Universal Digital Portable Communications: A System Perspective

In our highly mobile society, the provision of voice and data communications to a person away from his/her wireline telephone has become a major communications frontier. The early penetration of this frontier has been based on very limited portable communications approaches, e.g., cordless telephones, mobile radio telephones, and radio paging. Each of these approaches only partially satisfies portable communications needs. This paper describes an approach to providing universal digital portable communications integrated into telephone networks. A system configuration employing time-division multiple-access radio link architecture and frequency reuse is described. Issues affecting radio link transmission rates and radio system coverage are discussed. Characteristics and parameters of a possible system to supplement the wire (or fiber) loop are indicated.