Professional Documents
Culture Documents
August 2011
Contents
1. 2.
3.
4.
Definition: Characteristics
Characteristics
Line of Sight
Fixed
Point to point
Terrestrial
What are the differences between Microwave Radio relay and different radio systems used in telecommunications such as mobile radio, radio broadcasting, satellite or others? To understand this, it is necessary to define the specific features of our subject, namely: Line of Sight: Radio Relays use microwaves, that are electromagnetic waves with less than 10 centimeters wavelength. These waves can hardly propagate behind obstacles, therefore, in general circumstances, a good visibility is required between transmitting and receiving antennas.
Fixed: The Microwave Radio Relay systems are not meant to operate in mobile conditions.
Point to Point: Only two Radio terminals are connected together at a time. This allows using high directive antennas with the possibility of reaching greater distances even when using low transmitted powers. The communication between the two terminals is meant to be both bidirectional or unidirectional. Terrestrial: Unlike fixed point to point satellite links, Microwave Radio Relay systems connect two points on the earth surface, where the electromagnetic wave propagation is in the lower part of the atmosphere,i.e., near ground. As a consequence , the presence of atmosphere and ground affects the RF propagation thus introducing, with given probability, an attenuated or distorted received signal. Propagation models allow to calculate the probability of outage due to attenuation or distortion caused by atmospheric effects. The Radio Link is usually designed in such a way that the Power Received in normal propagation conditions, is much greater than the Receiver Threshold, thats the received power with a minimum acceptable quality of the signal.
Single Hop
Site A
Site B
Repeater 1
Repeater 2
Repeater 3 Site B
Site A
Site C
Site D
Taking into account the visibility between terminals and the possibility of connecting two points at a time, it becomes necessary to define different Microwave Radio link architectures to match the real topology of the network. They are: Single Hop: When conditions of visibility, distance and environment are favorable, the link can be realized with a single hop Microwave Radio Relay. The maximum distances that can be achieved with a single hop is between 5-10 kilometers for Radio working in the frequency band above 18 Giga Hertz, and is up to 50-80 kilometers or even more for Radio working in the frequency ranges below 10 Giga Hertz. Multiple Hop: If visibility between the two terminal sites to be connected is poor or the distance is too great, the multiple hop architecture must be used. In this case the intermediate radio acts as regenerator, or in other words as active repeater of the signal. In some cases, passive repeaters can be used when the problem is due to visibility, and not to distance. Star connection: When several sites must be reached from a main site, a multipoint connection architecture is used. The only way to implement it is by using Microwave Radio Links, and three different hops with three radio terminals in the same location.
Carried Signals
MW Radio Systems in principle can carry any kind of signal. Speaking of digital transmission and its application, it may offer different signal interfaces and must be able to support any kind of signal architecture, in particular:
Ethernet interfaces
Carried Signals
Which signals can be transported via Microwave Radio? Radio Relay can be equipped with a variety of interfaces, suitable for any kind of network architecture, namely: For a network based on PDH (Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy), the E1 and E3 European interfaces as well as the North American T1, T2 and T3 interfaces should be included. In the PDH network, the Microwave Radio Relay transport the signals in a transparent manner. For network based on SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy), European interfaces (STM-n) as well as the North American (OC-n) interfaces should be included. In the SDH network, the Microwave Radio Relay usually operates as an SDH Regenerator.
For packet data network, normally 10BaseT & 100BaseT Fast Ethernet interfaces are commonly used, However, moving to high speed network, 1000BaseT Gigabit Ethernet interface is also becoming common nowadays.
Transmission Capacity
The transmission capacity depends on the applications. Usually we define:
High Capacity systems: from 155 Mbps to 622 Mbps capacity (*)
(*) In principle if spectrum is available it can be even more, but in practice a radio system is not convenient above this capacity.
Transmission Capacity
The different kinds of signals can be carried within the transmission capacity limits of the Microwave Radio equipment. Transmission capacity depends on the purpose, frequency band and spectrum occupancy for which the specific equipment has been designed. Low capacity Microwave Radio Relays usually include multiplexer devices which carry up to 16 or even 32 E1 or T1 signals. Other types of signal interfaces, such as E3, T2, T3, Fast Ethernet, are normally accepted. Together with the transported signals, the radio relays are usually provided with additional capacity for service and supervisory channels. High capacity Microwave Radio Relays usually carry one or two SDH traffic per radio channel. Higher capacities are obtained with multiple radio systems. Together with the transported signals, high capacity Microwave Radio Links usually have additional capacity for service and supervisory channels, and may also carry some extra E1 signals as way-side traffic.
