Mobile data is usage increasing massively thanks to Home Office and internet streaming.
How does the Cell Tower work. Let’s take a look behind the scenes of a typical Cell tower in 2021.
A collection of Cell Towers lined up together is known as a Mobile Network.
The receiving end of the single from the cell towers is known as the Terminal Device.
Typically, this is your smartphone, routers and Internet of Things ( IoT )
The Transmitter is known as a base station. It can be a free-standing mast or on the roof of a building for very localized coverage.
The base station needs different components in order to perform different tasks. In addition, the cell towers must have the ability to “talk” to each other. via microwave or cables This is known as the “Core Network “
Other components include the base band unit as well as the radio modules. Most of the time you will notice these as a small building or a large box/ boxes
The most visible part of the transmitter is the antennas.
So, what to all these components do?
Let us take a look.
The Radio Modules. It’s their job to convert digital data ( A series of noughts and ones known a binary code, The language of all computers ) received from the baseband unit in to analogue waves. The waves are set to a very precise frequency same as an radio device.
The radio module usually sends out 1-2 Frequencies. If more frequencies are needed then more radio modules are needed.
The created radio waves are boosted to a certain transmitting power and then passed on up to the antenna.
The antennas are known as “passive” or simply dumb they simply send out what the radio module tells them to do. The antennas emit radio waves at a certain angle and direction. That’s it.
Now let’s move on to the baseband unit. The best way to describe this is to say it is a special computer that processes the single. The rest is a bit too complex to explain here. But the computer has to convert data into IP packets similar to a lot of parcels which are sent and received by the internet. The data has then to be converted into LTE / 5G. The computer has to perform other tasks such as joining various components together. Error monitoring and other protocols. This is known as
DSP- Digital Signal Processor
Now the problem with radio waves they are not all the same this is where frequencies come in to play. Basically, the higher the frequency is the shorter the wave is so that more data can be sent out because there is more space. It is a bit complex but a lot depends on the frequency and the distances data can travel. ( Really important for you as a customer. )
