BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE, PILANI

December 2019

DISSERTATION

Dissertation Title : E/V Band mmW Technology for High Speed Communication

Name of Student : Rakesh Kumar

Abstract

With the advent of 4G Technology and implementation in India by Reliance Jio and other Telecom
operators, the data users increased multi-folds in last two years. Data explosion in India is witnessed in a
revolutionary way. In India, still the smartphone owners are at a level of 25% only which is lowest in the
world compared to other countries. Therefore, the data usage growth will continue for next 5 years at least
at a CAGR of 23%. Additionally, the 5G technology is being developed and planned for implementation
in 2020 will further fuel the data growth.

Due to the surge in data uses in last two years, the data subscribers have started facing congestion in
accessing internet and they get very slow speed than what is expected from 4G technology. The reason for
this congestion is that the only about 30% towers are connected with Fiber backhaul and remaining 70%
of the towers in India rely on wireless point-to-point links using microwave frequencies. These traditional
microwave frequencies operate in the frequency ranges from 6GHz to 23GHz and provide maximum
throughput of 1Gbps only. The fiber rollout to each microwave tower is not feasible due to high cost,
RoW permissions, long lead time for deployment and poor accessibility. The solution to this problem is to
connect each tower to fiber like backhaul using wireless connectivity which can be made possible by E
and V band mmW technology based radio systems. E/V band can provide backhaul capacities in the
range of 5Gbps, 10Gbps and 20 Gbps which is as good as laying the fiber. E/V band radios are good
choice to connect small cells to main BTS towers and even main towers to fiber points. The hop lengths
possible are from few hundred meters to 5 Km. This Dissertation covers the deep study of the technology,
comparison of E and V band, decide the important parameters for a link design, identify performance
parameter and performance metrics, identify clearly the limitations and challenges in field deployment
and develop software code for link budgets calculations to achieved desired capacity and reliability with
the choice of antenna size, transmitter power, capacity and availability. The purpose of the software code
development is to make life easy for the field engineers who will do the planning and designing of these
links so that they can take quick decision on the configuration for field deployment with reliability
prediction for various modulation schemes.

List of Symbols & Abbreviations used

mmW – Millimeter Wave
TRAI – Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
GSM – Global System of Mobile Communication Systems
ETSI – European Telecommunications Standards Institute
ITU – International Telecommunication Union
DoT – Department of Telecommunication
BPSK – Binary Phase Shift Keying
QPSK – Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
QAM – Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
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KB – Kilo Byte
MB – Mega Byte
GB – Giga Byte
TB – Tera Byte
EB – Exa Byte
Kbps – Kilobits per second
Mbps – Megabits per second
Gbps – Gigabits per second
RoW – Right of Way
FSL – Frees Space Loss
FM – Fade Margin
LOS – Line of Sight
CAGR – Compound Annual Growth Rate

List of Tables
Table 1: Wireless Data Subscribers in India
Table 2: Smartphone Owners in India & Other Countries
Table 3: Yearly Data Usage
Table 4: Monthly Data Usage/Subscriber
Table 5: Average Data Usage by Smartphones
Table 6: Comparison Tradition vs E/V Frequency Bands
Table 7: Top E/V Band Radio Manufacturers
Table 8: Main Specifications of E/V Band Radios
Table 9: Antenna Gain and 3-dB Beamwidth of E/V Band
Table 10: Free Space Loss
Table 11: Channel Capacity for Various Modulation Schemes
Table 12: Capacity by Combining Multiple RF Channels
Table 13: Eb/No as per ITU-R
Table 14: Value of k and α for E & V Band Frequency
Table 15: India Rain Region Map and Rain Rate as per ITU-R
Table 16: Values of Terrain Factor and Climate Factor
Table 17: Reliability and Outage in Minutes
Table 18: Sample Link’s Analysis and Reliability Matrix

List of Figures
Figure 1: Wavelength (mm) vs Frequency (GHz)
Figure 2: Comparison of Traditional Microwave and E/V Band mmW Technology
Figure 3: Typical Application 1
Figure 4: Typical Application 2
Figure 5: Major Components and Architecture of E/V Band Radio System
Figure 6: A Link or Hop
Figure 7: Rain Attenuation (dB/Km) for Various Rain Rates
Figure 8: Oxygen and Water Vapor Specific Attenuation (dB/Km)
Figure 9: Input – Screen Display
Figure 10: Output Results – Screen Display
Figure 11: Software Architecture

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Table of contents

1. Introduction: Data Explosion & The problem 4

2. What is E/V Band Technology? 5

3. Suitability & Application and usage of E/V Band 6

4. E/V Frequency Band Allocations in India 7

5. Major Specifications and Components 8

6. Link Budget – Mathematical Model 9

7. Performance Parameters and Matrix 17

8. Limitations and Challenges in E/V Band Deployment in Field 20

9. Link Budget - Software Code Development 20

10. Conclusion 22

11. Direction for Future Work 22

12. Bibliography / References 23

13. Appendices 26

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 1. Introduction: Data Explosion & The problem

With the advent of 4G Technology and implementation in India by Jio and other Telecom
operators, the data users increased multi-folds in last two years. Wireless data users are increased
from 424 Mn in 2017 to 578 Mn in 2018 with yearly growth rate of 36.36%. Data traffic
increased from 20 TB in 2017 to 46 TB in 2018 at the rate of 131% growth.
Average data usage per subscriber is increased from 4.1GBin 2017 to 7.7GB in 2018.

Some of the statistics of mobile data subscribers, data usage and smartphone owners are
presented in below table 1 to 5.

