2018 9th IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium (ICSGRC 2018), 3 - 4 August 2018, Shah Alam,

Malaysia

Multibeam RF Antenna Solution for Capacity

Enhancement in Stadium Shah Alam
Mohd Yusdee Yusof Mohamad Yazid Mohamad
Suzi Seroja Sarnin
Faculty of Electrical Engineering Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Electrical Engineering
University Technologi MARA University Technologi MARA
University Technologi MARA
Shah Alam, Malaysia Shah Alam, Malaysia
Shah Alam, Malaysia
yusdee@edotcogroup.com yazid@edotcogroup.com
suzi045@salam.uitm.edu.my
Nani fadzlina Naim Norsuzila Ya’acob
Wan Norsyafizan W.Mohamad
Faculty of Electrical Engineering Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Faculty of Electrical Engineering
University Technologi MARA University Technologi MARA
University Technologi MARA
Shah Alam, Malaysia Shah Alam, Malaysia
Shah Alam, Malaysia
fazdlina007@yahoo.com norsuzilaya’acob@salam.uitm.edu
norsyafizan@salam.uitm.edu.my

Abstract— The project proposal is to support the Mobile

Subscribers (MS) demand during the major event held in closed
environment such as stadium. As usual, the high data usage is
the major contribution to the network congestion for every
Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) during high crowd. MNOs
have to dimension their network according to their strategy(s)
over the Grade of Service (GoS) in order to ensure their MS
enjoy their network services. This proposal paper will focus on
the providing the best solution for MNOs to ease the high
congestion via Multibeam RF Antenna solution. Besides other
solutions such as IBC (In-Building Coverage), Small Cells and
Wi-Fi, the proposed solution, Multibeam RF Antenna solution is
chosen as it is fast in deployment, good network quality and cost
effective compared to others. The statistics analysis, coverage
prediction studies, combining method and cost efficiency studies
will be the main focus to ensure the effectiveness of the proposed
solution.
Keywords—multibeam RF, Grade of Service, Mobile Station
I. INTRODUCTION
Mobile Subscribers (MS) high expectation on data
transaction where to be “always” in contact with people over
the world is crucial. Their expectation is very high as
connection to the internet via social networking is most
demanded as compared to voice call. The social media is
currently the most popular activity by MS where they tend to
update or be updated at most of the time and at anywhere they
go. The behavior of MS is all about the engagement, creating,
browsing and as well as communicate online with people
worldwide.
Hence the research proposal will address and focusing on
the delivery of the demand from MS during the major event
held in closed loop area such as stadium. As all users notice on
the limitations of the facilities around them, telecommunication
companies must take an initiative to serve their customers well.
There are a few solutions have been introduced in the
industries nowadays such as IBC (In-Building Coverage),
Small Cells, Wi-Fi and Multibeam RF Antenna Solution.
Multibeam RF Antenna solution has been chosen based on;
• fast in deployment
• good network quality/less interference
• cost effective
Conventional methods that are usually deployed by MNOs
in Malaysia are via Mobile BTS trucks with limited resources
and at high cost. The Multibeam RF Antenna solution is faster
way in deployment, practical in serving a big crowd, more cost
effective and easy to maintain.
II. METHODOLOGY
In comparison on the deployment of the proposed
Multibeam RF Antenna solution compared to IBC, it is
simpler as it is almost a same method as installation a normal
BTS site. The deployment of Multibeam RF antenna only
involves one single location instead of multiple points location
involving a lots of wiring activities. As a result, the period of
time is faster and cost effective in term of man power and man
hour.
The position of the Multibeam RF Antenna has to be
identified via the Planning Tools for example Atoll, IBWave
etc. The model of the antenna has to be uploaded into the
system(tools) to be able the system to simulate the coverage
prediction. The stadium layout need to be uploaded into the
system in order the prorogation to be as accurate as possible.
The standard deployment of RF antenna for normal Base
Transceiver Site (BTS) is via 3-sectorised antenna that
covering the 3600 surrounding the location. The coverage
overlapping is to be avoided as it will create a bad quality of a
site which caused of dropped calls as well as affecting the
capacity of the system. Addressing the high crowd require
multiple sectors via multiple beams RF antenna focusing the
crowd area.

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 2018 9th IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium (ICSGRC 2018), 3 - 4 August 2018, Shah Alam, Malaysia

The application of this Multibeam RF Antenna, will only

focus on High Band (HB) spectrum where the bandwidth
allocated by MCMC is wider and the selected frequencies
(HB) are more effective compared to Low Frequency (LF)
bands.
The antenna specification is defined by the manufacturer
and the most critical items to be considered is the antenna
Gains and the beam forming for both Horizontal and Vertical
values.
The frequencies and technologies used are as below in Table
1.
Table 1: Frequency Spectrum and Technologies

Figure 1: RF Antenna and Combining Circuit

The coverage simulation/prediction is another method used

to identify the suitable location of the Multibeam RF antenna
position in the stadium. The simulation will be done via RF
Planning Tools such as Atoll, IB Wave etc. The details of RF
Antenna specification are to be specified and keyed-in into the
system/tools. Besides, the site survey is also required as to
identify the possible location for the RF Antenna to be
mounted to. The results obtained from the RF Planning tools
are then used as a benchmark and reference for the next
activity after the installation/deployment.
The integration/testing activities via Walk Test will then
take place with KPI reference to be achieved as refers to target
obtained from RF Planning Tools.

