Link Budget

Prof. Johnson I Agbinya

University of the Western Cape
http://www.cs.uwc.ac.za/~jagbinya

Link Budget
Definition
The aggregation of the signal losses from a TX

to its RX is called its link budget

Is a product of gains and losses expressed in decibels or decoupled logarithmically Sets limit for power levels at various points in the network Preferred for calculating propagation losses instead of prediction expressions Link budgets required for different terrains Should consider all sources of power losses in the link

Product Parameters
Product parameters is a list of all power loss and
gain sources in the link resulting from

hardware.
Transmit power (Pm) - the power one base

station transmits

30 to 35 dBm for base stations 30 dBm for handsets

Receiver sensitivity is the lowest signal level

a receiver needs to be able to recover the voice signal with acceptable quality

usually in the range of -102 to -110 dBm Base station sensitivity is Sb Mobile station sensitivity is Sm

Product Parameters (1)

Antenna Gain G is a measure of the ability of the

antenna to amplify the signal it receives for transmission. It will do so by

directing the beam Narrowing the beam (focusing) usually in the range of 18dBi Base station antenna gain is Gb Mobile station antenna gain is Gm

Feeder loss occurs in the cable connecting the

antenna to the electronics in the base station

Is usually about 3 dB

Product Parameters (2)

Diversity techniques are used to tolerate weak

signals in the network Types of diversity

Space diversity Time diversity Frequency diversity

Diversity gain of a base station is Gd

Diversity gain is usually in the range of 3 to 5 dB

Combiner Loss occurs when a single antenna is

used to combine signals at different frequencies and from many sources

Product Parameters (3)

Filter loss accounts for losses in the

filters used in the base station

Is usually 2 to 3 dB

Duplexer loss Ld is used to account

for the device which duplexes the up and down links

Loss Margins In link budget

Margins need to be provided for propagation losses in the links (i.e, environmental loss effects)

Interference margin accounts for interference during the

busy hour

Due to traffic, frequency reuse etc is usually about 1 dB

Losses in Buildings occurs due penetration into

buildings and is a function of the type of building material

Is around 5 to 20 dB (quite heavy or severe)

Vehicle Penetration: Losses due to RF penetrating into

car body and structure

Is usually around 6 dB

Loss Margins (1)

Body Loss due to penetration of RF into the human frame

Due to absorption from the head Some times called head loss Depends on type of hair structure Proximity of handset to the head or body is usually about 3 dB

Fade Margin occurs due multipath fading as previously

discussed

Varies with the reliability of the service area Can be measured with Jakes curves Is around 5 to 20 dB (quite heavy or severe)

Power Balance Equations

Power balance equation

Is a summary (sum) of the gains and losses in the

link

Gains are positive, losses are negative Use of decibels makes summing easy Two power balance equations are used for uplink and downlink

Uplink Power Balance Equation

L pu Pm Gm Gb Gd Ld L j S b

where

Lpu is the maximum allowable uplink path loss in dB Lj is the jumper loss in dB
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Power Balance Equations (1)

Downlink Power balance equation

L pd Pb Ld L j Ltf Gm Gb Sb
where

Lpd is the maximum allowable downlink path loss in dB Ltf is the BTS transmitter filter loss in dB Pb is the setting of the power of the BTS in decibels

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Summary of Product Parameters

Parameter Frequency MS TX Power MS RX Power MS antenna gain MS feeder loss BS Transmit power BS RX sensitivity BS Antenna gain BS Diversity gain BS Duplexer loss BS Jumper/connector loss BS TX filter loss Product Path Loss Symb ol F Pm Sm Gm Lm Pb Sb Gb Gd Ld Lj Ltf Lp Unit s MHz dBm dBm dBi dB dBm dBm dBi dB dB dB dB dB Uplink 1900 30 20 0 -107.0 20 3.5 0.6 0.9 Downlin k 1900 -101 2 0 47.0 20 0.6 0.9 2.3 166.2
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161.0

