unications Technologies and Management, First Edition. Riaz Esmailzadeh. C 2016 Riaz Esmailzadeh. Published 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Companion Website: www.wiley.com/go/BTTM Broadband Telecommunications Technologies and Management Historical Note A fundamental mobile telecommunications system configuration consists of a central device, usually known as a base station, which simultaneously transmits and receives signals from several end-user devices. The area covered by the base station is called a 'cell', giving rise to the term cellular communications. This configuration still remains the way all public wireless systems are designed and rolled out. Nevertheless much has changed since the first generation systems. The first generation system networks were designed around fixed line operator exchanges. Most exchanges had a telecommunications tower for point-to-point relay connectivity and on these the first cellular system antennas were installed. These exchanges were already a part of the public-switched telephone network (PSTN) and readily switched mobile calls to their des- tination. Moreover, exchanges served a certain number of fixed subscribers, usually 10000- 20000, and were therefore ideally located to be the centre of a cellular network. Although the capacity of base stations was limited by the available frequency spectrum and the reuse factor, the number of initial subscribers was low and this early configuration worked quite well. Nevertheless, network coverage was not comprehensive and calls frequently dropped due to weak signal reception. The introduction of the second generation systems in the mid-1990s and the growth in the number of subscribers necessitated the expansion of cellular networks and roll out of new base stations. Moreover, new operators sprung up in many markets each rolling out a new parallel network. Competition led to price and quality comparison between different operators, which in turn required high quality coverage, at a minimal cost. This required determining the total e