Other than commonly use as a communication link, there are other several conditions where MW Radio can also applied:
Temporary links
In a Network, from a functional point of view, the MW Radio System can play the same role of the physical bearers (fibers or cables), except when very high capacity is required (>1Gbit/s) In particular, when the cable is not yet available, it can be well used in the following situations due to: Quick & easy installation and relocation To avoid rental cost to the incumbent operator To reach small population groups on difficult terrain where the cable is not convenient to be deployed To quickly realize long distance connections without pre-existing transport infrastructures.
In which case the use of a microwave radio link is more advantageous than a physical bearer? Quick and easy installation is very often a must for new operators, in order to offer service in a competitive environment and to obtain fast payback on investments. In this case, to lay-down new cables means high start-up investment and is time consuming. The alternative solution of renting lines from the pre-existing operator implies evident recurrent cost disadvantages. But even an incumbent operator may find situations where cables are not convenient to be deployed, such as when having to reach small population groups on difficult terrain.
STM1/OC3 ADM
n x STM1
ADM
Local
ADM
SDH/SONET Ring
ADM ADM
Fiber
STM1/OC3
ADM
ADM
ADM
STM1/OC3
Remote Distribution Node
Router Router
MPLS
TDM /ETH
Access Network
BSC RNC
BTS/Node B Co-located
Point of Concentration
Point of Concentration
TDM/ETH TDM/ETH
Exchange Exchange
Modulation concepts
What is meant by modulation ? Why to use it ? Modulation is an operation that translates a signal from the lower frequencies (the baseband) into the radio frequencies, thus maintaining the same information of the original signal Modulation is used as follows:
It is almost physically impossible for the radio transmission of the lower frequency signals
It allows to translate different signals on different frequencies and to transmit them at the same time without spectral overlapping
Modulation concepts
f0
fmax
Channel Spacing
What is a Channel Spacing?
A transmitted modulated signal occupies a given band around the carrier frequency, depending on the kind of modulation and transmission capacity. It is then possible to transmit another modulated signal at a frequency distance (channel spacing) that prevent the two spectra from overlapping and can be separated by the receiver filters. Another possibility of separating two channels is of using different antenna polarizations (vertical or horizontal). A channel spacing states how the radio relay must allocate its transmission spectrum (the radio channel) inside a given frequency range.
Most of the radio relay applications require bi-directional communication, hence two radio channels are necessary for each link (GO and RETURN channel).
Channel Plans
Pol.
GO CHANNELS x 1 3
H(V) V(H) z 2
x/2 x/2
...
4
N-1
...
4
N z
Generic Structure
Site A
Feeder Tower Tower Feeder
Site B
Power room
Equipment room
Generic Structure
TRANSMISSION SIDE
RF Tx FILTER BASEBAND INTERFACE MODULATOR IF IF/RF TRANMITTER
BB INPUT SIGNAL
BB INTERNAL
IF SIGNAL
RF
RF OUTPUT
RECEIVING SIDE
RF Rx FILTER
R/IFF RECEIVER DEMODULATOR IF BASEBAND INTERFACE
RF INPUT
RF
IF SIGNAL
BB INTERNAL
BB OUTPUT SIGNAL
Full-Indoor
RF CIRCULATOR
BB/MOD/TRANSMITTER
RECEIVER/DEM/BB
MW Waveguide
Split-Mount
BB /MOD Units BB /DEM Units
IF CABLE
TRANSMITTER
RECEIVER
Indoor
Outdoor
Feeder Tower
Coax Cable
Tower
Transmission Capacity
This requirement defines if the system can be realized by using a single radio channel or multiple radio channels
Grade of Availability
This requirement defines if a protection radio channel (the stand-by channel) must be added to the main channel (or channels)
Protection circuits enhance both availability and quality of digital radio systems. In fact the general reason for the use of switching is the protection against equipment failures in order to increase availability. But in case the quality of radio channels is limited by multipath propagation conditions, protection switching may also be used to increase error performance (quality) of the link.
Protection Definitions
The typical notation to indicate the number of radio channels of a system is: N + M , where N stands for the number of main channels and M stands for the number of stand-by channels (usually 1, but 0 in case of non protected system)
Based on the transmission capacity requirement of the Radio Relay two types of protection are generally implemented :
1+1
N+1
BB section BB
Hitless Switch
f1
Rx
Dem. BB Section
Interface
BB Section BB
Interface
BB
Standby channel
Mod. Tx f1 f1 Rx Dem.
f1
Rx
Dem. BB Section
Interface
BB Section BB
Interface
BB
Standby channel
Mod.
Tx
f2
f2
Rx
Dem.
BB Section BB
Interface
BB
Tx
Rx
Dem.
IF Cable
A)
RRA/TFE+MODEM
TRANSCEIVER
B)
1+1/2+0 Configuration
2xRRA/TFE+ 2MODEM
2x TRANSCEIVERS
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