CHAPTER 10

BRIEF DESCRIPTION ABOUT RF COMMUNICATIONS

Radio Frequency (RF) and wireless have been around for over a century with Alexander Popov and Sir Oliver Lodge laying the groundwork for Guglielmo Marconis wireless radio developments in the early 20th century. In December 1901, Marconi performed his most prominent experiment, where he successfully transmitted Morse code from Cornwall, England, to St Johns, Canada. General physics of radio signals RF communication works by creating electromagnetic waves at a source and being able to pick up those electromagnetic waves at a particular destination. These electromagnetic waves travel through the air at near the speed of light. The wavelength of an electromagnetic signal is inversely proportional to the frequency; the higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength. Frequency is measured in Hertz (cycles per second) and radio frequencies are measured in kilohertz (KHz or thousands of cycles per second), megahertz (MHz or millions of cycles per second) and gigahertz (GHz or billions of cycles per second). Higher frequencies result in shorter wavelengths. The wavelength for a 900 MHz device is longer than that of a 2.4 GHz device. In general, signals with longer wavelengths travel a greater distance and penetrate through, and around objects better than signals with shorter wavelengths. What is RF? RF itself has become synonymous with wireless and high frequency signals, describing anything from AM radio between 535 kHz and 1605 kHz to computer local area networks (LANs) at 2.4 GHz. However, RF has traditionally defined frequencies from a few kHz to roughly 1 GHz. If one considers microwave frequencies as RF, this range extends to 300 GHz.

Radio frequency (RF) is a frequency, or rate of oscillation, of electromagnetic radiation within the range of about 3 Hz to 300 GHz. This range corresponds to the frequency of alternating current electrical signals used to produce and detect radio waves. Since most of this range is beyond the vibration rate that most mechanical systems can respond to, RF usually refers to oscillations in electrical circuits. The following tables outline the various nomenclatures for the frequency bands. Frequency Band Designations: Name Symbol Frequency Extremely low frequency Super low frequency Ultra low frequency Very low frequency Low frequency Medium frequency SLF 30300 Hz 101 Mm ELF 330 Hz Wavelength 10010 Mm Applications Directly audible when converted to sound (above ~20 Hz), communication with submarines Directly audible when converted to sound, AC power grids (50 60 Hz) Directly audible when converted ULF 3003000 Hz 1000100 km to sound, communication within mines Directly audible when converted VLF 330 kHz 10010 km to sound (below ~20 kHz; or ultrasound otherwise) AM broadcasting, navigational beacons, and amateur radio. Navigational beacons, AM broadcasting, amateur radio, maritime and aviation communication Short wave, amateur radio, HF 330 MHz 10010 m citizens' band radio, sky wave propagation.

LF

30300 kHz

101 km

MF

3003000 kHz 1000100 m

High frequency

Very high frequency

FM broadcasting, amateur VHF 30300 MHz 101 m radio, broadcast television, aviation, GPR, MRI. Broadcast television, amateur radio, mobile telephones, 300 3000 MHz cordless telephones, wireless networking, remote keyless entry for automobiles, microwave ovens, GPR Wireless networking, satellite

Ultra high frequency

UHF

10010 cm

Super high frequency

SHF

330 GHz

101 cm

links, amateur radio, microwave links, satellite television, door openers Microwave data links, radio

Extremely high frequency EHF 30300 GHz 101 mm

astronomy, amateur radio, remote sensing, advanced weapons systems, advanced security scanning

The above Table shows a relationship between frequency (f) and wavelength (). A wave or sinusoid can be completely described by either its frequency or its wavelength. They are inversely proportional to each other and related to the speed of light through a particular medium. The relationship in a vacuum is shown in the following equation: Where c is the speed of light. As frequency increases, wavelength decreases. For reference, a 1 GHz wave has a wavelength of roughly 1 foot, and a 100 MHz wave has a wavelength of roughly 10 feet.

RF measurement methodology can generally be divided into three major categories: spectral analysis, vector analysis, and network analysis. Spectrum analyzers, which provide basic measurement capabilities, are the most popular type of RF instrument in many general-purpose applications. Specifically, using a spectrum analyzer you can view power-vs. -Frequency information, and can sometimes demodulate analog formats, such as amplitude modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM), and phase modulation (PM). Vector instruments include vector or real-time signal analyzers and generators. These instruments analyze and generate broadband waveforms, and capture time, frequency, phase, and power information from signals of interest. These instruments are much more powerful than spectrum analyzers and offer excellent modulation control and signal analysis. Network analyzers, on the other hand, are typically used for making Sparameter measurements and other characterization measurements on RF or highfrequency components. Network analyzers are instruments that correlate both the generation and analysis on multiple channels but at a much higher price than spectrum analyzers and vector signal generators/analyzers.

Why Operate at Higher Frequencies?

