Base Station Survey and Layout

Huawei Wireless Network Planning Department

Contents

About the Service

Preparation
Coverage Requirements

Site Selection
Antenna Design Survey Documents

About the Service

Initial layout design of the base stations is essential to network planning, which includes:

A. Determine the frequency multiplex mode based on the frequency bandwidth; B. Estimate the number of base stations in need under the conditions such as capacity prediction, traffic distribution and coverage requirements; C. Determine theoretical sites of base stations; D. Assume the relevant parameters of base stations such as network layer structure, transmission power, antenna feeder system, antenna type, height, azimuth, down-tilt, etc.

About the Service

Base station site survey is a major part of determining the base station layout, which includes optical survey, spectrum survey and station site survey.

Optical survey The construction environment and natural environment surrounding the base stations.

Spectrum survey Electromagnetic environment Station site survey Installation environment for antennas and equipment Power supply and transmission facilities

Contents

About the Service

Preparation
Coverage Requirements

Site Selection
Antenna Design Survey Documents

Preparation

Get familiar with the project, and try to collect various materials concerned, including:

Engineering documents
Background materials Information about existing network

Local map, etc. Contract configuration list The latest site survey table of network planning

Preparation
Prepare

tools, and ensure they work normally before setting out;

Digital camera GPS satellite receiver

Compass
Ruler

Portable computer

Preparation

Base Station site Survey Preparation Meeting

Before survey, all the persons concerned shall gather in the survey preparation & coordination meeting to discuss the following details:

Electromagnetic background, and to test the electromagnetic background when necessary; Arrangement of people responsible for survey and cooperation;

Vehicle and equipment preparation;

Make a survey plan and determine the survey routes; Elementary project concerning transmission, power supply, etc.

Contents

About Service

the

Preparation Coverage Requirements

Site Selection Antenna Design

Survey Documents

Coverage Requirements
Coverage

of

base

station

mainly

depends on the following factors:

Service quality indices Output power of the transmitter Available sensitivity of the receiver Antenna orientation and gain Frequency band in use

Promulgation environment
Application of diversity reception ......

Contents

About

the

Service

Preparation Coverage

Requirements

Site Selection Antenna

Design

Survey Documents

Site Selection

After preparation and getting informed of coverage requirements, you can select the base station site. During determining station site, the following factors shall be taken into consideration:

The existing network Population distribution and local customs City structure and town chorology Major streets and traffic Mountains, lakes, rivers, coastlines

Nature environment
Long-term development trend, etc.

Site Selection

Principles for Base Site Selection

Population distribution Traffic distribution Subscriber flowing tread

Select areas with dense traffic and subscribers

Be careful when choosing

Base station surroundings Signal transmission quality

mountains or those near to

radars, radio station, forest, power supply factory, etc.

Site Selection

Principles for base station site selection:

A. Try to locate the base station at an ideal position in the regular cellular meshes, and the error shall not exceed one-fourth of the site radius;

B. Try to make use of existing facilities without prejudice to the base station layout, cutting down the construction cost and period;

C. Normally, do not select mountains with high elevations at the edges of cities or in suburbs (100~300 meters or higher than the elevation of the cities or suburbs) for the convenience of coverage control and maintenance, and reducing the difficulty of project construction;

Site Selection

D. Base station should be constructed in a safe place with convenient traffic, mains power supply and without occupying too many fertile farmlands;
E. Try not to construct the base station near a high power radio transmission station, radar station or other interference sources;

F. Base station to be constructed shall be far from woods to avoid rapid attenuation of signals;
G. When constructing a base station in an area with mountains, cliffy banks, or many lakes, or in a hilly city, or in a high metal building, you must consider the influence of signal reflection and time dispersion; H. When constructing a base station among buildings, you can make use of the height of buildings to realize the division of network layer structure; I. When there are only a few stations at the beginning of construction, it is required to ensure good coverage in important areas.

Contents

About the Service

Preparation
Coverage Requirements

Site Selection
Antenna Design Feeder

Survey
Documents

Antenna Feeder System-Combining and Distribution Unit

Introduction to Antenna Feeder System

The antenna feeder system is composed of combining and distribution unit, feeder, tower top amplifier, and antenna:
Combining

and distribution unit

Function:

Mainly for receipt and sending of signal duplex, transmission of signal combining, filtering, receipt of signal filtering, low noise amplification and distribution, provision of feed circuit of tower top amplifier; realization of multiple transmission signals and common use of the units of one antenna by several received signals.

Type:

At present, Huawei can provide the following combining and distribution units: SCU, CDU, EDU, etc.

Antenna Feeder SystemCombining and Distribution Unit

Comparison of Insertion Loss of Combining and Distribution Units:

Type of Combiner

Transmission Channel Loss (dB) Minimum 0.7 0.7 4.3 7.3 4.3 Typical Value 1 1 4.5 8 4.5 Maximum 1.25 1.25 5.1 8.2 5.1

EDU Dual CDU (without via combiner) CDU CDU+SCU CDU+CDU

Antenna Feeder SystemTower Top Amplifier

Tower Top Amplifier Function:

Improves the sensitivity of base station receipt system.

