TABLE OF CONTENTS As the frequency of a signal increases, power becomes a more and more important quantity. The output power of any system is often the most critical factor in the design and ultimately the purchase of nearly all radio frequency equipment. This was made apparent during the brief description of the previous wars when a system that had higher output powers, could transmit over a longer distance, thus giving the owner of that system a decisive advantage. Likeminded mobile service providers are competing in this same manner. If one provider can produce higher power than another provider, this allows him to space his base stations further apart. Thus, his coverage area increases over the competition's or his infrastructure cost decreases as compared with his competition's. An important thing to keep in mind is the concept of equity in trade. A customer has a desire to purchase a product with a specified power performance that meets his needs. The final production-line performance results should match his original sample data. In today's smaller world, design, fabrication, manufacturing, packaging, and test are scattered about the globe, and it is important that the measurements that are used to define a device's performance be consistent (see Section 1.8).
Any measurement inconsistencies or uncertainties directly impact the bottom line. Wireless communication systems are all designed with some sort of power budget in mind. The antenna is a certain size, because the area of coverage is predetermined. The base stations are a certain...
