Interference & frequency planning

 Each receiver in a digital radio-relay network

is exposed to a number of interference
signals, which can degrade the transmission
quality. The main sources of interference are:
 Intrasystem interference
 Noise
 Imperfections
 Echo
Interference & frequency planning
 Interchannel interference
 Adjacent channel
 Co-channel cross-polarization
 Transmitter and receiver
 Spurious emission
Interference & frequency planning
 Interhop interference
 Front to back
 Overreach
 - Extra-system interference
 Satellite systems
 Radar
 Other radio systems
Intrasystem interference
 This type of interference is generated within a
radio channel by thermal receiver noise,
system imperfections, and echo distortions
 Good system design ensures that
imperfections do not introduce significant
degradation
Intrasystem interference
 echo distortion caused by reflections from
buildings or terrain and due to double
reflections within the RF path (antenna,
feeder) cannot be neglected in higher-order
QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation)
systems.
Intrasystem interference
 Echo delay causes interference, which
increases as the delay increases.
 Ground reflections cause echo delays in the
region of 0.1 to 1 ns.
 Reflections near the antennas or from distant
buildings are usually greater than 1 ns and
can cause severe echo interference.
 Interchannel interference

Interchannel interference between

microwave transmission frequency
bands
Interchannel interference
 Adjacent channel interference can be either:
 Cross-polar
 Copolar
 Co-channel interference can only be cross-
polar.
 For adjacent channels, the copolar
interference can be suppressed by filtering,
and adjacent channel
 cross-polarization interference is not usually a
problem with today’s antennas
Interhop interference
 This type of interference can occur because of front-
to-back or nodal interference from adjacent hops and
by overreach interference.
 The signal-to-interference ratio (S/I) is determined by
the angular discrimination of antennas and can
decrease during fading.
 Careful route and frequency planning is necessary to
keep the degradation smaller than 1 dB.
Interhop interference
 1 = co-channel or adjacent
channel signal from a
different hop directional
 2 = opposite hop front-to-
back reception
 3 = adjacent channel (same
hop)
 4 = cross-polarization (same
hop)
 5 = front-to-back radiation
 6 = overreach
 7 = terrain reflections
Line of sight (LOS)
Radiopath Calculations

Free space loss

FREE SPACE LOSS

 Free-space loss is given by

L = 92 .5 + 20 log(d) + 20 log(f o )
 where
 Lo is the free-space loss (dB)
 d is the hoplength (km)
 f is the radio frequency (G Hz)
Antenna Gain
 •Parabolic antenna has good directivity
 •Antenna gain depends on
 •Antenna diameter
 •Frequency
 •Antenna shape
 •Antenna quality
 •Antenna manufacturers give the exact
antenna gain in the technical specification
of the antenna
Antenna Gain
 Antenna gain can be estimated by the
following formula. The gainis given with
relation to an isotropic antenna
Ga = 20 log(Da) + 20 log(f ) + 17.5
 Where
 Ga = the antenna gain (dB)
 Da = the antenna diameter (m)
 f = the radio frequency (GHz)
H OP LOSS

 The hop loss without fading is calculated as follows

 L ho = L o - G a1- G a2 + Lat +Lex

 where
 Lho isnonfaded hop loss
 Lo is free-space loss
 Ga1 and Ga2 are antenna gains
 Lex isthe extra attenuation
 Lat isthe atmospheric attenuation caused by water
vapour and oxygen.
THE FLAT FADE MARGIN

 The flat fade margin M of a radio link hop is given

by the following formula
 M = P tx- L ho - P rxth . .
 where
 M = the fade margin
 Ptx = the transmitter output power (dBm)
 Lho = hop loss without fading (dB)
 Prxth = the threshold power level (dBm) of the receiver
(the influence of possible interference has been
included)
Atmospheric attenuation
 Frequencies above about 17 GHz: 0.1 -0.7 dB/km
 Oxygen and watervapour causes attenuation
 Attenuation caused by oxygen diminishes with
altitude, but this doesn’t have noticeable effect
below 1-2 km
 Also attenuation caused by watervapour
diminishes with altitude
 Values for atmospheric attenuation can be
obtained from ITU-R recommendations P.676-3
and P.836-
C alculation Exercise
1. Calculate the fade margin for the
following hop:
 hop length : 5 km
 frequency : 38 GHz
 antenna size : 30 cm
 atmospheric attenuation: 0,234 dB/km
 transmit power : 16dBm
 receiver threshold : -76 dB m
 No extra attenuation assumed.
2. How long a hop can be if the fade margin
must exceed 40 dB
 a) ignore the atmospheric attenuation
 b) if you reduce the hop length by 100 m
and take into account the atmospheric
attenuation, is the fade margin more than
40 dB
Propagation phenomena
 Rain
 Gaseous
athmosphere
 Snow, dust, fog etc.
 Multipathfading
 K-fading
Fading Fading
Rain
Rain

 •Rain causes attenuation that has a greater effect

than the gaseous contents
 •Attenuation caused by SCATTERING &
ABSORPTION
 •Effect can be calculated using ITU - R Model and
rain rate tables (IT U-R P.837)
 •Dependent on frequency, polarization and rain
intensity and lesser amount of temperature, drop
size distribution, etc.
 •Rain has the dominating effect in design in
frequencies above about 15G Hz
Hop length vs. rain intesity intesity
(when unavailability due to rain is 0.01 %)
Rain Attenuation Calculation
 The attenuation caused by rain can be calculated by
A0.01   R * r * d
 Where

