Calculating a Link Budget or Fade Margin

The major issues with microwave link engineering are rain fade, multi path and interference. An F engineer !egins a design !" doing a link !udget anal"sis. A given radio s"stem has a s"stem gain that depends on the design on the radio and the modulation used. The gains from the antenna at each end are added to this gain. Larger antennas provide higher gain. The free space loss of the radio signal as it travels over the air is then su!tracted from the s"stem# the longer the link the higher the loss. These calculations result in a $fade margin% for the link. An"thing that affects the radio signal within this margin will !e overcome !" the radio& if the margin is e'ceeded, then the link could go down. The ne't step, then, is to anal"(e impediments that could potentiall" affect the radio signal . )ith good understanding of the potential affects on the signal, the F engineer can design links with availa!ilit" and performance e*ual to or !etter than a wire line link. A link !udget is a rough calculation of all known elements of the link to determine if the signal will have the proper strength when it reaches the other end of the link. To make this calculation, the following information should !e availa!le#

Frequency of the link Free space path loss Power of the transmitter Antenna gain Total length of transmission cable and loss per unit length at the specified frequency Number of connectors used Loss of each connector at the specified frequency Path length

The amount of e'tra F power radiated to overcome this phenomenon is referred to as fade margin. The e'act amount of fade margin re*uired depends on the desired relia!ilit" of the link, !ut a good rule+of+thum! is ,-dB to .-dB. Fade Margin / 01 2 A1 + LC 3 L4

)here 01 / 0"stem gain 5depend on modem6 A1 / Antenna gain LC / Ca!le loss L4 / 4ath loss These parameters are also responsi!le for gain loss. 0"stem 1ain / adiated 4ower of radio 7*uipment + 5 eceiver 0ensitivit"6