Measurements of 900 MHz propagation for microcellular communications systems design

Ideal microcells have a diameter of less than 1 km, and therefore provide a higher degree of frequency reuse than a conventional system for a given area. However, to calculate the reuse capability of a microcell system and to look at problems such as hand-over, the propagation characteristics need to be known. Indoor and outdoor propagation measurements are presented with guidelines to cell design. It is shown how dependent signal coverage is on the building morphology and building contents. For a transmitter location within a building, there exists a phenomenon which does not allow reuse between different floors within buildings. There are also very prominent effects from spaces between buildings, producing signal channeling effects that drastically alter the cell coverage area. The influence of these effects on a directional antenna propagation pattern is discussed