A cell tower, also referred a cell site, is a structure that houses electric communications equipment and antennae, allowing people in the nearby area to utilize wireless communication devices such as cell phones and radios.
In the United States, there are currently 307,000 cell towers. They have been seen on the tops of buildings. Cell towers are sometimes required to integrate perfectly into the surroundings. In rural places, they are sometimes disguised as trees and hidden in treescapes.
You might be wondering how cell towers technology works, so today, we’ll go over how these towers have helped make our lives seamless!
TYPES OF TOWER
Cell towers come in four different shapes and sizes. The first type is referred to as a lattice tower. This style of tower, often known as a self-supporting tower, provides a great deal of flexibility. It has three or four sides with bases that are identical in shape.
A monopole tower is the second form of a tower. A concrete tube or single steel, commonly under 50 meters, makes up this tower type. It just necessitates a single foundation. The antennae are mounted on the outside of the building.
A guyed tower is more cost-effective, but it takes more land. It usually’s 100 meters or longer, with man wires connecting it to anchor and support it. In every direction, they are attached to the ground. Guyed towers make up the majority of radio and television towers.
The fourth type of tower is the stealth tower, which we discussed briefly before. These are more expensive than the other three options, but they seek to beautify the neighborhood they’re in. Councils frequently require them. They’ll need extra things to help them blend in with the crowd. While they are more enticing, they may not always have the same capacity for tenants.
Cell Tower as Power Tower
First and foremost, you must comprehend how cell tower technology functions. There are many telecom towers (short for “telecommunication towers”) that power cell phones all over the world.
Each tower is a tall structure with receivers on top that pick up cell signals. These towers are connected to one another via underground hardwired connections that run for miles and miles, forming a massive, complex grid that covers, well, pretty much the entire country. Your phone wouldn’t have someplace to send its signal if they weren’t there.
Cell Tower Elevates Antennae
A cell tower’s primary function is to elevate antennae that broadcast and receive radio frequency (RF) signals from mobile phones and other cellular devices. The tower antennas are connected to the base station equipment by wires, generally hidden at ground level. Transceivers, which send and receive radio signals through the antennae, are among the base station’s components: signal amplifiers, combiners, multiplexers, and a system controller.
Engineers must guarantee that antennae are tall enough to cover a specific cell area. As a result, cell towers are frequently 50 to 200 feet tall. These towers can now be free-standing constructions, such as lattice frames or steel poles, or attached to other structures. Cell towers are frequently attached to buildings, bridges, tunnels, water towers, traffic lights, street lights, billboards, and other structures.
Downlink vs. Uplink
An “uplink” occurs when your phone sends a signal to the cell tower. A “downlink” occurs when the cell tower delivers a signal to your phone. “Upload” and “download” are terms we are familiar with. The upload and download employ separate RF signals so that they don’t interfere with one another.
Putting Words Into Wires
What occurs after your voice is transformed into electromagnetic waves and transferred to the cell tower by your cell phone? The RF waves are then converted into light pulses by the cell tower antennas. Then they’re carried all the way down to the tower’s base transceiver box. After that, they can be sent anywhere on the planet at the speed of light. Once the light pulses reach the destination tower, the procedure is reversed.
How Can a Cell Tower Direct a Call To You?
This is a complicated process, but here’s how it works in simple terms. A Mobile Switching Center is a central site where cell towers in a particular area are connected by wires (MSC). There are hundreds of MSCs worldwide, each with a vast number of cell towers, and all of them are connected by wires.
Each MSC has SIM cards registered with it, and that will be the “Home MSC” for that particular phone. Your Home MSC keeps track of things like your service plan, current location, and activity status. For instance, your Home MSC is in the city where your SIM is registered.
When your phone is turned on and not in airplane mode, and you are within range of a cell tower, the cell tower uses RF signals to recognize your phone. Then, the call is routed to you via the MSC to which the cell tower you’re close is connected – either your Home MSC or a Foreign MSC.
Conclusion
Mobile phones and cell services have improved tremendously since their introduction. The sorts of coverage that providers give are also constantly evolving. 5G coverage has recently become available. Carriers should regularly update the way they send and receive signals from their telecom towers, and phone manufacturers should also modify their phones.