Line of Sight Microwave

SYED AHSAN RAZA

Introduction

Introduction
Widely employed means of broadband radio transmission in point to point service

In Europe , LOS microwave is often termed as radio relay or radio links

A link can be defined as radio connectivity from a near end transmitter to a far end receiver A link length is limited by Line of Sight

Introduction
Historically, LOS microwave was the basic transport means for FDM configurations using frequency modulation

In modern times the trend has moved from analog transmission to digital
By digital we mean a digital baseband that modulates an analog RF carrier The baseband is 8 bit PCM either of DS1 hierarchy or E1 hierarchy

Applications of LOS Microwave

Point to Point links as a backbone or tails of large networks for common carriers linking BTS-BSC and BSC-MSC

Applications of LOS Microwave

Point to multipoint systems for TV, telephony, data

Applications of LOS Microwave

Transport of TV or other video signals such as Community Antenna Television (CATV) head end extension

Alternatives to LOS Microwave

Optical Fiber is leading the way and replaced most of LOS microwave links because of Cost effectiveness More information bandwidth Fiber ,however, is hampered by right of way requirements and by cables being served by construction activities

Criteria for LOS Microwave Systems

The signal follows a straight line or LOS path Signal propagation is affected by free space attenuation, precipitation and gaseous absorption Use of frequencies greater than 150 MHz, thereby allowing more transmission per RF carrier with wider RF bandwidths (Generally from 1 GHz to 30 GHz) Use of angle modulation (FM or PM), digital modulation or spread spectrum and time sharing techniques

Steps to do Link Engineering

Selection of sites (radio equipment plus tower locations) that are in line of sight of each other

Selection of an operational frequency band considering RF interference environment and legal constraints

Frequency Bands for LOS Microwave

Steps to do Link Engineering

Development of path profiles to determine radio tower heights
If tower height exceeds a certain economical limit then sites and route should be reconfigured

Steps to do Link Engineering

Steps to do Link Engineering

In making path profile it must be noted that Microwave energy is
Attenuated or absorbed by solid objects
Reflected from flat conductive surfaces such as water and sides of metal buildings Diffracted around solid objects Refracted or bent by the atmosphere

Steps to do Link Engineering

Path Calculations are performed
A margin is set for signal fading under all anticipated climatic conditions

Path survey is done to ensure accuracy of previous steps Establishing a frequency plan

Steps to do Link Engineering

Equipment configuration to achieve fade margin most economically

Installation

Beam alignment, equipment line up, check out and acceptance by a customer

Link Design Process

Microwave Equipment Installation

Loss/ Attenuation Calculations

The loss/attenuation calculations are composed of three main contributions
Propagation losses (Due to Earths atmosphere and terrain)

Branching losses (Comes from the hardware used to deliver the transmitter/receiver output to/from the antenna)

Loss/ Attenuation Calculations

Miscellaneous (other) losses (unpredictable and sporadic in character like fog, moving objects crossing the path, poor equipment installation and less than perfect antenna alignment etc)

This contribution is not calculated but is considered in the planning process as an additional loss

Propagation (Free Space Loss)

Consider a signal travelling between a transmitter at A and receiver at B

Mathematical Formulation for Free Space Loss

Let D be in Kilometers and f in Megahertz then the free space loss in decibels is calculated with the help of following formula

If D is in statute miles then we have the following formula

Example

Calculate free space loss for a distance separation of 40 Km and frequency of 6 GHz

Bending of Radio Wave Ray Beam above 100 MHz from Straight Line
If radio wave above 100 MHz travelled a straight line , the engineering of LOS microwave systems would be much easier We could accurately predict
Height of towers required at repeater and terminal stations Position of the radiating device on tower

Bending of Radio Wave Ray Beam above 100 MHz from Straight Line
Our goal is to determine the height of a microwave radiator to permit reliable radio link communication from one location to the other

Methodology
To determine tower height
We establish position and height of obstacles in path between stations To each obstacle height we will add earth bulge

Earth Bulge

Earth Bulge

Earth Bulge
This is the number of feet or meters an obstacle is raised higher in elevation (into the path) owing to earth curvature or earth bulge The amount of earth bulge in feet at any point maybe determined by formula

Earth Bulge
d1 is the distance from near end of the link to the point (obstacle location) d2 is the distance from far end of the link to the point (obstacle location)

Atmospheric refraction may cause ray beam to be bent towards the earth or away from the earth

Earth Bulge
If it is bent towards the earth , it is as if we shrank the earth bulge or lowered it from its true location If the beam is bent away from the earth it is as if we expanded the earth bulge or raised it up towards the beam above its true value
This lowering or raising is handled mathematically by adding a factor K to the earth bulge equation

