Microwave radio communication

ETT 06202 Microwave Technology

 Microwave radio communication link

As the figure shows, the microwave stations must be geographically placed in such a way that the
terrain (lakes, mountains, buildings, and so on) do not interfere with transmissions between
stations. the geographic location of the stations must be carefully selected such that natural and
man-made barriers do not interfere with propagation between stations.
More microwave transmission benefits
• Microwave radios propagate signals through Earth’s atmosphere
between transmitters and receivers often located on top of towers
spaced about 15 miles to 30 miles apart.
• Therefore, microwave radio systems have the obvious advantage of
having the capacity to carry thousands of individual information
channels between two points without the need for physical facilities
such as coaxial cables or optical fibers.
• This, of course, avoids the need for acquiring rights-of-way through
private property. In addition, radio waves are better suited for
spanning large bodies of water, going over high mountains, or going
through heavily wooded terrain that impose formidable barriers to
cable systems.
Analog versus digital microwave
• A vast majority of the existing microwave radio systems are
frequency modulation, which of course is analog.
• Recently systems using either phase shift keying or quadrature
amplitude modulation
(digital modulation) techniques have also been developed
• Satellite radio systems are similar to terrestrial microwave radio
systems; in fact, the two systems share many of the same
frequencies.
• The primary difference between satellite and terrestrial radio
systems is that satellite systems propagate signals outside Earth’s
atmosphere and, thus, are capable of carrying signals much farther
while utilizing fewer transmitters and receivers.
• We will deal primarily with conventional FDM/FM microwave radio
systems.
Frequency versus amplitude modulation
• Frequency modulation (FM) is used in microwave radio systems
rather than amplitude modulation (AM) because AM signals are
more sensitive to amplitude nonlinearities inherent in wideband
microwave amplifiers.
• FM signals are relatively insensitive to this type of nonlinear
distortion and can be transmitted through amplifiers that have
compression or amplitude nonlinearity with little penalty.
• In addition, FM signals are less sensitive to random noise and can
be propagated with lower transmit powers.
• in AM systems, intermodulation noise is a function of signal
amplitude, but in FM systems, it is a function of signal amplitude
and the magnitude of the frequency deviation. Thus, the
characteristics of FM signals are more suitable than AM signals for
microwave transmission
FM microwave radio systems
• Microwave radio systems using FM are widely recognized as providing
flexible, reliable,
and economical point-to-point communications using Earth’s
atmosphere for the transmission medium.
• Microwave radios can also be configured to carry high speed data,
facsimile, broadcast-quality audio, and commercial television signals.
• Comparative cost studies have proven that FM microwave radio is
very often the most economical means for providing communications
circuits where there are no existing metallic cables or optical fibers or
where severe terrain or weather conditions exist. FM microwave
systems are also easily expandable.
 Microwave radio transmitter

• The preemphasis network provides an artificial boost in amplitude to the higher baseband
frequencies. This allows the lower baseband frequencies to frequency modulate the IF
carrier and the higher baseband frequencies to phase modulate it.
• An FM deviator provides the modulation of the IF carrier that eventually becomes the main
microwave carrier. Typically, IF carrier frequencies are between 60 MHz and 80 MHz, with
70 MHz the most common.
• The IF and its associated sidebands are up-converted to the microwave region by the mixer,
microwave oscillator, and bandpass filter.
 Microwave radio receiver

• The channel separation network provides the isolation and filtering necessary to separate
individual microwave channels and direct them to their respective receivers.
• The band pass filter, AM mixer, and microwave oscillator down-convert the RF microwave
frequencies to IF frequencies and pass them on to the FM demodulator.
• The FM demodulator is a conventional, noncoherent FM detector (i.e., a discriminator or a
PLL demodulator). At the output of the FM detector, a deemphasis network restores the
baseband signal to its original amplitude-versus-frequency characteristics.
FM microwave radio repeaters
• The permissible distance between an FM microwave transmitter and
its associated microwave receiver depends on several system
variables, such as transmitter output power, receiver noise threshold,
terrain, atmospheric conditions, system capacity, reliability objectives,
and performance expectations
• Single-hop microwave system are inadequate for most practical
system applications.
• With systems that are longer than 40 miles or when geographical
obstructions, such as a mountain, block the transmission path,
repeaters are needed.
• A microwave repeater is a receiver and a transmitter placed back to
back or in tandem with the system.

