Microwave Point-to-Point Transmission Impairment over Malaysia Sea Tidal at 7 GHz

Ahmad Firdaus Hakim Muhammad, Mahamod Ismail, J.S.Mandeep and A.T. Adediji Dept. of Electrical, Electronic & System Engineering Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi Selangor, Malaysia
Email: firdaushakim@yahoo.com, {mahamod, mandeep}@eng.ukm.my, kunleadediji2002@yahoo.co.uk

Abstract Cellular radio deployment involved Point-to-Point (P2P) microwave transmission and planning. Proper planning and design must take into consideration various impairments such as atmosphere, rain attenuation, terrain profile, signal blockage, and others. In this paper, we analyze received signal level performance for microwave link propagating over sea tidal. Data was collected over one day for P2P link with path length of 14.26 km that constitute 73.63% sea tidal. The study showed that the signal fade varied about 13 dB and at least over 20% of day time below threshold level. Keywords-component; propagation; line-of-sight; point-topoint; sea tidal; multipath

Hence, in this work, we dealt more on multipath fading propagation effect using two prediction models; Barnett Vigants, and ITU models. Received Signal Level (RSL) characteristics on a flat terrain are also discussed. The paper is divided into five sections; the present section is the introduction, section II present microwave propagation mechanism due to reflection and multipath fading in particular to sea tidal followed by site description and signal reception over P2P links in section III. Section IV analyzes and compares signal reception collected over one day period for signal propagates over sea tidal and reflected from ground terrain. Finally in Section V, we conclude the impairment due to signal propagation over sea tidal and some mitigation technique.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Microwave line-of-sight (LOS) links, sometime referred as microwave link, LOS microwave, Point-to-Point (P2P) or radio links, are composed of point-to-point systems between two terrestrial stations that transmit and receive signal. The links are designed to preserve direct LOS propagation path as the main propagation mechanism, but in practice other component and anomalies coexists due to reflection, diffraction, refraction and multipath [1]. The availability of P2P connection between the stations must always be nearly perfect (99.99%) in order to ensure that the transmitted voice/data maintain its integrity at the receiver. The received signal level or received signal strength must be above the link threshold to make sure the links have a strength value to cater for the fade margin. Without adequate value of fade margin, there will be signal loss within the link in the stations, hence the data/voice signal being transmitted will not reach the target area and resulted in high bit error ratio (BER). The challenge in ensuring good system performance is to ensure that the P2P link can militate against any obstacle between the medium of the microwave stations. In this paper, the study of sea tidal as one of the factors that affect microwave P2P performance is undertaken. Although there are many other obstructions to microwave P2P transmission, such as; rain, dust, terrain obstacle, etc., sea tidal is an obstacle that is very complicated to analyze and it involves a solution to some rural area data/voice coverage. The effect of sea tidal or sea ground to microwave propagation is related to multipath fading phenomena.

II.

MICROWAVE PROPAGATION MECHANISM

Microwave P2P typically use LOS mechanisms but subjected to either clear path (Fresnel Zone) or obstructed path due to terrain, building, vegetation and others. Multipath propagation phenomenon and fading occurs when radio signal reaching the receiving antenna by two or more indirect path due to reflection. A rigorous study on the acceptable path length subjected to the rain attenuation and other factors for P2P at and above 7 GHz been presented in [2][3]. Tidal fading occurs as a result of the interference between the direct line-of-sight path from the transmitter antenna to the receiver antennas and the indirect path that reflect on the water plane as in Fig.1.

Fig 1. The two ray model, showing (a) the direct path and (b) the indirect path reflected off the water plane.

