Proceedings of ISAP’04, Sendai, JAPAN

3A3-1

INFLUENCE OF ELECTRICAL BEAMTILT AND ANTENNA

BEAMWIDTHS ON DOWNLINK CAPACITY IN WCDMA:
SIMULATIONS AND REALIZATION
Lars Manholm, Martin Johansson and Sven Petersson
Antenna Research Center, Ericsson Research
SE-431 82, Mölndal, Sweden

lars.manholm@ericsson.com, m.johansson@ericsson.com, sven.petersson@ericsson.com

Abstract— Optimizing the beamtilt and a measured radiation patterns. Finally, in section V
proper choice of azimuth and elevation beam- a short discussion and a summary of the results
widths are shown to be key factors in are given.
improving system downlink capacity in reuse-
one mobile telephony systems such as II. S Y S T E M S I M U L ATO R
WCDMA. The system simulator used here comprises an,
Several antennas with remotely controlled in principal, infinite number of sites. Some of the
electrical beamtilt with 90° azimuth most important characteristics are:
beamwidth are currently in production.
Measurements show radiation characteristics • UEs uniformly distributed over
with excellent front-to-back ratio, sidelobe the system;
suppression and low cross-polarization. • all traffic modeled as speech;
• identical antennas in all cells;
I. INTRODUCTION
• identical beamtilt applied to all
Beam-tilt, either mechanical or electrical or a cells;
combination thereof, is frequently used in 2nd • handover margin –3dB with max
generation mobile telephony system installations size of active set = 3;
such as GSM. The purposes are in principal • path loss exponent 3.5;
twofold; one is to adopt the direction of the • angular spread in elevation,
antenna beam to the sector terrain to improve σ = 0.6°;
coverage; the other is to reduce transmission into • shadow fading not included;
other cells thereby reducing interference spread
• common channels not modeled.
and as a consequence increasing system capacity.
In this paper we show that beamtilt is an
The antenna patterns used in this analysis are of
efficient way of improving system capacity also
outmost importance. Six different patterns are
in reuse one systems, such as WCDMA, although
used in the study, see Table 1. Figure 1 shows
there are fundamental differences in the
azimuth cuts and Figure 2 elevation cuts of the
interference situations between GSM and
antenna patterns.
WCDMA. In downlink, for example, the desired
Two types of systems are studied. One is the
user and a user being interfered can be located
so-called Ericsson plan that is characterized by
fairly close to each other, e.g. at each side of the
each beam pointing directly to the closest site.
cell border.
The other is the Bell plan in which beams from
The outline of this paper, which is focused
three neighboring sites are directed towards the
entirely on downlink, is as follows. In section II
symmetry point in between these sites. An
the system simulator used for performance
example of an Ericsson cell plan (cell shape
evaluation is presented. In section III simulation
depends on pattern parameters) and the Bell cell
results for the system performances downlink
plan are shown in Figure 3. The 65° and 90°
capacity and downlink power consumption are
patterns are evaluated in the Ericsson cell plan
given. In section IV realizations of antennas with
while the 90° and 120° patterns are evaluated in
90° azimuth beamwidth and remotely controlled
the Bell cell plan.
electrical beamtilt are presented, together with

ISBN: 4-88552-207-2 C3055©IEICE - 641 -

Table 1. Antenna pattern data Table 2. Simulation geometries
Name Gain Azimuth Elevation Fullsize Halfsize
[dBi] HPBW SLL [dB] HPBW SLL [dB] Antenna height 30 m 30 m
65 Full 20 65° -15 2.6° -15 Site-to-site distance 2000 m 800 m
65 Half 17 65° -15 5.5° -15
90 Full 20 90° -15 1.9° -15
90 Half 17 90° -15 4.0° -15
120 Full 20 120° -15 1.4° -15
120Half 17 120° -15 3.0° -15
65 Full
20 65 Half
90 Full
18 90 Half
16 120 Full
120 Half Figure 3. Ericsson cell plan (left) and Bell cell
14
plan (right). Base stations are located at the dots
Gain (dBi)

12
and the arrows indicate the antenna directions.
10
8
1.6
6
4 1.4

2 1.2
Downlink pole capacity
0
−180 −135 −90 −45 0 45 90 135 180 1
Azimuth angle (degrees)
0.8
Figure 1. Antenna patterns, azimuth cut.
0.6

0.4
20 65 Full 65 Full, Ericsson
65 Half 90 Full, Ericsson
18 90 Full 0.2 90 Full, Bell
90 Half 120 Full, Bell
16
120 Full 0
−6 −4 −2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
14 120 Half Downtilt (degrees)
Gain (dBi)

12
Figure 4. Pole capacity in downlink as a function
10
of tilt angle for full-size antennas.
8
6
1.6
4
2 1.4

0 1.2
Downlink pole capacity

−8 −6 −4 −2 0 2 4 6 8
Elevation angle (degrees)
1
Figure 2. Antenna patterns, elevation cut. The 0.8
beamtilt angle set to 0 °.
0.6

0.4
III. S I M U L AT I O N R E S U LT S 65 Half, Ericsson
90 Half, Ericsson
0.2 90 Half, Bell
Two different types of performance are 0
120 Half, Bell

presented. The first performance is the “pole −6 −4 −2 0 2 4

Downtilt (degrees)
6 8 10 12

capacity” defined as the maximum capacity

Figure 5. Pole capacity in downlink as a function
possible while still fulfilling the desired quality of tilt angle for half-size antennas.
for each user. This capacity is found by loading
the system until no solutions to the power A. Pole capacity
equation can be found, i.e. the SINR quality
requirements is no longer fulfilled. At pole Pole capacity, the maximal theoretical load, is
capacity the required power asymptotically shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5 for full-size and
approaches infinity. half-size antennas, respectively.
The second performance presented is the total One observation is that the wider the elevation
power consumption in downlink when the system beamwidth, the less variation in capacity over tilt
load is a fraction the pole capacity. angles.
The geometries used in the simulations are A second observation is that the elevation and
given in Table 2. azimuth beamwidths must be selected carefully

