ANTENNAS

ANTENNAS
• Antennas form a essential part of any radio communication system.
• Antenna is that part of a transmitting or receiving system which is
designed to radiate or to receive electromagnetic waves.
• An antenna can also be viewed as a transitional structure between free-
space and a transmission line (such as a coaxial line).
• An important property of an antenna is the ability to focus and shape the
radiated power in space e.g.: it enhances the power in some wanted
directions and suppresses the power in other directions.
• Many different types and mechanical forms of antennas exist.
• Each type is specifically designed for special purposes.
 ANTENNAS TYPES
• In mobile communications two main categories of antennas used are
– Omni directional antenna
• These antennas are mostly used in rural areas.
• In all horizontal direction these antennas radiate with equal
power.
• In the vertical plane these antennas radiate uniformly
across all azimuth angles and have a main beam with upper
and lower side lobes.
ANTENNAS TYPES
– Directional antenna
• These antennas are mostly used in mobile cellular systems to get
higher gain compared to omnidirectional antenna and to
minimise interference effects in the network.
• In the vertical plane these antennas radiate uniformly across all
azimuth angles and have a main beam with upper and lower side
lobes.
• In these type of antennas, the radiation is directed at a specific
angle instead of uniformly across all azimuth angles in case of
omni antennas.
 ANTENNA
Radiation Pattern
CHARACTERISTICS
• The main characteristics of antenna is the radiation pattern.
• The antenna pattern is a graphical representation in three dimensions of the
radiation of the antenna as a function of angular direction.
• Antenna radiation performance is usually measured and recorded in two
orthogonal principal planes (E-Plane and H-plane or vertical and horizontal
planes).
• The pattern of most base station antennas contains a main lobe and several
minor lobes, termed side lobes.
• A side lobe occurring in space in the direction opposite to the main lobe is
called back lobe.
 ANTENNA
Radiation Pattern
CHARACTERISTICS
 ANTENNA
Antenna Gain
CHARACTERISTICS
• Antenna gain is a measure for antennas efficiency.
• Gain is the ratio of the maximum radiation in a given direction to that of a
reference antenna for equal input power.
• Generally the reference antenna is a isotropic antenna.
• Gain is measured generally in “decibels above isotropic(dBi)” or “decibels
above a dipole(dBd).
• An isotropic radiator is an ideal antenna which radiates power with unit gain
uniformly in all directions. dBi = dBd + 2.15
• Antenna gain depends on the mechanical size, the effective aperature area, the
frequency band and the antenna configuration.
• Antennas for GSM1800 can achieve some 5 to 6 dB more gain than antennas
for GSM900 while maintaining the same mechanical size.
ANTENNA Main Lobe Axis
CHARACT ½ Power Beamwidth

ERISTICS

First Null

Side Lobe

Back Lobe
 ANTENNA
Front-to-back ratio
CHARACTERISTICS
• It is the ratio of the maximum directivity of an antenna to its directivity in a
specified rearward direction.
• Generally antenna with a high front-to-back ratio should be used.

