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A history of point to
point digital microwave
radio systems
Professor Andy Sutton
University of Salford
This article presents my perspective on the While I will not provide a tutorial on microwave
evolution of point to point digital microwave radio link planning within this article (please email me if
systems over the last quarter of a century. I you’re interested in such information), I believe it
started working with these systems, which for the will be beneficial to provide a brief overview of the
sake of brevity I will call microwave radios, during main parameters and planning considerations.
the mid 1980s. Digital microwave radios were With a little research you will find many definitions
very new at the time, most microwave radio of the ‘microwave frequency band’, traditionally
systems in use were analogue. Early systems frequencies from 1GHz to 30GHz have been
were designed for free standing deployment in a known as microwave however one could argue it
communications room with long lengths of starts lower, at 300MHz. Equally we’re working
waveguide used to connect the microwave radio with bands above 30GHz, more correctly known
to a horn or parabolic antenna, commonly known as millimetre wave bands, but still generally called
as a dish antenna or simply ‘dish’. As a result of microwave. Best to check the definition in use
this particular configuration, the microwave radios with specific frequency references if it’s important,
tended to be lower in frequency (a relative term of however common terminology generally refers to
course in microwave engineering), typically below anything between 1GHz and 100GHz as
12GHz and often 6 or 4GHz. Examples of such microwave.
deployments include the original UK trunk
network deployed by BT and, some years later, With such a wide range of frequencies included in
the Mercury Communication national figure of the microwave spectrum, we find there is a
eight network (11GHz). These networks are no corresponding wide range of propagation
longer in service as long distance transmission is characteristics. Destructive interference from
now carried on optical fibre systems, this shift to multi-path propagation (caused by phenomena
fibre for trunk networks has recently been such as atmospheric ducting) influences lower
highlighted by the removal of the large microwave bands, while the dominant fading mechanism for
horn antennas from the BT tower in London. frequencies above approx. 18GHz is rainfall, quite
Despite this, the market for microwave radio is a common occurrence in the UK and elsewhere.
larger than ever as systems have shifted focus to To allow for these fading mechanisms we must
access rather than trunk applications, of which I include a safety factor (or fade margin) when
will say more further in to this article. calculating the power budget to ensure
microwave radio links meet their target
A history of point to point digital microwave radio systems
Page 2
availability, typically expressed as uptime of the equipment shelter), it could be mounted on
99.99%, 99.995% or 99.999%. The higher this the tower behind the antenna or, as is
figure the greater the required fade margin for a increasingly common, directly mounted to the
given link configuration, this has a knock on effect back of the antenna as an integrated system.
on the practical link design parameters such as Antennas themselves have evolved too, from
frequency band, transmit power, modulation horns to parabolic dishes with ever increasing
scheme, transmit channel bandwidth, and amounts of sophistication and performance.
antenna size. It should also be noted that free
space path loss, the attenuation a signal suffers
as it passes through the air, increases with
frequency, so a longer link length can be
achieved in a lower frequency band for a given
configuration
2nd order
Mux (2/8)
30
Analogue
twisted 2Mbps 1
pair 3rd order
connections Mux (8/34)
2
1
4th order
3 Mux (34/140)
2
Direct connection to 2Mbps interface,
4 1
eg. Microwave radio, switch port etc.
3
2
Direct connection to 8Mbps interface, Direct connection to 140Mbps interface,
4
eg. Microwave radio, fibre system etc. eg. Microwave radio or fibre system
3
www.engagingwithcommunications.com
The Telecommunications
Heritage Group
www.thg.org.uk
Figure 5: Microwave radio tower with a class 1
parabolic antenna and a class 2 parabolic antenna
A history of point to point digital microwave radio systems