Cellular topology

In short: In a cellular topology the area is divided into cells. In each cell a base station serves the devices by radio. The best-known example is the mobile phone network.

In more detail: Every cell has a transmitter mast and a limited radius. When a phone moves into the next cell the connection is handed over seamlessly (handover). The base stations are connected to each other and to the core network.

In Depth

• Reusing frequencies: cells that are not adjacent use the same frequencies. That way a scarce radio band serves very many participants.
• Cell sizes: macro cells (many kilometres, countryside), micro and pico cells (city, buildings), femto cells (home). In dense areas the cells are small.
• Advantages: nationwide, mobile, easily extended (new cells), load is spread.
• Disadvantages: everyone in a cell shares the radio (bandwidth), dependence on mast and backhaul, susceptibility to interference.
• Generations: 2G, 3G, 4G (LTE), 5G, each with higher speed and lower latency.
• Related: each cell is like a star around the mast, the masts together form a hybrid topology. Wi-Fi with several access points also works cell-like.

See also: network topologies, point-to-multipoint