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Microwave Radio Network Planning in 3G

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Contents
Introduction Evolution of mobile networks Network topology evolution Planning of Point-to-Point microwave Capacity increase (upgrade from PDH to SDH) Effect of technology change to link planning Regulatory aspects Conclusions 3 4 4 5 9 10 10 11

Introduction
This study highlights the main issues that should be taken into account when planning future microwave radio networks for base station access in 3G. Even though there are different microwave access technologies, this study covers only the usage of point-to-point microwave radios, which is the main technology for base station access today and in the foreseeable future. The introduction of 3G will have a signicant effect to cellular transmission (CT), which has to be taken into account in network planning. The increased capacity requirement will effect both the individual radio network links and the network topology. In current GSM networks BTS capacities are on average 0.51 Mbit/s while in 3G BTS capacities are in range of 210 Mbit/s. This huge capacity increase will force mobile operators to introduce bre based solutions also in regional networks and possibly change the existing network structure towards a more of a star type of topology. The introduction of 3G will also force operators to use the existing frequency bands as efcient as possible and also to nd new frequency bands. This will be a big challenge for operators and regulators because at the same time new operators will emerge to share the scarce radio frequency spectrum. One of the key issues in coming years is how to optimise the usage of radio frequency spectrum and how to guarantee the required quality of service. This study shows that robust modulation methods like 4QAM provides the best areal spectrum efciency in dense networks. This has been studied on both in a mesh networks with randomly oriented hops and a fully built star were hops are as close angle as possible. Robust modulation methods also guarantee low RBER (Residual Bit Error Rate), which is required by ATM transport in 3G networks. The effect of ATM transport to radio link planning has been studied and new planning recommendations are given. It can be assumed that many of the existing PDH radio links full these recommendations, though operators are encouraged to verify the situation. Those PDH links which has been planned according to old G.821 should be recalculated with a fade margin corresponding to threshold level at about BER=10-5.

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Evolution of mobile networks

Transmission is an important element in any mobile network, affecting both the services and service quality offered as well as the cost of the mobile operator. Optimisation of transmission solutions is thus certainly worthwhile from the operators business point of view. Microwave access, based on point-to-point microwave radios, is the dominating technology in base station access networks. It offers the fastest means for network roll-out and capacity-expansion. When using microwave radio transmission, an operator saves on operational expenses compared to laying his own cable or leasing connections. At least two-thirds of all base station connections are based on microwave radios. CT access networks have been typically built strictly according to cellular system needs. These mobile systems evolve from current narrowband GSM to EDGE and WCDMA. If services are same in both networks, the transmission capacity depends on the system overhead, which is about 1.3 x user bit rate in EDGE and about 2 x in WCDMA. In ETSI market typical capacities and site densities during 20052007 with data rich services with 30 % speech could be as follows:
WCDMA Dense urban Urban Suburban Rural Highway Selected cell range/km 0.25 0.5 1.5 6 6

Distance between sites: 1.5 x cell range 0.4 0.8 2.3 9 9

TRS capacity/site: Mbits/s

10

3.5

TRS density: Mbits/km2

80

0.8

0.03

0.04

Network topology evolution

CT network topology will evolve to quite different structure in coming years. The middle part i.e. national and regional layers will be very similar or exactly same as in xed networks. This will pave way for a common transport IP based network that takes care of all trafc. The access network evolution will be different. The access comprises about 6080 % of the network cost and is very critical to any operator. The access will be separate some time for xed and mobile part.

The following facts effect to the access network and the use of point-to-point radio links: Use of existing infrastructure; it is very costly and time consuming to modify network topology. Equipment should also be re-used as much as possible. Capacity often dictates the use of certain media and equipment. Capacity depends on topology and can not be chosen freely. The increase of capacity will force to change some topology models. Connectivity technology TDM, ATM or IP as such does NOT change the topology and the number of interfaces, etc. Frequency band for last mile media radio links are becoming difcult to get, driving to higher frequencies i.e. also towards shorter hops. Fibre will be more and more available within few kilometres from any given base station in city areas making star conguration more feasible in last mile connection.

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Access CT network has currently a lot of tree and chain topologies, especially in rural areas. Capacity increase and obligatory use of radio links makes the last mile layer shorter suggesting a wider use of bre loops and big radio link stars, see Figure 1. This topology most probably will be the favourite one in the future, starting from city areas.

