Cellphone networks often face heavy opposition when they build new base
station masts. So NEC of Tokyo has invented a way of making do with fewer of
them (GB 2350024). Base stations transmit over short range, dividing the
landscape into a mosaic of cells. A phone is 鈥渉anded off鈥 as it moves from one
cell to another. NEC suggests reducing the strength of the transmitted signal in
busy cells, while increasing signal strength in adjacent cells. This makes the
effective size of each cell contract and expand, depending on call traffic. The
base stations work together, reducing and boosting signal strength in harmony,
so no gaps open up.
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