SRA 1/1S Access SDH Radio System

STM-1 (140/155 Mbit/s el, opt) 18-23 GHz Sub-STM-1 (21x2,34 Mbit/s, STM-1 partially filled) 13-15-18-23 GHz Normal and High Density

Introduction The Access SDH Radio System family SRA 1/1 S is designed for applications in the distribution and access network and is planned to cover frequencies ranging from 13 to 26 GHz with a capacity of Sub-STM-1 (21x2 Mbit/s, 13-15-18-23-26 GHz) or STM-1 (155.52 Mbit/s, 18-23-26 GHz). The SRA system has the main objective of the compatibility with the Synchronous Digital Hierarchy carrying out the typical applications foreseen for the lowest layers of the SDH network architecture. Most important and common applications are the F.O. ring closure in the outer core network or to provide an increased digital connectivity in urban areas, where F.O. Iinks are not quickly available, accomplishing spurs from ring nodes towards the customer access network.
Outdoor Unit and 60 cm Antenna

The high spectrum efficiency makes the SRA HD system suitable and attractive to all those newly-licensed operators and utilities that have to pay fees proportional to the occupied bandwidth. The considerable increase of bit rate with respect to the previous plesiochronous generation of radio systems and the goal to achieve a higher density imply a better efficiency of the spectrum utilization and the adoption of particularly advanced technologies. The heavy processing at baseband and mo-demodulation level leads to a full digital approach with the twofold purpose of obtaining high reliability and mechanical compactness.

Capacity, Modulation, Channel Spacing (MHz) Frequency Bands (GHz) 12.75-13.26 14.5-15-35 17.7-19.7 21.2-23.6 ITU-R Recs STM-1 16 BCM 426 636 595 386/637 55 56 Sub STM-1 16 BCM 28 28 27,5 28 Sub STM-1 32 TCM 14 14 14 14

RF Channel Arrangement The SRA 1/1S digital radio system is designed to operate in the frequency bands from 13 to 23 GHz, according to the RF channel arrangements of ITU-R as described in the table above. With the adoption of the 16 BCM modulation technique together with the selectivity of BB, IF and RF filters, a high NFD (Net-Filter Discrimination) value is achieved

so as to allow air compatibility between channels 55/56 MHz (STM-1) or 27.5/28 MHz (Sub-STM-1) spaced. The utilisation of a 32 state modulation (32 TCM-4D Trellis Coded Modulator) permits the deployment of SRA 1S (for subSTM1 bit rates) halving the bandwidth with respect to the standard channel arrangement. This version is named SRA HD.

Main features

The major benefit of BCM and TCM modulation approaches consists in strongly enhancing error correction capability and bit error rate performance with respect to conventional QAM systems. In spite of the higher technical difficulties, mainly due to the increased bit rate, the system provides a lower cost solution with a very simple and flexible layout, easily upgradable during expansions, thanks to the experience consolidated in the previous development of 64/128 TCM systems (of High Capacity Trunk Radio) and the technological updating. The system design is based on the use of the most advanced technologies and a big effort has been made to transfer complexity from analog to digital hardware to take advantage of customized integration (ASlCs) and to improve reliability. Summarizing, the key features of the system are:

I Easy upgrade from Normal Density to High Density with simple slide-in modem replacement I Increased capacity and spectrum efficiency to be compatible with SDH I Cost reduction and performance improvement through technology updating I Compactness and ease of installation: indoor/outdoor practice up to four protected systems in one ETSI rack I Simple spare parts management and ease of handling: indoor unit, frequency- independent outdoor unit, capacity- independent very wide tuning range I Compatibility with the existing plesiochronous 34/140 Mbit/s traffic

I High performance through Coded Modulation and Viterbi soft-decoding I Full-digital modem using VLSI and Digital Signal Processing I Microwave SSPA (Single-StagePower-Amplifier) linearizer I Automatic Transmit Power Control (ATPC) I Interchangeability of tributary interfaces: 21x2, 34, 140 Mbit/s STM-1 (full and partially filled) electrical/optical I Redundant operation at RF, IF and BB levels (with tributary card protection) I N+1 configuration for STM-1 systems I Full SOH processing and embedded software for TMN integration.

