tracks 484 published records filed between 2015 and mid-2026 that combine small cell, distributed antenna system (DAS) or indoor coverage system claims with backhaul, interference management, site acquisition, power-over-Ethernet or neutral-host language, classified under H04W16, H04W88 or H04B7. It is a deliberately narrow cut of wireless infrastructure patenting: the intersection of physical deployment architecture (DAS, small cell radio units) and the operational problems — who backhauls it, who manages interference, who hosts multiple carriers on one system — that determine whether a network actually gets built.
Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the final one or two years in any trend understate real filing activity; treat the most recent year as a floor, not a ceiling.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 484-record dataset: how filing activity has moved year over year, and which IPC subclasses the claims actually sit in.
Filing trend, 2017-2026
Filings rose to a peak of 52 in 2019, had dropped to 15 by 2022, and stood at 1 in the partial final year — a pattern consistent with a technology area whose architecture claims were staked out early and are now being consolidated rather than expanded.
IPC subclass composition
H04W (wireless communication networks) appears in 91.7% of the 484 records and H04B (transmission, general) in 40.7%, confirming this corpus is architecture- and network-management-heavy. Antenna hardware (H01Q, 3.1%) and telephonic communication (H04M, 2.7%) carry far fewer records, which is a starting point for spotting under-claimed adjacent branches, not proof those branches are empty.
Shares are the percentage of the 484 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Small Cells and Distributed Antenna Systems with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about small cells and distributed antenna systems and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaRepresentative filing: neutral-host architecture
Neutral-host architecture for a distributed antenna system (Dali Systems, filed 2013)
A remote radio head unit (RRU) system for achieving high data rate communications in a Distributed Antenna System is disclosed. The Distributed Antenna System is configured as a Neutral Host enabling multiple operators to exist on one DAS system. The present disclosure enables a remote radio head unit to be field reconfigurable and support multi-modulation schemes, multi-carriers, multi-frequency bands and multi-channels, making the system suitable for base-stations, repeaters and indoor signal coverage systems.Filed by Dali Systems; publication EP2606435A1.
View full record| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US20140126914A1 | Optical fiber-based distributed radio frequency (RF) antenna systems supporting multiple-input, multiple-outp… | 278 |
| 2 | US8175649B2 | Method and system for real time control of an active antenna over a distributed antenna system | 236 |
| 3 | US9020555B2 | System and method for performance enhancement in heterogeneous wireless access network employing distributed … | 211 |
| 4 | US20140072064A1 | Software configurable distributed antenna system and method for reducing uplink noise | 184 |
| 5 | US20150382208A1 | Method and apparatus for managing wireless probe devices | 181 |
| 6 | US7848770B2 | Distributed antenna communications system and methods of implementing thereof | 173 |
| 7 | CA2664573A1 | A method and apparatus for using distributed antennas | 155 |
| 8 | US20080212969A1 | Method and apparatus for using distributed antennas | 104 |
| 9 | WO2008039830A2 | A method and apparatus for using distributed antennas | 91 |
| 10 | US20150173011A1 | Small cell clusters for signaling load reduction, time synchronization, KPI filtering and spectrum coordinati… | 89 |
Ranked by citation count within this corpus; older filings accumulate more citations by default, so treat this as a signal of influence on subsequent filers rather than of current commercial importance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Browse MCP servers →What the numbers mean for a filing decision
Three patterns stand out once the assignee ranking, filing trend and IPC composition are read together.
A small group controls the core architecture
With the leader alone credited with 70 records and the top 5 combined covering 207 of the 484 records in scope, new entrants are filing into ground that a handful of DAS and small-cell specialists and infrastructure vendors have already occupied for a decade.
Filing has cooled well before the data cut-off
Several of the largest historical filers show 0 filings in the latest year, some with a -100% year-on-year change. That does not mean the technology is abandoned — publication lag means the newest filings are not yet visible — but it does mean the pace of new architecture claims has slowed markedly since 2019.
Network-layer claims outweigh hardware claims
H04W and H04B together dominate the corpus, while antenna-specific claims (H01Q) sit at just 3.1% and telephonic communication (H04M) at 2.7%. That imbalance suggests the network-management and backhaul layer is the more heavily claimed territory, and hardware-adjacent framing may face less prior art.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to small cells and distributed antenna systems, with the prior art for and against each one.
