The changing art of wireless system engineering

摘要

The evolution of the art of cellular systems engineering is in no small measure responsible for the commercial success of the wireless industry. In early systems, engineers learned that while network layout on the grid pattern was simple and elegant, it fell short of providing an optimal systems design. In the late 1980s, the carriers' hard-pressed systems engineering staffs began to rely heavily on computer-aided design. Cellular coverage prediction programs proved to be effective in locating sites to solve coverage problems, but they were somewhat less helpful in engineering the cell splitting needed to handle an increase in core area traffic. What allowed systems engineers to overcome the apparent capacity limits was the discovery that by adjusting the height of a cell site's antennas relative to the height of surrounding buildings and other clutter, the propagation footprint of the cell could be controlled far more effectively than by any other means available. Many carriers have more or less standardized their system designs based on use of sectorization.