IMPACT AND MITIGATION OF INTERFERENCE

(INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL)

MNT Forum 23.+24. May 2023

Peter Busch
Market Development Manager MNT
Where does interference hits the hardest – the UL issue
► Interference in DL just affects a certain area

Affected area

► Interference in UL affects a whole sector ► UL is the weaker link (less power

from UE available)

► UL interference also impact the DL

Affected area performance: Missing ACKs lead to
reduction in e.g. DL-MCS

► UL Interference has a more severe impact than interference in DL → first priority for testing

2 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference

 Where is finding interference the hardest? – the TDD issue
Masking uplink with gated trigger

Trigger Free Run

(Down Link
and Uplink)

Interference

Gated Trigger
(only Uplink)

3 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference

 What is it making your life on of the hardest?
Interference types and sources Interference

“External Interference” “Internal-Interference”

In-Device This kind of interference is not inherent

related to technologies, it is caused by
Coexistence the design of the device

Non-communication Communication Communication

Cellular/cellular Cellular/non-cellular
interference interference
GSM Repeater / Intermodulation
Jammer Occurs in the same (wide-)
Bi-Directional Amplifier band channel and between
bands

1
Other incidental radiation,
TV/Radio Broadcast,
WLAN, Bluetooth etc.
Passive
2 Inter-symbol/
3
unintentional emission Intermodulation -subframe Inter-cell
Caused by other MNO Asynchronous BS, TDD Overlapping cells may
deployments or due to own switching point or misalignment cause pilot pollution
Power Switching Unit, of timing advance may cause
installation Inter-carrier
(Plasma) TVs interference
Doppler shift may cause
inter-carrier interference
Out-of-band
E.g. spurious emission

4 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference

1 The hardest: Interference in UL in TDD ....

CW Interference
signals

5 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference

1 Interference in UL in TDD – Polychrome display/spectrum

Spectrum,
persistence
color coded

Waterfall diagram
level color coded

6 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference

1 Interference in UL in TDD – Gated Spectrum

5G channel
(40 MHz wide)

5G center frequency
in time domain

Measurement window

7 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference

 2 Another threat to UL - Neighbor site interferes
Network Synchronization

► Starting point was an UL-throughput degradation, reported from several sites in a cluster.
► Troubleshooting an affected site revealed alien signals in the UL-time frame.
► Tools used: spectrum analyzer offering Gated Trigger functionality with directional antenna.

8 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference

 2 Another threat to UL - Neighbor site interferes
Network Synchronization

DL DL F UL DL DL F UL DL DL DL F UL DL DL F UL DL

gNB 1 gNB 1
of operator 1 of operator 1

DL DL F UL DL DL F UL DL DL DL F UL DL DL F UL DL

gNB 2 gNB 2
of operator 1 of operator 1

► Critical: DL of gNB 1 interferes with precious UL resources of gNB 2

► Due to intermodulation this could happen between two gNBs of different operators, as well
9 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference
 2 Another threat to UL - Neighbor site interferes
Network Synchronization
3400 MHz 3700 MHz
Operator 1 90 MHz Operator 2 50 MHz Operator 3 70 MHz Operator 4 90 MHz

3580 MHz 3670 MHz

3400 MHz 3490 MHz IM3 IM5

3400 MHz 3535 MHz 3580 MHz

IM3 3445 MHz 3490 MHz IM3 IM5 IM7 IM9

IM5 IM3 3460 MHz 3490 MHz

IM3 IM5 IM7 IM9

Intermodulation caused by a OFDM (multi carrier) signal (systematic effect!)

