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Six-Sector Twin Beam WP-106683 PDF
Six-Sector Twin Beam WP-106683 PDF
Contents
Contents
Are snowballing capacity issues creating the perfect storm?
Revisiting sectorization
Increasing capacity through pattern performance, signal strength and noise reduction 7
Reduced loading at the top of the tower
Success story: Twin Beam turns antenna competition into a solutions showcase
12
12
References 13
Todays mobile subscribers have a voracious appetite for data. In 2012, the volume of global
mobile data traffic grew 70 percent, reaching 885 petabytes per month1. The growth is due
to multiple factors. The number of smartphones continues to increase, as does the amount of
data they consume. According to recent industry reports, 31 percent of all Internet users rely
exclusively on their mobile device for Internet connectivity. The average amount of traffic per
smartphone in 2012 was 342 MB per month, up from 189 MB per month in 2011 an 81
percent rise1.
The deployment of 4G networks is also on the rise. At the end of 2012, there were 144 4G
networks worldwide. By the end of 2013, the number will swell to an estimated 230 2. In some
cases, wireless service providers (WSPs) are bypassing 3G altogether, opting to layer 4G
directly onto their current 2G systems.
The rapid adoption of 4G is placing further strain on capacity-strapped networks. In 2012,
a fourth-generation connection generated 19 times more traffic on average than a non-4G
connection1. Although 4G connections represent only 0.9 percent of mobile connections today,
they already account for 14 percent of mobile data traffic1.
The capacity crunch has become so critical that, as USA Today reported, Even as they build
the next generation of faster wireless networks, carriers are discouraging heavy data users by
eliminating unlimited data plans and enforcing monthly caps.
Increasing capacity
Another strategy for growing capacity is to increase opportunities for frequency reuse
through higher order sectorization.
In the case of cell densification, adding new cells, the process of site acquisition and zoning
approval can take up to two years, resulting in lost revenue for the WSP. Once approved, a new
site can cost more than a quarter million dollars to build and commission.
Adding more spectrum, assuming it is available, can easily run into the billions of dollars. In January
2013, AT&T announced a deal to pay Verizon Wireless $1.9 billion for spectrum in the 700 MHz
band in 18 U.S. states3.
More recently, WSPs have experimented with offloading traffic to ancillary networks such as
localized Wi-Fi hot spots. This, too, is problematic. Creating a secure tunnel for the hand-off
typically requires a connection manager client running Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) suite. The
application must be downloaded and installed by the user and runs in the background where it can
significantly affect the battery life of the device4.
Small cell deployment is also being touted as an excellent way to add network capacity. According
to Joe Madden, Principal Strategist with Mobile Experts LLC., more than five million carrier-grade
small cells are expected to ship in 2017 5. But that does little to satisfy WSPs immediate need for
more capacity.
Revisiting sectorization
In the last 50 years, wireless capacity has increased by a factor of about 1,000,000 6. This
growth has come from better spectral efficiency, more spectrum and more cells/sectors. Since
the 1990s, one of the most popular and effective strategies for increasing site and network
capacity has been sectorization. Figure 1 illustrates that sectorization and cell densification
have accounted for the majority of additional capacity over the last fifty years.
The first sectorized systems replaced standard 360-degree omni-directional antennas with
three separate directional antennas. The most commonly deployed configuration uses three
antennas, each with a nominal azimuth beamwidth of 65-degrees. While the antennas within a
sectorized cell share a common base transceiver station (BTS), each is managed and operated
independently with its own power level, frequencies and channels.
The use of three directional sector antennas versus one omni-directional antenna substantially
reduces co-channel cell interference and triples the opportunity for frequency reuse. As a result,
WSPs realize significant gains in capacity.
Figure 1
10,000
2,000
1,000
Growth Factor
100
20
25
10
1
Spectral Efficiency
Spectrum
Number of Cells/Sectors
Smart Cells and Wireless Capacity Growth, Agilent Technologies, LTE World Summit, May 26, 2010
Figure 2
65 Sectors
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(0) HBX-3319DS-VTM_00DT_1920
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Figure 3
The Twin Beam design provides a theoretical doubling of sector capacity. Each antenna
produces two separate narrow azimuth beams whose positions are directed at +30-degrees
and 30-degrees of the antennas boresite. In extended trials, WSPs are realizing an estimated
80-percent gain in capacity, while reducing their antenna count by half and significantly
cutting CapEx and OpEx spending.
The architecture of the sector-sculpting Twin Beam antenna, shown in Figure 3, uses a Butler
matrix to split the input power and feed each of the four independently controlled column
arrays. Dielectrically loaded elements on the phase shifters, created by CommScope during
the development of the companys patented remote electrical tilt (RET), enable WSPs to control
phase shifting on the elevation as well as the azimuth plane. The circuit power dividers are
standard off-the-shelf, solid-state 3 dB hybrid couplers.
