SIGNAL PROPAGATION SIMULATION TOOL FOR LMDS

Stanislav ZVNOVEC, Pavel PECHA

Department of Electromagnetic Field, Czech Technical University in Prague
Technick 2, 166 27 Praha 6, Czech Republic


Abstract

The deployment of newly emerging communication systems working in the millimeter-waves
frequency bands are a challenge for designers also from electromagnetic waves propagation
point of view. This paper deals with main phenomena that affect signal propagation for Local
Multipoint Distribution Systems (LMDS) at frequencies above 30 GHz. A new propagation
simulation tool for LMDS is presented. Some of the simulation results are depicted as well.

Introduction

The very tight competition in the telecommunication market leads network operators and
service providers to seek new effective and efficient ways of data transmitting and system
deployment. The moving into new, previously unused high frequencies (tens of GHz),
promises higher frequency bands to be allocated to each service and consequently higher bit
rates offered to customers.
Fixed wireless access (FWA) systems and especially Local Multipoint Distribution
Systems (LMDS) are nowadays emerging as a technology that features several techno-
economics advantages over wired and mobile solutions [1].
Namely it promises:
- The ability to offer new high bitrate access service. Depending on allocated spectrum
and used modulation these systems can reach bitrate from 2x2 Mb/s (European 2xE2) or
2x1.5 Mb/s (north Americian 2xT1) to 155 Mb/s (STM-1 or OC-3) and future evolution
promises higher bitrates.
- The speed and easy of adding further customer lines or redeploying link for another
customer instead of digging up the road in case of wire or optic cable connection.
(enable the rule "pay as you build").
- The better reliability than mobile telephony, since subscribers in "fixed" positions with
high directional antennas are not so affected by multipath propagation and consequently
the interference is decreasing. Moreover because of knowledge of user position the
mechanisms as handovers can't be applied.
- The decreasing range of radio systems with increased frequency improves the potential
for frequency reuse

Fig.1. LMDS (point-to-multipoint) concept
426
On the contrary, although LMDS utilized similar cellular concept to mobile networks
(point-to-multipoint - see Fig.1), many different issues emerge at bands above 30 GHz (e.g.
rain attenuation). The line of sight between each subscriber and base stations (hubs) has to be
kept as well. These issues are going to be discussed in further sections.

Propagation in mm bands

As it was stated above, the millimeter-wave spectrum offers enormous application
potential and has chance to become the next frontier for terrestrial wireless communications.
The employment of frequencies above about 30 GHz has also great challenges from
electromagnetic wave propagation point of view. It would be emphasized that propagation in
the millimeter-wave frequency bands are in several aspects different from those at the lower
frequency bands used by cellular (GSM) and wireless LAN systems:
Due to higher losses on obstructions in mm waves the propagation in line of sigh (LOS)
are required between subscriber terminals and base stations in LMDS systems.
Therefore additional enhancements during hubs deployment plan have to be considered
to approach as much coverage as possible.
The attenuation due to rain is the main factor limiting the range of high-reliability
microwave links above 30 GHz. Precipitation very often causes almost 40 dB fades in
receiving signals and is source of additional interferences in LMDS networks. Usable
information about the distribution of raindrop sizes and their shape is usually unknown
for particular area. The rain intensity measurements in mm/h are usually the only
information available for system design. Rain rates which are only exceeded 0.01% time
can be determined for desired area from worldwide maps of climate zones [2].
Consequently the rain attenuation is determined by ITU-R P.530-8 model [3] or by
Crane rain fade model [4] for given service availability.
Note that water vapor resonance occurs at 1.3 cm (23 GHz), thus the signal absorption
due to gases or due to dielectric state of the atmosphere should be considered as well.
As it is well known from numerous investigations (e.g. from project CRABS [5]) almost
20 % of possible subscribers are obstructed by vegetation. For the links the movement
of leaves due to blowing wind causes signal fluctuation (these phenomena has been
investigated e.g. in [6]). Therefore attenuation through trees as well as dynamic
vegetation effects must be considered.

Propagation simulations

Propagation models are fundamental tools for designing and analyzing the fixed
broadband wireless systems. The basic signal propagation planning and analyzing tool has
been developed at the department of the electromagnetic field CTU Prague to study time-
space characteristics of LMDS. The main goal is an investigation of LMDS (or similar
systems of new generation working above 30 GHz) system performance against various
propagation phenomena (e.g. variations of precipitation). The system aspects like modulation,
coding, protocols etc. are not considered (these topics are discussed in [7]).
The main software module of the tool enables several forms of input values. The
subscriber positions can be entered from maps or generated randomly according to a
statistical distribution. Input rain rate distribution in space can be chosen from known
statistics (with Gaussian, exponential or cylindrical distribution derived from measurement
[5]) or as real rainfall events for given area obtained from meteoradar. The software tool
screenshot and one of the rain rate distributions in space are shown in Fig.2.

427


Fig.2. Tool for analyzing of LMDS systems


The signal propagation simulations for LMDS system enable to generate these particular
results:

- Coverage of investigated area by selected number of hubs
- Potential interferers
- Received signal level
- Carrier to interference C/I
- Attenuation statistics of path-angle diversity
- Attenuation through rain
- Tree blockage
- Diversity improvements
- Availability of service in area influenced by time variable rainfall

An example of one of the simulation results - connection outages based on received signal
level threshold under different precipitation conditions (using Gaussian space distribution
from Fig.2) - is shown in Fig.3.
428

Fig.3. Statistics of link outages for given received threshold (without and with precipitation)

Conclusion

In this paper main issues affecting signal propagation in frequency bands above
30 GHz for point-to-multipoint systems have been determined. A new propagation prediction
software tool to study a performance of Local Multipoint Distribution Systems (LMDS) under
different signal propagation conditions has been presented.

Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by the GAR grant No. 102/04/2153 Time-space
Simulations of MWS Systems in 42 GHz Band and by the research program Research in
the Area of Information Technologies and Communications No. 212300014 of CTU Prague.

References

[1] Clark, M. P., Wireless Access Networks. J ohn Willey&Sons. London, 2000.
[2] International Telecommunications Union, Characteristics of precipitation for
propagation modelling, Recommendation ITU-R P.837-4, 2003.
[3] International Telecommunications Union, Propagation data and prediction methods
required for the design of terrestrial line-of-sight systems, Recommendation ITU-R
P.530-9, 2001.
[4] Anderson H. R. Fixed Broadband Wireless System Design, J ohn Willey&Sons. London,
2003.
[5] Report from ACTS Project 215 - Cellular Radio Access for Broadband Services
(CRABS), Propagation Planning Procedures for LMDS, 1999
[6] Ldl, P., Pecha, P., Maznek, M., Time-Series Prediction of Attenuation Caused by
Trees for Fixed Wireless Access Systems Operating in Millimeter Waveband, Twelfth
International Conference - ICAP 2003. London, IEE, 2003, p. 646-649.
[7] Project EMBRACE, Cell Planning Optimalisation Tool,
http://www.telenor.no/fou/prosjekter/embrace/


429