Welcome to Week 5

Antennas and Radio Wave

Propagation

Dr. Nasir Faruk

Department of Telecommunication Science
University Of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
 Course content/Lecture Schedule
Lect. No. Date Topic
1 Week 1 General Overview of the Course, mobile technologies and service
2 Week 2 Spectrum management, Regulations and interference control
3 Week 3 GSM network infrastructure
4 Week 4 Cell Sizes, Design and System Fundamentals
5 Week 5 Antennas and Radio Wave Propagation
6 Week 6 GSM link budget and coverage planning
7 Week 7 Logical Channels used in GSM networks
8 Week 8 Test 1 (TDMA, Frames Structure And Signaling With In GSM)
9 Week 9 Teletraffic Engineering and Capacity planning in GSM networks
10 Week 10 Radio Resource Management (RRM) in GSM networks
11 Week 11 (Submission of Course Work 1) Mobility management (MM) in GSM
Networks
12 Week 12 Connection management (CM) in GSM Networks
13 Week 13 Backhauling systems, Transmission and Network Planning
14 Week 14 Test 2 and Drive Test Laboratory Defense
15 Week 15 General Course Revision

P.S Topic Date Duration

No. Assigned
1 Antennas and Radio Wave Propagation Week 5 1 week
2 GSM link budget and coverage planning Week 6 1 Week
3 Teletraffic Engineering and Capacity planning in GSM networks Week 9 1 week
24 Backhauling systems, Transmission and Network Planning Week 13 1 week
RADIO FREQUENCY AND ANTENNA CONCEPTS

 An antenna is a device that is made

to efficiently transmit and receive
radiated electromagnetic waves.
 It is the interface between radio
waves propagating through space
and electric currents moving in
metal conductors, used with
a transmitter or receiver.
 In transmission, a radio transmitter
supplies an electric current to the
antenna's terminals, and the
antenna radiates the energy from
the current as electromagnetic
waves (radio waves).
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There are basically five
types of Antennas:
Monopole Dipole

Quarter-wave Rubber Ducky antenna

Array Loop on UHF 446 MHz walkie
whip antenna
talkie with rubber cover
removed.
Aperture

Monopole: Monopole
antennas consist of a single
conductor such as a metal
rod, mounted over the
ground or an artificial
conducting surface (a so- VHF ground plane
called ground plane). antenna
Mast radiator antenna
4 of medium wave AM radio
station,
 Dipole

A basic dipole antenna consists of two

conductors (usually metal rods or
wires) arranged symmetrically, with Rabbit ears Dipole Yagi-Uda
one side of the balanced feedline from
the transmitter or receiver attached to
each. We have 5 different dipole
antennas:

Log-periodic Two-element
dipole array turnstile

5 Corner reflector
Array Antenas

Array antennas consist of

multiple antennas working
as a single antenna. collinear array of
Reflective array folded dipoles
Typically they consist of
arrays of identical driven
elements, usually dipoles
fed in phase, giving
increased gain over that of
a single dipole.

US Air Force PAVE

PAWS phased
array radar antenna
6 for ballistic missile
detection,
 Loop and Aperture Antennas

Loop antennas consist of a loop (or coil) of wire.

Loop antenna

Aperture antennas are the main type of

directional antennas used at microwave frequencies
and above. They consist of a small dipole or loop
feed antenna inside a three-dimensional guiding
structure large compared

Aperture antennas

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 ANTENNA CHARACTERISTICS:

What to consider when choosing antenna

Power Gain Directivity

• Antenna
radiation Polarization
patterns

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 ANTENNA POWER GAIN

Is the ratio of antenna power input to the power output from the
antenna. The gain is a dimension-less factor related to power and usually
expressed in decibels.

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 DIRECTIVITY AND RADIATION EFFICIENCY
The directive of an antenna is a measure of the concentration of the
radiated power in a particular direction.
It is usually a ratio of radiation intensity in a given direction to the
average radiation intensity.

Where η is the radiation efficiency

(0.5-0.75)

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 POLARIZATION
Polarization is the orientation of electromagnetic waves far from the source.
 The power received by antenna from a particular direction is maximal if
polarization of the incident wave and of the antenna in the wave arrival
direction have the same axial ratio.
So for best performance you will need to match up the polarization of the
transmitting antenna and the receiving antenna.