Transmitter Subunit

Technology

The system design is based on a full digital concept. This approach takes extensive advantage of the most recent technological achievements which lead to VLSI circuit solutions, the most suitable for managing digital signals. In addition, this approach assures very high production quality, with extremely repetitive characteristics and low performance spread. The progress of HCMOS technology has recently been very impressive, concerning namely the overall chip complexity and operating speed. In the latest years the operating speed has already grown up from 20 to about 70 MHz and the chip size has reached the level of 100 kgates, 60% of which effectively usable. Full digital solutions have been adopted for the various functions involved in 16 BCM/32 TCM modulation and

demodulation process, i.e. pulse shaping and modulation (both at transmit and receive side), FEC coding and decoding, BCM/TCM associated to maximum likelihood Viterbi decoding, mo-demodulator and outdoor RF transceiver housekeeping. The advanced BB/IF technological solutions employed are here following summarized: I High density semicustom logic circuits (1 m HCMOS VLSI with up to 100 kgates for single chip) I Extremely advanced mo-demodulation and coding schemes (16 Block Coded Modulation, 32 Trellis Coded Modulation and soft decision Viterbi decoding) I Surface mounted component technology for high density analog circuits.

In addition the system adopts the most sophisticated RF technology in order to drastically reduce dimensions and power consumption and at the same time considerably increase reliability, electrical performance and stability: I Thin film Chip & Wire technology I Miniature subharmonic and image rejection mixers I Submicron FET devices and solid state FET high power amplifiers with microwave linearization I Ultra low noise preamplifiers using submicron HEMT (High Electron Mobility Transistor devices) I Subharmonic synthesizer fully tunable over the RF sub-band.

Wide Tunable VCO

Coded Modulation

The increase of bit rate due to the addition of SDH Overheads, the very stringent requirements of the RF channel arrangement, the necessity to have high spectrum efficiency combined with high system gain, the inherent problems of linearity of the transmit amplifier required Siemens to choose Block Coded Modulation at 16 levels and/or Trellis Coded Modulation at 32 levels as the most suitable modulation formats for the SRA family. The RF channel arrangement of 55 MHz for the transmission of STM-1 signals for instance imposes a spectrum efficiency achievable onlyby introducing a limited redundancy in the coding process. The best compromise between the need for low redundancy and good error correction capability is represented by a BCM coding of the first level (redundancy ratio 16/15 and asymptotic coding gain of 2.5 dB with respect to uncoded 16 QAM).

Like Trellis Coded Modulation, also fully exploited by Siemens in SDH Trunk Radio (4 to 13 GHz) and in the High Density version, the Block Coded Modulation technique follows an integrated modulation and encoding approach to the problem of information transmission, resulting in a gain of a few decibels in signal-to-noise ratio with little increase of the bandwidth. In TCM, this is achieved by convolutionally encoding the information bits and then mapping the bits at the encoder output onto an expanded set of channel signals. In BCM the signal space codes are constructed by using short binary block codes, shorter than convolutional ones. For BCM the redundancy introduced is flexible, while for TCM it is fixed with a ratio N+1/N (N is the number of information bits transmitted per symbol), so that optimum redundancy over occupied bandwidth ratio can be chosen.

An advantage of BCM is the lower circuital complexity with regards to TCM, particularly as far as the demodulation processing is concerned, with the consequent low space occupancy and power consumption, highly needed for access radio equipment. The actual advantage of Trellis Coded Modulation is of course focusing on the fact that the bandwidth occupancy is halved with respect to the one obtainable through BCM. From the operator point of view, this feature allows great savings. By the way, it must be stressed that it is possible to replace the BCM with the TCM modulator without any other hardware substitution and viceversa. The decoding is in both cases (BCM and TCM) of the maximum likelihood type exploiting the Viterbi algorythm.

Sub-STM-1 Radio Systems

Applications The continuous increase of demand of new and more powerful services to satisfy the needs of data communication of business users, universities and corporates makes it necessary to extend the SDH into the outer core of the network up to the customer premises. When radio is preferred against fiber optics for economic considerations or quick provisioning, the maintenance of spectrum efficiency where traffic density is low, is possible thanks to the use of sub-STM-1 radio systems. Sub-STM-1, transporting a VC-3 payload and the section overhead, makes it possible to interface directly with SDH multiplexers or cross-connects in the core network and to extend the telecommunication management network over low-density routes and up to the customer premises. The applications for sub-STM-1 radio systems can be roughly divided into two groups according to the operating frequency. In bands above 10 GHz the main applications foreseen are for

