RF and ENVIRONMENT

SURVEY GUIDELINES.

A.ROULLIN
RF Expertise & Field Engineering
Advanced RF Competence Center
ALCATEL - LUCENT

RFM-FE / AR-211-01 / 07-02

 CONTENTS

A. PRESENTATION AND MEANS ..................................3

1. Objective of the site survey part: ....................................................................................3

2. Objective of the environment survey part.......................................................................4

3. Objective of the radio survey part...................................................................................4

4. Environment and site survey means ...............................................................................5

5. Radio survey means .......................................................................................................6

C. RESULTS PRESENTATION .........................................7

1°) Presentation of pictures sets:.........................................................................................7

2°) Pictures organization:....................................................................................................8

3°) Complementary information:........................................................................................9

4°) Snapshots of measurements: .........................................................................................9

D. ANNEX.........................................................................10

Presentation.......................................................................................................................10

Environment information..................................................................................................10

The 360° informed panoramic view .................................................................................11

Environment..................................................................................................................12

Radiomonitoring: The spectrum scanning ....................................................................12

E. ANNEX II Limited survey forms. .................................13

1 – Survey form support ...................................................................................................13

2 – Picture’s form support.................................................................................................14

3 – Panoramic view information support..........................................................................15

RFM-FE / AR-211-01 / 07-02

A. PRESENTATION AND MEANS
The purpose of these surveys is to control and validate the main RF on site parameters to
make or validate the RF Design.

Three parts must be taken into account:

- The site survey to understand and validate the site validity and efficiency.
- The radio survey to control the RF environment of the site,
- The environment survey to understand which kinds of clutters are crossed on
site coverage.

1. Objective of the site survey part:

To install any equipments on site, several information are mandatory. These information
must be divided in three main parts:

- Administrative Information
- Information’s about the site, views and organization
- Information’s about the installation of our equipments.

Administrative information are collected to have name, address, coordinates of the site,
Owner or person to contact with its telephone number.
If access necessitate specific requirements, information and draw could be added.

The site information: These information’s are essentially composed by pictures and
informed scaled floor plan or roof layout. They must describe what is seen and all facilities
and constraints we have to build the site. That includes, available place, Support structure
for antennas, cables way if known, main mask description, shared equipments if
necessary…
Site pictures must describe the roof environment and the whole site seen from the ground.

Complementary information’s about our equipment installation would be informed such as

foreseen place to install Base station (RRH, BTS …) and antennas (pictures and position on
Roof layout). Possible power supply accessibility on roof top (position and available
power).

(*) Be careful, if roof layout is not available, the only way is to create it by draw
with information about the main distances and dimensions.

RFM-FE / AR-211-01 / 07-02

2. Objective of the environment survey part

RF Propagation prediction and coverage map are calculated using empirical models based
on statistics, and Digital Map describing the field heights and the environment type (tower,
dense urban, urban, residential, industrial, open field, road, river...) at each pixel in the
geographical area available.
Statistics already exist, but each town and each country are different: different kind of
building (stone, glass and metal, concrete), different kind of roads (width), and various
density of vegetation. Each simulated site has proper environment on DTM. The purpose of
this activity is to verify the accuracy of the real site environment compared to the DTM.

It is possible, on site, to validate the real status of the environment by creation of 360°
panoramic view. This panoramic view must be realised on site in the maximum as possible
height to have a free view. If this first approach is impossible, the way is to create three
different panoramic views on more than 200° each, at each antenna place, to ensure best
overlap for the whole view.

Be careful 360° pictures must be realized horizontally, at same level with same camera
parameters (No additional zoom on one picture). An overlap of 20% of the previous image
must be applied to create properly the whole 360° panoramic view.

These views should be enhanced by some pictures of the main kind of roads realized from
the ground. For the report main key points of this panoramic view must be informed.

3. Objective of the radio survey part

The radio survey part could be decomposed in two main activities.

- The physical or visual radio survey
- The Frequency radiomonitoring test

Physical radio survey is dedicated to find all possible radio issues due to site sharing with
other technical equipments or other close sites that can introduce pollution on our
frequency band.

To realize it, take pictures of shared equipments and describe them (frequency used, type of
aerial, azimuth, tilt, position on roof top). These equipments must be positioned on roof
layout.
For the close sites, take one picture of each. Give the azimuth and distance from the site. If
area map is available (digital view) position the sites on it.

In complement of that, a real radio measurement would be realized. It could be performed

with analog receiver or spectrum analyser. Antenna should be omnidirectional (best
solution) or directive (necessitate Three measurements. One must be performed on each
future antenna’s azimuth).

RFM-FE / AR-211-01 / 07-02

The tested frequency range could be divided by two. Reception and transmission parts with
minimum of 10 MHz of band guard (for example from 720 to 750 MHz, the measurement
must be 710 to 760 MHz).
For the reception band, noise floor of the spectrum analyser should be enhanced by pre-
amplifier use. Sometime filter is mandatory to limit the risk of receiver’s blocking.

