Co-existence of CDMA 1900 and GSM 1900 Systems

I. Non-co-located system
1. Background
The main concern for two non-co-located PCS systems (System A and System B) operating on adjacent bands is the so-called near-far effect where the operator As BTS/MS interfere with operator Bs MS/BTS. The near far effect is caused by the following three facts: (1) Small guard band between As BTS Tx channel to Bs handset Rx channel. For the worst case, this guard band is only 0.925 MHz, as shown in Fig. 1. Similar guard band between As handset Tx channel and Bs BTS Rx channel. If the transition region of the band pass filters in either system are not sufficiently short, the out-ofband noise will cause mutual interference.

BTS Receive Band

BTS Transmit Band C

1910 1930

BTS Freq.
1850

D B
1865 1870

EF

A
20 MHz

D B
1945 1950

EF

C
1990

1885 1890 1895

1965 1970 1975

MS Freq.
1850

MS Transmit Band A D B
1865 1870

MS Receive Band A D B
1945 1950

EF

C
1910 1930

EF
1965 1970 1975

C
1990

1885 1890 1895

PCS Frequency Allocations

CDMA 1.25 MHz
0.625 MHz Guard Band.

Adjacent CDMA Band Guard Band = 1.25/2 MHz

200 kHz

0.925 MHz

Adjacent GSM Band Guard Band = 0.3 MHz

0.3 MHz Guard Band

PCS 1900 GSM

Frequency Separation between the closest CDMA and GSM

Fig.1 Top: Frequency allocation of the PCS spectrum. Bottom: The guard band between a CDMA Tx/Rx channel and a GSM Rx/Tx channel at the edge of the band.

(2) For non-co-located system, near-far effect in up link is caused by the fact that Bs handset does not obey power control command from As BTS. The handset may transmit high power when it is near As BTS. Similarly, near-far effect in down link is caused by the fact that Bs BTS may transit high power when As handset is near by, as shown in Fig.2.
B s B T S
M in . P ath L o ss (A tte n u a to r 3 )

A s B T S

M a x . P a th L o ss (A tte n u a to r 2 )

A s M S
M a x . P a th L o ss (A tte n u a to r1 ) P w r L ev el H om e S ig n a l
C o m p e tito r s S ig n a l & S id eb a n d

B s M S
F req.

Illu stra tio n o f D ire c t In te rfe ren ce C a u se d b y N ea r -F a r E ffe c t

Fig.2 Interference between BTS and handset caused by near-far effect.

(3) Two or more Tx channels from As BTS/MS produce third order intermod products that falls into system Bs MS/BTS Rx channel. This can happen in down link (BTS cause intermod to handsets) or up link (handsets cause intermod to BTS). See Fig.3. Intermodulation are usually generated from two different scenarios: (A) Generated at the passive non-linear devices outside of the system (any loose joints with small areas of contact, e.g., rusty bolts, rusted galvanized mild steel rope). Intermod products generated via these sources will act as in-band interference and no band-pass filters can reject the in-band interference. Therefore, improving filters will not improve this type of intermod. (B) Generated at the active non-linear devices inside the victims receiver (e.g., mixers, amplifiers, etc). The severity depends on the linearity of the devices and the interference power level reaching these active non-linear devices. The active non-linear devices are usually behind the band-pass filters, improving filters will reduce the interference power level reaching these active devices and thus will reduce the severity of this type of intermod.

A necessary condition for intermod is that there must be intermod hits (i.e., the frequencies of intermod products fall into one of the Rx band), for third order products this means 2 FTX 2 FTX 1 FRX , FTx1 + FTX 2 FTX 3 (2 - tone intermod)

OR FRX , (3 - tone intermod)

where FTX 1 , FTX 2 , FTX 3 are Tx signal frequencies, and FRX is the victims receive channel frequency. This is only a necessary, but not sufficient condition. Whether there will really be intermod problems depends on the received interference power level, the degree of non-linearity of the devices, etc.
Home BTS
Min. Path Loss Max. Path Loss

Competitor BTS

Competitor MS
F_1 Max. Path Loss F_2 Intermod Pwr Level Signal

Home MS F_3
Competitors Two Signals

Home Signal

Freq.

