How to design a basic cell phone signal booster system?

Watch video below detailing how a cell phone booster system is designed for perfect installation in various situations. It identifies how to choose the best layout to help resolve the lack of indoor mobile reception under various different conditions. It provides general custom design information that installers use to build upon and customize to design much more elaborate systems covering hundreds of thousands of square footage. If you require professional installation, get started by submitting cell phone signal booster design service questionaire.

Transcript: There're a lot of elements that go into a cellular amplifier system design. We will show you what you need to know so you can design a system layout. We will stick with a simple example for this video but once you have got the basics down, you can get as complex as you like.

To do a system design, you will need some sort of layout software. A few examples we have seen used are Microsoft Visio Publisher or Paint, anything that will allow you to import a floor plan or a blueprint and then lay text and images overtop will suffice. For complex designs such as that of areas over 500,000 sq. ft., we use iBwave Design Software. But lets keep this simple for now so you understand what is involved in cellular booster system design.

To begin, you will need to gather a number of pieces of information at the install site, get a floor plan or a blueprint of the building. This doesn't need to be a complex layout with lots of data. In fact, the simpler the layout, the better it is. A fire escape map is often easy to obtain and works just fine. In addition to the floor plan, you will need to get the details obtained from a site survey. For additional information on conducting a site survey, check out this blog post.

From your site survey, make sure that you get all these important details: Outside signal strength for each block or channel, Exterior building dimension location for mounting the donor antenna, Cable penetration point, Interior wall materials, Location for installing the amplifier where cable will be run, Available locations for mounting the broadcast antenna and any other specific details to the building.

Once you gather the needed information, you can start calculating your expected coverage area for each broadcast antenna based on your signal strength. If you're not sure how to calculate coverage area, then check out this calculate coverage area video. After you have got your expected coverage area for each antenna calculated, you can determine the placement of each broadcast antenna in the appropriate locations for providing the needed coverage taking into consideration any restrictions like hallways, vaulted ceilings, building materials and so on.

Using your design tool of choice, lay all the components out on the floor plan of the building. You may want to consider creating basic images of the components for ease of use. See video above for an example of a basic design. Visualizing it in this way helps you ensure you will be covering everything the customer requires and allows you to work through any bugs you may encounter in the install. It also lets you know of all the equipment you will need to complete the system like splitters and other accessories.

It is also helpful to create a simple layout like a flow chart showing all the components and how they connect to one another. This will help you work through the design and make sure you haven't missed anything. You can also use this chart as a parts list. That is the basics of system design. From here, you can expand and create even the most complex layout using the same tools and process.