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Chapter 4 Application of Antenna Feeder System ....................................................................2 4.1 Overview...........................................................................................................................2 4.2 Antenna Basics.................................................................................................................3 4.2.1 Types......................................................................................................................3 4.2.2 Working Principles..................................................................................................4 4.2.3 Important Technology Characteristics.....................................................................5 4.2.4 Antenna diversity..................................................................................................12 4.2.5 Relationship between antenna lobe width and antenna gain................................17 4.3 Antenna Tilt Planning......................................................................................................18 4.3.1 Antenna Tilt design...............................................................................................19 4.3.2 Application............................................................................................................23 4.4 Antenna Selection...........................................................................................................26 4.4.1 Problems Present in Antenna Selection................................................................26 4.4.2 Principles for Selecting Base Station Antenna in Urban Areas.............................26 4.4.3 Principles for Selecting Base Station Antenna in Suburban Areas........................27 4.4.4 Principles for Selecting Base Station Antenna in Rural Areas..............................28 4.4.5 Principles for Selecting Base Station Antenna along Highroads...........................28 4.4.6 Other Considerations for Antenna Selection.........................................................30 4.4.7 Antenna Selection Reference...............................................................................30 4.5 Combiner and Divider Unit..............................................................................................31 4.5.1 Principles..............................................................................................................32 4.5.2 Configuration of Combiner and Divider Unit.........................................................35 4.6 Tower Amplifier................................................................................................................36 4.7 Feeder.............................................................................................................................37 4.8 Distributed Antenna System............................................................................................38 4.8.1 Composition Principle of a Distributed Antenna System.......................................39 4.8.2 Types of Distributed Antenna Systems.................................................................40 4.8.3 Key Technical Indexes for Antenna Components..................................................43 4.9 New Antenna TechnologySmart Antenna Overview.....................................................47 4.9.1 Smart antenna......................................................................................................47 4.9.2 Smart Antenna Application....................................................................................51
GSM Radio Network Planning and Optimization Chapter 4 Application of Antenna Feeder System
Application of Antenna
Feeder System
4.1 Overview
In a wireless telecommunication system, the antenna provides the interface between base transceiver station (BTS) and outside propagation mediums. One set of antenna can both radiate and receive radio waves. When radiating radio waves, it converts high frequency current into electromagnetic wave; when receiving radio waves, it converts the electromagnetic wave into high frequency current. During network planning, the right antenna is selected according to the radio environment of the BTS. The parameters, such as antenna height, antenna azimuth angle, tilt angle, are decided based on the selected antenna. Antenna is directly related to uplink and downlink converges, so are the radio frequency (RF) components, such as feeder cable, combiner, and duplexer. 4.1 shows the composition of an antenna feeder system
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Omni-directional antenna Directional antenna Linear antenna Dish antenna Cap antenna Vertical polarization antenna (unipolarization antenna) Cross polarization antenna (dual polarization antenna)
Structural feature
Polarization way
4.2.1 shows the antennas commonly used in mobile communication. They are directional antenna, omni antenna, and indoor cap antenna from left to right.
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Figure 1.3 Principles of antenna radiation As shown in 4.2.2 (a), when the distance of the two conductors is short, the induced electromotive force generated on the ideal conductors will offset the effect of each other, so only a small amount of energy is radiated beyond the two conductors. As shown in 4.2.2 (b), there is a flare angle between the two conductors. Because the current is generated in the same direction, the induced electromotive force is generated in the same direction. In this case, a larger amount of energy is radiated beyond the two conductors.
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As shown in 4.2.2 (c), when the flare angle is wide enough to match wavelength, the amount of current flowing through the conductors will be greatly increased. Thus intensive radiation is generated. Generally, the direct conductor that can generate intensive radiation is called dipole. If the length of the two arms of a dipole is 1/4 wavelength, the dipole is called symmetrical half-wave dipole. The symmetrical half-wave dipole is a basic element of a mobile telecommunication antenna. As shown in 4.2.2, an actual antenna consists of multiple dipoles.
Unit dipole
Unit dipole
Feeding network
Feeding network
Feeding network
Antenna connector
Antenna connector
Directional antenna
Omni-directional antenna
GSM Radio Network Planning and Optimization Chapter 4 Application of Antenna Feeder System
assembling the antenna dipoles. Antenna gain is an important antenna index, indicating the antenna capability (the directional antenna) of concentrating energy into a certain direction. The dBi and dBd are two units of antenna gain, and the relationship between the two is as follows:
Where,
The dBd indicates that the energy concentration capability of the antennas with directions (including omni antennas) as compared with that of the symmetrical dipole antennas. d stands for dipole.
2.15d B
dBd dBi
Figure 1.5 Relationship between dBi and dBd The dBi indicates the gain of actual antennas as compared with that of isotropic antennas; the dBd indicates the gain of actual antennas as compared with that of half-wave dipole antennas.
