MW Transmission

Prepared by Andualem Tilahun

RAN Technician

04/08/2022
CONTENT
 Microwave introduction
 Microwave propagation characteristic
 Microwave key technologies
 Microwave link budget

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 Microwave Introduction- Definition

Any electromagnetic signal with a frequency within 300MHz to 300GHz

Commonly Microwave in telecommunication is referred to point to point

transmission system

Most telecom vendors produce MW equipment in the range of 6GHz to 38GHz

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 Microwave Introduction- Frequency basics

 ITU-T has defined the following Frequency bands:

 6,7,8,11,13,15,18,23,26,32,38 GHz
 Each frequency band has one or several sub-bands which are under ITU-T standard :
 The sub-band defines the Start Tx and end Tx
 Ex : Frequency band 7GHz, sub-band : D

TX : 7428 to 7482.25 MHZ then from 7582 to 7636.25 MHz

 a sub-band can have one or several Tx-Rx frequency spacing which are under ITU-T
standard :
 Ex: 7GHz, Sub band : D, frequency spacing : 154 MHz

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Microwave Introduction- Frequency basics

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Microwave Site types
 Depends on the application the MW equipment can be used as :

1. Terminal : only one direction, usually used in access mode

2. Relay : two directions, usually used in backbones and we can distinguish two
types
1. Passive relay : only two antennas connected back to back used in case of obstacles and short
distance hops
2. Active relay : two modems and two ODU required back to back used for long distance hops

3. Pivotal : three directions or more, usually used in aggregation

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MICROWAVE NE TYPES
• NE types
Active
Terminal
`relay

Root Pivotal

Terminal

Passive relay
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Microwave propagation characteristic
 Free space loss
 Reflection
 Refraction
 Diffraction
 Absorption
 FRESNEL zone

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MICROWAVE PROPAGATION CHARACTERISTICS

• Various phenomena associated with propagation, such as multipath fading and interference, affect
microwave radio performance.
• LOS : line of sight is the most important characteristic of Microwave link
• Any obstacle in the LoS makes the link unavailable
• The signal propagating in free space is attenuated and its energy is diffused to space, this is called
Free Space loss
• FSL : depends on frequency and distance of the path falls under the formula :

FSL(dB)= 92.45+ 20* LOG(F*D)

• F; frequency ( GHz) D: Distance ( Km)

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FADING PROBLEMS

 Reflection :
– Reflection is one of the major factors that affect MW link on lakes or smooth surface Ex:
water body
– Reflected Wave can have different phase and amplitude as compared to original
wave. Thus, this causes Fading of signal at receiver and this fading is called Multi Path
Fading.
– To overcome this problem, we either adjust antenna heights at two ends to avoid major
source of reflection or to reduce its intensity
LOS

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FADING PROBLEMS

 Refraction :
– Theory says that MW / electromagnetic waves travel in a straight line and yes, they do so in
vacuum.
– But when it comes to atmosphere it undergoes the effect of refraction.
– Density in atmosphere is not uniform. It varies from one place to another.
– As we all know that light ray bends towards or away from normal as it moves from higher
density medium to lower or vice versa.

K>1
K=1

K>1
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FADING PROBLEMS

 Absorption:
– Above 10 GHz, absorption in atmosphere becomes dominant. Rain droplets become comparable
to wavelength. humidity or gaz can affect as well.
– This absorption can be 2 dB/Km or can be as high as 3 dB/Km in case of rain.
– Vertical polarization is less sensitive to the rain
 Diffraction:
– Diffraction of wave occurs when bending takes place at sharp irregular edges. This diffracted
wave can interfere very much with desired signal.

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 FADING PROBLEMS

What is the Fresnel zone?

