Control of The Over-The-Air measurements system

Abstract. Mobile technology is constantly on the move, and it is constantly under development as more efficient and sophisticated telecommunication solutions are needed. As the technology evolves the measurement systems needs to evolve as well. The mobile technology is on the brink of upheaval as we are moving from 4th Generation of wireless communication systems (4G) to 5th Generation of wireless communication systems (5G). The new mobile technology 5G brings new higher frequency bands and new technologies such as massive multiple-input multiple-output and beamforming (BF). In 5G, over-the-air (OTA) measurements are more important because it is virtually impossible to obtain reliable measurement results of BF performance. As the number of antenna elements increases and the antenna spacing decreases, it is very difficult to connect each antenna element to the measuring device with a cable. In this thesis we made tool to control a whole OTA measurement system. The tool is Python code that is run from the Windows desktop with access to the OTA measurement system. The Python code controls which antennas are taken into measurement, connects those to spectrum analyser, configures spectrum analyser and vector signal analyser and measures the power level for the desired beam set. Once the measurement results are collected, it draws a heatmap that visualizes the performance of the BF. The measurements were done by using different number of transmitted beams on the same radio unit. Each configuration was measured multiple times to ensure the stability and reliability of the system. The number of transmitted beams in measurement were 2, 4 and 6. From the plotted heatmaps it was concluded that in all measurements all synchronization signal block (SSB) beams were visible and the directions of the SSB beams were as expected. However, in all measurements the power of SSB beam 1 was slightly lower than the other SSB beams which refers to minor issue in beamforming. As expected, when the number of transmitted beams were 2, the half-power bandwidth (HPBW) was wider and the directivity lower than with 4 or 6 transmitted beams. In measurement results with 2 beams, we had unexpected power drop in the location of antenna 2 in the second SSB beam. With 4 or 6 transmitted beams we measured approximately same HPBW and directivity. The radiation patterns were also as expected. The performance with 6 beams were better in terms of coverage. With 6 transmitted beams we observed more closely mapped beams which ensures that the user equipment can seamlessly move from beam to another without drop in the signal-to-noise ratio. With 6 beams we also observed slightly wider sector coverage than with 4 transmitted beams. Ilmarajapinta mittausten ohjaus. Tiivistelmä. Mobiiliteknologia on jatkuvasti liikkeellä ja sitä kehitetään jatkuvasti, kun tarvitaan entistä tehokkaampia ja kehittyneempiä tietoliikenneratkaisuja. Tekniikan kehittyessä myös mittausjärjestelmiä on kehitettävä. Mobiiliteknologia on mullistuksen partaalla, kun olemme siirtymässä 4. sukupolven langattomista viestintäjärjestelmistä (4G) 5. sukupolven langattomiin viestintäjärjestelmiin (5G). Uusi mobiiliteknologia 5G tuo uusia korkeampia taajuuskaistoja ja uusia teknologioita, kuten massiivinen moniantennitekniikka ja keilanmuodostus (BF). 5G:ssä ilmarajapinta (OTA) -mittaukset ovat tärkeämpiä, koska pelkästään kaapeleilla on käytännössä mahdotonta saada luotettavia mittaus tuloksia BF-suorituskyvystä. Kun antennielementtien määrä kasvaa ja niiden väliset etäisyydet pienenevät, on hyvin vaikeaa liittää jokainen antennielementti mittauslaitteeseen. Tässä opinnäytetyössä teimme työkalun koko OTA-mittausjärjestelmän ohjaamiseen. Työkalu on Python-koodi, joka ajetaan Windowsin työpöydältä, jolla on pääsy OTA-mittausjärjestelmään. Python-koodilla ohjataan mitkä antennit otetaan mittaukseen, kytkee ne spektrianalysaattoriin, konfiguroi spektrianalysaattorin ja vektorisignaalianalysaattorin sekä mittaa tehotason halutulle keilaryhmälle. Kun mittaustulokset on kerätty, se piirtää lämpökartan, joka visualisoi BF:n suorituskyvyn. Mittaukset tehtiin lähettämällä eri määrä keiloja eri mittauksessa samalla radioyksiköllä. Jokainen säteilykuvio mitattiin useita kertoja järjestelmän vakauden ja luotettavuuden varmistamiseksi. Lähetettyjen keilojen lukumäärät olivat kaksi, neljä ja kuusi. Piirretyistä lämpökartoista pääteltiin, että kaikissa mittauksissa kaikki synkronointisignaalilohkon (SSB) keilat olivat näkyvissä ja SSB-keilojen suunnat olivat kuten odotettu. Kuitenkin kaikissa mittauksissa ensimmäisen SSB-keilan teho oli hieman pienempi kuin muiden SSB-keilojen, mikä viittaa lievään vikaan keilanmuodostuksessa. Kuten odotettiin, kahdella lähetetyllä SSB-keilalla puolen tehon kaistanleveys (HPBW) oli leveämpi ja suuntaavuus pienempi kuin neljällä ja kuudella lähetetyllä SSB-keilalla. Kun lähetettiin vain kaksi SSB-keilaa, havaittiin odottamaton tehon putoaminen toisen antennin kohdalla toisen SSB-keilan mittauksessa. Neljällä ja kuudella lähetetyillä SSB-keiloilla oli suunnilleen sama HPBW ja suuntaavuus. Molempien tapauksien säteilykuvio oli odotusten mukainen. Kuudella lähetetyllä keilalla suorituskyky oli parempi kattavuuden suhteen. Keilat olivat myös mittauksessa tiiviimmin yhdessä, mikä varmistaa, että käyttäjä voi siirtyä saumattomasti keilasta toiseen ilman signaali-kohinasuhteen putoamista. Kuudella lähetetyllä keilalla myös sektoripeitto oli hieman laajempi kuin neljällä lähetetyllä keilalla