 R is the is the rain attenuation (dB/km), dependent on
frequency, polarization and rainfall rate R0.01
 R is the reduction factor taking into account that rainfall
rate is not constant over the link
 d is the link length
 Diffraction and multipath fading play usually a minor
role in short hops in high frequencies
 Tools should be used for performance calculations
Snow, fog, dust etc.
 Normally no great effect in design
 Snow may occasionally have a distinct
effect on attenuation at frequencies above
about 10 GHz. Dry snow causes relatively
small attenuation (it is taken into account
in the rain values)
 Thick snow layers on the radomes of the
antennas may contribute most of the extra
attenuation
Snow, fog, dust etc
 If the snow or ice only partially cover the
radome, it changes the antenna radiation
pattern and may cause deep minima in
some directions, sometimes also to the
boresight
 The effect of fog is usually important only
at frequencies above 100G Hz
 The effect of dust is usually insignificant
The First Fresnell zone
Ellipsoid where d1+d2-d equals half of the wavelength
Multipath fading

 Caused by layers in the atmosphere which

reflect and refract the radiowaves, also
surface reflections may be part of this
phenomenon.
 Effects can be calculated with ITU - R
formulas and using a digital terrain map
 Below 34 Mbit/s capacity systems it may
be considered to be flat, i.e. the whole
signal band is having a uniform
attenuation.
Multipath fading

 Dependent on frequency and distance. The most

important factor influencing on the performance
of radio links below about 10G Hz. It also has
noticeable effects on links using frequencies
above 17 GHz but the importance diminishes with
shortening hop lengths at increasing frequencies
Above about 26 GHz the fading caused by rain is
dominant.
 Duration of deep fades usually less than one
second i.e. considered as error performance.
Overcoming Multipath Fading

 Space diversity can be used to overcome

fading caused by multipath
 •Da is selected to make dm -ds an odd
multiple of half-wavelength
Overcoming Multipath Fading

Install antenna so that path to reflecting surface is

obstructed
K-Fading
 The variation of atmospheric refractive
index with height causes the radiowaves
propagate along curved paths
(diffraction).
 Normally radiowaves are bent in such a
way towards the earth that the radio
horizon is slightly further away than the
optical horizon
K-Fading
 The fading is caused by such changes in the
refractivity (k-factor) that make the hop to
become obstructed
 Changes in refractivity can also make the hop
defocused
K -factor

 The amount and direction of refraction is

described using the k-value, which gives
the ratio of the effective earth radius to the
real earth radius when propagation path
is a straight line
 K-value is dependent on temperature, air
pressure and humidity
 The normal k-value is 4/3. It is typically
bigger in the tropic than in colder climates
Selection of antenna heights

 Not too high, not too low

 If too low => occasional fading
of long duration in the received
power
 If too high => expensive design
and increased fading owing to
multipath propagation and
surface reflections
Selection of antenna heights
 In cases of uncertainty, it is safer to
choose too high than too low
 Rule of thumb: 1.5 x 1st Fresnelzone free
OR
 Obstructions at most up to line-of-sight at
k = 0.5 (below 15 km)
 Determined by the required clearance and
the terrain profile
Interference

 In addition to the wanted signal the

antenna receives unwanted interfering
signals
 Antenna discrimination depends on the
angle between the wanted signal S and the
Interfering signal I
 The amount of discrimination can be
found in the radiation pattern of the
antenna
Interference

 The amount of
decoupling
depends of the
frequencies used in
signals S and I
Overcoming and avoiding
interference
 Increase channel spacing to increase
decoupling by radio filters
 •Polarisation
 •Antenna discrimination
 •Attenuating interfering transmitter
 •Topology
•
Overcoming Interference
 The interfering signal causes degradation
in receive threshold value
 The radio equipment specify Signal to
Interference (S/I) ratios for receive
threshold degradations of 1 and 3 dB.
 Correlated signal interference easier to
estimate because signals fade together
Typical planning order
 Selection of frequency band
 •Setting the design objectives
 •error performance
 •availability
 •ITU-R categories
 •Path profile (terrain)
 •Line of sight check
 •reflection analysis
 •antenna heights
Typical planning order
 Radiopath calculation (radio parameters)
 cable type
 antenna diameters
 unfaded fade margin (free space loss)
 Propagation phenomena
 rain, multipath, k-fading

 performance calculation
 availability calculation

 Interference and channel allocation if needed

 Iterate
Profile

 calculates the antenna heights

 requires manual input of the ground profile
 profile is typically taken from paper maps
 inputs:
 site names
 radio frequency
 k-value
 hop length
 station elevations
 clearance criterion (Fresnelzone)
 terrain profile
 heights of obstacles (trees etc.)
 outputs are antenna heights
Drlink
Propagasi Mikrocell- Walfish Ikegami
 Rang frekuensi 800 -2000 MHZ.
 Ketinggian (gedung + antena BTS) : 50 m
 Jarak sampai dengan 5 km.
 Line of sight : P = 42.6 + 26 log d + 20log f
 No Line of Sight = P = 32.4 + 20 log f + 20
log d + Lrds + Lms
 Lrds : losses pada rooftop street diffraction
 Lms : multi screen diffraction loss