Three Simple Antenna Tests

Mar 1, 2000 12:00 PM, By Doug Moore & Jason W. Gallo Add these rests to your I&M schedule for consistent coverage. The increasing maturity and reliability of base stations has focused attention on other components of the cell site as potential sources of problems. In particular, the antenna and associated cabling can represent a source of sudden failure or gradual degradation. In some ways, degradation can be a more serious problem than sudden failure. A sudden failure is highlighted quickly by base-station alarms and results in a technician traveling to the relevant site to find and fix the fault. However, although a degradation of performance may take weeks or months to initiate base-station alarms, the subscriber will feel its effects far sooner in the form of poor voice quality and dropped calls. Three basic tests can be performed with the basic functionality of a RF source and a spectrum analyzer. These tests, when performed as part of a base-station installation and a pro-active maintenance schedule, will greatly improve your ability to spot potential problems before the subscriber does. The Tests Voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) and its related value, return loss, are both good indicators of an antenna's health and its associated cabling. They are both directly related to the amount of transmitted power reflected back from the antenna system, and not passed over the air interface to the subscriber. (See Figure 1.) The two measures are both related to the magnitude of the reflection coefficient ( ) in the following manner: VSWR = (1 + )/(1 - ) and return loss = 20log( ) As the match of a system improves, return loss increases and VSWR decreases. A wellmatched antenna system should exhibit a return loss of >20dB (VSWR 1:1.22), although 15dB (VSWR 1:1.43) is considered acceptable by some service providers. This test often is performed during the commissioning of the cell site, and the results stored. Exposure to the outside world leads to damage, or more often degradation of the cables. Causes of this degradation include deliberate vandalism, lightning strikes and the gradual ingress of moisture into the cable's dielectric. Although some BTS types have return-loss alarms, this slow performance degradation often is not detected by such alarms until the fault is causing significant power loss or pulse-shape distortion, which already is disrupting the cell's performance. Service providers therefore perform regular checks on the antenna system, comparing the results with those obtained at installation, and thereby getting early warning of any potential problem before customers are affected by it. The loss caused by cables associated with the antenna systems also can have a significant effect on a cell site's performance. For example, a 1dB decrease in transmitted power can

result in a 10% loss of coverage in a cell. This coverage loss will disrupt network planning, resulting in more dropped calls at the cell boundaries and increased traffic in adjacent cells as mobile stations hand off sooner than expected from the affected cell. As in the case of VSWR, service providers often record insertion loss of cables at installation and check them again at regular intervals to spot early signs of problems. A second use of insertion-loss measurements is to check the combiner operation. Combiners are responsible for bringing together the outputs of multiple transmitters into a single output. These combiners often exhibit a bandpass performance. (See Figure 2.) In this case, both the insertion loss and the position of the passband are of interest to a service provider, as some base stations allow tuning of this passband. Either an increase in insertion loss or a movement of the passbands with time will cause network problems. Fault Location This test complements the VSWR tests. If the VSWR test fails, this test can be used to locate thefault. This is particularly important if a long length of cable connects the transmitter to the antenna, or the antenna is situated on a tower. Locating the fault can save a technician valuable time, as some service providers have separate tower crews that fix faults above the ground. This test can be used to determine if the fault is on the tower or not, and may save the tower crew a wasted journey. Theory & Sources of Error All of these tests can be performed with a tracking generator, capable of sweeping the relevant cellular bands, a RF spectrum analyzer and some common passive components. The passive components you will need are a directional bridge and a resistive splitter. Test Method #1: The VSWR measurement setup is shown in Figure 3. This method makes a simple measurement of the power of the reflected signal. A directional coupler or bridge is used to separate the returned signal from the source. The RF generator provides a known level of RF signal either swept across a defined range or at a single point frequency, and the level of returned power is measured on the spectrum analyzer. The return loss (RL) is given by 10log(PRX/PTX). Conversion from return loss to VSWR is accomplished as follows: RL = 20log( ), and VSWR = (1 + )/(1 - ) = 10RL/20 VSWR = (1 + 10RL/20)/(1 - 10RL/20) There are a number of limitations and sources of error within this test setup. First, the lower limit of return loss that can be measured is limited by the directivity of the coupler or bridge, that is, the signal leakage from the transmitted signal to the received signal. A good bridge should be able to achieve 30dB isolation, and more expensive examples can

