Ericsson INTERNAL ONLY LZU 1022059 R1A

1204

Microwave Transmission
Technology Fundamentals
– Antennas

Welcome to the web based Microwave Transmission Technology Fundamentals course –

covering Antennas.
At the end of this course you should:
- know how Microwave Transmission antennas work and what main components they have
- know the different ways to connect a microwave radio to the antenna
- understand how antennas give a signal gain
- understand the importance of proper installation and antenna alignment
To navigate in the course and jump between the pages you can use the Menu button. The
Audio button allows you to switch the audio on or off. You can also use this button to read
the subtitles. When you click the Glossary button you can read out the different
abbreviations used in the course. The help button will give you the navigation information in
writing. By clicking the Notes button you can take personal notes and print them.
You can click the replay button to view the animation again and the play/pause button to
start or stop the animation.
And finally use the Back or Next button to go either to the previous page or the next page.

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› Antenna Fundamentals

› Antenna Connections

› Antenna Gain

› Installation & Alignment

Lets take a look at the Agenda for the course

At first. We will go through the antenna fundamentals

After that see how to connect microwave radios to the antenna

Next look at the gain from the antenna

And finally go through installation and alignment requirements

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Antenna Fundamentals

The first chapter will go through the basic features of antennas used in
Microwave systems.

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› Parabolic antennas
› One antenna ~ one frequency band
› Focus beam (pencil beam)
› Gain in dBi
› Diameter in m – name of antenna
Diameter (m)

Free
Tx Space
Loss
Rx

The antennas used by microwave transmission systems are parabolic antennas of

different sizes.
There are different antennas for each frequency band. Microwave systems transmit and
receive signals at the same time. The transmit antenna is also used for receiving the
signal from the opposite station. The features of antennas discussed in this course apply
to both transmitting and receiving signals.
Microwave antennas focus the signal in one direction., The directional effect of parabolic
antennas at microwave frequencies is very strong. Most signal energy is transmitted and
received within a few degrees of the antenna pointing direction. This is sometimes called
a “pencil beam”.
The directivity of the antenna is measured in “dBi” and called “antenna gain”. This
logarithmic unit compares the signal power to that of a theoretical “isotropic” antenna
which transmits equally in all directions.
The bigger a parabolic antenna is, the more it focuses the signal. The antenna product
names used by manufacturers typically give the diameter of the antenna reflector. This
diameter can be from 20 centimeters up to over 4 meters.

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Antenna
feeder
Antenna
mount

Waveguide
interface

Reflector
Radome
Shield w. absorber

This is an illustrated cross section of a typical parabolic antenna and its components.
The most visible part of the antenna is the reflector. – It is the parabolic shape of the
reflector that focuses the signal. The bigger the reflector, the more of the total transmitter
power is sent in the wanted direction.
Antenna feeder – The antenna feeder transmits the signal onto the reflector and also of
course receives the signal coming from the other side of the hop.
Waveguide interface – This is the connection towards the signal generating equipment. As
we will se later in the course there are few different ways to connect to the antenna.
Shield with absorber – Most Microwave Transmission antennas have a shield with an
absorbing material around the reflector. The reason for this is that although the antenna
focuses the signal in one direction the antenna still transmits some of the signal in all
directions around the antenna, so called side lobes. The absorbing material in the shield
reduces the side lobes thus reducing the risk of interfering other equipment using the same
frequency.
Radome - The radome is environmental protection for the antenna. It can be anything from
stopping snow to birds building nests inside the antenna.
Antenna mount – To be able to mount the antenna to the tower a antenna mount must be
included in the antenna as well. Depending on the size of the antenna the mount can look
very different

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› Main lobe
– wanted
› Side lobes
– unwanted

As already mentioned, the purpose of a parabolic antenna is to focus the signal in

one wanted direction.

However, every parabolic antenna also sends out a small part of the signal in
other directions. This is not wanted, but cannot be avoided.
The gain of the antenna in all directions around it is called the “antenna pattern”.
It can be measured in test laboratories and is often plotted in a graph. The
pattern is important for calculating interferences between microwave hops.

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› Main lobe 50
23 GHz
– wanted
› Side lobes Main lobe
– unwanted 25
Side lobes

Gain (dBi)
0

- 25

0 60 120 180
Azimuth (°)

This graph shows the pattern of an 0.6m 23GHz antenna. You can see that the
highest gain is in the wanted transmission direction at zero degrees.

