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1. Scope of work
This document aims at providing a clear insight into in-train penetration loss to be
used for design purposes. It also encompasses case studies performed within live
Network Operators, along with a brief theoretical description of the propagation
issues related to the upper UHF frequency band. More importantly, this document
will be used as a reliable reference for RANN/Ben/Dutchtone UMTS Network
deployment so that all the parties will use the same RF parameters, and
comprehend the theoretical and practical reasons behind the adopted choice. This
should avoid further misunderstanding and consolidates the effective collaboration
between the parties.
2. Introduction
This document provides the propagation assumptions made to cope with the wider
range of cases that might be encountered in a live UMTS network. Namely,
grazing incidence (near 0 degree) and perpendicular incidence (near 90 degrees)
will be explained and statistical results, performed on a real live network, will be
presented.
3. Problem Statement
Figure 1 depicts the basic assumptions made for the sake of in-train penetration
study :
Train
windows
Transmitting Node B
Antenna (assumed as a Grazing incidence
Huyghens source) line (dashed line)
When the trains moves within a cell coverage area the propagation is proved to be
in grazing incidence, except for a few range of random angles. Therefore, the
penetration loss is maximum. In a tunnel, however, in case where leaky-feeders
are deployed, the propagation is under 90 degrees, which gives better in-train
coverage. Let us now take account of the the angular spread combined to the loss
through windows.
In many cases, and especially in modern fast-speed trains, the glass is mixed with
a semi-metallic material. This obviously leads to a more reflected energy and
therefore less transmitted energy within the train wagon, which is not the desired
situation for in-train coverage.
Low in-train
loss Zone
For our design purposes worst-case senarios are considered. In other words, the
penetration loss values are taken from grazing incidence and not from
perpendicular incidence because the latter leads to under-dimensioning the
number of sites required.
4. Results
INRETS, a French institution made some measurement campaigns in-train for the
French fast speed train (TGV) and found out that :
COST231 mentioned that the in-train penetration losses are similar to those found
by the Spanish and the French studies. Values between 25 and 30 dB for grazing
incidence are found. However, the COST231 study (made in TGV Nord Paris-
Lille) mentioned a very interesting issue regarding synchronisation in GSM. The
figure below shows how synchronisation problems arise (i.e. no neighbours can be
reported) when the train speed exceeds 200 km/h. In UMTS we do not have
similar studies but this problem might occur and we need to mention it.
We also need to avoid the use of 5 dB loss because this value has been used for
tunnels where leaky-feeders were installed. In fact, leaky-feeders have the best
propagation characteristics in a confined environment as the field strength, from
one hand is uniformly distributed and from the other hand has an incidence angle
of 90 degrees, which is unlikely to happen outdoors from outdoor cells using
antennas instead.
6. Technical References
[2] J.-F. Sante, “Measurements and Modelling in Rural Areas”, COST231 TD(93)
121, Limerick, Ireland, September 1993.
[4] COST231, “Urban Transmission Loss Models for Mobile Radio in the 900 and
1800 MHz Bands (Revision 2)”, COST231 TD(900 119 Rev. 2, The Hague, The
Netherlands, September 1991.