GSM Radio Network Planning and Optimization Chapter 4 Application of Antenna Feeder System
Linearity (power directional diagram) Square root (field strength diagram) Decibel
The decibel scale is more often used among the three, because it expresses the side lobe level in a simpler way. The antenna directional diagram is space solid figure, but the one in common use is a directional diagram within two principle planes perpendicular to each other, known as plane directional diagram. For the linear antenna, since the ground effect is great, it adopts the vertical plane and horizontal plane as its principle plane. For the plane antenna, it adopts two principles planes, namely, E plane and H plane. Essentially, the dipole arrangement and the change of the feeding phase of each dipole work together to determine antenna direction, and the principle of which is similar to that of the light interference effect. Therefore, the energy in some directions is amplified, but the energy in other directions is weakened. In this case, lobes (or beams) and zero points are formed. The lobe with the fullest energy is the major lobe. The lobe with the second fullest energy lobe is the first side lobe, and so on. For the directional antenna, it has a back lobe. II shows a horizontal plane and a vertical plane of a directional antenna.
Figure 1.6 Directional diagram of the directional antenna (horizontal plane and vertical plane)
II list the parameters related to the antenna directional diagram. Table 6.1 Parameters related to the antenna directional diagram Parameter Description
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Zero power point lobe width Half power point lobe width
It refers to the included angle between the zero radiation directions on both sides of the maximum major lobe. It refers to the included angle after the maximum electrical field falls by 0.707 points (if power falls by half, the gain falls by 3dB). It is divided into two types: horizontal half power point lobe width and vertical half power lobe width. It refers to the ratio of the maximum major lobe to the maximum side lobe.
III. Polarization
Polarization is a radiation feature describing the space direction for the field strength vector of electromagnetic wave. Generally, the space direction of the field strength vector works as the polarization direction of the electromagnetic wave. The electromagnetic wave with the space direction of the electric field vector unchanged at any time is called straight line polarized wave. If the land is taken as a reference, the direction of the electric field vector parallel to the land is called horizontal polarized wave; the direction of the electric field vector perpendicular to the land is called vertical polarized wave. The space direction of the electric field vector is changeable. If the trace of the electric field vector end is a circle, the electromagnetic wave is called circular polarized wave; if the trace is an ellipse, the electromagnetic wave is called ellipse polarized wave. Both the circular polarized wave and ellipse have a feature, which is rotating phase. The electromagnetic waves of different bands are transmitted by different polarization modes. Generally, the vertical polarization is used in mobile communication; the horizontal polarization is used in broadcasting systems; and the ellipse polarization is used in satellite communication. The GSM antenna can be divided into two types, namely, single polarization antenna and dual polarization antenna. With the help of polarization diversity technology, a dual polarization antenna can promise BTS to receive good signals through reducing the multi-path effect in mobile communication. Two specifications, 0/90 and 45 are available to the dual polarization antenna. Because GSM bands are more
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favorable to the horizontal polarized wave than to the vertical polarized wave, the 0/90 cross polarization antenna is seldom used at present.
The tilt angel of an electrical tilt antenna is fixed, known as preset tilt. The latest technology enables an electrical tilt antenna to adjust its tilt angles, and this kind of electrical tilt antenna is called electrical adjustment antenna.
Z A Z 0 Z A +Z 0
, VSWR =
1+ 1
, where
Z0
indicate the match characteristic of the port, that is, R.L.(dB) = 20 lg if VSWR = 1.5:1 and R.L. = -13.98dB. When antenna input impedance is inconsistent with its characteristic impedance, the reflection wave and incident wave will overlap on feeder cable to form standing wave. The ratio of the maximum to minimum value of neighbor is the VSWR. If the ratio is too large, the radiation power will be reduced because part of the power transmitted into the antenna is reflected back to the power amplifier. Furthermore, the cable loss is measured when VSWR=1 (it means full match), so the reflection power
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increases the cable loss. In addition, the transmitter output power cannot reach the designed rated value. The factors in the previous paragraph will decrease coverage area. Moreover, the reflection power will return to the power amplifier of the transmitter. If the power is too high, it will damage the power tube. In this case, the communication system cannot work normally. At present, however, the transmitter output power can reach the rated power under certain mismatch conditions (for example, when VSWR < 1.7 or 2.0). Related calculation shows that compared with the power loss when VSWR = 1.3, the power loss is decreased by only 0.23dB when VSWR=1.5, which can be neglected according to mobile communication fading. If the VSWR is too low, however, it will increase antenna manufacturing cost. Therefore, the balance between the cost and VSWR must be emphasized.
GSM Radio Network Planning and Optimization Chapter 4 Application of Antenna Feeder System
filling is present in antenna. It is recommended that the zero point filling technology should be applied to high gain antennas with great height (for example, the antenna height is 100 meters) to improve nearby coverage and avoid the unequal coverage caused by signal fluctuation.
Metals of different materials are contacted together. The contact surface of the same materials is rough. The components are not tightly connected. Magnetic substances are present.
Intermodulation products will disturb the communication system; especially the intermodulation products falling within the receiving band have a remarkable negative effect on the system receptivity. Therefore, the requirements on the passive components, such as the connector, feeder, antenna, are strict in a GSM system. Generally, the value of the antenna passive intermodulation index must reach -150dBc.