Table 1: Wireless Data Subscribers in India Table 4: Monthly Data Usage/Subscriber

Data Subscribers Data / Subscriber
Year Yearly Growth Year Growth
(million) (GB)
2014 281 2014 0.27
2015 303 7.75% 2015 0.41 152%
2016 367 21.12% 2016 1.14 278%
2017 424 15.38% 2017 4.11 361%
2018 578 36.36% 2018 7.6 185%

Table 2: Smartphone Owners in India & Other Table 5: Average Data Usage by
Countries Smartphones
Monthly Yearly
Country % Smartphone Owners Year Usage Usage
(GB) (EB)
India 25% 2017 5.4 1.8
Nigeria 31% 2018 6.8 3.0
Indonesia 43% 2019 9.8 4.6
Russia 59% 2024 20.0 16.0
Japan 66% CAGR (2019-2024) 14% 23%
USA 81%
Australia 81%

Table 3: Yearly Data Usage

Data Usage
Year Growth
(GB)
2014 828
2015 1375 66%
2016 4642 238%
2017 20092 333%
2018 46404 131%
Source: A report published by TRAI: Wireless Data Services in India – An Analytical Report

Data explosion in India is witnessed in a revolutionary way. In India, still the smartphone owners are
at a level of 25% only which is lowest in the world compared to other countries. Therefore, the data
usage growth will continue for next 5 years at least at a CAGR of 23%.

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Additionally, the 5G technology is being developed and planned for implementation in 2020/21 will
further fuel the data growth. 5G technology will provide enhanced connectivity not only to people but
also help the country to achieve its goal of digitization of various industries.

The Problems arise due to data explosion:

Due to the surge in data uses in last two years, the data subscribers have started facing congestion in
accessing internet and they get very slow speed than what is expected from 4G technology. The
reason for this congestion is that the only about 30% towers are connected with Fiber backhaul and
remaining 70% of the towers in India rely on wireless point-to-point links using microwave
frequencies. These traditional microwave frequencies operate in the frequency ranges from 6GHz to
23GHz and provide maximum throughput of 1Gbps only. When thousands of subscribers get
connected to each tower and access the internet simultaneously, the browsing speed they get is very
small in the range of few hundred Kbps to few Mbps which is way below the expected throughput of
10Mbps by each subscriber with 4G technology.

The fiber rollout to each microwave tower is not feasible due to high implementation cost, Long lead
time, tedious process to get RoW permissions to lay fibers, and not possible to take fiber to each and
every building & towers in urban and dense urban areas.

In view of above limitations, the only solution is to connect each tower to fiber like backhaul using
wireless connectivity but traditional microwave point to point links provide limited throughput.
Therefore, it seems that the congestion problem will continue unless innovation is done in wireless
connectivity with enhanced throughput.

The solution lies in deployment of wireless connectivity using E-Band and V-Band
millimeter wave technology (mmW).

2. What is E/V Band Technology?

Frequency range from 30GHz to 300Ghz is known as millimeter wave (mmW) spectrum because
it’s wavelength is from 10mm to 1mm . E and V bands are two frequency bands falls within this
mmW spectrum and their frequency rages are:

V Band: 57 – 64 GHz (wavelength = 5mm)

E Band: 71 – 86 GHz (wavelength = 4mm)

Figure 1: Wavelength (mm) vs Frequency (GHz)

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 Why E/V Band?

These E/V frequency bands are of interest due to various reasons such as –
 Higher RF channel bandwidths starting from 250 MHz to 2GHz, 4GHz, 5GHz,
or 10GHz which enables to have fiber like capacities even with lower level of
modulations such as BPSK, QPSK or 16QAM.
 Limited propagation range offers re-use of RF channels
 Lower cost of ownership and deployment due to low license fee and lower cost
per bit of the radio equipment

Table 6 and Figure 2 below demonstrate the differences between traditional microwave and
mmW Technology. E and V bands are very superior than traditional frequency bands and provide
fiber like capacities to ensure very good internet browsing experience to each subscriber.

Table 6: Comparison - Traditional vs E/V Bands

Traditional Bands E/V Bands
Parameter
6 – 42 GHz 80/60 GHz
RF Channel Separation 28 MHz 250 MHz / 50 MHz
Capacity 1 Gbps 5 Gbps / 2 Gbps
Latency < 50 μsec < 10 μsec
Hop Lengths 5 – 150 Km <5 Km
Architecture IDU and ODU with Antenna ODU with Antenna

Figure 2: Comparison of Traditional Microwave and E/V Band mmW Technology

3. Suitability & Application of E/V Band

Figure 3 gives a scenario for typical application where high rise buildings are connected using E-
Band mmW point-to-point links while V-Band is used in point-to-multipoint configuration for
connecting market areas to provide outdoor wi-fi with fiber like capacity.

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 Figure 3: Typical Application 1

Figure 4 gives the deployment of E/V band point-to-point mmW links in a mobile telecom
networks to connect small cells to BTS towers and Fiber back-haul nodes.

Figure 4: Typical Application 2

Therefore, E-Band is mainly used for point to point connectivity while V-band is most suitable
for providing point to multipoint connectivity like Wi-Fi or Wi-Gig hot spots.

4. E/V Frequency Band Allocations in India

Various countries telecom regulators allowed the use E and V frequency bands based on their
local market conditions and eco-systems and adopted these frequency bands for implementations
way back since 2009 onwards and are in operations in more than 40 countries.
In India, DoT has not yet decided the licensing approach and the matter is under discussions.
There are 4 licensing approaches:

I. Individual authorization with individual licensing – it is a conventional way of

allocating frequency on link by link basis to control the interference within and
cross boarder situations.
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 II. Individual authorization with light licensing is another method to give exclusive
rights to use the specific frequency channels for a period of time on first come first
serve basis. It keeps a tight control of number of users in a specific area.
III. General authorization with light licensing is like license-exempt approach but with
some control on the usage by asking users to upload or provide complete details of
their implementation which is made publicly available. There is no limitation on
number of users in any given geographical area.
IV. The last approach is license-exempt method which offers maximum freedom to
users and also low cost. The same method is adopted for 2.4 and 5.8 GHz
frequency bands allocation.

TRAI has given its recommendations to DoT that both E and V bands should be opened for use
with “Light touch regulation” and allotment should be on a “link-by-link” basis.

It is very critical now that DoT must decide the appropriate route to allocate these frequency
bands for implementation else the data experience by subscribers will continue to be poor and
growth including economic growth will be hampered.

5. Major Specifications and Components

ITU-T L-Series Recommendations describes the main specifications of E & V band radios. The
channel spacing for V band is 50 Mhz. The combining of multiple channels is allowed such as
100MHz, 150MHz, 200MHz, etc.. Similarly, for E-Band, the channel spacing is 250 MHz and
combining multiple channels, we can have 500MHz, 1GHz, 2Ghz, etc.