The planning tools used to predict the coverage prediction

The research proposal will be focusing to 4 (four) MNOs in
Malaysia known as Celcom, Digi, Maxis and UMobile as they
are the major MS shareholder. The technologies are limited to
UMTS-2100MHz and LTE-2600MHz only as to avoid the
Passive Inter-Modulation (PIM) interference which will
impact on quality of the network. These 4-MNOs services will
be combined together using the combining circuit called
Hybrid Coupler (HC) and Diplexer. The Diplexer is used to
combined 2-technologies (UMTS & LTE). The HC is used to
combined 4-MNOs and need to be terminated with Dummy or
Cable load to avoid error in VSWR. The proposed combining
circuit is as Figure 1 below.
of each technology i.e. GSM, UMTS and LTE.
As for GSM, the tools may predict the BCCH coverage,
while UMTS is RSCP (Receiver Side Call Power) and for
LTE is RSRP (Reference Signal Received Power). These
parameter is measured in dBm from the MNOs network
provider i.e. On the downlink portion.
Figure 1a shows the sample of RF coverage prediction
obtained from RF Planning Tools.

Figure 1a: Coverage Prediction Plot from RF Planning Tools.

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 2018 9th IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium (ICSGRC 2018), 3 - 4 August 2018, Shah Alam, Malaysia

The results obtained from the coverage prediction

simulation will be a reference to consider the optimum
location to place the Multibeam RF Antenna. During the
simulation, the coverage overlapping is recommended to be
avoided as it will affect the service performance/quality.

The coverage served by these antennas is determined after

the active elements (NodeB/eNodeB) are turned ON. It will be
verified via the Walk Test (WT) activity. Coverage spillage
from outside cells is another challenge to be considered and it
contributes to the quality performance. In this case, site re-
engineering is required to be done in order to ensure
subscribers are free from bad quality experience. Figure 3: RF Antenna proposed location in stadium

The open area of the stadium will be mainly served by the

proposed Multibeam RF Antenna while the “blind spots” area
may not receive a good coverage as it is blocked by concrete
wall. Coverage enhancement for the “blind spots” area will be
served via other solution such as Small Cells or Repeater.

In order to serve the huge numbers of MS, a Multibeam RF

Antenna specification as shown in Figure 4 will be the most
suitable to address the demand. The antenna beam width is
narrow beam to accommodate multi numbers of
NodeB/eNodeB that contributes to extra resources.

Figure 2: RF Antenna targeted serving area via beam performing

The proposed location of the Multibeam RF Antenna is

another challenge to be considered. The designed shall be
based on effectiveness, feasibility, cost effective and future
proof. Figure 3 shows the proposed location of Multibeam RF
Antenna to serve the surrounding area of stadium. The
direction of the antenna must not be blocked by any obstacle(s)
in front of the panel antenna to avoid from bad signal
propagation to reach the MS.

Figure 4: Multi Beam RF Antenna specification

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 2018 9th IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium (ICSGRC 2018), 3 - 4 August 2018, Shah Alam, Malaysia
The focus are on 3G and 4G systems, the statistics to be
monitored and compared before and after event are as below.
1. Walk Test (WT) – Drop Call & PCI Code detection
2. Statistics : Resource Block (RB) Utilization
3. Statistics : Cell Availability
4. Statistics : RSSI(4G-LTE) & RTWP(3G-UMTS)
5. Statistics : RSRP(4G-LTE) & RSCP(3G-UMTS)
Figure 5: Benchmark of coverage strength
III. CONCLUSION
The performance of the Multibeam RF Antenna can be
monitored by the statistics produced by the telecommunication
industries. The optimization of the network quality shall be
performed by re-engineering the Antenna via antenna panning
and mechanical tilt. The multiple cycles of Walk Test (WT)
shall be applied to ensure the target KPI meet the objective.
The GoS (Grade of Service) setting by each MNOs area
different and they are set accordingly.
Among the statistics to be considered are Cell Utilization
that shows the congestion level, RSSI (4G-LTE) and RTWP
(3G-UMTS) as indicator for the interference level, RSRP
(Reference Signal Received Power) and RSCP (Received
Signal Code Power) as indicator on coverage strength. These
measurements are used as a benchmark of the network quality
of each telecommunication industry. Parameter Setting and
Configuration of each telecommunication industries will be
different and subject to the throughput target set for their
subscribers.
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The design shall consider the future requirements such as
4T/4R, LTE1800 deployment and an addition of other
telecommunication industry to join in serving their subscribers
inside the stadium.
Overall conclusion, the design is feasible and cost effective
as compared to other solutions. Other elements such as
backhaul and front haul connectivity as well as sharing power
system are another option to be considered towards cost saving
and easy maintenance..
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank members of Faculty of Electrical
Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA Shah Alam,
Malaysia for the guidance and support during this project.
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