ADJACENT CHANNEL POWER RATIO

ACP measurements have been performed for many years. Originally, ACP measurements were
used for narrowband analog modulated signals and measured the ratio of the upper and lower
channels to the total power transmitted. The total power transmitted was defined as the carrier
plus the majority of power in the upper and lower channels. Today, an ACP measurement is
defined as the ratio of one or more upper and lower intervals of power to the total carrier power
across the bandwidth of the channel.
Cellular communications systems have relied on ACP measurements to ensure that power
radiated into an adjacent channel is limitedto ensure that the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the
adjacent channel does not interfere with communications in that channel. Cellular standards
such a W-CDMA, cdma2000, and LTE all have defined methods and limits for ACP
measurements. These standards go even further and even provide more descriptive names for
ACP measurements. For example, cdma2000 adopted Adjacent Channel Power Ratio (ACPR)
and W-CDMA adopted Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio (ACLR) as more specific names for their
versions of ACP measurements. GSM and EDGE have similar requirements that use what are
called Output RF Spectrum (ORFS) measurements to ensure that power radiated into adjacent
channels does not exceed certain levels. Most modern spectrum analyzers have programmed,
predefined settings for various standards that allow for quick measurement setups.
For narrowband analog modulated signals, the phase noise present in the local oscillator (LO)
accounted for most of the power present in the adjacent channels in these systems. Today, with
the introduction of wide-bandwidth signals, the power in the adjacent channel(s) can potentially
be from a combination of several factors, including phase noise, intermodulation distortion
(IMD), and the noise floor of the system. Similarly, these factors influence the dynamic range a
spectrum analyzer can achieve in making an ACP measurement.
For many of the current and future transmission standards (IS-95 CDMA, WCDMA and variants, IS-54 NADC,
), ACPR (sometimes also termed adjacent channel leakage ratio-ACLR) is an important test parameter for
characterizing the distortion of subsystems and the likelihood that a given system may cause interference with a
neighboring radio. Since this distortion mechanism requires a non-linearity, the most important subassembly to
check is one of the least linear: the power amplifier. As a result, many power amplifier test systems must
incorporate provisions to measure this quantity.
ACPR and Intermodulation Distortion (IMD)
Even in early radio systems, the interfering effects of an active neighboring channel in mildly non-linear
communications systems were well known. In these simpler modulation schemes, the use of two sinusoids to
represent two active channels was considered adequate. The third-order product of these two tones (e.g., [2])
could land in a neighboring channel bandwidth thus causing interference. This was the beginning of two-tone
intermodulation analysis. As the modulation becomes more complex, it becomes less obvious that the sinusoidal
representation will adequately simulate the problem
The 3rd order IMD product is usually defined as the ratio of the power in one of the third-order tones to that in
one of the main tones. ACPR is defined as the ratio of power in a bandwidth away from the main signal (the
distortion product) to the power in a bandwidth within the main signal. This statement is intentionally vague
since the bandwidths and locations are functions of the standards being employed. Alternate channel power ratio
is also sometimes defined and it refers to the ratio of power in a bandwidth two channels away from the main
signal to the power in some bandwidth within the main signal. In terms of the IMD measurements, a 5 th order
product (or some combination of higher order products) may correspond to the alternate channel power ratio.
Because of the requirement for a modulated signal and the increased complexity in accurately measuring power
over a precisely defined larger bandwidth, it has long been desired to avoid the direct measurement of ACPR
and perhaps use IMD as a surrogate measurement. While in principle this is possible (perhaps using higher order
IMD products) and is used in many cases, the correlation can be difficult since the relationship depends on the

details of the amplifier topology as well as the modulated waveform being used (e.g., [3]-[6]). Thus in many
cases, the true ACPR measurement must be performed.

In the discussions held on adjacent channel performance in ETSI, ARIB, ITU, 3GPP, etc. there has been some
confusion regarding the terms used. Especially the acronym ACP seems to have different meanings depending
on the context. WG4 has found it necessary to define three terms relating to adjacent channel performance, one
to use for simulations, one for transmitter performance requirements and one for receiver performance
requirements. Each term can be defined for any frequency offset. Thus Adjacent Channel may refer to not
only the channel closest to the assigned channel, but also the 2 Adjacent Channel, etc.
nd

