System aspects of cellular radio

The greatest single factor in enhancing spectral efficiency of a network is the mass deployment of microcells. By this simple technique we can repeatedly and efficiently reuse the precious spectrum. The number of users a network can support is fundamentally dependent on the common air interface (CAI) over which users communicate. User capacity is dependent on many factors, but the cardinal ones are the amount of spectrum the regulators allocate, the size of the radio coverage area from a base station (BS), and the amount of interference a particular radio link can tolerate. In this article we are primarily concerned with the system aspects associated with the CAI. We focus on the critical importance of BS siting. Starting with existing large cells, we deliberate on the problems that might arise in siting BSs in three dimensional microcells, in order to consider suitable multiple access methods for future cellular environments