urban/suburban distribution to medium capacity customers (access network) and to provide internodal connections. In bands below 10 GHz, typical applications are the spurs from high capacity backbones or medium capacity routes in sparsely populated areas. Another important application is television and audio signals transmission even if details about bit rates and mapping are still under study. Multiplexing The multiplexing scheme for sub-STM-1, reported in Fig. 1, is based on ITU-R Recommendation 750 and ETSI standard which specifically exclude multiplexing via the AU-3. In accordance with this multiplexing structure the STM-RR (STM - Radio Relay) transports, besides the VC-3 payload, the section overhead (SOH) for a total bit rate of 51.840 Mbit/s. The sub-STM-1 Radio Systems of the SRA family have been designed to transmit

the whole STM-1 SOH (9x9 bytes), as shown in Fig. 2, handling the 6 additional byte columns as an RFCOH (Radio Frequency Complementary Overhead) for a total bit rate of 55.296 Mbit/s. This solution offers some advantages: I Exploitation of the unused bytes for the transmission of a 2 Mbit/s wayside capacity I Possibility to better follow the evolution of the standardization of the bytes presently not used or reserved for national use I Possibility to use the media specific usage bytes for the transmission of control signals (e.g. ATPC, SCS and so on). In many of the applications foreseen for this equipment there is the necessity of interconnection between NNI (Network Node Interface) with a STM-1 partially filled and RRRP (Radio Relay Reference Point); in this case the AU-4/AU-3 conversion is carried out inside the equipment (Fig. 3).

Nx

NNI

STM-N

AUG

AU4

VC4

C4

140 Mbit/s

3x

TUG3

TU3

VC3

C3

34 Mbit/s 45 Mbit/s

RRRP

STM-RR

AU3 VC3 (**)

7x

7x

TUG2

TU2

VC2

(*)

3x

(*) non-hierarchical bit rates (virtual concatenation) (**) cannot be utilized to map an AUG structure

TU12

VC12 VC11

C12 C11

2 Mbit/s

1,5 Mbit/s

Figure 1 Multiplexing Structure for Sub-STM-1

STM-1 SOH A1 A1 A1 A2 A2 A2 C1 RSOH B1 D1 E1 D2 F1 D3 J1 B3 C2 Fixed Stuff G1 F2 H4 Z3 Z4 STM-RR SOH Z5 29 30 31 VC-3 POH 58 59 60 Fixed Stuff K2 D6 D9 D12 VC-3

AU POINTERS B2 B2 B2 K1 D4 MSOH D7 D10 D5 D8 D11

S1 Z1 Z1 Z2 Z2 Z2 E2

Figure 2 Frame Structure of Sub-STM-1 Signal

STM-RR
Sub-STM-1 Sub-STM-1 Radio Systems 21x2 Mbit/s Radio Systems

NNI

STM-1 partially filled

34 Mbit/s

TUG-3
x1 x1

NNI

STM-1

AU-4 VC-4

x3

TUG-3
x7

VC-3 AU-3 STM-RR

x7

51.84 Mbit/s

TUG-2
2 Mbit/s

Figure 3 Interconnection of STM-1 and STM-RR

System Building Blocks

The engineering of the SRA 1/1S digital radio system is characterized by high operating frequency. For this reason, in order to minimize the feeder loss, an indoor/outdoor split configuration has been choosen. The indoor part consists of the baseband and modem units and is connected by means of a single coaxial IF cable to a very compact outdoor transceiver located close to the antenna. For radio systems operating at frequencies above 10 GHz the most important problem to be faced is rain attenuation and just in case of links longer than 10 km multipath phenomena can have some moderate effects. Taking into account the network applications foreseen for the equipment, the typical problems of multiline trunk links associated with repeater and space diversity configurations are not present.

Being rain unavailability the most important problem, hitless switching in protected links is not mandatory, thus also avoiding worsening the overall reliability figure of the system. An Adaptive Time Domain Equalizer of 5 taps is useful to counteract selective fading activity when the hop length is longer than 18 km, as mentioned above. Automatic Transmit Power Control has been implemented to increase system performance; during normal propagation conditions the transmitter operates at an output power level nearly 10 dB below the maximum value, reached only during unfavourable fading activities. In such a way in crowded nodal stations, it is possible to reduce the interference caused by the channels converging into the same node. When BER exceeds 10-4, the output power is increased (reducing the back-off

of the amplifier) of 2 dB for an overall system gain improvement of 1.5 dB. In Fig. 4 a block diagram of the indoor part of the equipment is shown. Some functional blocks, described in the following paragraphs, are identified: I Tributary card, for different interfaces (optical and electrical), with built-in 1+1 line protection switching; it is possible to duplicate the tributary card for redundancy purposes I BCM or TCM mo-demodulator which include, besides modulation and demodulation processing, the functions of SOH drop/insert and IF interface towards the outdoor transceiver digital service cards (in accordance with the current ITU-T strategy adopted in SDH compatible Radio and Fiber

