252 TRANSACTIONS

IEEE ON VEHICULAR
TECHNOLOGY,
N0.2,
VT-29,
VOL. MAY 1980

[ 141 T . Nagatsu et 01.. ”Base station radio equipment for 800 MHz band land
mobile telephone system,”Rev. E.C.L.. NTT. Japan. vol. 25. 1977.
[IS] S. Kozono and K. Watanabe, “Influence of environmental buildings on
UHF landmobileradiopropagation,” fEEE Trans.Commun.. vol.
COM-25, Oct. 1977.
[ I61 W. Magnus et al., Formulas and Theorems for the Special Functions of
Mathematical Physics. Springer-Verlag. 1 9 6 6 . p. 242.
Masaharu Hata was born in Yamaguchi. Japan, on
Autumn I, 1950. He receivedthe B.S.E.E. and
M.S.E.Edegreesfrom Kyushu University. Fukuoka.
Japan, in 1973 and 1975. respectively.
Since1975 he has beenwith theElectorical
Communication Laboratories, Nippon Telegraphand
Telephone Public Corporation ( N I T ) . From 1975 to
1978 he was engaged in the development of an 800-
MHzband mobiletelephonesystem.Hiscurrent
work is on the research of digitalmobileradio
communication systems.
Mr. Hata is a member of the Institute of Electronics and Communication
Engineers of Japan
Takayoshi Nagatsu was born in Toyama. Japan. on
March 12, 1946. He receivedthe B.S.E.E. and
M.S.E.E. degrees fromKanazawaUniversity.
Kanazawa. Japan, in 1968 and 1970. respectively.
Since1970 hehasbeenwith theElectorical
Communication Laboratories. Nippon Telegraph and
Telephone
Public
Corporation (NTT). He was
concerned with work on the development of an 800-
MHzband mobiletelephonesystemfrom1970to
1976.and on radiopropagation of satellitecom-
munication systems from 1977 to 1978. His current
work is on the design of a mobile telephone system.
Mr. Nagatsu is a member of the Institute of Electronics and Communication
Engineers of Japan.

Studies of Base-Station Antenna Height Effects on Mobile

Radio
WILLIAM c. Y.LEE. MEMBER. IEEE

Absmcr-As is well known, abase-station antenna height gainfactor of 6 for terrain contour if the terrain is not flat. Since the model
dB/octave has been predicted theoretically for signal path loss over flat [6]-[8] used to obtain 6 dB/octave for theantennaheight
ground and has been v e r i f d by measured data. However,the 6-dB/octave effect at the base station is generally workable for terrestrial
rule for antenna height effect cannot be used to predict signal strength for
terrain contours if the terrain is not flat. A model has been developed for propagations, we have only to check if this model canbe
waves propagating over anonflat ground which allows the antenna height applied to a mobile radio environment.
effect to be predicted in different types of actual terrain contours. In the
model, theactual terrain profile is classified as one of two different kinds of 11. DESCRIPTION OF AN EXISTING MODEL FOR FLAT
general terrain types. The relative received power due to the actual terrain TERRAIN
path contour is predicted by considering the reflection points of the waves
along the path. Experimental data have been used to verifythe theoretically
In thissection an existingmodel [ 8 ] , 191 used forflat
estimated results and they show good agreement. terrestrial propagation is examined for mobile radio reception.
Assume that a base-station transmitter and a mobile receiver
are separated by a large distance d, and the terrain between
I. INTRODUCTION the two sites is flat as shownin Fig. 1. Three possible kinds
of waves may occur at the mobile receiver: a direct wave, a
A S IS WELL KNOWN, a base-station antenna height gain
factor of 6 dB/octave (i.e., doubling the antenna height
increases signal level by 6 dB) has been predicted theoretically
reflected wave, anda surface wave. Theresultant received
signal power [8], [9] is then
forpath loss over flatground [ l ] - [ 3 ] . Themeasurements
[4],[5] inflat suburbanandurban areas have generally
agreed with this fact. It is observed from the measured data
collected in hilly areas,however, the6-dB/octave rule for
antenna height effect cannot be used to predict signal strength reflected surface
wave wave
Manuscript receivedMay 5 , 1979; revised October 31, 1979. Por-
tionsofthispaperwerepresentedattheSymposiumonMicrowave where
Mobile Communications, Denver, CO, March 22, 1978.
The author was with Bell Laboratories, Inc., Whippany, NJ. He is
now with ITT Defense Communications Division, Nutley, NJ 07110. P, transmitting power into the antenna,
Telephone (201) 284-3373. gl gain of the base antenna,