As the tide rises and falls, the length of the reflected path changes. This in turn causes a change in the phase difference between the two paths. As the phase difference approaches 180 degrees, the interference between the paths will be increasingly destructive, resulting in a deeper fade. The reflected path is longer and so may interfere destructively with the direct path. Refraction is neglected in this diagram. The ray paths are curved due to the flat-earth representation used to clarify the reflection. The two phenomenons that get involved in the both fluctuated link are reflection and multipath fading. A. Reflection Reflection occurs when an electromagnetic wave strikes a nearly smooth, large surface, such as a water surface, and a portion of the energy is reflected from the surface and continues propagating along a path that defines an angle with the surface equal to that of the incident wave. Obstruction dimensions are very large compared to the signal wavelength. The strength of the reflected wave is determined by the reflection coefficient; a value that depends on the frequency and polarization of radiation, the angle of incidence, and the roughness of the reflecting surface. For shallow incidence angles and smooth seas, typical values of the reflection coefficient are near unity, i.e., the reflected wave is almost as strong as the incidence wave causing the so-called specular reflection. The law of reflection states that for specular reflection, the angle at which the wave is incident on the surface equals the angle at which it is reflected. Reflection rays from different surfaces may interfere constructively or destructively at a receiver causing multipath propagation or multipath fading. B. Multipath Fading Multipath fading is the dominant fading mechanism for frequencies lower than approximately 10 GHz. A reflected wave causes a phenomenon known as multipath, meaning that the radio signal can travel many paths to reach the receiver. Typically, multipath occurs when a reflected wave reaches the receiver at the same time as the direct wave that travels in a straight line from the transmitter. Multipath propagation gives rise to two kinds of signal fading effects, i.e., flat fading and frequency selective fading. The flat fading effect is due to thermal noise and interference. Certainly, both flat and selective fading typically occur in combination. Two scenarios of multipath are possible:

Upfademax = 10 log d 0.03d (dB) where d is the path length in km.

(1)

For example, for d = 14.26 km, the maximum upfade can be up to 11.11 dB. ii. If the two waves reach the receiver out of phase, they weaken the overall received signal. If the two waves are 180 apart when they reach the receiver, they can completely cancel each other out which may result in total loss of signal. A location where a signal is to cancel out by multipath is called a null or downfade.

In [4], measurement results show that most multipath fading occurs at night during the inter-moon seasons when there is low wind activity and high humidity. Under such conditions, the sea surface is smooth and the reflected signal is strong and produces deep and fast multipath fading. The sea breeze observed over a LOS link situated in Visakhapatnam operating at 6 GHz [5] brought about some distinct characteristic changes in the LOS link signal strength.

III.

MEASUREMENT SETUP AND DATA COLLECTION

These comprise site selection, path profile, measurement setup, and data collection. A. Site Selection Four study sites as shown in Figure 2 are selected for P2P measurement between Station A and Station B with link distances as summarized in Table 1, however only data for Kuala Linggi Tanjung Bidara (KLTB/TB-KL) will be analyzed in this paper.

Fig. 2: P2P Study site

i.

If the two signals reach the receiver in phase, then the signal is amplified. This is known as an upfade. Upfades can also occur when the radio wave is trapped within an atmospheric duct. As can be seen from equation (1), higher upfades are possible for longer paths:

Table 1: Characteristics of the Stations considered for the P2P measurements.

STATION A Kuala Linggi Pulau Perhentian Pulau Pemanggil Taman Puteri Wangsa STATION B Tanjung Bidara Bukit Bintang Sekakap Desa Tebrau LATITUDE A 02 22 38.40 N 05 54 04.80 N 02 34 58.20 N 01 35 29.10 N LONGITUDE A LATITUDE B 101 59 04.90 E 02 18 02.00 N 102 44 29.30 E 05 37 41.99 N 104 18 55.20 E 02 21 43.30 N 103 47 55.00 E 01 33 30.15 N LONGITUDE B LINK DISTANCE(KM) SEA WATER DISTANCE(KM) 102 05 15.70 E 14.26 10.5 102 38 54.95 E 31.89 20 103 53 56.10 E 52.4 52 103 47 20.84 E 3.8 0

Received Signal Level (dBm)