(1+1) G.703 Tributary Protection (*)

Tributary Card (With 1+1 protection) (**)

SOH Drop/Insert (***)

Mod Dem

In/Out Interface Overvoltage Protection

to outdoor transceiver

EOW

Controller (SEMF) Alarm Unit MCF Sets

Tributary SOH

Line SOH

SOH Drop/Insert (***)

Mod Dem

In/Out Interface Overvoltage Protection

to outdoor transceiver

(*) To be used for tributary protection (not needed for 21x2 Mbit/s) (**) AU-4/AU-3 conversion (***) STR-RR Mapping

Figure 4 Indoor Part Block Diagram

Tx Gate Array 8 data -Interleaver -Scrambler -8/15 Converter -BCM Encoder ck -BTF

x
90

x
350 MHz LO APC FSK Mod 7 MHz IF Diplexer

SOH Drop Insert In/Out Data Com. Rx Gate Array 8 Processor data ck In/Out Data -Dem Controls -AFC -BMC Decoder -15/8 Converter -Descrambler -Deinterleaver D A ATDE D A FSK Dem 10 MHz

Overvoltage protection

x
90

ACG IF

VCO Dem Control Circuits VCO 140 MHz

Figure 5 Mo-demodulator Block Diagram

Optics systems) in order to give access to the SOH bytes and provide for their processing (EOW, DCC management) I Controller (SEMF), alarm and MCF units for equipment supervisory and management functions; both F (local) and Q (remote) interfaces are available for TMN purposes. 16 BCM Mo-demodulator The 16 BCMModemodulator and baseband processing block diagram is for example shown in Fig. 5. This solution for the modem allows the use of the most advanced HCMOS-VLSI technologies, employing gate array type ASICs with a sampling frequency of 41.5 Mbaud. The modem can be divided into four functional subunits:

I Section OverHead drop/insert I Modulation processing I Demodulation processing IF section with FSK modem and indoor/outdoor alarm processing. In the first subunit, under the management of a microprocessor, SOH bytes are dropped and inserted to be handled by proper service cards. The bytes received from the SOH drop/insert subunit are processed by the Tx gate array in which the following functions take place: I Bit interleaving to avoid problems of loss of AU/TU pointer within STM-1 frame, due to error concentration caused by error correcting algorythms I Scrambling

I 8/15 conversion to adapt the input data format to the one suitable for the BCM encoder I BCM encoding I Binary Transverse Filter for pulse shaping with a proper roll-off factor (35%) In the Rx gate array the following complementary functions are carried out: I BCM decoding of the maximum likelihood type employing Viterbi algorythm and soft decision quantization I 15/8 conversion I Descrambling I De-interleaving Furthermore, demodulation control circuits (AGC, carrier and timing recovery) and AFC (Automatic Frequency Control) are implemented.

The STM-RR mapping is also present in the Sub-STM-1 version. The demodulator is provided with another gate array implementing an Adaptative Time Domain Equalizer (ATDE ) of 5 taps. The presence of pre- and post-cursors guarantees a good signature against both non-minimum and minimum phase selective fading activities. Besides the analog circuits for the in-quadrature modulation and demodulation of the carrier at transmitting and receiving intermediate frequencies and relevant filtering, an FSK modem is present for the sub-baseband transmission of alarm messages between the internal and external units. The FSK is connected via a data bus to the same microprocessor that manages the SOH D/l subunit. The TCM modulator block diagram is not shown here. Protection Switching and BB Interfaces In the same subrack where the mo-demodulator unit is present, the hierarchical baseband cards (1xSTM-1, 140 Mbit/s, 21x2 Mbit/s, 34 Mbit/s), the service cards for the management of SOH (Section OverHead), for both line and tributary side and the controller are housed. In such a way the equipment provides flexible interfacing towards both plesiochronous and synchronous hierarchies.