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movement of the mobile station, the Raleigh fading varies rapidly with signal instantaneous value, while the logarithm normal fading varies with signal average value (median value). The two values will deteriorate receiving signals greatly, so they are the main factors that attributed to unstable receiving signal in mobile communication. Though signal stability can be improved through increasing transmitting power, antenna size and height, such methods cost much in mobile communication, and they are sometimes far beyond reality. This problem can be solved, however, with the help of diversity technology. The diversity technology enables antenna to receive the signals with little dependencies but carrying the same information on several tributaries. After that, the antenna combines the signals from each tributary and output the combined signal. In this case, the deep fading probability can be greatly reduced at the receiving end. Generally, diversity technology is applied at base station side. The diversity can be divided into two types, namely, explicit diversity and implicit diversity. The implicit diversity implies the diversity function in the signals to be transmitted through signal processing technologies, such as RAKE receiving technology, channel interleaving technology, anti-fading error correction technology, and so on, but only the explicit diversity technology is introduced hereunder. The explicit diversity can also be divided into two types, namely, base station explicit diversity and common explicit diversity. According to base station explicit diversity, several base stations distributed in space fully or partially cover the same area. Because multiple signals are available, the effect of signal fading can be greatly reduced. Because electric waves are transmitted on different paths and the shadow effect of landforms and ground objects varies, the multiple slow fading signals transmitted via independent fading paths are irrelevant to each other. Because each signal is not likely to undergo deep fading simultaneously, if the diversity combination is used to select the tributary with the best signal-to-noise ratio from all tributaries, namely, the base station and mobile station with the best signal are selected to establish the communication, the shadow effect and other geographic effect can be eased. Therefore, base station explicit diversity is also called multiple base station diversity. Generally, the explicit diversity is used for suppressing Raleigh fading. The suppression ways include:
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If the space diversity, polarization diversity, and direction diversity are used, at least two set of receiving antennas are needed at the diversity receiving side; if the frequency diversity, field component diversity, and time diversity are used, only one set of receiving antenna is enough. The explicit diversity, however, improves the uplink signal quality only. For the mobile station is restricted in terms of size, price, and battery capacity, and so on, the space diversity of multiple antenna cannot be realized. To improve the transmitting quality of downlink signals, you can employ the reciprocity principle for linear system to equally shift the diversity technology of the mobile station receiving end to base station transmitting end. And this technology is called transmit diversity technology. For the transmit diversity technology, one problem is present. That is, the reciprocity principle is applicable only when a mobile channel is simplified to an approximately linear time-variant system. Moreover, when the reciprocity principle for reception and transmission of the linear system is applicable, the signals must be transmitted and received on the same band so that the fading features of the signals are the same. In fact, frequency division duplex (FDD) are more often used in a mobile communication system, where the interval between reception and transmission is far greater than coherence bandwidth. To prevent FDD from deteriorating the transmit diversity, you can realize the transmit diversity through controlling the closed loop. In 3G, the transmit technology is widely used.
GSM Radio Network Planning and Optimization Chapter 4 Application of Antenna Feeder System
understood as a general form of the high frequency signal, intermediate frequency signal and baseband signal. The synthesis concerns how to combine and sum up the S i (t ). The synthesized signal is expressed as follows:
S(t ) = k 1 S 1 (t ) + k 2 S 2 (t ) + ... + k q S q (t ) Where k 1 , k 2 , ..., k q indicates weighting coefficient. If different weighting coefficients are
selected, different synthesis methods are produced. The four synthetic techniques commonly used are as follows:
Maximum ratio compound (MRC) Equal gain compound (EGC) Selective compound (SEC) Switch compound (SWC)
Where the MRC is defined as follows: After weighting the voltage amplitude of the useful signals, perform relevant synthesis for the signals and non-relevant synthesis for noise power. When the weighting coefficient is equal to the signal-to-noise ratio of each signal, the maximum synthesized signal-to-noise ratio of the synthesized signals is equal to the sum of the signal-to-noise ratio of each tributary signal. In this case, the MRC is present. For the details of the previous synthesis technologies, they are not introduced in this textbook. In mobile communication, the space diversity and polarization diversity are commonly used. The diversity gain designed in a project in about 3.5dB. The following three sections introduce the space diversity and polarization diversity in detail.
is used to
h . D
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to each other. For example, if the antenna is 30 meters in height, a good space diversity gain can be obtained when the antenna distance is about 3 meters.
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32400
is vertical half power angle, in the unit of degree. is horizontal half power angle, in the unit of the degree.
According to the formula, when the gain and horizontal half power angle is known, the vertical half power angle can be obtained. For example, there is an omni antenna. If the antenna gain is 11dBi, and the horizontal half power angle is 360, the vertical half power angle is
Due to the difference of antenna design and manufacturing, slight difference is present for the vertical half power angle of the actual omni antenna. And such difference is determined by the focus and implementation ways of the electrical design. 4.2.5 shows the relationship of the antenna gain, vertical half power angle and horizontal half power angle.
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Figure 1.7 Relationship of the antenna gain, vertical half power angle and horizontal half power angle. As shown in 4.2.5, when the antenna gain is small, the vertical half power angle and horizontal half power angle are large; when the antenna gain is large, the vertical half power angle and horizontal half power angle are small. In addition, the antenna gain depends on dipole quantity. The larger the dipole quantity, the larger the antenna gain is, and the larger the antenna aperture (effective antenna receiving area) is. For example, for a 900MHz omni antenna, if the antenna gain increases by 3dB, the antenna length doubles. Generally, therefore, the gain of the omni antenna does not exceed 11dBi, and the antenna length now is about 3 meters.
