Commercial in Confidence

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Purpose
This presentation explains the impact on coverage for different hardware and feature choices. Also dependencies between hardware and features is described. The presentation targets Technical managers.

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Coverage definition
In this presentation Coverage is defined as the area where the signal strength is higher than the sensitivity of the receivers both uplink and downlink.

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Factors affecting Coverage

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Signal strength design targets

Indoor coverage

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

It is important to understand that indoor coverage often limits the coverage of the cell.

Antenna height
A higher positioned antenna will increase the cell coverage at the cost of possible unwanted coverage. This is not always true for indoor coverage.

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Hardware
Hardware RBS type CDU type Tower Mounted Amplifier Antenna choice

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

Affected link (Uplink & Downlink) (Downlink) (Uplink) (Uplink & Downlink)

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

RBS and CDU type

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

The maximum output power and thereby the downlink coverage will depend on the RBS and CDU chosen. RBS hardware choices RBS 2102/2202 vs. RBS 2106/2206 Filter Combiner vs. Hybrid Combiner

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

RBS2102/2202 vs. RBS2102/2206

Compared to 2102/2202, the 2106/2206 have:
Improved sensitivity Higher output power Higher capacity

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Filter vs. Hybrid combiner

Filter combiner ( CDU-D and -F) + Less loss compared with hybrid (0.5 - 1dB). + Fewer antennas for high capacity sites.

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

Hybrid Combiner (CDU-C+ and -G) + Supports Software Power Boost + CDU-G supports TCC + Supports both synthesizer and baseband frequency hopping - More antennas needed for high capacity sites.

- Only baseband frequency hopping supported - Harder combiner spacing requirements.

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A 2003-04-03

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Tower Mounted Amplifier (TMA)

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

TMA improves the radio uplink performance. By using TMA the BTS Sensitivity is increased up to 1.5 dB and the feeder loss on the uplink is neutralized. Requirement : Extra HW needed

Extra up-link budget added by TMA! Up link

Down link

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

10

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Antenna Type

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

The cell coverage is to a large extent impacted by the antenna gain. Dual system or dual band antenna requires combiners which will decrease the coverage. A high gain antenna will either have a large physical size or have a smaller antenna pattern compared to low gain antennas.

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

11

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Features
Features increasing coverage
- This type of features will increase the physically covered area.

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

Features improving C/I robustness

Coverage limit

- This type of features will increase the usable covered area.

Traffic limited by C/I
EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A 2003-04-03 12

Low C/I
Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Features increasing coverage

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

Feature Transmitter Coherent Combining Software Power Boost Rx Diversity

Affected link Released (Downlink) BSS R9.1 (Downlink) before BSS R8 (Uplink) before BSS R8

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

13

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Transmitter Coherent Combining (TCC)

TCC improves the downlink performance for RBS 2106/2206. Two TXs are connected coherently to the same antenna through a hybrid combiner. When the RBS is configured for TCC the downlink gain, compared to a TX connected without hybrid combiner, is 2.5 dB. 2 carrier per CDU-G is possible with TCC.
EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A 2003-04-03 14

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

TX1 + TX2
dTRU

TX1
Hybrid Comb.

TX2

Transmitter

Transmitter

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Software Power Boost (SWPB)

SWPB improves the downlink performance. Two transmitters connected to different antennas are then transmitting with maximum power the same signal on the same frequency. One of the transmitters has its bursts forwarded in time two bits compared to the other.

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

Antenna A TX1
Transmitter

Antenna B TX2
Transmitter

The two signals will improve the MS receiver signal processing, resulting in a downlink gain of 3-5 dB. SWPB only allows 1 carrier per CDU.
EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A 2003-04-03 15

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

RX Diversity

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

The RX diversity function will improve the uplink sensitivity by 3 to 4.5 dB. It is achieved by having two antennas, and in this way take advantage of two or more receiver (RX) paths. Based on the two received signals, the equalizer in the receiver will create a new signal with higher quality. Requirement : At least 2 RX antennas or one cross polarized antenna per cell.

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

16

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Features improving C/I robustness

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

Feature Affected link Released Interference Rejection Combining (Uplink) BSS R10 Antenna Hopping (Downlink) BSS R10 Frequency Hopping (Uplink & Downlink) before BSS R8 Adaptive Multi Rate FR (Uplink & Downlink) BSS R9.1

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

17

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Interference Rejection Combining (IRC)

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

Co-channel interference suppression algorithm on the uplink. Possible together with dTRU, EDGE dTRU and EDGE sTRU IRC improvement
5-11 dB for 1 frame synchronized interferer 3-5 dB for 1 non-synchronized interferer (The interference will be synchronized if Transceiver Group or Network Synchronization is used. Network Synchronization is released in BSS R10.)

Requirement : RX diversity must be configured

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A 2003-04-03 18

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Antenna Hopping
Transmit radio bursts on alternating antennas. Possible together with CDU-G or CDU-C/C+ with EDGE sTRU. C/I gain for TCH
up to 2 dB when hopping on few frequencies up to 3 dB without frequency hopping

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

Together with TCC, two transmitter paths both with TCC is needed. Requirement : Needs two transmitter antennas or one cross polarized antenna.
EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A 2003-04-03 19

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Frequency Hopping

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

Frequency hopping improve the C/I robustness by using frequency diversity to avoid continuous interference and Rayleigh fading. Interleaving used for speech frame will be utilized more efficient with frequency hopping.

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

20

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Adaptive Multi Rate FR (AMR FR)

Signal strength design targets Hardware Features

With AMR FR the speech codec will be adapted to the C/I conditions for each call. Since control channel coding will limit the physically coverage, AMR FR will not increase coverage. AMR FR will improve the C/I robustness for speech users with up to 6dB.

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

21

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Recommended Coverage Configurations

Function CDU choice TCC SPWB Antenna Hopping Rx Diversity TMA IRC (1) Frequency Hopping (1) AMR (1)
(1) Will

Config. 1 CDU-G x

Config. 2 CDU-G x

Config. 3 CDU-C+ x x x x x (2) x x(2)

x x x x x x

x x x x x x

not increase coverage for common control channels

needed
2003-04-03 22

(2) s-TRU

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

Summary
Function CDU choice TCC SPWB Antenna Hopping TMA Rx Diversity IRC Antenna choice Frequency Hopping AMR UL / DL DL DL DL DL UL UL UL UL, DL UL, DL UL, DL HW / SW HW HW, SW HW, SW HW, SW HW HW, SW SW HW SW SW

It should be noted that the gain from the features are not additive.
EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A 2003-04-03 23

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects

Commercial in Confidence

References
- RF Guidelines GSM 800 - RF Guidelines GSM 900 - RF Guidelines GSM 1800 - RF Guidelines GSM 1900 - User Description, Boosting Downlink Output Power - User Description, Interference Rejection Combining - User Description, Antenna Hopping - User Description, Frequency Hopping - User Description, Adaptive Multi Rate 20/10056-HSC 103 12/3 Uen 16/10056-HSC 103 12/3 Uen 17/10056-HSC 103 12/3 Uen 18/10056-HSC 103 12/3 Uen 107/1553-HSC103 12/3 Uen 103/1553-HSC 103 12/4 Uen 102/1553-HSC 103 12/4 Uen 63/1553-HSC 103 12/3 Uen 98/1553-HSC 103 12/3 Uen

EAB/RNG-03:0028 Uen Rev A

2003-04-03

24

Signal Strength Coverage Aspects