First Null Beamwidth

• The first null beamwidth (FNBW) is the angular span between the first
pattern nulls adjacent to the main lobe.
• This term describes the angular coverage of the downtilted cells.
 ANTENNA
Antenna Lobes
CHARACTERISTICS
• Main lobe is the radiation lobe containing the direction of maximum
radiation.
• Side lobes
Half-power beamwidth
• The half power beamwidth (HPBW) is the angle between the points on the
main lobe that are 3dB lower in gain compared to the maximum.
• Narrow angles mean good focusing of radiated power.
Polarisation
• Polarisation is the propagation of the electric field vector .
• Antennas used in cellular communications are usually vertically polarised or
cross polarised.
 ANTENNA
CHARACTERISTICS
Frequency bandwidth
• It is the range of frequencies within which the performance of the antenna,
with respect to some characteristics, conforms to a specified standard.
• VSWR of an antenna is the main bandwidth limiting factor.
Antenna impedance
• Maximum power coupling into the antennas can be achieved when the
antenna impedance matches the cables impedance.
• Typical value is 50 ohms.
Mechanical size
• Mechanical size is related to achievable antenna gain.
• Large antennas provide higher gains but also need care in deployement and
apply high torque to the antenna mast.
 COUPLING BETWEEN
ANTENNAS
• Antenna radiation pattern will become superimposed when the distance
between the antennas becomes too small.
• This means the other antenna will mutually influence the individual antenna
patterns.
• Generally 5 to 10λ horizontal separation provides sufficient decoupling of
antenna patterns.
• The vertical distance needed for decoupling is usually much smaller as the
vertical beamwidth is generally less.
• A 1λ separation in the vertical direction is sufficient in most cases.
 ANTENNA
INSTALLATION
• Antenna installation configurations depend on the operators preferences.
• It is important to keep sufficient decoupling distances between antennas.
• If TX and RX direction use separated antennas, it is advisable to keep a
horizontal separation between the antennas in order to reduce the TX signal
power at the RX input stages.
 ANTENNA
DOWNTILTING
• Network planners often have the problem that the base station antenna
provides an overcoverage.
• If the overlapping area between two cells is too large, increased switching
between the base station (handover) occurs.
• There may even be interference of a neighbouring cell with the same
frequency.
• If hopping is used in the network, then limiting the overlap is required to
reduce the overall hit rate.
• In general, the vertical pattern of an antenna radiates the main energy
towards the horizon.
• Only that part of the energy which is radiated below the horizon can be
used for the coverage of the sector.
• Downtilting the antenna limits the range by reducing the field strength in
the horizon.
 ANTENNA
DOWNTILTING
• Antenna downtilting is the downward tilt of the vertical pattern towards the
ground by a fixed angle measured w.r.t the horizon.
• Downtilting of the antenna changes the position of the half-power beamwidth
and the first null relative to the horizon.
• Normally the maximum gain is at 0• (parallel to the horizon) and never
intersects the horizon.
• A small downtilt places the beams maximum at the cell edge
• With appropriate downtilt, the received signal strength within the cell
improves due to the placement of the main lobe within the cell radius and falls
off in regions approaching the cell boundary and towards the reuse cell.
• There are two methods of downtilting
– Mechanical downtilting
– Electrical downtilting.
 MECHANICAL
DOWNTILTING
• Mechanical downtilting consists of physically rotating an antenna
downward about an axis from its vertical position.
• In a mechanical downtilt as the front lobe moves downward the back lobe
moves upwards.
• This is one of the potential drawback as compared to the electrical downtilt
because coverage behind the antenna can be negatively affected as the back
lobe rises above the horizon.
• Additionally , mechanical downtilt does not change the gain of the antenna
at +/- 90deg from antenna horizon.
• As the antenna is given downtilt, the footprint starts changing with a notch
being formed in the fron’t while it spreads on the sides.
• After 10 degrees downtilt the notch effect is quiet visible and the spread on
the sides are high. This may lead to inteference on the sides.
MECHANICAL
DOWNTILTING
MECHANICAL
DOWNTILTING
MECHANICAL
DOWNTILTING
Vertical antenna pattern at 0°