Illustration of Intermodulation Caused by Two Strong RF Channels that satisfy: 2*F_2 - F_1 = F_3

Fig.3 Intermod between BTS and handset caused by near-far effect.

Near-far effect can only happen to non-co-located systems, especially if As BTSs are installed on Bs cell edges, and Bs BTSs are installed on As cell edges. Co-location is one of the most effective ways to eliminate the near-far effect. Frequency planing to avoid both systems to work on the edge frequencies, or to avoid the intermod condition is another way to mitigate the problem.

2. Experiment Results of the Near-far Effect

A complete set of experiments was perform using real CDMA 1900 BTS/handsets and GSM 1900 BTS/handsets to evaluate the degree of severity under the worst near-far scenario. In this section, we will summarize the experiment methodology, theoretical estimation, Lab. setup and measurement results.
(1) Experiment Methodology

In the experiment real BTSs and handsets were used. However, in the laboratory, one must use attenuators, splitters/combiners and channel fading simulators etc to simulate the near and far path losses of the real life. A realistic theoretical estimation on the near-far effect that takes into account real-life effects must be used to set the attenuation values of these attenuators.
(2) Theoretical Estimations

To estimate the path loss for the far situation, we have analyzed the link budget for both up link and down link, under the urban and rural environment, for CDMA and GSM systems. To estimate the path loss for the near situation, one must taken into account the antenna vertical beam pattern, antenna heights, down tilt, etc. There are several effects that are worth mentioning: (A) RF Propagation in the Near-Field: Far fields are well modeled by Hata or COS231. However, none of these models are valid for distance less than 1 km. In the near field region, it is not true that the closer the MS to BTS, the stronger the mutual interference. The true effect has to be modeled by taken into account the antenna height, the vertical beam pattern, down tiltetc. (B) Handset Transmit Power Level: In the reverse link direction, it is often assumed that handsets transmit maximum power at the cell edge. However, in a properly designed network, building/car-penetration-margins are always factored into the link budget. That means an outdoor handset should never transmit maximum power even if it is at the cell edge. An indoor handset may transmit maximum power, but its interference level will also be reduced by building-penetration-losses. In urban area with 20 dB building penetration margin, an outdoor handset at the cell edge will transmit 20 dB less power than its maximum level. This makes 20 dB difference in direct interference, and 60 dB difference in 3-rd order intermod effect. (C) Handset Receiver Sensitivity: In the forward link direction, handsets receiver sensitivity is often assumed to be the value measured in the laboratory where only thermal noise exists. However, in a real network, the co-channel interference level is usually much higher than the thermal noise level, some times more than 30 dB higher. Consequently, mobiles receiver will be highly desensitized and will never be as sensitive as in the laboratory.

After taking all effects into account, we calculated the value for attenuators that simulate the near and far path losses + antenna gain. Next we calculate the down link co-channel interference level (forward link loading) experienced by a handset in a real network, for the urban and rural environment. This cochannel interference level will be injected to the handset to simulate the forward link loading in real situation. For further details, please refer to PCS Interference Study, Chapter I: Theoretical Estimation of Near-Far Effect.
(3) Experiment Setup

There are at least 8 different interference/intermod scenarios due to the near-far effect. They are: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) Down Link Interference: CDMA BTS to GSM handset (Fig.4); Down Link Interference: GSM BTS to CDMA handset; Down Link Intermod: CDMA BTS to GSM handset; Down Link Intermod: GSM BTS to CDMA handset; Up Link Interference: CDMA handsets to GSM BTS(Fig. 5); Up Link Interference: GSMhandset to CDMA BTS; Up Link Intermod: CDMA handsets to GSM BTS; Up Link Intermod: GSM handsets to CDMA BTS.

Fig.4 and Fig.5 show two examples of the experiment setup. For complete information, please refer to PCS Interefrence Study, Chapter II: Experiment Setup and Test Cases.

