How does mobile network actually works?

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2016-04-19 02:14

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Edited by Polestar2708 at 2016-04-19 00:04

 Ever wondered how we recieve call?
Mobile networks are something that we use on a daily basis. Practically every time you glance at your cell phone or use it in any way, you’re relying on mobile networks to put you in contact with the rest of the world. As impressive as today’s smartphones are, they are toys compared to the massive achievement of mobile networks. Whereas our handsets are basically walkie-talkies strapped to super-compact personal computers, the networks that they rely on span nations and operate using a frankly boggling array of installations, protocols, and assorted technologies.

Breakdown
First and foremost, we have the backbone of any given mobile network: base stations. These are radio towers, which we conventionally think of as free-standing masts, but they can also be building-mounted devices, rooftop sites, small cells or in-building systems. Some are even cleverly disguised as palm trees.

 
Stations send out radio waves that let smartphones know if they’re in range of a given station and, by extension, the network this base is connected to. Moreover, base stations are also able to receive radio waves, which they are then able to relay to the appropriate cell on a national or even global scale. The cells themselves range in size from around half a mile in diameter in densely populated cities to more than 5 miles wide in rural areas.
Now, all base stations are connected to switches, which serve as intermediaries between base stations. When a switch receives a mobile message or call from a base station, it forwards it to the nearest base station to the signal’s intended mobile recipient. Alternatively, if the signal is intended for a landline user, like that pizza place down the road, then the switch will forward the signal to the Public Switched Telephone Network, which will send the signal down good, old fashioned telephone poles.
The real genius of this system is that, even if you’re traveling down the road, base stations will “hand off” signals to other base stations if you begin to draw closer to them, all without missing a beat in the conversation. That’s why you can have an unbroken six hour conversation with your mate.
 
Example and elaboration:
Let’s say mayank wants to send her address to his friend dhruv so that Dhruv can find his way to his house.


The text message is made of light, or effectively light. I mean, it’s electromagnetic radiation, so even if it’s not visible, it’s still made of the same stuff. Photons. The term “radio waves” tends to make us think of sound, but no, it’s light. So if you want to think of it as particles, that’s fine. If not, that’s okay too. Science says you’re cool thinking of it as waves as well.
 
The ripples explode outward from Mayank’s phone undirected. It’s a sphere that expands outward as fast as reality happens. It pushes through the walls and the ceiling and the floor of the house. It grinds itself to pieces in the dirt and dies there, but above, it swells like a mushroom cloud. It washes across the surrounding forest like wind.
Through two base station towers that aren’t on his carrier and which do not understand it. But then it finds one that does.The tower that recognizes the message, however, knows exactly what to do. It ferries the signal through a snaking maze of cables to arrive at a switch, which in turn perhaps bounces it off a satellite or two before finally locating the base station closest to Dhruv. That base station makes an explosion of its own, another light-sphere snapping outward, a hollow shell as thin as thought. The text message rips through cars and people some of it flees away into the stars. The smallest fraction of this shell slides through plastic, glass, metal, and silicon to find a home in Dhruv’s smartphone.

so folks,
Before you get another call, hope you are clear with how it works!!!