0018-9545/80/0500-0252$00.75 0 1980 IEEE

LEE: BASE-STATION ANTENNA HEIGHT EFFECTS 2.53

P. Both 6 , and h 2 indicatea6-dB/octaveantenna height gain;

received power increases by6dB as theantenna height is
doubled.
Comparing the measurement data of mobile radio propaga-
tion [4] with (4), we have found that the term 61 of (4) is
fitted,but 62 is showndiscrepantly. Okumura’sdata [4]
show that only a 3-dBgain is observed by doubling the mobile
RECEIVED POWER antenna height in urban and suburban areas. Ott and Plitkins
[lo] did not observe the noticeable 3-dB/octaveantenna
Pr ’ P, 0, a, [&It. I ’ I
+ P@JAS+ la height gain atthemobile. Hence the terrestrial propagation
model of (4) can only be used to evaluate the base-station
ASSUME : antenna height effect over flat ground.
REFLECTION
COEFF. p -I
4rh h
PHASEDIFF. A + =/3 ( r l - r o l z A a i 111. A THEORETICALMODEL FOR NONFLAT TERRAIN
Ad
2 Since natural terrain is not always flat, a model has to be
9 P, (y-) 9,9,
used to cover anonflatterrainsituation. Hence the existing
Fig. 1. An existing model on flat terrain. model used in Section I1 has to be modified in this section.
Assume thata base-station transmitteranda mobile re-
ceiver are separated by a large distance d. Between the trans-
height of the base-station antenna, mitter and the receiver, a terrain combining level ground with
gain of the mobile antenna, hilly slopes (theslope angle 6 is much less than 1 rad) is
height of the mobile antenna, present in our model, as shown in Fig. 2. There are two types
distance betweenthe base stationandthe mobile of terrain to be considered:
antenna,
type A terrain:the mobile antenna is ona slope higher
wavelength.
than the base station,
reflection coefficient of the ground,
typeBterrain:the mobile antenna is on a lowerflat
theterm due totheeffect of the surface wave [8],
ground level.
[9] which can be neglected in the mobile radio
environment,’ The parameters d, h l , and h2 are already shown in Fig. 1.
phase difference betweenthe direct wave andthe The parameters D and H shown in Fig. 2 are as follows:
reflected wave (=47~h h2 /Ad).
D the length of the flat ground,
For mobileradio communications,the grazing angle $, as H the heightdifferencebetween the flat ground and the
shown in Fig. 1 is always small and Ad B h l h a . Hence it is
~ mobile.
reasonable to assume that
In both types A and B, one waveis alwaysreflected on the
A41 slope of the hill (Condition 1). Consistent with Snell’s Law,
thespotat which a reflection ofa wave occurs is always
and close to the top of the hilly slope where the mobile unit of
type A or the base-station antennaoftype B is located.A
p 2-1. (2) second reflected wave: however,may or may notexist,de-
pending on the length of flat ground and the antenna height
Under this assumption, (1) becomes (Condition 2 ) . Here we have to distinguish betweenthe
antenna height and the effective antenna height. The antenna
height, h l or h2 shown in Fig. 2, is the actual heightabove
the local ground. Theeffective antenna height h l ’ or h2’
defined in this paper is the height referenced to the extended
ground planewhere the reflection point occurs as shown
or, by taking a logarithm on both sides, we obtain
in Fig. 3. In the past, the effective antenna height was defined
differently by different authors [4], [ 9 ] . The effective
antenna height stated inthispaperhas a relation uniquely
associated withthe reflectionmechanism. Consider the fol-
lowing two conditions.
Condition 1 : Only one reflection wave can be generated.
For type A :
1 The term is small in the frequency range above 30 MHz and can
be neglected above 300 MHz. It is because the earth is not a perfect dhl
conductor, some energy is transmitted into the ground and is absorbed D<DI = (see Appendix).
hi +h2 f H
proportional to the frequency.
254 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY, VOL. VT-29, N 0 . 2 , MAY 1980

