Chapter 18
Wireless Network Strategy
18.1 Define Spectrum Usage Strategy
Wireless broadband allows for the use of different channel bandwidths and the decision process a designer has to go through to choose one is fairly complex. Each market has different constraints and the designer may have to experiment with several possibilities before deciding on one. A broadband channel requires a lot of bandwidth, which, with the limited spectrum usually available, allows for only a few channels (it is common for networks to have only 1 to 3 channels).
A broadband wireless network has RF propagation characteristics and interference issues similar to those of wireless cellular networks. In the latter, to control interference, a minimum frequency reuse of 7 is required. In some cases, even higher reuse numbers may be required. This same principle is valid for wireless broadband networks and, when this reuse is not achievable, interference averaging and avoidance techniques should be used to reduce interference, as explained in Chapter 6.
Designers may have to experiment with different scenarios before settling for one. To make this task easier and yet productive, designers can construct simple scenarios without the use of GIS databases, with free space propagation, and uniformly spaced sites with a radius that approximates the smallest radius expected in the final deployment. Traffic should also be uniformly spread, considering the average density in the area.
By constructing a fictitious ...