Figure : A simplified block diagram

of a microwave repeater
 repeaters
• The repeater station receives a signal, amplifies and reshapes it, and
then retransmits the signal to the next repeater or terminal station down
line from it.
• The location of intermediate repeater sites is greatly influenced by the
nature of the terrain between and surrounding the sites.
• Preliminary route planning generally assumes relatively flat areas, and
path (hop) lengths will average between 25 miles and 35 miles between
stations. In relatively flat terrain, increasing path length will dictate
increasing the antenna tower heights. Transmitter output power and
antenna gain
• There are three types of microwave repeaters:
— IF repeaters (heterodyne repeaters)
— baseband repeaters
— RF repeaters
IF repeater
• With an IF repeater the received RF carrier is down-converted to an
IF frequency, amplified, reshaped, up converted to an RF frequency,
and then retransmitted.
• The signal is never demodulated below IF. Consequently, the
baseband intelligence is unmodified by the repeater.
 Baseband repeater
• The received RF carrier is down-converted to an IF frequency,
amplified, filtered, and then further demodulated to baseband.
• The baseband signal, which is typically frequency-division-multiplexed
voice-band channels, is further demodulated to a mastergroup,
supergroup, group, or even channel level.
• This allows the baseband signal to be reconfigured to meet the routing
needs of the overall communications network.
• Once the baseband signal has been reconfigured, it FM modulates an IF
carrier, which is up-converted to an RF carrier and then retransmitted.
Baseband repeater
Baseband repeater
• Figure 4c shows another baseband repeater configuration. The repeater
demodulates the RF to baseband, amplifies and reshapes it, and then
modulates the FM carrier.
• With this technique, the baseband is not reconfigured. Essentially, this
configuration accomplishes the same thing that an IF repeater
accomplishes.
• The difference is that in a baseband configuration, the amplifier and
equalizer act on baseband frequencies rather than IF frequencies. The
baseband frequencies are generally less than 9 MHz, whereas the IF
frequencies are in the range 60 MHz to 80 MHz.
• Consequently, the filters and amplifiers necessary for baseband
repeaters are simpler to design and less expensive than the ones
required for IF repeaters.
• The disadvantage of a baseband configuration is the addition of the FM
terminal equipment.
Baseband repeater
RF repeaters
• With RF-to-RF repeaters, the received microwave signal is not
down-converted to IF or baseband; it is simply mixed(heterodyned)
with a local oscillator frequency in a nonlinear mixer.
• The output of the mixer is tuned to either the sum or the difference
between the incoming RF and the local oscillator frequency, depending
on whether frequency up- or down-conversion is desired.
• The local oscillator is sometimes called a shift oscillator and is
considerably lower in frequency than either the received or the
transmitted radio frequencies.
• For example, an incoming RF of 6.2 GHz is mixed with a 0.2-GHz local
oscillator frequency producing sum and difference frequencies of 6.4
GHz and 6.0 GHz. For frequency up-conversion, the output of the
mixer would be tuned to 6.4 GHz, and for frequency down-conversion,
the output of the mixer would be tuned to 6.0 GHz.
• With RF-to-RF repeaters, the radio signal is simply converted in
frequency and then reamplified and transmitted to the next down-line
repeater or terminal station. Reconfiguring and reshaping are not
possible with RF-to-RF repeaters.
RF repeater
Diversity
• Microwave systems use line-of-site transmission; therefore a direct
signal path must exist between the transmit and the receive
antennas. Consequently, if that signal path undergoes a severe
degradation, a service interruption will occur.
• This reduction in signal strength is temporary and referred to as
radio fade . Radio fade can last for a few milliseconds (short
term) or for several hours or even days (long term). Automatic gain
control circuits, built into radio receivers, can compensate for fades
of 25 dB to 40 dB, depending on system design; however, fades in
excess of 40 dB can cause a total loss of the received signal. When
this happens, service continuity is lost.
• Diversity suggests that there is more than one transmission path
or method of transmission available between a transmitter and a
receiver. In a microwave system, the purpose of using diversity is to
increase the reliability of the system by increasing its availability.
•
 Diversity
• When there is more than one transmission path or method of
transmission available, the system can select the path or method
that produces the highest-quality received signal.
• The highest quality is determined by evaluating the carrier-to-noise
(C/N) ratio at the receiver input or by simply measuring the
received carrier power.
• There are many ways of achieving diversity, the most common
methods used are
i. Frequency,
ii. Space,
iii. Polarization,
iv. Hybrid, or
v. Quad
Frequency diversity
• Frequency diversity is simply modulating two different RF carrier
frequencies with the same IF intelligence, then transmitting both RF
signals to a given destination. At the destination, both carriers are
demodulated, and the one that yields the better-quality IF signal is
selected.
— Advantage: provide complete and simple equipment redundancy and have the
additional advantage of providing two complete transmitter-to-receiver electrical
paths.
— Disadvantage: it doubles the amount of frequency spectrum and equipment
necessary.
Space diversity
• With space diversity, the output of a transmitter is fed to two or more
antennas that are physically separated by an appreciable number of
wavelengths. Similarly, at the receiving end, there may be more than
one antenna providing the input signal to the receiver. If multiple
receiving antennas are used, they must also be separated by an
appreciable number of wavelengths.
• The rule is to use two transmit antennas or two receive
antennas but never two of each.
• With space diversity, there is more than one transmission path
between a transmitter and a receiver. When adverse atmospheric
conditions exist in one of the paths, it is unlikely that the alternate path
is experiencing the same degradation.
• Space-diversity arrangements provide for path redundancy but not