Modulations used are BPSK, QPSK and QAMs upto 256QAM depending upon the capacity
requirements. Even more than 256QAM modulations also introduced but there is a reduction in
system gain because of the increased complexities and higher modulations require higher carrier-
to-noise ratio (CNR).

Coherent detection is used in demodulators with many functions like equalizations and clock
synchronizations. Other features and circuits implemented in E/V band radios are Cross
Polarization Interference Canceller (XPIC), Automatic Transmitter Power Control (ATPC),
Forward Error Correction (FEC), Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM) and protection.

The Capacity (C) of the Radio system can be calculated by the following equation:

C = fs . log2 (M)
Where, M is modulation level and fs is baud rate.

For traditional microwave radio systems, the capacity with 256QAM modulation and 25 Mbaud
is 200Mbps. While in E/V band systems, the capacity with same modulation and 220 Mbaud is
over 1760 Mbps. The net capacity is about 90% of C due to overhead signal insertion which
includes FEC, radio frame overhead and radio control signals.

Below table gives main specifications of the E/V band radios.

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 Table 8: Main Specifications of E & V Band Radios

Figure 5: Major Components and Architecture of E/V Band Radio System

6. Link Design – Mathematical Model

In point to point communications, two locations A & B on the earth are connected using
microwave or mmW radio at both locations. It works in full duplex mode, hence it uses a
frequency pair say f and f’ and act as transmit frequency and receive frequency. If f is transmit
frequency at location A becomes receive frequency at location B and similarly, f’ transmit
frequency at location B becomes receive frequency at location A. This is called a link or Hop as
shown in below figure-6.

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To design a line-of-sight link for a required performance in the field, following parameters and
steps are considered which are defined in various ITU-R P series recommendations and explained
further:
a. Transmit Power
b. Transmit and Receive Antenna Size / Gain
c. Free Space Loss (FSL) or Path Loss
d. Receive Signal Strength (RSS)
e. Channel Bandwidth vs Capacity vs Modulation
f. Receiver Thresholds for BER 1E-6
g. Fade Margin
h. Rain Attenuation
i. Attenuation due to Atmospheric gases and Precipitation
j. Attenuation due to diffraction and multipath fading
k. Path Clearance
l. Outage probability and Link Reliability– fading, rains and total

a. Transmit Power
According to ESTI specifications, maximum transmit power is defined in terms of EIRP
(Equivalent Isotropically Radiated Power) which is a product of transmit power and antenna
gain.
EIRP (dBm) = Transmit Power (dBm) + Antenna Gain (dBi)
EIRP Max = +85 dBm for E- band
Or
= +82 dBm for V-band
Based on above limit, transmit power for both E and V bands are limited to maximum of
+30dBm (= 1 Watt). However, the industry has accepted to design mmW radios with typical
transmit power of +20dBm (=100mWatt) for both frequency bands.

b. Transmit and Receive Antenna Size / Gain

Parabolic antenna dish is used as a transmitting and receiving antenna. It’s gain depends on
frequency of operation and it’s size of diameter. Assuming the practically achievable
efficiency of 55%, the antenna gain can be calculated from the following equation in dBi:

Antenna Gain (dBi) = 17.8 + 20 log (d*f)

Where d = Antenna diameter in meters
f = frequency in GHz

These antenna have very narrow pencil beam. The 3-dB Beamwidth can be calculated using
the below equation:

3-dB Beamwidth (deg) = 21/(d*f)

Due to narrow Beamwidth, the alignment becomes difficult if Beamwidth is below 0.5 deg.
Practically, Antenna sizes used are 0.15m, 0.30m or 0.60m based on the field requirements.
Below table -9 gives the antenna gain and 3-dB Beamwidth as calculated using above
formulas and compared for E-and V band.

Table 9: Antenna Gain and 3-dB Beamwidth for E and V Band

Antenna Size (m) E-Band (80 GHz) V-Band (60 GHz)
Gain (dBi) Beamwidth (deg) Gain (dBi) Beamwidth (deg)
0.15 m 39.4 1.75 36.9 2.33
0.30 m 45.4 0.88 42.9 1.17
0.60 m 51.4 0.44 48.9 0.58

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 From above table-9, we noticed following points which can be used as thumb rule for easy
calculations in the field:
- If the size of antenna doubles, the antenna gain increases by 6 dB.
- If the size of antenna doubles, the 3-dB Beamwidth reduces to half for a given
frequency.
Another point to be noted are that antenna sizes above 0.6m will have very narrow
Beamwidth which is less than 0.4deg and would require special antenna alignment kit.
Hence, antenna sizes above 0.6m are not recommended for use.

Antenna is used either in Vertical polarization or Horizontal polarization. Isolation between

vertical to horizontal polarization is about 30 dB and is useful to mitigate the frequency
interference.

c. Free Space Loss or Path Loss

Free Space Loss (FSL) or Path losses are the losses due to attenuation of radio signal as it
travels through the space. FSL depends on path length and frequency of operations. In
compliance with ITU-R P.525 recommendations, FSL is calculated using the below formula:
FSL (dB) = 92.45 + 20 log d + 20 log f
Where d = path length in Km; f = frequency in GHz
FSL is calculated for various distances from 100m to 10Km and results are shown in below
table and Chart.

Table 10: Free Space Loss (FSL)

From the above table, following points may be noted:

- FSL for both E & V frequency band is almost same. There is only 1.5dB more loss
for E-band compared to V-band.
- FSL is increased by 6 dB if the hop distance is doubled. It is increased by 20dB if the
FSL is increased 10 times for same frequency band.

d. Receive Signal Strength (RSS)

Formula used for RSS calculations is given below –
RSS (dB) = Tx Power (dBm) +Tx Antenna Gain (dBi) – FSL (dB) +Rx Antenna Gain
(dBi) – Waveguide Losses (dB) – Other Environmental Losses – Field
Margin

Where Tx is Transmit; Rx is Receive; waveguide loss is 0 dB because ODU is directly

connected with antenna; Other Environmental losses as defined under section 7i & 7j; Field
Margin is considered as 1dB which may occur due to alignment errors and mismatches. RSS is
also known as un-faded receive signal level.