GSM Radio Network Planning and Optimization Chapter 4 Application of Antenna Feeder System
base station, antenna height, lobe width, direction, tilt angle, and EIRP together form a specific cellular network. Generally, the performance indexes of the antenna itself are selected according to the radio networking characteristics, such as the base station density and macro coverage goal. Once the location of a base station is determined, it seldom changes. For the antenna height, direction and tilt angle, however, they are finally determined according to the parameters specified previously and the actual coverage goal of a cell. Hereunder is the analysis of the relationship among antenna height, direction, tilt angle, and coverage goal (suppose that the cell radius is R), and the antenna tilt angel is finally recommended according to this analysis. The propagation of radio signals is closely related to the environment. For example, dense buildings and the reflection caused by mountains, water surface, or huge glass walls will affect radio propagation. Therefore, it is not necessarily that all the environments are favorable to radio propagation. However, the regularity of cellular structure and the coverage area and goal of a cell are the foundation for a good network, so they must be carefully considered during network planning.
Antenna height Azimuth angle Antenna gain Vertical half power angle Expected coverage area
For the base stations distributed in urban areas, when the antenna has no tilt angle or the angle is very small, the serving area of each cell is determined by the antenna height, azimuth angle, antenna gain, transmit power, landforms and ground objects. In this case, the coverage radius can be calculated by the commonly-used propagation module formulas, such as Okumura-Hata and COST231.When the tilt angle of the antenna is large, the coverage radius cannot be calculated out because the angle is not considered in the previous formulas. If accurate propagation module and digital map are provided, however, the coverage radius can be calculated out by planning software. In this case, the antenna vertical half power angle and tilt angle helps to calculate the coverage radius directly based on the triangle geometry formula as follows:
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If the needed coverage radius is D (m), the antenna height is H (m), the tilt angle is , and the vertical half power angle is , the relationship between the beams of the major antenna lobe and the ground is shown in 4.3.1.
Figure 1.8 Relationship between the beams of the major antenna lobe and the ground As shown in this figure, when the antenna tilt is 0 degrees, the beams of the major antenna lobe, or the major energy, radiate horizontally; when the antenna tilt angle is
the extension line of the major lobe and the ground will ultimately intersect at one ,
point (point A). Because a beam width is present in the vertical direction for the antenna, intense radiation is present in the area form point A to point B. According to the technical performance of the antenna, the antenna gain decreases slowly within half power angle, but it decreases sharply beyond the half power angle, especially for the upper lobe. Therefore, when the antenna tilt angle is considered, the scope between the extension line of the half power angle to intersection point (point B) can be taken as the actual coverage area of the antenna. Based on the previous analysis and the principles of triangle geometry, the relationship between the antenna height, tilt angle and coverage distance can be obtained as follows:
= arctan (H/D) + /2
This formula can calculate the coverage distance after the adjustment for tilt angle. Actual results of on-site optimization projects show that this formula is of great significance. However, the application of this formula meets limited conditions. It can be applied when the tilt angle is 1.5 times greater than the half power angle, and the
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distance (D) must be less than the distance calculated by the previous formula when no tilt angle is present. For the width of vertical beams in the previous formula, it is provided in the specific antenna technical indexes. 4.3.1 shows the relationship between coverage distance and antenna tilt angle when the vertical beam width of the antenna is 17 degrees. (The antenna height is 40 meters.)
Figure 1.9 Relationship between coverage distance and tilt angle (The width of the vertical beam is 17 degrees, and the antenna height is 40 meters.)
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4.3.1 shows the relationship between coverage distance and antenna tilt angle when the vertical beam width of the antenna is 6.5 degrees. (The antenna height is 40 meters.)
Figure 1.10 Relationship between coverage distance and tilt angle (The width of the vertical beam is 17 degrees, and the antenna height is 40 meters.) The previous two figures shows the relationship between the coverage distance and the width of the antenna vertical beams when antenna height and tilt angle are certain. The smaller the width of the vertical beam, the shorter the coverage distance is. Therefore, if the cross coverage are effectively controlled, the antennas with smaller vertical beam width and with the zero point filling function should be selected during the planning phase. In this case, the cross interference can be controlled and the indoor coverage near the base station. However, if the vertical beam width grows smaller, the horizontal lobe will grow wider or the antenna gain will grows larger. In this case, new cross interference is caused and the cross coverage area between neighbor cells is too large. Therefore, the antennas of medium gain are often selected in urban areas. For example, if the antenna of 65 degrees and 15dBi is selected for a GSM 900MHz base station, the vertical beam width is about 13 degrees to 15 degrees.
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Note: The adjustment of the tilt angle can serve to control the cross coverage and to improve the indoor coverage near the base station, but the coverage far from the base station will get worse.