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to reduce variations in illumination of the cell
(i.e. path gain), since these variations are of 0
65 Half, Ericsson
90 Half, Ericsson
outmost importance for the pole capacity. Note 90 Half, Bell

Downlink total power (dB)

−5 120 Half, Bell
that all antennas within each category, full-size
and half-size, have the same gain, and the −10

elevation beamwidts are chosen to ensure that. −15

A third observation is that correctly optimized
beamtilt significantly improves pole capacity −20

compared to zero beamtilt. −25

B. Power consumption in downlink 2 4 6

Downtilt (degrees)
8 10

The second type of performance is the power

65 Half, Ericsson
consumption. In this case we present the total 0
90 Half, Ericsson
power required per cell in downlink. The 90 Half, Bell

Downlink total power (dB)

−5 120 Half, Bell
required power is shown as a function of tilt
angle at two different loads. The upper plot in −10

Figure 6 shows total power consumption when −15

the load is 70% of the pole capacity at large tilt
angles for the “65 Full” antenna. The lower plot −20

shows the same thing but for a load of 85%. −25

Similar data for half-size antennas are shown in 2 4 6 8 10
Figure 7. Downtilt (degrees)

Figure 7. Total downlink power as a function of tilt

10 angle and load. The load is 70% (top) and 85%
(bottom) of pole capacity for “65Half” at large tilt
Downlink total power (dB)

5 angles.
0

−5
IV. R E A L I Z AT I O N

−10 65 Full, Ericsson A. Antennas

90 Full, Ericsson
90 Full, Bell
−15
120 Full, Bell Ericsson today manufactures 4 types of 90°,
0 2 4 6
Downtilt (degrees)
8 10 vertically polarized antennas for use in 3-sector
WCDMA systems; full-size (20dBi) or half-size
10
(17dBi), and 1 or 2 beams in each antenna. The
two-beam antennas are essentially two antennas
Downlink total power (dB)

5 within one radome, with the beams pointing 120°

0 apart in azimuth.
The range in which it is possible to vary the
−5
beamtilt angle is dependent on the product, but is
−10 65 Full, Ericsson
typically in the range of 0°-10°.
90 Full, Ericsson
90 Full, Bell
The beamtilt is accomplished by changing the
−15
120 Full, Bell phase to each subarray, which consist of 4 or 5
0 2 4 6
Downtilt (degrees)
8 10
elements in height. This design is a trade-off
Figure 6. Total downlink power as a function of tilt between system complexity and antenna
angle and load. The load is 70% (top) and 85% performance.
(bottom) of pole capacity for “65Full” at large tilt The amplitude and phase of the subarray
angles. excitations have been optimized to achieve a
sidelobe level of <-15dB up to 15° above the
The plots show, again, that a narrow elevation main beam, for suppression of interference
beamwidth is more sensitive to a correct setting to/from neighboring cells, and to remove the first
of the tilt angle than a wider beam. As for the null below the main beam, for good coverage
pole capacity, beamtilt significantly improves close to the antenna.
power consumption performance.

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 The antenna patterns exhibit a front-to-back 0
power ratio of >21dB, low sidelobes in elevation co−pol
x−pol
−5
and low cross-polarization, see Figure 8-Figure
11. −10

relative amplitude (dB)

−15

0 −20
co−pol
−5 x−pol −25

−10 −30
relative amplitude (dB)

−15 −35

−20 −40
−90 −60 −30 0 30 60 90
elevation (deg)
−25
Figure 11. Elevation pattern at 2045Mhz and 9°
−30
tilt for a full-size 90° antenna.
−35

−40
−180 −135 −90 −45 0 45 90 135 180
B. Control System
azimuth (deg)
The optimal tilt angle for a certain type of
Figure 8. Azimuth pattern at 2045MHz for a full- antenna is site- and load-dependent. For efficient
size 90° antenna.
use of the radio access network, the antenna
0
beam tilt is possible to control from an operation
co−pol
x−pol
center, so called remote electrical tilt (RET).
−5
The purpose of the control system is to perform
−10
the antenna beam tilt setting, as requested from
relative amplitude (dB)

−15 the operation center, and to supervise and relay

−20 any alarms back to the operation center. The
−25
beam tilt is set per beam independently for
optimal system performance.
−30
The tilt angle of each antenna can also be set
−35 locally by connecting a portable PC to the control
−40
−90 −60 −30 0 30 60 90
system, or manually on site without using the
elevation (deg) control system.
Figure 9. Elevation pattern at 2045Mhz and 3° tilt
for a full-size 90° antenna. V. CONCLUSIONS

0
Electrical beamtilt, azimuth and elevation
co−pol
x−pol
beamwidths are shown to be key factors for
−5
improving downlink performance in a reuse-one
−10
mobile telephony system. To achieve the
relative amplitude (dB)

−15 potential gains, which depends on antenna

−20 parameters as well as cell characteristics, the
−25
setting of the beamtilt angle needs to be
optimized.
−30
4 types of 90° antennas with remotely
−35 controlled electrical downtilt and 17 or 20dBi
−40
−90 −60 −30 0 30 60 90
gain have been developed for use in 3-sector
elevation (deg) WCDMA networks. The measured radiation
Figure 10. Elevation pattern at 2045Mhz and 6° patterns show excellent performance.
tilt for a full-size 90° antenna.

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