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e. Channel Bandwidth vs Capacity vs Modulation
RF channel bandwidth for E-Band is 250 MHz and 50MHz for V-Band. Multiple channels
are clubbed to get more capacity. Data capacity depends on the spectral efficiency and can be
calculated by the formula and depends on modulation efficiency (also known as spectral
efficiency) and RF channel bandwidth:

Data Capacity (Mbps) = Spectral Efficiency (bps/Hz) * RF Bandwidth (MHz)

Spectral Efficiency (bps/Hz) = Log2 (M) where M = Level of Modulation

Above equation of spectral efficiency gives us theoretical modulation efficiency which is not
possible to achieve practically because filters does not have sharp frequency cut-offs like
square wave and these are rounded off. This reduces the efficiency to about ¾ times. Hence,

Practical Spectral Efficiency = ¾ * Log2 (M)

Using this formula, the data capacity calculations for various modulation schemes starting
from QPSK to 4096-QAM is given in table-11 below.

Table-11: Channel Capacity for Various Modulation Schemes

Theoretical Practical
Channel
RF Channel No. of Bits Spectral Spectrical Capacity %
Modularion M Capacity
BW (MHz) /Symbol Efficiency Efficiency Increase
(Mbps)
(bps/Hz) (bps/Hz)
QPSK / 4-QAM 2 4 2 1.50 375
8-PSK 3 8 3 2.25 563 50%
16-QAM 4 16 4 3.00 750 33%
32-QAM 5 32 5 3.75 938 25%
64-QAM 6 64 6 4.50 1125 20%
250 128-QAM 7 128 7 5.25 1313 17%
256-QAM 8 256 8 6.00 1500 14%
512-QAM 9 512 9 6.75 1688 13%
1024-QAM 10 1024 10 7.50 1875 11%
2048-QAM 11 2048 11 8.25 2063 10%
4096-QAM 12 4096 12 9.00 2250 9%

Increase in Modulation level gives rise to increase in spectral efficiency and finally data
throughput of the system. Demodulation complexity increases by increase of modulation
level. After certain level of modulation, the penalties are much more than the benefit of
increased capacity. Therefore, modulation above 256-QAM is not recommended and not
used by many E/V band radio manufactures. This is high-lighted in above table from
512QAM – 4096QAM where we can clearly notice that the capacity increase is less than
13% while the degradation in receiver sensitivity is around 3dB for every modulation
level increase. Also, there is a reduction of 1 dB in transmit power for every modulation
level increase due to the higher linearity requirements.

Now, there is further possibility to increase the capacity by combining the RF channels.
Table-12 gives the throughput when multiple channels are combined. 12Gbps data capacity is
achieved if 8 channels are combined. However, there is a disadvantage of RF combining that
it reduces the receiver threshold by 3.5dB (approximately) for every channel combining.
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 Table 12: Capacity by Combining Multiple RF Channels
Capacity (Mbps) for Combining Multiple RF Channels

Modularion 1* 250 2* 250 3*250 4*250 6*250 8*250

MHz MHz MHz MHz MHz MHz

QPSK / 4-QAM 375 750 1125 1500 2250 3000

8-PSK 563 1125 1688 2250 3375 4500
16-QAM 750 1500 2250 3000 4500 6000
32-QAM 938 1875 2813 3750 5625 7500
64-QAM 1125 2250 3375 4500 6750 9000
128-QAM 1313 2625 3938 5250 7875 10500
256-QAM 1500 3000 4500 6000 9000 12000

f. Receiver Thresholds for BER 1E-6

Receiver threshold depends on RF bandwidth, carrier to noise ratio and noise figure of
receiver and can be calculated by using following formula:

Receiver Threshold (dB) = C/N + NF + 10 log10 (BW in Hz) + kT + FEC Improvement Factor

Where C/N = carrier to noise ratio = 10 log10 (Eb/No) + 10 log10 (Fb/BW)

Eb/No is given in Table-13 for various modulations as per ITU-R F.1101
recommendations.
NF = Noise Figure of Receiver at front end
BW = RF Channel Bandwidth = 250 MHz = 250*106 Hz
kT = Boltzman’s constant = -174.1dBm @273oK
Fb = Capacity of Data Rate in bps
FEC Improvement Factor = -3.5dB
Fb/BW is equivalent to theoretical value of spectral efficiency which is nothing but
number of bits per symbol as given in above table-11. Therefore, the C/N formula can be
written as:

C/N = Eb/No + 10 log10 (Spectral Efficiency)

Based on above equations, the threshold are calculated for various modulation schemes
and shown in table-13.

Table-13: Eb/No as per ITU-R F.1101 Recommendation & Threshold (dBm)

Spectral
Eb/No C/N Threshold
Modulation Efficiency
(dB) (dB) (dBm)
(Practical)

QPSK / 4-QAM 10.5 1.5 12.3 -80.4

8-PSK 14.0 2.3 17.5 -75.1
16-QAM 17.0 3.0 21.8 -70.8
32-QAM 18.9 3.8 24.6 -68.0
64-QAM 22.5 4.5 29.0 -63.6
128-QAM 24.3 5.3 31.5 -61.1
256-QAM 27.8 6.0 35.6 -57.0

