Practical planning for CDMA networks-a design process overview

Code division multiple access (CDMA) has rapidly become a leading technology for commercial cellular and PCS systems. CDMA represents a major departure from conventional analog FM systems such as AMPS, and digital TDMA standards such as IS-54. CDMA has a number of unique properties which make infrastructure design significantly different from previous standards. This paper presents an overview, but by no means a full development of a methodology currently in use for the design of these systems. It focuses on CDMA for PCS (1900 MHz), but the approach for 800 MHz cellular service is quite similar. A typical cellular system will cover a large area, and include conditions ranging from the concrete canyons in a city center to open, rural land. To keep design complexity manageable, the coverage area of the system is divided into land usage categories. Frequently, four categories are used: dense urban, urban, suburban, and rural. These categories are used to define the propagation characteristics and/or the population density of subscribers.