RF Drive Test

Self Learning Tutorial

With Video
 Contents
• What is RF Drive Test?
• Why RF Drive Test is Done?
• Tools & Equipment required
• How RF DT is carried out?
• Cases & Analysis
• See it yourself (Video) & Learn

2
 RF Drive Test
• Drive Test is one of the most
comprehensive procedures of testing and
analyzing a Radio Frequency Network
– Coverage evaluation
– System availability
– Network capacity
– Network retainability
– Call quality

3
 RF Drive Test
• Let us understand the meaning of the
terms mentioned in the previous slide
– Coverage Evaluation
– Coverage Evaluation is the process of
measuring the Received Signal Level of the
Radio Frequency Signals from a Base Station
– The following slides will explain this in detail

4
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
• A cellular mobile
network in a city/town
or a rural area is made
up of several RF
transmitting and
receiving stations called
Base Stations or Base
Transcievers.

5
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
• Each cell has its own
transmitting and
receiving equipment
that covers a certain
geographic area
• As shown each circle
represents a cell

6
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
• A group of cells
together form a cluster
• The demography of the
cells, for example, the
type of terrain –
whether hilly or plain,
vegetation or buildings
etc., is known as clutter.

7
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
• Clutter data of a cell
and of the geographic
area to be covered is
very important to
estimate the actual area
that will be covered by
a Base Station
• The picture on the right
shows a sample clutter
data – 3D view of an
area 8
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
• Radio Frequency
signals from a Base
Station towards the
mobile station and
those from the mobile
station towards the
base station suffer due
to the clutter.

9
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
• They tend to
– Become weaker
sometimes
– Become stronger
sometimes
– Get lost due to
absorption or total
reflection
• This affects the actual
coverage area of a
Base Station
10
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
• Let us examine some of
the situations occurring
due to the clutter
– Deflection is the result
of the Radio Frequency
wave encountering
obstructions with much
larger dimensions than
the wavelength of the
radio wave. This results
in the wave rebounding.
11
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:

– Diffraction occurs when

radio waves encounter
the edges and corners of
obstacles. These act as
secondary sources re-
radiating beyond what is
known as line-of-sight
into the shadow region of
the obstacle.

12
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:

– Diffusion (Scattering)
occurs when the
dimensions of the object
(usually vegetation)
interacting with the radio
wave are similar to the
impinging wave’s
wavelength. This causes
the signal to disperse.

13
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:

– Therefore in practical
scenarios, the signal
level from a Base
Station at any two
points in the cell even
being at the same
distance from the
Antenna, will not be the
same due to the clutter
variations

14
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:

– To understand these
effects, let us first
study in brief, how the
Radio Frequency
Signals propagate
through Air.

15
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– Primarily there are four

ways of transmission
of radio waves
between the
transmitter and the
receiver in free space
or through Air

16
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– As a Forward or Free
Space Wave
– Earth Wave or Surface
Wave
– Troposphere reflecting
Wave
– Ionosphere Reflecting
Wave

17
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– As a Forward or Free
Space Wave
• Free Space Wave moves
in straight lines directly
between the transmitter
and receiver
• Used for Line of Sight
Microwave
Communication

18
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– As a Ground or
Surface Wave
• Waves reach the
receiver directly and
also after reflecting from
earth surface and other
obstructions etc.
• This method is used in
Cellular Mobile
Communication

19
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– As a Troposphere
Reflecting Wave
• Waves reach the
receiver after reflecting
from troposphere
• This method is used for
waves with wavelengths
less than 10 meters

20
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– As a Ionosphere
Reflecting Wave
• Waves reach the
receiver after reflecting
from ionosphere.
• It is used for waves
having frequencies of
more than 300MHz

21
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– Two reasons why

propagation study is
important
• It helps in calculating
the signal levels within a
cell or you can say it
helps predicting the
coverage of a cell.

22
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– Two reasons why

propagation study is
important
• Secondly, it helps
determining the adjacent
channel and co channel
interference.

23
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– There are three

methods of predicting
signal level coverage
in a cell.
• The First one is based
upon pure theory.

24
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– There are three

methods of predicting
signal level coverage
in a cell.
• The First one is based
upon pure theory.
• It does not take into
account the irregularity
of the earth’s surface

25
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– There are three

methods of predicting
signal level coverage
in a cell.
• The Second one is
based upon
measurements in
different environments.

26
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– There are three

methods of predicting
signal level coverage
in a cell.
• The Third method is
based upon theoretical
and actual measurement
basis.
• There are various
models that are used.
27
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– There are various

parameters and
phenomena that are
required to be studied
to understand RF
Propagation.
• Multipath Fading

28
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– There are various

parameters and
phenomena that are
required to be studied
to understand RF
Propagation.
• Propagation Loss

29
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– There are various

parameters and
phenomena that are
required to be studied
to understand RF
Propagation.
• Diffraction or
Shadowing

30
 RF Drive Test
• Coverage Evaluation:
– RF Propagation

– There are various

parameters and
phenomena that are
required to be studied
to understand RF
Propagation.
• Building & Vehicle
Penetration
• Type of Terrain

31
 RF Drive Test
Further Slides Available in
Commercial Tutorial
In case you are interested to buy,
please write back at
akhanna.india@rediffmail.com

The full tutorial consists of over

500 slides and a video
32