Horizontal Pattern Blooming with combined E-tilt and M-tilt

Base Station Antenna Systems

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What is meant by Pattern Blooming?

Pattern Blooming is distortion or widening of the azimuth pattern as
viewed on the horizon when mechanical downtilt is applied.
From work done a number of years ago using vertically polarized
antennas, a rule of thumb was generated to give customers an idea
of how much mechanical downtilt is acceptable. Note these
antennas incorporated no electrical downtilt.
The rule of thumb stated:

To insure that the azimuth pattern as

viewed on the horizon does not
bloom by more than 10%, never
mechanically downtilt a given
antenna more than one-half of its
vertical beamwidth.
This presentation will provide updated information on downtilting.
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Why does Blooming happen?

Mechanical Tilt Causes:

Beam Peak to Tilt Below
Horizon
Back Lobe to Tilt Above Horizon
No Tilt at 90

Pattern Analogy: Rotating a Disk

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Illustration of Horizontal Pattern change with Mechanical Tilt

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Elevation Pattern

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Horizontal Pattern

Mechanical Tilt 0 4 6 8 10

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Solving the Blooming issue using Electrical Downtilt

For the radiation pattern to show maximum gain in the direction
of the horizon, each stacked dipole must be fed from the signal
source in phase. Feeding vertically arranged dipoles out of
phase will generate patterns that look up or look down.
The degree of beam tilt is a function of the phase shift of one
dipole relative to the adjacent dipole.

GENERATING BEAM TILT

Dipoles Fed In Phase

Dipoles Fed Out of Phase

Energy
in
Exciter

Phase
Exciter

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Why is there no Blooming using Electrical Downtilt?

Electrical Tilt Causes:
Beam peak to tilt below horizon
Back lobe to tilt below horizon
At 90 to tilt below horizon
All the pattern tilts

Cone of the Beam Peak pattern

Pattern Analogy: Forming a cone out of a disk

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Illustration of Horizontal Pattern change with Electrical Tilt

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Horizontal Pattern

Elevation Pattern
Electrical Tilt

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Method used to analyze Combinations of E-tilt & M-tilt

A series of patterns are shown for a typical 4 foot antenna.
The measured combinations of E-tilt and M-tilt are plotted as a function of
each antennas vertical beamwidth (VBW).
Best fit curves for 10% and 20% blooming were generated.
The blooming curves for various antennas have different slopes.
Graphs are included showing the azimuth beam squint as a function of
only E-tilt and only M-tilt for several models.
X-pol antennas squinted more rapidly as a function of mechanical
downtilt than V-pol antennas.
A graph of Sector Power Ratio vs E-tilt and M-tilt for several models is
included.
the future focus of future technology enhancements should be on
improving system performance aspects that improve and maximize the
experienced SNR in the system Rysavy Research, September 2005

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Comparisons With and Without Electrical Downtilt

Gain reduction of X
dB on the horizon
using mechanical
downtilt occurs
much more rapidly
when electrical
downtilt is employed

Horizon

Horizon
12 E-tilt

15 M-tilt

5 M-tilt

Similar gain reduction

on the horizon as a
result of mechanical
downtilt causes
similar azimuth
pattern blooming

Without Electrical Downtilt

With Electrical Downtilt

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Horizontal Pattern Shapes for Various M-tilts

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LNX-6512 @ M-tilt = 0, E-tilt = 0

63

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LNX-6512 @ M-tilt = 0, E-tilt = 7

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LNX-6512 @ M-tilt = 7, E-tilt = 0

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LNX-6512 @ M-tilt = 7, E-tilt = 4

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LNX-6512 @ M-tilt = 7, E-tilt = 7

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LNX-6512 @ M-tilt = 11, E-tilt = 3

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LNX-6512 @ M-tilt = 14, E-tilt = 0

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6 dB Overlap Angle & Crossover Rolloff Comparisons

M( )E( ) Tilt

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Angle Crossover

M0E0 & M0E7 ---- 17

10 dB

M7E7 ---------------- 25

6 dB

M14E0 -------------- 29

4 dB

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New Rules of Thumb for Mechanical Tilting of Antennas

