Measured performance of QPSK in a PCS environment for a TDMA portable radio link

Field measurements in a light urban environment of a wireless digital portable radio at 2.1 GHz are reported. The experiments were designed to test the radio link of a low-power TDMA based system suitable for access to telephone networks. The experimental technology used was proposed and implemented by Bellcore. The tests were conducted in a light business area with heavy tree foliage along the streets in Boulder, CO. Quality metrics used were: Subjective Voice Quality, Word Error Rates (WER), and Received Signal Strength (RSS); for these experiments the radio coverage was power limited, not delay spread limited. Thus, adaptive equalizers were unnecessary. Excellent coverage was obtained within +/- three blocks line of sight from the base (outdoor) and +/- one block from the base in a mixed (indoor-to-outdoors) environment. This work is targeted towards understanding the implications to local exchange network of wireless technology alternatives that could provide access to those networks