Planning of SIAE

siae microelettronica s.p.a.
Planning criteria for digital

radio relay networks
NETWORK Planning criteria for digital radio relay Written by Approved by Date Page
ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT networks Benedv/Calian BENEDV 09/10/06 1 di 206
Property of Document Number Ver.

Siae Microelettronica
All Right Reserved. INR.0300 01
TABLE OF CONTENTS
REFERENCES__________________________________________________________________5
Forewords_______________________________________________________________________7
1 Design objectives for digital radio links according to Rec. ITU-T G.821_________________8
1.1 Introduction_____________________________________________________________8
1.2 Error performance events and parameters___________________________________9
1.3 Overall connections error performance objectives____________________________10
1.4 Apportionment of overall connections error performance objectives_____________11
1.4.1 Basic principles______________________________________________________11
1.4.2 Apportionment strategy for the errored seconds requirement___________________12
1.4.3 Apportionment strategy for the severely errored seconds requirement___________12
1.5 Performance objectives___________________________________________________14
1.5.1 Performance objective for High Grade real digital link (Rec. ITU-R F. 634-4)_____14
1.5.2 Performance objective for Medium Grade real digital link (Rec. ITU-R F. 696-4)__14
1.5.3 Performance objective for Local Grade real digital link (Rec. ITU-R F.697-2)_____15
1.6 Unavailability objectives__________________________________________________15
1.6.1 Unavailability objective for High Grade real digital link (Rec. ITU-R F. 695)_____15
1.6.2 Unavailability objective for Medium Grade real digital link (Rec. ITU-R F. 696-4)_16
1.6.3 Unavailability objective for Local Grade real digital link (Rec. ITU-R F.697-2)____16
2 Design objectives for digital radio links according to ITU-T Rec. G.826________________17
2.1 Introduction____________________________________________________________17
2.2 Apportionment of end to end objectives_____________________________________17
2.3 Error performance events and parameters__________________________________19
2.4 Error performance objectives_____________________________________________19
2.4.1 End-to-end performance objective_______________________________________19
2.4.2 Error performance objectives for real digital fixed wireless links used in 27 500km
hypothetical reference paths and connections (Rec. ITU-R F. 1668 )_____________________20
3 Design objectives for digital radio links according to ITU-T G.828 Recommendation_____28
3.1 Introduction____________________________________________________________28
3.2 Apportionment of end to end objectives_____________________________________28
3.3 Error performance events and parameters__________________________________29
4 Availability objectives_________________________________________________________30
4.1 Availability objectives for real digital fixed wireless links used in 27500km
hypothetical reference paths and connections (Rec. ITU-R F.1703)____________________30
5 ITU-T and ITU-R Recommendations referred to performance and availability objectives
and maintenance________________________________________________________________33
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6 Link budget_________________________________________________________________34
6.1 Free space attenuation___________________________________________________35
6.2 Diffraction attenuation___________________________________________________35
6.2.1 Diffraction over a spherical earth________________________________________36
6.2.2 Diffraction over obstacles and irregular terrain______________________________36
6.3 Attenuation due to vegetation_____________________________________________39
7 Basic concepts on antennas____________________________________________________42
7.1 Radiation pattern_______________________________________________________42
7.2 Antenna gain___________________________________________________________44
7.3 Antenna polarization_____________________________________________________44
7.4 Cross-Polar discrimination (XPD)__________________________________________46
7.5 Antenna radiation patterns_______________________________________________47
7.5.1 Antennas operating in the 6U GHz band___________________________________47
7.5.2 Antennas operating in the 13 GHz band___________________________________49
7.5.3 Antennas operating in the 18 GHz band___________________________________51
8 Net Filter Discrimination______________________________________________________53
8.1 NFD definition__________________________________________________________53
8.2 NFD calculation_________________________________________________________55
8.3 Effects of the interference over digital radio link______________________________57
8.4 Interfering power calculation______________________________________________61
8.4.1 Example____________________________________________________________61
9 Fade margin________________________________________________________________64
9.1 Fade margin without interference__________________________________________64
9.2 Fade margin in presence of interference____________________________________64
9.3 Sub-optimum procedure for margin estimation in presence of interference________67
10 Radio link outage computation on clear air condition_____________________________68
10.1 Prediction of total outage_________________________________________________68
10.2 Prediction of non selective fading outage____________________________________68
10.3 Prediction of selective fading outage________________________________________70
10.4 Prediction of XPD outage due to clear-air effects_____________________________73
10.5 Diversity protection techniques____________________________________________74
10.5.1 Frequency diversity___________________________________________________75
10.5.2 Space diversity______________________________________________________76
10.5.3 Space and frequency diversity__________________________________________77
10.5.4 1+1 System configuration with four receivers______________________________79
10.6 Multichannel systems____________________________________________________84
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10.7 Angle diversity_________________________________________________________88
11 Prediction of outage due to rain______________________________________________89
11.1 Prediction of the total unavailability_______________________________________89
11.2 Computing of outage due to hydrometers___________________________________89
11.3 Prediction of XPD outage due to precipitation_______________________________92
11.3.1 XPD statistics during precipitation conditions______________________________92
11.3.2 Step-by-step procedure for predicting XPD outage due to precipitation effects_______93
11.4 Outage due to hydrometers for protected configurations______________________94
11.4.1 Frequency diversity, Space diversity, Space and frequency diversity and 1+1 with
four receivers configurations____________________________________________________94
11.4.2 Multicarrier system___________________________________________________94
11.5 Calculation example_______________________________________________________95
12 Link designing procedure___________________________________________________96
ANNEX A – Guaranteed figures for SIAE’s radio equipment____________________________100
A.1 Equipment in the 6U GHz band___________________________________________100
A.1.1 ALS 6U SDH equipment______________________________________________100
A.1.2 ALS 6U Spectrum Mask______________________________________________102
A.2 Equipment in the 13 GHz band___________________________________________103
A.2.1 AL13 PDH equipment________________________________________________103
A.2.2 ALS13 SDH equipment______________________________________________105
A.2.3 US13 SDH equipment_______________________________________________107
A.2.4 AL13 Spectrum Mask_______________________________________________109
A.2.4 ALS13 Spectrum Mask_______________________________________________119
A.2.5 US13 Spectrum Mask________________________________________________121
A.3 Equipment in the 18 GHz band___________________________________________123
A.3.1 AL18 PDH equipment________________________________________________123
A.3.2 ALS18 SDH equipment______________________________________________125
A.3.2 US18 SDH equipment________________________________________________128
A.3.4 AL18 Spectrum mask________________________________________________130
A.3.5 ALS18 Spectrum mask_______________________________________________139
A.3.6 US18 Spectrum mask________________________________________________144
A.4 Threshold degradation curves____________________________________________146
Annex B – Guaranteed figures for SIAE’s multicarrier radio equipment__________________149
Annex C – Calculation method for the multipath occurrence factor p0 according to ITU-R 530-8
______________________________________________________________________________155
ANNEX D – NFD matrixes for SIAE’s radio equipments_____________________________159
D.1 Equipment in the 6U GHz band___________________________________________159
D.2 Equipment in the 13 GHz band___________________________________________160
D.3 Equipment in the 18 GHz band___________________________________________183
ENGINEERING

ENGINEERING

REFERENCES
[1] ITU-T Recommendation G.821: “ERROR PERFORMANCE OF AN INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL
CONNECTION OPERATING AT A BIT RATE BELOW THE PRIMARY RATE AND FORMING PART OF AN
INTEGRATED SERVICES DIGITAL NETWORK”
[2] ITU-T Recommendation G.826: “Error performance parameters and objectives for
international, constant bit rate digital paths at or above the primary rate”
[2] ITU-T Recommendation G.828: “Error performance parameters and objectives for
international, constant bit rate synchronous digital paths”
[4] ETSI EN 302 217: “Fixed Radio Systems; Characteristics and requirements for point-to-point
equipment and antennas; Parts 1, 2-1, 2-2, 3, 4-1 and 4-2”
[5] ETSI TR 101 016: “Transmission and Multiplexing (TM); Digital Radio Relay Systems
(DRRS); Comparison and verification of performance prediction models”
[6] ETSI TR 101 854 v1.3.1 : “Fixed Radio Systems; Point-to-point equipment; Derivation of
receiver interference parameters useful for planning fixed service point-to-point systems
operating different equipment classes and/or capacities”
[7] ITU-R Recommendation 530-8: “Propagation data and prediction methods required for the
design of terrestrial line-of-sight systems”
[8] ITU-R Recommendation 530-11: “Propagation data and prediction methods required forthe
design of terrestrial line-of-sight systems”
[9] ITU-R Recommendation F.696-4: “ERROR PERFORMANCE AND AVAILABILITY OBJECTIVES FOR
HYPOTHETICAL REFERENCE DIGITAL SECTIONS FORMING PART OR ALL OF THE MEDIUM-GRADE
PORTION OF AN INTEGRATED SERVICES DIGITAL NETWORK CONNECTION AT A BIT RATE BELOW
THE PRIMARY RATE UTILIZING DIGITAL RADIO-RELAY SYSTEMS”
[10] ITU-R Recommendation F.634-4:“ERROR PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES FOR REAL DIGITAL

RADIO-RELAY LINKS FORMING PART OF THE HIGH-GRADE PORTION OF INTERNATIONAL DIGITAL
CONNECTIONS AT A BIT RATE BELOW THE PRIMARY RATE WITHIN AN INTEGRATED SERVICES
DIGITAL NETWORK”
[11] ITU-T Recommendation F.697-2:“ERROR PERFORMANCE AND AVAILABILITY OBJECTIVES FOR

THE LOCAL-GRADE PORTION AT EACH END OF AN INTEGRATED SERVICES DIGITAL NETWORK
CONNECTION AT A BIT RATE BELOW THE PRIMARY RATE UTILISING DIGITAL RADIO-RELAY
SYSTEMS”
[12] ITU-R Recommendation F.556-1:“HYPOTHETICAL REFERENCE DIGITAL PATH FOR RADIO-RELAY

SYSTEMS WHICH MAY FORM PART OF AN INTEGRATED SERVICES DIGITAL NETWORK WITH A
CAPACITY ABOVE THE SECOND HIERARCHICAL LEVEL”
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[13] ITU-R Recommendation F.695: “AVAILABILITY OBJECTIVES FOR REAL DIGITAL RADIO-RELAY
LINKS FORMING PART OF A HIGH-GRADE CIRCUIT WITHIN AN INTEGRATED SERVICES DIGITAL
NETWORK”
[14] ITU-R Recommendation F.1668: “Error performance objectives for real digital fixed wireless
links used in 27 500 km hypothetical reference paths and connections”
[15] ITU-R Recommendation F.1703: “Availability objectives for real digital fixed wireless links
used in 27 500 km hypothetical reference paths and connections”
[16] ITU-R Recommendation P.526-9: “Propagation by diffraction”
[17] ITU-R Recommendation P.834-5:“Effects of tropospheric refraction on radiowave

propagation”
[18] ITU-R Recommendation P.833-5: “Attenuation in vegetation”
[19] ITU-R Recommendation P.453-9: “The radio refractive index: its formula and refractivity
data”
[20] ITU-R Recommendation P.837-4: “Characteristics of precipitation for propagation

modelling”
[21] ITU-R Recommendation P.841-4: “Conversion of annual statistics to worst-month statistics”
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Forewords
This document has been produced by SIAE Microelettronica – Network Engineering Department.
The aim of this document was to provide an exhaustive guide for the planning of Digital Radio
Links. A large number of radio system configurations have been considered including the frequency
reuse with/without Cross Polar Interference Canceller (XPIC). Particular emphasis has been given
to the dense interfering environment by giving the methodology for system co-existence study.
Chapters describing the most important propagation topics have also been integrated into the
document. These topics were taken from the most important ITU-R Recommendations. In the same
way, chapters have been added to describe the most important ITU-T Recommendations regarding
quality and unavailability objectives for digital radio links. Thanks to this topics it has been
provided a guideline for step-by-step radio link designing.
Finally, a large number of technical input have been given on SIAE radio equipment in order to
provide the designer the necessary input data for a proper network designing.
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1 Design objectives for digital radio links according to
Rec. ITU-T G.821
1.1 Introduction
Recommendation ITU-T G.821 [1] defines error performance of an international digital connection
operating at a bit rate below the primary rate and forming part of an integrated services digital
network.
The objectives are given for hypothetical reference connection (HRX) and for real digital radio
relay links forming part of an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN).
The performance objectives are stated for each direction of a N64 kbit/s circuit-switched
connection (1N24 or31 respectively) used for voice traffic or as a "Bearer Channel" for data-
type services.
In the context of error performance of 64 kbit/s circuit-switched connection types and the allocation
of performance to the connection elements, an all digital hypothetical reference configuration
(HRX) is given in Figure 1.1. It encompasses a total length of 27500 km and is a derivative of the
standard hypothetical reference configuration given in Figure 1/G.801 and of the reference
configuration given in Figure 3/I.325.
27 500 km
1250 km 25 000 km 1250 km
T-reference T-reference
LE LE point
point
Local (Note 2) Medium (Note 1) High (Note 1) Medium Local