This is called the “main lobe” of the antenna.

Transmissions in other directions, called “side lobes” can also be seen.

Antennas are built to different standards that say how strong the side lobes may
be relative to the main lobe.

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50
› Main lobe 23 GHz
– wanted
› Side lobes
– unwanted 25
› Antenna classes
– ETSI

Gain (dBi)
›4
›3 0
›2
Class 1
›1
– FCC Class 2

›A - 25 Class 3

›B Class 4

0 60 120 180
Azimuth (°)

The standardizing bodies, ETSI and FCC, have defined different antenna classes
for this purpose. Regardless of antenna class, the signal strength of the main
lobe is the same. The difference between the classes is the strength of the side
lobes. The higher the class, the weaker the side lobes.
So the antenna pattern measurement in the graph belongs to a ETSI class 3
antenna.

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Antenna Connections

Now let us take a look at the different ways to connect a microwave radio to the
antenna. We will also see how more than one radio can share the same antenna.

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Elliptical Waveguide Integrated Mounting Flexible/Twistable Waveguide

Dehydrator

There are three ways to connect to the antennas that are used for different reasons. The three
ways are: Elliptical waveguide, Flexible/Twistable waveguide and Integrated mounting.
An Elliptical waveguide is used by high capacity all-indoor microwave systems. The Elliptical
waveguide allows to send a number of signals from the signal generating equipment indoors using
one single antenna. The waveguide is frequency-band dependent, much like the antennas. The
lower the frequency the bigger diameter is required of the waveguide.
The Elliptical waveguide is not very flexible so this makes it more difficult to install compared to the
other two ways to connect the antenna.
Especially when using long waveguides a dehydrator is also required. If the air inside the
waveguide is humid or if the air pressure changes the signal can be degraded. A dehydrator is
used to dry the air and keep a constant pressure inside the waveguide. Another issue to take into
consideration is that there are losses of the signal strength in the waveguide. The longer the
waveguide the higher losses.
Integrated mounting is preferred for split mount and all-outdoor microwave systems. The signal
generating equipment outdoors is mounted directly on the antenna. The main advantages are no
waveguide losses and simplified installation. However, integrated mounting cannot always be used
especially for larger antennas.
Flexible/Twistable waveguides are used by split mount and all-outdoor microwave systems
where integrated mounting is not possible. The signal generating equipment is outdoors on the
tower and only a short connection to the antenna is required. Power losses inside flexible/twistable
waveguides are high compared to the less flexible elliptical waveguides, so they are not suitable for
longer connections. Manufacturers offer standard length pieces of flexible/twistable waveguide,
typically around one meter long.

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› 1 radio – 1 antenna
Radio

Radio
› Power Splitter
– 2 radios – 1 antenna
› 2 frequencies or 1+1
› Symmetrical/Asymmetrical
› 1.5 - 7 dB attenuation

Radio 1 Radio 2
Power Splitter Power Splitter
Radio 2 Radio 1

We have already seen that you can connect a radio directly to the antenna. 1 Radio is connected
to 1 antenna.
It is also possible to connect more radios to a single polarized antenna.
To be able to do that a power splitter is required. The power splitter is also called coupler or
combiner.
A power splitter allows you to connect two radios to the same antenna.
It can be used to send two signals over the hop or in a protected 1+1 configuration. When
sending two signals over the hop two frequencies must be used to avoid interference between
the two signals.
The downside of using a power splitter is that there are losses inside it. Because of this there are
two types of power splitter, the Symmetrical and the Asymmetrical.
The Symmetrical has equal losses for the two connected radios and is used when two signals
are sent over the hop or in Frequency diversity 1+1 protected configurations.
The Asymmetrical has lower losses on one of the connected radios and higher losses for the
other radio. It is used in Hardware protected 1+1 configurations, also called 1+1 Hot Standby.
The losses range between 1.5 to 7 dB.
Several power splitters can be cascaded to connect more than two radios to one antenna. This
will however increase the power losses for each radio so much that it is often not practical.
Instead, high capacity trunk radios use low-loss branching networks installed indoors.