4.3.2 Application
For the purpose of application and necessary overlaps of adjacent cells, the distance (D) from the base station in populated urban areas to the target coverage area can be simplified as the designed cell radius (R). The antenna height (H) refers to the relative height from the base station and target coverage area. This textbook introduces the application of antenna tilt planning in the areas similar to plains. Antenna tilt can be divided into mechanical tilt and electrical tilt, and their effect on coverage is almost the same. Because electrical tilt antennas are expensive, mechanical antennas are more often used. Emulation shows that if the mechanical tilt is greater than 10 degrees, the lobes are distorted, which will cause unexpected interference against other cells. Therefore, it is better to keep the mechanic tilt within 10 degrees. If only for the convenience of controlling network quality, the adaptation of the electrical adjustment antenna will win more advantages. Because the electrical adjustment antennas are expensive, electrical antennas with a certain preset tilt angle (for example, 6 degrees to 7 degrees) are more often used in actual networking. When the network needs to be expanded and optimized, the electrical tilt antenna and the mechanical tilt antenna work together to set the tilt angles greater than 10 degrees. According to the previous analysis and in combination with the common antenna height (25 meters to 50 meters), the reference tilt angles can be provided for the cells whose radius is 250 meters, 500 meters, 800 meters, and 1000 meters in populated urban areas. The case is the same for other situations. 4.3.2 lists the reference tilt angles for antennas in populated urban areas. Table 10.1 Reference tilt angles for antennas in populated urban areas Antenna model 65 degrees, a gain of 15 dBi 65 degrees, a gain of 15 dBi 65 degrees, a gain of 15 dBi
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65 degrees, a gain of 15 dBi 65 degrees, a gain of 15 dBi 65 degrees, a gain of 15 dBi 65 degrees, a gain of 15 dBi 65 degrees, a gain of 15 dBi 65 degrees, a gain of 15 dBi 65 degrees, a gain of 15 dBi 65 degrees, a gain of 15 dBi
15 15 15 15 15 15 15 15
35 40 25 30 35 40 30 30
15 17 10 11 12 12 10 2
According to the table, when the cell radius is small, the coverage area cannot be effectively controlled even through mechanically tilting the antenna. In this case, the coverage area can be controlled through lowering the antenna height only. If it is hard for the antenna height to be lowered, the antenna electrical tilt together with the antenna mechanical tilt must be used. The previous methods for calculating tilt angles are mainly applicable for the dense base station networking with the distance within 1200 meters (that is, R = 800 meters) between stations. When the distance from the base station to the coverage target is greater than 800 meters, large area coverage is still being emphasized. In this case, it is unnecessary for you to consider the effect of the vertical half power angle when estimating the antenna tilt angle. Generally, the tilt angle now is 1 degree to 4 degrees. In special cases, such as the base station has already been installed at a high position, the tilt angle may also be large. However, because the environment around the base station is rather complicated, the reflection caused the nearby mountains, water surface, huge glass walls has an effect on antenna tilt angle. The reflection of this kind will easily cause unexpected interference against the neighbor frequencies and time dispersion effect. In addition, the shadow effect caused by building roofs, front dense buildings and mountains must be also considered. In actual networking, however, geographic environment, such as the barrier of high buildings and mountains, around the base station can be used to control coverage area. When a network is implemented in a populated urban area, the major lobe of the antenna cannot be directly parallel to the street, or waveguide effect will easily occur. In this case, it is rather hard to prevent cross coverage. When a cell is required to cover the area above the antenna height, you can use a directional antenna and uplift this antenna.
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When the antenna major lobe tilts, the effect of the antenna back lobes must be also considered. Generally, the front-to-back ratio of the antenna is about only 20dB, so the back lobes with strong signals will cause much interference against upper coverage. As a result, it is recommended that electrical tilt antennas should be used in populated urban areas, though down tilt is still present in back lobes. In addition, the effect of the upper side lobe must also be considered. Generally, the vertical half power angle of an omni antenna is vertically symmetric along the horizontal plane, so it can work well regardless that it is inversely installed or upwardly installed. In actual project implementation, however, the vertical directional diagram of a specific omni antenna must be considered. If electrical tilt is available, careful consideration must be given to inverse installation.
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The antenna is selected only based on the covered traffic distribution, but little consideration is given to the relationship between landforms and antenna directional diagram. For example, if all antennas used in a network are of the same type, when the antenna is installed at a high position, the phenomenon of "blind under tower will be present because the width of the beams in vertical plane is narrow.
Too large antenna mechanical tilt angle results in the distortion of the directional diagram. In this case, coverage problem or interference problem will occur. Emulation shows that the restrictions on tilt angles must vary in accordance with the antennas with different gains.
Too much attention is focused on the high gain performance of the antenna but little attention is given to its drawbacks. As a result, the gains of almost all the antennas used in a network are quite high. A high gain antenna has many drawbacks, including large size, great weight, high side lobe, deep zero lobe, and narrow vertical beams.
No consideration is given to the difference between the vertical polarization antenna and dual polarization antenna in terms of application. The dual polarization antenna is selected from the perspective of installation.
GSM Radio Network Planning and Optimization Chapter 4 Application of Antenna Feeder System
as well. In this case, an antenna must meet the following requirements in principle.
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The antennas whose horizontal half power beam width is 65 or 90 can be selected according to actual conditions. If base stations are sparsely distributed, the antennas whose horizontal half power beam width is 90 is first considered.
If the base stations are densely distributed, the antennas are selected by referring to the principles for selecting base station antenna in urban areas. Omni antennas are not recommended for the purpose of smooth expansion in the future.
Considering the construction cost, you are recommended to select an omni antenna for the base stations whose coverage area is small and traffic volume is low. However, because the gain of the omni antenna is low, the coverage of an omni antenna is shorter than that of a directional antenna. When the base station is required to cover a long distance, the directional antenna must be selected to realize the coverage. Generally, a high gain vertical polarization antenna whose horizontal half power beam width is 90 is recommended.