Applications for the Twin Beam include single and multi-band for GSM, 3G and LTE.
High-band, low-band and dual-band models support all major mobile technologies in the
698894 MHz, 824960 MHz and 17102170 MHz bands, as well as 2 x 2 multiple-in
multiple-out (MIMO) technology.
Three-Sector 65
Twin Beam 38
Figure 5 shows the pattern of a single 65-degree antenna, in red, overlaid on the patterns
created by a Twin Beam antenna. As indicated by the patterns, the two narrow beams
produced by the Twin Beam antenna exhibit wider coverage at the sector edges, more rapid
pattern roll-off, and improved front-to-back ratio. This also enables providers of spectrum-limited
GSM systems to employ a more aggressive back-to-back reuse of their broadcast control
channel (BCCH).
Figure 5
TTS ran simulations for the targeted sites in order to quantify the expected gains when switching
from the existing traditional three-sector configuration to the six-sector Twin Beam. Simulations
modeled 3G UMTS and 4G LTE environments.
Figures 6 and 7 illustrate the results of two UMTS simulations: Cell A, operating in the 1900
MHz frequency and Cell B, operating in the 850 MHz frequency. Figure 6 indicates the ability
of the Twin-Beam antenna to reduce the soft hand-off areas within a given sector. Once the
percentage of soft hand-off areas between the left and right beams are averaged, the total
sector shows a 3.69% decrease in sector overlap.
41.74
47.1
Reduction in soft
hand-off area
3.69
6.03
The combined soft hand-off areas within a given sector, expressed as a percentage of the sectors
total coverage area.
53.4
65.32
Aggregate change
x2.44
x1.93
The percentage of a radios coverage area in which it is identified by mobile devices as the primary
or serving radio.
Figure 7 illustrates the expected gain in radio resource efficiency. Radio resource efficiency
is defined as the percentage of a radios coverage area in which it is identified, by mobile
devices within the coverage area, as the primary or serving radio. When the existing sectors
Cell A and Cell B are split, the radio resources available to handle traffic more than
doubles in Cell A and nearly doubles in Cell B.
Figure 8
10
The 4G LTE simulations indicated significant advantages in deploying a Twin Beam six-sector
solution in areas with high traffic loads. Figure 8 shows that, in a Twin Beam versus traditional
three-sector deployment, the difference in peak user throughput increases as the sector load
increases. This is primarily due to the Twin Beams ability to maintain a cleaner RF environment.
TTS also simulated the effect of the Twin Beam on pilot pollution, a key contributor of
interference. As shown in Figure 9, the results indicated a significant improvement in the ratio of
pilot pollution removed (green) versus pilot pollution added (red).
Another key benefit to note is that, as capacity and throughput increased at each individual
site, performance across the entire cluster improved. This was due in part to the ability of the
Twin Beam antennas to clean up inter-sector interference and reduce noise levels. As a result,
the cell clusters showed improvements in the dropped call rate (DCR), received signal strength
and system availability.
Once we were able to show how we could help improve performance across the entire
system, the process became less of an antenna comparison and more about who could
provide the best turnkey solution, Wolfe added.
Figure 9
Number of Bins Before
160
3.8
140
120
3.6
100
3.4
80
3.2
Percent
Number of Bins
Right Beam
4
60
40
2.8
20
Number of Pilot Polluters
Number of Bins Before
160
3.8
140
120
3.6
100
3.4
80
3.2
Percent
Number of Bins
Left Beam
4
60
40
2.8
20
Number of Pilot Polluters
11
12
References
Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 20122017,
Cisco, Feb. 2013
Global Mobile Broadband The Fast Growth of LTE, Paul Budde Communication Pty Ltd,
March 12, 2013
AT&T to Buy Spectrum From Verizon for $1.9 Billion, Scott Moritz and Todd Shields,
Bloomberg, January 25, 2013
Madden: Small cells will carry more capacity than macros, Joe Madden, Fierce Broadband
Wireless, March 27, 2013
Smart Cells and Wireless Capacity Growth, Agilent Technologies, Moray Rumney,
May 26, 2010
CDMA Six Sector Cell Applications Handbook NBSS 7.0, Nortel, 1998
The Impacts of Antenna Azimuth and Tilt Installation Accuracy on UMTS Network Performance,
Esmael Dinan, Ph.D., Aleksey A. Kurochkin, Bechtel Telecommunications Technical Journal,
Vol. 4, No. 1 January 2006
Report: Want to Hold on to Subscribers? Show Them More Love, Andrew Burger,
Telecompetitor.com, 2/22/12
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This document is for planning purposes only and is not intended to modify or supplement any specifications or warranties relating to CommScope products or services.
WP-106683-EN (05/13)