Page 18 - Antennas for Base Stations in Wireless Communications

Introduction

Over the past two decades, developments in very large-scale integra-
tion (VLSI) or ultra large-scale integration (ULSI) technologies for
electronic circuits and lithium batteries have been revolutionary. In
parallel, huge progress has been made in the fields of computer science
and information theory. These innovations are the ingredients, in terms
of both hardware and software, for the rapid growth of modern mobile
communication systems, networks, and services. As antenna engineers,
we have been challenged by the extremely fast changes in technical
requirements and strong demands in the application market. This book
presents the latest advances in antenna technologies for a variety of
base stations in mobile wireless communication systems.

Mobile Wireless Communications and
Antenna Technologies

The development of the cellular mobile phone is an excellent example
of a modern mobile wireless communication technology. Modern per-
sonal mobile wireless communications started with the first commercial
mobile phone network—the Autoradiopuhelin (ARP), designated as the
zero generation (0G) cellular network—launched in Finland in 1971.
After that, several commercial trials of cellular networks were carried
out in the United States before the Japanese launched the first success-
ful commercial cellular network in Tokyo in 1979. Throughout the 1980s,
mobile cellular phones were progressively introduced in commercial
operations. At that time, the cellular network consisted of many base
stations located in a relatively small number of cells that covered the
service areas. Within the network and by using efficient protocols, auto-
mated handover between two adjacent cells could be achieved seamlessly
when a mobile phone was moved from one cell to another. All the cellular
systems were based on analog transmissions. Due to low-degree inte-
gration and high-power consuming circuits as well as bulky batteries,
mobile phones at that time were too large to carry until Motorola, Inc.,

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