3G migration in Pakistan

The telecommunication industry in Pakistan has come a long way since the country\u27s independence in 1947. The initial era could be fairly termed as the PTCL (Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited) monopoly, for it was the sole provider of all telecommunication services across the country. It was not until four decades later that the region embarked into the new world of wireless communication, hence ending the decades old PTCL monopoly. By the end of the late 1990\u27s, government support and international investment in the region opened new doors to innovation and better quality, low cost, healthy competition. Wireless licenses for the private sector in the telecommunication industry triggered a promising chain of events that resulted in a drastic change in the telecommunication infrastructure and service profile. The newly introduced wireless (GSM) technology received enormous support from all stakeholders (consumers, regulatory body, and market) and caused a vital boost in Pakistan\u27s economy. Numerous tangential elements had triggered this vital move in the history of telecommunications in Pakistan. Entrepreneurs intended to test the idea of global joint ventures in the East and hence the idea of international business became a reality. The technology had proven to be a great success in the West, while Pakistan\u27s telecom consumer had lived under the shadow of PTCL dominance for decades and needed more flexibility. At last the world was moving from wired to wireless! Analysts termed this move as the beginning of a new era. The investors, telecommunication businesses, and Pakistani treasury prospered. It was a win-win situation for all involved. The learning curve was steep for both operators and consumers but certainly improved over time. In essence, the principle of deploying the right technology in the right market at the right time led to this remarkable success. The industry today stands on the brink of a similar crossroads via transition from second generation to something beyond. With the partial success of 3G in Europe and the USA, the government has announced the release of three 3G licenses by mid 2009. This decision is not yet fully supported by all but still initiated parallel efforts by the operators and the vendors to integrate this next move into their existing infrastructure

TD-SCDMA Relay Networks

PhDWhen this research was started, TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) was still in the research/ development phase, but now, at the time of writing this thesis, it is in commercial use in 10 large cities in China including Beijing and Shang Hai. In all of these cities HSDPA is enabled. The roll-out of the commercial deployment is progressing fast with installations in another 28 cities being underway now. However, during the pre-commercial TD-SCDM trail in China, which started from year 2006, some interference problems have been noticed especially in the network planning and initialization phases. Interference is always an issue in any network and the goal of the work reported in this thesis is to improve network coverage and capacity in the presence of interference. Based on an analysis of TD-SCDMA issues and how network interference arises, this thesis proposes two enhancements to the network in addition to the standard N-frequency technique. These are (i) the introduction of the concentric circle cell concept and (ii) the addition of a relay network that makes use of other users at the cell boundary. This overall approach not only optimizes the resilience to interference but increases the network coverage without adding more Node Bs. Based on the cell planning parameters from the research, TD-SCDMA HSDPA services in dense urban area and non-HSDPA services in rural areas were simulated to investigate the network performance impact after introducing the relay network into a TD-SCDMA network. The results for HSDPA applications show significant improvement in the TDSCDMA relay network both for network capacity and network interference aspects compared to standard TD-SCDMA networks. The results for non- HSDPA service show that although the network capacity has not changed after adding in the relay network (due to the code limitation in TD-SCDMA), the TD-SCDMA relay network has better interference performance and greater coverage

