On the Capacity of Time-Space Switched Cellular Radio Link Systems for Metropolitan Area Networks

Abstract

Using multipoint-radio link systems constitutes a viable alternative to copper and optical fibres for high capacity local distribution of telephone and data traffic. In the paper a novel architecture for a fixed cellular radio system is proposed. The proposed system uses electronically steerable antennas to combine time and “space” multiplexing. Assuming a high user-density urban environment, the performance of the system is estimated for some simple propagation and interference models. Results indicate that, due to the time-space multiplexing technique, the performance exceeds the performance of conventional multipoint systems by an order of magnitude. Due to the unique features of the system, several central stations may be operated at the same site at the same frequency to boost the capacity even more.