(Note 2)
grade grade grade grade grade
T1306400-95
NOTES
1 It is not possible to provide a definition of the location of the boundary between the medium and the high grade portions
HRX. Note 4 to Table 2 provides further clarification of this point.
2 LE denotes the local exchange or equivalent point.
Figure 1.1: Circuit quality demarcation of longest HRX
Recommendation ITU-T G.821 [1] classifies the digital transmission circuits in 3 quality levels:
local grade, medium grade and high grade.
The unavailability and performance objectives are different for local, medium and high grade
circuits.
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1.2 Error performance events and parameters
Error performance parameters are derived from the following events:

• errored second (ES), (or their Complement error-free seconds (EFS)): It is a one-
second period in which one or more bits are in error.
• severely errored second (SES): It is a one-second period which has a bit error ratio ³
1.10-3 or during which Loss of Signal (LOS) or Alarm Indication Signal (AIS) is
detected.
Performance is defined by means of the following parameters:
• errored second ratio (ESR): The ratio of ES to total seconds in available time during a
fixed measurement interval.
• severely errored second ratio (SESR): The ratio of SES to total seconds in available time
during a fixed measurement interval.
ITU-T prescribes that all the above mentioned parameters are measured in a 64 Kbit/s stream.
ITU-T admits that the error performance may be computed at system bit-rate: SES at 64 Kb/s is a
few (1-5) percent higher than that at system bit-rate. On the contrary, the ES must be measured at 64
Kb/s. If ESR is measured at system bit-rate, the ESR at 64 kbit/s is given by (Rec. ITU-R F.634-4
[10] Annex 2):
J
1
ESR64  
J i 1
(n/ N ) i  ESRsystem bit rate
where:
n : number of errors in the ith s at the system bit rate
N : system bit rate divided by 64 kbit/s
J : integer number of 1 s periods (excluding unavailable time) within the total
measurement period.
The ratio (n/N)i for the ith s is:

n/N if 0  n  N
or
1 if n  N.
First of all it needs to find the time intervals longer than 10 consecutive seconds in which
BER>10-3. The link is unavailable during these time intervals, then it needs to discard these time
intervals and measure the performance, by counting SES, ES in the remaining time (i.e. the time
during which the link is available).
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1.3 Overall connections error performance objectives
The objectives relate to a very long connection and recognizing that a large proportion of real
international connections will be shorter, it is expected that a significant proportion of real
connections will offer a better performance than the limiting value given in table 1/G.821 [1].
The error performance objectives apply to a N64kbit/s circuit switched. However, it is recognized
that in practical situations objectives of this Recommendation G.821 [1] will need to be evaluated
from measurements made on paths operating at higher bit rates. For that purpose, Recommendation
G.826 [2], which specifies error performance objectives for international constant bit rate digital
paths at or above the primary rate, shall be used.
The performance objectives for an international ISDN connection are shown in Table 1.1. It is
intended that international ISDN connections should meet all of the requirements of Table 1.1. The
connection fails to satisfy the objective if any of the requirements is not met.
Performance classification Objective (Note 1)
Severely Errored Second Ratio 0.002

Errored Second Ratio 0.08
Table 1.1 - Error performance objectives for international ISDN connections
Note 1: The ratios are calculated over the available time. The observation time has not been
specified since the period may depend upon the application. A period of the order of any one
month is suggested as a reference.
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1.4 Apportionment of overall connections error performance objectives
1.4.1 Basic principles
The following pages outline the basic principles and strategy for apportioning the performance
objectives.
Since the objectives given in table 1.1 relate to an overall connection, it is necessary to subdivide
this to constituent parts. It should be noted that a small percentage of connections will be longer
than the 27.500 km HRX. By definition the extra connection length will be carried over high-grade
circuits and hence the amount by which such connections exceed the total allowance envisaged in
the Rec. ITU-T G.821 [1] will be proportional to the amount by which the 25.000 km section is
exceeded.
The overall apportionment philosophy involves the use of two slightly different strategies, one
applicable to the errored seconds requirement and the other applicable to the severely errored
seconds requirement.
Apportionment is based on the assumed use of transmission systems having qualities falling into
one of a limited number of different classifications.
Three distinct quality classifications have been identified representative of practical digital
transmission circuits and are independent of the transmission systems used. These classifications
are termed local grade, medium grade and high grade and their usage generally tends to be
dependent on their location within a network (see Figure 1).
The apportionment of the permitted degradation is given in Table 1.2. The derived network
performance objectives are given in subsequent subclauses.
Circuit classification Allocation of the objectives given in Table 1
Local grade (2 ends) 15% block allowance to each end

(Notes 1, 4 and 5)
Medium grade (2 ends) 15% block allowance to each end
(Notes 2, 4 and 5)
High grade 40% (equivalent to conceptual quality of 0.0016% per
km for 25 000 km)
(Notes 3)
Table 1.2 - Allocation of the objectives for the three-circuit classifications
The allocation principle given in this table is applicable to ESR and half of the SESR .
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NOTES
1 The local grade apportionment is considered to be a block allowance, i.e. an allowance to that part of the connection
regardless of length.
2 The medium grade apportionment is considered to be a block allowance, i.e. an allowance to that part of the
connection regardless of length. The actual length covered by the medium grade part of the connection will vary
considerably from one country to another. Transmission systems in this classification exhibit a variation in quality
falling between the other classifications.
3 The high grade apportionment is divided on the basis of length resulting in a conceptual per kilometre allocation
which can be used to derive a block allowance for a defined network model (e.g. Hypothetical Reference Digital
Link). For practical planning purposes of links in network models, link allowances based on the number of 280 km
sections nominally 280 km (as specified in Table 2/G.921 ) can be used in place of the per kilometre allocation
specified in this Recommendation. For longer sections which are not an exact integer multiple of 280 km, the next
highest integer multiple is used.
4 The local grade and medium grade portions are permitted to cover up the first 1250 km of the circuit from the T-
reference point (see Figure 1) extending into the network. For example, in large countries this portion of the circuit
may only reach the Primary Centre whilst in small countries it may go as far as the Secondary Centre, Tertiary
Centre or the International Switching Centre (see Figure 1).
1.4.2 Apportionment strategy for the errored seconds requirement
The apportionment of the permitted degradation, i.e. 0.08 ESR, is given in Table 1.2. The derived
network performance objectives are given in Table 1.3.
Circuit classification (see Figure 1) Network performance objectives

ESR
Local grade 0.012

Medium grade 0.012
High grade 0.032
Table 1.3 - Allocation of Errored Second Ratio objective
1.4.3 Apportionment strategy for the severely errored seconds requirement
The total allocation of 0.002 SESR is subdivided into each circuit classification (i.e. local, medium,
high grades) in the following manner:
a) 0.001 SESR is divided between the three circuit classifications in the same proportions as
adopted for the other objective. This results in the allocation as shown in Table 1.4.
Circuit classification Allocation of SESR objectives
Local grade 0.00015 block allowance to each end

Medium grade 0.00015 block allowance to each end
High grade 0.0004
Table 1.4 - Allocation of Severely Errored Second Ratio objective

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For transmission system covered by the high grade classification each 2500 km portion
may contribute not more than 0.00004 SESR.
b) The remaining 0.001 SESR is a block allowance to the medium and high grade
classifications to accommodate the occurrence of adverse network conditions occasionally
experienced (intended to mean the worst month of the year) on transmission systems.
Because of the statistical nature of the occurrence of worst month effects in a world-wide
connection, it is considered that the following allowances are consistent with the total 0.001
SESR figure: 0.0005 SESR is allocated to a 2500 km HRDP for radio relay systems which
can be used in the high grade and the medium grade portion of the connection.
The following table summarizes the allocation percentage of the 0.001 SESR for each Medium
Grade classes:
To be used in
SECTION QUALITY HRDS length (Km) (1) ALLOCATION
circuit classification
CLASSIFICATION (see Fig.1.1) (%)
(see Fig.1.1)
1 280 0,45 High grade
2 280 2 Medium grade
3 50 2 Medium grade
4 50 5 Medium grade
Table 1.5 - Allocation of 0.001 SESR for Medium Grade objectives
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1.5 Performance objectives
1.5.1 Performance objective for High Grade real digital link (Rec. ITUR F. 6344)
The following error performance objectives should be respected for each direction of the
N64kbit/s (1N24(or32, respectively)), when establishing real digital radio-relay links with
length, L (km), of between 280km and 2 500 km providing connections at a bit rate below the
primary rate and intended to form part of a high-grade circuit within an ISDN:
 that the ESR should not exceed (L /2 500)0.32 % in any month;

 that the SESR should not exceed (L /2 500)0.054 % in any month .
It is obtained by varying the HRDP objective linearly with the radio link length. (280  L  2500).
The objective for links shorter than 280 Km is still under study and then it is kept constant and
equal to that for 280 Km (Rec. ITU-R F.696-4 [9]).
1.5.2 Performance objective for Medium Grade real digital link (Rec. ITUR F. 6964)
The real link consists of one or many hypothetical reference digital sections (HRDS) and the
performance objective for the real link is the sum of the objectives of the HRDS.
Recommendation F.696-4 [9] divides the medium grade system in four quality classes with different
objective. The performance objectives for an HRDS, varies according to quality class according to
Table I of the ITU-R Rec. F.696-4 [9]:
Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4

