Proposal:Telecommunications tower

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Better destinguish between communication towers and mobile phone base stations
Proposal status: Abandoned (inactive)
Proposed by: derstefan
Tagging: communication:*=yes
Applies to: node area
Definition: How to tag communication systems
Statistics:

Rendered as: different each type
Draft started: 2011-10-06
RFC start: 2012-01-02


Towers with any kind of communication are currently mapped as man_made=antenna, man_made=mast, man_made=communications_tower or simply man_made=tower together with tower_type=communication.


This page describes the tag communication:*=yes.

Key & Value Element Comment
communication:mobile_phone=yes node area advanced values: gsm, umts, cdma, lte
communication:radio=yes node area advanced values: fm, am, dab
communication:television=yes node area advanced values: analogue, dvb-t
communication:*=yes node area user defined

Let's see how to map a:

Object Tagging Element Comment Example
telecommunications tower
(German: Fernmeldeturm)
man_made=communications_tower
communication:radio=yes
communication:television=yes
node area Mainly broadcasting radio and television. Tower is very visible in the landscape.
Fernmeldeturm Blauen
simple radio or television transmitter man_made=antenna
communication:radio=yes
node area A broadcast antenna not mounted on top of a concrete tower
Sender Obereisesheim
mobile phone tower man_made=mast
communication:mobile_phone=yes
node Just a simple tower only for a mobile phone base station (BTS)
GSM base station
mobile phone on a roof communication:mobile_phone=yes node A mobile phone base station (BTS) mounted on top of a house
GSM base station
mobile phone on a water tower man_made=water_tower
communication:mobile_phone=yes
node area A mobile phone base station (BTS) mounted to a water tower
GSM base station on a water tower
mobile phone on a chimney man_made=chimney
communication:mobile_phone=yes
node area A mobile phone base station (BTS) mounted to a chimney
GSM base station on a chimney


One of the aims is to have a difference in "important" and less important towers. On a good topographical map you want to show big transmitters on mountains or huge telecommunications towers in a big city due to being a great landmark, whereas less noticeable mobile phone base stations may be noise on a topographical map (although still immensely useful for things like wireless positioning). As you can see, a difference between base stations mounted on a tower or just mounted on a roof is made.


Advanced tagging of mobile phone base stations

You can add more information to the base stations, but remember: Only add information you know for sure. Please try to avoid the use of e.g. operator=T-Mobile, use MNC=01 instead.[1]

If you don't know anything about the base station, simply tag it with communication:mobile_phone=yes.


GSM

tag comment
communication:mobile_phone=gsm
MCC=262 Mobile Country Code, 262 is Germany
MNC=01 Mobile Network Code: 01=T-Mobile, 02=Vodafone, 03=e-plus, 07=O₂
gsm:LAC=37890 Location Area Code
gsm:cellid=4107;4108;4109 Cell ID
gsm:direction=0;120;240 Directions of Cell IDs
gsm:cb221=364602549921 Only for O₂: CB message on channel 221, exact location of BTS in Gauß-Krüger-Projektion


UMTS

tag comment
communication:mobile_phone=umts
MCC=262 Mobile Country Code, 262 is Germany
MNC=01 Mobile Network Code: 01=T-Mobile, 02=Vodafone, 03=e-plus, 07=O₂
umts:LAC=37890 Location Area Code, possibly other value than GSM
umts:cellid=4107;4108;4109 Cell ID, possibly other value than GSM
umts:direction=0;120;240 Directions of Cell IDs


GSM & UMTS

tag comment
communication:mobile_phone=gsm;umts
MCC=262 Mobile Country Code, 262 is Germany
MNC=01 Mobile Network Code: 01=T-Mobile, 02=Vodafone, 03=e-plus, 07=O₂
gsm:LAC=37890 Location Area Code of GSM
gsm:cellid=4107;4108;4109 Cell ID of GSM
gsm:direction=0;120;240 Directions of Cell IDs
umts:LAC=42516 Location Area Code of UMTS
umts:cellid=3453;3454;3458 Cell ID of UMTS
umts:direction=0;120;240 Directions of Cell IDs


  1. Why not operator=T-Mobile? Because operator could already be used for the operator of the tower or the chimney!