Survey of Cellular Signal Booster

Abstract

The development of wireless technology has facilitated the wide deployment of mobile communication systems. The beauty of wireless communication is that all nooks and corners can be reached at a cheaper and faster rate when compared with wireline. Wireless is now dominating the telecommunications market. Initially, the dawn of wireless was seen as the dawn of communications to poor countries and rural areas which were poorly covered by wireline devices due to high cost. Currently, the story has changed. Both the wired and unwired environments are clamoring for wireless connectivity. Considering the hype of R&D in broadband technologies and easy acceptance in the market place, wireline communications may soon die a natural death. However, wireless communications faces a few challenges. One of them is that the radio frequency (RF) carrier signals used in these communication systems degrades as it travels through the air interface due to attenuation and interference. As a result, the range of coverage may not be as planned leading to very weak reception or even dead zones where no communication can be done. This problem has resulted in the development of cellular signal boosters that help in receiving the weak signal, amplifying and then re-transmitting it to reach the uncovered areas. Boosters are now giving hope to the frustrated wireless users such as indoor users and those at the fringes of a cell site. These boosters are diverse in make, range, method of operation, deployment and cost. In this paper, a survey of various signal booster designs, deployment and performance is presented. It is hoped that this will serve as a one-stop shop for researchers and developers in the important field of wireless signal boosters and extenders, who wish to know what is available and existing challenges.