THEMOBILE (a) TYPE A

ANTENNA
t

BASE-STATION
ANTENNA

-d
P, = P, D’-2
( h>z
01 01
dz
Fig. 3. Condition 1 : one reflected wave can occur.
THE MOBILE
ANTENNA
in which h l ’ and h2‘ are effective antenna heights.
Condition 2 : A second reflected wave can occur.
For type A :
Fig. 2. Two types of nonflat terrain.
D>Dl = dh 1
H + h 1 + h2
For type B:
For type B:
dh2
D<D1= (see Appendix).
hl + h 2 + H (1 1)

The mobile receiver is assumed to receiver only two waves,

one direct wave and one reflected wave, as shown in Fig. 3 The Appendix explains (10) an, (1 1). Under the condition
~

forbothtypes. In type A, an effective antenna height hl ’ of (10) for type A or (1 1) for type B, the mobile receiver
(shownin Fig. 3(a)) replaces theantenna height hl atthe may receive three waves, one direct wave and two reflected
base station based on the model shown in Fig. 1 : waves, as shown in Fig. 4 . The received power at the mobile
unit can be estimated.
DH
hl’shl +- in Section II
A . Based‘on the Existing Model, Described
d-D
Over a nonflat terrain three possible waves, one direct and
two reflected waves received, can be summed up as follows:

\2
In type B, an effective antenna height h 2 ’ replaces the antenna
height h2 at the mobile unit(shown in Fig. 3(b)):
-- I

DH
h 2 ’ = h 2 +- free-space
d-D transmission
formula

where the parameters P,, gl, and g2 are shown in Fig. 1 and
We can apply the path loss formula over a flat ground shown
in (3) to the above two types of terrain contour to
yield p l , p2 reflectioncoefficients ofthegrounddependon
the angle of incidence(when the angle of inci-
dence is very small, p + -1 independent of the
polarization [3] );
ANTENNA LEE: BASE-STATION EFFECTS 255

As (14)indicates, if a second reflected wave is generated ((10)

for type A and (1 1) for typeB), the received power is inversely
proportionalto d2. It is the same asif it is received from
free-space transmission. Also, the antenna height is out of the
picture, as shownin (14). However, the measured data[4]
show that the received signal obtained from the mobile unit
is always less thanthatfromthe free-space propagation.
Besides, the effect of changing the base-station antenna
heightstronglyappears in the measured data. Hence the
result from (14) cannot be applied to mobile radio propaga-
h k ~ f H
\ 1.- tion overnonflat
a terrain.
DI d-Dl
\
\ B. A New Approach
\
Since the existingmodel cannot be applied to mobile
radiopropagation over nonflatterrain, especially when two
reflected waves are expected,a new approach is described
as follows. Three waves, onedirect andtwo reflected,are
summed upin a more general form than in (lo), such as

P, =p0 lao - a l e i A 1 -ct2eJ‘A2 I 2 (15)

/
/
/
/
/
h
r
0,
.- hl+H
d-Dl
where
/

/
/ TYPE B Po = free-space transmission
formula
IMAGE ’ /

’A h2
Fig. 4. Condition 2: reflection
two waves occur.
can =Prglgz - (1 6 )
(4nd)? ’