10 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference

2 Another threat to UL - Neighbor site interferes
Active antenna site (AAS) and non-AAS Sites - filter
Non-AAS Site
Radiated interface
boundary
Filtering not possible
+1

Transceiver
+2 Radio
Antenna
unit array Distribution
Array
(TRXUA) Network
(AA)
1 to M RDN AAS Site Radiated interface
boundary

+k

Composite antenna

Transceiver array Radio

Transceiver unit array Antenna
boundary Distribution
(TRXUA) Array
Network
1 to P (AA)
RDN

Filtering possible

11 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference

 2 Another threat to UL - Neighbor site interferes
Network Synchronization

GSMA preferred frame structure: 30 kHz Subcarrier Spacing (SCS)

10 ms radio frame = 10 subframes = 20 slots

DL DL DL S UL DL DL DL S UL DL DL DL S UL DL DL DL S UL

2.5 ms periodicity DSB 10 DL, 2 GP, DSB

2 UL symbols

Could also be considered: DSB DSB

DL DL DL S UL UL DL DL DL DL DL DL DL S UL UL DL DL DL DL

5 ms periodicity
Downlink Symbol Blanking“ DSB: resources not used in DL

► Avoid cross border interference: Align the TDD pattern and/or apply „Downlink Symbol Blanking“ DSB
12 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference
3 Inter-cell Pilot pollution
Cell geometry factor

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/5956548

13 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference

3 Intra-cell Pilot pollution
Definition of beam GEOMETRY Factor Intra-cell
► PCI 103 transmits its SSB on NR-ARFCN (GSCN)

gNB
PCI 103

𝟏𝟎 𝑺𝑺−𝑹𝑺𝑹𝑷 𝑺𝑺𝑩 #𝟔
𝑮𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒂 = 𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝟏𝟎
σ 𝟏𝟎𝑺𝑺−𝑹𝑺𝑹𝑷𝑺𝑺𝑩 #𝟎,𝟏,𝟐,𝟑,𝟒,𝟓,𝟕

► Intra Cell GEOMETRY factor ensures beam isolation in one cell, to produce a best server scenario
14 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference
3 Inter-cell Pilot pollution
Definition of beam GEOMETRY Factor Inter-cell
► PCI 103, 203, 303 transmits its SSB on NR-ARFCN (GSCN)

gNB gNB
PCI 103 PCI 203

𝟏𝟎 𝑺𝑺−𝑹𝑺𝑹𝑷𝑺𝑺𝑩 #𝟔
𝑮𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓 = 𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝟏𝟎
σ 𝟏𝟎𝑺𝑺−𝑹𝑺𝑹𝑷𝑺𝑺𝑩 #𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝑺𝑺𝑩 𝒘/𝒐#𝟔
gNB
PCI 303
15 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference
3. Pilot Pollution: Inter-cell interference due to overlapping cells
RSRP SINR CGF

▪ Very high RSRP, but poor SINR indicates problems (even in unloaded network)
▪ Cell Geometry Factor (CGF) = ratio of best cell RSRP and all other received neighbors’ RSRP
▪ CGF show red figures in a problematic area
− RSRP of best cell is weaker than sum of neighbors

► Poor isolation causes inter-cell interference (→ low SINR and consequently low data throughput)
16 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference
3. Pilot Pollution: Inter-cell interference due to overlapping cells
Example: TopN view in R&S®ROMES4: Sorted list of basic RF parameters of 5G NR signals
in an area with pilot pollution
2nd and 3rd best signal only
1 dB lower RSRP than the
“best” server
→ Results in a low
Geometry factor

Good RSRP (coverage level), but very bad SINR and RSRQ (signal quality)
In a good network a signal with -90dBm RSRP should provide > +15dB SINR.
► Poor isolation → low SINR and consequently low data throughput (Shannon theorem)
17 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference
SUMMARY
www.rohde-schwarz.com/mnt/interference-hunting
www.rohde-schwarz.com/mnt/installation-maintenance

UL interference is more critical than DL interference

Gated spectrum/trigger or polychrome display (statistics) is the way to identify and locate
external interference sources in TDD networks
Network synchronization is crucial between cells, operators and countries. Important here
is the measurement tool being able to measure as many signals as possible, in parallel.
Pilot pollution: The Geometry Factor allows throughput estimation in unloaded network, via
SINR optimization.
The Rohde & Schwarz Mobile Network Testing solution portfolio is supporting all of the
measurements above
► Rohde & Schwarz is your partner for mobile network performance testing
and troubleshooting
18 Rohde & Schwarz Impact and mitigation of interference