-20 -40 -60 -80

8:30:00 AM 9:30:00 AM 10:30:00 AM 11:30:00 AM 12:30:00 PM 1:30:00 PM 2:30:00 PM 3:30:00 PM 4:30:00 PM 5:30:00 PM 6:30:00 PM 7:30:00 PM 8:30:00 PM

B. Path Profile The path profile is generated using P2P link planning tool, namely Pathloss 4.0. Figure 3 show path profile for KL-TB that propagates over sea tidal.
120

Main ODU RSL Vs Time 0

Current RSL Maximum RSL Minimum RSL

110

100

90

80

70

Elevation (m)

60

50

40

30

Fig. 3: Received Signal Level at Kuala Linggi Station

20

10

-10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Path length (14.26 km) 9 10 11 12 13 14

Main ODU RSL Vs Time

Receive Signal Level (dBm)
8:30:00 AM 9:30:00 AM 10:30:00 AM 11:30:00 AM 12:30:00 PM 1:30:00 PM 2:30:00 PM 3:30:00 PM 4:30:00 PM 5:30:00 PM 6:30:00 PM 7:30:00 PM 8:30:00 PM

Fig 3. Terrain Profile Kuala Linggi - Tanjung Bidara

0 -20 -40 -60 -80

C. Measurement Setup The experimentation set-up for TB-KL reported in this paper is as shown in Table 2.
Table 2: Base station parameters

Maximum RSL Minimum RSL Current RSL

Parameter Antenna Size, (m) Frequency (GHz) k-factor RSL (dBm) D. Data Collection

KL Station TB Station 1.8 1.8 7.575 1.33 -29

Fig. 4: Received Signal Level at Tanjung Bidara Station

From the figures, it is observed that RSL fluctuated and faded most of the time and did not achieve the estimated RSL. This is because of unstable reflection effect from the sea that needs further analysis. A. Sea Tidal Height Analysis As we know sea tidal height can change any time depends on countrys climate. In this study, the changes of the tidal height may have effect on the RSL reading. This is because as the tidal height changes, more multipath fading results due to effects from the water reflection. Figures 5 and 6 show the multipath for TB-KL and KL-TB respectively. There are many reflected and indirect waves from sea are transmitted back to the receiver area, thus cause interference to the direct wave and reduced RSL reading. The interference effects from reflection wave and multipath fading is called inter-system interference (ISI). The multipath view only represents certain k-factor values. The ground-earth terrain may not be much affected by the kfactor; however for sea surface the k-factor varies as sea tidal height change although not significant.

The data was collected at three microwave PTP links. Received signal level (dBm) for main Out Door Unit (ODU) reading was collected. The data was captured and recorded in IDU monitoring software for one day. Pathloss 4.0 software was used to generate link budget for all the links and estimated RSL at receiving station for KL-TB link is -29 dBm as shown in Table 2.

IV.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

Wireless links over estuaries experience time-varying dependent on height of the tide. This is a problem because links experiencing such fading can degrade in quality or result in total failure when the fade margin is insufficient. Figure 3 and 4 shows the measured signal strength for the KL-TB link distance of 14.26 km with water spanning 10.5 km of the entire link between the stations.

Table 3 Tide Level at Tanjung Bidara

120 110

100

90

80

70

60

Time 0221 1200 1330 2021

1.54 1.02 1.03 0.62

Height (HIGH) (HIGH) (HIGH) (LOW)

50

40

B. Multipath Fading Probability Model Microwave links as for other links is a must to have accurate prediction method in order to reduce the different between simulation results and real system performance. Nevertheless many microwave links have been deployed around the world; unfortunately many of these links are in the short range which path length is less than 20 km. Therefore to address these constraints, these links need to as accurate as possible. There are two famous models in microwave link propagation prediction model. These are Vigants-Barnett model and ITU-R Multipath Probability model. The two outages models are expressed as follows: Vigants-Barnett [6]:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14.3

30

20

10

-10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14.3

Fig. 5: Multipath from Tanjung Bidara-Kuala Linggi

120

110

100

90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

-10

Fig. 6: Multipath from Kuala Linggi-Tanjung Bidara

Figure 7 shows the reflection analysis for TB-KL link using Pathloss 4.0 where RSL fluctuated when there is change in the k-factors.
H1=55.0 m, H2=45.0 m, F=7575.0 MHz, V

= 2.5 106 3 10 /10 and ITU-R [7]: 0 = 3.2 (1 + )0.97 100.0320.00085/10

(2)

(3)

1.2

1.0

0.8

0.6

where, f is the frequency, d is the distance K is the geoclimatic, C is the terrain factor, FM is the effective fade margin is the link inclination and hL is the lowest antenna altitude above sea level.