One point needs to be noted. That is, if the base station antenna is installed at a high position, but the area needs to be covered lies in a low location (the depression angle is greater than 5), when an omni antenna is used, the kind with a preset tilt angle or with zero point filling function are recommended to improve the coverage quality of this area. In this case, the phenomenon of blind under tower and the signal fluctuation caused by uneven coverage can be avoided.
For the base stations designed to cover the areas along railways and highroads, a directional antenna with narrow beams can be selected. For the base station designed to cover the highroads and the villages scattered around the highroads, an omni antenna can be selected. For the base station designed to cover highroads only, an 8-shaped antenna can be selected, because the 8-shaped antenna help realize the highroad coverage with only a few base stations.
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For the base station designed to cover the highroads and the towns on both sides of the highroads, the antenna whose horizontal half power beam width is 210 can be selected according to actual conditions. It is recommended to give the priority to the 8-shaped antenna and the 210antenna for highroads coverage.
Figure 1.11 Application of a 210 antenna 4.4.5 shows the application of an 8-shaped antenna
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Table 12.1 Antenna selection reference Landform Urban areas Station type Directional station Reference Generally, select the antennas with low or medium gains and preset electrical tilt angle depending on base station density. An electrical adjustment antenna or mechanical tilt angle can be selected. Suburban areas Directional station Generally, select the antennas with high gain; both electrical adjustment tilt antenna and mechanical tilt antenna are ok. Generally, select the 90 antennas; but the best choice is the vertical signal polarization antennas. Select the antennas with zero point filling first regardless of tilt angle. First select the 8-shaped antennas, and then consider using the power splitter of 0.5/0.5 configuration; it is preferred to have zero point filling function. First consider the 210 antennas, and then consider using the directional antenna and omni antenna together. First consider the antennas with zero point filling function, and then consider the antennas with low gain; the antenna tilt angel is considered last. First consider the antennas with low gain and wide vertical beams, and then consider adding tile angle.
Expressways
Directional station
Directional station
Transmitting and receiving signals Combining and filtering transmitting signals Filtering receiving signals Amplifying and dividing low noise Providing feeding feeders for tower amplification
Therefore, the combiner and divider unit enables multiple transmitting signals and receiving signals to share the same antenna unit.
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4.5.1 Principles
The combiner and dividing unit has the following detection and alarm functions:
Standing wave detection When it detects that the standing wave exceeds the preset threshold (1.5:1 or 2.5:1), it gives out alarm signals and indications, thus monitoring the feeder status. Low noise amplifier fault alarm If fault signals are taken from the supporting current of the low noise amplifier, it generates alarm signals when the current exceeds a certain limit or no current is generated.
Tower amplification alarm When the tower amplifier is working, if fault signals are taken from the supporting current of the tower amplifier, it generates alarm signals when the current exceeds a certain limit or no current is generated. Control function It can control the power attenuation over the major reception path and the diversity reception paths (the dynamic is 15 dB and step length is 1 dB); it can drop out the feeder for the tower amplification configuration; and it can select the feed current for different tower amplifiers.
Take Huawei equipment for example, it can provide three modules for the combiner and divider unit. They are CDU, SCU, and EDU. The schematic diagram of CDU is shown in 4.5.1.
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Figure 1.13 Schematic diagram of CDU The schematic diagram of SCU is shown in 4.5.1.
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Figure 1.14 Schematic diagram of SCU The schematic diagram of EDU is shown in 4.5.1.
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Figure 1.15 Schematic diagram of EDU The loss of different combiner and divider unit varies, and it is configured based on the configuration of actual station types. Theoretically, the insertion loss is 3dB for each two-in-one combination; and the duplexer insertion loss is about 1dB.
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Table 15.1 Configuration of combiner and divider unit (take Huawei equipment as an example) Number of carriers for each cell 7 8 TRXs Normal configuration plan 2 CDUs + 2 SCUs Large coverage configuration plan Remark
Large station; mainly located in urban areas; seldom applied to large coverage. Applicable to large coverage configuration plans; it works when combined with Huawei concentric circle technology. or 2 Applicable to the sector with no more than 2 carriers; it will be replaced during system expansion.
5 - 6TRXs
3 - 4TRXs 1 - 2TRXs
Note: The large converge plan is not implemented through adding the number of antennas and feeders to a cell. In actual networking, according to the coverage and capacity requirements of different base stations and when the conditions of uplink and downlink balance are met, you can perform the configuration flexibly and combine the actual BSC software algorithms to enable the coverage quality to reach the best. For example, you can adopt the configuration of {feeder + amplifier (40W, 60W, or 80W)}, and adopts the concentric circle control technology applicable to the situation when the coverage of each carrier in a cell is inconsistent.
GSM Radio Network Planning and Optimization Chapter 4 Application of Antenna Feeder System
calculated according to the methods for testing the tower amplifier sensitivity. In addition, the sub band tower amplifier or the all band tower amplifier should be selected according to different bands. The tower amplifier indexes include band, gain, noise coefficient, insertion loss, and so on. 4.5.2 shows the principles of a triplex tower amplifier. This tower amplifier transmits and receives signals using one feeder, and the bypass function is present. (Automatic bypass is present when faults occur, and the receiving gain at this time is about -2dB.)