PERFORMANCE
280 Km (%) 280 Km (%) 50 Km (%) 50 Km (%)
PARAMETER
SESR 0.002 0.005
0.006 0.0075
ESR 0.036 0.16 0.16 0,4
RBER According to Rec. Under study Under Under study
F.634-4 [10] study
3,6 x 10-3 (1)
(1)This parameter is measured in accordance with the method described in Note 5 of ITU-R Rec. F.634-4
[10]
Table 1.6 - Error performance objectives
The Rec. ITU-R F.696-4 [9] recommends also :

 that the SESR should not exceed 0.0004 in any month comprising a basic objective of
0.00015 and an additional objective of 0.00025 for adverse propagation with an integration
time of 1 s;
 that the ESR should not exceed 0.012 in any month ;
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1.5.3 Performance objective for Local Grade real digital link (Rec. ITUR F.6972)
An hypothetical reference digital path has not been defined, because of the wide variety of
situations.
The following error performance objectives apply to each direction and to each N64kbit/s channel
(1N24 (or 32, respectively)) of a digital radio-relay system used to form all of the local-grade
portion at each end of an ISDN connection.
 that the SESR should not exceed 0.015 % in any month;
 that the ESR should not exceed 1.2 % in any month;
1.6 Unavailability objectives
The availability objective for a 2 500km HRDP (Rec. ITU-R F.556-1 [12]) for digital radio-relay
systems (Rec. ITU-R F.557) should be 99,7% of the time, the percentage being considered over a
period of time sufficiently long to be statistically valid, this period is probably greater than one
year; the period of time is under study.
The link is unavailable by definition when one or both of the following condition occur for more
than 10 consecutive seconds, and at least in one direction of transmission:
 The digital signal is interrupted (i.e. alignment or timing is lost)
 The bit error ratio (BER) in each second is worse than 10-3
In the estimate of unavailability one must include all causes, which are statistically predictable such
as lack of primary power, circuit failure, maintenance works, rain (for frequency above 7 GHz),
propagation (for time intervals longer than 10 consecutive seconds) (Rec. ITU-R F. 695 [13]).
1.6.1 Unavailability objective for High Grade real digital link (Rec. ITUR F. 695)
The availability objective appropriate to a real digital radio link intended to form part of a high
grade circuit within an ISDN, for a link with length, L, of between 280 km and 2500 km, should be
as follows:
A  (100 – (0,3 × L /2500)) %
Note 1 – The value of 0,3 is a provisional one and it is recognized that, in practice, the value
selected may fall into the range 0.1 to 0.5. The choice of a specific value in this range
depends on the optimum allocation of outage time among the various causes which may not
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be the same when local conditions are taken into account (i.e. propagation, geographical
size, population distribution, organization of maintenance).
1.6.2 Unavailability objective for Medium Grade real digital link (Rec. ITUR F. 6964)
This Recommendation divides the medium grade radio relay system into 4 quality classes. The
unavailability objectives are different from class to class.
The total bidirectional unavailability due to all causes for the HRDS classes 1 to 4 utilizing digital
radio-relay systems and forming part of the medium grade portion of an ISDN connection shall not
exceed the values in table 1.7. The percentage being considered over a period of time sufficiently
long to be statistically valid, this period is probably greater than one year; the period of time is
under study.
The unavailability objectives for a hypothetical reference digital section (HRDS), are proposed in
the Table 1.7.
Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4

(%) (%) (%) (%)
0.033 0.05 0.05 0.1
Table 1.7 - Unavailability objectives for Medium Grade real digital link
1.6.3 Unavailability objective for Local Grade real digital link (Rec. ITUR F.6972)
No definition has been developed by the ITU-T or the ITU-R for local-grade unavailability.
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ITU-T Rec. G.826
2.1 Introduction
The Recommendation ITU-T G.826 [2] is applicable to international, constant bit rate digital paths
at or above the primary rate. These paths may be based on a Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy,
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy or some other transport network such as cell-based. This
Recommendation is generic, in that it defines the parameters and objectives for paths independent
of the physical transport network providing the paths.
2.2 Apportionment of end to end objectives

The following apportionment methodology specifies the levels of performance expected from the
national and international portions of a HRP (this path may include optical fibre, digital radio relay,
metallic cable and satellite transmission systems). The performance objectives are applicable to a
single direction of the path. The values apply end-to-end over a 27500 km Hypothetical Reference
Path (see Figure 2.1). Further sub-division of these objective is beyond the scope of the Rec. ITU-T
G.826 [2]. (See figure 3 - G.826[2]).
Inter-Country
(e.g. Path
carried over
Intermediate a Submarine
Terminating Countries Cable) Terminating
Country (Note 3) Country
(Note 1) (Note 2) (Note 1)
PEP IG IG PEP
IG IG IG
National
Portion International Portion National
Portion
Hypothetical Reference Path

27500 Km
Note 1 - If a path is considered to terminal at the IG, only international portion allocation applies
Note 2 - One or two International Gateways (entry or exit) may be defined per intermediate country
Note 3 - Four intermediate countries are assumed
Figure 2.1 - Hypothetical reference path
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For the purpose of the Rec.ITU-T G.826 [2] the boundary between the national and international
portions is defined to be at an International Gateway which usually corresponds to a
cross-connect, a higher-order multiplexer or a switch (N-ISDN or B-ISDN). IGs are always
terrestrially based equipment physically resident in the terminating (or intermediate) country.
Higher-order paths (relative to the under consideration) may be used between IGs. In intermediate
countries, the IGs are only located in order to calculate the overall length of the international
portion of the path in order to deduce the overall allocation.
The following allocation methodology applies to each parameter defined in Section 2.3 and takes
into account both the length and complexity of the international path. If the overall allocation
exceeds 100%, then the performance could be improved in practical implementations to be superior
to allocated objectives, the occurence of paths exceeding the objectives of Table 1/G.826 [2] can be
minimized.
Each national portion is allocated a fixed block allowance of 17.5% of the end-to-end objective.
The international portion is allocated a block allowance of 2% per intermediate country plus 1% for
each terminating country.
Furthermore, a distance-based allocation is added to the block allowance: an allocation of
1%/500km is applied.
The following figure shows the allocation for both international and national portion:
Figure 2.2 - Allocation for G826 objectives and G828 objectives

ENGINEERING

This Recommendation is based upon the error performance measurement of blocks. This sub-clause
offers a generic definition of the term "block" as follows:
A block is a set of consecutive bits associated with the path; each bit belongs to one and only one
block. Consecutive bits may not be contiguous in time.
Table 2.1 specifies the recommended range of the number of bits within each block for the various
bit rate ranges.
Error performance parameters are derived from the following events:
• Errored Block (EB): A block in which one or more bits are in error.
• Errored Second (ES): A one-second period with one or more errored blocks or at least one
defect.
• Severely Errored Second (SES): A one-second period which contains ³30% errored
blocks or at least one defect. SES is a subset of ES.
• Background Block Error (BBE): An errored block not occurring as part of an SES.
The performance is defined by means of the following parameters:

• Errored Second Ratio (ESR): The ratio of ES to total seconds in available time during a
fixed measurement interval.
• Severely Errored Second Ratio (SESR): The ratio of SES to total seconds in available
time during a fixed measurement interval.
• Background Block Error Ratio (BBER): The ratio of Background Block Errors (BBE) to
total blocks in available time during a fixed measurement interval. The count of total blocks
excludes all blocks during SESs.
2.4 Error performance objectives
2.4.1 Endtoend performance objective
Table 1 specifies the end-to-end objectives for a 27500 km HRP in terms of the parameters defined
in 2.3. The actual objectives applicable to a real path are derived from Table 1 using the allocation
principles detailed in 2.2. Each direction of the path shall concurrently satisfy the allocated
objectives for all parameters. In other words, a path fails to satisfy the ITU-T Rec. G.826 [2] if any
parameter exceeds the allocated objective in either direction at the end of the given evaluation
period. The suggested evaluation period is one month.
ENGINEERING

Rate Mbit/s 1.5 to 5  5 to 15  15 to 55  55 to 160  160 to 3500
Bits/block 800-5000 2000-8000 4000-20 000 6000-20 000 15 000-30 000

(Note 2)
ESR 0.04 0.05 0.075 0.16 (Note 3)
SESR 0.002 0.002 0.002 0.002 0.002
BBER 210–4 (Note1) 210–4 210–4 210–4 10–4
NOTE1–For systems designed prior to 1996, the BBER objective 310–4.

NOTE2–As currently defined, VC-4-4c (Recommendation G.707 [3]) is a 601 Mbit/s path with a block size of
75168bits/block. Since this is outside the recommended range for 160-3500 Mbit/s paths, performance on VC-4-4c
paths should not be estimated in-service using this table. The BBER objective for VC-4-4c using the 75168 bit block
size is taken to be 410–4.
NOTE3–ESR objectives tend to lose significance for applications at high bit rates and are therefore not specified for
paths operating at bit rates above 160Mbit/s. Nevertheless, it is recognised that the observed performance of SDH
paths is essentially error-free for long periods of time, even at Gigabit rates. Significant ESR indicates a degraded
transmission system. Therefore, for maintenance purposes, ES monitoring should be implemented within any error
performance measuring devices operating at these rates.
Table 2.1 – End-to-end error performance objectives for a 27 500 km

international digital HRP at or above the primary rate
That future and whenever practical, existing radio relay systems should comply with Rec. ITU-T-
G.826 [2] Performance objectives.
The hypothetical reference path is 27500 km long (shared in 3 portion):
- International transit portion (transit between 2 International gateways) (IG)

- International terminating portion between IG and path end point (PEP)
- National terminal
2.4.2 Error performance objectives for real digital fixed wireless links used in 27 500km

hypothetical reference paths and connections (Rec. ITUR F. 1668 )
The error performance objectives (EPOs), applicable to each direction of any real radio link of
length Llink, can be derived by means of equation here below, using the values in Tables 2.2 and2.3
for SDH system design according to ITU-T Rec. G.828 [3] and values in Tables2.4 and 2.5 for
system design according to ITU-T Rec. G.826 [2].
ENGINEERING

The lower limit of Llink, used to scale the objectives to the real case, is Lmin= 50km.
EPO  Bj  (Llink / LR)  Cj
where:
j  1 for Lmin  Llink  1 000 km for intermediate country
j  2 for 1 000 km < Llink for intermediate country
j  3 for Lmin  Llink  500 km for terminating country
j  4 for 500 km < Llink for terminating country.
EPO is substituted by the parameters errored second ratio (ESR), severely errored second ratio
(SESR) and background block error ratio (BBER) as appropriate.
LR is the reference length, LR  2 500km
BR is a block allowance ratio, BR  (0 < BR  1);
Bit rate Lmin  Llink  1 000km 1 000km < Llink

Parameter
(kbit/s)
B1 C1 B2 C2
ESR 1 664 5  10–4 (1  BR) 0 5  104 2  10–4  BR
ESR 2 240 5  10–4 (1  BR) 0 5  104 2  104  BR
ESR 6 848 5  104 (1  BR) 0 5  104 2  104  BR
ESR 48 960 1  10–3 (1  BR) 0 1  103 4  104  BR
ESR 150 336 2  103 (1  BR) 0 2  103 8  104  BR
SESR 1 664-150 336 1  104 (1  BR) 0 1  104 4  105  BR
BBER 1 664-48 960 2.5  106 (1  BR) 0 2.5  106 1  106  BR
BBER 150 336 5  106 (1  BR) 0 5  10–6 2  106  BR
Table 2.2 - Parameters for the EPO for intermediate countries according to
ITU-T Recommendation G.828
ENGINEERING

Bit rate Lmin  Llink  500km 500km < Llink
Parameter
(kbit/s)
B3 C3 B4 C4
ESR 1 664 5  10–4 (1  BR) 0 5  10–4 1  10–4  BR
ESR 2 240 5  10–4 (1  BR) 0 5  10–4 1  10–4  BR
ESR 6 848 5  10–4 (1  BR) 0 5  10–4 1  10–4  BR
ESR 48 960 1  10–3 (1  BR) 0 1  10–3 2  10–4  BR
ESR 150 336 2  10–3 (1  BR) 0 2  10–3 4  10–4  BR
SESR 1 664-150 336 1  10–4 (1  BR) 0 1  10–4 2  10–5  BR
BBER 1 664-48 960 2.5  10–6 (1  BR) 0 2.5  10–6 5  10–7  BR
BBER 150 336 5  10–6 (1  BR) 0 5  10–6 1  10–6  BR
Table 2.3 - Parameters for the EPO for terminating countries according to
Bit rate Lmin  Llink  1 000km 1 000km < Llink