Type: As an alternative, the tower top amplifier shall be selected according to the frequency band used in the system. The base station with CDU pattern may use simplex tower top amplifier and triplex tower top amplifier; the base station with combiner mode shall use duplex tower top amplifier;

Antenna Feeder SystemFeeder

Feeder: Frequently-used specification:

", 7/8 ", 5/4 "

Use 5/4 feeders for 900MHz and over 80 meters of length; 5/4feeders for 1800MHz and over 50 meters of length;

How to choose a feeder:

The curvature of the feeders shall not be too large, and the conductor surface is required to well connected with the ground.
900M: Approximate 5dB/100m on 7/8feeders; about 3dB/100m on 5/4feeders. 1800M: : Approximate 6dB/100m on 7/8feeders; about 4dB/100m on 5/4feeders.

feeder loss:

Antenna Feeder SystemAntenna

Antenna

GSM mobile communication system often adopts directional

antenna with a horizontal beam width of 90or 65 and

omnidirectional antenna based on the shape or range of the service area, channel number and other conditions;

For Indoor coverage or tunnel coverage with micro cells, and

other special conditions, distributed antenna and leakage

cables may be used; for city-concentrated area, in order to decrease interference to the adjacent cells, 65antenna is adopted normally; in a suburb with a small number of subscribers, 90directional antenna or omnidirectional antenna is adopted; at present, the following companys are in use: Kathrein, Allgon, Xian Haitian, Andrew, etc.

Antenna Feeder SystemAntenna

Antenna Performance Indices:

Antenna

has many performance indices, of which the

following items are the most important for network planning:

Frequency Range
Gain Polarization

Horizontal/Vertical half-power beam width

Down-tilt

Antenna Feeder SystemAntenna

For

example, the direction figures of Kathrein 739649 directional antenna are as follows:

Antenna Feeder SystemAntenna

The

direction figures for Andrew CT1D0F-0087-011 Omnidirectional Antenna are as follows:

Antenna Feeder System - Antenna

Performance of Frequently-used Indoor Antennas

Antenna Feeder SystemAntenna

Distributed Antenna System

With the development of GSM system, subscribers raise more and more requirements on mobile communication network. Good coverage in large buildings, highways/ railway tunnels, metros, and other special areas requires distributed antenna system; Distributed antenna system consists of leakage cable, coaxial feeder distributed antenna, optical fiber feeder distributed antenna, etc.;

Antenna Feeder Design

Antenna Feeder Design

The antenna feeder configuration plan is worked out based on operators requirements on coverage and capacity, and in the light of detailed type configuration, installation environment and other practical conditions of a certain base station. Selection of Combiner

Normally depends on the coverage requirements of a base station, by

giving consideration to network development tendency;

Selection of feeders

The type of feeders is mainly determined according to the length of lines

in need;
Selection of tower top amplifier

During tower top amplifier configuration, the coverage radius of cells may be increased;

Antenna Feeder DesignHow to Choose An Antenna

How to Choose An Antenna

How to Choose An Antenna is an important part that may determine the network quality; Antenna shall be selected as per the coverage and service quality requirements within the base station service area, traffic distribution, topographic and landforms conditions, with consideration to the coverage and interference details of the entire network; The environment for the use of antennas may be divided into the following types according to the topographic conditions or traffic distribution:

Urban, suburb, rural area, highway, hilly area, coastal area, tunnel, indoor, etc.

Antenna Feeder Design - How to Choose An Antenna

How to Choose An Antenna for Urban Base Stations

A. Generally, directional antenna with a horizontal half-power angle of 6065is used;

B. Normally, antenna with a medium gain at about 15dBi is used; C. Its better to select antenna with a certain electric Down-tilt (36); D. Bipolarization antenna is suggested. A. Whether to use directional antenna with a horizontal half-power angle of 65or 90 is determined by the practical conditions; B. Normally, antenna with middle or high gain at about 15 18dBi is selected; C. Whether to adopt preseted Down-tilt shall be determined on the basis of practical conditions; D. Bipolarization or vertically polarized antenna can be used.

Antenna for Suburban Base Stations

Antenna Feeder DesignHow to Choose An Antenna

Antenna for Rural Base Stations A. 90or 120directional antenna or omnidirectional antenna can be used according to the practical conditions and requirements; B. The gain of the selected directional antenna is normally high (1618dBi); C. Normally, preseted Down-tilt antenna is not used; zero filling antenna can be selected in prior for high stations; D. Vertically polarized antenna is suggested.

Antenna for Highway Base Stations A. Generally, directional antenna with narrow wave beam and high gain is used, or an 8-shaped antenna, omnidirectional antenna or deformed omnidirectional antenna according to the practical conditions; B. As highway base stations require longer coverage, generally, preseted Down-tilt antenna is not applied; C. Vertically polarized antenna is suggested; D. It is appropriate not to select the directional antenna with too large front to rear ratio.