4.7 Feeder
The feeder selection is rather important for the whole design of a cellular system. Because the feeder is exposed to outdoors, it must stand the rough environments. Both the foam and air can be pressed into the feeder as insulation medium. If the air is used as the insulation medium, short circuit can easily occur, so the air is seldom used.
I. Feeder selection
Two types of feeders are in common use, namely, 7/8" feeder and 5/4" feeder. They
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For GSM 900MHz If the required feeder length is shorter than 80 meters, use the 7/8" feeder; otherwise use the 5/4" feeder. For GSM 1800 MHz If the required feeder length is shorter than 50 meters, use the 7/8" feeder; otherwise use the 5/4" feeder.
SYFY-50-22 (7/8") LDF5-50A (7/8") LDF6-50 (5/4") M1474A (7/8") HFC22D-A (7/8") FSJ4-50B (1/2")
GSM Radio Network Planning and Optimization Chapter 4 Application of Antenna Feeder System
To solve the previous problems, you can adopt a distributed antenna system. With the help of the distributed antenna system, the capacity of abundant cells can be transferred to other cells; thus the system capacity is well allocated.
Figure 1.17 Composition principle of a distributed antenna system As shown in this figure, the downlink signal from the base station first enters the distributed antenna system through an interface. Then the power splitter divides the signal into several tributaries, and the end of each tributary connects to a mini antenna, which has a certain coverage capacity. When a signal is not strong enough, the bilateral amplifier amplifies the antenna gain. On the contrary, the downlink signals form each tributary enters the base station through the mini antenna, power splitter, and bilateral amplifier. In this system, signals can be transmitted and distributed by one of the following mediums:
Coaxial cable and RF power splitter Optical transmission link Leaky feeder
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Figure 1.19 Leaky feeder distributed antenna system Compared to other antenna systems, the leaky feeder antenna system has the following advantages:
The possibility of signal shadow and barrier is small. For example, if a distributed antenna is used in a complicated tunnel, the distance between the mobile station and an antenna may be barred; thus the coverage cannot be promised.
The signal fluctuation is slight. If the leaky feeder is used, the signal fluctuation is slight in complicated environment. The multiple service coverage can be provided. The leaky feeder had a wide working band, so several radio systems can share a leaky feeder. For example, some radio systems, such as paging system, alarm system, broadcasting system, and mobile phone system, are often used in tunnels, because these systems can share a leaky feeder, the antenna installation is simplified greatly.
Compared with the coaxial cable, both the equipment cost and installation expenditure of the leaky feeder are higher.
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Figure 1.20 Fiber distributed antenna system The fiber distributed antenna system has the following advantages:
The number of feeders is small for indoor installation. Thinner feeders are applicable. Optical fibers can be used to reduce electromagnetic interference. The design in complicated network is more flexible.
Compared with the coaxial feeder, the transmission loss of the fiber is lower in a short distance, but the cost is more and it requires local power and automatic detection equipment.
IV. Summary
The comparison of the previous three types of distributed antenna system is summarized in IV. Table 20.1 Comparison of distributed antenna systems Type Coaxial cable Advantage Flexible design Cost effective Realizable Leaky feeder Optical fiber Flexible design Low loss Easily installed High cost High cost Inflexible design Power required Disadvantage Great loss
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Table 20.3 Technical indexes for an equal power distributor Index Working band Power ratio distribution 1-to-2 800 2500MHz 1:1 3.5dB 1.5dB N_Female 1:1:1:1 6.5dB 1-to-4
800 2500MHz 7dB 1.2dB 1.5 N_Female 10dB 0.5dB 15dB 0.3dB
For the small-sized indoor coverage, the three types of couplers in this table can meet the project design requirements. For large scale indoor converge, the truck amplifier must be used.
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V. Coaxial connector
Because the length of the feeders used for the indoor distributed antenna system is determined according on-site requirement, coaxial connectors must be designed for the feeders. The system uses two types of coaxial connectors. V lists the technical indexes for a coaxial connector Table 20.5 Technical indexes for a coaxial connector Type Description N type Coaxial connector-N type connector-50/right angle/male-nut installationconfigured with SYV-50-7-1 SYV-50-7-1 50 1.2 N type Coaxial connector-N type connector-50/right angle/female-configured with 7/8LDF5-50A cable 7/8"
GSM Radio Network Planning and Optimization Chapter 4 Application of Antenna Feeder System
Table 20.6 Technical indexes for a leaky feeder Index Characteristic impedance Attenuation constant Coupling loss Feeder structure specification Type of supporting connector Fire-proof performance Description 50 900MHz: 0.051dB/m; 1800MHz: 0.076dB/m 900MHz: 72dB; 1800MHz: 84dB; (the loss 2 meters away from the coupling hole with an error of 10dB) 7/8" 14040121 Be proof against flames and ultraviolet
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VIII. Load
When the leaky feeder is used, a small antenna can be used as the load for its ends, or the load can be directly used as a match. VIII lists the technical indexes for the load. Table 20.8 Technical indexes for load Working band Characteristic impedance Port standing wave Connector type Power capacity 0 to 2GHz 50 < 1.15 N_Male 2W
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Different from the traditional CDAM, FDMA, or CDMA, the smart antenna introduces SCDMA, which is a four-dimensional multiple access. The SCDMA technology enables a user to distinguish signals according to their space propagation paths under same timeslot, same frequency or same address code. The smart antenna is similar to a space filter, which can reduce the interferences among user signals remarkably when it is controlled by the parallel antenna beams aiming at different users. To be specific, the smart improves the performance of the future mobile communication system in terms of the following aspects:
Enlarge coverage area Reduce interference and enhance system capacity Enhance spectrum utilization ratio Improve base station sensitivity Reduce base station transmit power Reduce electromagnetic environment pollution
The smart antenna is divided into two types: switched beam antenna and adaptive antenna, between which the adaptive antenna is the major type. For realization reasons, the smart antenna is mainly used at base station side.