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 Fade Margin
Fade Margin (FM) is the difference between RSS and receiver threshold. Hence,
FM (dB) = RSS – Receiver Threshold
g. Rain Attenuation
Wavelength at 80 GHz and 60GHz frequency is 4 - 5mm which is much smaller than the rain
droplets. When E or V band signal passes through the rain droplet, it gets greatly attenuated.
Therefore, rain attenuation greatly affects the availability of an E/V band mmW link.
The specific attenuation AR is calculated from the rain rate (mm/hr) using power-law
relationship as per ITU-R P.838-3 recommendations:
AR = kRα dB/Km
Where f = frequency in GHz
k = either kH or kV
α = either αH or αV
R = Rain rate in mm/hr
Coefficient k and α are frequency and polarization dependent and may be obtained from a set
of specified values as given in ITU-R P.838-3 recommendation.
Table 14: Value of k and α for E & V Band frequencies as per ITU-R P.838-3 Rec
Frequency Frequency
kH αH kV αV
Band (GHz)
56 0.7835 0.7811 0.773 0.7623
57 0.8032 0.7771 0.7931 0.7587
58 0.8226 0.7731 0.8129 0.7552
59 0.8418 0.7693 0.8324 0.7518
60 0.8608 0.7656 0.8515 0.7486
V 61 0.8791 0.7621 0.8704 0.7454
62 0.8974 0.7586 0.8889 0.7424
63 0.9153 0.7552 0.9071 0.7395
64 0.9328 0.752 0.925 0.7366
65 0.9501 0.7488 0.9425 0.7339
66 0.967 0.7458 0.9598 0.7313
71 1.0468 0.7318 1.0409 0.7193
72 1.0618 0.7293 1.0561 0.7171
73 1.0764 0.7268 1.0711 0.715
74 1.0908 0.7244 1.0857 0.713
75 1.1048 0.7221 1.1 0.711
76 1.1185 0.7199 1.1139 0.7091
E 80 1.1704 0.7115 1.1668 0.7021
81 1.1827 0.7096 1.1793 0.7004
82 1.1946 0.7077 1.1915 0.6988
83 1.2063 0.7058 1.2034 0.6973
84 1.2177 0.704 1.2151 0.6958
85 1.2289 0.7023 1.2265 0.6943
86 1.2398 0.7006 1.2376 0.6929

R is rain rate parameter in mm/hr differentiating the intensity of rain fall. This can be
obtained from a set of specified values as given in ITU-R P.837-1 recommendations. Table-
15 gives the various values of Rain rate as per ITU-R. K and N regions are mainly applicable
for major parts of India as shown in the map pasted beside the table-15.

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 Table 15: India Rain Regions Map and Rain Rate as per ITU-R P.837-1

Rain Attenuation for a path length D can be obtained from below equation:
A0.01 = AR * Deff
Where A0.01 is rain attenuation for path length D if rain rate exceeded for 0.01% of time. Deff
is effective path length of D.
Deff = r * D where r is reduction factor.
r = 1/(1+D/d0 )
d0 = 35 * e-0.015R0.01 [in case of R0.01 > 100mm/hr, use 100 for R0.01]

Total path attenuation due to rain exceeded 0.01% of time can be calculated using below
equation:
A0.01 = AR * D * r dB

The path attenuation for other % of time rain exceeded can be calculated using following
equation:
AP / A0.01 = 0.12 P-(0.546+0.043 log10P)
Where P is % of time rain exceeded for path attenuation AP that is equal to fade margin as
calculated above under section-g. This equation can be solved by converting it to quadratic
equation.
Below figures gives the rain attenuation in dB/Km for various rain rates. For E Band, it is in the
range of 20dB for the rain rate of 55mm/hr.

Figure 7: Rain Attenuation (dB/Km) for various rain rates

(Source: https://www.cablefree.net/wirelesstechnology/millimeter-wave-technology)

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h. Attenuation due to Atmospheric gases
When millimeter waves travel through the atmosphere are absorbed by the molecules of
oxygen, water vapor and other gases present in the atmosphere and results in transmission
losses. These losses are greater at certain frequencies, coinciding with the mechanical
resonant frequencies of the gas molecules. Figure-7 below shows water vapor and oxygen
specific attenuation at various frequencies upto 200GHz. It is important to note from Figure-7
that the oxygen and water vapor attenuation is highest to the tune of about 15dB/Km around
60GHz (i.e. V-Band) which is over and above the free space loss. Due to this additional
loss, V-band frequencies become less useful for longer and outdoor distances. Hence,
application of V-band is limited for indoor use and distances upto few hundred meters
only.

These losses at E-Band frequencies are lesser than 1 dB which are negligible. Hence, E-band
is more suitable for longer distances i.e. up to 5 Km and 10Km in some cases where lower
modulation is used. Therefore, E-band is more useful than V-band. Hence, the link
budget calculations and the software application for link budget is done for E-Band
frequency only.

i. Attenuation due to diffraction and reflections

If there is no line-of-sight (LOS) path between transmitter and receiver, the signal may still
reach to the receiver via reflections from other objects in the proximity to the receiver, or via
diffraction or wave bending. For millimeter waves like E-band frequencies results in low
diffractions. Also due to very narrow beam-width, the chances of reflections are also very
rare. Therefore, the attenuations due to diffraction and reflections are considered zero while
doing link budget at E and V band frequencies.

j. Path Clearance
Since the Beamwidth is very small and path lengths are also less than 5Km, 100% path
clearance is considered with clear Line-of-Sight (LOS).

k. Outage probability and Link Reliability– fading, rains and total

As per ITU-R P.530-7/8 recommendation, the reliability of a system based on calculated fade
margin is computed by using following equations:

Outage Probability of unprotected system = PF = a * b * 6 * 10-7 * f * d3 * 10-F/10

Where a = terrain factor (refer table-16)
b = climate factor (refer table-16)
16
 f = frequency in GHz
d = path length in Km
F = fade margin in dB

Table-16: Values of terrain factor & climate factor

Terrain Factor Climate Factor
Type
a b
Smooth / Coastal / Humid 4 0.5
Average / Some Rough 1 0.25
Rough / Dry / Mountain 0.25 0.125
The percent reliability of the link can be calculated from the outage probability by using
following equation:
% Reliability = 100 * (1 – PF)

This gives the reliability of one way communication. Since the link is full duplex, so the both way
reliability can be calculated by multiplying the outage probability by two. Outage duration can be
easily calculated from outage probability by using the following equation –
Outage duration in a year (one way) = 365 * 24 * 60 * 60 * P F seconds
Outage duration in a year (both way) = 2 * 365 * 24 * 60 * 60 * P F seconds

Rain attenuation and rain outage probability is calculated above under section h. This rain outage
probability gives us the outage duration due to rains.

Therefore, Total outage = outage due to Rain + outage due to fading (both way) seconds

% Total Reliability of a link

=100 * {Total seconds in a year – total outage (rain + Fade) in a year}/ Total seconds in a year

Outage duration of a link can be easily calculated if reliability is known. Some of the standard
reliability and outages per year, outages per month and outages per day are given in below Table-
17.