Vertical antenna pattern at 15° downtilt

Backlobe shoots over the horizon
 ELECTRICAL DOWNTILT
• Electrical downtilt uses a phase taper in the antenna array to angle the
pattern downwards.
• This allows the the antenna to be mounted vertically.
• Electrical downtilt is the only practical way to achieve pattern
downtilting with omnidirectional antennas.
• Electrical downtilt affects both front and back lobes.
• If the front lobe is downtilted the back lobe is also downtilted by equal
amount.
• Electrical downtilting also reduces the gain equally at all angles on the
horizon. The that adjusted downtilt angle is constant over the whole
azimuth range.
• Variable electrical downtilt antennas are very costly.
ELECTRICAL DOWNTILT
ELECTRICAL DOWNTILT
Horizontal and vertical pattern for allgon 7144 antenna
Horizontal Beamwidth = 90°
Vertical Beamwidth = 16°
Electrical Downtilt = 16°
 OBSTACLE
REQUIREMENT
• Nearby obstacles are those reflecting or shadowing materials that can
obstruct the radio beam both in horizontal and vertical planes.
• When mounting the antenna on a roof top, the dominating obstacle in
the vertical plane is the roof edge itself and in the horizontal plane,
obstacles further away like surrounding buildings, can act as reflecting
or shadowing material.
• The antenna beam will be distorted if the antenna is too close to the roof.
Hence the antenna must be mounted at a minimum height above the
rooftop or other obstacles.
• If antennas are wall mounted, a safety margin of 15 degrees between the
reflecting surface and the 3-dB lobe should be kept.
 OBSTACLE
REQUIREMENT
Safety Margin
15 Degrees

Main Radiation
Building Direction

Half Power
Beamwidth
 OPTIMAL DOWNTILT
• Although the use of downtilt can be a effective tool for controlling
interference, there is a optimum amount by which the antenna can be
downtilted whereby both the coverage losses and the interference at the
reuse cell can be kept at a minimum.

downtilt angle (D)

Height (H)

3 dB Beamwidth

Main lobe

Cellmax
 OPTIMAL DOWNTILT
• The figure shows a cells coverage area.
• The primary illumination area is the area on the ground that receives the
signal contained within the 3dB vertical beamwidth of the antenna.
• The distance from the base station to the outer limit of the illumination area
is denoted by Cellmax.
• It should be noted that the cellmax can be different from the cell boundary
area which is customer defined.
• Ideally in a well planned network Cellmax should always be less than the
co-channel reuse distance to minimise interference.
• We now derive the relation between height (H), downtilt angle (D), 3dB
vertical beamwidth and Cellmax.
• As shown in the schematic φ is the angle between the upper limit of the
3dB beamwidth and the horizon.
 OPTIMAL DOWNTILT
• tan (Φ ) = Cellmax / H
Φ = D - 0.5 * 3dB vertical beamwidth
Cellmax = H * tan (D - 0.5 * 3dB vertical beamwidth)
• For the Cellmax to be a positive quantity , downtilt angle must be more
than half of the 3dB vertical beamwidth.
• When the downtilt angle is less than half of the 3dB beamwidth, part of the
signal from the main beam shoots over the horizon .
• The signal directed towards or above the horizon can potentially cause
interference at the reuse sites.
DIVERSITY
ANTENNA
SYSTEMS
 Diversity Antenna Systems
NEED OF DIVERSITY

Building

Building

Building
 Diversity Antenna Systems
NEED OF DIVERSITY
• In a typical cellular radio environment, the communication between the
cell site and mobile is not by a direct radio path but via many paths.
• The direct path between the transmitter and the receiver is obstructed by
buildings and other objects.
• Hence the signal that arrives at the receiver is either by reflection from
the flat sides of buildings or by diffraction around man made or natural
obstructions.
• When various incoming radiowaves arrive at the receiver antenna, they
combine constructively or destructively, which leads to a rapid variation
in signal strength.
• The signal fluctuations are known as ‘multipath fading’.
 Diversity Antenna Systems
Multipath Propagation
• Multipath propagation causes large and rapid fluctuations in a signal
• These fluctuations are not the same as the propagation path loss.