0.4

0.2

0.0

-0.2

-0.4

-0.6

The each link probability is evaluated for both models using simulated fade margin with link over sea tidal (software simulation) and the measured real fade margin (average per day). The measured and estimated fade margins are shown in Tables 4 and 5 respectively.
Table 4: Simulated and measured fade margin over TB-KL link

Relative Receive Signal (dB)

-0.8

-1.0

-1.2

-1.4 1.00 -1.6 33.8 36 38 40 42 44 Earth Radius Factor - arctan(K) () 46 48 50 52 53.1

Link TB-KL fade (dB)

Simulated 37.20

Measured 24.0314

Fig. 7: Reflection Analysis.

We observed at Tanjung Bidara site, the RSL change very badly during 1 PM to 2.45 PM due increase in the sea tidal. Table 3 shows and the sea tidal reading Tanjung Bidara during 9/03/2010 taken from Malaysia Metrological Department. During that time the interference of reflected signal strength was too high.

Table 5: Estimated Fade Margin for Vigants-Barnett and ITU-R Multipath Probability model Estimated FM (%) Measured FM (%) Link

Vigants-Barnett ITU-R

99.99991526 99.99991526

99.99822947 99.99822947

From the tables, the simulated and measured fade margin be difference at least by 13 dB due to link passing through the flat sea water.

V.

CONCLUSION
[1] [2]

REFERENCES
Pablo Angueira, Juan Romo, Microwave Line of Sight Link Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, 2012. U. Kesavan, A. R. Tharek, and Md. Rafiqul Islam, Comparison of Microwave Path Lengths between Temperate and Tropical Region Based on Effects of Rain, Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, Moscow, Russia, August 19-23, 2012, pp. 504507. D. Narayana Rao, K. Krishna Reddy, T.R. Vijaya Kumar, S.V. Bhaskara Rao, M.V.S.N. Prasad, D. Punyaseshudu, Study of path inclination effects on performance of LOS microwave links in southern India, IEE Proc.-Microw. Antennas Propag., Vol. 142, No. 4, August 1995, pp.295-299. Jin-Teong Ong and Chu-Feng Hu, Propagation measurement on an Over-Water, Line-of-Sight Link in Singapore, Proc. International Conference on Information, Communications and Signal Processing (ICICS'97), 9-12 Sept. 1997, pp.1714-1718. G.S.V. Radha Krishna Rao and M. Purnachandra Rao, A Study on the lnfluence of Sea breeze on Line-Of-Sight links located in Visakhapatnam, Proc. of INMIC 2004, pp. 293-300. Barnett, W. T., Multipath propagation at 4, 6 and 11 GHz, Bell System Technical Journal,Vol. 51, No. 2, 311-361, Feb. 1972. International Telecommunication Union, Propagation data and prediction methods required for the design of terrestrial line-of-sight systems, ITU-R P. 530-12, 2005.

The propagation mechanism of a microwave P2P link over sea tidal has been analyzed using data collected over one day. The tidal height affects the RSL and deep fades have a significant impact on link quality. Furthermore, unlike LOS and ground reflection propagation, tidal effects may be the primary cause of performance degradation. However, better model should include weather information such as rain and humidity. In the near future, mitigation methods such as slow frequency hopping and space diversity strategies will be investigated. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors are very grateful and express dear thanks to the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia for funding this work under GPP-2013-006 research university grant.

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6] [7]