Let ,,a a],a2 be additional attenuation factors due to land-

A , , A? phase differencesbetween the reflected andthe
to-mobilepropagation comparedto land-to-land free-space
direct paths as the waves propagatefrom the
propagation. is theattenuationofa direct wave. Thetwo
transmitting antenna to the receiving antenna.
reflected waves, one which has a reflection point close to
For d 3 h l .(H + h 2 ) , the grazing angle (angle of incidence) the mobile contributes mostly to specular reflection with an
is very small, and the phase differences A , and A2 are also attenuation a1 andtheother which has its reflection point
small. Reflectioncoefficients p I and p2 then become -1, away from the mobile contributes mostly to diffuse scat-
and the following approximations can be made: tering with its attenuation a2 [ l l ] . Since the diffuse scat-
tering has little directivity, the energy received by the diffuse
sin Ai 2 Ai scattering is much smaller thanthat by the specular reflec-
tion, we may assume that

where i = 1, 2. Substituting these approximations into (1 2), Also from the assumption of (2), ,a % a].Then (1 5) becomes
we obtain

I1 -eiA212 =+32 c o s ( A , -A,)

-2 (COS A1 + COS A,)

2 1 + 2AIA2.
(13) where h l ’ and h 2 ‘ are the effective antenna heights which
can be related to the antenna heights h l and h2 as illustrated
Substituting (13) into (12), we obtain
in (5) or (6). Equations(18) and ( 9 ) are identical.Itmeans
that, if there are two reflected waves, only one reflected
wave whose reflection point is closer to the mobile contributes
mostsignificantly.Thetangential plane for this reflection
point near the mobile is used to estimate the effective antenna
(14) height as shown in Fig. 5 for each of two terrain types, type A
and type B.
256 TRANSACTIONS
IEEE
FOR TYPE A
Fig. 5 . Estimate of effective antenna heights.
IV. PREDICTION O F ANTENNA HEIGHT EFFECT FROM
THE THEORETICAL MODEL
The signal change due to antenna height change does not
depend upon the actual antenna height above the local ground
level thoughtheactualantenna height is easy to visualize.
Rather,itdependsonthe effective antenna height deter-
minedby the terrain contour between the mobile andthe
base. There is no linearrelationshipbetween theactual
antenna height andthe effective antenna height. Doubling
theactual base-station antenna height, therefore, does not
necessarily change the signal levels by 6 dB. Four examples
shown in Fig. 6 (assume that the slope angle 0 is small, say
less than 10") will demonstrate this fact. The effective antenna
heights of two antennas are first obtained based on the loca-
tion of the base station as shown in Fig. 6.
I ) Type A Terrain, D = 0: The power increased due to the
change of antenna height is
where h l " is the increased effective antenna height atthe
base.
2 ) Type A Terrain, D # 0: The power increased due to the
change of antennaheight is
3) Type B Terrain, D = 0: The power increased due to the
ON VEHICULAR
TECHNOLOGY,
VOL. VT-29, N0.2, MAY 1980
Fig. 6. Effect on antenna height gain factor.
change of antennaheight is
4 ) Type B Terrain, D # 0: The power increased due to the
change of antenna height is
Fromthe above examples we have demonstratedthat
doubling the base-station antenna height may not necessarily
increase the signal level by 6 dB, sometimes more sometimes
less, dependent upon the effective antenna height at the given
site. Hence the 6-dB/octave antenna height rule cannot be
applied in the hilly area.
V. COMPARISON OF THEORYWITH EXPERIMENTAL
RESULTS
Data at Whippany, NJ, Area
Since Caples [SI made thesuburban (Whippany area)
measurements with base antenna elevations at60,80,and
100 ft above ground and frequency at 821 MHz, we compared
the results predicted from the model with Caples' unpublished
measured data. Though it is very hard to find aparticular
contour of the terrain to match all of our models, we found
some contours of type A. The six pointsmarked inalpha-
betical orderon Fig. 7 are the sites used forcomparison.
For demonstration, Fig. 8 shows a contour in the Whippany
area whichhas met a condition of having three waves, i.e.,
D > d h l / ( H + hl + h2). The signal received by the mobile
LEE: BASE-STATION ANTENNA HEIGHT EFFECTS 257

Fig. 7. Sites used in the Whippany, NJ, area.

