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How Cell Towers Work
BY MICHAEL HARRIS
As a cell tower site leaseholder, you are familiar with the income and expenses
of the business. But how about the technologies involved and their role in the
delivery of wireless communications services that we rely on every day?
To understand how cell towers and base stations work, start by taking a look in your own home.
If you are like 80% of your American neighbors, you own a cordless phone system that plugs
into your home telephone line. As the name implies, a cordless handset connects wirelessly to
a small “base station,” allowing you to walk and talk untethered while maintaining a link to the
wires of the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
In principle, a cellular tower and base station that enable voice and data services for a Blackberry
or iPhone aren’t much different. Except, of course, that they are built to withstand the elements,
cover a far greater geographic area than your home, simultaneously support hundreds of
handsets, operate in different radio frequencies, and allow users to maintain their connections
while traveling from one base station to another, even while driving at highway speeds.
Towers, Cells and Hexes
We’re not launching into a discussion about life in medieval Europe. Rather, towers, cells and
hexes are key building blocks for the
design and operation of wireless
communications networks.
In the wireless world, a cell is the
geographic coverage area enabled by a
tower. Locations are carefully selected to
ensure that individual cells form a tightly
knit mesh without coverage holes or
unnecessary overlap, as shown in Figure
1. Engineers use hex schemes to design
cellular networks and pinpoint tower
locations to meet service demand.
The What, Where and How
The primary job of a cell tower is to elevate antennas that transmit and receive radio-frequency
(RF) signals from mobile phones and devices. Wires run from the tower antennas to base station
equipment, typically located at ground level in sealed telecom equipment cabinets. Components
of the base station include transceivers, which enable the transmission and reception of radio
signals through the antennas, plus signal amplifiers, combiners, and a system controller.
To ensure antennas are tall enough to cover a targeted cell area, cell towers are typically 50 to 200
feet in height. Towers can be standalone structures, such as steel poles or lattice frame, or affixed
to other structures. In the latter category, cell towers are attached to buildings, water towers,
bridges, tunnels, street lights, traffic lights, stadium lights, and billboards, among other things. To
accommodate community aesthetic concerns, towers are increasingly camouflaged to resemble
trees or flagpoles, or concealed in purpose-built structures, such as church bell towers or steeples.
The factors affecting cell tower site selection are complex and plentiful. At a basic level, the
site must be adjacent to a road for physical access, with availability of electrical power and
telecommunications network connectivity. Local zoning ordinances must accommodate
tower height requirements to ensure signal coverage across the terrain. Sources of
electromagnetic interference need to be avoided to ensure radio signal integrity.
Environmental and wildlife impacts must be considered, in addition to architectural historic
preservation and aviation requirements.
BY MICHAEL HARRIS
As a cell tower site leaseholder, you are familiar with the income and expenses
of the business. But how about the technologies involved and their role in the
delivery of wireless communications services that we rely on every day?
To understand how cell towers and base stations work, start by taking a look in your own home.
If you are like 80% of your American neighbors, you own a cordless phone system that plugs
into your home telephone line. As the name implies, a cordless handset connects wirelessly to
a small “base station,” allowing you to walk and talk untethered while maintaining a link to the
wires of the public switched telephone network (PSTN).
In principle, a cellular tower and base station that enable voice and data services for a Blackberry
or iPhone aren’t much different. Except, of course, that they are built to withstand the elements,
cover a far greater geographic area than your home, simultaneously support hundreds of
handsets, operate in different radio frequencies, and allow users to maintain their connections
while traveling from one base station to another, even while driving at highway speeds.
Towers, Cells and Hexes
We’re not launching into a discussion about life in medieval Europe. Rather, towers, cells and
hexes are key building blocks for the
design and operation of wireless
communications networks.
In the wireless world, a cell is the
geographic coverage area enabled by a
tower. Locations are carefully selected to
ensure that individual cells form a tightly
knit mesh without coverage holes or
unnecessary overlap, as shown in Figure
1. Engineers use hex schemes to design
cellular networks and pinpoint tower
locations to meet service demand.
The What, Where and How
The primary job of a cell tower is to elevate antennas that transmit and receive radio-frequency
(RF) signals from mobile phones and devices. Wires run from the tower antennas to base station
equipment, typically located at ground level in sealed telecom equipment cabinets. Components
of the base station include transceivers, which enable the transmission and reception of radio
signals through the antennas, plus signal amplifiers, combiners, and a system controller.
To ensure antennas are tall enough to cover a targeted cell area, cell towers are typically 50 to 200
feet in height. Towers can be standalone structures, such as steel poles or lattice frame, or affixed
to other structures. In the latter category, cell towers are attached to buildings, water towers,
bridges, tunnels, street lights, traffic lights, stadium lights, and billboards, among other things. To
accommodate community aesthetic concerns, towers are increasingly camouflaged to resemble
trees or flagpoles, or concealed in purpose-built structures, such as church bell towers or steeples.
The factors affecting cell tower site selection are complex and plentiful. At a basic level, the
site must be adjacent to a road for physical access, with availability of electrical power and
telecommunications network connectivity. Local zoning ordinances must accommodate
tower height requirements to ensure signal coverage across the terrain. Sources of
electromagnetic interference need to be avoided to ensure radio signal integrity.
Environmental and wildlife impacts must be considered, in addition to architectural historic
preservation and aviation requirements.
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