Millimeter Wave Radio

1. Introduction.
The millimeter wave spectrum at 30-300 GHz is of increasing interest
to service providers and systems designers because of the wide
bandwidths available for carrying communications at this frequency
range. Such wide bandwidths are valuable in supporting applications
such as high speed data transmission and video distribution.

2. Frequency Allocation.

Millimeter Wave Radio Frequency Bands are designated as below:

Frequency
(GHz)
Band From to
Q 33 50
U 40 60
V 50 75
E 60 90
W 75 110
F 90 140
D 110 170
G 140 220

Commonly used millimeter wave frequency bands are 59-64 GHz, 71-
76/81- 86 GHz and 92-95 GHz.

Millimeter wave radio offers:

(1) Fast Ethernet Interface, High Bandwidth Throughput
(2) True Full Duplex Operation
(3) Solid reliability with Fiber-like Performance
(4) Distance Ranges of up to 10 Kms.
(5) Easily Installed, Zero Maintenance
(6) Compact Cassegrain type antennas
(7) Quasi-optical propagation of mm-wave emission
(8) EMI Interference Free
3. Regulatory Issues.
The worldwide opening of a massive amount of unlicensed spectra
around 60 GHz has triggered great interest in developing affordable
60-GHz radios. This interest has been catalyzed by recent advance of
60-GHz front-end technologies. The 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz MMW
allocations for fixed services were established by International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) at WRC-2000. Several developments in
millimetre wave radio technology have caused interest in E-band
Wireless:
(i) Congestion in the widely used microwave bands (5 to 38 GHz)
has led for alternative frequency bands.
(ii) Due to multi-megabit and even gigabit per second speed
required by newer generation communication and multimedia
services there is paradigms for wireless transmission.
(iii) Device technology has advanced to the point where components
operating in the millimetre wave frequencies can be commercially
fabricated.
Telecommunication Engineering Centre submitted a proposal to
Wireless Planning & Co-ordination wing for suitable provision in NFAP
for E-band Wireless Systems for fixed services in 71-76 / 81-86 GHz
band.

4. Millimeter Wave Propagation Conditions.

The frequency and distance dependence of the loss between two

isotropic antennas is expressed in absolute numbers by the following
equation:
Free Space Loss LFSL = (4π R/λ )2
where R: distance between transmit and receive
antennas;
λ: operating wavelength.
After converting to units of frequency and putting in dB form, the
equation becomes:
LFSL (dB) = 92.4 + 20 log f + 20 log R
where f: frequency in GHz;
R: Line-of-Sight range between antennas in
km.

It can be seen that if link length is doubled, the differential attenuation

changes by 6 dB. For example, in going from a 2-kilometer to a 4-
kilometer range, the increase in loss is 6 dB. Note that even for short
distances, the free space loss can be quite high. This suggests that for
applications of millimeter wave spectrum, only short distance
communications links will be supported.

In microwave systems, transmission loss is accounted for principally by

the free space loss. However, in the millimeter wave bands additional
loss factors come into play, such as gaseous losses and rain in the
transmission medium. Characteristics of propagation are only slightly
different from those at the widely used lower frequency bands.
Planning for millimeter wave spectrum use must take into account the
propagation characteristics of radio signals at this frequency range.
While signals at lower frequency bands can propagate for many miles
and penetrate more easily through buildings, millimeter wave signals
can travel only a few miles or less and do not penetrate solid materials
very well. However, these characteristics of millimeter wave
propagation are not necessarily disadvantageous. Millimeter waves can
permit more densely packed communications links, thus providing very
efficient spectrum utilization, and they can increase security of
communication transmissions.

The atmospheric attenuation varies significantly with frequency. At the

microwave frequency bands of up to 38 GHz, the attenuation due to
atmosphere is low at 0.3 dB/Km or less. A small peak is seen at 23
GHz, followed by large peak at 60 GHz corresponding to absorption by
water vapour and oxygen molecules, respectively. Above 100 GHz,
numerous other molecular absorption effects occur, limiting the
effectiveness of radio transmissions. The windows in the spectrum are
particularly applicable for systems requiring all weather/night
operation for short range point-to-point systems such as local area
networks. The absorption bands (e.g., 60 GHz) would be applicable for
high data rate systems where secure communications with low
probability of intercept is desirable; for services with a potentially high
density of transmitters operating in proximity; or for applications
where unlicensed operations are desirable.

A clear atmospheric window can be seen in the spectrum from 70 GHz

to 100 GHz. In this area, low atmospheric attenuation around 0.5
dB/Km occurs, close to that of the popular microwave frequencies, and
very favourable for radio transmission. For this reason E-band wireless
systems can transmit high data rate signals over many miles under
clear conditions.