Table 17: Reliability and Outage in Minutes

Reliability Outage Outage in Minutes
% % in a Year in a month in a day
99.999% 0.001% 5.256 0.438 0.0146
99.995% 0.005% 26.28 2.19 0.073
99.99% 0.01% 52.56 4.38 0.146
99.95% 0.05% 262.8 21.9 0.73
99.90% 0.10% 525.6 43.8 1.46
99.50% 0.50% 2628 219 7.3
99.00% 1.00% 5256 438 14.6
98.50% 1.50% 7884 657 21.9
98.00% 2.00% 10512 876 29.2
97.50% 2.50% 13140 1095 36.5
97.00% 3.00% 15768 1314 43.8

Link Reliability above 99% is acceptable and above 99.5% is considered good and 99.9% is very
good.

7. Performance Parameters and Matrix

As discussed and analysed in previous chapters, main performance parameters of a mmW link
are:

17
 a) data capacity or throughput and
b) reliability of a link
Following are the relations and controlling parameters which influence these two performance
parameters based on the various formulas and relations detailed under section 7 of this report:
i. Data capacity increases as the Modulation level increases but the threshold of the
receiver decreases as the modulation level increases.
ii. Since the receiver threshold decreases with the increase of the modulation level,
the fade margin of the link decreases and ultimately impacts reliability and
increases outage duration as per ITU-R P.530.
iii. To improve the reliability and reduce outage duration of a particular link in a
region, following measures are taken –
 Increase transmit power within the permissible limit of max EIRP as per
ITU-R recommendations
 Increase transmit and receive antenna sizes within the permissible limit
of max EIRP. Doubling the antenna size at both transmit and receive side
gives the improvement of 12 dB in fade margin which improves the
reliability significantly.
iv. Other limiting parameter for a link performance is link distance because the FSL
increases by 6 dB as the link distance doubles. This means the fade margin
reduction by 6 dB if link distance is doubled. The reduction of 6dB in fade
margin gives drastic reduction in reliability.
v. Rain attenuation is the another main parameter which affects the E-band link
performance very badly during heavy rains when rain rates are over 25-30mm/hr
as is clearly seen in graph of figure-7. Hence, this limits the hop distance for a
desired reliability and usability of E-bank link.
Results of few sample links are compared in below tables for throughput and reliability when
input parameters like antenna size and hop distance keeping transmit power fixed at +20dBm;
Rain region also considered same and analyzing the performance with various modulation
schemes and for three hop distances i.e. 1Km, 2Km, 3Km & 5Km.

Table 18: Sample Link’s analysis and Reliability Matrix

Sample link 1: Performance Matrix
Hop Distance (Km) 0.93
Frquency E-Band
Transmit Power (dBm) 20
RF Bandwidth (MHz) 250
Rain Rate (mm/Hr) 42 K Region
Polarization Vertical
Rain Attenuation (dB) 14.26
Tx & Rx Antenna Size (m) 0.15 0.3 0.6
Tx & Rx Antenna Gain (dBi) 39.38 45.4 51.42
RSS (dBm) -32.12 -20.08 -8.04

Modulation QPSK 8-PSK 16-QAM 32-QAM 64-QAM 128-QAM 256-QAM

Capacity or Throughput (Mbps) 375 563 750 938 1125 1313 1500
% Reliability with 0.15m Antenna 99.983 99.972 99.958 99.944 99.909 99.879 99.801
% Reliability with 0.30m Antenna 99.994 99.991 99.987 99.983 99.974 99.967 99.949
% Reliability with 0.60m Antenna 99.998 99.997 999.996 99.994 99.992 99.989 99.984

18
Sample link 2: Performance Matrix
Hop Distance (Km) 1.8
Frquency E-Band
Transmit Power (dBm) 20
RF Bandwidth (MHz) 250
Rain Rate (mm/Hr) 42 K Region
Polarization Vertical
Rain Attenuation (dB) 26.42
Tx & Rx Antenna Size (m) 0.15 0.3 0.6
Tx & Rx Antenna Gain (dBi) 39.38 45.4 51.42
RSS (dBm) -37.86 -25.82 -13.78

Modulation QPSK 8-PSK 16-QAM 32-QAM 64-QAM 128-QAM 256-QAM

Capacity or Throughput (Mbps) 375 563 750 938 1125 1313 1500
% Reliability with 0.15m Antenna 99.742 99.616 99.452 99.297 98.921 98.589 97.697
% Reliability with 0.30m Antenna 99.885 99.839 99.785 99.737 99.632 99.55 99.36
% Reliability with 0.60m Antenna 99.944 99.924 99.902 99.883 99.845 99.817 99.756

Sample link 3: Performance Matrix

Hop Distance (Km) 3.06
Frquency E-Band
Transmit Power (dBm) 20
RF Bandwidth (MHz) 250
Rain Rate (mm/Hr) 42 K Region
Polarization Vertical
Rain Attenuation (dB) 42.3
Tx & Rx Antenna Size (m) 0.15 0.3 0.6
Tx & Rx Antenna Gain (dBi) 39.38 45.4 51.42
RSS (dBm) -42.47 -30.43 -18.39

Modulation QPSK 8-PSK 16-QAM 32-QAM 64-QAM 128-QAM 256-QAM

Capacity or Throughput (Mbps) 375 563 750 938 1125 1313 1500
% Reliability with 0.15m Antenna 98.648 98.028 97.206 96.414 94.431 92.601 87.282
% Reliability with 0.30m Antenna 99.358 99.13 98.859 98.623 98.108 97.699 96.739
% Reliability with 0.60m Antenna 99.657 99.555 99.442 99.348 99.158 99.018 98.718

Sample link 4: Performance Matrix

Hop Distance (Km) 4.76
Frquency E-Band
Transmit Power (dBm) 20
RF Bandwidth (MHz) 250
Rain Rate (mm/Hr) 42 K Region
Polarization Vertical
Rain Attenuation (dB) 61.03
Tx & Rx Antenna Size (m) 0.15 0.3 0.6
Tx & Rx Antenna Gain (dBi) 39.38 45.4 51.42
RSS (dBm) -46.3 -34.26 -22.22

Modulation QPSK 8-PSK 16-QAM 32-QAM 64-QAM 128-QAM 256-QAM

Capacity or Throughput (Mbps) 375 563 750 938 1125 1313 1500
% Reliability with 0.15m Antenna 95.668 93.658 90.913 88.177 80.949 73.803 50.395
% Reliability with 0.30m Antenna 97.914 97.199 96.343 95.59 93.919 92.572 89.311
% Reliability with 0.60m Antenna 98.85 98.532 98.177 97.884 97.287 96.846 95.892

In above sample link’s analysis and Reliability Matrix, reliability high -lighted in green are above
99% and acceptable while other values in pink are not acceptable. Therefore, following points can
be concluded from these sample links:
19
  Links for hop length below 1km are good to go with 15cm antenna and provide excellent
reliability even at 256-QAM modulation also.
 Links for hop lengths above 4 Km should be avoided for deployment because their
performance will be poor due to very high rain attenuation in K-rain region.
 Therefore, for K-rain regions, links with hop lengths max up to 3Km provides acceptable
reliability.
Detailed link budgets of these sample links are given in appendix-1.

