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Antenna Tilt : Mechanical vs Electrical

 August 12, 2017 (http://www.techplayon.com/antenna-tilt-mechanical-vs-electrical/)  admin (http://www.techplayon.com/author/admin/)
 RF Basics (http://www.techplayon.com/category/rf-basics/)

For RF optimization and Design purposes, engineers/SON algorithms generally recommend tilt changes (not getting into optimization details in this blog), antenna
tilt can be changed by two types of mechanisms:

Mechanical Down-Tilt: where the antenna is tilted as a whole, including all its segments.
Electrical Down-Tilt: where there is adjustment of phase of the control signals given to individual segments of the antenna. As a result the virtual distance
between the antenna back-plate and each single segment varies so that an apparently tilted surface of the antenna front plate is resulting.

The below gures give a bird’s eye view of the two mechanisms:

There is no speci c comparison between both these tilts as differences depend on case-to-case scenarios. However, a broad comparison is shown below for the two
mechanisms:

Mechanical Tilt Electrical Tilt

Mechanical tilt will decrease coverage lengthwise from the sector, but in width, Electrical tilt decreases both length and width, like a circle on the ground
the coverage will stay the same, more like an ellipse shape type coverage on which is getting smaller and smaller, but stays a circle
the ground

Mechanical tilt is used on tall sites, typically on top of hills, because electrical Recommended for sites which are not tall and inside city limits.
tilt is not enough.

Decrease coverage and Does not add Interference as in case of Electrical tilts Decrease coverage and does not increase overlap in sectors

Sector overlaps are increased Increases interference, as portion of energy based on electrical tilts is
transmitted in the upper side lobe reducing the energy in lobe facing towards
ground hence reducing coverage.

Mechanical tilt will lift up the back lobe of the antenna, so go easy with Electrical tilt does not induce increase of back lobe
mechanical tilt.

To have an idea about how the cell radius will be based on the tilt angle, we can approx use the following model to calculate it:

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1/2/2019 Antenna Tilt : Mechanical vs Electrical - Techplayon

(http://www.techplayon.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/t1.png)

Depending on the chosen down-tilt, a geometric cell radius is given as:

(http://www.techplayon.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/t2.png)

Generally, from an industrial view-point, electrical tilt is preferred compared to mechanical tilt. An adaptation of the antenna settings to the expected traf c
distribution and cell-size is recommended anyway. Basically, a rule of thumb applies that the smaller the cell-size, the larger is the antenna down-tilt, and the higher
the traf c load per cell, the smaller the antenna down-tilt should be.

Article Submitted By Mr Sibasis Das

About Sibasis Das  

Sibasis Das is Sales Manager for South Asia region at iBwave Solutions Inc. He is  Technical Sales
professional with 12+ years of experience in Technical Sales, Business Development, Product
Engineering, and Project Management, with special domain knowledge of Software Sales ,Radio
Frequency ( RF ) and Microwave Products and Services
you may reach him at LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/sibasisdas/
(https://www.linkedin.com/in/sibasisdas/)
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