5G Link Budget:

When designing a radio communications system, it is necessary to calculate radio link budget. The link budget is an
accounting of the transmitted power, along with all the gains and losses that a radio signal experiences along the way,
in a telecommunication network.

A simple link budget equation looks like this: Received Power = Transmitted Power + Gains − Losses

A link budget accounts for the attenuation of the transmitted signal due to propagation, antenna gain, feeder/cable
losses, and other losses, as well as the amplification of the signal at receiver’s end. Some margins, such as
fading/interference are also taken into account due to the anticipated severity of their effects.

Figure 1: A Simple Link Budget Equation

This ensures that once the telecom network is installed and is ready to use, there will be sufficient signal strength for
user equipment to connect to the network. Link budget calculations help to ensure that appropriate number of sites
are selected for target coverage area, and it balances the cost of the system while still maintaining performance.

5G NR RF design, like any other radio system design, is based on the following key indicators:

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 Figure 2: RF Design Indicators
Coverage: A geographical area within which a 5G network has sufficient radio signal strength to support intended
services (voice/data) for the end-user.

Capacity: The ability of a 5G network to support a given number of users, over the radio (air) interface.

Quality: The ability of a 5G network to adequately provide the intended services, within defined quality thresholds,
over the radio (air) interface.

In 5G NR, all three of these indicators are interrelated. To improve quality, some coverage and capacity have to be
sacrificed. To improve coverage, capacity and quality would be sacrificed, and to improve capacity, coverage, and
quality would be sacrificed.

The first level of the 5G RF design process is a budgetary level. It uses the RF link budget along with a statistical
propagation model (such as RMa, UMa, UMi-Street Canyon, InH-Office, InF proposed in 3GPP TR 38.901 v16.0.0) to
estimate the RF coverage of the sites and ultimately determine how many sites are required for the particular system.
This type of propagation model does not include terrain effects.

As explained above, the RF link budget is the sum of all the gains and losses encountered by the radio signal in its
propagation path. The link budget must be determined for each sector of each site. The link budget for each sector
must incorporate all required parameters, (such as building penetrations loss, antenna height(s), antenna gain(s), cable
losses, coverage criteria, and coverage area reliability, etc.), some of which may have different values between sites or
sectors. It is common that all sectors of a given site have the same link budget or even that several sites have the same
link budget due to common installation practices being followed. If this is the case, then the same link budget can be
used for all of the similarly configured sectors. However, if the parameters change from sector to sector and site to site,
then separate link budgets will need to be calculated for each unique sector.

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 Figure 3: Link Budget Description
Figure 4 below shows the calculation with typical gains, losses, and margins involved in the air, till the signal reaches a
receiver

Receive Power = Transmit Power (1) – Cable & Connector Loss (2) + BTS Antenna Gain (3) – Propagation Loss (4 ) – Slow
Fading Margin (5) – Environment Loss (6) – Foliage Loss (7) – Interference Margin (8) – Penetration Loss (9) – Body Loss
(10) + Mobile Antenna Gain (11)

Figure 4: Link Budget With Typical Gains & Losses

5G radio interface offers a wide variety of physical parameters and features that can impact a radio link budget. In an
attempt to easily understand the 5G radio link budget and to understand the parameters involved in link budget
calculation, a simplified version of the 5G radio link budget with basic assumptions is tabulated below.

The intent is to briefly introduce all the key parameters involved in the 5G radio link budget calculation.

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 Figure 5: Link Key Parameters

Detailed Link
Budget Calculation &
Description

Table 1: Link Budget

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 Table 1: Link Budget Continue

Table 1: Link Budget Continue

Table 1: Link Budget Continue

Cell Radius
Cell Radius is an area where coverage of the site can reach and serve the users connected with that particular site(s).
Determining the Cell Radius helps the RF engineers in calculating the number of sites required to cover a particular
area. e.g polygon, city. etc

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Once the Path Loss PL(dB) is available, cell radius can be calculated as follows.

Figure 6: Cell Radius

After getting the cell radius value, we can estimate the coverage area of one site with the following formula (Estimated
Coverage Area: π * Cell Radius ^ 2)

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And after knowing the estimated coverage area of one site, a total number of sites can be estimated in the required
service area, by dividing the total service area with the estimated coverage area of one site. (Estimated gNB Required =
Total Service Area /Estimated Coverage Area of one site)

Link Budget Balancing

In any two-way radio system, the radio path loss and the equipment output powers and sensitivities must be taken into
account for downlink and uplink directions . This is especially true in a telecom network, where there are different
characteristics for the uplink and downlink. These include, for example, the possibility of masthead amplifiers in the
uplink direction, the transmit power of the mobile (UE) typically being less than that of the Base Station, and the
sensitivity of the Base Station receiver generally is better than that of the mobile (UE).

If the differences between the uplink and downlink directions are not considered, it is possible that the Base Station has
a service area much bigger than that which the mobile (UE) is unable to use due to the mobile’s typically lower output
power. Therefore, the Maximum Allowable Path Loss in the uplink and downlink directions must be calculated to
determine how well the paths are balanced. A balanced system gain (link Budget) is where the maximum allowable
path loss in the uplink direction is equivalent to the maximum allowable path loss in the downlink direction.

Some items will have an equal impact on both the uplink and downlink directions. For example, increasing the gain of
the antenna (assuming it is being used for both transmission and reception) affects both the downlink and uplink,
therefore maintaining system balance. The RF link budget is typically used to determine whether the downlink or uplink
is the limiting factor. Thus, it is very important to analyse the RF link budget in both directions.

There are two types of the unbalanced link budget

Type 1: The downlink power is more than the uplink: In this case, coverage of base station is more than the range of
mobile (UE), and coverage area is small in actuality than calculated. This is the most common type.

Type 2: The uplink power is more than the downlink: In this case coverage of base station is less than the range of
mobile

Unbalanced Link Budget (Type 1), User at the edge of "yellow" coverage area can receive
Downlink from gNB but its Uplink will not reach the gNB.

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Balanced Link Budget

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