Design and Implementation of a Portable Frequency

Translator for Cellular Users in Rural Areas

Ronalaine Tomas Cutillon1 , Armel Igliane Mateo2 , Joshua Martin Rivera Ocampo3
Joel Joseph Marciano Jr.4 , Steven Matthew Cheng5
Electrical and Electronics Engineering Institute
University of the Philippines Diliman
Quezon City, Philippines
ronalaine.cutillon@eee.upd.edu.ph1 , armel.mateo@eee.upd.edu.ph2 , joshua.ocampo@eee.upd.edu.ph3
joel.marciano@eee.upd.edu.ph4 , steven.cheng@eee.upd.edu.ph5

Abstract—At present, there are over five billion active
cellular users, however, some areas such as rural communities
are still not covered by cellular networks. As such, portable
frequency translator systems may be implemented to avoid
much cost of establishing connections in such areas. This
project designed and implemented a frequency translator
for Global Systems for Mobile (GSM) which utilizes the 380
MHz and 400 MHz, both allocated for public utility use, as
uplink and downlink frequencies, respectively. This project
is composed of three main blocks which are the frequency
converter, mixers, and near-field antenna. The frequency
converter simultaneously receives and transmits signals while
delivering at least 2.88 dB cascaded noise figure at the receive
path and at least 14.83 dB cascaded gain at the transmit path.
The downconversion mixer is passive and double-balanced in
type and operates around 19 dB conversion loss and around
19 dBm 1dB compression point. Lastly, the compact near-field
antennas operates at the uplink (858.8 MHz - 917.7 MHz) and
downlink (924.3 MHz - 988 MHz) GSM frequency bands with
uplink and downlink gains of 7.85 dBi and 3.06 dBi, respectively.
this provides mechanisms for local operation including buying
and provisioning SIM cards, buying and selling credits, and
other features which can be found in [1].
The attempts to increase connectivity in rural areas lead to
its more productive community. However, these are just tem-
porary operations and are illegally operating in GSM which is
a licensed spectrum. In the Philippines, most of the frequency
bands are controlled by large telecommunication companies.
A frequency translator could be an effective solution in such
a problem. It will be designed to operate between a cellular
phone and a base station as shown in Figure 1. It will have
an uplink frequency of 380 MHz and a downlink frequency
of 400 MHz, both frequencies are for public utility use.

Keywords - Portable frequency translator, frequency converter,

mixer, near field antenna, GSM applications.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Over five billion people around the world are active cellular
users [1]. But there are still some areas which are hardly
reached by cellular networks particularly rural areas. Connec-
tivity in rural areas has not been given priority by existing Mo-
bile Network Operators (MNOs) due to low population density
Figure 1. Frequency Translator Scheme
and low return on investment for the deployment of necessary
infrastructure for communication. In fact, telecommunication
in this type of region particularly in developing countries has The frequency translator is composed of different blocks
been mainly driven by government policies. of circuits functioning together as a unit. The operation of
As a response to the above scenario, small-scale or local each block will be discussed in the succeeding chapters with
cellular networks have been put into some rural places. Some more emphasis on two parts: mixers being the main frequency
common characteristics of these networks are low in cost and translators and antennas which handle the transmission and
power and easily deployable. One instance of this is the de- reception of signals.
ployment of OpenBTS in Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India
II. S YSTEM B LOCKS
that relies on Software Defined Radio (SDR) for transmission
and reception of signals in GSM bands. The components that The device will act as a frequency translator between the
make up this infrastructure are expounded in [2]. base station (BS) and user equipment (UE). The device will
Related installations were also implemented in the village of receive transmitted signals, at 380 frequency band, from the
Desa in rural Papua, Indonesia, in partnership with two local BS and convert then transmit the signal to the UE, now at
Non-government Organizations (NGOs). The network behind the GSM 900 frequency band. The group decided to adopt the
design of whitespace converters but substituted components so of a highpass filter and a lowpass filter. It also has a compact
it can operate at the desired frequency of operation. size that allows the circuit to be processed with low cost.
The block diagram of the frequency translator is shown in
Figure 2.