BTS BTS 4*E1 radio RNC BTS BTS BTS SDH Hub site

SDH ring

SDH Hub site BSC

BTS BTS Shared Site 16*E1 radio BTS BTS Shared Site GSM BTS BTS BTS 4*E1 radio BTS BTS WCDMA BTS BTS BTS SDH Hub site

Figure 1. Example of combined GSM and 3G access network.

Planning of Point-to-Point microwave

Usually the designer has some limiting conditions like available station sites as the basis. The network has also some performance objectives (availability and error performance) which the network must full. Within these limits the designer may vary his network plan by changing various parameters of the system. Operating band The network planning is mainly based on availability at frequencies above about 17 GHz. Below that the design is normally dominated by error performance. In the tropics or other areas of heavy rainfalls this limit frequency may be lower (near 10 GHz). The lower frequencies allow longer hops while at higher frequencies high antenna gains are easier to achieve which makes handling of interference easier. Choice of frequencies and polarisation Often it is advisable to choose higher frequencies for shorter hops (like above 30 GHz for hops below some 510 km) and use lower frequencies for longer hops if possible. Specically, for very short hops (below 1 km) one might consider using 58 GHz radios as the interference is well under control due to high atmospheric attenuation. In addition, the unlicensed use of frequencies in this band gives some exibility the designer may appreciate. The attenuation caused by rain is lower for vertical polarization than for a horizontal one, so vertical polarization should be used for long hops in the network while horizontal polarization may provide a good vehicle to increase network spectral efciency when used for shorter hops. The current recommendation is that horizontal polarization should not be used at frequencies above about 30 GHz. This is true especially for using both polarizations over the same hop as cross-polarization discrimination (XPD) may be deteriorated during rain and hail. Still, there might be cases where some extra protection could be achieved in dense networks with proper use of horizontal polarization on shorter hops. Path design Clearance for the hop is designed as usual, i.e. the rst Fresnel zone should be free at normal k-value 1.33. It should be noted that relatively small obstructions, like a single tree in the radio path, might prevent signal reception at proper levels. Similarly, due to the high frequencies and corresponding

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small Fresnel zones, relatively small areas may act as reecting surfaces. This is contrary to the design at lower frequencies (below 10 GHz). Modulation method By choosing a modulation method with few states (for example, 4QAM, MSK, etc.) or a system with good error correction capability, one may have relatively high tolerance against noise and interference, i.e. a low receiver threshold power Prxth. That will allow longer hops to be built. This will also lead to best areal spectrum efciency independently of the hop lengths. On some occasions not typical for access networks point-to-point spectrum efciency can have more weight, which may justify using modulation methods with higher number of states. Combining coding and high state modulation like, e.g., in trellis-coding modulation (TCM) may sometimes give a good compromise between point-to-point and areal spectral efciency. The introduction of ATM transport requires that the RBER (Residual Bit Error Rate) of a link is very low. This supports also the usage of modulation methods with few states. Transmitter power Ptx Selecting higher transmitter power Ptx will make the availability and error performance gures better. However, this may sometimes cause excessive interference to other radio links in own or other networks. One should avoid using unnecessarily high power. Sometimes extra attenuators are needed to adjust the power. A more convenient way is to use

transmitters with selectable or programmable power levels. Another effective way to avoid generating unnecessary interference into the network is to use adaptive transmitter power (ATP) where high power is used only during fading periods and otherwise a lower power is used. A working ATP scheme requires that there is a return path in order to send information about the receiving conditions to the transmitter. Use of error monitoring as a control parameter is crucial in achieving good network performance. At star points, where several paths converge to the same station, a good rule of thumb for design is to have equal received powers for each path. Usually this means that at least some of the far end transmitter powers should be adjusted. For very short hops one might even use somewhat smaller received levels than for the longer ones. Receiver threshold power Prxth This is mainly dictated by the selected capacity, noise gure and used modulation method. In heavy interference environment the effective receiver threshold may degrade considerably in tightly built networks about 3 dB or even more. It should be reminded that low threshold powers enable longer hops (if the transmitted power remains the same). It also directly raises, in addition to ltering and other things, interference tolerance. Antenna gain Ga or size The designer may increase the performance by selecting an antenna with higher gain, i.e. a bigger