From the frequency spectrum we notice that it is quite fragmented and dense. This encompasses one of the reasons that we are constantly pushing applications

into higher and higher frequencies. However, some of the other reasons accounting for this push into higher frequencies include efficiency in propagation, immunity to some forms of noise and impairments as well as the size of the antenna required. The antenna size is typically related to the wavelength of the signal and in practice is usually wavelength. This leads to a very interesting question. Typically, data is structured and easily represented at low frequencies; how can we represent it or physically translate it to these higher RF frequencies? For example, the human audible range is from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. According to the Nyquist theorem, we can completely represent the human audible range by sampling at 40 kHz or, more precisely, at 44.1 kHz (this is where stereo audio is sampled). Cell phones, however, operate at around 850 MHz. How this happens is much of the study of RF and high-frequency measurements occurs in the frequency domain. There is a duality between the timedomain functions and those same functions represented in the frequency-domain. Figure 1 depicts frequency shifting the human audible range to transmit through cellular frequencies. The most common way to frequency shift is called mixing, which is equivalent to multiplying your signal by a sinusoidal signal. The following mathematical trigonometric identity demonstrates this fact.

Therefore, by beating two sine waves against each other, you get both sum and difference frequencies. You can shift an entire signal to a new frequency range (either up or down in spectrum) by selecting the appropriate value of . In addition, any signal can be represented as the sum of sinusoidal signals of different

frequencies. Thus, shifting a signal simply applies the multiplication to all its sinusoidal components. Working of RF communication system Imagine an RF transmitter wiggling an electron in one location. This wiggling electron causes a ripple effect, somewhat a kind of dropping a pebble in a pond. The effect is an electromagnetic (EM) wave that travels out from the initial location resulting in electrons wiggling in remote locations. An RF receiver can detect this remote electron wiggling. The RF communication system then utilizes this phenomenon by wiggling electrons in a specific pattern to represent information. The receiver can make this same information available at a remote location; communicating with no wires. In most wireless systems, a designer has two overriding constraints: it must operate over a certain distance (range) and transfer a certain amount of information within a time frame (data rate). Then the economics of the system must work out (price) along with acquiring government agency approvals (regulations and licensing). RANGE In order to accurately compute range it is essential to understand a few terms: dB - Decibels Decibels are logarithmic units that are often used to represent RF power. To convert from watts to dB: Power in dB = 10* (log x) where x is the power in watts. Another unit of measure that is encountered often is dBm (dB mill watts). The conversion formula for it is Power in dBm = 10* (log x) where x is the power in mill watts.

Line-of-site (LOS) Line-of-site when speaking of RF means more than just being able to see the receiving antenna from the transmitting antenna. In, order to have true line-of-site no objects (including trees, houses or the ground) can be in the Fresnel zone. The Fresnel zone is the area around the visual line-of-sight that radio waves spread out into after they leave the antenna. This area must be clear or else signal strength will weaken. There are essentially two parameters to look at when trying to determine range. 1) Transmit Power Transmit power refers to the amount of RF power that comes out of the antenna port of the radio. Transmit power is usually measured in Watts, mill watts or dBm. 2) Receiver sensitivity Receiver sensitivity refers to the minimum level signal the radio can demodulate. It is convenient to use an example with sound waves; Transmit power is how loud someone is yelling and receive sensitivity would be how soft a voice someone can hear. Transmit power and receive sensitivity together constitute what is know as link budget. The link budget is the total amount of signal attenuation you can have between the transmitter and receiver and still have communication occur. Example: Maxstream 9XStream TX Power: 20dBm Maxstream 9XStream RX Sensitivity: -110dBm Total Link budget: 130dBm. For line-of-site situations, a mathematical formula can be used to figure out the approximate range for a given link budget. For non line-of-site applications range

calculations are more complex because of the various ways the signal can be attenuated. RF communications and data rate Data rates are usually dictated by the system - how much data must be transferred and how often does the transfer need to take place. Lower data rates, allow the radio module to have better receive sensitivity and thus more range. In the XStream modules the 9600-baud module has 3dB more sensitivity than the 19200baud module. This means about 30% more distance in line-of-sight conditions. Higher data rates allow the communication to take place in less time, potentially using less power to transmit.

Radio communication
In order to receive radio signals, for instance from AM/FM radio stations, a radio antenna must be used. However, since the antenna will pick up thousands of sine waves at a time, a radio tuner is necessary as well to tune in to a particular frequency (or frequency range). This is typically done via a resonator (in its simplest form, a circuit with a capacitor and an inductor). The resonator is configured to resonate at a particular frequency (or frequency band), thus amplifying sine waves at that radio frequency, while ignoring other sine waves. Usually, either the inductor or the capacitor of the resonator is adjustable, allowing the user to change the frequency it resonates at.

Special properties of RF electrical signals

Electrical currents that oscillate at RF have special properties not shared by direct current signals. One such property is the ease with which they can ionize air to create a conductive path through air. High frequency units used in electric arc welding, although strictly speaking these machines do not typically employ

frequencies within the HF band, exploit this property. Another special property is an electromagnetic force that drives the RF current to the surface of conductors, known as the skin effect. Another property is the ability to appear to flow through paths that contain insulating material, like the dielectric insulator of a capacitor. The degree of effect of these properties depends on the frequency of the signals.