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› Vertical/Horizontal polarization

› Single polarized antenna

– Vertical or Horizontal

› Dual polarized antenna

– Vertical and Horizontal
– OMT - Orthomode transducer
– XPD - Cross Polarization Discrimination OMT

› CCDP channel pattern Vertical

X
Z V-pol
Horizontal

Y XPD
H-pol

The antennas used by microwave systems can send the signal with either vertical or horizontal
polarization. Two signals in different polarizations can use the same frequency.
There are two types of antennas.
Single polarized antennas and dual polarized antennas.
Single-polarized antennas can send one signal either as vertical or horizontal. They can only
use one polarization . The polarization is set by turning the antenna feeder 90 degrees when the
antenna is installed.
Dual-polarized antennas send two signals at the same time. One vertically polarized and
another horizontal. Using a dual polarized antenna allows sending two signals over the hop with
the same frequency and double the capacity.
A dual-polarized antenna has two waveguide interfaces, one for the vertical and one for the
horizontal signal.
The antenna contains an “Orthomode transducer” or OMT that combines the two transmit signals
before they go to the antenna feeder. In the receive direction, the OMT separates the two signals
that the antenna receives on the two polarizations.
A dual polarized antenna almost completely separates the vertical and horizontal signals but not
quite… A small part of the vertical signal is also sent out as horizontal and a little bit of the
horizontal is also sent out as vertical. The difference between the “real” polarized signal and this
unwanted polarized signal is called Cross Polarization Discrimination value or XPD value. The
XPD value of an antenna must be considered in microwave systems using CCDP mode and the
XPIC technology.

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Antenna Gain

The main task of the antenna is to focus the signal in one direction. The antenna
sends most power in the wanted direction – we describe this with the antenna
gain figure. So how much gain does an antenna have?

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› Larger antenna – Higher gain

– longer path length

› Double the antenna size ~ + 6 dB gain

– Antenna size x 2 ~ 4 x the gain

› Lower frequency – Larger antenna

Gain ~ d2 x f2

The larger an antenna is, the higher is the gain. With higher antenna gain, longer
Microwave hops are possible. So longer hops will need larger antennas than
shorter hops.

In fact, the gain of an antenna is proportional to its surface area. If you double the
diameter of an antenna, it’s surface area and therefore its gain will increase by
factor four. Expressed in the Decibel scale that is normally used for antenna
gains, this is an increase of 6 dB.

The antenna gain is also frequency dependent. At lower frequencies, a larger

antenna is required to achieve the same gain. [klick] The gain is proportional to
the square of the frequency.

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› Gain 30 dBi
– 5 degrees Beam width
o
5
Half-power Beam Width
› Gain 50 dBi
– 0.5 degrees Beam width
0.5o

› Lower frequency – Larger

antenna
Antenna Gain [dBi]
Size Frequency [GHz]
Half Power Beam width [m] 4 5 6 7/8 10/11 13 15 18 23 24/26 28 32 38 42 80
Size Frequency [GHz] 0.2 31.8 33.8 34.6 35.4 37.5 38.2 43.3
[m] 4 5 6 7/8 10/11 13 15 18 23 24/26 28 32 38 42 80
0.3 31.6 32.1 34.4 36.2 37.3 38.0 38.7 40.4 41.2 47.0
0.2 4.2 3.6 3.3 2.9 2.3 2.1 1.1
0.3 4.6 4.2 3.3 2.7 2.5 2.3 2.0 1.7 1.5 0.8 0.6 31.6 34.6 36.0 37.0 39.1 40.5 41.7 42.6 43.7 45.1 45.8 50.8
0.6 4.3 3.1 2.8 2.4 1.9 1.6 1.3 1.2 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.5 0.9 32.8 35.6 38.9 40.0 40.9 43.0 44.7 45.7 46.9 47.4 49.3
o 0.9 3.7 2.8 2.1 1.7 1.6 1.3 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.7
5 1.2 2.9 2.2 1.5 1.3 1.2 0.9 0.8 0.6
1.2 35.0 37.3 40.7 42.0 43.0 44.7 46.7 47.4
1.8 3.2 2.6 1.8 1.5 1.1 0.9 0.8 0.6 0.5
1.8 34.8 36.3 39.3 40.8 44.2 45.5 46.7 48.5 49.9
2.4 2.4 1.9 1.4 1.2 0.9 0.7 0.6 2.4 37.3 38.8 42.1 43.8 46.2 47.7 48.5
3.0 1.9 1.5 1.1 1.0 0.7 0.6 3.0 38.9 40.6 43.5 45.0 47.9 49.4
3.7 1.6 1.2 0.9 0.8
3.7 40.9 42.2 45.4 46.9
0.5o

