A cellular network is a radio communication system characterised by a network of stationary transceivers spread over a wide geographical area, for example a city or a country. A mobile transceiver is able to move around the network as long as it can receive from and transmit to at least one stationary tranceiver. Examples of cellular network systems are GSM, UMTS, CDMA and LTE mobile telephone systems.
A cellular network is a radio communication system characterised by a network of stationary transceivers spread over a wide geographical area, for example a city or a country. A mobile transceiver is able to move around the network as long as it can receive from and transmit to at least one stationary transceiver.
The commonest cellular network systems are GSM, UMTS, CDMA and LTE mobile telephone systems. In these networks, the stationary transceiver is called a base transceiver station (GSM, LTE, CDMA) or Node-B (UMTS). The mobile transceiver is a mobile handset or modem.
The word "cellular" refers to the coverage area of each base station, which is known as a "cell." To avoid holes in the network coverage, the cells usually overlap each other, and the neighbouring base stations therefore have to transmit and receive on different frequencies in order to avoid interfering with each other.
Although mobile handsets communicate with the network via their nearest base station, they quickly establish and maintain a higher level connection with the "core" of the cellular network. The core is a linked collection of servers that handles authentication, mobility management, call control, billing, data sessions and connection to the internet, as well as services like SMS and USSD. This higher level connection to the core network allows a mobile handset to stay connected for a voice or data session while it moves between neighbouring cells.
The term "cellular network" is commonly used in American English, and the handsets used in these networks are often called "cell phones." The equivalent terms in British English are "mobile network" and "mobile phone."
Wikipedia offers a good introduction to cellular networks. Books on cellular networks tend to focus on the particular network technology, or on network planning for optimal coverage. For more information on the most popular technologies, see the StackOverflow tags for [GSM], [UMTS], [LTE] and [CDMA].
Questions with this tag should relate to problems encountered when programming elements of a cellular network, for example handsets, modems, modem control software, base stations, radio network controllers or elements of the core network. Also relevant, though less common, are programming problems concerned with network testing and planning.
