Cell shape for microcellular systems in residential and commercial environments

Personal Communication Services (PCS) will make use of low antennas and low radiated power to achieve base station coverage over microcells having radius of about 500 m. For such small cells the configuration of buildings surrounding the base station will have a major influence on the propagation in different directions, and hence on cell shape. This paper presents a theoretical approach to determining cell shape for residential and commercial regions, where the buildings are of a relatively uniform height, and are closely spaced in rows along the streets. Because it is based in theory, the model treats base station antenna height, location, and frequency as input parameters, in addition to area specific descriptors of the buildings, such as average height, location with respect to the streets, and street geometry. As an example, contour plots of signal level have been computed for an area having two story town houses located on a rectangular street grid, and for base station antennas located mid-block, at a street intersection, and in the backyards of the buildings.