equipment redundancy. Space diversity is more expensive than
frequency diversity because of the additional antennas and waveguide.
Space diversity, however, provides efficient frequency spectrum usage
and a substantially greater protection than frequency diversity.
Polarization diversity
• With polarization diversity, a single RF carrier is propagated with
two different electromagnetic polarizations (vertical and horizontal).
Electromagnetic waves of different polarizations do not necessarily
experience the same transmission impairments.
• Polarization diversity is generally used in conjunction with space
diversity.
• One transmit/receive antenna pair is vertically polarized, and the
other is horizontally polarized.
• It is also possible to use frequency, space, and polarization diversity
simultaneously
Receiver diversity & quad diversity
• Receiver diversity is using more than one receiver for a single
radio-frequency channel.
• With frequency diversity, it is necessary to also use receiver
diversity because each transmitted frequency requires its own
receiver. However, sometimes two receivers are used for
a single transmitted frequency
• Quad diversity is another form of hybrid diversity and undoubtedly
provides the most reliable transmission; however, it is also the most
expensive. The basic concept of quad diversity is quite simple:
— It combines frequency, space, polarization, and receiver diversity into
one system. Its obvious disadvantage is providing redundant electronic
equipment, frequencies, antennas, and waveguide, which are
economical burdens.
•
Hybrid diversity
• Hybrid diversity is a somewhat specialized form of diversity that
consists of a standard frequency-diversity path where the two
transmitter/receiver pairs at one end of the path are separated from
each other and connected to different antennas that are vertically
separated as in space diversity. This arrangement provides a
space-diversity effect in both directions—in one direction because the
receivers are vertically spaced and in the other direction because the
transmitters are vertically spaced.
• This arrangement combines the operational advantages of frequency
diversity with the improved diversity protection of space diversity.
• Hybrid diversity has the disadvantage, however, of requiring two radio
frequencies to obtain one working channel.
Protection switching arrangements
• To avoid a service interruption during periods of deep fades or
equipment failures, alternate facilities are temporarily made
available in a protection switching arrangement.
• The general concepts of protection switching and diversity are quite
similar: Both provide protection against equipment failures and
atmospheric fades.
• The primary difference between them is, simply, that diversity
systems provide an alternate transmission path for only a single
microwave link (i.e., between one transmitter and one receiver)
within the overall communications system.
• Protection switching arrangements, on the other hand, provide
protection for a much larger section of the communications system
that generally includes several repeaters spanning a distance of 100
miles or more.
• Diversity systems also generally provide 100% protection to a single
radio channel, whereas protection switching arrangements are
usually shared between several radio channels.
Protection switching arrangements
• Essentially, there are two types of protection switching arrangements:
hot standby and diversity.
• With hot standby protection, each working radio channel has a
dedicated backup or spare channel.
• With diversity protection, a single backup channel is made available to
as many as 11 working channels.
• Hot standby systems offer 100% protection for each working radio
channel.
• A diversity system offers 100% protection only to the first working
channel to fail.
• If two radio channels fail at the same time, a service interruption
will occur.
Hot standby protection switching arrangement
• At the transmitting end, the IF goes into a head-end bridge, which splits the signal
power and directs it to the working and the spare (standby) microwave channels
simultaneously. Consequently, both the working and the standby channels are
carrying the same baseband information. At the receiving end, the IF switch
passes the IF signal from the working channel
to the FM terminal equipment. The IF switch continuously monitors the received
signal power on the working channel and, if it fails, switches to the standby
channel. When the IF signal on the working channel is restored, the IF switch
resumes its normal position.
Diversity protection switching arrangement
Diversity protection switching arrangement
• Diversity protection switching arrangement: This system has two
working channels (channel 1 and channel 2), one spare channel,
and an auxiliary channel.
• The IF switch at the receive end continuously monitors the receive
signal strength of both working channels. If either one should fail,
the IF switch detects a loss of carrier and sends back to the
transmitting station IF switch a VF (voice frequency) tone-encoded
signal that directs it to switch the IF signal from the failed channel
onto the spare microwave channel.
• When the failed channel is restored, the IF switches resume their
normal positions. The auxiliary channel simply provides a
transmission path between the two IF switches. Typically, the
auxiliary channel is a low-capacity low-power microwave radio that
is designed to be used for a maintenance channel only
Comparison between diversity and protection switching
• The primary difference between the two is that diversity systems
are permanent arrangements and are intended only to compensate
for temporary, abnormal atmospheric conditions between only two
selected stations in a system.
• Protection switching arrangements, on the other hand, compensate
for both radio fades and equipment failures and may include from
six to eight repeater stations between switches. Protection channels
also may be used as temporary communication facilities while
routine maintenance is performed on a regular working channel.
• With a protection switching arrangement, all signal paths and
radio equipment are protected.
• Diversity is used selectively—that is, only between stations that
historically experience severe fading a high percentage of the time.
Comparison between diversity and
protection switching