LINK BUDGET

PLANNING
AND INITIAL
CELL ESTIMATES
 WHY LINK BUDGET
ANALYSIS?
• Link budget analysis provides
– Coverage design thresholds
– EIRP needed to balance the path
– Maximum allowable pathloss
• It is important that the uplink and downlink paths be balanced,
otherwise not enough signal will survive the transmission
process to achieve the required signal to noise ratio(SNR) or
the bit-error-rate(BER).
• Path imbalance results from the facts that the gains and losses
in the uplink and downlink paths are not the same.
• The calculations have to be done separately on the uplink and
the downlink.
 THE RF PATH

PBS

Path Loss
Downlink
MS
Sensitivity
• Noise
• Fading
• Interference
PMS

Path Loss
BS Uplink
Sensitivity
 THE RF PATH
INPUTS
• Base station and Mobile receiver Sensitivity Parameters
– Minimum acceptable Signal to Noise ratio
– Environmental / Thermal Noise
– Receiver Noise figure
• Antenna gain at the base station and mobile station.
• Hardware Losses (Cable , Connectors, Combiners, Duplexers
etc)
• Target Coverage reliabilty.
• Fade margins.

OUTPUTS
• Base station ERP
• Maximum allowable pathloss
• Cell size estimates
 GAINS AND LOSSES
Gains Losses
• Base station Antenna gain • Hardware losses
• Mobile antenna gain – Combiner
• Diversity gains – Cables
– Connectors
– Duplexer
• Air Interface
– Fade Margin
– Penetration Losses
• In-car
• In-building
• Body Loss
 ANTENNA GAINS
Mobile Station Antenna
• Portable mobile phones antenna have typically gain of 0 to 1 dBd.
• Car mounted antenna has a typical gain of 1 to 3 dBd.

Base Station Antenna

• Omni directional antenna typically have a gain of 0-9dBd.
• Directional antenna typically have a gain of 9 to 14 dBd.
 DIVERSITY GAIN
• Diversity is used on the uplink to overcome deep fades due to
multipath by combining multiple uncorrelated signals.
• Diversity antenna systems are used mostly at the BTS on the
uplink.
• Diversity antenna system can be realised by physically
separating two receive antenna in space or by using
polarization diversity.
• Diversity gain should be considered in Link Budget Analysis
whenever it is used.
• Typically a gain of 3dB is considered whenever diversity is
used in the Uplink calculation.
CABLES

Jumper cable

Main cable

Radio Equipment
 CABLE LOSS
• Two types of cables are used, maincable and jumper cable.
• Cable losses are given in per 100feet.
• Jumper cable have more loss than main cable.
• Cable loss is also dependant on frequency

CABLE SIZE RECOMMENDED LOSS/100 Feet

TYPE USE 900MHZ 1800MHZ
LDF4-50 1/2 inch Heliax Foam Jumper cable 2.160dB
LDF5-50 7/8 inch Heliax Foam Main cable < 55M 1.21dB 1.97dB
LDF7-50 1 5/8 inch Heliax Foam Main cable < 90m 0.75dB 1.25dB
 CONNECTOR & COMBINER
LOSS
Connector Loss
• Connectors used to connect RF components have a typical
loss of 0.1dB each.

Combiner Loss
• A combiner is a device that enables several transmitters of
different frequencies to transmit from the same antenna.
• Two types of combiners are available.
• Hybrid combiners combine two inputs to one output.
• Hybrid combiners have a typical insertion loss of 3dB.
• Cavity combiners combine more input to one output ( typically
5 inputs)
• Cavity combiners have around 3dB loss.
• Cavity combiners cannot be used in cells where synthesizer
frequency hopping is used.
DUPLEXER
• A duplexer enables simulteneous transmission and reception
of signals on the same antenna .
• It provides isolation between the transmitted and received
signal.
• Duplexers typically have a insertion loss of 0.5 to 1 dB

Tx/ Rx

Duplexor

Tx Rx

Radio
Unit
BODY LOSS
• For all receiving environments a loss associated with the effect
of users body on propagation has to be used I.e proximity of
the user with the mobile.
• This effect is in the form of few dB loss in both the uplink and
downlink directions.
• Body loss is typically taken as 2 dB .
PENETRATION LOSSES
• Penetration losses depend on the location of the subscriber
with respect to the site.
• Generally 3 types of scenerios are taken into consideration viz.
In-building, In-car and on street.
• Body loss is also a type of penetration loss .