Example of Link Budget

Includes urban, suburban and rural Only major losses of concern are included here
Symbol Product path loss BS antenna height Feeder loss per m Total feeder loss Fade margin Body Attenuation Vehicle attenuation Building attenuation Total Path Loss Lp Hb Lf/f Lf Mf Ab Av Abld Lpt Area Classification Urban Suburban Unit UL DL UL DL s dB 161.0 166.2 161.0 166.2 M 30 30 45 45 dB/ m dB dB dB dB dB dB 0.064 6 1.938 5.60 2 0 15 136.5 0.064 6 1.938 5.60 2 0 15 141.7 0.064 6 2.907 5.60 2 0 12 138.5 0.064 6 2.907 5.60 2 0 12 143.7 Rural UL DL 161.0 60 0.047 7 2.862 5.60 2 6 0 144.5 166.2 60 0.047 7 2.862 5.60 2 6 0 149.8
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Receiver Sensitivity
Noise in a receiver and the networks on which it operates affect how sensitive it can be. Thermal noise is the major culprit. The sensitivity of the receiver is: S RX NF N t C / N where C/N is carrier to noise ratio
In sub-Saharan Africa, thermal noise is a major concern Neither thermal nor carrier to noise ratio are within the

control of the engineer The noise figure is however within her control and is normally reduced to improve the sensitivity of the receiver The receiver contributes a noise figure into the system and can be improved with good system design Initial stages of the receiver contribute most to its noise figure
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Noise Figure
The noise figure of the receiver is:
NFtotal NF1 NF2 1 NF 3 1 G1 G1G2

G1 and G2 are the gains of the early stages of

the receiver
For a cellular base station they are the low

noise amplifier (LNA) on the mast and the first stages of the receiver electronics LNA is usually deployed at the top of the mast to provide a low noise figure first in the chain of noise figures The gains of LNAs are usually very low to 14 start the chain

Noise Figure (1) Mounting LNA

Where should the LNA be mounted to reduce noise figure?

Cabinet Mounting:
Place the LNA at the edge of the BTS cabinet. Assume the lengths of the feeder is 50 metres of type 7/8-in air dielectric coaxial cable with 6.06 dB/100 metre loss. Gain of the LNA is 12 dB and the noise figure (NF) is 2 dB

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Cabinet / Tower Mounting

NF1 = 3.03 dB = 2 NF2 = 2 dB = 1.58 G1 = -3.03 dB = 0.5 The total noise figure: NFTotal = 10xlog[2 + ((1.58 - 1)/0.5)] =

4.99 dB

Tower Mounted LNA:

NF1 = 2 dB = 1.58 NF2 = 3.03 dB = 2 G1 = 12 dB = 15.85

The total noise figure is NFTotal = 10xlog[1.58 + ((2 - 1)/15.85)]

= 2.15 dB.
The tower mounted LNA has reduced the total noise figure

by 2.84 dB in this case.

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Tower Mounted LNA

The LNA provides the first noise figure in the chain
NF1, G1 NF2

LNA

BTS

Exercise
If the antenna mast height becomes 80metres, by how much is the total noise figure reduced by mounting the LNA at the

top of the mast?

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Diversity
Diversity techniques are used to tolerate weak signals and reduce the effects of interference Types of Diversity

time space polarisation frequency

Frequency diversity

Frequency hoping In GSM a user hops from one frequency to another every time slot to avoid interference Hops through a group of frequencies
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Frequency Diversity
Probability of fading occurring in all the sets

of frequencies is low
Is used to reduce Rayleigh fading Clyclic hoping with a small set of frequencies Random hoping is preferred with a large set of frequencies
Is used to reduce co-channel interference All traffic channels can hop but control channels cannot Frequency hoping improves frequency reuse by an order

of 7 to 4 thereby increasing capacity

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Time Diversity
Is used by Rake receivers to provide gain

Signals separated in time to ensure they do not correlate

Separation should be more than coherence time

Polarisation Diversity

Orthogonal signals have very low correlation Horizontal and vertically polarised signals are used in a two-branch diversity

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Space or Receive Diversity

Popular in antenna systems for decorrelation of signals in
the antenna Separation of 10 to 20 times the signal wavelength is used in suburban areas In receive diversity two or more antennas are used for

reception Most cellular receivers use 2 antennas and one transmission antennas (3 per sector)

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Diversity Processing
Diversity processing is mostly exploitation of the spatial dimension more effectively (eg.)

(i) (ii) (iii) (iv)

Smart Antenna Technology Transmit Diversity Schemes Spatial Multiplexing and Space-Time Coding.

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Smart Antennas
Are used for beam focusing from base stations (or beam forming), for example:
adaptive phased array antennas Smart antennas can provide up to 4 times

improved system capacity

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Questions and Answers

Feedback survey

Tell me what you think about this lecture

jagbinya@uwc.ac.za

Next lecture: September .

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