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 ANTENNA RADIATION PATTERNS

•The radiation pattern is a graphical depiction of the relative field strength

transmitted from or received by the antenna.
•Antenna radiation patterns are taken at one frequency, one polarization, and
one plane cut.
• Antenna radiation patterns usually take two forms, the elevation pattern and
the azimuth pattern.
Y
Z

φ
X

Sin2θ

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 ELEMENTS OF RADIATION PATTERN

Key elements to be considered when choosing a

radiation pattern:

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 BEAMWIDTH
 Is a measure of antenna directivity.
Is the angle between the directions in which the radiated power is
3dB below the maximum. Basically the gain of the antenna is inversely
proportional to the beam width as the beam becomes narrower the gain
increases.

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EXAMPLE OF BW
3 dB

45o

45o

45+45=90o 15
 Side-lobe levels
Side-lobes are the lobes of the far field radiation pattern that are not the main beam
The power density in the side lobes is generally much less than that in the main beam.
 It is generally desirable to minimize the side lobe level (SLL).

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 Antenna nulls
a null is an area or vector in an antenna's radiation
pattern where the signal cancels out almost entirely.
Null fill is used in radio antenna systems which are
located on mountains or tall towers, to prevent too
much of the signal from overshooting the nearest part
of intended coverage area.

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 Front-to-back ratio
The front-to-back ratio (F/B) is used as a figure of merit that attempts to describe the
level of radiation from the back of a directional antenna.
Basically, the F/B is the ratio of the peak gain in the forward direction to the gain 180-
degrees behind the peak.

25o
F/B=10 log(FP/BP in 180o direction)
Usually 18dB – 30 dB. The larger the better

What is the Beam width ? 25o+25o=50o

Front-Back-ratio ? 18 dB

Front-Side-ratio ? 14 dB
18 25o
 Beam Tilt
Beam tilt is used in radio to aim the main lobe of the vertical plane radiation pattern of an antenna below (or
above) the horizontal plane.
MDT (Mechanical down tilt): The simplest way is mechanical beam tilt, where the antenna is physically mounted
in such a manner as to lower the angle of the signal on one side.
 in WCDMA is basically a trade off between other cells interference mitigation and coverage benchmark.
Mechanical down tilt is known to effectively reduce inter cell interference between two cells by confining its signal to its
own dominance area.
However, it could reduce the coverage area.
EDT (Electrical down tilt): More common is electrical beam tilt, where the phasing between antenna elements is
tweaked to make the signal go down (usually) in all directions.
This is extremely useful when the antenna is at a very high point, and the edge of the signal is likely to miss the target entirely.

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EFFECT OF MDT ON COVERAGE

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Antenna Class
Omni-directional antenna
oAn omnidirectional antenna is an antenna that has a non-
directional pattern (circular pattern) in a given plane with
a directional pattern in any orthogonal plane.
oIt provide coverage in all direction

Directional antenna

A directional antenna is one that radiates its energy more

effectively in one (or some) direction than
others. Typically, these antennas have one main lobe
and several minor lobes

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 ANTENNA SECTORIZATION

Sectorization is commonly used technique to enhance capacity or

coverage by equipping the site with (more) sectors.
 Each of the sectors creates a new cell.
With sectorization, coverage and capacity can be improved in both
directions.
Depending on the application, the site may be comprised of one sector
(omnidirectional antenna) or sectored (Directional antenna)
To provide services in an isolated area, single sector (omnidirectional
antenna) approach is applicable to micro or pico cells, as well as macro
cells; the cell requires being isolated from the remaining network by, e.g.,
terrain obstacles.
Two sectors may be employed for line coverage at macro layer (e.g.
sites along the motorway) or for coverage and capacity of dense areas at
micro layer.
Three sectors can be used to provide regular footprints of the network
service at macro layer with low or medium load, and
Six sectors to provide additional capacity and improved coverage to
regular macro layers.
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 AZIMUTH
 the angle used to defined the direction of the antenna

