Chapter List

1.1 Introduction

This chapter stresses the peculiarities of propagation in mobile communications in a simple manner [1] and presents the differences between it and other radio communication systems using the same frequency bands, such as fixed radio links and sound and television broadcasting. The chapter focuses mainly on conventional land mobile communications, i.e., those with coverages ranging over a few kilometers and transmission antennas located on elevated sites. Other channels such as land mobile satellite (LMS) and indoor and urban microcell communications are also widely used in mobile communication applications. Similar methods to those described in this chapter for conventional mobile communications are applied to study and characterize these channels.

The engineering involved in land mobile systems also has many similarities with that used in other area coverage systems (point-to-multipoint), as is the case of sound and television broadcasting. These similaritles are primarily found in the computation of path losses and in the way in which coverage calculations are carried out.

Man-made structures, such as buildings or small houses in suburban areas with sizes ranging from a few meters to tens of meters, exert a decisive influence on mobile communications. In urban environments, the size of structures is even greater. In rural environments, features such as isolated trees or groups of trees may have similar dimensions. These environmental features are similar or greater in size than the transmitted wavelength...