MW transmission

(NEC)
Prepared by Engr. Jawad Khan
BSS/TXN Support Engineer
EPTSC-Cll

What is MW
transmission?
Microwave transmission refers to the

technology of transmitting information or

power by the use of radio waves whose
wavelengths are conveniently measured in
small numbers of centimeters; these are
called microwaves. This part of the radio
spectrum ranges across frequencies of
roughly 1.0gigahertz (GHz) to 30GHz. These
correspond to wavelengths from
30centimeters down to 1.0cm.

Advantages of MW.
High frequency small size of antenna
High frequency narrow beam width
Narrow beam width no interference and

high bandwidth
Easy in relocation
No bad effects on humans.

Link planning
The design and construction of a microwave radio link
network is based on a number of factors. These include:
Distance between microwave radio terminals
Terrain properties, eg bodies of water, cliffs, forests, snow
Frequency of operation, often governed by licensing costs,
frequency availability, planned distances and even
suspectibility to rain fading.
Fading, dispersionand multipath distortion.
Size of antennas, feedline properties, need for towers etc.
Council and community development permissions
governing visual intrusions.
Cost of equipment and cost benefit analysis including
equipment maintenance.

WHY NEC???
High efficiency/Quality and reliability.
low power consumption
Temperature resistable.
User friendly
Easy software/HW installation.
Software is simple and easily understandable.
Different modulation schemes avaialable.
High system gain/high spectrum effieciency.
Can use freq from 6 GHz upto 52 GHz.

Common MW link Setup.

The b/m basic Equipment is required for a MW
link.
An indoor unit (IDU)
A Parabolic MW dish Antenna
An outdoor unit (ODU) connected to Antenna.
An IF (intermediate frequency) cable to
connect IDU with ODU using standard straight
and L connectors.
A negative 48V DC voltage from standard
rectifiers.

IF cable.
IF cable is an intermediate frequency cable

i.e. its just a simple coaxial cable but its called

IF because it carry information signals in
intermediate frequency range i.e. 140MHz
(Rx) and 340MHz (Tx).
Coaxial cable has the common property that
the it shows more attenuation/losses to high
frequency signals.
Short Test is made for IF cable to check cable
and connectors.

ODU connection with

Dish Ant.
ODU can be connected to Dish Ant. In different
ways.
Direct mount connection
Using waveguide
Using Hybrid
Using transducer

Protected and unprotected links.

Protected links have main and standby paths

available and one is used at a time. They are

represented by (1+1)
Unprotected links have only one path and if

that path gets down, all transmission breaks.

They are donated by (1+0).

Different types of common links

configuration
Unprotected 1+0
Hotstandby 1+1
Unprotected Twinpath
Space diversity
Frequency diversity
XPIC (cross polarization interference

cancellor).

Details of link
configurations.
Unprotected 1+0 link has one 1+0 IDU, one IF

cable, One ODU and one Dish.

HotStandby 1+1 link has one 1+1 IDU, two IF
cables, two ODUs and one Dish.
Twin path is the same as Hot standby but it
has different traffic on both of its paths at the
same time so both paths are unprotected.

Space Diversity link.

SD link has two Dishes (one called main and

other called standby) at each side, 1+1 IDU,

two IF cables, two ODUs.
Two IDUs and 4 ODUs can be used to make it
more protected.
Both frequency and Polarization are the same
for both dishes.
There are three paths made in this
configuration i.e. one from Main to Main and
two from Main to standby dishes.

Frequency diversity links.

Frequency diversity is the same as space

diversity but the main difference is that

frequency of both dishes is different and
polarity is the same .

XPIC
PASOLINK NEO can improve its transmission

capacity up to dual STM-1 in 28 MHz

bandwidth by using XPIC technology. In case
of this capacity upgrading from one STM-1
system, the additional parts are dual polarize
antenna, one more ODU/ IDU set, some XPIC
cable kit and additional firmware. The
upgrading can be realized with existing STM-1
equipment.

Dish size and frequency

consideration.
The higher the frequency is, the narrow will

be its beam width and vice versa.

The longer the link distance is, the lower
frequency signals are used to get wide
beamwidth and better RSL can be achieved.
High freq signals travel less distance then low
freq and high freq signals are more attenuated
then low freq.
High freq needs small size dish antennas
then low freq so the longer the link distance
is, the smaller freq will be used and dish

Line of Sight.
LOS should be clear because MW transmission
is point to point transmission and if the dishes
are not aligned to each other then better RSL
will not be achieved and more closer RSL near
threshold RSL, the higher will be the risk of
link fluctuation.

Commonly used NEC MW

links.
The b/m NEC MW links are commonly used in
Mobilink Pakistan.
Pasolink V3
Pasolink V4
Pasolink Mx
Pasolink NEO
Pasolink NEO CPV

E1 capacity.
the b/m E1 capacity Equipment is commonly
used here.
4 E1
16 E1
48 E1
63 E1 (STM-1)
2 x STM-1 capacity can be obtained using
XPIC technology.
C-Node is used to add/drop media in SDH like
63 E1 Pasolink NEO as the media is totally
synchronous.

Softwares
The b/m softwares are used.
PNMT (for pasolink)
PNMTj (for pasolink NEO) java version.
Software installation will be taught directly

during training.

New link installation/commissioning.