4. Environment and site survey means

To know the status of covered area, it is necessary to have an idea of the clutter and the
road around the site.

To characterize each site’s environment, digital camera is needed to better explain what
you have seen.
The binocular is used from high points such as roof top or towers, to see the limits of the
clutters and check the construction density.
Compass is used to position finely the main or specifics points (such as surrounding radio
sites, churches, towers or other characteristic points) .
GPS handset is used to find the accurate coordinates of the site.

The tools that are used for the environment survey are the following:
• A digital camera,
• A binocular,
• City maps with the good scale
• A compass
• A DTM view (DTM plot)
• A GPS Handset
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RFM-FE / AR-211-01 / 07-02

5. Radio survey means

Radio survey means are used to perform on site radiomonitoring. That includes:
- An analog receiver with the good frequency range,
OR - A Spectrum analyser such as Agilent 6590 series with pre-amp,
- Flexible RF cable,
- Omnidirectional antenna adapted to the tested frequency range,
OR - Directive antenna adapted to the tested frequency range.

GRFM

22 dB 22 dB

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ADV. U4941 TG R&S GRFM

Preferred configuration configuration with directive antenna.

Be careful, on sometime, complementary tools could be mandatory. It is the case, by

example, of adapted RF filter or external preamplifier.

With analog receiver, radiomonitoring must be recorded during one hour at minimum. If
spectrum analyser is used, some averaged measurements and a long maxhold measurement
(15 mns) must be performed and stored on each frequency range (Transmission and
reception bands)..

5. Survey forms

To help the on site operator, three survey form are presented at the end of document.

The first one must be informed to collect the on site data. If a field is not necessary, skip it.

The second one is an help to take all necessary pictures to describe the site. When one
picture is OK put Yes (Y) inside the form. At the end all compartments should be informed.
On right side of this form, fields must be informed by the operator with the accurate values.
The last one allows putting information for 360° panoramic view. Put inside characteristic
points of the 360° view such as church, pylon, high building… And put azimuth and
distance value from the site (at antenna position)
.
These forms could be enhanced if necessary to comply with the required field information.

RFM-FE / AR-211-01 / 07-02

C. RESULTS PRESENTATION

The results would be presented inside Survey report. That includes :

- Main pictures presented as below,

- Informed roof layout,

- Conventional site’s information as requested,

- Snapshot of RF measurements results.

Whole collected information must be stored for future analysis or other study.

1°) Presentation of pictures sets:

To comply with our standard and to define clearly the site, two sets of pictures are
necessary and sufficient.

The first set of pictures allows describing the site environment. Based on informed 360°
panoramic view (or 3 x 200° panoramic views from each antenna place) this set must
informed with azimuths and distances of main characteristic points and all radio sites close
to the site.
It will enhance by several roads views, some typical building views and if possible a
building under construction view.
If some specificity crosses the environment as railways, water (as river), freeway, park…
Take pictures of that and add them to the panoramic view to describe the environment.

Panoramic view must be composed by all necessary pictures to realize a full 360° view. All
the picture’s set must have the same format and the same orientation (horizontal).

The second set of pictures is oriented site survey. Based on scaled roof top layout, it must
inform the RF designer about the site (roof top) configuration and specificities (as masks,
existing cables trays and antenna support, or power access to fed our equipments…).
Antennas and base station positioning must be informed on layout (actual or futures
places). Around the scaled layout, additional pictures must describing equipments position
and orientation, roof top specificities as mask (lift cabinet) or others.
Two finalize this second picture’s set; two pictures of whole site must be realized in two
different angles (from ground).

RFM-FE / AR-211-01 / 07-02

 2°) Pictures organization:

This section describes an organization of visual results in accordance with Alcatel-Lucent

RFE-FE Standard.

Specificities of
SET OF MANDATORY
Typical Building
Environment N°1 & 2 PICTURES BY SITE
Part I

PART of 360° Photos

Typical Typical Typical Building Radio sites around the site

Primary Se condary Small under
road Lane With azimuth and distance
road construction
from the site

.
Roof Specificities
SET OF MANDATORY Antennas or futures
as masks, cable tray or pylon PICTURES BY SITE antennas positioning
Part II
Roof layout

Existing support for main dimensions (length, width…)

Antennas positioning and azimuth
antenna
Other radio equip. positioning (*)
Main masks positioning (*)
(*) if necessary

Power supply access Equipment positioning Site views from the ground
(BTS) 2 angles

RFM-FE / AR-211-01 / 07-02

3°) Complementary information:

For each site, the complementary information are requested:

- Site name,
- Site address, (owner, person to contact for access)
- Coordinate of the site in WGS84 or UTM (must be specified)
- Height of the building,
- Roof size (length, width, height),
- Height between roof top and antenna bottom (if known),
- Antenna’s azimuths (if known),
- Distance from BS to the antennas (if known or necessary)

Don’t hesitate to refer on pictures or layout.