8. Limitations & Challenges in E/V Band implementation in the field

It is imperative to know the limitations of E and V band radios while going to plan
implementation of these radios in the field. We have noted the performance parameters and their
dependency on the input parameters which are user selectable and environmental beyond user’s
control. Points as limitations and challenges for E/V band implementation are:
 Rain attenuation becomes the major issue if the rain rate of a region is more than 25-
30mm/hr. This reduces the link lengths drastically for the K rain regions (42mm/hr) and
limits it to max 3Km. For Higher rain rates, hop lengths are further reduced.
 Since the beam widths of antennas are very narrow like pencil beams, the alignment of
antenna sometimes becomes challenge. Hence, extra care must be taken while doing the
alignment and direction and tilt must be accurately checked.
 These links must be installed on stable structures because their beam-widths are as small
as 1 deg. So, the sway of structures may disturb the link and results in outages.
 V-band is not suitable in outdoor applications for more than 100-200 m due to extra
attenuation of about 15dB/km due to oxygen and water vapor.

9. Link Budget – Software Code Development

We have seen the whole process of link budget calculations in the previous sections which is very
lengthy and cumbersome because of multiple input variables which results in complex
performance matrix. With the software application, all the calculations and analysis can be done
very easily and quickly. That is why, the software applications for design of link budget for E-
frequency band is developed. The code is written in Java-8. Below are the input screen and link
budget displayed as output screen are shown in figure 9 and 10.

Figure 9: Input - Screen Display

20
Figure 10: Output Results - Screen Display

Software Architecture:
Figure 11below gives the software architecture flow diagram.

Index.jsp – This displays the input screen where inputs are asked from the user and user fills the
inputs here.

Myoperator.java – It takes all inputs as received from the user through index.jsp. It then sends
these inputs to TelecomService.java. It also accepts the calculated values from
TelecomService.java and then further sends these values to TelecomOutput.java and
CustomerWelcome.jsp.

TelecomService.java – It calculates the values from formulas and sends back the calculated
values to Myoperator.java.
TelecomOutput.java – It stores the calculated values.
CustomerWelcome.jsp – It accepts the calculated values sent by Myoperator.java and display
and print all the calculated values as the results

Figure 11: Software Architecture

21
 Testing:
The results displayed are compared with the manually calculated results and found that all the
parameters are correctly calculated. Some sample link budgets calculated from the developed
software are given in appendics-1.

10. Conclusion
From this deep study, it is concluded that Millimeter wave (mmW) communication using E and V
frequency bands is the only solution to solve the data congestion problem of the present telecom
networks. The mmW point to point links in E/V frequency bands are capable to deliver fiber like
data capacities wirelessly. These links can be implemented very quickly and at a very low cost
compared to fiber rollout. E band is better than the V band frequency in outdoor applications for
the hop lengths of max 5 Km. Since V- band frequencies suffers additional oxygen and water
vapor attenuation, it becomes useful only for very short hops i.e. less than 100m or 200m. Rain
attenuations at these frequencies are very high. Therefore, the usable distance reduces drastically
in the regions where rain rates are more than 30 mm/hr. Transmitter power and antenna sizes are
the two parameters which can be varied to achieve the desired reliability of a mmW link.
Software code developed for E-Frequency band becomes very handy to prepare the link budgets
just by click of a button in fraction of seconds. E/V-Band frequencies are still not allowed in India
yet and it is expected that DoT will release these frequency bands in 2020 for implementation
with light licensing fee. Major application of these mmW links for connecting base stations of a
Mobile network to provide fiber like capacity.

11. Direction for Future Work

The present software for calculation of link budget in E-Frequency band (=80 GHz) is based on
theoretical values of various parameters. This can be further improved by adding following
features:
 Adding OEM specific product Parameters as inputs and reliability predication
and RSL calculations
 Multiple channel aggregation
 RF Channel Plan as per ITU-R
 Path Profile and Antenna Height Calculations
 Frequency Interference Analysis
 O&M Module for spares planning & MTBF/MTTR calculations
E/V frequency band radios have recently been started implemented in the field in few countries.
In India, their deployment is yet to start. Performance must be monitored very closely on account
of rain fading specially and other environmental and atmospheric absorption.

22
12. Bibliography / References:

1. https://www.etsi.org/images/files/ETSITechnologyLeaflets/MillimetreWaveTransmission.pdf

2. ITU-T L-Series Recommendations – Supplement 23 (04/2016)

3. Paper published by Livemint on 12th June 2018: DoT seen allocating spectrum in E, V bands
without an auction

4. News published by Economic Times (ETT) o12th Feb 2018 by Danish Khan: Ericsson says
it is high time E and V bands made available to Indian telcos

5. http://medium.com/indrastra/overview-the-economics-of-releasing-the-v-band-and-e-band-
spectrum-in-india by Sudipto Banerjee, Mayank Mishra and Suyash Rai

6. Paper written by Surajeet Das Gupta on 2nd Feb 2018: How E and V bands can solve
connectivity issues

7. News Published by Financial Express on 1st May 2018: E and V band spectrum: Telecom
players expect “light touch” regulation from commission

8. Statement by COAI (published by PTI) on 26th July 2018: Spectrum in E and V band should
not be ‘de-licensed’.

9. A report published by Navadha Pandey on 19th June 2019: India’s data usage per smartphone
highest in world at 9.8GB/month.