Parameter
(Mbit/s)
B1 C1 B2 C2
ESR 1.5-5 2  10–3 (1  BR) 0 2  10–3 8  10–4  BR
ESR >5-15 2.5  10–3 (1  BR) 0 2.5  10–3 1  10–3  BR
ESR >15-55 3.75  10–3 (1  BR) 0 3.75  10–3 1.5  10–3  BR
ESR >55-160 8  10–3 (1  BR) 0 8  10–3 3.2  10–3  BR
ESR >160-3 500 Not applicable Not applicable Not applicable Not applicable
SESR 1.5-3 500 1  10–4 (1  BR) 0 1  10–4 4  10–5  BR

BBER 1.5-3 500 1  10–5 (1  BR) 0 1  10–5 4  10–6  BR
Table 2.4 - Parameters for the EPO for intermediate countries according to ITU-T
Recommendation G.826
ENGINEERING

Bit rate Lmin  Llink  500 km 500 km < Llink
Parameter
(Mbit/s) B3 C3 B4 C4
ESR 1.5-5 2  10–3 (1  BR) 0 2  10–3 4  10–4  BR
ESR >5-15 2.5  10–3 (1  BR) 0 2.5  10–3 5  10–4  BR
ESR >15-55 3.75  10–3 (1  BR) 0 3.75  10–3 7.5  10–4  BR
ESR >55-160 8  10–3 (1  BR) 0 8  10–3 1.6  10–3  BR
ESR >160-3 500 Not applicable Not applicable Not applicable Not applicable
SESR 1.5-3 500 1  10–4 (1  BR) 0 1  10–4 2  10–5  BR

BBER 1.5-3 500 1  10–5 (1  BR) 0 1  10–5 2  10–6  BR
Table 2.5 - Parameters for the EPO for terminating countries according to
ENGINEERING

2.4.3 National Portion
FIGURE 1
Basic sections of the national portion of the HRP
L
Path
Path national Terminal
Path access Local core international
end-point element exchange element centre
(PEP) (PAE) (LE) (NPCE) Note 1 (TIC)
Access Short haul Long haul
Note 1 – Depending on the country network architecture, this centre may coincide with a primary centre (PC),
secondary centre (SC) or tertiary centre (TC) (see ITU-T Recommendation G.801).
Access: Access network section, including the connections between PEP and the corresponding local access
switching centre/cross connector (LE). It corresponds to the PAE.
Short haul: Short haul inter-exchange network section, including the connections between a local access
switching centre/cross connector (LE) and a PC, SC or TC (depending on the network architecture).
Long haul: Long haul inter-exchange network section, including the connections between a PC, SC or TIC
(depending on the network architecture) and the corresponding international gateway (IG).
Note 2 – TIC, PAE and NPCE are defined in ITU-T Recommendation M.1010.
1668-01
Figure 2.3 - Basic sections of the national portion of the HRP
The EPOs applicable to each direction of any real fixed wireless link of length L link belonging to the
long haul inter-exchange network sections of the national portion of HRP and HRC the values in
Table 2.6 for SDH systems designed according to ITU-T Recommendation G.828 [3] and in Table
2.7 for other systems designed according to ITU-T Recommendation G.826 [2] should apply. The
lower limit of Llink, used to scale the objectives to the real case, is Lmin50km.
ENGINEERING

Rate 1 664 2 240 6 848 48 960 150 336
(Mbit/s) (VC-11, TC-11) (VC-12, TC-12) (VC-2, TC-2) (VC-3, TC-3) (VC-4, TC-4)
ESR 0.01  A 0.01  0.01  A 0.02  0.04 
SESR 0.002  A
BBER 5  10  A
–5
1  10–4  A
Table 2.6 - EPOs for real SDH fixed wireless links belonging to the long haul inter-exchange
network section of the national portion of the HRP according to ITU-T Rec. G.828
Rate primary
1.5 to 5 5 to 15 15 to 55 55 to 160 160 to 400
(Mbit/s) rate
ESR 0.04 A 0.04 A 0.05 A 0.075 A 0.16 A Not applicable
SESR 0.002 A 0.002 A 0.002 A 0.002 A 0.002 A 0.002 A
BBER(1) Not 2 A  10–4 2 A 10–4 2 A 10–4 2 A 10–4 1 A 10–4
applicable
(1) BBER parameter is applicable only to paths.
Table 2.7 - EPOs for real fixed wireless links belonging to the long haul inter-exchange
network section of the national portion of the HRP and HRC according to ITU-T Rec. G.826
where:
A(A1  0.002) Llink/100 for 50 km  Llink100 km
A  A1  2  10–5 Llink for 100 km  Llink
A1 has provisionally been agreed to be in the range of 0.01 to 0.02 (1% to 2%).
For the EPOs applicable to each direction of any real fixed wireless link forming all of the short
haul network sections of the national portion of the HRP and HRC, the values given in Table 2.8 for
SDH systems designed according to ITU-T Rec. G.828 [3] and in Table 2.9 for other systems
designed according to ITU-T Rec. G.826 [2] should apply.
ENGINEERING

Rate 1 664 2 240 6 848 48 960 150 336
ESR 0.01  B 0.01  B 0.01  B 0.02  B 0.04  B
SESR 0.002  B
BBER 5  10  B
–5
1  10–4  B
Table 2.8 - EPOs for SDH fixed wireless links forming all of the short haul inter-exchange
network section of the national portion of the HRP and HRC according to ITU-T Rec. G.828
Rate
primary rate 1.5 to 5 5 to 15 15 to 55 55 to 160 160 to 400
(Mbit/s)
ESR 0.04 B 0.04 B 0.05 B 0.075 B 0.16 B Not applicable
SESR 0.002 B 0.002 B 0.002 B 0.002 B 0.002 B 0.002 B
BBER Not applicable 2 B  10 –4
2 B 10 –4
2 B 10 –4
2 B 10 –4
1 B 10–4
Table 2.9 - EPOs for fixed wireless links forming all of the short haul inter-exchange network
section of the national portion of the HRP and HRC according to ITU-T Rec. G.826
The value of B has provisionally been agreed to be in the range of 0.075 to 0.085 (7.5% to 8.5%).
The EPOs applicable to each direction of any real fixed wireless link forming all of the access
network sections of the national portion of the HRP and HRC the values given in Table 2.10 for
SDH systems designed according to ITU-T Recommendation G.828 [3] and in Table 2.11 for other
systems designed according to ITU-T Recommendation G.826 [2] should apply.
Rate 1 664 2 240 6 848 48 960 150 336

ESR 0.01  C 0.01  C 0.01  C 0.02  C 0.04  C
SESR 0.002  C
BBER 5  10–5  C 1  10–4  C
Table 2.10 - EPOs for SDH fixed wireless links forming all of the access network section of the
national portion of the HRP according to ITU-T Rec. G.828
ENGINEERING

Rate primary
1.5 to 5 5 to 15 15 to 55 55 to 160 160 to 400
(Mbit/s) rate
ESR 0.04 C 0.04 C 0.05 C 0.075 C 0.16 C Not applicable
SESR 0.002 C 0.002 C 0.002 C 0.002 C 0.002 C 0.002 C
BBER Not applicable 2 C  10 –4
2 C 10 –4
2 C 10 –4
2 C 10 –4
1 C 10–4
Table 2.11 - EPOs for fixed wireless links forming all of the access network section of the
national portion of the HRP and HRC according to ITU-T Rec. G.826
The value of C has provisionally been agreed to be in the range of 0.075 to 0.085 (7.5% to 8.5%)
For the EPOs evaluation the error performance parameters for any real link are defined as follows:
– ESR is the ratio of errored second (ES) events to total seconds in the available time during a
fixed measurement interval;
– SESR is the ratio of severely errored second (SES) events to total seconds in the available
time during a fixed measurement interval;
– BBER is the ratio of background block error (BBE) events to total blocks in the available
time during a fixed measurement interval. The count of total blocks excludes all blocks
during SESs.
Afterwards, the values of A1, B, C in tables 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 2.10, 2.11 has been agreed to the
following conditions:
- The sum of the percentages A1% B% C% shall not exceed 17.5%, in accordance with the
allocations to the national portion of an international CBR path given in ITU-T Rec.G.826 [2].
-The provisional values agreed for B% C% are in the range 15.5% to 16.5%.
ENGINEERING

ITU-T G.828 Recommendation
3.1 Introduction
The Rec. ITU-T G.828 [3] is applicable to international, constant bit rate digital paths based on
Synchronous Digital Hierarchies. While this Recommendation specifically addresses objectives for
international digital paths, the allocation principles can be applied to the design of error
performance for national or private synchronous digital paths. This Recommendation is generic in
that it defines the parameters and objectives for paths independent of the physical transport network
providing the paths.
The parameter definitions are block-based with the block repetition rate in accordance with SDH
technology, making in-service measurement convenient. The objectives given in this
Recommendation are long-term objectives to be met over an evaluation period of typically 30
consecutive days (one month).
3.2 Apportionment of end to end objectives
The error performance objectives are applicable to each direction of the path independently. The
values apply end-to-end over a 27500km Hypothetical Reference Path (see Figure 2.1) which may
include optical fibre, digital radio relay, metallic cable and satellite transmission systems.
For the purpose of the Recommendation ITU-T G.828 [3] the boundary between the national and
international portions is defined to be at an International Gateway which usually corresponds to a
cross-connect, a higher-order multiplexer or a switch (N-ISDN or B-ISDN). IGs are always
terrestrially based equipment physically resident in the terminating (or intermediate) country.
Higher-order paths (relative to the under consideration) may be used between IGs. In intermediate
countries, the IGs are only located in order to calculate the overall length of the international
portion of the path in order to deduce the overall allocation.
The following allocation methodology applies to each parameter defined in Section 3.3 and takes
into account both the length and complexity of the international path. If the overall allocation
exceeds 100%, then the performance could be improved in practical implementations to be superior
to allocated objectives, the occurence of paths exceeding the objectives of Table 1/G.828 [3] can be
minimized.
Each national portion is allocated a fixed block allowance of 17.5% of the end-to-end objective.
The international portion is allocated a block allowance of 2% per intermediate country plus 1% for
each terminating country.
Furthermore, a distance-based allocation is added to the block allowance: an allocation of 1% per
500 km is applied.
The figure 3 shows the allocation for both international and national portion.
ENGINEERING

The Rec. ITU-T G.828 [3] is based upon the error performance measurement of blocks. The error
performance parameters and events are the same of ITU-T G.826 [2].
For ITU-T G.828 [3] there is an additional error performance event and an additional error
performance parameter:
 severely errored period (SEP): A sequence of between 3 to 9 consecutive SES. The
sequence is terminated by a second which is not a SES.
 Severely Errored Period Intensity (SEPI): The number of SEP events in available time,
divided by the total available time in seconds. (See Notes 1, 2 and 3.)
NOTE 1 – The SEPI parameter has a unit of (1/s). This is to enable the SEPI objective to be easily translated
to the equivalent number of SEP events over a specific measurement interval. It should be noted that the SEP
event has no significance over a time interval of less than three seconds.
NOTE 2 – Ongoing studies of the SEP event and the SEPI parameter shall prove their usefulness in
complementing the SESR parameter. Any objectives for the SEPI parameter (presently under study) shall
empirically demonstrate this value.
NOTE 3 – The impact of SEP/SEPI on customer services has to be investigated.
ENGINEERING

