Introduction to Radio Systems

May 2015
Version 4
Agenda
• Radio Relay Principles

• Parameters affecting propagations:

• Dispersion
• Humidity/gas absorption
• Multipath/ducting
• Atmospheric conditions (refraction)
• Terrain (flatness, type, Fresnel zone clearance, diffraction)
• Climatic conditions (rain zone, temperature)
• Rain attenuation

• Modulation

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Digital Transmission Systems

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Radio Relay Principles

f1

RF Signal

f1’

Path Terrain

• A Radio Link requires two end stations

• A line of sight (LOS) or nLOS (near LOS) is required
• Microwave Radio Link frequencies occupy 1-80GHz

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High and Low frequency station

Tx(f1)=11500 MHz Rx(f1)=11500 MHz

Full duplex
Local site Remote site
High station Low station

Rx(f1’)=11000 MHz Tx(f1’)=11000 MHz

High station means: Tx(f1) >Rx(f1’)

Low station means: Tx(f1’) < Rx(f1)

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Standard frequency plan patterns
Only Low stations can interfere High stations
Frequency reuse:
Low 1,3V High 1,3V Low High
1,3H 1,3H 1,3H
Tx Tx Tx Tx Tx

Reduced risk for overshoot

Frequency shift:
1,3H 1,3V 2,4V 2,4H 1,3H
Tx Tx Tx Tx Tx

Tx Tx in upper part of band

Reduced risk for overshoot Tx Tx in lower part of band

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Preferred site location structure

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 Radio Principal Block Diagram

Input
signal
Z' E' A' B' C' D'
Digital Branching
Modulator Transmitter RF Tx Filter Feeder
Line interface Network(*)

TRANSMITTER PATH

D C B A E Z
Branching RF Rx Filter Demodulator Digital
Feeder Receiver
Network(*) Line interface Output
signal
RECEIVER PATH

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RF Principals
• RF - System of communication employing electromagnetic waves
(EMW) propagated through space
• EMW travel at the speed of light (300,000 km/s)
• The wave length is determined by the frequency as follows -

c where c is the propagation velocity of electromagnetic

Wave Length  waves in vacuum (3x108 m/s)
f

• Microwave – refers to very short waves (millimeters) and typically

relates to frequencies above 1GHz:
 300 MHz ~ 1 meter
 10 GHz ~ 3 cm

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RF Principals
• We can see the relationship between colour, wavelength and amplitude
using this animation

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Radio Spectrum

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 Parameters Affecting Propagation

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Parameters Affecting Propagation
• Dispersion
• Humidity/gas absorption
• Multipath/ducting
• Atmospheric conditions (refraction)
• Terrain (flatness, type, Fresnel zone clearance, diffraction)
• Climatic conditions (rain zone, temperature)
• Rain attenuation

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Parameters Affecting Propagation – Dispersion
• Electromagnetic signal propagating in a physical medium is degraded
because the various wave components (i.e., frequencies, wavelengths)
have different propagation velocities within the physical medium:

• Low frequencies have longer wavelength and refract less

• High frequencies have shorter wavelength and refract more

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Parameters Affecting Propagation
Atmospheric Refraction

• Deflection of the beam towards the ground due to different electrical

characteristics of the atmosphere’s is called Dielectric Constant.
• The dielectric constant depends on pressure, temperature &
humidity in the atmosphere, parameters that are normally decrease
with altitude
• Since waves travel faster through thinner medium, the upper part of the
wave will travel faster than the lower part, causing the beam to bend
downwards, following the curve of earth

With Atmosphere

No Atmosphere
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Wave in atmosphere
N – Radio refractivity
Radio rays bends towards the more dense medium
N = (n-1) * 106
= 77.6 / T *(p + 4810 * e /T)

n – refractivity ( speed in
vacuum / speed in media)
T – Temprature Kelvin
P – Total air pressure mbar
e – water vapour pressure hPa

Normal atmosphere:

dN N units
 40
dh km

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Parameters Affecting Propagation – Multipath
• Multipath occurs when there is more then one beam reaching the receiver
with different amplitude or phase
• Multipath transmission is the main cause of fading in low frequencies

Direct beam

Delayed beam

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Parameters Affecting Propagation – Duct
• Atmospheric duct refers to a horizontal layer in the lower atmosphere with
vertical refractive index gradients causing radio signals:
• Remain within the duct
• Follow the curvature of the Earth
• Experience less attenuation in the ducts than they would if the ducts were not
present

Duct Layer
Duct Layer

Terrain

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Parameters Affecting Propagation - Polarization and Rain
• Raindrops have sizes ranging from 0.1 millimeters to 9 millimeters
mean diameter (above that they tend to break up)

• Smaller drops are called cloud droplets, and their shape is spherical.