330o 30o

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 REALISTIC ANTENNAS AND RADIATION PATTERN
Realistic antenna which could be found in the market. This antenna are the once that would be use during the
coverage design.
Realistic antenna pattern can be found from Andrew Comnscope company. Some antenna with details of their
product specifications are provided below.
THREE SECTOR ANTENNA
RADIATION PATTERN
GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS
Model number HBX-6517DS-VTM, sectored
antenna 1710-2180MHz
ELECTRICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Justification:
the antenna has 650 horizontal beamwidth. This means that the maximum gain is
achieved at 00 and 3dB below maximum at directions. The pattern can be usedfor 32.25o
1200 sectorisation (three sectored cell) since the power radiated at the boundaries
600 and 3000 are approximately 8dB below maximum power at 00, this can still be
accepted within a good coverage

http://www.commscope.com/SiteSearch/?q=antenna&ps=Ultra-Wideband+Solutions
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 SIX SECTOR ANTENNA RADIATION PATTERN
GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS
Model number HBX-3319DS-VTM DualPol antenna
1710-2180MHz

ELECTRICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Justification:
The antenna has 320 horizontal beamwidth. This means
that the maximum gain is achieved at 00 and 3 dB  16 o
below
maximum at directions. The pattern can be used for 600
sectorisation (six sectored cell) since the power radiated
at the boundaries 300 and 3300 are approximately 9 dB
below maximum power at 00, this can still be accepted
within a good coverage

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OUTDOOR PILOT SHOWING SECTORS

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EQUIVALENT ISOTROPICALLY RADIATED POWER (E.I.R.P)

alternatively, effective isotropically radiated power is the amount of power that a

theoretical isotropic antenna (which evenly distributes power in all directions) would
emit to produce the peak power density observed in the direction

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 HOW signal travels (Wave propagation)

Ionosphere
(80 - 720 km)
Sky wave
Mesosphere
(50 - 80 km)

Space wave (LOS) Stratosphere

(12 - 50 km)
Ground wave
Troposphere
(0 - 12 km)
Earth
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 Propagation Mechanisms
 Reflection
 Propagation wave impinges on an object which is large as compared to
wavelength
- e.g., the surface of the Earth, buildings, walls, etc.
 Diffraction
 Radio path between transmitter and receiver
obstructed by surface with sharp irregular edges
 Waves bend around the obstacle, even when LOS (line of sight) does
not exist
 Scattering
 Objects smaller than the wavelength of the
propagation wave
- e.g. foliage, street signs, lamp posts
 Absorption
 Polarization
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 Radio Propagation Effects

Building

Direct Signal

hb Reflected Signal
Diffracted
Signal hm

d
Transmitter Receiver

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 Free-space Propagation

hb

hm

Transmitter Distance d
Receiver

 The received signal power at distance d:

AeGtPt
Pr 
4d 2
where Pt is transmitting power, Ae is effective area, and Gt is the
transmitting antenna gain. Assuming that the radiated power is uniformly
distributed over the surface of the sphere.

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 Small scale fading (Rayleigh)
Small-scale (fading) models characterize the rapid fluctuations of the received signal strength
over very short travel distance or short time duration

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 Rayleigh fading
Rayleigh fading models assume that the magnitude of a signal that has passed through such a transmission
medium (also called a communications channel) will vary randomly, or fade, according to a Rayleigh
distribution — the radial component of the sum of two uncorrelated Gaussian random variables.

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 Large Scale fading ( path Loss)

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 Path Loss models (LOS)
1-Free-space path loss model good for open areas

 Definition of path loss LP :

Pt
LP  ,
Pr
Path Loss in Free-space:

LPF (dB)  32.45  20 log10 f c (MHz)  20 log10 d (km),

where fc is the carrier frequency.

This shows greater the fc , more is the loss.