BTS 1
(G S M B T S E m u la to r)

R F S h ie ld s

BTS 2
(C D M A w ith O C N S )

Tx

Rx

Tx

R x0 R x1

D u p lex er

C ircu lato r A m p lifier

V a ria b le A tten u a to r 1 (m a x . P a th L o ss) V a ria b le A tten u a to r 2 (m in . P a th L o ss)

C o u p ler S p ectru m A n a ly ser

F ad in g S im u la to r & A tten u ato r C h an n el F ad in g S im u lato r

S p ectru m A n a ly ser

C o m b in e r P _ in terf
D u p lex er

H a n d set + D ia g n o stic

R F S h ie ld s

P _ sig n a l
N o ise G e n er a to r
C ircu lator

G S M H a n d se t

P _ c o -c h a n n el : S im u latin g th e fo rw ard lin k co -ch an n el in terferen ce ex p erien ced b y G S M M S in a real n etw o rk

Fig.4 Schematic diagram of experiment setup for down link interference from CDMA BTS to GSM handset.
G SM BTS
R x0 Tx R x1

R F S hield s

CDM A BTS
R x1 R x0 T x

P _signal
D up lexer D up lexer

P _interf
D up lexer V ar A tten u ator 3 (m in . P ath L oss) D up lexer

C om b in er C om b in er C ircu lator F ading Sim ulator Sp ectrum A nalyser Sp litter CDMA han dset & D iagnostic C oupler

Sp litter F ading Sim ulator

V ariable A tten uator 1 (m ax. P ath L oss)

V ariable A ttenu ator 2 (m ax. P ath L oss)

D up lexer

G SM H an dset E m ulator

A m plifier

P _{i,tx}

R F S hield s

Fig.5 Schematic diagram of experiment setup for up link interference from CDMA handset to GSM BTS. (4) Measurement Results

The high level summary of the test results are given in the following

(1) The interference caused by near-far effect in the forward link (down link) direction is much more severe than that in the reverse link (up link) direction, due to the significant difference in Tx power level. Down link interference/intermod effects are severe enough to drop the call, before the worst case condition is reached. In the up link we have seen link degradation (from CDMA to GSM) but have never seen call drop even at the worst point. (2) For direct interference, it is always the CDMAs out-of-band emission that causes interference to GSM. GSM has a very low out-of-band emission level so the direct interference from GSM to CDMA is never a problem (up link or down link). (4) For intermod, the effect in the down link is very severe. From GSM to CDMA, the effect is worse than from CDMA to GSM. This can be explained theoretically. To CDMA, GSMs signals are narrow band tones and so are their third order intermod products. So if one of the 3rd order products falls into the CDMA channel, the energy of the entire 3rd order product will fall into the CDMA channel. On the other hand, CDMA channels are like wide-band noise to GSM, so are their 3rd order intermod products. If one of the CDMA 3rd order products occupies the same band as a GSM Rx channel, only a small portion of the energy will fall into the 200 kHz GSM Rx channel. So the effect will be a few dB less. Fig.6, Fig.7, Fig.8 and Fig. 9 show a few examples of measurement plots. For complete information, please refer to PCS Interefrence Study, Chapter III: Experiment Report.

Urban Down Link Interference: CDMA to GSM

GSM MS BER + FER [%]

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 25 30 35 40 45 50
P_interference - P_signal [dB]

GSM MS BER + FER [%]

Fig.6 Down link interference from CDMA BTS to GSM handset, for urban environment.

Urban Down Link Interference (CDMA to GSM) as a Function of Guard Band

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 2.2
Guard band [MHz] GSM MS Receiver Desensitization [dB]

Fig.7 GSM handset receiver desensitization as a function of guard band.

Rural Up Link Interference: CDMA to GSM

80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 10 20 30 40 50
P_interference - P_signal [dB] GSM Up Link BER + FER [%]

GSM_BTS_Receiver_ BER+FER

Fig.8 Up link interference from CDMA handset to GSM BTS, rural environment.