Soft handover issues in radio resource management for 3G WCDMA networks

PhDMobile terminals allow users to access services while on the move. This unique feature has driven the rapid growth in the mobile network industry, changing it from a new technology into a massive industry within less than two decades. Handover is the essential functionality for dealing with the mobility of the mobile users. Compared with the conventional hard handover employed in the GSM mobile networks, the soft handover used in IS-95 and being proposed for 3G has better performance on both link and system level. Previous work on soft handover has led to several algorithms being proposed and extensive research has been conducted on the performance analysis and parameters optimisation of these algorithms. Most of the previous analysis focused on the uplink direction. However, in future mobile networks, the downlink is more likely to be the bottleneck of the system capacity because of the asymmetric nature of new services, such as Internet traffic. In this thesis, an in-depth study of the soft handover effects on the downlink direction of WCDMA networks is carried out, leading to a new method of optimising soft handover for maximising the downlink capacity and a new power control approach

Final report on the evaluation of RRM/CRRM algorithms

Deliverable public del projecte EVERESTThis deliverable provides a definition and a complete evaluation of the RRM/CRRM algorithms selected in D11 and D15, and evolved and refined on an iterative process. The evaluation will be carried out by means of simulations using the simulators provided at D07, and D14.Preprin

Study of strategies of selection of the transmission format for the uplink in systems WCDMA

UMTS was born with the objective to improve on the limitations of the second generation mobile, being able to offer multimedia services. It was created to provide multimedia service that requires higher bit rates. UMTS appears because there were new burst‟s services. The physical layer of UMTS is based on the acces technique by WCDMA broadband code division. The WCDMA access networks provide an inherent flexibility in the third generation mobile multimedia services. The radio interface capacity optimization is done with algorithms of Radio Resources, which consider the levels of interference in the system. These algorithms are the congestion control, the admission control, the power control, the suitable transport format management and handover management. In order to be able to understand the Radio Resources Management in UMTS this project has been structured so that in the first chapter it is explained briefly what UMTS is, next, in the second chapter there is an introduction to the WCDMA access technique. In chapter 3 we were centered in the Radio Resources Management, having explained most precise. The next chapter shows the cell coverage study, and the new algorithm implemented in this project. In chapter 5, the system simulator used is explained. And before the conclusions, are the results chapter, explaining the difference of doing the new algorithm or not. Basically, this work consists on the study of the Radio Resources Management and the simulations results with the objective to evaluate the cell coverage study realized in chapter 3. In order to make this task, it had not to consider no type of environmental considerations, because this project is an theoretical work. A possible environmental study in this subject could be given, if the possible electromagnetic waves about the antennas of mobile telephony or the batteries of the terminals, the materials used in the manufacture, etc. will be.The proposed PFC is in the framework of Radio Resources Management and Quality of Service (QoS) for CDMA based radio access networks (such as UMTS). One of the fundamental facts of these systems is to provide different types of multimedia services in order to guarantee certain quality requirements in the connections. The Radio Resources Management strategies (RRM) are in charge of controlling the different radio network parameters so guaranteeing the quality required to the connections and making a use efficient of the resources available. For the case of the uplink, it is very important to determine the format of transmission of the users, i.e., the rate of transmission that the user will have at every moment. The main objective of this PFC is to propose and to evaluate different strategies of user transmision format allocation in order to optimize the trade-off between the delay and the level of interferences that is added to the system. A simulator programed in C is available. This simulator models a real WCDMA system.With this simulator is possible to analyze the power condition, which is important for our study in this project. The study of this algorithm demonstrates how the user bit rate affects in the cell. By controlling the maximum power of each user, we can know if there are cell coverage problems. The analyses show the differences of having droppings or not with the new algorithm and the delay variation