Opportunities with

microwave antenna
innovations

Bengt Stensby Strategic Product Manager

Sam Agneessens Research Manager
Agenda

● Introduction
● Antenna Innovations:
– Single polarized
– Dual-polarized
– Multi-band
– ETSI Class 4
– Sway compensation
– Water repellent radome
● Summary
● Q&A
● Webinar topics & survey
Ericsson Microwave Outlook 2023
Report Content

ericsson.com/microwave-outlook
Antenna innovations
Innovations and new requirements are
expanding the antenna palette.
Selecting the right antenna from the wide range
available can yield significant increases
in both capacity and spectrum efficiency
Source: Ericsson 2023
Possible choices:
• Single polarized – basic option
• Dual-polarized – double capacity
• Multi-band – longer hops and higher capacities
• ETSI Class 4 – better spectrum utilization with closer
hops
• Sway compensation – compensate for sway from
wind or solar bending, enables larger antennas and
longer hops.
• Water repellent radome - prevent snow & ice build up
- allowing for smaller antennas, longer hops or higher
availability
Dual-polarized antennas development

70%
Today 70% of new
deployment of antennas
are dual-polarized

Double
the capacity with
dual-polarized
antenna
Multi-band Antennas –
Combining different frequency bands
High availability (99.995%)

Very wide Lower availability (99.9%)

frequency band Multi-band
70/80GHz

Wide frequency
bands 18-42GHz
Narrow frequency
bands 6-15GHz

Dense urban Remote rural

Getting the best out of two worlds

E-band has A traditional frequency

high peak capacity with has
lower availability. lower peak capacity but
higher availability.

E-band’s high peak capacity and

the traditional band’s high availability.
ETSI Class 4 Antennas, Opportunities
Antenna classes performance comparison
Effective side lobe suppression 30
25 20-24 GHz Class 1
• Typically, 10-15 dB lower side lobes compared to a class 3 antennas 20 Class 2
Class 3
15
Class 4
Spectrum Efficiency: 10
5

Gain (dBi)
• Up to 40% more links compared with regular deployment 0
-5 10-15 dB

Cost Efficiency: -10

-15
• Up to 40% less spectrum required using Class 4 antennas -20
-25
-30
-35
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Azimuth (°)
E-band antennas: High gain, highly focused

Ø 30 cm
46 dBi Beam width 1 deg

Ø 60 cm
Beam width 0.5 deg
50 dBi

Ø 90 cm
Beam width 0.3 deg
53 dBi
How common is mast sway and misalignment in real
70/80 GHz networks?
Advanced Microwave
Insights provide a unique
insight as it allows us to
study different types of
signal fade

Commercial network in Scandinavia:

More than 480 E-band links are continuously
monitored

Antenna configurations:
46% with 30 cm antennas
37% with 60 cm antennas
17% mix 30+60cm antennas
Most links are unaffected, but some
experience …
Wind-induced sway Sunflower-effect:
Rapid movements due to stable structures Slow thermal induced bending of monopoles
Sway compensation antenna

● Detects antenna tilt and adjusts beam direction to always

point towards far end
● Similar properties as a regular reflector when not
steering

Antenna Unit Control Unit

Motion sensor
Reflector system
Motion estimator
Feed
Controller

RF RSSI

Radio
Sway compensation antenna field trial
• 6.7 km link across flat fields, near the sea
• Antenna mounted on platform in top of a
Steerable monopole
antenna • Monopole suffers from thermal induced sway
28 m height

Regular 60 cm
antenna

20 m height
Without sway compensation
3 sunny days
Steerable antenna – compensation OFFOFF

Steerable
antenna

Regular 60 cm
antenna
Regular antenna (reference link)

Without mast sway compensation the link is severely

affected by the thermal induced sway. Even worse than
the (lower height) reference link.
With sway compensation
3 sunny days
Steerable antenna – compensation ON ON

Steerable
antenna

Regular 60 cm
antenna
Regular antenna (reference link)

With mast swat compensation on, the link maintains

highest modulation nearly all day
Sway compensation antenna field trial

+30%
Sway compensation enables
the use of 0.6.m antennas
with 30% longer hops than
regular 0.3 m antennas

+80%
Sway compensation enables
the use of 0.9.m antennas
with 80% longer hops than
regular 0.3 m antennas
Water repellent antennas

Water repellent coating

on antenna:
• Prevents rain, snow & ice build up
• Improves system gain performance
during rain and snow
• Allows for smaller antennas, longer
hops or higher availability

Wet snow sticks to the uncoated

antenna

Snow slides off the antenna with

water repellent coating
Source: Ericsson 2023
Field trial with water-repellent coating on E-
band links – rain events

Water is removed faster from the

antenna surface and there is less
film build up and less signal
attenuation

When the rain stops, the link

recovers almost immediately
as there is no water that
needs to dry
Field trial with water-repellent coating on E-
band links - in snowy conditions
The regular uncoated link
is attenuated by 4dB
while the snow is dry,
and by >9dB
when the snow is wet.

The link with

water repellent coating
is unaffected
Field trial with water repellent coating on E-
band links – over half a year
Statistics collected from December
2021 to June 2022 on
a 200 m E-band hop
with 2 parallel links, one with and
one without water-repellent radome
coating.

6dB
The water-repellent coating gives up to
6 dB less fading. This enables
20-30% longer hops with the same
availability.

Source: Ericsson 2023

Summarizing Antenna innovations
Innovations and new requirements are
expanding the antenna palette.
Selecting the right antenna from the wide range
available can yield significant increases
in both capacity and spectrum efficiency
Source: Ericsson 2023
Possible choices:
• Single polarized – basic option
• Dual-polarized – double capacity
• Multi-band – longer hops and higher capacities
• ETSI Class 4 – better spectrum utilization with closer
hops
• Sway compensation – compensate for sway from
wind or solar bending, enables larger antennas and
longer hops.
• Water repellent radome - prevent snow & ice build up
- allowing for smaller antennas, longer hops or higher
availability
Q&A
Webinar topics

Date Topics 23 Q3 Planned Topics for later

TCO in microwave networks

The Evolution from MPLS to SRv6
2023-10-05 Demystifying SDN:
in Mobile Backhaul
Transport automation and Traffic control
How to pick the best Fronthaul
2023-10-26 technology for your C-RAN Transport for Cloud RAN
network
MIMO
Opportunities with microwave
2023-11-16
antenna innovations … please suggest!

2023-12-07 Release 23.Q3 & Q4

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