400'

300'
8
I-
s
2 200'

100'

I I I I I I
0'
12000' 10000' 80001 6000' 40001 2000' 0
+ d DISTANCE
Fig. 8. A terrain contour of site C inWhippanyarea.
258 I E E E TRANSACTIONS ON V E H I C U L A R TECHNOLOGY, V O L . V T - 2 9 , N 0 . 2 , MAY 1980

A P AP
AM kEKj*(T(hl+M PREDICTED MEASURED
ANT HEIGHT hi RESULTS Ld0 1 RESULTS (dB)

F i g . 9. A list of comparisons between predictedandmeasuredre-

sults (Whippany area).

unit from eachbase-station antenna height hl is based on

its effective height hl ' in which for

Hence, by applying (16), we may calculate the relative gains , 2 MILES , 1

received fromthe base-station antenna with threedifferent Fig. 10. Sitesused inCamden-Philadelphiaarea.
antenna heights andcompare those withthe measured data
as follows:
pr(h1 = 80 ft) - Pr(h1' = 360 ft)
AP=
pr(hl = 60 ft)- Pr(hl' = 340 ft)

I 1.06 - 0.5 dB (predicted)

1.5 dB (measured)
Pr(hl = 100 ft) - Pr(hl' = 380 ft)
AP=
Pr(h 1 = 60 ft) - Pr(hl' = 340 ft)

= 1.1 1 - 1 dB (predicted)
1.7 dB (measured).

Fig. 9 is a list of comparisonbetween predictedand meas-

uredresults for six locationsin the Whippany area. The I I I I I 1 I I 1 1

predicted results agree well with the measured ones. I 2 3 4 3 6 7 8 9 Y l L l

Fig. 1 1 . Measureddata from Camden-Philadelphiaarea.

Data in the Camden-Philadelphia Area
Kelly [12] has done somemeasurementsin the Camden-
Philadelphia area. Fig. 10 indicates the sitesin that areain
which the measured data were collected. The data used here
L E E : BASE-STATION ANTENNA HEIGHT EFFECTS 259

specified two types of terrain profile that the received wave

wouldbe affected by the terrain. From the types of terrain
we have found the following.
1) The relative received power canonly be predictedby
using the effective base-station antenna height which is meas-
8- ured from the plane on whch thereflection point occurs.
e 7-
2) Only one direct wave and one reflected wave (if two,
I theone closest tothemobile is used) areused to predict
n
W
K 6- the relative received power.
;
v)

