This introductory chapter gives a coverage of the evolution and basics of mobile and personal communications. Details of the digital communications systems issues will not be pursued in the following chapters, except where necessary for a particular topic. The roles of the propagation and antenna engineering are seen respectively as limiting and mitigating factors in a mobile link. The multipath propagation and the path loss limit communications capacity, and the classical gain and diversity gain from signal processing undertaken by the antennas serve to mitigate the capacity limitations. Some of the subsequent chapters discuss the mechanisms of multipath propagation and the antenna signal-processing action and antenna configurations. It is these processes that govern the performance of mobile links.

Inspec keywords: personal communication networks; radiowave propagation; radio links; diversity reception; mobile communication; digital communication; mobile antennas; signal processing

Other keywords: diversity gain; communication capacity; personal communication; antenna signal processing action; multipath propagation; antenna engineering; mobile link; antenna configuration; mobile communication; capacity limitation; mitigating factor; digital communication system

Subjects: Mobile radio systems