Multipath causes three major things

• Rapid changes in signal strength over a short distance or time.
• Random frequency modulation due to Doppler Shifts on different
multipath signals.
• Time dispersion caused by multipath delays
• These are called “fading effects
• Multipath propagation results in small-scale fading.
 Diversity Antenna Systems
DIVERSITY TECHNIQUE
• Diversity techniques have been recognised as an effective means which
enhances the immunity of the communication system to the multipath
fading. GSM therefore extensively adopts diversity techniques that include

Interleaving
Diversity techniques
In time domain

Frequency Hopping
In Frequency domain

Spatial diversity
In spatial domain

Polarisation diversity
In polarisation domain
 Diversity Antenna Systems
CONCEPT OF DIVERSITY ANTENNA SYSTEMS
• Spatial and polarisation diversity techniques are realised through
antenna systems.
• A diversity antenna system provides a number of receiving branches or
ports from which the diversified signals are derived and fed to a
receiver. The receiver then combines the incoming signals from the
branches to produce a combined signal with improved quality in terms
of signal strength or signal-to-noise ratio (S/N).
• The performance of a diversity antenna system primarily relies on the
branch correlation and signal level difference between branches.
 Diversity Antenna Systems
CONCEPT OF DIVERSITY ANTENNA SYSTEMS

Fade
Transmission
media 1

Information Receiver
Transmission
Tmedia 2
Peak
 Diversity Antenna Systems
CORRELATION BETWEEN BRANCHES
• The branch correlation coefficient (r) represents the degree of similarity between
the signals from two different receiving branches.
• The correlation coefficient ranges from 0 to 1.
• r=1 means the signals from two different branches behave exactly the same. In this
case, the signals are coherent.
• r=0 means the signals from two different branches behave completely different. In
this case, the signals are uncorrelated.
• To achieve the best performance, a diversity antenna system is required to provide
uncorrelated signals.
• For r=1, the diversity antenna becomes ineffective in combating the multipath
fading.
• In reality, however, it is not always practical to have a diversity antenna system
which guarantees r=0. Extensive research in this field has revealed that a diversity
antenna system can perform satisfactorily provided that r £0.7.
 Diversity Antenna Systems
Combining

Combined signal
fed to receiver Signal 2
Signal 1
Combined signal
Signal 1
Signal 2
Signal Strength

Time
 Diversity Antenna Systems
SIGNAL LEVEL DIFFERENCE
• The second key parameter for a good diversity antenna system is the
mean signal level difference.
• The difference is a statistical parameter which indicates the balance of
the signal strengths from the two receiving branches.
• In a real system, the statistical balance can be verified by comparing
the mean values of the two signals measured over a lengthy period.
• If the ratio betn the median values is 0dB, the two receiving branches
are statistically balanced.
• The performance of the diversity system will deteriorate while the ratio
increases or decreases from 0dB.
 Diversity Antenna Systems
SIGNAL LEVEL DIFFERENCE

Signal strength

Signal level difference

Time
 Diversity Antenna Systems
SPATIAL DIVERSITY ANTENNA SYSTEMS
• The spatial diversity antenna system is constructed by physically
separating two receiving base station antennas.
• Once they are separated far enough, both antennas receive
independent fading signals. As a result, the signals captured by the
antennas are most likely uncorrelated.
• The further apart are the antennas, the more likely that the signals are
uncorrelated.
• The types of the configuration used in GSM networks are:
• horizontal separation
• vertical separation
• composite separation.
 Diversity Antenna Systems

Horizontal Separation Vertical Separation

CRITERIA FOR SELECTING TYPE OF SPATIAL SEPARATION
Diversity Antenna Systems
Branch correlation
• The physical limitation of the supporting structure should also be
considered while selecting the spatial diversity antenna configuration. For
example, if a wide framework is not permitted on top of a mounting
tower, vertical separation is a alternative to be considered.
• To achieve the required correlation coefficient (r £0.7) different
configurations require different separations.
• The separation indicated in Table below shows that low values of
correlation are more easily obtained with horizontal rather than vertical
separation.
• That is why most of the diversity antenna systems in GSM networks use
horizontal separation.