Figure 3. Lumped High-Low-Pass Star Mixer

Simulations are done in Keysight ADS and the following

results are displayed in Figures 4 and 5. As can be seen, at
LO power of 16 dBm, the input 1dB compression point is
19.14 dBm and the conversion loss is around 19 dB. These
performances are constant over the frequencies of interest. The
Figure 2. Block Diagram of the Frequency Translator LO power is also chosen this way because as can be observed
in Figure 5, it is at this point that the 1dB compression point
and conversion loss are acceptable. This also assures that the
A. Frequency Converters
diodes are turned on so that frequency conversion can take
A solution for moving from one frequency to another, which place.
might be needed to utilize unused parts of the frequency
spectrum or operate at an unlicensed or public frequency band,
is by the use of a frequency converter Frequency converters
combine an incoming signal with another carrier, from its local
oscillator, to produce outputs which are the sum and difference
of the two signals. The main purpose of a frequency converter
is to produce a single frequency output from the product of
two different signals.
A block diagram of a frequency translator is shown in Figure
2.
The frequency translator was designed and simulated using
Keysight ADS to achieve the desired parameters shown in Figure 4. Input and Output Compression Levels and Conversion Loss as a
Table I. Function of RF Frequency at 16 dBm LO

Cascaded Gain Cascaded Noise Figure

RX Path 10.3 dB 2.88 dB
TX Path 17.7 dB 10 dB
Table I
F REQUENCY T RANSLATOR S PECIFICATIONS

B. Mixers
Mixer will be the one most responsible for the frequency
conversion. It is a 3-port, nonlinear electronic device that
ideally outputs the sum or difference of two input frequencies
as mentioned in the previous subsection. Figure 5. Input and Output Compression Levels and Conversion Loss as a
A passive, double-balanced star mixer was chosen as shown Function of LO Power at RF = 900 MHz
in Figure 3 because of the following advantages: good port-
to-port isolation, low conversion loss [3], and low DC power C. Near Field Antenna
consumption [4]. It is mainly composed of two baluns located Antennas are used to transmit and receive signals to
at RF and LO ports and in between are four diodes. The baluns and from communicating devices, which in the case of a
are realized with two parallel out-of-phase splitters composed transceiver, is a mobile phone and a cell tower. In the instance
of a confined transmission between the mobile device and the III. C HARACTERIZATION OF RESULTS
cell tower through a portable transceiver, an electrically small A. Frequency Converter
near - field antenna is desired due to its short reading range
The layouts of the transceiver blocks were done using
capabilities.
Altium Designer 16.0 software and then fabricated by Elecrow.
A near-field antenna, shown in Figure 6 was designed and
simulated using Computer Simulation Technology (CST) to
achieve the desired results. The dimensional specifications of
the designed near-field antenna is summarized in Table II
below.

Figure 8. Fabricated Receive Path Prototype

Figure 6. Near Field Antenna Topology

Parameters Uplink (mm) Downlink (mm)

L1 48 48
L2 46.4 46.4
L3 16 16
W1 46 46
W2 45.36 45.2
W3 6.7 5.8
rl 42 40 Figure 9. Fabricated Transmit Path Prototype
rw 20 22
f 4 4 For the receive path, the blocks were first tested per block
g 8 8 as shown in Figure 10 until an output close to the ideal was
Table II
D IMENSIONAL S EPCIFICATIONS OF THE D ESIGNED A NTENNA obtained. Table shows the summary of results per block.

