Performance engineering of cellular radio systems

The natural attenuation of a radio signal, which increases with the distance from the transmitter, allows a single carrier frequency to be used to convey two or more conversations simultaneously provided that the associated radio paths a geographically sufficiently remote from each other. Cellular Radio Systems have been developed to take advantage of radio signal attenuation in a highly organised manner, in order to provide a national mobile radiotelephone service for all who are willing to pay for it, which maintains an acceptable grade of service by extensive reuse over the service area of the limited number of distinct channels available. The issues involved in engineering a cellular radio system to meet overall performance targets are considered. A basic system design is examined, and various modifications to that design are then considered and shown to give potentially worthwhile improvements in the traffic carrying capacity of the system