Link Budget Calculation

ICTP-ITU School on New Perspectives on Wireless Networking 2008

Abdus Salam ICTP Ermanno Pietrosemoli Latin American Networking School (Fundacin EsLaRed) ULA Mrida Venezuela www.eslared.org.ve
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Radio Links Design

Choice of Frequency Path Profiles Power Budget Coverage area Site survey

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Path Profile

LOS (Line of sight) K Factor (Earth Curvature) Fresnel Zone

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K factor
K = (Apparent Earth Radius)/(Real Earth Radius)

Optical Horizon Optic

Radio Horizon, K= 4/3

Earth

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Radio trajectory

K = 4/3, 90% of the time, dielectric constant decreases with altitude Reach 1/3 beyond the horizon K = infinity, straight trajectory K = 2/3, upwards curvature, less reach , 0.6 F1 in critical paths
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Link Profile

Objects on the path Foliage Plane surfaces and bodies of water Fresnel Zones

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First Fresnel Zone

Direct Path
Reflec ted pa th

=L

First Fres nel Z one

/2

=L+

Food Mart

Radio Link Clearance

Distancia en km 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 25 30 1ra Zona de Fresnel 0.7 *1ra Zona de Fresnel @ 2.4 GHz en metros Curvatura Terrestre

TOTAL
metros

5.5 7.8 9.6 11.1 12.4 13.6 14.6 15.6 16.6 17.5 18.4 19.2 19.9 20.7 21.4 22.1 22.8 23.5 24.1 24.7 27.7 30.3

3.9 5.5 6.7 7.7 8.7 9.5 10.2 11.0 11.6 12.2 12.8 13.4 14.0 14.5 15.0 15.5 16.0 16.4 16.9 17.3 19.4 21.2

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.7 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.7 3.4 4.2 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.2 9.4 10.7 12.0 13.5 15.0 16.7 26.0 37.5

3.9 5.6 7.1 8.4 9.7 11.0 12.3 13.6 15.0 16.4 17.9 19.4 21.0 22.7 24.4 26.2 28.0 29.9 31.9 34.0 45.4 58.7

Obstructed Line of Sight

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Optical Line of Sight

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Radio Line of Sight

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Fresnel Zone obstruction Attenuation

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Profiles
How to get the data: Topographic Maps GPS Walking the path with an altimeter DEMs and appropiate software

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Beyond Line of Sight

Reception is feasible, but with an increased power budget by diffraction on obstacles OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Diversity Modulation) and MIMO (Multiple Input- Multiple Output) based solutions can make a constructive use of multipath to overcome LOS Suitable obstacles are abundant in urban environment, much less so in rural areas, trees DO NOT reflect radio waves, they rather absorb or scatter them
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Power over distance

Gt Tx At Pt EIRP Gr Rx

Ar

L= 92,4 +20 log(d/km)+20 log(f/GHz) Free Space Loss Pr Margin Threshold km

dBm

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Example 1

Find the FSL between two sites 20 km apart in the 2, 4GHz frequency band Repeat for the 5,7 GHz frequency

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Exercise

Find the received signal level at 10 degrees from the boresight of a 24 dBi Hyperlink HG2424 antenna fed from a Linksys WRT54G Router with 12 meters of LMR400 cable. The receiving antenna is omnidirectional, located at 13 km and with a gain of 8 dBi at 2, 4GHz operating frequency. The receiving antenna cable is LMR 200 and 7 meters long. Both antennas are protected by cabling arrestors that introduce 0,5 dB of additional loss each. The link is meant to attain 11 Mbit/s nominal speed.

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Transmitter Cable loss

From www.linksys.com we find the specs for the router, the TX power at 11 Mbit/s is 18 dBm. From www.hyperlinktech.com we find the loss for the LMR 400 cable which is 0,22 dB/m, so for 12 m we will have 2,64 dB loss. But we must have 2 connectors at each end, with an estimated loss of 0,2 dB each, plus one adapter from the RPTN connector of the linksys to the N male connector of the cable, which has a loss of 0,15 dB, so adding the o,5 dB loss of the lightning arrestor, the total loss of the cabling will be: 2,64+2*0,2+0,15+0,5=3,69 dB, so the input power at the antenna will be: 18- 3,69= 14,3 dBm

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Antenna Gain
From www.hyperlinktech.com we find the radiation pattern of The antenna. But there are two. Which one do we choose? Since the receiving antenna is Omnidirectional, we will assume that it is vertically polarised, and therefore we must use vertical polarisation at both ends. For vertical polarisation, we have about 8 dB signal drop at 10 Offset, so the effective antenna gain in this direction is 24-8=16 dBi
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EIRP

Adding 16 dBi to the 14,3 dBm of intentional radiator output power we have an Equivalent Isotropic Radiated Power of 30,3 dBm, slightly above of 1 Watt. Notice that we have been happily adding dBm with dBi and dB. Why are we allowed to do this?

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Relative and absolute height

Antenna heigth: 3m above the roof 13m above the street, 73 m above sea level Building heigth = 10 m Galileo Building Street Level = 60 m

Basement height: -3m

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Sea Level

FSL

L= 100 +20Log(13km/km) = 122.28 dB The power reaching the receiving antenna will be 30,3 dBm -122,3 dB = -92 dBm Adding the receiving antenna gain, the power at the antenna terminal will be: -92 + 8 = -84 dBm

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Receiver Cable loss

From www.hyperlinktech.com we find the loss for the LMR 200 cable which is 0,55 dB/m, so for 7 m we will have 3,85 dB loss. But we must have 2 connectors at each end, with an estimated loss of 0,2 dB each, plus one adapter from the RPTN connector of the linksys to the N male connector of the cable, which has a loss of 0,15 dB, so adding the o,5 dB loss of the lightning arrestor, the total loss of the cabling will be: 3,85+2*0,2+0,15+0,5=4,9 dB, so the input power at the receiver will be: -84 dBm 4,9 dB = -88,9 dBm
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We can now build a graph of power over distance:

Gt Tx At 18 -84 14,3 dBm FSL= 122.28 dB -88,9 Margin Threshold -92
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Gr Rx

EIRP: 30,3 dBm

Ar

km
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Homework
Design a point to multipoint system. Remote units are scattered in every direction from the base station. The farthest CPE is 8 km away. Base station and remote (CPE) radios are equal, with 15 dBm power output and 85 dBm minimum receiver power at 2.4 GHz. Base station requires 20 m of coaxial cable between the radio and the antenna with 10 dB of attenuation, wereas the CPEs all use 10m long cables with 5 dB attenuation. Choose the best suited antenna for the base station and for the CPE, among the one described in the following page.

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