Morrisville Wireless Telecommunication Facilities Master Plan - 2013

Wireless Telecommunication Facilities Master Plan - Town of Morrisville, NC – Adopted July 23, 2013

Service providers use base population estimates and subscriber data for their network design. This combined information is what controls the separation distance between base stations. The existing network design, based on local wireless penetration rates (the estimated number of wireless subscribers) and usage, has each site facilitating the use of between 1750 and 2500 separate devices. As wireless devices increase in number and usage (particularly more intensive bandwidth usage like email, Facebook, and mobile television), each site will need to decrease its geographic area and serve a smaller number of subscribers in order to avoid overloading its systems. In other words, the 1750 to 2500 users per site will shrink significantly over the next 10 years, with estimates ranging from 500 to 1200 devices per site, depending on the particular carrier, services offered, and number of overall subscribers. Concurrent with the shrinkage of number of users per site will be an increase in the total number of sites needed in order to provide service to subscribers. Environmental variables Radio frequency propagation is also affected by vegetative cover. For example, pine needles absorb radio frequency emissions which distort the propagation from the antenna. Leaf foliage has a similar effect on propagation. Therefore, geographic land areas predominately covered by deciduous vegetation will have improved network coverage in the winter when the leaves are off the trees. Land cover also affects propagation signal. As the signal travels across the land, trees and buildings have the effect of weakening the signal. CityScape can illustrate the affect of these variables. Figures 5 and 6 illustrate how RMS service coverage is affected when the network capacity and environmental variables are added to the propagation formulas. Network capacity considerably shrinks the service area and the environmental variables further compromise the coverage area. Geographic areas previously shown in green are reduced or eliminated indicating a loss of coverage in that specific area.

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