Efficient channel borrowing strategy in PCN systems

Time slot, or channel, borrowing is an effective way to increase capacity in an FDMA/TDMA based PCS system. The authors propose a channel borrowing strategy which utilizes power measurement and control to accomplish this increase in capacity. The system describes here is more complex than one without power control, but in comparison to a frequency hopping system, is simple to implement, with respect to both the cluster-controller and the portable. The details of the system, including antenna connections used by the cluster-controller and the power criterion for switching these connections, are described The paper also discusses antenna diversity for improving the system performance. It is shown that the ability to deal with co-channel interference is improved considerably. This is substantiated by a statistical assessment of the interference.