CHAPTER IV

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Alternative 2: The One Relay Path as the Best Route

One of the many things that the researchers have learned

as a trainee in a telecom company is that in linking stations

the lesser the relays or repeaters the better. In Alternative

2s case, linkage can be achieved even just by having a single

relay and this means that it is cost efficient in comparison

with alternative 1, 3 and 4 that have two to three repeaters

or relay in between. It is also noticed that in alternative

2, the relay is located at a high elevation in Mount Labo,

Camarines Sur that is 4292 feet. Many would say that it is

not advisable to put up a tower station in the mountains

because it is expensive to transport the equipment needed and

maintenance of stations will be of great effort. As a matter

of fact, it is quite the opposite. Low lands have poor lines

of sight due to obstructions (buildings, houses, or the

terrain itself) so it will require an increase amount of

stations to be put up resulting to more expenses whereas if

we put up stations on higher grounds less stations are needed

due to efficient lines of sights. And when it comes to

maintenance, more effort is to be done if stations are on low

lands since it has been established on the previous statement

that there will be an increase amount of stations but less if

on higher grounds. Another advantage of putting up stations

on elevated areas is that it can also be used as a link to

other stations from long distances since it has an

unobstructed line of sight resulting again to less effort and

money to be spent on putting up another stations just to

create a link.

A Cell site or more commonly known as Base Station

consists of three important parts, namely POWER, TRANSMISSION

and BTS ACCESS.

The power serves as a back-up supply in case a black out

occurs. In the transmission section, all the transmission

lines are found here such as connection to trunk radio, IP

PDH, fiber optic cables, routers and et cetera. The access

section, the base transceiver station can be found here which

are also connected to the transmission lines all the way

through the panel antennas that provides the signal that our

handheld devices receives.

The BSC in the floor plan stands for the router that is

connected to the Base Station Controller that controls the

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cell site. Two designs of floor plan is provided in this study

and can be seen on the appendices. It can be seen that the

design two is quite different to other cell site designs it

is because DESIGN 2 floor plan is todays industry trend style

because it is cost efficient and easy to maintain. The

researchers have decided to use this kind of design since the

station 2 site is located in Mt. Labo where the transmission

will function as a relay. People fail to differentiate a

relay from a repeater.

Relays connect two or more cell sites that relays or

transfers data of information from one station to another as

linkage while Repeaters also connects two or more cell sites

and also transfers data from station to station but at the

same time expands the signal to longer range for subscribers.

Relays dont provide signals meaning it doesnt have panel

antennas on its tower.

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Azimuth and corresponding Path Distance

To achieve a line of sight between two distant base

stations, Antenna Bearing must be calculated and the result

of numerical values are shown in table 7.

Table 9: Antenna Bearing

Linking Labo and Relay (Mt. Labo)

15.45449368 km

Azimuth West 17711' 26.94"

Azimuth East 35831' 26.91"

Linking Relay (Mt. Labo) and Minalabac

49.1375975 km

Azimuth West 17927' 32.1"

Azimuth East 35933' 8.6

Figure 18 and Figure 19 shows the Graphical

Representation of Table 6.

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 Figure 18. Bearing of antenna
linking Labo Station and the relay
station

Figure 19. Bearing of antenna

linking the relay station through
Minalabac Station.

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Obstruction Distance Calculation

With the use of the Inverse Position Method the distance

from base stations to their corresponding highest obstruction

are shown in the table _. In calculating Inverse Position

method the researchers used the coordinates of the stations

which are Labo station, Relay (Mount Labo, station and

Minalabac Station. The difference of the corresponding

latitude and longitude of two stations are also needed upon

computing and Interpolation Method was used to get the Exact

Log Bm/Am and Exact log A in order to get the final distance

value.

Table 9. Tabulated result of the Path distances of obstruction between the

two links needed.

Distance (km)

Station 1 to Obs 1 8.29771244

Station 2 (Relay) to Obs 2 45.57778748

Frequency Calculation

The frequency was selected based on the path distance

of the respective links. For the frequency band for

different path distances, refer to Appendix C, Appendix

Table 8.

Considering the calculated path distances of the two

links, which are greater than 20 km, the whole systems

operating frequency bandwidth were 6 and 7 GHz frequency band.

The Radio equipment that will be use is the Harris Truepoint

5000 PDH/Ethernet Digital Radio. See attached description in

Appendix E for the radio equipment specifications.

The numerical result of the computed frequency is shown

in table 6.

Table 10. Frequency band that the Antennas will generate in the

corresponding links.