antenna. Usually this also decreases interference from other directions and the interference caused to others as well. Appropriate antenna gains are usually between 35 and 45 dBi. Very high gain antennas may make achieving and maintaining antenna aligning difcult. Protection methods Use of equipment protection (for example, hot stand-by) usually changes system parameters by increasing the branching loss. This should be taken into account when calculating link performance. Use of diversity usually changes system parameters but also improves error performance. It should be noted that use of space or frequency diversity above about 17 GHz is seldom motivated, as they do not give protection against rain induced unavailability. Hop design and network performance Normally, the calculations start with some existing or assumed network conguration and with some selected set of system parameters (transmitter powers, threshold powers, interference conditions, antennas, etc.). The error performance and availability gures are evaluated and checked against requirements. Modications are made according to the results of calculations. Sometimes it may turn out that some changes are required in the network conguration (some additional site, path diversity etc.) in order to achieve the targets. Occasionally, it may also turn out that the performance objectives as such can be redened and adjusted according to the actual

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requirements. Usually, adjusting transmitter powers and antennas leads to the wanted nal result. However, the full calculation may sometimes be quite a big job as the interference between individual links may be quite extensive in a tightly built network. In these kinds of situations it will be extremely useful to use radio links which have good tolerance against interference as the number of hops producing signicant interference then diminishes considerably. The additional benet in using systems with low number of signal states (or otherwise robust systems) is that in dense networks they lead to the best areal spectrum efciency, i.e. the highest number of transmitted bits per square kilometre. The required increase in power against noise and interference is for 16QAM, 64QAM and 128QAM compared to 4QAM as follows (uncoded systems): 7, 13 and 16 dB. The result is that these modulation methods with high number of states are very inefcient in dense networks containing many randomly oriented links (mesh network). Figure 2 depicts the areal spectrum efciencies in a mesh network with randomly oriented hops as a function of fade margin and network density threshold. Due to different threshold powers, the tolerance to interference is much better in 4QAM than in other systems in a case where areal spectrum efciency is determined by only taking into account the area occupied due to interference, and no limitation is given for the network density, i.e. the node

Node density threshold 0.8 Low density 0.7 0.6 Medium density 0.5 0.4 0.3 High density 0.2 0.1 Infinite density 0.0 Typical operation area

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Fade margin (dB) 32TCM or 16QAM 32TCM 4QAM 128QAM

Figure 2. The modulation method that is giving the best areal spectrum efciency as a function of fade margin and network density threshold with performance degradation 3 dB, D = 0.3 m, f = 26 GHz, and BER = 10-6.

density threshold = 0. Practical cases have shown that = 0.25 and = 0.50 correspond to high and medium density networks, respectively. However, the new urban networks where several operators may operate in the same geographical area, may approach zero indicating that there might be several transmitters near each other. The density threshold can be calculated in real network by dividing the entire geographical area by the number of sites and the square of average hop length. The example shown in Figure 2 depicts that the best efciency is achieved with 4QAM and 32TCM modulation for most of the interesting fade margins in dense networks at 26 GHz. 32 TCM gives always better or equal efciency compared to 16 QAM due better

tolerance and equal number of information bits per symbol. The area of equal efciency is shown in grey colours. Similar results apply also for other frequencies. The general trend of the areal spectrum efciency is in favour of the 4-level modulation schemes in very dense networks, with rather low gain antennas, when a large fade margin is required, or when only little degradation due to interference is accepted. The yellow hexagon in the Figure 2 indicates roughly the typical operation area in access networks where terminal density is relatively high. In dense networks hop lengths are short and therefore the required fade margin is relatively small. The reverse is true for sparse networks.