To insure that the azimuth pattern of a typical

antenna - as viewed on the horizon - does not bloom
by more than 10%, never mechanically downtilt a
given antenna more than the amount calculated by
the equations below:

65 HBW M-tilt10% Bloom = (VBW E-tilt)/2.5

Other HBW antennas follow different rules.
33 HBW M-tilt10% Bloom = (VBW E-tilt)/1.5
90 HBW M-tilt10% Bloom = (VBW E-tilt)/3.3

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k-Factor vs Rated Azimuth Beamwidth

3.5

Mechanical Downtilt
Factor for 10% Horizontal Blooming
X HBW M-tilt10% Bloom = (VBW E-tilt)/k

k Factor

3.0
2.5
k vs HBW
2.0
1.5
1.0
30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90
Rated Azimuth Beamwidth (deg)

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Beam Squint
Horizontal
Boresight

What is it?
The amount of azimuth (horizontal) or elevation
(vertical) pointing error of a given beam
referenced to mechanical boresite.

Squint
-3 dB

Why is it useful?

/2

+3 dB

The beam squint can affect the sector

coverage if it is not at mechanical
boresite. It can also affect the
performance of the polarization
diversity style antennas if the two
arrays do not have similar patterns.

How is it measured?
It is measured using data collected
from antenna range testing.

What is Andrew standard?

For the horizontal beam, squint shall be less than 10% of the
3 dB beamwidth. For the vertical beam, squint shall be less than
15% of the 3 dB beamwidth or 1 degree, whichever is greatest.
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Azimuth Pattern Squint vs E-tilt

Max and Min Squint (degrees)

Beam Peak (Bisected at 3dB)

Max and Min over Band vs E-tilt
(M-tilt = 0)

8
6
48 in X-pol Squint
48 in X-pol Squint
48 in V-pol Squint
48 in V-pol Squint

4
2
0
-2
-4
-6
-8
0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

E-tilt (percent of VBW)

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Azimuth Pattern Squint vs M-tilt

Beam Peak (Bisected at 3 dB)
Max and Min over Band vs M-tilt
(E-tilt = 0)

Max and Min Squint (degrees)

8
6

48 in X-pol 850
48 in X-pol 850
48 in V-pol 850
48 in V-pol 850

4
2
0
-2
-4
-6
-8
0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

M-tilt (percent of VBW)

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Sector Power Ratio (SPR)

What is it?

120

SPR is a ratio expressed in percentage

of the power outside the desired sector
to the power inside the desired sector
created by an antennas pattern.

Why is it useful?
It is a percentage that allows comparison
of various antennas. The better the SPR,
the better the interference performance of
the system.

How is it measured?
It is mathematically derived from the
measured range data.

DESIRED
300

What is Decibel Products standard?

Andrew Directed Dipole style antennas have
SPRs typically less than 2 percent.

UNDESIRED

PUndesired

SPR (%) =

60
60

X 100

PDesired

300

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Sector Power Ratio vs E-tilt

Sector Power Ratio vs E-tilt
M-tilt = 0
16

SEctor Power Ratio (%)

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12
10

48 in X-pol 850
96 in X-pol 850
48.5 in V-pol 850

8
6
4
2
0
0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

E
M-tilt
(percent of VBW)

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Sector Power Ratio vs M-tilt

Sector Power Ratio vs M-tilt
E-tilt = 0
16

Sector Power Ratio (%)

14
12
10

48 in X-pol 850
96 in X-pol 850
48.5 in V-pol 850

8
6
4
2
0
0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

M-tilt (percent of VBW)

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Summary
New technologies such as LTE will be more dependant on optimal
network signal-to-noise (SNR) ratios.
One aspect strongly influencing these optimal SNRs is the correct
choice of base station antennas.
Best network optimization is accomplished by using antennas with
adjustable electrical downtilt.
Mechanical downtilting can cause larger sector overlap angles and
non-optimal rolloff at the sector overlap points
The old rule of thumb concerning maximum mechanical downtilt
does not apply when electrical downtilt is employed.
Squint and Sector Power Ratio are also compromised when
mechanical downtilt is used.

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