ABSTRACT
Designing a cellular network is a challenging task that invites engineers to exercise all their knowledge in telecommunications. This chapter outlines the aspects involving the basic design steps in cellular network planning. It explains the basic concepts including cellular principles, performance measures and system requirements, and system expansion techniques. Engineering a cellular system to meet the required objectives is not a straightforward task. It demands a great deal of information, such as market demographics, area to be served, traffic offered, and other data not usually available in the earlier stages of system design. Radio-frequency interference is one of the most important issues to be addressed in the design, operation, and maintenance of mobile communication systems. The most critical of all interferences that can be engineered by the designer in cellular planning is co-channel interference. Designing a cellular network to meet system requirements is a challenging task which can only be partially and roughly accomplished at the design desk.