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This comparison is sketchy but reveals the essential trends. Moreover, it is slightly unfavourable for 4QAM because it does not take fully into account the better system value achievable for these systems. Hence, there is still some additional margin for other interference or the operator may use transmitters with less power as compared to the higher state QAM-modulations. Another, a complementing view of the network situation can be achieved by considering the available node capacity in a star point where several hops converge. Also at star points 4-level systems generally give a better total node capacity for a given use of spectrum although 16QAM may come quite close, if hops belonging to the star are the only ones taken into account. However, some sophisticated modulation methods like 32TCM, may exceed even 4QAM performance. Figure 3 assumes a fully built star (hops as close an angle as possible), and a relative nodal capacity (number of equivalent 4QAMhops at fade margin 10 dB) for the given bandwidth has been calculated. The antenna pattern is assumed to be according to ITU-R F.699-4. All hops have the same fade margin and are of equal length. The gure reveals a few interesting general trends: In dense networks, where the required fade margins are modest, the star capacity can be surprisingly high if the modulation is reasonable, i.e. 4QAM, 16QAM or 32TCM. The total node capacity diminishes quite strongly as the fade margin increases, but the relative

Relative nodal capacity (D/ = 100) 1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 10 14 4QAM 18 Fade margin 16QAM 128QAM 22 32TCM 26

Figure 3. Star network spectral efciencies for different modulations. Performance degradation 3 dB, BER = 10-3.

Required angle in degrees 30

Minimum angles (D/ = 100)

20

10

0 10 4QAM

15

20 Fade margin 16QAM 128QAM

25 32TCM

Figure 4. Minimum angles between two systems in a fully built star as a function of fade margin.

effectiveness remains quite similar up to quite high fade margins. The general behaviour of the curves remains quite unaltered even if antenna gain (~D/ ) is changed within reasonable practical limits. The absolute capacities of the systems will be smaller for smaller antennas but the relative capacities

are practically the same. Again, these analyses do not take into account the better system value of 4QAM which gives either some extra tolerance to interference or allows to use less transmitted power than any of these other systems. The strong dependence of nodal capacity on fade margin suggest that designer should aim to have

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star points where the different hops have fade margins of roughly the same order to maximize the node capacity. Figure 4 illustrates the basic difference between these systems, i.e. the minimum angle by which two systems must be separated in a fully built star in order to keep interference in the tolerated limits. Even if this example is articial, it clearly shows the additional exibility of 4QAM. It provides the greatest choice of possible hop positions using the same radio channel. The network design should be the result of total design approach where interference is considered from the very beginning. The access networks require typically densely built terminal sites (stars) and relatively densely assembled random hops. These hops may or may not belong to the operators own network. In either case, the best spectrum efciency (total capacity) is achieved by using 4QAM (or 32TCM) modulation. Sometimes in sparsely built networks in rural areas, 16QAM or equivalent may provide the same or slightly better spectral efciency than 4QAM, but the differences are small. Also, the better system values and smallest minimum angles at star points give the designer additional exibility and design margin. This design margin may be needed as the performance requirements for SDH and ATM links tend to be more stringent than the earlier PDH requirements.

Capacity increase (upgrade from PDH to SDH)

When radio link hops need more capacity above 16 x 2 Mbit/s, SDH-systems must be applied. The present systems available are STM-0 (21 x 2 Mbit/s), which gives only minor increase in the capacity (31 %) and STM-1 (63 x 2 Mbit/s), which is almost four times the PDH-capacity. STM-1 radio link needs radio channel 112 MHz with 4QAM, 56 MHz with 16QAM and 28 MHz with 128QAM (see table below). The S/N requirements for receiver threshold using different modulations are also shown in the table. For example, 128QAM needs about 16 dB higher S/N than 4QAM. To upgrade existing radio link from 4QAM 16 x 2 Mbit/s to 155 Mbit/s without changing the RF-channel width 128QAM is needed. The

transmit power increase is normally not possible (Ptxmax<30 dBm) by more than few dB (0...3 dB). If the size of antennas in both ends is doubled roughly 6+6 dB can be gained. Due to practical reasons, antenna gains exceeding about 44 dB cannot be used. With these changes 12 to 15 dB is possible and in case of short hops the missing part may be covered by the excess system gain margin. If the RF-channel can be changed from 28 MHz to 56 MHz this kind of capacity upgrade would be less critical because 32TCM can be used. The system gain increase demand would then be only 4 dB and could be partly covered by transmit power increase (e.g. 3 dB) or with 50 % bigger antenna in one end. If antenna changes are planned, the rigidity and available space of the supporting structures must be checked. If antenna changes are not possible, the hop lenghts must be normally halved.

Table 1: Channel requirements on different modulation methods.