Both electrical and optical interfaces are available with regards the STM-1 tributary card. In particular the optical interface, fully compliant with ITU-T Rec. G.957 S-1.1 and L-1.1 (short and long range applications in 1300 nm window wavelength), can easily substitute the electrical one thanks to the interchangeability of the tributary cards. The tributary cards do not only provide electrical or optical interfaces with full SDH functionality but also built-in 1+1 line protection switching facilities. As shown in Fig. 4, the insertion of another tributary card is possible for test or redundancy purposes. In the latter case the protection of the tributary units greatly increases the overall system reliability. Transceiver The conventional block layout of the transceiver exploits a high degree of circuit and function integration. High level technological solutions are employed to reach the system objectives also in this part of the system. With reference to the block diagram of Fig. 6 different sections can be identified: IF section, power supply section, alarm section, Tx and Rx sections. Being the outdoor transceiver connected to the

internal terminating unit by means of a single coaxial cable, it is necessary to have an overvoltage protection circuit and an IF diplexer in order to separate the Tx and Rx modulated carriers. The in/out connecting cable is also used for the supply of battery DC voltage (48 V) to the transceiver and for the transmission of service subcarriers for message communication (alarms, received field, etc.) between the indoor and outdoor units. At transmit side, a low noise amplifier is present, with IF AGC and adaptative slope control functions to compensate cable loss up to 40 dB. Thanks to the high Tx intermediate frequency of 350 MHz, it is possible to integrate up-converter and power amplifier, without using an intermediate filter, carrying out mixed IF/RF control functions like RF AGC and linearization. It is well known that a digital signal with a multilevel modulation scheme like QAM has stringent requirements in terms of linearity of the transmission system. It is possible to exploit the performance of the power semiconductor devices satisfying the linearity requirements only using compensation networks. An amplitude modulated signal causes amplitude and phase distortions (AM/AM and AM/PM conversion products), passing through a nonlinear system.

Cable AGC IF Amplifer

Tx

FSK Dem

7 MHz

Tx L.O.

Data Bus 350 MHz IF Diplexer Overvoltage protection 140 MHz VDC = 48V EOW

IF

Alarms Subunit

Power Supply

Tx Bus LO Bus Rx Bus UHF Synt

Data Bus

Rx L.O. Modulated Subcarrier FSK Mod 10 MHz

Rx

Figure 6 Outdoor Part Diagram

The AM/AM compensation takes place by varying the gain of the first stage of the amplifier on the basis of the information of the modulated signal envelope at intermediate frequency. The same envelope voltage is used to change the phase shift of the signal coming from the local oscillator in order to compensate the AM/PM distortion. In this way, the amplifier stage with linearization function implemented is able to transmit high power levels while keeping power consumption low.

The receiver can be roughly divided into two parts: I Front-end with IF preamplifier I IF amplifier with AGC. The front-end carries out the lownoise preamplification and subharmonic image rejection conversion. After IF preamplification and filtering, an IF amplifier with selective detecting circuit is present, for an accurate measurement of the received field, with Automatic Gain Control function. Thanks to the RF automatic variable attenuation and the AGC,

the system is provided with a very large input dynamics, thus allowing short hops without the need for external attenuators. The local oscillator group, as shown in Fig. 6, consists of two independent VCOs locked in phase and frequency to a common UHF synthesizer. The multiloop type architecture chosen for the UHF synthesizer gives the system low microphonicity and low phase noise, particulartly suited for multilevel modulation formats. Thanks to the adopted solution the system is provided with great flexibility as far frequency setting is concerned.

Service facilities and TMN

The SDH signal contains a substantial amount of standardized overhead bytes for operation, maintenance, communication and performance monitoring functions. There are two main types of overhead functions associated with Synchronous Digital Hierarchy: Path OverHead (POH) and Section OverHead (SOH). The Section OverHead capacity is added to an AU-4 (or on an AU-3/ STM-RR mapping for SubSTM-1) to create an STM-1 frame. The information content, representing section performance monitoring and other maintenance and operation functions, can be added or modified without disassembling the STM-1, as appropriate, depending on the different configurations which the Network Elements can assume (e.g. intermediate regenerator monitoring, protection switching control, etc.). The SOH bytes are divided into two separate areas: rows 1 to 3 (27 bytes) are accessed and processed within the Regenerator Section (RS) and are defined Regenerator Section OverHead (RSOH), while the 45 bytes included in rows 5 to 9 of the SOH pattern are called Multiplex Section OverHead (MSOH) bytes and are available for equipment terminating a Multiplex Section (MS). Access to rows 5-9 is reserved for Multiplex Section Termination (MST) points which, since an MST is also a Regenerator Section Termination (RST), will normally access also rows 1-3. Within a network based on the Synchronous Digital Hierarchy, radio-relay systems may be considered either to form a multiplex section or a regenerator section. In the former case the entire Section OverHead (SOH) within the STM-1 signal is accessible for radio system overhead functions, whilst in the