• In wireless communication, we have a 3D elliptical region between the transmitter antenna and
the receiver antenna. This region is determined by the distance between the antennas and the
frequency of the wireless wave. It is called Fresnel Zone and looks like this:

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FADING PROBLEMS
• FRESNEL zone:
– Any obstacle within the FRESNEL zone may decrease the receiving level
– FRESNEL zone defines an area ( ellipsoid) which should be clear for a better RSL.
– Planning tools are used to calculate the clearance

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FADING PROBLEMS-FRESNEL ZONE
– The Radius (r) varies depending the distance from antennas
– A Formula is used to calculate

– Where :
• Fn is the FRESNEL radius
• D1 and D2 are distance from the point of obstacle to the antennas
• Lambda is the wavelength
– The bigger is the frequency, the small is the radius ( more directive)

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MICROWAVE KEY TECHNOLOGIES
1. MW equipment introduction:
– Generally the Microwave equipment is constituted of : IDU, ODU, IF cable and Antenna as shown

ODU

IF
 IF Cable :
 Tx : 350 MHz

IDU  RX: 140 MHz

 PS : -48VDC
Service  Mon signal

 Can be coaxial, fiber or

network cable

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MICROWAVE KEY TECHNOLOGIES

 IDU functions :
depends on vendors and MW NE type
• One or several modems
• Interfaces for traffic
• Power supply unit
• IF interfaces
• XPIC function
• Switch function for Ethernet
• Etc…

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MICROWAVE KEY TECHNOLOGIES
 ODU functions :
depends on vendors and MW NE type
– IF/RF modulation
– AGC function
– RSL monitoring
– ATPC
– Can be direct mounting on antenna, using RF cable or waveguide.

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MICROWAVE KEY TECHNOLOGIES
 Modulation:
– The digital modulation implemented in modem unit is carried out after mux,
switching and coding. It converts the baseband signals to IF signals
– Generally modulation on phase and amplitude is used
– It varies from QPSK to 256 QAM depends the capacity required and vendors
– Nowadays, a high modulation is used ( 512QAM, 1024 and 2048 QAM) for high
capacity link but the BER should be considered
– The modulation can be fixed in one link or variable according to RSL and CNR,
this is called Adaptive modulation

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MICROWAVE LINK BUDGET
• To calculate all parameters for the design of the link such as: gains, losses, received
level, FM, antenna height, Availability, etc…
• Several software are used for planning and optimization for microwave link design

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MICROWAVE LINK BUDGET
• Antenna Gain : it depends on frequency used and antenna diameter, it can heavily
improve/decrease the RSL.
• Antenna diameters depends on vendors, 0.3m, 0.6m, 0.9m, 1.2m, 1,8m, 2,4m, etc…
• Parabolic type is widely used and it’s gain is roughly calculated as :
G(dBi) = 17.8 + 20 Log10 (f * d)
 Where : f is frequency ( GHz) and d is diameter (m)
• Ex: For 18 GHz MW link and 0.3 m size MW antenna, Antenna Gain will be approx
G = 17.8 + 20 log (18*0.3)
G = 32.44 dBi

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MICROWAVE LINK BUDGET
• RSL calculation :
RxB = TxA + GA - FSL - Arain + GB
• Where :
– Arain is the rain file which depends on the location of the hop and include all the
attenuation of connectors and cables in this example.
– TxA = Transmit Power
– GA = Gain of Antenna A
– Lfs = Free Space Loss
– Arain = Attenuation due to rain
– GB = Gain of Antenna B

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MICROWAVE LINK BUDGET
• Ga=Gb = = 17.8 + 20 log (freq * dia)
= 17.8 + 20 log (6.2 * 1.8)
= 38.753 dBi
• Then, we will calculate free space loss as
= 92.45 + 20 log (dist * freq)
= 92.45 + 20 log (20 * 6.2)
= 134.318 dBm
• Finally we will calculate received power at Point B from above given formula. We are assuming rain
attenuation as zero.
RxB = 25 + 38.753 - 134.318 - 0 + 38.753
= - 32.812 dBm Answer

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