achieve >40dB. For most installation and maintenance (I&M) applications, isolation of 30dB is probably sufficient. Second, power-level accuracy of the spectrum analyzer is another source of error; typical accuracy of 1.5dB is found. This level of accuracy may be sufficient for measuring return loss in an I&M situation, where it's not so much the absolute values, but the significant change in the value over time that is of interest. Third, the insertion loss of any cables is a source of error; connecting cables can be accounted for by calibrating these losses before a measurement is taken. Loss in the cables being measured can be accounted for by knowing the cable type and entering an estimated loss based on the known length of the cable or directly measuring the cable loss. Test Method #2: The simplest of the three measurements, the insertion-loss-measurement method consists of transmitting a signal of known power down the cable and measuring it at the far end. This test is useful for testing the cable in and around the base station itself. It is probably less useful for antenna cabling, as it requires access to both ends of the cable. A significant source of error is a poor match at the source and detector of the measurement instrument. This poor match causes inaccuracy in the measurement due to power reflections. These power reflections depend on the match at the source and detector, and of the device under test (DUT) itself. Given the importance of source and detector match, it may be necessary to place pads at the measurement instrument's input and output. These pads can be accounted for during calibration of the measurement and can greatly improve the results' accuracy. Test Method #3: The cable-fault-location measurement uses the phase change of a signal with length to determine fault location. Consider a signal transmitted along a cable will incur a phase delay that is directly related to the cable length. The phase shift ( ) in degrees is given by the expression: = (360 x L)/ degrees Where represents the wavelength in the transmission line, which is given by: = (C x Vrel)/f [C = speed of light, Vrel = relative velocity] Hence = (360 x L x f)/(C x Vrel) Consider the phase shift on a signal transmitted along a cable with the phase of the reflected signal measured by a directional device, such as a coupler, at the input. If there is a fault on the cable, a transmitted signal will be reflected by the cable's fault. The

distance traveled by the reflected wave will be twice the length of the distance to the fault or termination (2 L). The phase shift is given by: = (360 x 2 x L x f)/(C x Vrel) If the frequency of this signal were increased linearly, the phase of the reflected signal also would increase linearly, but the amplitude would remain constant. With a scalar detector such as a spectrum analyzer on the directional device, it would not be possible to extract any phase information, and consequently it would not be possible to extract any distance-to-fault information either. However, if instead of using a directional device that separated the transmitted and reflected signals, a power combiner were used so that both signals were added together, it is possible to extract phase information using only a scalar detector such as a spectrum analyzer. (See Figure 4.) Using a resistive splitter, the transmitted and reflected signals are combined vectorally. The combined signal's amplitude is a function of both the amplitude and phase of both signals. (See Figure 5a.) As the frequency of the signal is swept, the phase relationship between the two signals will change, and a ripple waveform will be observed. (See Figure 5b.) Each cycle in the ripple waveform results from the phase of the combined waveform rotating through 360. By measuring the frequency increment (rhof) between successive amplitude peaks, it's possible to determine the distance to the fault. Consider rho = (360 x 2 L x f)/(C x Vrel) L = ( x C x Vrel)/(360 x 2 x f) For = 360, L = (C x Vrel)/(2 x f) If a cable has more than one fault, and hence multiple reflected signals, the resultant "ripple" waveform will be more complex, and the rhof is harder to distinguish. In this case, an FFT processor can be used to extract this information, and this FFT postprocessing allows a spectrum analyzer to measure distance to fault. The use of an FFT processor requires the spectrum analyzer to sample the frequency waveform at a number of discrete points. This sampling imposes limits on the frequency span used, the maximum length of the cable being measured and the resolution of the distance to fault measurement. For a given cable length, the frequency change required to complete one "ripple" cycle is: = (C x Vrel)/(2 x Lmax) From the Nyquist theorem, at least two samples must be taken per cycle. For a 512-point sweep, the greatest number of cycles is 256.

Fspan = 256 x f Fspan = (100 x C x Vrel)/Lmax After undergoing the FFT, the 512 points taken from the frequency domain are translated to 512 points in the time domain. These points however are distributed between -Lmax and +Lmax thus there are only 256 points between 0 and Lmax. The resolution in the time or distance domain is therefore Lmax/256 or more generally Lmax/(number of samples/2) In summary, Required frequency span = (((number of samples)/4) x C x Vrel)/Lmax Or maximum resolution = 2 x Lmax/(number of samples) This is ~40cm for a 100m cable with a 512 sample FFT Or maximum length = (((number of samples)/4) x C x Vrel)/ Fspan A number of sources of error exist in these calculations. Two of the most significant occur in Vrel and Lmax. Both of these values are required for estimation of the resolution calculations, so an error in either will affect resolution. The measured cable's insertion loss also is a limiting factor, as the cable will attenuate any reflected signal, reducing its effect on the source signal. The limitation is dependent upon the spectrum analyzer's power resolution, but a typical cable/analyzer combination should allow a cable of several hundred meters to be measured. This will cover most CDMA/TDMA cell sites. Advanced Warning These three tests are extremely simple to execute. Application of these tests over a period of pro-active maintenance can give you advanced warning of cell problems before they trigger base-station alarms or, worse, subscriber complaints. These tests contribute significantly to a service provider's ability to provide consistent high-quality service to its customers. Knowing the mathematical basis of these measurements and the common sources of error will give you a more intuitive feel for the effects of changing insertion loss and return loss on cell-site performance.
Gallo and Moore are Agilent Technologies RF Communications Group product managers.