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by exikyut 2857 days ago
Oh, wow.

I'd love to hear more about how such a system works, purely for engineering value's sake, because it happens to be a thing I find very interesting from an outsider's standpoint.

On the surface, as someone mostly naive about cellular RF, I know you're dealing with things like

- Given <n> buildings, how do you optimize for reception around (and, for 1000 bonus points, inside) said buildings, while minimizing echos (and, subsequently, in-band noise that the RF frontends can't mechanically filter) from signal reflections?

- Given a tunnel long enough to need a snake-antenna system (what are these properly called, and are they actually snakes? I just see long thick cables at the (dark) entrances to train tunnels), how should you place the towers near both ends of the tunnel to optimize handover?

- Given <random bunch of hills>, how do you optimize placement within terrain, elevation, landscape features, etc?

I'm guessing your system has access to highly-accurate databases of landscape/terrain and building geometry/geography (basically the machine-readable equivalent to Google Maps)?

The reason I mention the above is to characterize/elucidate this problem space to hopefully attract interested replies encouraging you to find out what details your boss will let you share. :D

1 comments

Yes, we use GIS systems and detailed maps of terrain information and estimated traffic demand. I don't think I can tell you much more, sorry... I'd rather stay at the more conservative side when confidentiality clauses are present.

Also I'm on vacation and I won't see my boss for another week :).