Urban Down Link 2-Tone Intermod: GSM to CDMA

100 80 60 40 20 0 38 40 42 44
P_interference - P_signal [dB]

CDMA Handset FER [%]

P_cdma= -74 [dBm]

P_cdma= -77 [dBm]

P_cdma= P_cdma= -80 [dBm] -82 [dBm]

P_cdma= -83 [dBm]

46

Fig.9 Down link intermod from GSM BTS to CDMA handset, for urban environment. Note that the intermod effect is very sensitive to interference power level. (5) Summary of the Degree of Severity of Near-far Effect

For direct interference from CDMA BTS to GSM handset, the worst case the handset receiver desensitization from one CDMA edge channel is about 12 dB. That is to say, if a GSM handset is near the interfering CDMA BTSs antenna hot spot, it will need 12 dB of extra power from its home BTS in order maintain the same call quality. If this GSM handset is at its link budget limit so BTS cannot give it more power, the call will drop. On the other hand, if one designs an extra buffer into the link budget so that at the worst case there is at least a 12 dB extra budget, there should be no call drop. Given an extra few dB for safe margin, we recommend a 20 dB buffer in the link budget. For down link intermod from GSM BTS to CDMA handset, standard (JSTD0-18, Section 3.4.3.2) specified that a CDMA handset should handle two-tone of 40 dBm @ 1.25 and 2.05 MHz frequency offset. However, according to the link budget estimation of the nearfar effect, the maximum power of the two down link channels from GSM BTS can reach 29 dBm. Thus the interference power level is 11 dB higher than 40 dBm, and the effect of the 3rd order intermod will be 33 dB stronger. Therefore, if the CDMA handset barely meets the standard, and if co-location is not possible, one needs 33 dB of extra buffer in the signal link budget to offset the effect caused by down link intermod. This extra 33 dB of margin will not be necessary for handsets with LNA by-pass feature (which is available in all CDMA 800 MHz handset). LNA by-pass essentially eliminated the call drop caused by down link intermod.

3. General Deployment Guidelines

From the theoretical calculations and experiment measurements, we observed that under the worst case scenario, the near-far effect can cause severe link degradation and call drops, especially in the down link. However, we also observed that this only happens if all worst case conditions are true at the same time. If any one of the worst-case conditions can be released, the interference effect is significantly reduced. In the experiment, there are four worst-case conditions that must be satisfied simultaneously in order to cause significant near far effect. They are: (1) Extreme near-far condition, that is, the CDMA BTS antenna is installed at the edge of the GSM cell, also the GSM BTS antenna is installed at the edge of the CDMA cell. This way, a handset at the cell edge will likely reach the link budget limit to its home BTS so that it will not be able to obtain more power from its home BTS (Fig.10). (2) For direct interference, the worst condition for channel allocations corresponding to the situation that both service-providers use the edge channels that are closest to each other, so the guard band is minimum. For intermod, System A uses Tx channel frequencies that have 3rd order intermod product frequencies fall into System Bs Rx channel frequency. (3) At the busy hour where the CDMA BTS transmits maximum power, or GSM MS at the link budget limit which requires maximum power, so that the high-poweramplifier (HPA) produces maximum side-band noises (although it still satisfies FCCs out-of-band emission level). (4) System As handsets located in a position that has the optimum signal reception (antennas hot spot) from System Bs BTS, so they experience maximum mutual interference to each other. During busy hours, the BTS will transmit maximum power. Unless vendors willing to add very expensive Tx filters after the PAs to further reduce the out-of-band emission to a much larger margin below the FCCs requirement, there are little we can do to avoid Condition (3). Also very little can be done to avoid condition (4). The location with optimum signal reception with the BTS is usually not at the bottom of the antenna tower, but at a distance away from the antenna tower. This distance is a function of antenna tower height, vertical beam pattern and antenna down tilt. A typical number (for detailed calculations, please refer to Part I, Theoretical Estimations) is approximately 150 meters for urban cells (low antenna heights, large down tilt), or 600 meters for rural/highway cells (tall antennas, small or no down tilt). One cannot prevent mobiles to go to these locations.

10

However, during the network planing stage, a great deal can be done to avoid at least one of the Condition (1) or Condition (2), so they are not both true at the same time.