Midband Frequency
(GHz)

Link 1 Labo to relay 7.262

Link 2 Relay to Minalabac 5.99801

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ANTENNA HEIGHT AND PATH CALCULATION

In order to get the needed antenna height the following

data are needed; Transmitter (tx) elevation, receiver (rx)

elevation, highest obstruction height of the link, average

tree growth, choose an effective earths radius factor,

distance from tx to rx, distance from tx to obstruction,

distance from obstruction to rx and the calculated midband

frequency that the antenna will be generating. The

corresponding numerical values if the data needed where taken

from the calculated values of the Link Budget (chapter 3) and

by the use of Google earth software.

The data gathered will be used to compute the earth

bulge of the terrain in the links location, considered highest

obstruction, the Fresnel zone and the desired antenna height

as well. To get the antenna height of the respective stations

and repeaters, the researchers used the triangular method for

computation resulting to -844.02622979 m for link 1 which is

also the same as to link 2. The calculated value is in

negative therefore the antenna height would be automatically

set to minimum antenna height. The minimum antenna height

available based from Sabre Site Solution, 70 ft, is the height

to be used in both links. Converting to meters, the actual

antenna height at Relay facing Labo is 21 m.

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 To support the antenna height, the Fresnel ratio was

also computed and since the calculated Fresnel Ratio is much

greater than 1, therefore it is acceptable.

TRANSMISSION CALCULATION

With all the conducted computations, it is a must to

also determine if the equipment specification of the antenna

fits while giving consideration to the corresponding link

distance.

Distance of transmission, generated frequency of the

antenna, its height, radio equipment specification,

transmission of output power and received threshold should be

known first before computing.

Fade margin can be now calculated. Then minimum antenna

height was set which is 21 m that can be found in the sabre

site solution to calculate the actual fresnel clearance and

ratio.

Harris Truepoint 5000 radio equipment specification was

used for transmission calculation. Then the non-diversity

case formula was used for computing the fade margin of the

link, calculated the median received power, got the net path

loss, fixed free space loss, waveguide loss, connector loss

is constant typically set to 1 dB and assumed radum loss is

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also constant 0.5 dB. Next is that the rain attenuation and

absorption loss were also computed. By the use of the results

in the losses, the antenna gain, antenna size and diameter

can now be calculated which results to total gain of

65.82213114 dB & 56.97164669 dB and 0.9496117792 m &

0.4712321611 m to both links, but the designers want more

reliability thats why they used a bigger antenna with the

diameter of 3.0 m and 1.2 m and got a total reliability of

99.99999846% & 99.99997876%.

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OVERALL SYSTEM RELIABILITY

LABO TO RELAY

FREQUENCY CALCULATION

The frequency was selected based on the path length

of the respective links. For the frequency band for

different path distances, refer to Appendix C, Appendix

Table 8.

Considering the calculated path lengths of the two

links, which are greater than 20 km, the whole systems

operating frequency bandwidth were 6 and 7 GHz frequency

band. The Radio equipment that will be use is the Harris

Truepoint 5000 PDH/Ethernet Digital Radio. See attached

description in Appendix E for the radio equipment

specifications.

To get the antenna height of the respective

stations and repeaters, we used the triangular method of

computation.

In order to have a reliable path design, it must

satisfy the condition that (F=H/Hn) 1. Assuming that

F = 1, so that H must be greater than or equal to Hn to

clear the obstruction.

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 The calculated antenna height is negative;

therefore, the antenna height would be automatically set

to minimum antenna height. The minimum antenna height

available based from Sabre Site Solution was used.

The transmission calculation provides the actual

way of determining the efficiency of transmission within

the area of coverage. The data acquired in these

calculations are the basis if the system is feasible.

Since the computed antenna diameter is 0.4712321611

m, the HP4-71 antenna will be used with 1.2 m diameter.

To attain a reliability of 99.9999 %, the researchers

have decided to use the diameter of 1.2 m. See Appendix

F for antenna specifications.

System Reliability Estimate with Respect to Multipath Fading

Multipath Fading is the fading of a radio

communication signals, the incoming signals are received

via more than one path. Since path length differs, the

different incoming signals do not always assist each

other, they sometimes cancel each other out.

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 Frequency Diversity Case, F.

To establish heavy route system, appropriate

diversity must be applied. This tends to minimize the

effect of the multipath fading suitable for system

requiring higher reliability. In this design the

proponents applied frequency diversity to attain lower

outage time. The proponents also used typical diversity

spacing in most microwave bands which is in order of 2%

(f).

Thus, reliability for link 1 (Labo Relay) using

frequency diversity is 99.99997876 %.