Antenna Feeder DesignAntenna Height

Principle for Determining Antenna Height

The antennas for different cells within one base station can be of different heights,
which may be restricted by the installation space in a certain direction or required by cell planning;

In urban areas with smooth terrain, the effective height for ordinary antennas shall be at about 25m;

For suburban and rural base stations, the heights of antennas can be increased to about 40m.

Too high antenna may decrease the coverage level near the antenna (which is known as Under-Tower Black); the problem of an omnidirectional one is extremely serious;

Too high antenna may result in serious problems such as handover coverage,

same/neighboring frequency interference,

and affect the network quality.

Antenna Feeder DesignDirection Angle

Principle for Determining Antenna azimuth Angle

The antenna azimuth angle shall be determined from the entire network. Providing meeting the coverage requirements, try to ensure identical angles of the three sectors of each base station in the urban area with partial trimming; for the base station in the connection area of urban and rural areas, communication trunk roads, and suburban isolation stations, the direction angle of antenna shall be adjusted according to the important coverage objects.

The main lobe of antenna shall point at the area with densely concentrated traffic to strengthen the signal intensity in that area and improve the conversation quality;
The main lobe of the antenna shall be kept away from the same frequency cell to effectively decrease interference; The cross coverage depth of the antennas in neighboring sectors in an urban area shall not exceed 10%; The cross coverage depth of neighboring cells in a suburb area, or rural area shall not be too large; the angle of the antennas in neighboring sectors within the same base station shall not be less than 90; To avoid handover coverage, in the area with thickly concentrated cities, the main lobe of antenna shall orient straighter streets.

Antenna Feeder DesignDown-tilt

Principle for Determining Antenna Down-tilt

The wave beam tilt of antenna is a basic technology to improve frequency multiplex capability;

To adopt antenna Down-tilt technology can effectively control the coverage and decrease the interference within the system;

The antenna Down-tilt angle shall be determined according to the

practical conditions so as to decrease the interference between cells of the same frequency and to ensure meeting the coverage requirements;

Down-tilt determination shall give overall consideration to the transmission power of the base station, height of the antenna, cell coverage, wireless broadcast environment, and other factors;

Antenna Feeder DesignDown-tilt

Antenna wave beam tilt can adopt electric or mechanical pattern: The electric Down-tilt is related to the mode of the antenna selected; normally, it is fixed; mechanical Down-tilt can be adjusted but will be limited by installation fittings and wireless signal spread features; normally, it shall not exceed 15; Electric Down-tilt and mechanical Down-tilt may lead to different surface radiation; when the Down-tilt is small, there is little difference; but with the increase of Down-tilt, the difference becomes bigger:

Antenna Feeder DesignAntenna Installation

Notes for Antenna Installation:

A. Installation environment

The installation environment includes the surroundings near the antenna and near the base station. The surroundings near the antenna mainly consider the isolation between antennas, and the influence of iron towers and buildings on antennas; the surroundings near the base station mainly consider the influence of high buildings lower than 500 meters on radio signal transmission.

Antenna Feeder DesignAntenna Installation

During the installation of base station antennas, it is required to notice whether they may lead to big shadow in the coverage area, and to be kept away from obstacle, for example, in the installation of antennas on the top of a building, you should make sure no obstacle against radio signal on the top, and try to install the antennas near the edge
FREQ D (m) 0 1 GSM 900M 110 1030 30 0 2 GSM 1800M 210 10 h (m) 0.5 2 3 3.5 0.5 1 2

Antenna Feeder DesignAntenna Installation

B. Antenna Isolation

The receiver and transmitter of the base station shall be isolated in a certain degree;

Isolation between antennas: The attenuation of signals from one port of an antenna to that of the other one in actual

installation of antenna;

GSM system: The isolation between two transmitting antennas and between the transmitting and receiving antennas shall be 30dB at least;

Antenna vertical layout: Lv=28+40log(k/)(dB)

Antenna horizontal layout: Lv=22+20log(d/)-(G1+G2)(S1+S2)(dB)

Antenna Feeder DesignAntenna Installation

C. Meet the distance requirements for space diversity gain

For space diversity, the distance between two receiving antennas is required to be 1218; The higher the antenna is installed, the bigger the horizontal distance between diversity antennas is; normally, the diversity horizontal distance shall be equal 0.11 time of the effective height of the antenna; To achieve the same diversity effect, vertical diversity distance shall be 5~6

times of the horizontal diversity distance;

To reduce the inter influence of two antennas, the diversity antenna horizontal distance

at any effective height of

antenna shall be over 3m.

Contents

About the Service Preparation Coverage Requirements

Site Selection Antenna Feeder Design Survey Documents

Survey Documents

Base Station Survey Report

Accurate

and standard documents are of much help for further network planning and optimization work. They are a powerful guaranty to the project quality and the basis for future network expansion planning.

Base station survey report includes base station survey table and memo; Each base station has one survey table which mainly records the longitude, latitude, antenna feeder design, surroundings, and other details; (See Remarks)

Thank You!