What's Pilot Pollution

Pilot pollution is a term used in cellular communication to describe a situation where too many neighboring base stations or cell sites use the same radio frequency or channel, leading to interference and degraded performance in the network.

In a cellular network, each base station or cell site is assigned a specific frequency or channel to communicate with the mobile devices within its coverage area. When there are too many base stations using the same frequency or channel, the signals can interfere with each other, leading to dropped calls, slow data speeds, and reduced coverage.

Pilot pollution can occur when there are too many overlapping coverage areas or when the network is experiencing high traffic loads. To mitigate pilot pollution, cellular operators may use techniques such as frequency reuse, power control, and interference coordination to manage the allocation of radio resources and optimize network performance.