RELAY TO MINALABAC

To get the antenna height of the respective

stations and relay, we used the triangular method of

computation. In order to have a reliable path design, it must

satisfy the cndition that (F=H/Hn) 1. Assuming that F = 1,

so that H must be greater than or equal to Hn to clear the

obstruction.

The calculated antenna height is negative; therefore,

the antenna height would be automatically set to minimum

120
antenna height. The minimum antenna height available based

from Sabre Site Solution was used.

TRANSMISSION CALCULATION

The transmission calculation provides the actual

way of determining the efficiency of transmission within

the area of coverage. The data acquired in these

calculations are the basis if the system is feasible.

Since the computed antenna diameter is 0.9496117791

m, the HP2-102 antenna will be used with 1.2 m diameter.

See Appendix F for antenna specifications. But to

achieve the reliability of 99.9999% the researchers

are decided to use larger antenna.

System Reliability Estimate with Respect to Multipath Fading

Multipath Fading is the fading of a radio

communication signals, the incoming signals are

received via more than one path. Since path length

differs, the different incoming signals do not always

assist each other, they sometimes cancel each other out.

Frequency Diversity Case

To establish heavy route system, appropriate

diversity must be applied. This tends to minimize the

121
 effect of the multipath fading suitable for system

requiring higher reliability. In this design the

proponents applied frequency diversity to attain lower

outage time. The proponents also used typical diversity

spacing in most microwave bands which is in order of 2%

(f).

Thus, reliability for link 2 (Relay Minalabac)

using frequency diversity is 99.9999846 %

Overall System Reliability Using Frequency Diversity

To get the overall system reliability, we get the

computed values for frequency diversity of the

respective links.

Having the value of overall system reliability of

99.99998168 %, it can be said that the microwave system

link for Labo, Camarines Norte to Minalabac, Camarines

Sur have met its utmost requirement of minimum 99.99%

reliability. Furthermore an outage time of 5.78135232

seconds per year had been computed and illustrated

above.

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TRANSMISSION PROTECTION

To protect the telecommunication lines, the designers

decided to use the Citel Gas Discharge Tubes against lightning

surges and electrical transients. These components are made

of two or three electrodes in an enclosure filled with a (non-

radioactive) rare gas at a controlled pressure. The enclosure

is a ceramic tube with its ends closed off by metal caps that

also serve as electrodes. (Refer to Appendix J for the

specifications.)

Table 11. Tabulated Result to the overall reliability

LINK 1 (LABO - RELAY)

Midband Frequency 7.262 GHz GHz
Fresnel Height 9.496621377 m
Antenna Height (computed) - 844.0262298 m
Antenna Height (used) 21 m
Frequency Diversity 5.9446741010E-08 non div
1.0618551560E-07 freq div
reliability (using freq div) 99.9999788%

LINK 2 (RELAY - MINALABAC)

Fresnel Height 12.83587802 m
Antenna Height (computed) - 585.165648 m
Frequency Diversity 2.4085335200E-08 non div
7.7017706020E-08 freq div
reliability (using freq div) 99.9999846%

OVERALL SYSTEM RELIABILITY

99.9999817%
using frequency diversity
outage time 5.78135232 s/year

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 PROTECTED NETWORK

There are many cases that connection between two towers get

loss, leading to a breakdown of cell site which results to signal

loss in the vicinity of area that the towers cover. A solution to

this problem is to make the microwave system design be a protected

topology network.

A protected topology consists of multiple routes for data

transmission and figure 20 below shows a sample can-be-done network

to the researchers microwave design. Originally the researchers

design only consists of two linkages namely the Labo-to-Mt.Labo

link and Mt.Labo-to-Minalabac. To achieve a protected topology the

researchers have decided to provide nine links to the whole system

which can be Labo-to-Mt.Labo, Mt.Labo-to-Minalabac, Labo-to-

DelGallego, Labo-to-Daet, DelGallego-to-Lupi, Mt.Labo-to-Lupi,

Daet-to-Lupi, Mt.Labo-to-Sipocot and Sipocot-to-Minalabac.

The system is protected in a way that in case that the link

Labo-to-Mt.Labo breaks down, the link of Labo-to-DelGallego or

Labo-to-Daet will serve as an alternative route to use so that

connection will not be lost. Same with the Mt.Labo-to-Minalabac

link, if this link breaks down, an alternative of Mt.Labo-to-Lupi

and Mt.Labo-to-Sipocot can be used for alternative route and

breakdown will occur.

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Figure 20. Shows a protected network for the Labo to Minalabac linkage

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