After simulating the uplink and donwlink near-field anten-

nas separately to be able to determine the overall behavior of
the antennas based on their geometrical changes, the antennas
were placed side by side and were simulated together to
observe their mutual coupling effect with one another based
on varying distances between them as shown in Figure 7. Figure 10. Division of Rx Path per block

Block Input Output

LNA -40 dBm -23 dBm
VCO 3.6 V 545 MHz at 8.0 dBm

VCO-Mixer 395 MHz at -30 dBm 947.5 MHz at -30 dBm

and 552.5 MHz at 8.0 dBm

Table III
S UMMARY OF R X PATH B LOCK R ESULTS

Figure 7. Uplink and Downlink Near Field Antennas with Separation Then the blocks were cascaded to form the receive path of
Distance, d = 30 mm the system. A signal of 395 MHz at -40 dBm was input to the
 Input Signal Output Signal Output Voltage (mV)
LNA block and then the output at the GSM BPF was measured Power (dBm) Power (dBm)
using a spectrum analyzer. Figure 11 shows the result under 16 10.8 400
these conditions. 18 12.8 446
20 14.7 491
22 16.7 549
24 18.6 622
25 19 644
Table IV
ATTENUATOR M EASUREMENTS FOR 902.5 MH Z

Figure 14 shows the output of the Tx VCO block at Vt =

2.6 V. It can be seen that it has an output at 515 MHz at 4
dBm which was close to the expected output and is enough
to drive the Tx mixer.

Figure 11. Division of Rx Path per block

It can be seen that the output is at 947.5 MHz at -35 dBm.

The overall gain was not the expected 10 dBm gain and instead
it was only 5 dBm. The 5 dBm drop was likely because of
the cables that the group has used to connect the blocks.
For the transmit path, the blocks were tested per block as
shown in Figure 12 until an output close to the ideal was
obtained.

Figure 14. Transmit VCO Block

Figure 15 shows the output of the Tx VCO-Mixer block at

RF input signal = 902.5 MHz at 16 dBm and LO input signal
Figure 12. Division of Tx Path per block
= 515 MHz at 4 dBm. It can be seen that the ouput is at
the desired frequency of 385 MHz at -10.3 dBm which was
Figure 13 shows the output of the block at RF input signal expected of the block.
= 902.5 MHz at 16 dBm. It can be seen that the output is at
the desired frequency of 902.5 MHz at 11 dBm which was
expected of the block.

Figure 15. Transmit VCO-Mixer Block

Figure 13. Transmit Path Attenuator Block results
Table IV shows the relationship between Input Signal
Power, Output Signal Power, and Output Voltage.
B. Mixers
The mixer layout was done using Altium Designer 16.0
software and was fabricated by Elecrow. The dimension of its
board was reduced to 100mm x 40mm.
 Figure 16. Fabricated Mixer Prototype
The mixer was tested using two signal generators and a
spectrum analyzer. The RF signal and LO signal were pro-
vided by Keysight E8257D and Agilent 8648D, respectively.
Moreover, the RF signal was set to 900 MHz and 20 dBm
power while the LO signal was set to 515 MHz and 14 dBm
power. The cables used have 1 dB loss each.
As shown in Figure 17, only the attenuated RF and LO
frequencies were appearing. Attenuation of these signals were
proven to be caused by the RF connector used to connect the IF
port to the spectrum analyzer - an amount of atleast 36 dBm
was recorded. Also, measurement readings didn’t match the
simulation results due to thermal/handling damage and failure
of diodes.
Figure 17. Frequency Response of the Mixer Prototype
C. Near Field Antenna
The layout of the antennas was done using Altium Designer
16.0 software by exporting the geometry from Computer
Simulation Technology and was then fabricated by Elecrow.
The fabricated antennas are shown in Figure 18 and are
characterized based on their S11, gain and radiation pattern.
However, due to non-idealities such as human error and
fabrication error, initially acquired measurement readings were
not the same as the simulated parameters, hence the fabricated
antennas were modified to produce the desired outputs. The
modifications done were removal of the blue covering of the
dielectric and the removal of some of the antenna traces.
Figure 18. Initial Operating Frequencies of the Elecrow Frabricated Antennas
S11 is a measure of reflection in return loss (dB). The
S11 of the antennas were measured using the Vector Network
Analyzer (VNA) and the measured parameters together with
the simulated ones are shown in Figures 19 and 20.
Figure 19. Achieved Operating Frequencies of the Uplink Antennas
Figure 20. Achieved Operating Frequencies of the Downlink (right)
From the graphs, it can be inferred that after minor modifi-
cations, both the antennas have achieved the frequency require-
ments to operate at GSM frequencies. The uplink antenna has a
central frequency of 898.8 MHz at -32.41 dB and bandwidth
of 31.3 MHz (858.8 MHz - 917.7 MHz) and the downlink
antenna has a central frequency of 947.8 MHz at -47.85 dB
and bandwidth of 63.7 MHz (924.3 MHz - 988 MHz).
The two-antenna method identical antennas for transmitting
and receiving antenna was used for the gain and radiation
pattern measurements. Given the Friis equation and assuming
that the gains of the receiver and transmitter antennas are the
same since they are identical, the gain of the tested antenna
is represented by Equation 1.