4 Availability objectives
4.1 Availability objectives for real digital fixed wireless links used in
27500km hypothetical reference paths and connections (Rec.
ITU-R F.1703)
The national portion of the 27500km HRP can be subdivided into three basic sections (see Fig.4.1);
FIGURE 1
Basic sections of the national portion of the HRP
National L
Path path core Terminal
Path access Local element international
end-point element exchange (NPCE) centre
(PEP) (PAE) (LE) Note 1
(TIC)
Access Short haul Long haul

portion portion portion
Note 1 – Depending on the country network architecture, this centre may coincide with a primary centre (PC),
secondary centre (SC) or tertiary centre (TC) (see ITU-T Recommendation G.801).
Access: Access network section, including the connections between PEP and the corresponding local access
switching centre/cross connector LE. It corresponds to the PAE.
Short haul: Short haul network portion, including the connections between a local access switching centre/cross
connector, LE, and a PC, SC or TC (depending on the network architecture).
Long haul: Long haul network portion, including the connections between a PC, SC or TIC (depending on the
network architecture) and the corresponding international gateway (IG).
Note 2 – TIC, PAE and NPCE are defined in ITU-T Recommendation M.1010.
1703-01
Figure 4.1 – Extract from Rec. ITU-R F. 1703
Availability objectives are applicable to any real digital fixed wireless link according to the portion
of network in the real digital path:
 Link forming part of the international portion or belonging to the long-haul network portion
of the national portion are fixed-block plus distance-based allocated.
 Link belonging to the access and short-haul network are fixed block-based (i.e. length
independent);
ENGINEERING

Availability objectives of a link of length, Llink, can be derived from the values given in Tables 4.1,
4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 by means of following equations for the availability ratio (AR) and mean time
between outage (Mo), or the reciprocal of Mo, outage intensity (OI),
Llink  
availability ratio = AR  1   B j
 C j 
 LR 
1
Mo  1 / OI 
mean time between outage = L
Dj link  E j
LR
where:
the value of j is:
for international portion:
1 for Lmin  Llink  250km
2 for 250km  Llink  2500km
3 for 2500km  Llink  7500km
4 for Llink  7500km
for national portion:
5 for access network
6 for short haul
7 for long haul
LR: reference length LR=2500km.
The lower limit of Llink used to scale the objectives is Lmin  50km.
The values of Bj, Cj, Dj and Ej are given in Tables 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4. The parameter OI refers to
the number of unavailability events per year, so its reciprocal Mo has to be multiplied by the
number of seconds in a year to represent the effective mean time between the unavailability events
that have occurred in a year expressed in seconds.
Availability objectives should be partitioned in order to take into account unavailability events due
to propagation events, equipment failure, human intervention and other causes.
For the case when the link is composed of more than one hop, the objectives are applicable for the
whole link.
Objectives for radio link forming part of any path element composing the international portion (i.e.
inter-country path core element (ICPCE) and international path core element (IPCE)) should in any
case not exceed the objectives defined in ITU-T Recommendation G.827.
The overall objectives for the national portion (i.e. obtained by adding the objectives of access
network, short haul and long haul) implemented by fixed wireless systems should not exceed in any
case the objectives defined in ITU-T Recommendation G.827 for the national portion element.
Length (km) Lmin  Llink  250 250  Llink  2 500 2 500  Llink  7 500 Llink ³ 7 500
B1 C1 B2 C2 B3 C3 B4 C4
International 1.9  10 –3
1.1  10 –4
3  10 –3
0 3  10 –3
0 3  10 –3
0
portion
ENGINEERING

Table 4.1 - Parameters for AR objectives for links forming part of an international portion
of constant bit-rate digital path
Short-haul
Access portion Long-haul portion
portion
B5 C5 B6 C6 B7 C7
0 5  10–4 0 4  10–4 310–3 for 250km  Llink  2500km 0 for 250km  Llink  2500km
1,910 –3
for Lmin  Llink  250km 1.1  10–4 for LminLlin250km
Table 4.2 - Parameters for AR objectives for links forming part of a national portion
of constant bit-rate digital path element
Length (km) Lmin  Llink  250 250  Llink  2 500 2 500  Llink  7 500 Llink ³ 7 500
D1 E1 D2 E22 D3 E3 D4 E4
International 150 50 100 55 100 55 100 55
portion
Table 4.3 - Parameters for OI objectives for links forming part of an international portion
of constant bit-rate digital path
Short-haul
Access portion Long-haul portion
portion
D5 E5 D6 E6 D7 E7
0 100 0 120 100 for 250km  Llink  2500km 55 for 250km  Llink  2500km
150 for Lmin  Llink  250km 50 for Lmin  Llink 250km
Table 4.4 - Parameters for OI objectives for links forming part of a national portion
of constant bit-rate digital path element
ENGINEERING

5 ITU-T and ITU-R Recommendations referred to
performance and availability objectives and maintenance
In the following table are summarized the ITU Recommendations referred to the performance and
availability objectives in ITU-T G.821 [1], ITU-T G.826 [2] and ITU-T G.828 [3].
Performance Availability
Objectives Objectives
High Grade Rec. ITU-R F.634-4 [10] Rec. ITU-R F.695 [13]
ITU-T G.821
Medium Grade Rec. ITU-R F.696-4 [9] Rec. ITU-R F.696-4 [9]
Local Grade Rec. ITU-R F.697-2 [11] Rec. ITU-R F.697-2 [11]
International and
ITU-T G.826 Rec. ITU-R F.1668 [14] - Rec. ITU-R F.1703 [15]
National Portion
International and
ITU-T G.828 Rec. ITU-R F.1668 [14] - Rec. ITU-R F.1703 [15]
National Portion
Table 4.1 - Recommendations referred to G.821-G.826-G.828 objectives
Maintenance on specific systems and transport paths may require other parameters. Parameters and
values can be found in the M-series Recommendations. See, for example, Recommendations
M.2100 and M.2101. These Recommendations allow short-term measurements. They can be used to
indicate that the long-term requirements of Recommendation G.821 [1],G.826 [2] and G.828 [3] are
met.
ENGINEERING

6 Link budget
In order to calculate the received power level, it’s necessary take into account different attenuations
that have an influence on the radio propagation. The link budget general formula can be writing as
follow:
PRx  PTx  AFS  GTx  G Rx  AFTx  AFRx  ABTx  ABRx  AK  AV  AG (6.1)
where:
PRx : Received power level [dBm]

PTx : Transmitted power [dBm]
AFS : Free space attenuation [dB]
GTx : Transmitting antenna gain [dBi]
G Rx : Receiving antenna gain [dBi]
AFTx : Transmitter feeder attenuation [dB]
AFRx : Receiver feeder attenuation [dB]
ABTx : Transmitter branching loss [dB]
ABRx : Receiver branching loss [dB]
AK : Obstacle diffraction loss [dB]
AV : Attenuation due to vegetation [dB]
AG : Attenuation due to atmosphere gas [dB]
It is worth nothing that PTx represents the transmitted output power for each carrier active on the
radio link. As an example, for multicarrier radio equipment the output power relevant to each
carrier must be used instead of the overall output power at the antenna port. In fact, the output
power at the antenna port is N times the output power of each single carrier where N represents the
number of active RF carriers.
GTx , GRx depend on the antennas deployed on the radio link. The “ AB ” parameters (branching
losses) instead are depending on system configuration and are supplied by the equipment
manufacture. The “ AF ” parameters (feeder losses) depends on the installed configuration and on
the type of deployed feeder. The possible configuration can be: with integral antenna or with
separated antenna. In case of integral antenna configuration, feeder losses are negligible. In case of
separated antenna, it is necessary to know the length of the feeders. Feeders can be coaxial cable or
waveguide. Feeder manufactures provides feeder attenuation as a function of the feeder’s length.
The other parameters represent deterministic attenuation that can be estimate according to timely
input data.
In next paragraph we will describe the method for deterministic attenuation calculation as free space
attenuation, diffraction and attenuation due to vegetation and atmospheric gas.
ENGINEERING

6.1 Free space attenuation
In free space condition the electromagnetic wave propagation is supposed to be in a homogeneous
medium with constant characteristics and without obstacles. In these conditions, the parameters that
have an influence on the electromagnetic propagation are as follows: frequency carrier, transmitted
power, antennas gain and link lengths.
In the case of isotropic antenna (unitary gain), the power density at a distance r from the
transmitter is:
WT
p iso 
4π r 2
where WT is the transmitted power. Since the transmission antenna has a gain GT , the power
density in a direction of maximum of radiation at a distance r is:
WT
p GT
4π r 2
The received power can be calculated as follow:
W R  pAeff
where WR is the received power and Aeff is the effective area of the receiving antenna which is
related to its gain by the following formula:
c2
Aeff  G
4π f 2
Hence, the received power is given by:
2
 c 
W R  W T GT G R  
 4 r f 
and the free space attenuation can be calculated from:
2
WR  4 r f 
AFS   
WT GT G R  c 
6.2 Diffraction attenuation

The presence of obstacles on the propagation path produces an additional term of attenuation due to
diffraction by them.
The space between transmitter and receiver can be subdivided into a ellipsoid family, known as
Fresnel ellipsoids, all having their focal points at A and B such that any point M on one ellipsoid
satisfies the relation:

AM  MB  AB  n
2
where n is the ordinal number characterizing the ellipsoid ( n  1 corresponds to the first ellipsoid,
etc.) and  is the wavelength.
As a practical rule, propagation is assumed to occur in line-of-sight, i.e. with negligible diffraction
phenomena, if there is no obstacle within the first Fresnel ellipsoid. The radius of an ellipsoid in a
point between the transmitter and the receiver is given by the following formula:
ENGINEERING

n  d 1d 2
Rn 
d1  d 2
where d1 and d 2 are the distances between transmitter and receiver at the point where the
ellipsoid radius is calculated.
Diffraction can be caused from:
 earth curvature;
 obstacles due to irregular of terrain.
6.2.1 Diffraction over a spherical earth
The additional attenuation due to the earth curvature can be evaluated by the following formulae:
E
20 log  F (d )  H ( h1 )  H ( h2 )
E0
where:
 E: received electric field intensity;
 E0 : electric field intensity in free space propagation at the same distance;
 d: link length;
 h1 , h2 : heights of the antennas above the spherical earth.
The functions F (take into account the distance) and H (take into account the antennas heights
above the earth) can be evaluated either analytically or by diagrams (see Recommendation ITU-R
P.526).
You take into account that the physical medium for the propagation is the atmosphere where the
refractive index is not constant in the space, but decrease with the altitude. Consequently the
electromagnetic wave cannot be considered as optical rays (i.e. rays is not straight line but a curve).
In practice you take into account of this phenomenon by an appropriate earth equivalent radius for
the functions F and H evaluation (Recommendation ITU-R P.834-5 [17]).
6.2.2 Diffraction over obstacles and irregular terrain
The propagation path can encounter one or several separate obstacles. Then it’s useful to estimate
the losses caused by diffraction over the obstacles. To make such calculations it’s necessary to use
models of the obstacles that can be found in nature. A single knife-edge obstacle of negligible
thickness represents the first example (Figure 6.1).
ENGINEERING