5-
3) The experimental data shown here
prediction.
agree well with the

4- 0 WHIPPANY
AREA 4) Doubling theantenna heightmay not necessarily in-
3-
X CAMDEN.
PHILADELPHIA crease the signal level by6dB over nonflatground,some-
times moresometimes less, dependentuponthe effective
antenna height.
APPENDIX
I I I I I I
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1
PREDICTEDIN dB
CONDITION OF HAVING A REFLECTED WAVE FROM
A FLAT GROUND
Fig. 12. Indication of errors inprediction.
According to Snell's Law, theincident angle equals the
reflected angle. At a site of reflection D l (see Fig. 2)
were thoserecordedfromtwo base-station antennasatdif-
ferent heights, 136 ft and 234 ft above sea level, respectively. h1 h, + H
- type for A
To compare the data with the prediction, we picked data in D~ 0-0;
thedirectionof 50°N and 60"N, as shown in Fig. 11.The
terrain profile in these two directions fits our model as can be or
seen in Fig. 1 1.
We pickedthreedatapoints A, B,C, in thedirectionof
50"N and four points D, E, F, G, in the direction of 60"N.
The ratio of two receiving powers obtained from two different
antennaheights, AP in decibels, foreachlocation is listed
in Fig. 11. The differences of AP between the predicted and and
measurement resultsaresmall. The reason for using only
two slopes to represent those points is that the general terrain
is flat as one slope angle shows in the figure. The reader should
not be confusedwiththe drawingwhich uses two different or
scales on x and y axes, respectively.
VI. ERRORS I N PREDICTION
Since there aredifferences betweenthepredicted values
and the measured ones, we have to know the deviation of the
differences. First, we plotthepointswithpredicted values Therefore when D > D l , there always exists a reflected wave.
at the x axis and the measured values at the y axis, shown ACKNOWLEDGMENT
in Fig. 12. The 45' line is the line ofpredictionwithout
error. The dotted points are from the Whippany area and the Theauthor would like tothank Bell Laboratories, Inc.,
cross points are fromthe Camden-Philadelphiaarea. Most for letting him publish this paper. The stimulation from this
ofthemare close tothe line ofpredictionwithouterror. paper had led theauthortofurther develop a new mobile
The mean value of all the data is right on the line of predic- radio propagation model before he leftBell Laboratories.
tionwithouterror.The variation ofthepredicted value is
0.8 dB from the measured one. REFERENCES
P. Davidand J . Voge. Propagation of Waves. Oxford,England:
VII. CONCLUSIONS AND SUMMARY Pergamon, 1969, p. 59.
Propagation of the National Defense Research Committee. Radio Wave
We summarizesometheoretical resultsin Section 111. Propagation. New York: Academic, 1949, p. 386.
The model we use here can explain a lot of phenomena since W. C. Jakes, Jr., ef a l . . MicrowaveMobileCommunication. New
theground is not always flat.Froma hilly area we have York: Wiley. 1974. p. 83.
260 TRANSACTIONS
VEHICULAR
IEEE
TECHNOLOGY,
ONVT-29,
VOL. MAY
NO.?, 1980

Y. Okmura. E. Ohmori. T. Kawano. and K. Fukuda. "Field strength and William C. Y.Lee ("76) received the B.Sc. degree
its variability in VHF and UHF land mobile service," Rev. Elec. Comm. in engineering from the Chinese Naval Academy in
Lab.. vol. 16. pp. 825-973. S e p t . 4 c t . 1968. 1954, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical
E. Caples. private communication. engineering from Ohio State University, Columbus,
K. A. Norton. "The calculation of ground wave field intensity over a in 1960 and 1963, respectively.
finitelyconductingsphericalearth." Proc. IRE. vol.29, p. 63, Dec. From 1955 to 1957 he served in the Chinese Navy.
1941. From 1959 to I963he worked asa Research Assistant
K. Bullington."Radio propagation at frequencies above 30mega- atthe Antenna Laboratory (now ElecrroScience
cycles," Proc. IRE. vol. 35, p. I 122. Oct. 1947. Laboratory).Ohio State University. From 1964-
-, "Radio propagation fundamentals." Bell S ~ s r Tech.
. J . . vol. 36, 1979 he worked for Bell Laboratories. Inc., at which
p. 593. May 1957. timehe wasconcerned withthe studies of wave
-, "Radio propagation for vehicularcommunications." /€E€ Trunr. propagation in anisotropic medium, antenna theory, mobile radio propagation
Veh. Technol., vol. VT-26. pp. 295-308. Nov. 1977. and systems, millimeter and opticalwaves propagation, switching systems,and
G . D. Ott and A. Plitkins, "Urbanpath-loss characteristics at 820 satellite communications. He developed a UHF propagation model for mobile
,MHz." IEEETrans.Veh.Technol., vol.VT-27,pp. 189-197, Nov. radio before he left Bell Laboratories. He joinedI'IT Defense Communications
1978. Division.Nutley,NJ, in April,1979, and is workingonmilitarycorn-
P. Beckman and A. Spizzichino, Eds. The Scarrering ofElectromagnetic munications systems.He is currently a Senior Scientist.
Wuvesfrom Rough Sutface. New York: Pergamon, 1963, p. 241. Dr. Lee is aChairman oftheNewYork chapter ofthe IEEE Vehicular
K. K . Kelly, 11. ''Flat suburban area propagation at 820 MHz," IEEE TechnologySocietyand an AssociateEditor of IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
Trans. Veh. Technol., vol. VT-27, pp. 198-204. Nov. 1978. VEHICULAR TECHNOLOGY.