Penetration Loss Loss

In-Building Penetration (dB) 15
In-car Penetration (dB) 3-10
Body Loss (dB) 2-5
 Fade Margin Calculation
Cell Area Probability
• Cell area probability (CAP ) is the percentage of the cell area
that has signal strength greater than the receiver sensitivity.
• CAP is dependent on the radio environment, primarily the
standard deviation of the log normal faded signal () and the
propagation loss constant (n)
• The CAP is calculated using the following equaion

2ab+1 ab+1
PCA=½ ( 1+ erf (a) + exp ( )(1 - erf( b )))
b2

Where:
PCA Cell area probability

a MFADE

 Fade Margin Calculation
Cell Area Probability

10nLog10(e)
B 2

MFADE Fade margin applied

 Standard deviation of received signal
n Propagation constant
 Fade Margin Calculation
Outdoor Fade Margin
• The outdoor fade margin depends on the standard deviation
of the lognormal shadowing and the propagation constant
• The propagation constant depends on the environment and
the frequency.
• For urban areas propagation constant varies from 2.7 to 5 ,
with a typical value of 5 for both 850 Mhz and 1900 Mhz.
• Standard deviation also varies on environment and
frequency , and may vary slightly with frequency.
• The urban areas have higher standard deviation than rural
areas. Typical value ranges from 5-12dB with a typical value
of 8dB
• Outdoor fade margin can be calculated using a plot of the
CAP equation.
• The next figure shows the CAP plot for a propagation
constant of 3.5 and standard deviation of 5, 8 and 12.
• From the figure fade margin to be applied to the Link Budget
 Fade Margin Calculation
Outdoor Fade Margin
RECEIVER SENSITIVITY
• This figure is provided by the equipment vendor.
• Receiver sensitivity is the ability of the receiver to receive
signals in the sense that any signal below the sensitivity is
considered as noise and is not usable.
• Receiver sensitivity is given by
S = Antenna Noise(dBm) + Receiver Noise Figure(dB) +
C/N(dB)
S = the receivers sensitivity
C/N = Carrier to noise ration required in the presence to
achieve a specified BER.
Antenna Noise(dBm) = 10log(kTB)
Where k = Botlzmann constant 1.38 X 10-20 milli Joules /
Kelvin
T = Room temperature in degrees kelvin
B = Bandwidth in Hz
MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE PATH LOSS( MAPL) ON
UPLINK
UPLINK
MS Antenna gain (Gm )

Body Loss (Lbody )

In-building / Car penetration Loss (LBldg )

Fade Margin (Mfade )

Gain of receive antenna (GRA )

Diversity gain (GD )

Cable,Connector and
Combiner losses (LCCC

MAPLUP = Pm + Gm - LBody - LBldg - Mfade + GRA +

GD - LCCC + RReceiver Sensitivity
 IN A NUTSHELL
DOWNLINK UPLINK
• Transmitter power • Mobile Transmit power
• Combiner loss • Mobile antenna gain
• Cable loss(includes • Body Loss
jumper and connector • Fade Margin
loss) • Receive antenna gain
• Transmit Antenna gain • Cable loss(includes
• Fade margin jumper and connector
• Body loss loss)
• Mobile antenna gain • BTS receiver sensitivity
• Mobile receiver
sensitivity
LINK BUDGET SHEET
Linkbudget For General Purpose

Downlink (BTS to MS) Uplink (MS to BTS)

BTS Tx power 43 dBm MS Tx power 33 dBm
Combining loss 3 dB MS antenna gain 0 dBi
Feeder loss 2 dB Total EIRP 33 dBm
BTS antenna gain 17 dBi
Total EIRP 55 dBm BTS antenna gain 17 dBi
Feeder loss 2 dB

MS Rx Sensitivity -102 dBm Diversity gain 3 dB

MS antenna gain 0 dBi BTS Rx Sensitivity -107.00 dBm

Fading margin 6 dB Fading margin 6 dB

Penetration Loss 0 dB Penetration Loss 0 dB
Antenna/body loss 2 dB Antenna/body loss 2 dB

Max. allowed pathloss 149.00 dB Max. allowed pathloss 150.00 dB

Link balance
(downlink - uplink) -1.00 dB
END