All-knowing Antennas -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 4/1/1999
Last Visited: 8/16/2004
Interference is rampant as callers travel from cell to cell in a typical configuration, explains Lowell Anderson, Metawave's director of SpotLight Products.
"Their interference is getting so high they can't add more cells or more channels.They're to the point where they're basically maxed out."
In an agreement announced in January with Shanghai PTA and Shanghai New Globe Company, a telecom equipment distributor, Metawave is developing and testing an antenna system based on the United States code division multiple access (CDMA) SpotLight 2000 antenna.One antenna will be tested in Shanghai beginning in the third quarter with commercial production by the end of the year, Anderson says.
The SpotLight antenna, he says, is designed to read signals from cell phones in moving cars and is one of the first antennas to support a digital air interface.SpotLight is not a replacement, but is added to an existing system, he says,
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This allows the operator to service more mobiles within a given area," Anderson says.
The CDMA version of SpotLight works differently, he explains.
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In GSM, Anderson explains, beam switching occurs by detecting the location of the mobile.