GSM 900 890-915 MHz / 935-960 MHz

GSM 1800 1710-1785 MHz / 1805-1880 MHz

CHANNEL STRUCTURE
Traffic is measured in Erlangs, where an Erlang is one traffic channel continuously occupied for 1 hour. Therefore
the number of Erlangs required by a network is equivalent to the average number of calls in progress
simultaneously during a period of 1 hour.
Both GSM900 and DCS1800 make use of time division multiple access (TDMA). Eight timeslots, each of
576.9microseconds are transmitted consecutively on a single RF carrier. These timeslots make up one TDMA
frame totalling 4.615ms. Each timeslot consists of a burst of 156¼bits each of 3.692ms duration. The gross bit rate
for GSM is 270.83kb/s.
These TDMA frames are used to make up multiframes. There are two types of multiframe, one consisting of
26TDMA frames which is used to carry traffic and the other of 51 TDMA frames which is used to carry signalling
information.
Full rate traffic channels carry information at a gross rate of 22.8kbit/s. These may be used to carry data with a
standard bit rate of either 2.4, 4.8 or 9.6kb/s. Half rate traffic channels carry information at a gross rate of 11.4kbit/s.
These may be used to carry half rate speech channels or a 4.8kb/s or 2.4kb/s data channel.

The M Interface carries both traffic and signalling information between the Base Station Controller Frame (BCF)
and the Speech Transcoding Frame (STF). The M-interface uses a 2.048Mbit/s bearer and utilises the CCITT
Signalling System Number 7 (CCS7) protocol for information transfer.
The M Interface bandwidth is allocated as 32 timeslots. These are typically used as follows:
· 1 Timeslot for synchronisation.
· 1 Timeslot for CCS7 signalling from the BCF to the MSC (transparently
routed through the STF).
· 30
for traffic data.

ANTENNA SPECIFICATION
The principal electrical parameters relevant to antenna selection at GSM900/1800 frequencies include:
· Centre frequency GSM900: 915 MHz GSM1800: 1795 MHz
· Bandwidth GSM900: 870 - 960 MHz 90MHz GSM1800: 1710 - 1880 MHz 170 MHz
· Characteristic Impedance (50ohms)
An important property of every antenna is its impedance. In a transmitting antenna this is known as the radiation
resistance, which is associated with the power radiated by the antenna. In a receiving antenna, the corresponding
parameter is its input impedance, which is defined as the ratio of voltage to current at its input.
· Voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR)
The VSWR is measured by comparing the level of the forward RF signal to the reflected signal. The VSWR is a
measure of how effectively the transmitter is coupled to the antenna. Poor matching results in high VSWR values. A
properly matched installation will show antenna VSWRs in the range of 1 to 1.7.
· Polarisation
Vertically Polarised: The dipoles are arranged in a vertical format.
Dual Polarised: The dipoles are arranged in both a vertical and a horizontal format
Cross Polarised: The dipoles are arranged at a 45° angle to the horizontal vertical.
· Beamwidth
Beamwidth is inversely related to gain, since much of the gain is obtained by concentrating the beam Higher gain
antennas thus have narrower beamwidths than lower gain antennas and, depending on the type of antenna, the
beamwidth may vary with frequency.
It should be noted that front to back ratio figure is quoted for an antenna in free space and is typically around 20
dB. A good antenna will rarely have a front to back ratio of greater than 25 dB. In reality, additional interference
paths will reduce that ratio by anything from 6 - 10 dB. Although manufacturers try to improve this ratio, unless the
sector cell is mounted in a rural environment, there is little to gain by this due to the major role played by reflections
from surrounding buildings.
· Input power
This is the maximum power that the antenna is designed to receive, and is specific for different manufacturers and
antenna systems.
· Downtilt capability
The coverage of a cell can be changed by tilting the antenna. This can be done by mechanically tilting the antenna,
or by phasing the feeds to the dipoles making up the antenna. Electrical downtilt shifts the whole transmission
pattern uniformly, whereas mechanical downtilt changes the pattern in different ways for different directions.

ANTENNA TYPES
An antenna is a device for radiating or receiving electromagnetic waves.
The dipole is the simplest form of antenna and has no gain.

CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT
· Sectorisation
· Frequency hopping
Frequency hopping is a form of radio diversity incorporated into the GSM standard to achieve a more robust
network which is resistant to fading and multi-path interference. This is accomplished by the base stations and
mobile terminals changing frequency between every data burst over each of the physical channels.
Frequency hopping improves the received radio signal by reducing the effects of fading introduced by multipath
propagation. Frequency hopping also improves the average carrier to interference performance of the system, thus
allowing a tighter frequency re-use pattern and hence capacity enhancement. The achieved gain in the system
depends on the number of frequencies that are being used in the hopping sequence (preferably four or more) and
the speed of the mobiles units. Slow moving mobiles see the greatest improvement in the C/I ratio obtained.
· Power Control
Power control is employed to minimise the transmit power required for the uplink and downlink, whilst still
maintaining the quality of the radio links to the edge of the cell coverage. Minimising the transmit power results in
lower interference to neighbouring cells.
In addition to improving the quality of service, the use of power control also increases the battery life of mobiles
using the system.
· Discontinuous Transmission (DTX)
Discontinuous transmission (DTX) turns off the transmitter when there is no radio transmission activity. The Voice
Activity Detection algorithm can detect inactive speech phases. It then replaces the continuous transmission with a
periodic Silence Description (SID) frame which contains comfort noise on the associated Slow Associated Control
Channel (SACCH). This is implemented independently on both the uplink and the downlink.
The use of DTX reduces the overall interference in the GSM system as well as decreasing the battery drain of the
mobile units.
· Half Rate Enconding
Half rate speech coding is an advanced algorithm for speech compression on the radio link. The half rate channels
use digital speech coders which are able to function at a bit rate of 6.5kb/s instead of the standard 13kb/s. Hence
the number of digital speech pathways can be doubled.
However, the Erlangs required on the control channels will also be doubled, which may lead to some situations
where some of the full rate time slots will need to become control channels. In addition to the requirement for extra
control channels the actual system capacity gain will depend on the penetration of mobiles capable of using the
half-rate codec. If the network is advanced with a high subscriber population equipped with fullrate only mobiles, it
could take years before the proportion of dual-rate mobiles is high enough to make a significant impact on the
capacity of the system.
As well as improving the system capacity for the radio network, half rate coding also improves the efficiency of the
terrestrial transmission. This can be achieved by using 8kb/s transmission instead of 16kb/s between the BTS and
STF.
Half rate coding cannot be used for data transmission.
· Heirarchical cell structure
· Cell Splitting
Cell splitting is a technique used to provide extra capacity and improve depth of coverage typically in urban
environments. It involves deploying traditional macrocell sites at much reduced site separations. This involves the
sub-division of cells enabling multiple “new” cells to be located in the same physical area as the “original” single
cell. In order to achieve this the coverage area of the “new” cells are limited by introducing downtilt in the antennas
and/or reducing the output power of the site. Site separations down to ~250m can be achieved.
· Concentric Cell
The objective of this technique is to increase the capacity within a specified area without installing new base station
sites. It is a two layered system, but both layers are available within one radio cell and there is only one BCCH. This
creates an inner and outer coverage area. The frequencies of the inner cell can be re-used more frequently.
· Indoor coverage
Picocells are small sites (<50m radius), usually limited to indoor use where the delay spreads are low and extensive
shadowing is likely. It is expected that they will serve areas will high traffic levels of stationary and pedestrian users.

COVERAGE ENHANCEMENT
· Antenna diversity
Diversity techniques are used to reduce the short term effects of Rayleigh fading on a mobile communications
channel. This provides improved radio coverage and quality of service. Long term fading effects can be overcome
by using simulcast techniques. Common diversity techniques include space diversity and polarisation diversity.
Space diversity uses two physically separated receive antennas to provide two signals with low correlation.
These antenna arrays are fairly bulky and obtrusive and are therefore generally not suitable for urban, indoor
use.
Polarisation diversity relies on the transmission of two orthogonal polarised components from a single
physical antenna, to provide two uncorrelated downlink signals. This type of diversity reduces the number of
physical antennas required, and hence reduces the visual impact of the antenna installation. This is of
increasing importance to operators who are coming under pressure to improve the aesthetics of antenna
systems, particularly in urban areas. It also eases site acquisition problems and decreases site rental and
installation costs. As weight and wind loading is reduced, lighter, less obtrusive masts can be employed.
· Tower-top low noise amplifiers
Low Noise Amplifiers (LNAs) are employed, in the receive path, to improve the performance of the uplink. They
should be located as close to the antenna as possible in order to improve the system noise figure and improve the
sensitivity of the base station, as well as overcoming feeder losses. LNAs are also used to ensure link balance
between the up- and downlinks.
· Repeaters
Repeaters, also referred to as cell enhancers, are a simple method of increasing coverage in areas where capacity
is not a consideration.
Band selective repeater employs two high gain low noise amplifiers, with pass-band set to the uplink and downlink
frequencies. Typically such amplifiers would have a gain of up to 90dB with noise figures in the region of 3dB.
Channel selective repeaters thereby filter out unwanted signals, which may be present in the cellular band, but are
not used by the specific outdoor cell with which the repeater is communicating. This avoids in-band unwanted
signals from being repeated, thus minimizing interference.

COVERAGE PLANNING
The most important objective in any network is that the marketed area should contain contiguous coverage with a
minimum number of holes. This is seen by the operator as the ability to set up, or receive a call and to
communicate for the duration of the call. The percentage of times and locations for which this occurs is known as
Quality of Service. This must be defined before undertaking RF planning.
The type of coverage required (i.e. on street, in car, in building) must also be specified along with the expected type
of mobile.
LINK BUDGET
The starting point for designing any RF plan is the agreement of the RF link budgets with the potential operator.
These determine the classes of mobile and base station that should be used and also have an influence on the
type of physical installation e.g. feeder type, antenna types, tower heights etc.
 12dB (table)
65° and 120° 12dB (table)
17-18dBi (-)2dB

0dB

2-3dB 0dB 2dB

(-)18dBi

(-)4dB 0dB 33dBm = feeder

loss

2-3dB
43dBm (-)2dBi

(-)4dBi

-102dBm
-104dBm

Instead of having balanced link budget, some operators prefer to have the downlink a few dB stronger that the
uplink to prevent the mobile ‘going out of coverage’, causing constant searches which consume a lot of battery
power.

FREQUENCY PLANNING
Frequency reuse is the core concept of cellular mobile radio systems, since the number of permitted carrier
frequencies is fixed. A frequency can be reused simultaneously in different cells, provided cells using the same
frequency are sufficiently distant to keep co-channel interference at an acceptable level most of the time, in most of
the covered area. This distance is dependent upon a number of factors such as transmitter power levels, antenna
design, terrain etc.