A New Modulation Scheme for Multitransmitter Simulcast

Digital Mobile Radio Communication
TAKESHI H A n O R I . MEMBER, EEEAND SHIGEAKI OGOSE

Abstract-Manymobileradiocommunicationsystemsrequiredigital transmitted from adjacent base stations, though in the inner

signaling simultaneously from multiple transmitters from the viewpoints of area of each zone it receives one RF signal transmitted from
efficient frequency utilization and simplified receiver construction. A new the corresponding base station. Therefore, the signal transmis-
modulation scheme intendedtorealizesimulcastdigitaltransmissionis
described. In this method, a modulation signalis made by superimposing a
sion quality in the overlapped area may be largely degraded be-
specific wave on an ordinary rectangular digital wave. The two conditions cause of multipath fading, on whch the beat interferencefad-
necessary for obtaining a diversity effect equivalent to the maximal-ratio ing caused by the carrier-frequencydifferencesamong the
combining are mathematically derived. The specific waves for the various base-station transmitters is superimposed. In ordertocope
transmitters may be sinusoidalwaveshavingafrequencyequal to the with these types of fading, a carrier-frequency offset strategy
original bit rate, and phases which differ from one transmitterto another.
In order toclarify the feasibilityof this technique, experimental simulation
has been proposed by several authors and shown to be useful
testshave beenperformed in the900-MHzbandinatwo-transmitter .
for simulcast transmission [ l ]-[4] It adopts such a method
configuration. It is proved that this modulation scheme, in comparison withthat a beat frequency between any two carriers of adjacent
the carrier-frequency offset strategy, not only gives the same amount of base-station transmitters is an order of magnitude higher than
improvement in digital signalingin an overlapped area, but also makes the the baseband signal transmission bit rate. Thus the fading rate
allowable carrier frequency drift more than ten times larger.
occurring in the overlapped area becomes hgh enough to cause
astrongimprovement effect onthe signal transmissionper-
I. INTRODUCTION formance in amultipath fading environment [l] . However,
this method requires high stability forthe carrier frequency
because of the limited range of the carrier-frequencyoffset
I N A MULTISTATION digital mobile radiosystem, it is
desirable foreach base station to transmitsimultaneously
the same RF signal from the viewpoints of efficient frequency
value. Furthermore, since it is necessary to satisfy the prescribed
frequency offset relation in the carrier frequencies of any two
utilizationand simplified receiver construction. Since in this adjacentbase-station transmitters, the carrier frequencies are
system the total coverage area is composed of multiple radio not always assigned at the center of the transmission band.
zones, a mobile unit in an overlapped area receives RF signals Therefore, this may be one of the degradation factors in signal
transmission quality, particularly when we consider the fre-
quency drift of the mobile-unit local oscillator. Therefore, we
Manuscript received May 14, 1979; revised October 1, 1979. propose a new modulation scheme where the same carrier
The
authors
are
with
Electrical
Communication
Laboratories,
NipponTelegraphandTelephonePublicCorporation,1-2356,Take, frequency and the same modulation index are assigned to each
Yokosuka-shi, Kanagawa-ken, 238-03, Japan. base-station transmitter.

0018-9545/80/0500-0260$00.75 0 1980 IEEE