Who is filing, and where the openings sit
The ranked list covers 98 companies counted by record share, not a top-50 or top-100 cut — it is the full set the data endpoint returns for this search.
One filer well ahead of the field
The leading assignee's 70 records dwarf the fifth-place figure of 22 and the tenth-place figure of 12, meaning the drop-off from first place is steep rather than gradual.
A long tail beyond the top 10
Once past the top 10 (which together hold 58.1% of all 484 records), the remaining assignees each hold small, scattered shares — evidence of many single-project or defensive filers rather than a second tier of specialists.
Co-filing is rare, and mostly intra-company
Only five co-assignee pairs appear in the dataset, and the strongest recurring pairs link an entity with its own subsidiary or link named inventors to their employer, rather than showing cross-company joint filing. This is a fragmented ownership landscape, not a collaborative one.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Dali Systems Co. Ltd. | 0 | — |
| SOLID Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| DALI WIRELESS INC | 0 | -100% |
| Cisco Technology, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Qualcomm Incorporated | 0 | — |
| Outdoor Wireless Networks LLC | 0 | -100% |
| Ubicquia Inc. | 0 | — |
| CommScope Technologies LLC | 0 | — |
Where to take this next
The dataset points to specific next steps depending on whether the goal is freedom-to-operate, competitive tracking, or drafting around occupied claim space.
Check freedom-to-operate on neutral-host claims
Given the citation weight behind neutral-host and RRU architecture filings, any new indoor-coverage or multi-operator design should be checked against the highest-cited records before drafting.
Run an FTO check in EurekaTrack the leading assignees' recent activity
Several top filers show zero activity in the latest recorded year; confirming whether that is a real slowdown or a publication-lag artefact matters before assuming the space is open.
Monitor assignee activity in EurekaDraft into the thinner IPC branches
Antenna-hardware and telephonic-layer classes carry far fewer records than the network-management core, which may leave more room for a clean first claim.
Explore white space in EurekaFrequently asked questions
One assignee leads the ranked list with 70 records, well ahead of the fifth-place holder at 22 and tenth-place at 12. The top 5 assignees combined account for 42.8% of the 484 records in scope, and the top 10 account for 58.1%. That means the field is concentrated but not monopolised — over 40% of records sit outside the top 10 filers, spread across a long tail of smaller and single-project entrants.
No. Filings peaked at 52 in 2019 and had fallen to 15 by the 2022 midpoint of the trend, with several of the largest historical filers recording zero filings in the most recent year. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the very last year or two in any dataset understates real activity, but the multi-year decline from the 2019 peak predates that lag effect and looks like a genuine slowdown in new architecture claims.
EP2606435A1, assigned to Dali Systems, covers a remote radio head unit system configured as a neutral host, enabling multiple mobile operators to share one distributed antenna system. Its claims center on field-reconfigurable hardware supporting multiple modulation schemes, carriers, frequency bands and channels, aimed at base stations, repeaters and indoor coverage systems. Anyone designing a multi-operator DAS or neutral-host indoor system should review this filing specifically for overlap with its RRU reconfigurability claims.
H04W (wireless communication networks) appears in 91.7% of the 484 records in scope, making it the dominant class by a wide margin, followed by H04B (transmission, general) at 40.7% and H04L (digital information transmission) at 29.1%. Narrower classes such as H01Q (antennas, 3.1%) and H04M (telephonic communication, 2.7%) carry far fewer records, which is worth noting when scoping a search or looking for less-crowded claim territory. Because a single record can carry several IPC codes, these percentages add up to well over 100% and should not be summed.
The comparatively thin coverage in antenna hardware (H01Q), telephonic-layer integration (H04M), and switching/selecting (H04Q) relative to the dominant H04W/H04B network-layer claims suggests these adjacent branches carry less claim density. Power-over-Ethernet backhaul framing and multi-operator interference arbitration also appear less saturated based on the class distribution. None of this proves those areas are empty — it means the density is lower, so a targeted prior-art search there is more likely to surface open claim space than a search in the core H04W territory.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.