10. A report published by GSMA in September 2018: Mobile backhaul options – Spectrum
analysis and recommendations

11. Recommendation ITU-R V.431-8 (08/2015): Nomenclature of the frequency and wavelength
bands used in telecommunications

12. ETSI White Paper No.9 published in June 2015: E-Band and V-Band – Survey on status of
worldwide regulations

13. ETSI White Paper No. 25 published in February 2018: Microwave and Millimeter wave for
5G Transport

14. A paper written by Saad Z. Asif from Islamabad, Pakistan and published online by MECS
Press in 2015: E-band Microwave Radios for Mobile Backhaul

15. Recommendation ITU-R F.1497-2: Radio Frequency channel arrangements for fixed wireless
systems operating in the band 55.78 – 66 GHz.

16. Recommendation ITU-R F.699-8: Reference radiation patterns for fixed wireless system
antennas for use in coordination studies and interference assessment in the frequency range
from 100 MHz to 86 GHz.

23
17. Report ITU-R F.2107-2: Characteristics and application of fixed wireless systems operating
in frequency ranges between 57 GHz and 134 GHz.

18. Recommendation ITU-R P.530-7/8 & 17: Propagation data and prediction methods required
for the design of terrestrial line-of-sight systems

19. Application Notes: Ray Link calculations version 1.0 dated 07/12/2018 by RACOM

20. Recommendation ITU-R P.841-5: Conversion of annual statistics to worst month statistics

21. Recommendation ITU-R P.838-3: Specific attenuation model for use in prediction methods.

22. Recommendation ITU-R P.837-7: Characteristics of precipitation for propagation modeling

23. Recommendation ITU-R P.834-9: Effects of tropospheric refraction on radio wave

propagation

24. Recommendation ITU-R P.833-9: Attenuation in vegetation

25. Recommendation ITU-R P.676-11: Attenuation by atmospheric gases

26. Recommendation ITU-R P.526-14: Propagation by diffraction

27. Recommendation ITU-R P.525-4: Calculation of free-space attenuation

28. Recommendation ITU-R P.310-9: Definition of terms relating to propagation in non-ionized

media

29. Recommendation ITU-R F.1102-2: Characteristic of fixed wireless systems operation in the
frequency bands above 17GHz

30. Recommendation ITU-R F.1093-2: Effects of multipath propagation on the design and
operation of line-of-sight digital fixed wireless systems

31. Book “Engineering Considerations for Microwave Communications Systems” by GTE

Lenkurt Incorporated, California, pp. 28-71, 1981

32. The Next Generation Backhaul Networks – E Band by NEC Corporation, Japan

33. Report “V Band (60 GHz): The Key to Affordable Broadband in India” published by
Broadband India Forum in 2018

34. ETSI TS 102 524 v1.1.1 (2006-07): Radio equipment and antennas for use in point-to-point
millimeter wave application in the fixed services frequency 71-76 and 81-86 GHz.

35. White Paper – NEC Multiband Radio Solution

36. White Paper by DragonWave – Take Microwave Spectral Efficiency to a New Level

37. Research Paper “Performance Analysis of E-Band 70/80 GHz Frequency Segment for Point
to Point Gigabit Connectivity” published in 2016 by Sewe Stephen Arato and Oduol Prof
Vitalice Kalecha from University of Nairobi, Kenya.

24
38. Research Paper “ Multu-Gigabits Millimeter Wave Wireless Communications for 5G: from
Fixed Access to Cellular Networks” published in 2014 by Peng Wang, Member IEEE;
Yomghui Li, Senior Member, IEEE; Lingyang Song, Member, IEEE; Branka Vucetic,
Fellow, IEEE.

39. Book “Fixed Broadband Wireless System Design” by Harry R. Anderson, pp. 62-65, 127-
152, Wiley, 2003

40. Paper “Understanding and relating Eb/No, SNR, and other Power Efficiency Metrics” by Eric
Jacobsen published in 2012.

41. Paper “Calculating QAM Bandwidth Gains” by John Houghton published in 2017

42. White Paper “Wireless Backhaul Challenging Large-Capacity and High-Speed Transfers” by
Anritsu in 2017

43. ETSI White Paper No. 10 “Maturity and field proven experience of millimeter wave
transmission”, ETSI France, September 2015

44. ETSI GR mWT 015 v1.1.1 (2017-11) “Frequency bands and Carrier Aggregation Systems,
ETSI, 2017

45. Article “Packet Microwave Layer 1 and Layer 2 Throughput in E-Band for Mobile
Broadband Communications” by Sawadogo Moumouni, LAME, Burkinafaso published in
2018.

46. Book “Microwave Radio Transmission Design Guide” by Trevor Manning, pp. 41-58 & 177-
201

47. Book “Radio System Design for Telecommunications” by Roger L. Freeman, Wiley, 1997,
pp. 1-178 & 467-506

48. https://www.cablefree.net/wirelesstechnology/millimeter-wave-technology

25
 13. Appendices

Appendice-1: Sample Link Budgets

Sample Link Budget 1a: Link Length of 0.93Km with 0.15m Antenna

Sample Link Budget 1b: Link Length of 0.93Km with 0.30m Antenna

26
Appendix-1……

Sample Link Budget 1c: Link Length of 0.93Km with 0.60m Antenna

Sample Link Budget 2a: Link Length of 1.80Km with 0.15m Antenna

27
Appendix – 1…….

Sample Link Budget 2b: Link Length of 1.80Km with 0.30m Antenna

Sample Link Budget 2c: Link Length of 1.80Km with 0.60m Antenna

28
Appendix – 1 …….

Sample Link Budget 3a: Link Length of 3.06Km with 0.15m Antenna

Sample Link Budget 3b: Link Length of 1.80Km with 0.30m Antenna

29
Appendix – 1 ……..

Sample Link Budget 3c: Link Length of 3.06Km with 0.60m Antenna

Sample Link Budget 4a: Link Length of 4.76Km with 0.15m Antenna

30
Appendix -1 …..

Sample Link Budget 4b: Link Length of 4.76Km with 0.30m Antenna

Sample Link Budget 4c: Link Length of 4.76Km with 0.60m Antenna

31