PCS micro-cells insensitive to propagation medium

Abstract

The paper presents a fundamentally different approach to radio deployment, specially for micro-cellular and PCS. The salient concept of the proposed method is a unique combination of design parameters: antenna height, transmit frequency, transmit power (ERP) and handoff threshold for which the cell radius remains within the Fresnel zone break point. In this region, the attenuation slope is similar to free space (/spl gamma//spl ap/=2) irrespective of the propagation medium. Consequently, a cell whose radius is within this region remains insensitive to the propagation medium, since diffraction and other scattering phenomena occur beyond the first Fresnel zone break point. A propagation model, incorporating the Fresnel zone phenomena, has been developed. It directly computes the cell radius as a function of frequency, antenna height, ERP and handoff threshold, for which the cell radius is always within the Fresnel zone boundary and remains virtually insensitive to variations of propagation medium. The radii available within this region are appropriate for low power PCS and micro-cellular services, offering a greatly simplified deployment process.