latter case only rows 1 to 3 of the SOH are accessed, the remainder being reserved for the relevant multiplex section. In both cases, it is important that radio systems both carry and use the appropriate SOH functions in accordance with ITU-T Recommendation G.708/G.709. The functions of the various bytes in SOH are summarized in Tables 1 and 2 (according to ETSI/ TM4, ITU-T/G.708-Study Group 13 and ITU-R Study Group 9), based on the present proposal for the allocation of 6 media-specific
1

bytes: see rows 2 and 3 (S22, S23, S25, S32, S33 and S35) of the RSOH (Regenerator Section OverHead) area. The SOH includes, for example, bytes for error monitoring (B1 and B2), order-wire (E1 and E2), DCC channels, user channel (F1), media-specific bytes and national use bytes. When radio systems are considered to form multiplex sections, these SOH bytes could be used for the appropriate radio control and supervisory function.
9

A1 B1

A1

A1

A2 E1 D2

A2

A2

C1 F1 D3 bytes for mediaspecific use (6) bytes reserved for national use (6) bytes reserved for future international standardization (26)

RSOH D1 AU POINTERS B2 D4 MSOH D7 D10 9 S1 Z1 Z1 B2 B2 K1 D5 D8 D11 Z2 Z2 Z2 K2 D6 D9 D12 E2

S22 and S23 bytes

media bytes used as internal communication channels for ATPC/FASTBER and SCS for omnibus/express voice channels user byte available media byte also when 2 Mbit/s wayside is present available media bytes used within 2 Mbit/s wayside application available bytes for the customer or used within 2 Mbit/s wayside temporary use (for instance 2 Mbit/s) internal use for TMN

E1 and E2 bytes F1 byte S32 byte S25, S33 and S35 bytes bytes for national use bytes for future standardization D1-D3 (DCCR) D4-D12 (DCCM) multibytes
Table 1 SOH Bytes Management

The B and E bytes are respectively used to monitor errors (parity check) and to provide order-wire facilities over individual radio hops. The D1 to D3 (DCCR) and D4 to D12 (DCCM) bytes form a Data Communications Channel, accessible at each multiplex section, but not available for exclusive use by specific transmission systems. As a matter of fact DCCs bytes are used as Embedded Control Channels (ECCs) which are the logical extension into the SOH environment of the TMN Q interfaces. When radio systems are considered to form Regenerator Sections, only SOH bytes in rows 1 to 3 should be accessed, including the D1 to D3 bytes used as ECCs. Both ETSI/TM4 and ITU-R SG 9 (in agreement with ITU-T) foresee the use of all the bytes reserved for future allocation, together with unused media specific bytes and national-use bytes, to transmit wayside traffic up to 2 Mbit/s. These bytes can be accessed also at regenerators provided that a special procedure is taken the order not to corrupt B2 parity byte. Waiting for the final ITU-T/ITU-R/ ETSI decision on the subject, Siemens has chosen a programmable approach for the SOH access, together with the integration of both multiplex and radio terminal functions. Two bytes accessible at each elementary regenerator section and allocated into two of the bytes reserved for media-specific use are employed by the radio system (EARLY WARNING switching criteria, supervisory channel, etc.).

Regarding the possibility to make provisional use of all other SOH bytes (currently identified for future international standardization) for wayside traffic etc., it was agreed by ITU-T that these bytes are not allocated for media-specific use. In the meantime they should be used for temporary applications as per ITU-T SG 13 specific standardization. In order to reduce hardware and utilization complexity, Siemens approach allows a direct access to some SOH bytes in the

modemodulator and tributary, thus avoiding the need for additional cards. In particular DCCR (192 kbit/s) S22, S32 are directly inserted/extracted into/from the modemodulator for internal use. The access to the following SOH channels is allowed by the SOH card:

Byte
ROWS 1-3 ROWS 4-9

Names and Functions (A1 A2); frame alignment bytes B1; parity byte for elementary regenerator section BER monitoring B2; parity byte for multiplex section BER monitoring C1; STM-1 identifier into a higher STM-N level (D1-D3, D4-D12); Data Communication Channels (DCC: DCCM + DCCR) E1; regenerator section order-wire E2; multiplex section order-wire F1; user channel for temporary data/ voice channel connections for special maintenance H; pointer row K1, K2; automatic protection switching signalling (multiplex section) Z1, Z2, spare bytes not yet defined S22, S23, S25, S32, S33, S35; bytes reserved for media specific use Bytes reserved for national use Unallocated bytes

6 1

1 3

1 1

1 -

9 2

6 -

4 4 Total 27

2 22 54

Table 2 Section OverHead Bytes

I F1 (64 kbit/s) I DCCM (576 kbit/s) I Other free bytes of MSOH and RSOH (Nx64 kbit/s or 2 Mbit/s wayside). The EOW card makes available an Engineering Order-Wire channel at 64 kbit/s, inserted into the E1 or E2 byte. An additional system facility is the protection of SOH bytes: in fact an integrated switchover function allows their protection in the 1+1 configuration.