2.1.1 Adjacent channel performance in simulations

In a system performance simulation where it is assumed that the transmitter and receiver use RF carriers that are
adjacent, an assumption has to be made of how much power is leaking from the transmitter to the receiver on the
adjacent channel. This adjacent channel interference power occurs because of both transmitter imperfections
(transmitter mask) and receiver imperfections (non-ideal receiver filter). In a system simulation, the reason for
the interference is irrelevant, it is the amount of interference that is interesting. This can be expressed as the ratio
of the total transmitted power to the interference power affecting the receiver. This definition seems to be the
one used in all system simulations presented to ETSI by different contributors, but it has been named differently
(ACP, ACI, etc.). For simulation purposes, the following definition is proposed:
Adjacent Channel Interference power Ratio, ACIR = The ratio of the total power transmitted from a source
(base station or UE) to the total interference power affecting a victim receiver, resulting from both transmitter
and receiver imperfections.
2.1.2 Transmitter adjacent channel performance
Mainly because of transmitter non-linearities, the spectrum mask from transmitter will leak into adjacent
channels. This is a very important system parameter, since it is essential for the co-existence performance of
systems on adjacent channels. It is also one of the most important design parameters for transmitters, since a too
strict requirement on adjacent channel leakage can restrict the implementation of efficient and low complexity
transmitters (especially for UE). The used term in ETSI and ARIB has previously been ACP or ACPR, but with
unclear definition as to what is intended.
The following definition is proposed. The term and intention is identical to the one propose in ITU IMT.RKEY.
Adjacent Channel Leakage power Ratio, ACLR = The ratio of the transmitted power to the power measured
after a receiver filter in the adjacent RF channel. Both the transmitted power and the received power are
measured within a filter response that is nominally rectangular, with a noise power bandwidth equal to the chip
rate.
2.1.3 Receiver adjacent channel performance
The receiver will have additional interference from the adjacent channel, since the receiver filter cannot be ideal,
i.e. not nominally rectangular as proposed in the definition of ACLR. The filter will have side lobes in the
adjacent channel, causing the power from the main lobe of the transmitted interference source to affect receiver
performance. For simulations and receiver design purposes, it is the receiver filters suppression of the main
lobe of the transmitted signal in the adjacent channel that is of interest. This includes the RF filter suppression of
the interference, but not the receiver processing gain. The following definition is proposed:
Adjacent Channel Selectivity, ACS: Adjacent Channel Selectivity is a measure of a receivers ability to receive
a signal at its assigned channel frequency in the presence of a modulated signal in the adjacent channel. ACS is
the ratio of the receiver filter attenuation on the assigned channel frequency to the receiver filter attenuation on
the adjacent channel frequency.
2.1.4 Relation between ACIR, ACLR and ACS
With the above definitions, it is clear that the ACIR (total interference between adjacent channels) will depend
solely on the ACLR and ACS performance numbers. All three are power ratios and the relation between them is

ACIR

1
1
1
+
ACLR ACS

In the uplink, the limiting design factor is the UE transmitter, which will dominate the uplink interference. The
reason is that ACLRUE << ACSBS , which implies that uplink ACIR ACLRUE . Thus, in an uplink simulation, it
is essentially the UE ACLR performance that is simulated.
In the downlink, the limiting design factor is the UE receiver, which will dominate the downlink interference.
The reason is that ACSUE << ACLRBS , which implies that downlink ACIR ACSUE . A downlink simulation will
thus essentially be a simulation of UE ACS performance.
ADJACENT CHANNEL INTERFERENCE RATIO
Adjacent Channel Inetreference Ratio is teh ratio of wanted power to the interference power from the adjacent
channels.
ADJACENT CHANNEL LEAKAGE RATIO
ACLR ids the measure of transmitted performsnce for WCDMA. It is defined as the ratio of the transmitted
power to the power measure dafter the receiver filter in the adjacent RF channel. This is what was formely
called Adjacent Channel Power Ratio. ACLR is specified in the 3GPP WCDMA standard.
ADJACENT CHANNEL POWER RATIO
ACPR is a measurement of the amount of interference or power in the adjacent frequency channel . ACPR is
usally defined as the ratio of average power in the adjacent frequency chasnnel (or offset) to the average ower in
the transmitted frequency channel. It is critical measurement fir the CDMA transmitters and their components.it
describes the amount of distortion generated dueto nonlinearities in RF components. The ACPR is not the part
of the cdmaOne standard.
ADJACENT CHANNEL SELECTIVITY
ACS is the measurement of receivers ability to process a desired signal while rejecting a strong signal in an
adjacent frequency channel. ACS is defined as the ratio of the receiver filter attenuation on the assigned channel
frequency to the receiver filter attenuation oon the adjacent channel frequency