Overall Strategies for Cell Mapping

The first requirement of any strategy for cell mapping within a broadband network is flexibility
and the scope to be able to factor in a vast range of transmission speeds and data rates as well
as highly differentiated service offerings and user profiles. Obviously this entails considerable
complexity in the planning tools.
The older cell mapping procedures utilized by mobile telephone operators are themselves
quite complex, but in many ways the situation confronting the fixed broadband wireless
operator is such as to demand even more involved planning and plotting methods. Cellular
telephone networks generally deliver fairly uniform service offerings, whereas wireless
broadband networks must accommodate varying throughputs, some of which may be instantaneously
user defined; a multitude of different service levels; and connections having widely
varying fade margins. Furthermore, fixed broadband networks often have different subscriber
densities and traffic volumes within various areas, but usage patterns are apt to be relatively
uniform in mobile networks.
The very large number of variables make network planning difficult in broadband fixedpoint
networks, but both rules and resources are available, and the network operators should
make themselves aware of them before a single base station is installed.