Synchronization Options The requirements stated by the latest ITU-T Recommendation (G.81s) about SDH system synchronization capability are fulfilled inserting the Master Oscillator unit in the terminal stations. The main function performed by the above mentioned unit is the extraction of synchronism from the incoming tributary signal and its distribution inside the equipment. Among synchronization options implemented in this unit, the possibility of accepting

a 2048 kHz clock signal from an external source is also assured. In order to prevent the consequences of catastrophic events, when all the synchronism sources are lost, the Master Oscillator unit furthermore provides the so-called Holdover Mode, namely the capability of distributing the last synchronism stored in a memory with a frequency stability of + 4.6 ppm. Priority among the above mentioned sources may be preset.

Presentation of SRA 1/1S at Telecom '95, Geneva

Mechanical Structure

The mechanical arrangement of the indoor part of the system is in agreement with the standards defined by ETSI (ETS 300 119 3,4 for rack and subrack respectively). The plug-in units are mounted using subracks housed in a 2200 (H) x 600 (W) x 300 (D) mm rack. For the adopted solution, with only front access, particular attention has been paid to shield the plug-in units and the subrack, thus ensuring that the requirements regarding EMC and EMI are satisfied (CE Mark).

Both wall mounting and floor mounting in the center of the room (for in-line and back-to-back configurations) are available as installation solutions. Connectorized inter-rack facilities together with serial alarm connections (for TMN purposes) also characterize the system. In the subrack layout, shown in the photograph herebelow, it is possible to see the modular architecture of the system, accomplished through the use of compact, slide-in cards of easy insertion.

In the photograph on the cover page it is possible to notice the outdoor pole mounting of the transceiver in single configuration, showing how the use of high operating frequencies yelds benefits regarding the installation, for the reduced dimensions of the antenna and the relevant infrastructures.

Indoor Unit Subrack

Equipment management

Every SDH product in Siemens catalogue uses the same approach to Telecommunication Management Network (TMN) from the point of view of hardware and software architecture, in order to manage the various network elements by a common management system. This common platform, as shown in Fig. 7, is based upon the presence of a controller unit (SEMF) with the task of receiving and transmitting from/to the controlled units all the information required for system management. An internal bus (S-Bus) allows the communication between the controller and the units equipping the system with a master-slave structure; during normal operation the controller (master) cyclically polls the units (slaves) that can be enabled to send spontaneous messages. The information stored and processed by the controller (configuration, events, performance monitoring ...) are made available externally in different ways in order to allow the radio to be supervised by a traditional system or to be considered as a Network Element of a true Telecommunication Management Network. An alarm unit, after processing the alarm roots received from the controller, makes them available on a BB subrack connector as ground contacts. In such a way it is possible for a traditional supervisory system like DAS 64 of Siemens to collect alarms, analogue measures (Tx power, Rx received field), B1, B2 parity bit violations for performance monitoring purposes. Obviously, all the units and blocks that compose the radio system provide visual indication by LEDs of their operating conditions.

Synchronous radio local control Besides the alarm facilities outlined above, all Siemens synchronous radio system have a powerful local control managed by a PC as craft terminal. An F interface (RS232C), physically located in the front of the alarm unit, provides a serial data link for the connection to the craft terminal. The control program runs in a MS-DOS environment and provides a powerful, but easy-to-use operator interface to verify and test the behaviour of the radio equipment and operate on it. No specific computer or programming knowledge is necessary as the non- experienced user is guided into the program flow chart and an on-line help facility is always available all-throughout the various steps.

The main functions performed by the local craft-terminal are: 1. Local system configuration and parameters setting as system type definition Network Element address ATPC activation/deactivation synchronisation source definition and priorities selection 2. Fault management and alarm reporting to integrate the information of LEDs 3. System parameter and analog monitoring where all alarm roots are shown as well as all system parameters (Tx output power, Local Oscillator characteristics, Rx received level, etc.) 4. Performance management where ITU-T Rec. G.826 parameters can be managed.