Earth Bulge

The K factor can be calculated from the formula

Earth Bulge
The value commonly used for r0 is 6370 km
The effective earth radius is calculated from the formula

Where exp means e the natural number Ns is surface refractivity

Earth Bulge
Taking surface refractivity value of 301 and calculating r

K-factor comes out to be 4/3 or 1.33

Surface Refractivity
This is the refractivity at the altitude of LOS microwave site that we selected or the average refractivity of the path The sea level refractivity can be obtained for the area from the nearby weather bureau or from a chart

Surface Refractivity

Surface Refractivity

Surface Refractivity
To calculate Ns when we are given N0 the mean sea level refractivity we have

Where hs is the altitude above mean sea level in km of the LOS radio site

K-factor and Tower Height

For k>1 , ray beam is bent towards earth which essentially allows us to shorten radio link towers

For k<1, earth bulge is effectively increased and tower height has to be increased as range is reduced

Fresnel Zone Clearance

Fresnel Zone Clearance

Direct radio waves will obviously travel in a straight line from Tx to Rx There are other waves inside the signal cone or circle if antenna is Omni-directional If there is no obstacle in the way these waves will go all the way In case of an obstacle these waves will be deflected and might reach the Rx with straight line signals causing phase cancelling effect resulting in fading

Fresnel Zone Clearance Phase Cancellation

Phase cancelling effect is a function of the signal strength and extent of phase variation Fresnel provided a means to calculate how out of phase the deflections between Tx and Rx will be Each Fresnel zone is an ellipsoidal shape

Fresnel Zone Clearance Phase Cancellation

Fresnel Zone Clearance Phase Cancellation

Deflections from obstacles occurring in zone 1 will create signals that will be 0 to 90 degree out of phase In zone 2 they will be 90 to 270o out of phase

In zone 3 they will be 270 to 450o out of phase and so on

Fresnel Zone Clearance Phase Cancellation

Even numbered zones have the maximum phase cancelling effect Odd numbered zones may actually add to the signal power The rule of thumb is that 60% of the 1st Fresnel zone must be clear of obstacles

Fresnel Zone Clearance Phase Cancellation

Fresnel Zone Clearance Earth Curvature

Fresnel Zone Radius Calculation

Example Fresnel Zone Clearance

Calculate the clearance value where an obstacle is 5 mi from the transmit antenna, total path length is 20 mi and operational frequency is 6 GHz

Path Profiling- Steps to Perform

On topological map draw a straight line connecting the two adjacent radio link sites

Carefully mark all obstacles or obstructions and possible points of reflections such as bodies of water, marshes or desert areas
Assign consecutive letters to each obstacle Plot horizontal location of each point on the graph paper

Path Profiling- Steps to Perform

Mark the path midpoint which is the point of maximum earth bulge and should be marked as an obstacle Determine K factor by any of the following methods Method 1 : Refer to a sea level refractivity profile chart Select appropriate N0 for the area of interest Calculate K factor using equation

Path Profiling- Steps to Perform

Method 2 : Lacking refractivity information, plot path profile using 3 values of K factor 1.33, 1.0 and 0.5 Later path survey will help in deciding appropriate K factor Table can be helpful in choosing K

Path Profiling- Steps to Perform

Path Profiling- Steps to Perform

For each obstacle point compute d1, distance to one repeater site and d2, the distance to other

Compute the equivalent earth curvature for each point using Compute Fresnel zone clearance by equation 5.8
For obstacles other than midpoint of path , find the percentage of the total path from transmitter to obstacle

Path Profiling- Steps to Perform

Path Profiling- Steps to Perform

For example an obstacle 5 mile on a 30 mile path is 25 mile from another end

Alternatively, this point is 16.6% or 83% of path length

From graph it is 76% of midpath clearance If midpath Fresnel clearance were 40 ft, only 30.4 ft would be required at the 5 mi point

Path Profiling- Steps to Perform

Set up a table at the bottom of profile chart

Path Profile Exercise

Path Profile Exercise

Path Calculations (Link Budget)

Path calculation (link budget) provides parameters for dimensioning the radio equipment Parameters include Antenna size or aperture Transmitter Power Output Receiver Noise Figure Required Bandwidth

Path Calculations (Link Budget)

Required Diversity and type Coding gain for digital systems Performance measured in Signal to Noise ratio Noise in derived voice channel for FDM/FM systems

Path Calculations (Link Budget) for Receiver

Far end receiver is the starting point on a path calculation or link budget Main question to be asked is
What signal level entering the receiver will give the desired link performance?