• As a raindrop increases in
• size, its shape becomes more
• oblate, with its largest
cross-section facing the
• oncoming airflow.

Large rain drops become

Increasingly flattened on the
Bottom;
very large ones are shaped
like parachutes

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Parameters Affecting Propagation – Rain Fading
• Refers to scenarios where signal is absorbed by rain, snow, ice
• Absorption becomes significant factor above 11GHz
• Signal quality degrades
• Represented by “dB/km” parameter which is related the rain
density which represented “mm/hr”
• Rain drops falls as flattened droplet

 V better than H (more immune to rain fading)

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Parameters Affecting Propagation – Rain Fading

Heavier rain >> Heavier Atten.

Higher FQ >> Higher Attenuation

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 Parameters Affecting Propagation – Fresnel Zone

3rd
2nd
1. EMW propagate in beams
1st RX
2. Some beams widen – therefore, their path is longer
TX
3. A phase shift is introduced between the direct and indirect
beam
4. Thus, ring zones around the direct line are created

Duct Layer0

Terrain

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Parameters Affecting Propagation – Fresnel Zone
• Obstacles in the first Fresnel zone will create signals that will be 0 to 90 degrees out
of phase…in the 2nd zone they will be 90 to 270 degrees out of phase…in 3rd zone,
they will be 270 to 450 degrees out of phase and so on…
• Odd numbered zones are constructive and even numbered zones are destructive.
• When building wireless links, we therefore need to be sure that these zones are kept
free of obstructions.
• In wireless networking the area containing about 40-60 percent of the first Fresnel
zone should be kept free.

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Example: First condition

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RF Link Basic Components – Parabolic Reflector Radiation (antenna)

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RSSI Curve

1,9V

1,6V

1,3V

-30dBm -60dbm -90dBm

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Main Parabolic Antenna Types

• Standard performance antennas (SP,LP)

• Used for remote access links with low capacity. Re-using frequencies on adjacent links is not
normally possible due to poor front to back ratio.
• High performance antennas (HP)
• Used for high and low capacity links where only one polarization is used. Re-using frequencies is
possible. Can not be used with co-channel systems.
• High performance dual polarized antennas (HPX)
• Used for high and low capacity links with the possibility to utilize both polarizations. Re-using
frequencies is possible. Can be used for co-channel systems.
• Super high performance dual polarized antennas (HSX)
• Normally used on high capacity links with the possibility to utilize both polarizations. Re-using
frequencies is possible with high interference protection. Ideal for co-channel systems.
• Ultra high performance dual polarized antennas (UHX)
• Normally used on high capacity links with high interference requirements. Re-using frequencies in
many directions is possible. Can be used with co-channel systems.

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Passive Repeaters

Back-to-back
antennas
Plane
reflector

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Link Calculation – Basic Example (in vacuum)
Lfs

TSL Ga Lfsl Ga Lw

RSL - Received Signal Level

Lb
TSL – Transmitted Signal Level
Lfsl - Free-space loss = 92.45 + 20 log x(distance in km x frequency in GHz)
Lf - Filter loss
Lf
Lb - Branching loss
Lw - Waveguide loss
Ga – Antenna gain RSL

RSL=TSL+Ga-Lfsl+Ga-Lw-Lb-Lf

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Atmospheric attenuation
Starts to contribute to the total attenuation above approximately 15GHz

Aa   a  d [dB]

Parameters in a:
 Frequency
 Temperature
 Air pressure
 Water vapour

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Objective examples
• Typical objectives used in real systems

• 99.999%
• Month: 25.9 sec
• Year: 5 min 12 sec

• 99.995 %
• Month: 2 min 10 sec
• Year: 26 min

• 99.99%
• Month: 260 sec
• Year: 51 min

• Performance requirements generally higher than Availability.