When a new link is installed first check whether

installation has been done according to standard or

not. And check safty measures have been taken or
not like grounding of IDU/ODU/Surge arrestors/MW
rack etc.
Check power using multimeter.
Power on link IDU.
Make sure that you have all required data to configure
the new equipment according to link budget.
(All NEC IDUs commissioning will be
taught at site visits.)

Before and after LVD connections.

Make sure that all your links are connected

before LVD to avoid link outages during low

voltages.
LVD stands for low voltage disconnection. It
disconnects BTS power supply when voltages
are lowered till -42VDC.
If your link power connections are after LVD
then with the disconnection of BTS, all your
links will be powered off too.

Common troubleshooting steps.

First of all if you receive TTs of several down

sites then check your sites connectivity for any

possible common links between the down sites.
If you find the down sites common link then
contact site guard (both ends) directly to find out
whether there is a power failure or not. If not
then move immediately to one of the end.
Make sure that you have all the required cables
and softwares in working conditions in your
laptop and must take a rigger tech with you
along with full toolkit.

Common troubleshooting steps.

If the IDU is powered off then check the front

fuses of IDU using multimeter and if they are

faulty then replaced them.
If they are ok then check fuse panel. The
fuses in fuse panel and power input/output of
fuse panel.
If fuse panel is not receiving input then check
connections at rectifier.
If fuse panel fuse is faulty then replace it.
If every thing with power is ok then replace
IDU.

Common troubleshooting steps.

Please note down that always visit both ends

of the link before making any decission

because mostly issue can not be judged from
visiting one end of the link.
If IDU is powered on then connect to it using
your PNMT/PNMTj .
Check for the current alarms and check event
logs.
Check RSL value and if RSL value is less than
-45 dbm (i.e. towards -50 -60 -70 dbm) then
improve the RSL value by making fine tunning

Common troubleshooting steps.

BER : bit error rate/ratio
High BER/Low BER means that there is too

much noise and attenuation, it can be often

due to some water penetration into the
straight connectors. Check your connectors
and make short test for IF cable.
If your IDU/ODU alarm on the IDU is blinking
and there is a IDU/ODU link alarm in software
then there is something wrong with the
connection between IDU and ODU. Check your
IF cable, L connector, straight connector etc.

Common troubleshooting steps.

If there are MOD and DEM alarms then either

of your ODU or IDU needs to be replaced. You

have to troubleshoot by changing them one
by one, thats the best way to troubleshoot.
Please note that there are always two types of
ODUs. one is high and one is low. Thats why
one end is called high and other end is called
low. Care must be taken before replacing ODU
to make sure that high band ODU is not mixed
up with low band ODU.

Common troubleshooting steps.

IF the link is PASOLINK NEO then it has more

clear cut alarms then the older versions. E.g.

For short IF cable, there will be an alarm of IF
cable short.
Similarly for OPEN IF cable, there is alarm of IF
cable OPEN.
In Pasolink neo, you can change the cards and
no need of replacing whole IDU e.g there is a
modem card, an interface card, a control card.

IF cable Short Test.

Open the L and straight connectors from IDU

and ODU and short one end of it.

Take multimeter to the other end and select
the short test option on multimeter.
Now put the two probs of MM on the inner and
outer connection of the connector.
The MM should beep when the other end is
short.

IF cable Short Test.

Now remove the short from the other end. Now

mm should not beep and cable path should be

open. If it still beeps then either of your
connectors are short and needs to be remade.
Make this test for atleast 5 to 10 times to get
more confirm results.
If the behaviour of IF cable is sometime open and
some time short even the other end is open and
all connectors have been made fresh then check
your IF cable it may have water penetrated inside
it. in that case IF cable needs to be replaced.

Interference Test.
Send one team to one end and other team to far end.
Both should have laptops and softwares in it in

working conditions.
Now one team will turn off the IDU and the team at
its far end will check RSL which should be -100 dbm.
Take snap shot of RSL after a few seconds.
Similarly second team will turn off IDU and first team
will take check RSL.
If RSL is not -100 then share the snap shots with your
Regional Transmission support Engineer along with
dish sizes, dish heights, etc. for both ends.

RSL improvement/Link alignment.

Send your Rigger technician with multimeter

to climb the tower along with serial number of

ODU. If the site is a major hub site then tell
him to trace the IF cable too to avoid outage
of another link. He must match serial number
of ODU too before doing any thing.
When he find the right dish then he will get
himself adjusted by fastening his safty belt.
Open multimeter and select 20VDC option.

RSL improvement/Link alignment.

Connect black wire to the tower by using neto tape.
Connect red wire to the back of ODU (option

available) now monitor the voltage values at MM.

If alignment is almost out then voltages will be 0.5 to
1.30 if RSL is improved to -30s then voltages will be
3.40 + - .
For RSL improvement activity on operational Links,
never loose up and down as there can be chance that
dish may get down and big sizes dishes are not easy
to control then. Always check left right first to get max
RSL, if no use then do fine tuning on up and down.

Safety measures and

standard.
Grounding should be done properly.
IDU should be tight and balanced
There should be enough space between two IDUs min

equal to 1U.
All cables and tributaries should be tight and laid
properly.
Weather proofing should be done properly.
Dishes should be locked properly after activities.
Correct labeling should be done on everything from IDU
to dish.
Two meter IF cable should be looped on tower behind
antenna .

Thanks & The end.

Software installations, software using, and HW

details will be taught during training and site

visits.