Spectrum - Volume 21 Issue 09 October 22, 1998 - Rappaport produces wireless reference book

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Rappaport produces wireless reference book

By Liz Crumbley

Spectrum Volume 21 Issue 09 - October 22, 1998

Ted Rappaport, founding director of the Mobile & Portable Radio Research Group and the James S. Tucker professor of engineering, is the editor of a book published recently by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Press. Smart Antennas: Adaptive Arrays, Algorithms, and Wireless Position Location: Selected Readings is a comprehensive reference for wireless communications students, researchers and professionals.
Rappaport, who was requested by the IEEE to edit the compendium, hopes the book will help the wireless industry meet the aggressive demand for smart antennas brought about by an explosion in the number of wireless users around the world. "Consider the fact that by early 1999 there will be about 300 million wireless subscribers throughout the world (almost 40 percent of the number of telephone lines on the planet," Rappaport said. "However, there has been relatively little radio spectrum provided to the mobile-communications industry since the late 1970s and early 1980s, when cellular-telephone systems around the world hosted their very first subscribers."
This ever-growing number of wireless subscribers in a world of limited radio bandwidth has led to increased radio-frequency interference and other problems. Smart, or adaptive, antennas can be placed in any environment and used to enhance the performance quality of cellular phones and other wireless devices.
Rappaport said smart antennas also will play key roles in advancing Internet linkage technologies and in meeting the federal government's mandate that emergency services be able to accurately locate cell phone users when they make emergency 911 calls.