Another way to measure how much an antenna focuses the signal is by the opening angle of the antenna’s “pencil
beam”. A higher gain antenna has a sharper beam than a lower gain antenna.
The figure used for this is called the “half-power beam width” of the antenna. This is the opening angle of the
antenna’s main lobe. To be precise, it is the angle between the two directions on the left and right of the main lobe
where the antenna’s gain is half of its maximum value.
Parabolic microwave antennas have gains of roughly between 30 and 50 dBi.
30 dBi gain corresponds to a half-power beam width of roughly 5 degrees.
50 dBi gain means the antennas beam width is about half a degree.
For microwave transmission, an antenna gain lower than 30 dBi is not enough, the achievable hop length would be
too short. So antennas with lower gain are not used.
Antenna gains above 50 dBi would be nice to have for long hops, but in practice the half-power beam width of such
high gain antennas would be too low. It would be virtually impossible to align the antenna with the antenna at the
opposite station because the main lobe would be to narrow.
The typical antenna gains between 30 and 50 dBi apply to all frequency bands used in Microwave transmission.
However the antennas for the lower frequencies must be larger to achieve the same gain.
Antenna manufacturers have a portfolio of different size antennas for each frequency band. The two tables show a
selection of antennas. Each figure in the tables is one antenna available from this manufacturer. The right table
shows the gain and the table to the left shows the half-power beam width for each frequency and size of antenna.
We can see that the lower frequencies use the larger antennas. The higher frequency antennas are smaller. 0.9 m is
the largest antenna available for 28 GHz. The gain of this antenna is 47 dB, near the upper end of the 30-50 dB
range. For 6 GHz there is no 0.3 m antenna available because the gain of this antenna would be too small.

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Installation & Alignment

The last part of our course describes a few important issues when it comes to the
installation of the antennas and the alignment procedure.

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› Large Antennas – robust towers

– Wind load
– Tower not to move in wind
› Large Antennas – “demanding” installation
– Cost
– Resources
› As small antennas as possible – “normally
used” by planners
› Antennas shipped un-assembled

As we have seen quite big antennas can be used for microwave systems and this
puts big requirements on the towers. The larger the antennas are, the more
robust the towers need to be. Large antennas create heavy wind loads and it is
crucial the towers don’t move in the wind.

Large antennas of course cost more but they also require a more demanding and
costly installation process. Extra equipment like cranes are required to be able to
get the antennas up the tower.

Because of these cost issues, planners generally use the smallest antennas
possible. Larger antennas are only used when necessary to achieve the required
hop length or to reduce the risk of interference in the network.

Many antennas are shipped to site unassembled in order to reduce volume in

transport. These antennas must be assembled before they can be installed.

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› Correct installation crucial

– Path Performance
– Reliability
– Safety
› Site Documentation
› Alignment
– Voltmeter
– Azimuth
– Elevation
– Polarization

A correct installation of the microwave system including the antennas is crucial for several reasons. The
installation includes the physical installation of the equipment and also the exact pointing of the antenna
towards the opposite station. This is called “alignment” of the antenna.
If installation and alignment are not done correctly, there is a risk that the planned performance values
are not reached and the microwave hop will not function as it should. Also wear and tear can reduce the
life expectancy of improperly installed equipment. Microwave Systems are expected to function without
maintenance for many years. If, for example, a flexible/twistable waveguide is not fastened properly at
installation, it can move in high winds and fail after some time.
Safety is the most important aspect during installation. Microwave Transmission antennas are typically
installed in high locations, up towers or on the roof of buildings where precautions have to be taken to
protect against falls. Installation personnel needs to be trained and use protective climbing gear.
Another important part to secure a correct installation is to have proper site documentation. The site
documentation should state all relevant information for the microwave system and the installation. For
instance all required equipment, antenna height, direction to the far end site and so on.
When the equipment is installed at both sites the alignment process can start. The aim is to reach the
receiver values calculated by the planner. A Voltmeter is connected to read out the receiver value and a
diagram can be used to translate between Volt and dB.
The goal is to direct the antenna in an exactly correct position to point to the far end antenna. This is done
by turning the antenna in both vertical direction up and down and also in horizontal direction from side to
side. This is called the Elevation and Azimuth angles.
Every antenna must also be rotated so that its polarization is exactly horizontal or vertical, as required.
This is particularly important for dual polarized antennas.

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Ignite
Your
Curiosity

This concludes our introduction to antennas with the Microwave Transmission

Technology Fundamentals – Antennas course. Thank you for your time and hope
you have enjoyed this learning session.

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