4°) Snapshots of measurements:

The measurement’s snapshots are used to see if some issues can appear due to radio
environment.
If yes, these measurements can help to analyze the problem and to find beginning of
solution.
Type, reference, and tool calibration validity must be added before the measurements
snapshots.

Some examples of results..

RFM-FE / AR-211-01 / 07-02

D. ANNEX

Example of information given from the

Globalive field activities report.

Presentation

Globalive Canada – Site Broughton

1175 Broughton Street – Vancouver.

Coordinates: Lat.5459048 – Long. 490091 (UTM10N)
Building type: Residence R+9 floors (26m)

Antenna installation on penthouse at 7.70m of roof top.

Environment information

The tested environment is not homogeneous and is mainly constituted of dense urban
constructions with various heights from 10m to 50m and more on some very high building
especially when heading to the Core of the city center. The main clutter that is tested here is
defined as “dense urban” on the clutter map and also some core urban is measure at the
edge of the coverage.
There are three types of roads, the main axes, boulevards or avenues, the standard roads
that deserve most of the city and the “service” road which give access to garage and used
by the city maintenance services. The majority of road is this area is standard axes.
The main roads are 2x2 or 3x2 ways direction 15-20m width. In the core urban there are no
trees and pavement are 4 to 6m width. The distance between buildings varies from 20 to
25m.
The standard roads are 2x2 ways around 8-12m width with trees and pavements. The
distance between buildings in that kind of street varies from 20 to 25m.
The service roads are often 5-6m width with no or very few trees and pavements. These
roads don’t have name and are located in-between 2 standard roads. Distance between
buildings is around 12-15m. This type of road does not exist in the Core Urban.
The vegetation is present in the dense urban area along the streets and around the buildings.
The height of the trees varies from 6m to 12m.
On the area where have been performed the tests, the topology is almost flat with some
slope around 10-15m of gradient.

RFM-FE / AR-211-01 / 07-02

The 360° informed panoramic view

RFM-FE / AR-211-01 / 07-02

 Environment

Building type Building type Main roads

standard roads standard roads Service roads

Radiomonitoring: The spectrum scanning

The scanning has been performed on the customer bandwidth with additional guard bands
of 5MHz (up and down).

Uplink Downlink

Both spectrums are clear of any interference.

RFM-FE / AR-211-01 / 07-02

E. ANNEX II - Limited survey forms.

1 – Survey form support

Limited RF Survey Form

Administrative information:
Site name: Reference:
Site address
City: Country:
Owner Person to contact:
Phone number:

Latitude
Site Coordinates Longitude
System group Datum

Building type Building Height

Stair width
Access by Lift Dimension
Crane

Technical information:

Layout availability

Personal drawing

length Width
Roof top description Roof type water protected

Special movement safety protection

height Width
Main mask on roof height Width

height Width

Type Position
Shared radio equipment 1 Power antenna azimuth

informed on Layout Pictures

Type Position
Shared radio equipment 2 Power antenna azimuth

informed on Layout Pictures

Type Position
Shared radio equipment 3 Power antenna azimuth

informed on Layout Pictures

Presence of antenna support Position on layout

Presence of power supply Voltage Amps

Presence of cables way Position on layout

Presence of grounding system

Presence of antilightning system

BS positioning on layout Sufficient place

RRH Use

Antennas positioning on Layout

Distance from BS to antenna 1 Antenna 1 azimuth

Distance from BS to antenna 2 Antenna 2 azimuth

Distance from BS to antenna 3 Antenna 3 azimuth

Distance from BS to power supply

All information must be set on layout or personal draw.

RFM-FE / AR-211-01 / 07-02

 2 – Picture’s form support

Limited RF Survey Form

Pictures for Environment information:

Full 360° Informed
360° panoramic view
Tri sectored views Informed
Primary road width
secondary road width
Roads description
Small Lane width
Service lane width
Typical 1 Height
Typical 2 Height
Building views
Typical 3 Height
Under construction
Specificity 1
Environment specificities Specificity 2
Specificity 3
Pictures for site information:
Full 360°
Pictures of whole building
Tri sectored views
Global view
Main mask 1
Roof Description Main mask 2
specificity 1
specificity 2
Antenna support
Cables Ways
Roof facilities Power supply
Ground
Lightning protection
Specificity 1
Environment specificities Specificity 2
Specificity 3
Pictures for Radio Environment:
Equipments pict.
Antennas Pict.
Site sharing
Transmission link pict.
Other infrastructure
Site 1 Picture Azimuth Distance
Site 2 Picture Azimuth Distance
Site 3 Picture Azimuth Distance
Suround radio sites Site 4 Picture Azimuth Distance
Site 5 Picture Azimuth Distance
Site 6 Picture Azimuth Distance
Site 7 Picture Azimuth Distance

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 3 – Panoramic view information support

Limited RF Survey Form

Environment information: (360° Key references)

Designation Landmark Azimuth Distance
North

END OF DOCUMENT

RFM-FE / AR-211-01 / 07-02