Path Calculations (Link Budget) for Receiver

Receiver will have a noise floor or noise threshold Thermal noise power is given by

For a microwave receiver with 10 MHz bandwidth and 3 dB noise figure, thermal noise threshold is given by

Path Calculations (Link Budget) for Receiver

RSL (Received Signal Level) must be above this noise level or floor by some value in dB

Factors on which this level depends

Desired link reliability (Time availability) BER or S/N in voice channel Modulation type Fading and fade margin Type of coding Interference environment

Path Calculations (Link Budget) for Receiver

Bandwidth for FM Systems

FM Systems
Deviation is a measure of instantaneous frequency variation Direct function of the level of the modulating signal Higher the level of the modulating signal , the more deviation we can expect

Pre emphasis / De emphasis in FM

Pre emphasis / De emphasis in FM

Pre emphasis increases the peak deviation during the FM modulation process for higher baseband frequencies This increase of peak frequency deviation is done in accordance with a compensation curve

Pre emphasis / De emphasis in FM

Pre emphasis / De emphasis in FM

If a transmitter is over deviated
More band width is required Increased thermal noise More intermodulation distortion

From the relation discussed before for noise power threshold , doubling IF bandwidth increases thermal noise by 3 dB

FM Improvement Threshold
At FM receiver, FM improvement will be achieved if Carrier to Noise ratio is at least 10 dB

At that point , derived FDM voice channel experiences an increase of SNR by 20 dB

FM Improvement Threshold

FM Improvement Threshold

Received Signal Level

Received level at the input to a receivers first active stage On most LOS microwave receivers , the first active stage is the mixer In other cases it would be the input of the low noise amplifier (LNA)

RSL is commonly measured in dBm or dBW

RSL is synonymous with Carrier level C C/N can be written as RSL/N

Steps required in Link Budget Calculations

Calculate EIRP of transmitter From that value subtract Free Space Loss (FSL) Resulting value is Isotropic Received Level (IRL)

Add receiver antenna gain and subtract transmission line losses

Resulting value is unfaded RSL

Steps required in Link Budget Calculations

Steps required in Link Budget Calculations

Examples of Link Budget

Link Budget Scenario

Link Budget Example

Link Budget Example

Mechanisms of Fading
Multipath Fading

Power Fading

Multipath Fading
Stems from interference between direct wave and reflected wave The reflection maybe from the ground or from atmospheric sheets or layers May display fades in excess of 30 dB for periods of seconds or minutes This form of fading will be observed during quiet, windless and foggy nights when temperature inversion occurs near ground

Multipath Fading

Multipath Fading

Multipath Fading

Multipath Fading- Temperature Inversion

Deviation from normal change of an atmospheric property with altitude Normally refers to temperature inversion

Refers to increase in temperature with height

Multipath Fading- Temperature Inversion

Usually within the lower atmosphere , air near surface of earth is warmer than the air above it

Atmosphere is heated from below as solar radiations warm the earth surface
Earth surface in return warm the atmosphere directly above it This rising of heat from earth surface is responsible for clouds formation through convection

Multipath Fading- Temperature Inversion

An inversion layer is when the normal temperature (warm air below, cold air above) profile is reversed Stable configuration of dense, cold air sitting below lighter, warm air is formed

An elevated inversion layer is thus a region of warm air above a region of cold air, but higher in the atmosphere (generally not touching the surface)

Multipath Fading- Temperature Inversion

Cloud formation from the lower layer is "capped" by the inversion layer If the capping inversion layer or "cap" is too strong (too close to the surface), it will prevent thunderstorms from developing A strong cap can result in foggy conditions

Multipath Fading- Temperature Inversion-Scotland

Multipath Fading- Temperature Inversion-Bratislava

Multipath Fading- Temperature Inversion Shanghai ,China

Propagation Losses Calculation-Case Study

Propagation Losses Calculation-Case Study

Estimating Fade Margin for Analog Microwave Links

Estimating Fade Margin for Analog Microwave Links

Experience in the design o many radio link systems shows that multipath fading depends on
Path length
Frequency Climate Terrain Conditions

Estimating Fade Margin for Analog Microwave Links

It has been found that hops over following climatic and terrain conditions produce lowest amount of fading
Dry

Windy
Mountainous

Estimating Fade Margin for Analog Microwave Links

Worst amount of fading usually occur in coastal areas that are hot and humid Flat terrain along a radio path increases the probability of fading Irregular terrain like hilly areas with vegetation reduce the effect of fading

Estimating Fade Margin for Analog Microwave Links