The mobile network

Model “A route without cutting”:

A mobile network, how it works ?

Mobile communications follow the general principle of telephony: connect two remote users, including the network equipment of an operator responsible for managing the service. But unlike the fixed, in the mobile network, it is not threads of copper or optical fiber that ensure the final connection but radio transmissions. The mobile phone of a user communicates by the air with a relay antenna, which itself communicates with the centralized switch of the operator: a computer. This routes communication to the correspondent on the fixed network or via other relay antennas.

To communicate, a mobile user must therefore be within reach of a relay antenna. This has a limited scope, and only covers a restricted territory around it, called the “cell” (hence the other name of “cellular networks” often used to designate mobile networks). To cover a maximum of territory and ensure that users are always able to telephone, operators deploy thousands of cells, each of them being equipped with antennas by making their cells overlap, so as to Never lose the positioning of users.

Cities cell, field cell
The size of the cells depends on multiple criteria such as the type of relay antennas used, the relief (plain, mountain, valley, etc.), the location (rural area, urban area, etc.), population density, etc. The size of the cell is also limited by the own range of the mobile phone, which must be able to establish the link in return.

In addition, a relay antenna has a limited transmission capacity, and can only deal with a certain number of simultaneous calls. This is the reason why, in the city, where the population density is large and the number of communications significant, the cells tend to be numerous and small – spaced a few hundred or even a few tens of meters. In the countryside, where the population density is much lower, the size of the cells is much greater, sometimes going up to several kilometers but very rarely exceeding more than ten kilometers.

It is important to emphasize that the drop in the power of the relay antennas leads to a reduction in cell coverage. The multiplication of these improves network capacity to sell voice or data traffic but necessarily requires increasing the number of relay antennas.

The mobile network

How the mobile telephony allows us to be joined whatever the place where I am located ? Call anywhere and at any time seems natural today. This ease of use, however, hides great technological complexity !

“Deployment of the network deployment on the territory” and/or film “Atout Réso”:

The mobile network is based on different equipment all having a very specific function. The mobile network is based on a division of the territory in zones called cells. At the heart of the cell, an antenna (or a group of antennas) ensure the connection between the mobile terminal and the network. Communication between the mobile phone and the antenna goes through radio waves, then it is transported to the mobile network which makes connection to fixed or mobile telephone networks or to data transmission networks (Internet, Intranet, etc.), via The wired network.

Each relay antenna manages a limited number of simultaneous calls. The more an area is populated, the more antennas it takes to absorb traffic and ensure good quality of service. In town, the network’s network is therefore tightened: there is an antenna every 300 meters approximately, in the countryside every 2 km.
When a suburban area or a shopping center is built, the mobile network unfolds. The capacity of the mobile network is increased at the approach of equipment which undergoes ad hoc attendance: stages, congress palace, stations, airports, etc. The same site can accommodate several antennas. Network coverage of communication axes is a priority, in particular to be able to give the alert in the event of a road accident. On TGV lines Network coverage is strategic: mobile Internet is much appreciated by nomadic workers.

– Basic station: radio transmission equipment for mobile networks. It consists of a relay antenna and an electronic cabinet responsible for the management of communications by radio waves.
There is one per cell, and all the mobiles located in the cell are connected. (BTS for GSM and GPRS – Node B for UMTS)
– Controller: is the intelligent organ: it allocates the channels and manages customer travel between cell covers (BSC for GSM and GPRS – RNC for UMTS)
– switch: provides communications connections. It interacts with a database in which the information linked to subscribers (number, option, location, etc.) is recorded in which info is recorded
– Internet gateway: interconnection gateway between the mobile package network (GPRS – UMTS) and external IP networks). The 4 G uses the IP network.

The transition from classic mobile telephony to 3G, then 4G was done gradually. The whole network is evolving to offer users maximum coverage.

Model “A route without cutting”:

This model shows the succession of antennas taking care of a communication from the Gare de l’Est to the CSI. A mobile connects to the nearest or the least saturated relay antenna. When the mobile moves, communication is relayed by another antenna. This communications transfer without cuts is called “handover”. The passage from one antenna to another is done in continuity, without peak of power. Thanks to this innovation, the user of a 3G mobile (UMTS) is 50 to 100 times less exposed to the waves than in 2G (GSM).

Photos presenting the camouflage of the antennas:

These photos present how the antennas are camouflaged to integrate into the urban or rural landscape. With mobile telephony, new elements have appeared in the landscape: antennas and their supports (masts, pylons). The State, local communities and operators have decided to develop a common policy for their integration into the environment. Principles and rules have been established, such as the use of more compact antennas with two or three bands (GSM 900, GSM 1800, UMTS), vertical, plated with their support, painted or even dressed in composite structures (type false fireplace, false tree, bell tower, dovecote, etc.)).

How to identify the mobile coverage of its region ?

In order to allow you to know the service rendered by the various telephony operators, the regulatory authority for electronic communications and posts (ARCEP) puts online cards from France Voice, SMS, and mobile internet for each operators. We tell you more about this service.

Identify the voice and SMS coverage of the various mobile operators

Since January 2017, the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Posts (ARCEP) has required operators to publish coverage cards of the territory representing an assessment of coverage at different levels, for the Voix and SMS service.

ARCEP publishes on its Monreseaumobile site.fr a mobile coverage card enriched for all of mainland France.

This card allows you to identify the mobile coverage areas of each operator, with four levels of evaluation: “very good coverage”, “good coverage”, “limited coverage” or “no coverage”.

Identify 3G, 4G and 5G mobile internet coverage of the various mobile operators

The Monreseaumobile site.fr also puts online a cartographic tool with mobile coverage on the Internet 3G, 4G and 5G of the four major operators (Free, Orange, Bouygues, SFR).

This tool allows you to compare internet coverage of different operators.

By entering for example the name of your city or a street in a search engine, you can know the mobile coverage of the area concerned.

Identify the quality of the voice, SMS and mobile internet coverage of each operator

The Monreseaumobile site.Also from the measured quality of voice and SMS services on the one hand, mobile internet on the other, in transport for each operator.

It is possible to display the measured quality:

• On the main roads
• In TGV,
• In intercités/ter,
• In the RERs and Transilians
• in the metro (Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Paris and Toulouse)

Regarding the places of life, Monreseaumobile.fr details the measured quality of voice, SMS, web and video navigation services online for each operator for all of France, and for rural, intermediate, dense areas as well as tourist sites.

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Find out more about the mobile coverage of the territory

• On the site of the arcep (regulatory authority for electronic communications and posts)
• Internet access: knowing the condition of the coverage or declaring a defectOn Ecology.gouv.Fr

What the law says

• Decision n ° 2016-1678 of December 6, 2016 (procedures for providing information relating to the coverage of mobile services and methods of verifying the reliability of this information
• Decree of January 11, 2017 approving decision n ° 2016-1678 of ARCEP dated December 6, 2016