Horizontal Separation Vertical Separation

d/λ 900MHZ 1800MHZ d/λ 900MHZ 1800MHZ
Separation 10 3.3m 1.7m 17 5.7m 2.8m
 Diversity Antenna Systems
CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF SPATIAL SEPARATION
Signal level difference
• A system using horizontally separated diversity antennas has a
symmetrical configuration and is therefore able to provide balanced
signal strengths.
• A system using vertically separated antennas needs large separation to
meet the required correlation.
• The consequence is that the two antennas have different antenna
height gains, which may result in imbalance between the two signal
strengths.
 Diversity Antenna Systems
CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF SPATIAL SEPARATION
Angular dependence
• Angular dependence reflects the dependence of the performance of a diversity
antenna system on the angular position of a mobile relative to the boresight of the
antenna.
• Horizontally separated antenna system has high dependence on the mobile’s
angular position.
• The effective separation reduces as the mobile moves away from the antenna
boresight.
• As the mobile is 90° off the antenna boresight, the effective separation becomes
zero.
• In such a case, the signals from two antennas are very likely coherent which will
then lead to a deterioration of the diversity performance.
 Diversity Antenna Systems
ANGULAR DEPENDANCE
Reduced Zero
Separation Separation Separation

View
•Most fromGSM
of the boresight View
cell sites are from 45 deg
3 sectored cell off boresight
sites. View from 90 deg off boresight

•The maximum angular offset is therefore approximately 60°.

•Simulation shows that the performance of a horizontally separated antenna system
experiences noticeable deterioration only when the angular offset exceeds 70° .
 Diversity Antenna Systems
PROS AND CONS OF HORIZONTAL CONFIGURATION
Advantages
• Easier to achieve low values of correlation and balance between the
signals. Hence widely used.
Disadvantages
• High angular dependence. The impact is however marginal for
sectorised applications.
• Require sizeable headframe on the supporting structure.
 Diversity Antenna Systems
PROS AND CONS OF VERTICAL CONFIGURATION
Advantages
• Slim supporting structure.
• Angular independence
Disadvantages
• Require large separation for low values of correlation.
• May cause imbalance between the two diversity branches.
• Generally not used.
 Diversity Antenna Systems
THREE ANTENNA SPATIAL CONFIGURATION

10λ Separation

Receive 1 Transmit Receive 2

 Diversity Antenna Systems
TWO ANTENNA SPATIAL CONFIGURATION

10λ Separation

Tx Rx Duplexer
Receive 2

Transmit Receive 1
 Diversity Antenna Systems
POLARISATION DIVERSITY ANTENNA SYSTEMS
• A single (say vertical) polarised electromagnetic wave is converted to a
wave with two orthogonal polarised fields while it is propagating
through scattering environment.
• It has also been found that the two fields exhibit some extent of
decorrelation.
 Diversity Antenna Systems
DUAL POLARISED ANTENNAS
• A dual-polarisation antenna consists of two sets of radiating elements which radiate or, in
reciprocal, receive two orthogonal polarised fields.
• The antenna has two input connectors which separately connects to each set of the elements.
• The antenna has therefore the ability to simultaneously transmit and receive two orthogonally
polarised fields.

H/V Slant 45°

 Diversity Antenna Systems
ADVANTAGES OF DUAL POLARISED ANTENNAS
• The best advantage of using the dual polarisation antenna is the reduction
in the number of antennas per sector.
• Reduced size of the headframe of the supporting structure
• Reduced windload and weight.
• Reduced difficulty in site acquisition and installation.
• Cost saving
– Requiring slim tower
– Requiring less installation time.
– Cost of one dual polarisation antenna is generally lower than
that of two
– Single polarised antennas
 T R

TX RX
ANNET NA EL OP L AUD

RX
RX
A EL OP EL GNI S ANNET NA EL OP L AUD

TX
RX
T R

TX RX

ANNET NA EL OP L AUD
T R

TX RX
Diversity Antenna Systems