Traffic advantages of dual-mode North American cellular system

An attempt is made to quantify the traffic increase that will be achieved in a cellular system that uses both dual-mode subscriber units and dual-mode systems. A call-by-call simulator has been developed to simulate dual-mode subscribers and analog-only subscribers and to compute the total throughput in Erlangs per sector/cell for two cellular systems. The first system uses radio units that can operate on analog (FM) mode only and radio units that can operate on digital time division multiple access (TDMA) mode only, while the second system deploys dual-mode radio units that can operate on either an analog mode or a digital mode. The throughput advantages of the system deploying dual-mode radio units (DRUs) are demonstrated, and the economic advantages of the DRUs are outlined.