GSM BTS

CDMA BTS

Cell Edge with maximum link budget CDMA MS GSM MS

Fig.10 The worst case near-far effect happens when BTSs from the two systems are
installed at each others cell edge. Co-location is the most effective way to avoid condition (1). If CDMA and GSM BTS both co-located at the same antenna tower, it will completely eliminate the near-far effect. In the up link, when a CDMA handset goes close to GSM BTS, it will reduce power, because of the power control from the co-located CDMA BTS, and thus reduce the interference to GSM BTS. In the down link, a GSM handset goes close to CDMA BTS will still get interference from the CDMA BTS during the busy hour. But since the handset has plenty of extra room in its down-link budget, it will simple ask for more power from its home BTS and still maintain the C/I and FER. If co-location is not possible in all cases, every effect should be made to keep the two BTS as close to each other as possible (Fig.11). As long as As handset does not reach the link budget limit (at least a 20 dB back-off from the limit), no significant link degradation caused by direct interference should happen. When As handset moves close to Bs BTS, the PCS interference will raise the handset receivers noise floor. The handset can still maintain its signal-to-noise ratio by requesting extra power from the home BTS, as long as the link budget limit is not reached. Therefore, the only effect of the PCS interference is that the forward link capacity will be de-graded due to the raised noise floor, but the service quality can still be maintained.

11

GSM BTS

CDMA BTS

CDMA MS

GSM MS

Fig.11 Near-far effect can be significantly reduced if the two BTSs are installed close to
each other. For example, if the path loss from the BTS to the cell edge is 130 dB (for both System A and System B). Then As BTS should be installed as close to Bs BTS as possible, and the path loss between the two should be no more than 130 20 = 110 dB. In the experiment, we have never seen receiver desensitization caused by direct interference exceeds 12 dB, even under the worst case (please refer to Part III, Lab. Report for detailed receiver desensitization curves). A 20 dB buffer zone is chosen to have some extra margin. The 20 dB buffer zone is for direct interference only. For down link intermod, the effect is even worse and 33 dB of buffer in the link budget is needed. However, for handsets with LNA by-pass, this 33 dB of buffer is no longer necessary. For networks that are already built, and if co-location is not possible for all cells, one may (A) GSM Frequency Re-plan: re-plan the GSM frequencies and try to avoid condition (2), only for non-co-located cells. For those cells where condition (1) is not true, the GSM BTS may free to use any channels. Fig.9 shows that increasing the guard band is an effective way to reduce the link de-gradation caused by the near-far effect. This is because the out-of-band emission level reduces as the frequency separation increases, as shown in Fig. 12. Another advantage for increasing the guard band is that the capacity can be preserved since the receiver noise floor is not risen. (B) Additional TX Notch Filter: Add a notch filter in the CDMA Tx filter to suppress the out-of-band emission level at the victim GSMs frequencies. Since the main interference is from CDMA BTS to GSM handset, added notch filter may further suppress the out-of-band emission by 15 to 20 dB so that a 20 dB buffer zone is no longer necessary.

12

Guard Band

1.25 MHZ

GSM Channels

CDMA Channel

Frequency

Fig.12 The out-of-band emission level reduces as the increase of the guard band.
However, if there are mutiple carriers of CDMA are deployed, it may not be possible to completely avoid intermod hit via GSMs frequency planning. Because the third order products will fall some where and chances are it will hit one of the CDMA channel. A second way to reduce the effect of PCS interference is enable the frequency hopping for GSM. Frequency hopping reduces the % of time a particular GSM channel uses the edge frequency, so the damage from CDMAs out-of-band emission to that channel is reduced. LNA by-pass feature used in 800 MHz CDMA handsets to reduce the intermod problem from AMPS may be used to for the CDMA1900 handset to reduce the intermod problem from PCS1900.

Summary
For two non-co-located PCS systems that use the adjacent bands, the main concern is the near far effect. The near-far effect can cause link degradation and call drops, but only if all four worst case scenarios are true at the same time. Therefore one should plan the network so that at least one of the four conditions can be avoided. (A) Co-location will completely eliminate the near-far effect. (B) GSM frequency planning that increases the guard band for those cells under the extreme near-far condition is another solution to the problem. (C) Add Tx notch filter to the CDMA Tx path to further suppress the out-of-band emission at the victim GSM channels. (D) Enable the frequency hopping for GSM also mitigates the interference effect. (E) LNA by-pass is effective in reducing the severity of down link intermod.

13