Outdoor and Integrated Antenna

Synchronous radio management The communication between the radio (Network Element) and its manager (Element Manager) is assured by the MCF unit connected to the controller by the V-interface. The application layer messages are sent to and received from the MCF unit and then routed by means of the SDH Embedded Communication Channels (DCCs) or the Q interface towards the Element Manager.

All synchronous systems in Siemens catalogue, either radio, optical fibre or multiplexers (SR*, SL and SMA) have a common platform as Element Manager Operating System (EMOS) to provide ITU-T Rec. M.3010 functions applied to the transport network. Working under a UNIX environment with X-Windows graphic interface and based upon OSF/Motif, it is an open system that runs independently from the hardware platform.

Exaustive information of EM-OS features and characteristics is available under a separate product description.

Slave

Slave

Slave

Slave

SDH Radio System

S-Bus

parallel alarms

Alarm Unit

Controller Unit (SEMF)

V interface

MCF Q interface

towards DCC R/ DCCM

Local PC towards Element Manager

Figure 7 Equipment Management Architecture

Technical data

Transceiver
Traffic capacity Frequency band Co-polar RF channel spacing on two separate antennas (parallel bearers) Sub-STM-1 13/15/18/23 GHz 27.5/28 MHz for Normal Density 14 MHz for High Density STM-1 18/23 GHz 55/56 MHz

Configurations

1+1/2+0 polarization diversity 1 +1 Hot Stand-by 4+0/N+1 (N3) frequency diversity (only for STM-1)

Tunability range Frequency stability Power output (*) 13 GHz 15 GHz 18GHz 23 GHz

500 MHz 20 ppm

+22.5 dBm +21.5 dBm +20 dBm +17 dBm

Noise Figure (*) 13 GHz 15 GHz 18GHz 23 GHz 5 dB 5.5 dB 6 dB 6 dB

BER= 10-3 threshold (*) 13 GHz 15 GHz 18 GHz 23 GHz -80.5 dBm -80 dBm -79.5 dBm -79.5 dBm

-75 dBm -75 dBm

(*) All values are measured at points C, C (antenna port)

Mo-demodulator
Mo-demodulation 16 Block Coded Modulation with associated Viterbi decoding 32 TCM-4D with associated Viterbi decoding 3.75 (16 BCM with 15/16 redundancy) 4.5 (32 TCM) with 0,5 redundancy)

Information bit/symbol

Digital Service and Auxiliary Capacities From EOW card From modem 2x64 kbit/s (E1, E2) 192 kbit/s (DCCR) (to MCF card) 2x64 kbit/s (S22 , S32) (for system use) 576 kbit/s (DCCM) (to MCF card) Nx64 kbit/s or 2 Mbit/s wayside + 1x64 kbit/s (F1)

From Line SOH card (standard programming)

Baseband Interfaces
1xSTM-1 (155.52 Mbit/s -NNI) fully and partially filled (VC-3) for Sub-STM-1 applications Optical Electrical 140 Mbit/s 34 Mbit/s 21x2 Mbit/s ITU-T Rec. G.957 S-1.1/L-1.1 ITU-T Rec. G.703 ITU-T Rec. G.703 ITU-T Rec. G.703 ITU-T Rec. G.703

Power Supply
Nominal voltage Tolerance -48 VDC -60 VDC 20%

Power Consumption (from battery)

1+1 fully equipped (IDU+ODU) 150 W

Environmental Operating Conditions

The equipment meets the environmental conditions standardized in prETS 300 019-1-3 and prETS 300 019-1-4 (for weather protected and outdoor environmental classes respectively). Indoor equipment: Class 3.1e Normal Conditions Exceptional operating conditions -5 to 45 C Outdoor equipment: Improved Class 4.1 Temperature range Relative humidity Heater option

5 to 40C

-33 to +50C 100%

EMC/EMI
The equipment conforms to the ETSI emerging standard now under study by STC RES9. Reference is made to the draft recommendation prETS 300 385 EMC Standard for Digital Fixed Radio Links and Ancillary Equipment with data rates at around 2 Mbit/s and above.

Italtel spa A Stet and Siemens Company

International sales offices 20093 Cologno Monzese (MI) - Italy Viale Europa, 46 Fax (++39.2) 2536135

Figures and data contained in this document are for reference only and must be specifically confirmed in writing, before they become applicable to any particular order or contract. The company reserves the right to make alteration or amendments to the detailed specification at its discretion.

Released by Italtel Communications Department - N6.3.1735/1500