Figure 6.1 - Geometrical elements
In this extremely idealized case, all the geometrical parameters are combined together in a single
dimensionless parameter named  and given by:
2 1 1 
 h   
  d1 d 2 
where:
h: height of the top of the obstacle above the straight line joining the two ends of the
path. If the height is below this line, h is negative.
d1 , d 2 : distances of the two ends of the path from the top of the obstacle.
For  greater than -0.7 an approximate value can be obtained from the expression:
J    6.9  20 log   0 .1   1    0 .1  (*)
2
 
 
where J   is the loss[dB], in function of  , caused by the presence of the obstacle (see Figure
6.2).
ENGINEERING

Figure 6.2 - Knife-edge diffraction loss
This method can be used also to estimate the diffraction in case of double isolated edges,
considering the top of the first obstacle as a source for diffraction over the second obstacle (see
Figure 6.3).
Figure 6.3 - Methods for double isolated edges
ENGINEERING

The first obstacle is defined by equivalent parameters as for single knife-edge obstacle: the
distances a and b and the height h1 ' , that give a loss L1 [dB]. The second obstacle is defined
by the distances b and c and the height h2 ' that give a loss L2 [dB]. L1 and L2 are calculated
using formula (*).
In addiction, it’s necessary estimate a correction term Lc as follows:
  a  b  b  c  
Lc  10 log  
 b a  b  c  
which is valid when each of L1 and L2 exceeds 15 dB. In this case, the total diffraction loss is
then given by:
L  L1  L2  Lc
The recommendation ITU-R P.526-9 [16] presents other method for the calculation of diffraction
over obstacles by means different models of the obstacle, as, for example, the single rounded
obstacle.
6.3 Attenuation due to vegetation

Attenuation due to vegetation can be very important, in some circumstances, for terrestrial line-of-
sight systems. However, the wide range of conditions and types of foliage makes it difficult to
develop a generalized prediction procedure for estimate the value of this kind of attenuation.
Generally two types of measurement are described in literature:
a) ground-to-ground measurements, over paths of the order of 100 m or more, in woodland, forest
or jungle with antenna heights of 2-3 m above ground, with only part of the ray path passing
through foliage. This class is designated as “long paths”.
b) “short paths” ground-to-ground measurement through the foliage of individual trees, with foliage
depths of no more than 10-15 m.
Figure 6.4 (obtained from Recommendation ITU-R P.833-5 [18]) shows the curves of measured
specific attenuation for “long paths” at frequencies from 30 MHz to 3 GHz, plus a single
measurement above 10 GHz shown as a diamond. Measurements for “short paths” are shown as
squares, with dB/m values up to seven times those for “long paths”. The data refer only to the
additional attenuation caused by woodland to a ray passing through it and represent an approximate
average for all types of woodland.
At frequencies above about 1 GHz, no definite dependence on polarization is evident, whereas at
lower frequencies the vertical structure of woodland (tree trunks) may be a significant factor.
However there can be also variations of attenuation due to the movement of foliage, such as due to
wind.
ENGINEERING

Figure 6.4 - Specific attenuation in vegetation
6.4 Attenuation due to atmospheric gas

The main phenomenon about atmospheric gas is represented to the fact that atmospheric gas
produces an electromagnetic wave assortment. For example, steam can be modelled as an infinite
number of electric dipoles. When steam is through by an electromagnetic wave, the electromagnetic
energy is converted to mechanical energy (i.e. the same phenomenon of microwave ovens).
Clearly, this phenomenon of assortment depends by frequency. Figure 6.5 shows the curves of
attenuation due to oxygen and steam as function of frequency.
ENGINEERING

Figure 6.5 - Attenuation due to atmospheric gases
ENGINEERING

7 Basic concepts on antennas
Antennas provide the means to radiate the electromagnetic energy coming from the radio equipment
towards the air interface. The frequencies most commonly used for fixed radio link are from a few
hundred of MHz to tens of GHz. The antennas most commonly used for fixed radio link are of
parabolic type.
The basic structure of reflector antennas is shown in figure 7.1.
Figure 7.1 - Reflector antennas operation principles

A parabolic antenna is made of:
1. a iron parabola named “REFLECTOR”.
2. an electromagnetic source named “FEED”.
If we assume electromagnetic waves like a light rays, the behaviour of a reflector antenna is like a
lens. In fact, the feed is placed on the focus of parabolic reflector. The reflector reflects the rays
emitted by the feed towards the direction parallel to the antenna axis. In the same way, the rays
coming parallels to the antenna axis, are reflected on the focus of the reflector. Differently other
rays not parallel to the antenna axis, will partially be reflected towards the feed.
7.1 Radiation pattern

The Radiation Pattern represents the most important feature for antennas. The radiation pattern
provides, for each direction, information on the capacity of the antenna to radiate the
electromagnetic field. The radiation pattern is defined as follow:
| E (,  ) | 2
d (,  ) 
| E ( M ,  M ) | 2
where | E (,  ) | 2 represents the module of the electric field radiated in the direction ( ,  ) and
| E (  M ,  M ) | 2 represents the maximum value of the module of the electric field radiated in the
direction ( M ,  M ) .
By using a dB scale (decibel), the radiation pattern is defined as follows:
ENGINEERING

 | E ( ,  ) | 2 
d (,  ) |dB  10 Log10  
2 
 | E (  M ,  M ) | 
It’s useful to note that the square of the electric field represents, a part of some constants, a power
density. That means, the radiation pattern provides, for each direction, the information on the
amount of radiated power density.
In general, the radiation pattern is a 3D diagram. However, manufactures provide only two
diagrams:
- Azimuth diagram
- Elevation diagram
The Azimuth diagram represents the cut of the radiation pattern made over the plane (   0  ) . The
Elevation diagram represents the cut of the radiation pattern over the plane (  90  ) . In figure 7.2
are shown the examples both for the azimuth and the elevation diagram.
-10
Elev
-20
[dB]
-30
Azim
-40
-50
-60
-180 -160 -140 -120 -100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
GRADI [°]
Figure 7.2 - Section of Azimuth and Elevation of radiation pattern

Antenna manufactures provide, both for the Azimuth diagram and the Elevation diagram, the -3 dB
angle. These angles represent the angles at which the Azimuth and the Elevation diagrams reach the
-3 dB (see figure 7.2). In other words, the -3 dB angles, represents the direction (in Azimuth and
Elevation) at which the antenna radiate half of the power.
A very important concept is that antennas can always be used both for transmission and reception:
at a given frequency, the radiation pattern of the antenna used for transmission is the same of
the one used for reception. In the following we will refer to the radiation pattern without
mentioning its usage (transmission or reception)
In practice, however, transmission frequencies are different from receiving frequencies so that a
slight change on the radiation pattern should taken into account.
ENGINEERING

7.2 Antenna gain
The antenna gain represents the capacity of the antenna to concentrate the feeding power in a given
direction. The antenna gain is defined as follows:
p(  ,  )
g ISO (,  ) 
P0
4
where p ( ,  ) represents the power density per solid angle unity, P0 represents the feeding
power and the label ISO means isotropic.
Also the gain has a 3D diagram. In itself, the gain has the same diagram as the Radiation Pattern:
the only difference is due to the range of values taken by the two parameters. For that reason,
antenna manufactures provide, with the Radiation Pattern, only the maximum gain that is the gain
along the direction ( M ,  M ) . The maximum gain is usually provided in dBi scale:
 
 
p (  ,  )
G  10Log 10  M M 
dB i
 P0 
 
 4 
A practical formula to estimate the maximum gain from the radiation pattern is as follow:
 30000 
G dB i  10Log 10  

 Az  3 dB  El  3dB 
where Az  3 dB represents the Azimuth 3 dB angle and El  3 dB represents the Elevation 3 dB angle.
In the same way, it is possible to estimate the gain for a parabolic antenna by using its diameter:
2
 D
G  10Log 10 5 
 
dBi
where D represents the antenna diameter and  represents the wave length:
c

f
where c represents the light speed and f represents the frequency.
7.3 Antenna polarization

The most used antennas can be classified under two main classes (circular polarized antennas are
not considered in this document):
- Vertically Polarised
- Horizontally Polarised
The polarisation represents the orientation of the electrical field radiated or received by the antenna.
The transmitting and receiving antenna in a radio link must have the same polarisation. In fact, the
antenna, polarised as one of the above classes, rejects the electromagnetic wave radiated by
antennas of the other class. The ability of the antennas to reject electromagnetic waves with a
different polarisation is measured by means of the cross-polarisation diagram. The cross-
polarisation diagram is defined as follow:
2
E  (,  )
d  (,  )  2
E ( M ,  M )
ENGINEERING

2
where E  ( ,  ) represents the module of the cross-polar (e.g. opposite polarisation) electric
field radiated in the direction (,  ) and E ( M ,  M ) represents the maximum module of the
2
co-polar radiation pattern (e.g. same polarisation) electric field radiated in the direction ( M ,  M ) .
As for the RP, the cross-polarisation diagram is 3D. In the same way as the RP, antenna
manufactures provide two diagrams that represents the cut of the cross-polar diagram on the planes
(   0  ) and (   90  ) . These diagrams are most commonly named as "VH" and "HV" diagrams.
However, the "VH" and "HV" diagrams assume different meaning depending on the antenna
polarisation. Also the Azimuth and Elevation diagrams are named with another equivalent
terminology. In fact, the Azimuth and Elevation diagrams are also called "VV" and "HH" diagrams.
As for the cross-polar diagrams, the "VV" and "HH" diagrams assume a different meaning
depending on the antenna polarisation while the terms AZIMUTH and ELEVATION do not depend
on the particular polarisation.
Table 7.1 summarises all the necessary information relevant to the terminology used to define both
the RP and the cross-polarisation diagrams.
Manufacture
Antenna Polarisation Diagram Cut Plane
Terminology
AZIMUTH   0 VV
ELEVATION   90  HH

VERTICAL CROSS-POLAR 0 VH
CROSS-POLAR   90  HV

AZIMUTH 0 HH

ELEVATION   90 VV
HORIZONTAL CROSS-POLAR   0 HV

CROSS-POLAR   90 VH
Table 7.1 – Terminology used for definition of the antenna diagrams
7.4 Cross-Polar discrimination (XPD)
ENGINEERING

The XPD parameter is defined as follow:
Power received on H(V) polarization and trasmitted on H(V) polarization
XPD 
Power received on orthogonal V(H) polarization and trasmitted on H(V) polarization
The XPD parameter is characterising of antenna performances. However, as it will be clear
subsequently, it is also used to define the behaviour of the propagation medium as, for example,
double polarized link.
Regarding antennas, the XPD parameter represents the capacity of antenna to reject the signal with
orthogonal polarization. Consequently, the XPD parameter is tightly tied at antenna’s diagrams and
can be thoroughly represented by a 3D diagram. In fact, the XPD parameter is the difference
expressed in decibel (dB) between co-polar and cross-polar diagrams. In figures showing examples
of antenna diagrams is possible to see the XPD value for each different radiated direction. It is
important to underline that the evaluation of XPD parameter must be done using the appropriate
couple of co-polar and cross-polar diagrams. For example, VV co-polar diagram must be used with
VH cross-polar diagram in order to evaluate XPD parameter. Next paragraphs show the radiation
patterns of the antennas in the frequency ranges 6L GHz, 13 GHz and 18 GHz.
ENGINEERING

7.5 Antenna radiation patterns
7.5.1 Antennas operating in the 6U GHz band
RADIATION PARTTERN OF HP4-65

0
-10 VV and HH
VH and HV
-20
[dB]
-30
-40
-50
-60
-180 -150 -120 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Deg. [°]
Figure 7.3 - Radiation pattern of HP4-65 antenna – Gain: 36 dBi
ENGINEERING

