ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the basic principles of cellular mobile radio systems, giving an overview of the main points to be considered in a system design. It traces the outstanding differences between conventional and cellular networks, introducing the jargon commonly used in the latter. A cellular mobile radio system can be built according to a centralized or a decentralized architecture. The applications of the theory of symmetry and patterns have usually had crystallographic studies as their main target; only recently has this theory been used in engineering, mainly in cellular mobile radio. The basic objective of the cellular mobile radio is to provide flexibility to the subscriber, who is initially familiar with the fixed telephone network. “The main purpose of defining cells in a mobile radio system is to delineate areas in which either specific channels or a specific base station will be used at least preferentially, if not exclusively”. The radio comprises the transmitters, receivers, towers, and antennas.
