Hello,
I'm currently left wondering about a very basic question: In a cellular network, say GSM or UMTS or - my particular interest - mobile WiMAX, is it at all possible to deploy a simple amplify & forward repeater with frequency translation?
More precisely, the repeater should just downconvert the incoming signal to an intermediate frequency, amplify it and then upconvert it to /another/ RF frequency, e.g. a different channel of the frequency reuse scheme.
I'm wondering if this would lead to any problems in the MAC layer. For example, what about network entry of a mobile station? If the MS receives both the signal from the BS and from the repeater, it would assume two different BSs (because the signals come on different channels), but the contained data (including BS identity information) would be the same on both. And all signalling information would also come on both channels. Wouldn't that severely confuse the MS? Also, during handover it's the same situation.
Does anyone have experience in this? Or does anyone know of a frequency translating repeater ever deployed in such a network? As said, I'm mostly interested in mobile WiMAX, but information on other network types is also highly appreciated.
Thanks for any hints, Georg