RADIATION PATTERN HP6-65
0
-10
HH
-20 VV
-30 HV
[dB]
VH
-40
-50
-60
-70
-180 -150 -120 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Deg. [°]
Figure 7.4 - Radiation pattern of HP6-65W antenna – Gain: 39.5 dBi
RADIATION PATTERN OF HP8-65

0
-10
-20 HH
VV
-30
[dB]
HV
-40 VH
-50
-60
-70
-180 -150 -120 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
deg [°]
Figure 7.5 - Radiation pattern of HP8-65W antenna – Gain: 42.3 dBi
ENGINEERING

7.5.2 Antennas operating in the 13 GHz band
RADIATION PATTERN OF
VHLP1-130
0
-10
-20 H-H
H-V
[dB]
-30
V-V
-40 V-H
-50
-60
-180 -150 -120 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Angle[°]
Figure 7.6 - Radiation pattern of VHLP1-130 antenna – Gain: 30.8 dBi
VHLP 2-130
-10
-20
H-H
-30 H-V
[dB]
-40 V-V
-50 V-H
-60
-70
-180 -150 -120 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Angle [°]

ENGINEERING

VHLP 2.5-130
-10
-20
H-H
-30 H-V
[dB]
-40 V-V
V-H
-50
-60
-70
-180 -150 -120 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Angle [°]
Figure 7.8 - Radiation pattern of VHLP2.5-130 antenna – Gain: 38.4 dBi
VHLP 4-130
0
-10
-20
H-H
-30
H-V
[dB]
-40
V-V
-50
V-H
-60
-70
-80
-180 -150 -120 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Angle [°]
Figure 7.9 - Radiation pattern of VHLP4-130 antenna – Gain: 42 dBi
ENGINEERING

7.5.3 Antennas operating in the 18 GHz band
VHLP1-180
-10
-20 H-H
H-V
[dB]
-30
V-V
-40 V-H
-50
-60
-180 -150 -120 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Angle [°]
Figure 7.10 - Radiation pattern of VHLP1-180 antenna – Gain: 34 dBi
VHLP2 -180
0
-10
-20
H-H
-30
H-V
[dB]
-40
V-V
-50
-60
V-H
-70
-80
-180 -150 -120 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Angle [°]
ENGINEERING

VHLP 2.5-180
0
-10
-20
H-H
-30
H-V
[dB]
-40
-50 H-V
-60 V-H
-70
-80
-180 -150 -120 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Angle [°]
Figure 7.12 - Radiation pattern of VHLP2.5-180 antenna – Gain: 41 dBi
VHLP 4-180
0
-10
-20
-30 H-H
-40 H-V
[dB]
-50 V-V
-60
V-H
-70
-80
-90
-180 -150 -120 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
Angle [°]
ENGINEERING

8 Net Filter Discrimination
8.1 NFD definition
The most important parameter for radio link designing in presence of interference is the NFD (Net
Filter Discrimination). The NFD represents the ability of the receiving filters to reject the
interference coming from the interfering transmitter operating on adjacent RF channel or on the
same RF channel. Based on this consideration, we can observe that the NFD depends only on:
 the spectrum of the interfering transmitter
 the overall filter of the interfered equipment
 the distance between the interfering and the interfered frequency carriers.
In fact, the NFD does not take into account of any antenna discrimination (neither co-polar nor
cross-polar (XPD)). The NFD is usually defined by considering a single sideband interfering
transmitter: if a double sideband like modulated interfering transmitters are considered, the NFD
will become 3 dB lower than the one calculated with a single side band interfering transmitter.
Many mathematical definitions have been given for defining the NFD. The correct one is as
follows:
C
 
 I  After All Filtering
NFD  (8.1)
C
 
 I  At the Antenna Port
The previous expression represents the ratio between the C/I (Carrier over Interference) ratio after
the whole filtering process (RF, IF and base-band) at the output of the interfered receiver and the
C/I ratio at the antenna port. Expression (8.1) can be better explained by means of fig. 8.1 and fig.
8.2. In fig. 8.1 are shown the interfering power level at the antenna port (black dashed area) and
interfering power level after the filtering (red dashed area). In fig. 8.2 are shown the desired power
levels at the antenna port (blue dashed area) and the desired power levels after filtering (yellow
dashed area).
ENGINEERING

[dB] 0
Interfering
Interfering Transimmter's
Transmitter’s -5
Spectrum
Spectrum
Interfered
Interfered Receiver's Filter
Receiver’s Filter -10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-50
-80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
[MHz]
Figure 8.1 - Interfering spectrum and interfered filter
[dB] 0
-5
Desired Spectrum
Interfered Receiver's
-10
Filter
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-50
-80 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
[MHz]
Figure 8.2 - Desired spectrum and receiver filter
Unfortunately, the estimation of all terms in (8.1) could be difficult and there could be precision’s
mistakes. For these reasons, the NFD estimation is usually carried out by using the relationship in
[4]:
P
NFD  c (8.2)
Pa
ENGINEERING

where Pc represents the total power received after co-channel RF, IF and base band filtering and
Pa is the total power received after offset RF, IF and base-band filtering.
In practise, (8.2) estimates the NFD by means of the ratio of the total interfering power level (fig.
8.1 – black dashed area) and the share of the interfering power level that get into the receiving filter
of the interfered equipment (figure 8.1 – red dashed area). Basically, in (8.2) it is neglected the
contribution due to the ratio between the total desired power level (fig. 8.2 – blue dashed area) and
the share of the desired power level that get into its receiving filter (fig. 8.2 – yellow dashed area).
In practice, (8.2) neglects the loss on the desired power level introduced by its own receiving filter.
By means of (8.2) it is possible to estimate NFD values that are 0.51.0 dB higher that those
estimated by means of (8.1).
8.2 NFD calculation

As shown in (8.2), the NFD calculation can be made by estimating the following integrals:
 S ( f )df

NFD  (8.3)
 S ( f )  H ( f ) df
2
where S ( f ) represents the power spectral density of the interfering signals and H ( f ) represents
the transfer function of the whole interfered receiving filter.
Both S ( f ) and H ( f ) must be provided by the equipment’s manufacture. If the required

information ( S ( f ) and H ( f ) ) is not available, the procedure suggested in [6] could be followed.
In practice, [6] provides a methodology to extrapolate the interfering power spectral density and the
receiving interfered filter from the ESTI spectrum masks. In fig. 8.3 it is shown the method for
extrapolating the interfering power spectral density while in fig. 8.4 is shown the method for
extrapolating the interfered receiving filter.
ENGINEERING

Figure 8.3 - Example of the method for spectrum extrapolation in [6]
Figure 8.4 - Example of the method for receiving filter extrapolation in [6]
In Annex D are listed the NFD values for most of the SIAE equipment in the 6U, 13 and 18 GHz
bands. The NFD values have been estimated under the following assumptions:
 The NFD value have bee estimated by using the relationships (8.2 – 8.3)
 The interfering power spectral densities have been obtained by using measured main lobes
which have been connected to the ETSI masks as shown in fig. 8.5
 The receiving interfered filters are the measured ones and include all filtering contributions
(RF, IF and base-band)
ENGINEERING

In most of the cases, the contribution of the RF filter to the interfering power spectral density was
negligible due to its wideness. However, for those frequency bands in which it is common practice
to use selective RF filter (for example 6U GHz band), its selectivity contribution to the interfering
power spectral density has also been taken into account. In these cases, the ETSI spectrum mask
floors were not taken into consideration.
Measured main spectrum lobe
Connections to the ETSI

spectrum mask
Figure 8.5 - Differences between SIAE methodology and method in [6]
8.3 Effects of the interference over digital radio link

Interference are basically caused by other radio equipment operating in the same frequency band.
The increasingly demand for capacity and the limited amount of spectrum availability lead to the
reuse of the RF channels with unavoidable interference between links. These interferences could
come from co-channel frequency carriers or also from adjacent channels. Regardless the source of
interference, these unwanted signals must be keep under control in order to guarantee the desired
quality and unavailability objectives of the radio link.
The main interference effects on the radio link can be summarised as in fig. 8.6
ENGINEERING

Margin with I = 0
Margin with I = 0
Margin with I 0 Decision Area Margin with I 0
Sp Sp
Decision Area
MODULATION 4QAM MODULATION 16QAM
Figure 8.6 - Interference effects on digital modulation
Let us suppose the presence of a co-channel interference that has been added to the desired signal
with a certain C/I ratio. Let us also suppose the interfering signal deploy a digital modulation
(Note ). The interfering signal will have a random phase so that it could have been added to the
1
desired signal as shown in fig. 8.6 (worst case). As can be seen from fig. 8.6, the presence of
interference causes a reduction of the margin against thermal noise. As an example, for 4QAM

modulation, the margin against thermal noise without interference is S P / 2 . In presence of 
interference the margin with respect thermal noise become  S P / 2  I p  where I p represents the
amplitude of the interfering signal. As a consequence, the BER performance of the radio equipment
suffers a degradation that, in itself, is a function of the C/I ratio. In practice, the presence of
interference produces a threshold degradation at any given BER as shown in fig. 8.7. As an
example, let us consider a BER=106 and a C/I ratio of 17 dB. As can be seen in fig. 8.7, the radio
equipment will achieve a BER=106 with a power threshold level 2 dB higher than the threshold
without interference. In order to graphically summarise this phenomena, radio equipment are
characterised by a set of threshold degradation curves as the one shown in fig. 8.8. Basically, for
any given BER, a set of curves, representing the threshold degradation as a function of the C/I ratio,
should be supplied by the equipment manufacture.
In this chapter we have been talking about cochannel interference. Nevertheless, on air are also
present many interference coming from adjacent channels. For this reason, a very big set of
threshold degradation curve would be necessary. However, this is an impracticable methodology
taking into account of the infinite number of adjacent frequency carriers. In order to go over this
problem, the usage of the NFD parameter is mandatory. Let us suppose to have the same kind of
interfering signal that produce the threshold degradation curve in fig. 8.8 but, instead of being co-
1 CW and analogue interfering signal will not taken into account in this document
ENGINEERING

channel, it is now on the 1st adjacent channel. If we measure the threshold degradation curve with
the 1st adjacent channel interfering we will find out the red curve drawn in fig. 8.9. As shown, the
difference between the co-channel and the 1st adjacent degradation curves is basically equal to the
NFD. This is a very important result: the effects of adjacent interfering signal are basically the same
as the co-channel interfering signal a part the NFD scaling factor. Tanks to this result, the
interference analysis for any given radio link can be done by considering all interfering signals as a
co-channel interference. Before estimating the overall C/I ratio at the interfered receiver, all
interfering signal level coming from any adjacent channel must be scaled by the proper NFD factor.
1.E-01
1.E-02
1.E-03
No Interf
1.E-04 C/I=911
C/I=11
13
B.E.R.
C/I=13
16
C/I=15
17
1.E-05
C/I=18
20
1.E-06
1.E-07
1.E-08
-97 -96 -95 -94 -93 -92 -91 -90 -89 -88 -87 -86 -85 -84 -83
PRx
Figure 8.7 - Example of BER performance for a digital radio equipment operating with
4QAM modulation and co-channel interference
ENGINEERING

Threshold Degradation Curve BER=10^-6
5.0
4.0
Pth Degr. [dB]
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0 C/Imin
14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
C/I [dB]
Figure 8.8 - Example of threshold degradation curve for a BER=10-6, co-channel interference
and 4QAM modulation
Threshold Degradation Curve for BER=10^-6

4.5
4.0 1st Adj Channel
3.5 Co-Channel
3.0
Pth Degr. [dB]
2.5 NFD
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
-12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
C/I [dB]
Figure 8.9 - Comparison between the threshold degradation curves (BER=10 -6) with co-
channel and 1st adjacent interference - 4QAM modulation
ENGINEERING

