Detailed Site Design

Detailed Site Design

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Detailed Site Design

Contents
Antennas and Plumbing.
Co-locating a Node B at a GSM site.
Site sharing with third party radio systems.
Mechanical and electrical antenna tilts.
Specification of antenna configurations.
! Antenna orientation.
! Antenna tilts.
Assessing potential antenna obstructions.

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Detailed Site Design

RF Plumbing
Plumbing it the term used by
radio engineers for
! Cables
! Splitters
! Combiners
! Filters etc
Comes from the early days of
radio when a RF systems bore
more resemblance to a central
heating system than electronics.

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Detailed Site Design

Antennas and Plumbing

The vendor solution selected by an operator will affect the antenna
and plumbing requirements of a site.
! Some solutions eliminate the need for RF plumbing.
! Some require similar amounts of equipment to a GSM BTS.
! Some increase the number of antennas on a site.
Existing GSM operators have to face a few legacy issues.
! Many existing GSM sites have no standard design and layout.
"Introduction of UMTS equipment may require custom conversions
"Each site will require individual project management.
! Where standard GSM designs and layouts exist.
"Sites may still require some modification to accommodate UMTS.

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Antenna Requirements (1)

UMTS sites can have up to 6
sectors.
Each sector will need two or
four antennas.
Polarization diversity antennas
reduce this requirement to one
or two antennas per sector.

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Detailed Site Design

Antenna Requirements (2)

Some vendors are offering
solutions where Remote radio unit

! Antennas and tranceivers are

located in the same unit.
! A main unit is used for
communications.
Remote radio unit
Advantages.
! No feeder losses.
Disadvantages. Main unit
! Higher wind loading.
! Less choice of antennas Remote radio unit

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Co-locating a Node B at a GSM site

Isolation requirements between
UMTS and GSM systems arent
published yet.

MHA

MHA
Nokia however are suggesting
that UMTS and GSM systems Diplexer Bias-T
Di-
plexer
Di-
plexer
Bias-T Bias-T
could share antennas. Abis/Iub
To/From
BSC/RNC
Diplexer Bias-T

Tri-band antennas are now Iub

Pwr

becoming available.
GSM WCDMA
Other operators are suggesting BTS BS

separate antenna systems.

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Site sharing with third party systems

Some UMTS sites might be co-
located with other non GSM
operators. UMTS antennas

! PMR Minimum separation

! Broadcast
! Navigation
Some of these systems use Other systems
older equipment which might be
more vulnerable to EMC issues.
Need to define minimum
antenna separations between
systems
Better to avoid sites used for
safety critical applications.

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Detailed Site Design

Antenna Tilts (1)

Antennas can have mechanical and electrical tilts.
Cells can use a mixture of both methods.
Necessary to specify both mechanical and electrical tilts to site
construction/rigging agents.

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Antenna Tilts (2)

Directional Antenna 0Elec 0Mech

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Antenna Tilts (3)

6

0 0

Directional Antenna 0Elec 6Mech

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Antenna Tilts (4)

0 0

6 6

Directional Antenna 6Elec 0Mech

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Antenna Tilts (4)

-6

0 0

12
Directional Antenna 6Elec -6Mech

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Antenna Orientation
Orientation
! Beamwidth
! Azimuth
! Tilt
Should be selected on the basis of:
! Coverage
! Interference
Antenna Beamwidth can be used in conjunction with azimuth and
tilt to control interference.
Various methods available to optimise Tilt.

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Assessment of antenna obstructions

Need to be able to asses potential obstructions.
What is the maximum tilt possible for an antenna located
! On a building with a long roof
! With potential obstructions in the vicinity.
Different methods are used by different operators.
! Fixed Slope.
! Fresnel Zone Clearance.
! Beamwidth Approach.

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