• ITU use worst month for Performance Average year for Availability

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 Modulation

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Modulation
Modulation

Analog Digital
Modulation Modulation

AM - Amplitude modulation ASK – Amplitude Shift Keying

FM - Frequency modulation FSK – Frequency Shift Keying
PM – Phase modulation PSK – Phase Shift Keying
QAM – Quadrature Amplitude modulation

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 Digital modulation

1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0

1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 ASK modulation changes the amplitude to the analog

Modem signale.”1” and “ 0” have different amplitude.

1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0

1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0
PSK modulation changes the phase to the transmitted
Modem
signal. The simplest method uses 0 and 1800 .

1800 phase shift

1 0 1 1 0 1 1

1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 FSK modulation is a method of represent the two

Modem binary states ”1” and ”0” with different
spcific frequencies.

F1 F2 F1 F1 F2 F1 F1

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QAM Modulation
• Quadrature Amplitude Modulation employs both phase modulation
(PSK) and amplitude modulation (ASK)
• The input stream is divided into groups of bits based on the number
of modulation states used.
• In 8 QAM, each three bits of input, which provides eight values (0-7)
alters the phase and amplitude of the carrier to derive eight unique
modulation states
• In 64 QAM, each six bits generates 64 modulation states; in 128
QAM, each seven bits generate 128 states, and so on

4QAM 2bits/symbol 256QAM 8bits/symbol

8QAM 3bits/symbol 512QAM 9bits/symbol
16QAM 4bits/symbol 1024QAM 10bits/symbol
32QAM 5bits/symbol 2048QAM 11bits/symbol
64QAM 6bits/symbol
128QAM 7bits/symbol

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Why QAM and not ASK or PSK for higher modulation?
• This is because QAM achieves a greater distance between adjacent points
in the I-Q plane by distributing the points more evenly

• The points on the constellation are more distinct and data errors are
reduced

• Higher modulation >> more bits per symbol

• Constellation points are closer >>TX is more susceptible to noise

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Constellation diagram
• In a more abstract sense, it represents the possible symbols that may be
selected by a given modulation scheme as points in the complex plane.
Measured constellation diagrams can be used to recognize the type of
interference and distortion in a signal.

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8 QAM Modulation Example
• We have stream: 001-010-100-011-101-000-011-110

DIGITAL QAM (8QAM)

Bit sequence Amplitude Phase (degrees)

000 1 None
001 2 None
010 1 pi/2 (90°)
011 2 pi/2 (90°)
100 1 pi (180°)
101 2 pi (180°)
110 1 3pi/2 (270°)
111 2 3pi/2 (270°)

How does constellation diagram look?

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4QAM VS. 16QAM

4QAM 16QAM

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2048 QAM

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Bandwidth vs. Modulation

2-PSK

4-PSK
Modulation Bandwidth
Complixity Decreases
Increases 8-PSK

16-QAM

64-QAM

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 Signal / Noise
• Example: S/N influence at QPSK Demodulator
• Each dot detected in wrong quadrant result in bit errors

BER≈0 BER<10-13 BER=10-6 BER=10-3

Signal

Signal
S/N Signal
Power

Power

Power
Power

S/N Signal
S/N S/N
Noise Noise Noise Noise

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BER Impact on Transmission Quality

1 0 -3

1 0 -4

1 0 -5
BER change ratio vs. Noise is
dependent on Noise Power distribution
and coding
1 0 -6

1 0 -7 𝐵𝑎𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑠

BER= 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑠

1 0 -8
-7 5 -7 2 -6 9 -6 6
R e c e i v e r i n p u t le v e l [ d B m ]

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RSL Vs. Threshold
RSL (dBm) BER>10-6
-20
-30 Nominal Input Level

Fading Margin

-73 Threshold level BER=10-6

BER>10-6 S/N=23dB for 128QAM (37 MHz)

-96 Receiver amplifies thermal noise

-99 K – Boltzmann constant

T – Temperature in Kelvin
Thermal Noise=10*log(k*T*B*1000) B – Bandwidth

Time (s)

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 Thank you

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