Advanced Mobile Phone Service: Cell-Site Hardware

In the A M P S system, the interface between the land telephone network and the radio paths to the mobiles occurs at the cell sites. In addition to performing functions needed for trunk termination and for radio transmission and reception, the cell site handles many semiautonomous functions under the general direction of the Mobile Telephone Switching Office (MTSO). Figure 1 is a block diagram of the major A M P S subsystems. Cell sites have facilities to: (i) Provide RF radiation, reception, and distribution. (ii) Provide data communications with the M T S O and mobiles, (m) Locate mobiles. (iv) Perform remotely ordered equipment testing. (v) Perform equipment control and reconfiguration functions. (vi) Perform voice-processing functions. (vii) Perform call setup, call supervision, and call termination functions. 153 MTSO ~1 Fig. 1--AMPS major subsystems.