Modulation

16 x 2 Mbit/s RF-channel

155 Mbit/s RF-channel

S/N (10-6)

Difference in system gain

4QAM

28 MHz

112 MHz

13,5 dB

0 dB

16QAM

14 MHz

56 MHz

20,5 dB

7 dB

32TCM-2D

14 MHz

56 MHz

17,6 dB

4 dB

64QAM

14 MHz

56 MHz

26,5 dB

13 dB

128QAM

7 MHz

28 MHz

29,5 dB

16 dB

256QAM

7 MHz

28 MHz

32,6 dB

19 dB

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Effect of technology change to link planning

The existing radio links have been planned using parameters for PDH or SDH systems such as SES (Severely Errored Seconds), ES (Errored Seconds), RBER (Residual Bit Error Rate), BBER (Background Block Error Ratios) for which some time percentages of worst month has been allocated. When planning is based on 64 kbit/s ISDN-paths (ITU-T G.821), several different grades of quality can be applied, such as High Grade, Medium Grade (4 sub-classes) or Local Grade. This applies mainly to existing PDH-radio links. For mobile system infrastructures typically one of the Medium Grade classes is applied (Class 3). When planning is based on primary level or above paths (ITU-T G.826) International portion

and National portion are specied. National portion has been subdivided into Long-haul, Short-haul and Access sections. This applies mainly to existing SDH-radio links. New international synchronous paths should be planned according to ITU-T G.828, which applies also to national or private synchronous paths. New ITU-T G.828 species recommended block based error performance parameters for synchronous digital paths which may support circuit switched, packet switched, and leased circuit services. Synchronous digital paths meeting the objectives of G.828 will enable ATM trafc to meet B-ISDN-requirements of I.356. Radio links planned according to G.826 using ITU-R F.1189 or F.1092 can full ATM-requirements if residual BER is lower than about 1011 per 100 km path. (In practice,

four level modulation or FEC fulls this RBER requirement). If old PDH-radio links which have been planned according to requirements of G.821 will be utilized recalculations must be done for which fade margin corresponding to threshold level at about BER=10-5 is needed: If the frequency band is below about 17 GHz, multi-path outage probability during worst month must be calculated according to F.530-8 and the result compared to SECBR (Severely Errored Cell Block Ratio)-limit. If the frequency band is above about 17 GHz, rain outage probability of worst month must be calculated according to F.530-8 and the result compared to unavailability target applicable to the network (not yet specied to ATM, recommended spec. ITU-R F.1493). Residual BER should be below 10-11 which can be also measured by a suitable BER test

Regulatory aspects
The highest applicable frequency band should be selected depending on required hop length and transmission capacity. Frequency license fee policy of regulators tries to promote this principle in order to save lower frequency bands for longer hops or special applications. There is also a continuous and growing need also for 56 MHz channels to carry 155 Mbit/s using 16QAM or 32TCM modulations since, for example, 128QAM-type systems cannot offer good enough areal spectral efciency. In a dense network, high order modulations do not necessarily give higher spectral efciency compared to lower order modulations. In case when the hop density is very high 4QAM clearly seems to give the best areal spectrum efciency. However, narrow frequency blocks available for the operators may place additional limitations to the spectral efciency considerations. This situation may favour higher level modulations. In urban environment the required hop lengths are generally relatively short which also affects to the spectral efciency calculations. Among coded modulation schemes 32TCM seems to be the most promising because C/I requirement is in midway between 4QAM and 16QAM, but the net capacity and the spectrum width is nearly the same as those of 16QAM. In order to cater for the mix of technologies and services to be delivered at the same frequency band, it is most appropriate that a block (or blocks) of spectrum is made available to a potential operator in a manner consistent with the technology and market that the operator may wish to address.

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Conclusions
The introduction of 3G will also have a signicant effect on cellular transmission, which has to be taken into account in network planning. The main conclusions are: Capacity requirements will increase signicantly to several Mbit/s per site. Fibre optic based solutions will be taken into use also in regional networks. Microwave point-to-point radios will continue to be the main last mile access technology, because typically there is no bre available at BTS site. Network topology is assumed to change towards more simple star type of topology (or short chains). Current PDH radios can be used to transport ATM trafc, though new planning recommendations should be taken into use. The introduction of 3G will force operators to use the existing frequency bands as efciently as possible and also to nd new frequency bands. Robust modulation methods like 4QAM provides best areal spectrum efciency in dense networks.

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