1 4π ∗ R Pr
GT = (20 ∗ log10 ( ) + 10 ∗ log10 ( ))
2 λ Pt
where GT is the gain of the AUT (dBi), R is antenna
separation between two antennas (m), λ is the operating
wavelength (m), Pr is the received power (W), and Pt is the
transmitted power (W).
Figure 21. Calculated Gain of the Uplink (left) and Downlink (right) Antenna
Measured using Friis Equation
The normalized gains of the antennas based from the
equation is plotted and shown in Figure 21. For the uplink
antenna, the maximum measured gain was 7.845 dBi at 150
degrees. The simulated maximum gain for the uplink antenna,
on the other hand, is 6.28 dBi at 0 degrees. For the downlink
antenna, the maximum measured gain was 3.06 dBi at 205
degrees, while the simulated maximum gain is 5.28 dBi at 0
degrees.
The plots also show the radiation pattern of the antennas.
Both of the antennas achieved directionality that is desired
for the proposed application. However, the main lobes plotted
from the measured values have shifted by a few degrees.
The possible reasons for the disparity in the gain values
and radiation pattern can be attributed to non-idealities (e.g.
presence of metallic objects, interference from other devices
transmitting in GSM frequencies) in the testing environment
and human interference or error.
IV. C ONCLUSION AND R ECOMMENDATIONS
The frequency converter has been shown to receive input
signals from 390 MHz - 400 MHz at -40 dBm and successfully
convert it to 935 MHz - 960 MHz at -35 dBm. The converter
has also been shown to receive 890 - 915 MHz at 25 dBm
and successfully convert it to 380 MHz - 390 MHz at 10
dBm.The transmit path can also detect the input RF power
into its system using a power detector. Minimizing the use
of connecting cables between blocks can improve the gain of
the system by effectively minimizing loss introduced by the
cables.
On the other hand, the double balanced, passive mixer
was successfully simulated showing around 20 dBm input
1dB compression point while having around 19 dB conver-
sion loss at RF frequency of 900 MHz and LO power of
16 dBm. However, the mixer prototype didn’t work due to
thermal/handling damage and failure of diodes. Proper care
must be applied in handling its components while avoiding
excessive application of heat as components comprising the
mixer are mostly smaller surface mount components. Diode
voltages must also be observed as it will be one of the main
(1) determining factors of the functionality and performance of
the mixer.
Lastly, the near field antenna was able to achieve the desired
operating frequencies for uplink and downlink transmissions
which are 858.8 MHz - 917.7 MHz and 924.3 MHz - 988
MHz for GSM operations, respectively. The antennas were
also able to achieve gains of 7.845 dBi for uplink and 3.06
dBi for downlink antenna, and both have satisfied the desired
directionality to carry out the proposed application.
For future near field antenna testing and applications, it is
recommended that the researchers acquire the parameters in a
more apt environment for antenna testing such as an anechoic
chamber to reduce the interference caused by other materials
present. Moreover, it is advised that the simulations of the
antenna should include considerations such as the available
dielectric materials and specifications of the company where
they are going to have their design fabricated.
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