A passive system for increasing cellular coverage within energy efficient buildings

This paper considers the problems associated with cellular network coverage for mobile phone users within energy efficient buildings. As energy efficient building materials can significantly attenuate radio frequency (RF) signals, a two story energy efficient building is considered having external wall attenuation of 20 dB, and an internal floor attenuation of 3 dB. Results are presented showing how external signals propagate within the building and how a passive antenna system can be utilized to increase the internal signal coverage by up to 30 dBm.