What is Repeater?

Nowadays the mobile communication is developing very repidly. No matter what kind of communication coverage, there may be weak signal and blind areas. While in some far away areas and blind areas with very few users, the cost of building analog or digital base station is very high and the basic installation is also quite complicated. Therefore it is necessary to provide a device with low cost, easy installation, but with the functionality of base station--Repeater. So mobile communication service providers start setting repeaters in radio blind areas such as inside the buildings, basement, etc., to satisfy the service requirements of users to the maximum extent.

In the beginning of formation of repeater market in China, radio device and FM broadcast repeaters were used. Since the later part of 90s', as the mobile phones were more and more popular, repeater market has been developed continuously. Repeater can enlarge the coverage of already built analog and digital base station and it is an efficient and unexpensive method to solve blind and remote area problems.

• Repeater definition

A repeater is an electronic device that receives a weak or low-level signal and retransmits it at a higher level or higher power with the same frequency, so that the signal can cover longer distances without degradation. To use repeater as "small capacity, large coverage" method is mainly because that with the condition of not increasing the number of base stations to ensure network cover and its cost is much lower than cell system with the same effect.

Compared with base station, it has the advantages of simpler architecture, lower cost an easier installation. It can be used in many blind and weak areas, such as shopping mall, hotel, airport, port, station, subway, tunnel, highway, island, etc., to improve communication quality.

• Repeater types:

1. · GSM mobile communication repeater ·
2. CDMA mobile communication repeater ·
   
3. GSM/CDMA fiber repeater

• Repeater applications:

-Urban area with high density: because of the large number of users and base stations, normally the large signal blind area problem does exit. Repeater is usually used to cover blind areas and the areas inside the building. Wireless repeaters are often used. With the increase of the number of buildings, the number of required repeaters increases. Then the situation of one base station with multiple repeaters appears. However, the introduction of repeater will definitely cause the interference to base station. And the interference will increase with the increase of the number of repeaters. Especially when large power repeater is introduced, the system interference is much more severe. Therefore low power repeater (less than 1W) should be applied.

-Edge of city: in the beginning of CDMA network establishment, because the small number of base stations, large power wireless or fiber repeaters are used. It is mainly to solve coverage problem. In the areas with fibers, it is better to use fiber repeater with 10W output power. When there is no fiber resource, wireless repeater with 5W/10W is used to extend coverage, which equals to a base station output.

-Suburban and village: it is also to solve coverage problem. In the areas with fiber, it is better to use large power fiber repeater (10W/20W) to enlarge coverage. In the areas where there is no fiber resource but can receive signal from base station, wireless repeater can be used to solve coverage problem. And frequency shift repeater can be utilized to increase coverage distance.