Cellular networks, also known as mobile networks, are a type of mobile communications hardware architecture that is divided into two types: analog cellular networks and digital cellular networks. It is named for the hexagonal shape of the signal coverage of the various communications base stations that make up the network coverage, thus making the entire network resemble a honeycomb.

The idea of cellular mobile communication was first conceived in 1947 by Bell Labs in the U.S. In 1977, they carried out a feasibility test of this technology and validated this technology on the AMPS system, or 1G technology, in 1978.

Components:

The cellular network consists of the following three main components: the mobile station, the base station subsystem, and the network subsystem. A mobile station is a network terminal device, such as a cell phone or some cellular industrial control equipment.

Base station subsystems include mobile base stations (large towers), wireless transceiver equipment, dedicated network (generally fiber optic), wireless digital equipment and so on. The base station subsystem can be seen as a converter between the wireless network and the wired network.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Cellular Networks