I. Multiple-beam antenna
The multiple-beam antenna selects the beam that is directed towards a fixed direction. The base station side selects the beams that can best improve signal quality and suppress restriction to communicate with the mobile station. The beam width is determined by the number of array elements. When a user moves in a cell, the base station selects different beams so as to make the signals received strongest. Because the user is not necessarily at the center of the fixed beams, the received signal is poor when the user is at the beam edge. In addition, because, the multiple-beam antenna often selects a beam according to the maximum receiving power, it cannot adapt itself to adjust the zero suppression interference of the beams. Therefore, the multiple-beam antenna always cannot receive the best signals. Compared with the adaptive antenna, however, the multiplebeam antenna has some advantages, such as its structure is simple and it needs not judge the arriving direction of user signals. I shows the schematic diagram of a multiple-beam antenna.
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Figure 1.21 Schematic diagram of a multiple-beam antenna A multiple-beam antenna consists of a group of low gain antenna array elements, BFW, and switched beam logical circuit.
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Figure 1.22 Schematic diagram of an adaptive antenna (for single user) This figures shows the schematic diagram of an adaptive antenna when only one user is present. When multiple users are present, the situation is far more complicated. An adaptive antenna consists of the following four parts:
Antenna array
The number (N) and list way of antenna array elements is directly related to the performance of the adaptive antenna. Generally, the antenna arrays are listed in three ways: linear equal spacing (LES), circle equal spacing (CES), and plane equal spacing (PES), among which the LES is in common use. The number of array elements is 8 or 16 in actual application.
On downlinks, this part converts analog signals to digital signals; on uplinks, this part converts digital signals to analog signals
An adaptive antenna can identify the arriving direction of user signals and form a major beam in this direction. In II, W stands for weight vector, y (t) stands for output. The y (t) is expressed by the following equality:
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y (t ) =W T S k (t ) + T S j (t ) +W T n(t ) W
j= 1
M 1
Where, Sk (t) is the arriving signals of the expected users from the direction (k); S j (t) is the arriving interference signals of other users from the direction (j), with the total number of M-1; n (t) is noise vector; and W is weighting vector. The adaptive digital signal processor amplifies the expected signal and suppresses the interference signals and noise signals through selecting a proper weighting vector. There are two tasks leave for the smart antenna. One is identifying arriving direction of user signals; the other is realizing the digital matrix. The representative algorithms for the smart antenna to identify the direction of arrival (DOA) of the signals are Music algorithm, RSPRIP algorithm, and maximum likelihood algorithm. The adaptive beams are shaped for obtaining the best weighting coefficient through adaptive algorithms. For which algorithm is selected, adaptive rules must be considered, and the rules in common use include SINR, MMSE, minimum variance, and maximum likelihood. It has been proved that the four rules can help the adaptive antenna to obtain the best weighting coefficient value which has the same stale solution (Wiener solution). The adaptive algorithms in common use are direct sampling covariance matrix inversion algorithm (DMI), various minimum mean square algorithms (LMS), recursion least square algorithm (RLS), and constant model algorithm (CMA).
GSM Radio Network Planning and Optimization Chapter 4 Application of Antenna Feeder System
I shows a base station with the omni directional coverage, and the beams transmitted on different channels are different. Therefore, the base station must provide both the omni directional and directional shaped-beams. In this case, the omni directional channels requires much higher transmit power (the possible maximum transmit power required by the omni directional channels is 101gN dB higher than that required by dedicated channels, where N stands for the number of antenna array elements). And this must be considered in system design.
GSM Radio Network Planning and Optimization Chapter 4 Application of Antenna Feeder System
performed, downlink shaped-beams will be seriously affected. In this case, the advantages of the smart antenna are inapplicable, or even the communication failure will occur.
GSM Radio Network Planning and Optimization Chapter 4 Application of Antenna Feeder System
wavelength at 2GHz band, which will cause great error against shaping the downlink beams. Therefore, the TDD period is expected to be reduced at least by half so that the interval between transmission and reception can be controlled within 2-3ms. In this case, the smart antenna can work normally. If the terminals in this system are required to move at a higher speed, the TDD uplink and downlink switching period must be further reduced.
Thoroughly understand the mobile communication environment, especially the space characteristics. To achieve this, you need to rebuild the models for mobile communication and obtain great experimental results.
Based on the understanding of the characteristics of the mobile environments, develop new algorithms. And these algorithms must seamlessly cooperate with mobile communication systems and other radio technologies.
Research the cooperation between the smart antenna and the technologies, such as power control, multiple user detection, synchronization technology, and rake receiver technology.
These previous factors must be considered for the purpose of eliminating interference, balancing, utilizing and improving system performance.
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