Simulcast in narrowband PCS

The uniform distribution of signal energy achieved by simulcast improves wide area reception reliability, but it also introduces additional sources of destructive interference. Our laboratory and field experiments show that simulcast is analogous to multipath with transmitter frequency offsets being equivalent to Doppler shift, and differential propagation delay equal to multipath delay spread. Further, we compare simulcast to cellular architectures. Inherent spectrum inefficiency of the simulcast can be mitigated by reducing the simulcast areas and dynamic boundary variations. For short messages and low user activity, simulcast results in less protocol overhead and a simpler portable device with lower power consumption.