That dazzling piece of technology you are holding right now is almost useless without a network to power it.
Good day Steemian! Keep on reading as I reveal some facts about the network behind your phone.
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To keep your communication with whoever you want, that is away from you, you need a cellular network to keep you connected.
The word cell that I am about to elaborate is the combination of a cell site and a footprint. Basically, in Cellular Communication the proper term for cell site is Base Transmitter Station. In this type of communication we are going to use not one but rather two or more B.T.S. all throughout a certain City to be able to call or communicate with other people. So there should be interconnectivity between B.T.S. Therefore, we can say that Cellular Communication is the usage of two or more cells.
What is a Cell?
Cell is the basic unit of Cellular Communication. It covers a geographical area. If you interconnect different cells then that is what we call Cellular Communication. We can say that Cellular Communication does not mean that we are using a cell phone. So for instance we say, “Can I borrow your cell?” then you are purely using a wrong term. So what must be the right words to say? Well you should say mobile phone or cellular phone instead of cell alone. Thus, from now on, never use the word cell because that word is composed of a transmitter plus a footprint which is represented by a hexagonal shape.
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Base Transmitter Station’s geographical area is represented by hexagonal shape or honeycomb just like what we can see in the movie in titled POOH. Did you happen to watch that movie? Then I am pretty sure you know what I mean.
why of all geometrical shape, it has to be hexagonal?
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Well, in general, the best transmitter must radiate Omni-directionally and not just directionally. When we say Omni-directionally, those transmitters have equal strengths at all angles. In short, it is circular. But in reality it is very hard or difficult to achieve Omni-directional radiation because antennas are directional. When we say directional when you twist or tune the antenna on its one side then it will give a not distorted output but when you do it on the other side then it will be of much distorted output. Antennas in our home are directional elements or devices, and not Omni-directional. For that reason, we can say that Omni-directional antennas are just theoretical in nature. According to experts, closest representation to the ideal geometrical pattern which is the circle is a hexagon. That is why by theory, it’s represented that the footprint is not circular rather hexagonal in shape. In reality, can we really see that the cell of a certain network is hexagonal? No, we cannot but in theory it is hexagonal.
Since our cell sites are not Omni-directional: as we walk away from a cell site then our signal level dwindles, the signal gradually drops; and as we walk towards or to go near a cell site then our signal level amplifies, it simply increases in strength. What makes our signal level amplify in a much greater strength is when the SIM card that we are using coordinates or just the same with the Telecom Company’s cell site that we are near with.
Without the cell site, can we use a cellular phone?
Of course yes, we can play games; listen to music; or watch our saved videos but we cannot communicate with other people through it since it will be just out of service so there is really significance in having a cell site.
How does the number of subscribers affect a cell site?
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The number of cell sites is proportional to the number of subscribers. That means that if a certain place has a very huge population then it needs numerous number of cell sites. Because imagine, if a whole city has only one cell site then what do you think would happen to millions of subscribers? So to satisfy users there is a need for a cluster. Cluster is said to be the group of cells with the same provider.
Let us sight this as an example. What country has the smallest area of population? Isn’t it The Vatican City? That is just a trivia but since that country has lesser number of people compared to other countries then they also have lesser number of cell sites because again the number of cell sites is proportional to the number of population. If your cell has an area of 0.5 square miles then it refers as picocell; if it covers an area of 6 to 7 square miles then it is called as microcell; and the largest one is macrocell which covers 11 square miles.
Do cell sites have the same sizes?
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No, they are not. Can you see some cell sites that were placed above a building or residential places? Those are Picocells. Some of those are from Telecom Companies. Residence or owners of that specific house give them authority to put it there as they can earn from it. Do you know that Telecom Companies pay for their picocells for around 30,000 pesos or $588 every month? That is a passive income! You can even be unemployed as long as it is there but the negative effect is the possible cancer you can get from its radiations. Anyways, cells differ in size in accordance to the size of area they cater.
Cell Splitting and Cell Sectoring
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A place with loads of people needs to apply Cell Splitting and Cell Sectoring. Cell Splitting is when a single original cell will be divided into smaller once in order to reduce the traffic of network and to cater the increase of subscribers due to the influx of people that goes in and out of that area; while Cell Sectoring is when channel capacity of a cell is increased. So when a message is delayed and the reason is because you are in a place that is prone to network traffic then that Telecom Company will apply those techniques.
What is Frequency Reuse?
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Let us say we have 3 Million cells and each of them has their own operating frequencies, the consequence of that is our frequency spectrum will be totally consumed. So in short, it is not advisable that cell sites of the same area have their own corresponding frequencies. That is the reason why Frequency Reuse is applied. It is where the frequency assignment of the cell will be used again by another cell provided that they are far from each other and not adjacent to each other so that it will not be prone to interference. I am explaining this because it is a great thing to know what Electronics and Communication Engineers did for us to manage an effective communication and our frequency spectrum.
How do cells function?
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Well, there is what we call roaming. It is the transfer of mobile unit from a network to another network. There is a possibility for a cut in signal so as a counterpart for it is that a cell will be passing a certain mobile unit to another cell before the cutting of communication link. This process of passing a mobile unit from one cell to another is called handover and can be either a hard handover or a soft handover.
With a Hard handover, the mobile unit breaks its connection with one base station before establishing voice communications with a new base station. This generally occurs when a mobile unit is passed between disjointed systems with different frequency assignments, air interface characteristics or technologies. While, Soft handover is when a mobile unit establishes contact with a new base station before giving up its current radio channel.
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So that means that if you travel to a far place, you will pass through cells. From time to time, a handover will occur because not all the distance will be covered by only one cell and you need to attain the continual of a communication process. For example you are riding to that vehicle then at first you are near to cell site and after passing across the boundary of two cell sites, you came near to the next cell site so your communication link was already passed on to that cell site. But what if you are at the center of the boundary? What happen is that the cellsite that is producing a greater strength is the one who will allocate your communication process.
Bibliography
- Electronic Communications System by Wayne Tomasi
I hope you had a great time reading the deep thoughts in the sweats and efforts that goes in to the network that keeps us all connected.