Long stretches of open highway would seem like pretty simple areas in which to provide wireless coverage. However, when the highway is located along a scenic coastline within a rural canyon, providing wireless service becomes more challenging. In addition to providing adequate capacity, the location of new cell sites is restricted in consideration for the area's natural scenery. | o a CASE STUDY Background Long stretches of open highway would seem like pretty simple areas in which to provide wireless coverage. However when the highway is located along a scenic coastline within a rural canyon providing wireless service becomes more challenging. In addition to providing adequate capacity the location of new cell sites is restricted in consideration for the area s natural scenery. The Problem Two service providers were challenged with providing wireless service in the rural canyons along the California coastline. One provider utilized analog modulation AMPS and digital modulation CDMA to provide 800 MHz mobile phone service and the other provider utilized analog modulation AMPS and digital modulation TDMA for its 800 MHz service. Subscribers of both services experienced poor coverage along the highway and intermittent signal loss while commuting through the canyons. In addition nearby business and residential subscribers also experienced poor service because the highway traffic utilized most of the capacity from their areas. Placement of additional cell sites was severely restricted due to visual concerns and zoning regulations. The ADC Solution ADC worked with both providers to craft a long-range coverage solution that accommodated the AMPS CDMA and TDMA technologies was visually consistent and improved service without requiring many new cell sites. Two base transceiver station BTS sites were added along the Pacific Coast Highway and one site was installed at each end of the canyons that were to be covered. ADC host units were centralized at the BTS site creating a base station hotel to reduce the amount of cabinets required. Each host unit digitized the RF signals and transported them over fiber optic cable to a remote unit which reconverted the signals back into RF to provide coverage into the canyon and highway areas. Because the remote units are small cabinets that were unobtrusively mounted on existing poles the visual impact of the .