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Hata model

 Urban area:
LPU (dB)  69.55  26.16 log10 f c ( MHz)  13.82 log10 hb (m)   hm (m)
 44.9  6.55 log10 hb (m)log10 d (km)
where
1.1log10 f c ( MHz)  0.7hm (m)  1.56 log10 f c ( MHz)  0.8, for l arg e city

 hm (m)  8.29log10 1.54hm (m)2  1.1, for f c  200MHz 
 , for small & medium city
3.2log10 11.75hm (m)  4.97, for f c  400MHz
2


 Suburban area: 2
 f c ( MHz) 
LPS (dB)  LPU (dB)  2log10   5.4
 28 
 Open area:

LPO (dB)  LPU (dB)  4.78log10 f c (MHz)  18.33 log10 f c (MHz)  40.94
2

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 COST 231 Model
L50 urban  46.3  33.9 log f c  13.82 log ht  ahr   44.9  6.55 log ht log d  Cm
Cm =0 dB for medium sized city and suburban areas, and 3 dB for metropolitan centres and
a(hr) is defined as in Hata model.

Egli Model
hr  10, L(dB)  20 log f c  40 log d  20 log hT  76.3  10 log hr

hr  10, L(dB)  20 log f c  40 log d  20 log hT  85.9  10 log hr

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 Other models
I. Walfisch-Batoni model
II. LEE model
III.Erceg model
IV.Okumura-Hata model
V. ITU model
VI.Two-ray ground model
VII.Over-rooftop model
VIII.Log-distance path model
IX.Dual-slope model
X. Boltzmann model.
XI.Waveguide model. etc

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 Real life application
170

160

150

140
Path Loss (dB)

130
Measured Path Loss
120
HATA
110 COST 231
100 ITUR P.5293
Egli
90 ECC
80 CCIR
Davidson
70

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Distance (Km)
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Path loss with distance for Bode-Sa’adu route (Kwara State)
 Some Useful conversion formulae
1. Power in dBW= 10*log (power in
Watt)
2. Power in dB= power in dBm+30
3. Gain (dBi)= Gain (dBd)+ 2.15

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 Class work
Q1. If a transmittyer produces 50 W of power, express the transmit power in
units of
1. dBm
2. dBW

Q2. Calculate the free space loss for

D= 25 km, f=420 MHz
D= 50 km, f=420 MHz
D= 25km, f= 75 MHz
D= 50km, f= 75 MHz
D= 100km, f= 75 MHz

Q3. Radio waves are radiated by a 10 W, 800 MHz GSM transmitter connected to a 10
dBi antenna find:
1. the EIRP if the feeder loss is 2 dB
2. the received signal level at 1 km from the transmitter assuming line of sight
clearance between the TX-RX

Q4 Radio waves are radiated by a 10 W, 800 MHz GSM transmitter connected to a 10 dBi antenna find:
1. the EIRP if the feeder loss is 2 dB
2. the received signal level at 1 km from the transmitter assuming line of sight clearance between the TX-RX

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 Home work
Q1. if 50 W is applied to a unity gain antenna with 900 MHz carrier frequency,
a) find the receiving power in dBm at a free space distance of 100 m from the antenna.
b) What is the RX power at 10 km ? Assume unity gain for the receiver.

Q2. In a radio link of 40 km length and frequency of 7.5 GHz, 60% of free spacxe loss is compensated
by using high gain transmitter and receiver antennas.
a) How much is received sognal level (RSL) at the output of RX antenna with 1 Watt output power
and considering 15 dB additional loss
b) Find the fade margin of the link if the RX threshold is to be -78 dBm.

Q3. 500 mW output power of a 5GHz microwave transmitter is connected to 40 dBi directional
antenna via a feeder with 6 dB loss. Find:
a) Receiving power at a distance of 40 km in LOS direction.
b) Find the fade margin of the link at 40 km if the RX threshold is to be -78 dBm.
c) Find the fade margin of the link at 10 km if the RX threshold is to be -78 dBm.
d) Assuming total path loss equal to 140 dB, is it possible to detect the RSL by a receiver with a
sensitivity of -80 dBm connected to an Omni-directional antenna via a feeder with 2d B loss?
e) Calculate the gain required for receiving a signal with 30 dB more power than the threshold level.

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 Further Reading
1. Rappaport T.S. (2013),”Wireless
communications principle and practice” 2nd
edition, Prentice Hall , 2003
2. Mishra. A. J. (2007), Advanced Cellular
Networks Planning and Optimization
2G/2.5G/3G …Evolution to 4G, John Wiley and
Sons Ltd ISBN 13 978-0-470-01471-4

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