Wireless WANs: Cellular Radio and PCS Networks

WANs can be global, national, or regional in scope. Today, they are associated with relatively low data speeds, generally only up to 19.2Kbps; in some locations, VSAT systems provide up to 2Mbps. (VSATs are discussed in Chapter 3, “Transmission Media: Characteristics and Applications.”) Third-generation cellular systems are promising to someday be capable of delivering 155Mbps, but that is still quite some time in the future—probably toward the end of this decade. WAN solutions include cellular radio and PCS networks (including analog and digital cellular) and wireless data networks (that is, Cellular Digital Packet Data [CDPD] and packet radio).

Although the history of cellular networks has been ...

Get Telecommunications Essentials now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.