4.1 Effect of weather on mmWave propagation.

(a) Rain : Millimeter wave transmission is affected more by rain

because the carrier wavelength is closer to the size of a rain drop. Rain
drops can vary in size from 0.1mm to 10 mm, and these will effectively
disperse millimeter waves, especially with carrier frequencies greater
than 10 GHz (10 GHz = 30 mm wavelength; 38 GHz = 8 mm
wavelength). Millimetre wave transmissions can experience significant
rain attenuation of the order of 10 dB/Km at E-band frequencies for
heavy rainfall at the rate of 25mm/hour and may increase to 30dB/Km
for rainfall at the rate of 100 mm/hour. These values of attenuations
are used in link planning to determine the maximum link length
allowed to overcome rains.

(b) Fog and clouds : One benefit of E-band wireless is that

propagation is essentially unaffected by fog or clouds. There is
attenuation of 0.4 dB/Km due to fog and cloud particles. This almost
negligible attenuation is due to the fog and cloud particles (Fog is
typically 1 to 20 micron) are smaller than the wavelength of E-band
radio signal (roughly 4 mm) As such minimal scattering from fog or
cloud’s tiny particles occurs.

5. Technical Attributes supporting Millimeter Wave Radio.

(a) Smaller Antenna: Higher antenna gain can be achieved implies

smaller Antenna for millimeter wave radio transmission.

Gain of antenna with losses is given by

4π ηA
G=
λ2
Where ŋ= Efficiency,
A = Physical Aperture area and
λ = wavelength

From above it is seen that gain of the antenna increases with

frequency. Thus it is possible to realize large gains from relatively
small antenna at E-band frequencies. As against the Antenna gain of
32.5 dBi at 18 GHz , the equivalent size of antenna at E-band
frequencies exhibits 44 to 45 dBi of gain. This equates to an extra 24
dB or so of system gain per link – a significant number when one
considers that just an additional 6 dB of system gain allows a link to be
doubled in length. Therefore under ideal conditions, a 24 dB
improvement in link margin equates to a four- fold improvement in link
distance. An alternative comparison is that 1.2 m antenna at 18 GHz
has same gain as 0.3 m antenna at E-band with obvious benefits for
reduced cost, ease of installation.

(b) Fast Ethernet Interface, High Bandwidth Throughput.

The 71-76 and 81-86 GHz bands widely known as E-band are meant for
ultra high capacity point-to-point communications and offer full duplex
Gigabit Ethernet connectivity at data rates of 1 Gbps and higher. The
10 GHz bandwidth with 5 GHz per channel 1 gigabit and greater data
rates can be reasonably achieved with simple modulation scheme and
further higher data rate can be achieved with higher order of
modulation formats.
The bandwidth efficiency corresponding to modulation format is given
below:
Theoretical
Modulation
Bandwidth
Format
Efficiency Limits
MSK 1 bit/second/Hz
BPSK 1 bit/second/Hz
QPSK 2 bits/second/Hz
8PSK 3 bits/second/Hz
16 QAM 4 bits/second/Hz
32 QAM 5 bits/second/Hz
64 QAM 6 bits/second/Hz
256 QAM 8 bits/second/Hz

(c) High efficiency of Power Amplifier.

The need for linearity is one of the principal drivers in the design of
modern power amplifiers. Linear amplification is required when the
signal contains both amplitude and phase modulation. The need for
linearity is one of the principal drivers in the design of r.f. power
amplifiers. For required linearity the PA has to run much below the
peak rated output power if higher order modulation is used. The 5 GHz
E-band channels enables radio to pass high data rate signals with only
low level modulation schemes. For examples BPSK modulation can
easily allow 2 Gbps data rates in 5 GHz channels. The low-order
modulation schemes places minimum linearity requirements on the
transmitter’s power amplifier (PA) so the PA can be run close to its
maximum rated output power.

In addition to above communication systems operating at millimeter

wave frequencies can also take advantages of the propagation effects
such as:
(i) Propagation ideally suits short range (<20 km)
communications;
(ii) Limited range permits a high degree of frequency
reuse;
(iii) In the absorption resonance bands, relatively secure
communications can be performed.

System designers can take advantage of the propagation properties

manifested at millimeter wave frequencies to develop radio service
applications.

6. Applications of millimeter Wave Radio.

(i) Point-to-point LAN/WAN Connectivity
(ii) ISP Last Mile Connectivity
(iii) FSO (Free Space Optics) Back-up at foggy regions
(iv) Campus Area Networking
(v) Mesh and Multipoint Networking
(vi) Secure Narrow beam Communications

7. Summary.
The new Millimeter Wave Radio Systems can provide wireless “fibre
like” connectivity up to 4 Kms in cities and can deliver longer links with
drier climates.