Radio Optimization

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What is Coverage Area ?

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What is Service Area ?

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 Coverage Schemes

• Definition of coverage in different environments:

Coverage Classifications Threshold Coverage classification

Good In-building -70 dBm Urban high\medium\low density, skyscrapers, airport

Average In-building -78 dBm Suburban, industrial

Good In-car -85 dBm Suburban dense vegetation, open, village, town, river

Average In-car -88 dBm Agricultural, high tree density

Outdoor -92 dBm Water

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Coverage real network

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 Antennas 1/7

• Frequency Band
• Directional, Bidirectional, Omni
• Horizontal & Vertical Beam width
• Gain
• VSWR
• MDT/EDT
• Diversity
300º 60º
• Single\Dual\Multi Band
Ant 6 Ant 1
300º 60º
Ant 5
Ant 2
Ant 4 Ant 3

180º 180º 6
 Antennas 2/7

• Vertical pattern and beam width

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 Antennas 3/7

• Down tilt

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 Antennas 4/7

• Down tilt() = VBW/2 + Arctng(H/R)


Down tilt ()

Height (H)

-3 dB points
Main lobe

Cell Range (R)

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 Antennas 5/7

• Safety margin for horizontal BW

Safety Margin
15 Degrees

Azimuth (main lobe)

Building

Half Power BW

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 Antennas 6/7

• Safety margin for V.BW

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 Antennas 7/7

• Electrical tilt versus mechanical tilt

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Downlink Link Budget

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Downlink Link Budget Analysis

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Downlink Link Budget - Example

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Downlink Link Budget - Solution

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Uplink link Budget

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Uplink Link Budget - Example

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System Balance

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System Balance Equation

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System Balance

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System Balance - Example

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Complete Link Budget

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 Propagation: loss + 4 possible
events

Radio wave
Radio wave

shadowing scattering

Radio wave

reflection diffraction

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 Continued

• Reflection
» Occurs when a wave impinges upon a smooth surface.
» Dimensions of the surface are large relative to .
» Reflections from the surface of the earth and from
buildings and walls.
• Diffraction
» Occurs when the path is blocked by an object with large
dimensions relative to  and sharp irregularities (edges).
» Secondary “wavelets” propagate into the shadowed
region.
» Diffraction gives rise to bending of waves around the
obstacle.
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 Reflection

• Strong echoes can cause excessive transmission delay

• No impact If the delay falls in the equalizer window
• Cause self-interference if the delay falls out of the equalizer window

direct signal
strong reflected signal

amplitude long echoes, out of equalizer window:

self-interference

delay time
equalizer window 16 s

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 Continued

Scattering

• Occurs when a wave impinges upon an object with dimensions on

the order of  or less, causing the reflected energy to spread out or
“scatter” in many directions.
• Small objects such as street lights, signs, & leaves cause
scattering

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Multipath Fading

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Fading affect on received signal

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What is fading ?

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 Slow and fast fading

• Slow fading
» Other names: Shadowing, Large scale fading, Log – Normal fading,
Long term fading
» Due to various shadowing and terrain effects and man made
environments

• Fast Fading
» Other names: Small scale fading, Rayleigh or Rician fading, Short
term fading
» Due to movement of MS

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 Interference

Signal Quality
expected signals carrier (C )
sum of all unexpected signal
= interference (I)
atmospheric
expected signal noise

other signals

Notes: GSM specification : C / I >= 9 dB (Co-Channel)

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 Effects of Interference

• Affect signal quality

• Cause bit error
• Repairable errors : channel coding, error correction
• Irreducible errors : phase distortions
• Interference situation is
• Non- reciprocal : uplink <> downlink
• Unsymmetrical : different situation at MS and BTS
• C/I
• Co-Channel C/I : 9dB
• Adjacent Channel C/I : -9dB

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 Signal Quality in GSM

RX Quality ---> RXQUAL class : 0 ... 7

RXQUAL Mean BER BER range

class (%) from... to
0 0.14 < 0.2%
good 1 0.28 0.2 ... 0.4 %
usable signal 2 0.57 0.4 ... 0.8 %
3 1.13 0.8 ... 1.6 %
acceptable 4 2.26 1.6 ... 3.2 %
5 4.53 3.2 ... 6.4 %
unusable 6 9.05 6.4 ... 12.8 %
signal 7 18.1 > 12.8 %

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 Macro Sites 1/2

• Hilltop locations for should be avoided as it cause:

• Uuncontrolled interference
• Iinterleaved coverage
• Awkward HOs
• Good for microwave links
• Can be used for coverage of road
• Should be low capacity Uncontrolled interference

Desired cell boundary

Interleaved coverage area

weak own signal, strong foreign signal
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 Macro Sites 2/2

RF criteria for site selection

• Clearnce of first Fresnel zone
• Good view in the main beam direction
• No surrounding nearby high obstacle
• Good visibility of terrain
• LOS to microwave sites or even BSC site if possible
• Short cabling distance

Non RN criteria
• Space for equipment
• Rental and access issues
• Power supply

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 Hot & Blind Spots

…..Macro cell layer has been implement, but two problems exist:

a) hot spots; demand for capacity

b) Blind spots; poor coverage

Examples:
- squares, shops, companies, exhibitions, stadiums, complexes
(demand for capacity)

- Rural areas, roads, tunnels (e.g.metro)

(demand for coverage)
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 Solutions:

• Outdoor Micros
• Distributed Antenna System (DAS)
• Repeaters
• Radiating Cable

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 Outdoor Micros
• Used in hot spots:
e.g. squares, streets, stadiums, companies, complexes, exhibitions

• Micro BTSs are used (with up to 4TRXs & 30dBm output power)
• Internal or external antennas with 2-7dBi
• Mast height of 3-12m
• Service & coverage area up to 300m radius
• Location of antennas usually:
- squares
- sidewalks
- on the walls
- rooftop of small buildings

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Distributed Antenna System
(DAS)

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 Continued

• Technically for indoor planning e.g. multi floors buildings

• Micro or pico BTSs is installed in one floor
• Capacity is distributed in different floors
• External antennas are installed in all floors through feeders, optic fibers
and splitters
• Omni directional, directional or bidirectional antennas are used
• Avoid signal leakage to outside building
• Losses due to feeders, combiners must be considered

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Repeaters

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 Applications

• Provide coverage for:

- buildings
- roads
- rural area
- tunnels

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 Elements in a repeater system

• Donor cell (BTS): BTS that its signal and capacity is used in repeater
• Pick up antenna: repeater antenna in connection with BTS
• Service antenna: repeater antenna which provide coverage for blind area

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When to use repeaters ?

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 Radiating Cable

• Coaxial cable which radiates Signal

• Typical parameters:

- Frequency range : GSM band

- Longitudinal loss : the same loss in feeders

- Coupling loss : loss between cable and a testing receiver at

distance of 2m
- System loss : Longitudinal + Coupling losses

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 Radiating Cables in Metro

• Capacity and coverage calculations for tunnel and stations

• BTSs are located in 1 or 2 Stations
• Capacity is distributed through radiating cables, optical fibers and
splitters
MU: Master Unit RU: Remote Unit

Radiating Optical
Cable Fiber
Tunnel

RU MU RU

BTS

Station A Station B Station C

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Master Station

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Remote Station

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