8.4 Interfering power calculation
Base on the important concepts introduced in §8.3, it is possible describe the method for
calculating the interfering power levels. In practice, the interference calculation can be done by
using the same method described in § 6. By using expression (6.1) it is possible to estimate the
interfering power levels at each end of the radio link. The interference levels must be treated, at the
first stage, as a co-channel interference. At the second stage, a proper NFD scaling must be applied
before estimating the overall amount of interference entering the interfered receiver. If a link is
deployed with frequency re-use configuration (same frequency carrier both for vertical and
horizontal polarisation) the amount of interference between its own polarisations must not be taken
into account because the outage for frequency re-used configuration is estimated by means of a
dedicated contribution as it will be explained in § 10.
Let us define I f i as the ith interfering signal level operating f i far from the frequency carrier
(i )
of the interfered signal. The overall amount of interfering signal level can be calculated as follows:
 I f  NFD ( f i ) 
(i )
  dBm
i
I  10 log 10   10 10
 (8.4)
 i 
where:
(i )
 I f i are expressed in dBm
 NFD( f i ) represents the NFD scaling value taken from the proper NFD curve (Annex B)
8.4.1 Example
Let us consider the network layout shown in fig. 8.10. The basic input necessary for interfering
calculation can be summarised as follows:
 Link capacity: 4x2 Mbit/s
 Frequency band: 18 GHz
 Antennas: 0.3 m (fig. 7.10) with a gain of 34 dBi
 Output power: 20 dBm
 Type of installation: integral antenna (feeder losses are negligible)
 Configuration: 1+0 (branching losses are null)
 Power threshold level: -89 dBm (including all filter losses)
 Link A-D and link A-B are co-channel while link A-C is operating on the 1st adjacent channel
(7MHz)
 NFD between adjacent channel, like modulated: 26 dB
 All link are in Line Of Sight (LOS) without any additional losses
 Polarisation: vertical
 Duplex scheme: FDD
Based on these input parameters we can use expression 6.1 to estimate the power interfering level.
Let us consider the following couple of links: Link A-D (desired) and Link A-C (interfering)
ENGINEERING

In this case, the radio terminal located in site A will be interfered by the terminal located in site C
and the terminal locate in site D will be interfered by the radio terminal located in A (the one of the
interfering link). Intra-site interference must not be considered because the duplex scheme is FDD
Basically, it is necessary to calculate two link budgets with the proper antenna gain. For this reason
it is very important to take into account the separation angle between links. In this the separation
angle between the interfered/interfering links is 60°. Looking at the radiation pattern in fig. 7.10
(VV diagram) it is possible to estimate a decoupling of about 37 dB that represents a gain of –3
dBi. As a conclusion, the two link budget are as follows:
Interfering C; Interfered A: I 71MHz  PTx  AFS  GTx  G Rx  20  137  34  3  86 dBm
Interfering A; Interfered D: I 7 MHz  PTx  AFS  GTx  G Rx  20  132  34  3  81 dBm

1
If we consider that the decoupling of the antenna at 135° is about -55 dB and the decoupling at
70° is about –42 dB, the interference matrix becomes as in table 8.1.
Figure 8.10 - Network layout
ENGINEERING

Interfering 
A-B A-C A-D
Interfered 
A-B - -92 / -91 -99 /-104
A-C -92 / -91 - -81 / -86
A-D -104/-99 -86 / -81 -
Table 8.1 - Interference matrix without NFD scaling
It is important to remember that the interference listed in table 8.1 do not already take into account
of NFD. In fact, the underlined interference levels must be scaled by the proper NFD. By using the
NFD value provided in the input parameters, the interference levels become as in table 8.2. The
values listed in table 8.2 are those necessary for the estimation of the threshold degradation as
described in the next chapter.
Interfering 
A-B A-C A-D
Interfered 
A-B - -118 / -117 -99 /-104
A-C -117 / -118 - -107 / -112
A-D -104/-99 -112 / -107 -
Table 8.2 - Interference matrix with NFD scaling
ENGINEERING

9 Fade margin
9.1 Fade margin without interference
The fade margin is the difference between the received power level and the threshold value of the
equipment. The fade margin M can be calculated as follow:
M  PRx  PTh (9.1)
Where:
 PTh [dBm] is the power threshold level for the reference BER. This value is provided by
the equipment’s manufacture and depend on the noise equipment’s figure and the bit rate.
 PRx is the received power level estimated with the procedure explained in § 6.
In practise, the fade margin represent the amount of attenuation that can be tolerated by the received
signal level keeping, at the same time, the desired BER performance.
It is worth to remember (§ 1, § 2 and § 3) that link performances depend on the fade margin: for
G.821 [1] objectives the margin must be calculated with a reference BER =10 -3 while for G.826 [2]
and G.828 [3] objectives the reference BER is 10-4.
9.2 Fade margin in presence of interference

The fade margin estimation in presence of interference is more difficult than without interference
because the power threshold level PTh is not the value provided by the manufacture but it depends
on the C/I ratio (see § 8.3). The mathematical expression of the fade margin in presence of
interference is as follows:
M  PRx  PTh  PTh (9.2)

where PTh represents the threshold degradation that must be estimated by means of the curve
shown in fig. 8.8.
In order to better explain the mechanism that lead to the estimation of the degraded threshold level
it is useful to make an example.
Let us suppose to receive the desired (interfered) signal (4QAM modulated) with the level shown in
fig. 9.1 (-50 dBm). Let us also suppose the presence of a co-channel interference with the level
shown in fig. 11.1 (-96.5 dBm). Both the interfered and the interfering signal levels are considered
to be the one received in clear air condition without any fading attenuation. In fig. 9.1 it is also
shown the power threshold level of the desired signal for the reference BER (as an example
BER=103). During fading phenomena we also assume that the desired signal will be attenuated
2
while the interfering signal will keep the same signal strength as in clear air condition (worst case).
The main problem is to find out the range of attenuation (margin) that can be accepted by the
desired signal before reaching the reference error ratio (BER=103). Without the presence of
2 Flat fading without any selective signal distortion

ENGINEERING

interference the range of attenuation (margin) would have been calculated by means of expression
(9.1) leading to a margin:
M  PRx  PTh  50  ( 80)  30 dB

Unfortunately the presence of the interfering signal will reduce this margin (§ 8.3). In fact, with a
fading attenuation of 30 dB the desired signal would reach its threshold level. In this case, however,
the C/I at the interfered receiver would be 16.5 dB. This value will be referred hereafter as C/I Th
and represent the C/I ratio at the threshold:
C/I Th  PTh  I (9.3)
where I represents the interfering signal level (in this example –96.5 dBm). The interfering signal
level can be estimated by means of the procedure described in § 9.4.
With a ratio C/I=16.5 dB a threshold degradation of about 2 dB can be estimated by means of the
curve in fig. 10.8. However, the desired signal has already started to provide an error ratio worst
than BER=103 before reaching its threshold level.
In fact, in this particular example, the range of attenuation (margin) that can be tolerated by the
desired signal is only M  28.5 dB . If the fading attenuation becomes equal to 28.5 dB, the
desired signal is 1.5 dB far from its threshold. With this amount of fading attenuation, the C/I at the
interfered receiver becomes 18 dB (in fig. 9.1 named C/IBal) and the degraded threshold with this C/I
ratio is  1.5 dB (fig. 8.8):
M  PRx  PTh  PTh  50  ( 80)  1.5  28.5 dB
As a conclusion, the estimation process of the degraded threshold is oriented to find out the balance
point between the range of fading attenuation (margin) and the C/I ratio at the interfered receiver.
For this reason, the threshold estimation in presence of interference is implemented in some
software planning tools by means of an iterative process.
ENGINEERING

[dBm]
-50 Desired Signal Level
-78
-79
-80 Power Threshold Level (PTh )
C/I Bal C/ITh
-96.5 Interfering Signal Level
Figure 9.1 - Example of degraded power threshold level estimation
ENGINEERING

9.3 Sub-optimum procedure for margin estimation in presence of
interference
In order to simplify the process of margin estimation in presence of interference, a sub-optimum

procedure is necessary. Before proceed, it is necessary to define the minimum C/I ratio (hereafter
referred as C/I min ) that represents minimum C/I that can be tolerated by the receiver. In practice,
for any digital receiver and for any BER exits a C/I ratio at which, independently from the received
signal level, the performance are equal to the reference BER.
Having defined the minimum C/I ratio, the suboptimum procedure for margin estimation in
presence of interference is as follows:
1. Define the reference BER according to the selected quality and unavailability objectives
2. Calculate the C/I Th as defined in (9.3)
3. Compare C/I Th with C/I min
4. If C/I Th ³ C/I min calculate the fade margin by using expression (9.2). Evaluate PTh by using
C/I Th on the threshold degradation curve for the reference BER selected at step 1.
5. If C/I Th  C/I min calculate the fade margin by means of the following expression:
M  min PRx  PTh  PTh , PRx  I  C/I min 
where:
 I represents the interfering signal level evaluated as described in § 8.4
  PTh must be evaluated by using C/I min on the threshold degradation curve for the
reference BER selected at step 1.
ENGINEERING

10 Radio link outage computation on clear air condition
10.1 Prediction of total outage
Calculate the total outage probability due to clear-air effects from:
 Pns  Ps  PXP
Pt   (10.1)
 PDIVns
 PDIV S
 PXP if diversity is used
obtained by methods given in the following sections. In particular Pns is the non selective fading
outage, Ps is the selective outage, PXP the XPD outage and Pd is the outage if a diversity
configuration is used.
The total outage probability due to rain is calculated from taking the larger of Prain and PXPR obtained
by methods given in §11.1 and §11.2.
10.2 Prediction of non selective fading outage

Irregular variations in the reflective index of the atmosphere are the primary cause of fading on
microwave line-of-sight radio links. It is generally agreed that, with adequate path clearance and in
the absence of a single specular reflection on a path, very deep fades are due to multipath
propagation through the atmosphere which gives rise to a Rayleigh distribution of the received
signal amplitude. On the other end, even during non-multipath periods, small fluctuations in the
received power are observed. These fluctuations are referred to as shallow fades.
In the presence of multipath, several rays arrive at the receiving antenna at slightly different angles
in the vertical plane. The resulting signal is then the sum of various components whose mutual
interference produces more or less deep fades, according to the relative amplitudes and phases of
the components.
The percentage of time that the fade margin M is exceeded in the average worst month:
p w  p0 10 -M/10 % (10.2)
In the following, the calculation method for small percentages of time according to
Rec. ITU-R P. 530-11 [8] for the estimation of the multipath occurrence factor p0 will be
presented. In Annex B it will be also presented the calculation method according Rec. ITU-R P.
530-8 [7].
The multipath occurrence factor p 0 can be estimated according the followinf expression:
p0  Kd 3.2 (1 | ε p |) 0.97 10 0.032 f  0.00085hL % (10.3)
for detailed link design applications, with K obtained from:
3.9  0.003 dN 1 s  0.42

K  10 a (10.4)
where dN1 is the point refractivity gradient in the lowest 65 m of the atmosphere not exceeded for
1% of an average year, and sa is the area terrain roughness.
ENGINEERING

dN1 is provided on a 1.5° grid in latitude and longitude in Recommendation ITU-R P.453-9 [19].
The correct value for the latitude and longitude at path centre should be obtained from the values
for the four closest grid points by bilinear interpolation. The data are available in a tabular format
and are available from the Radiocommunication Bureau (BR).
sa is defined as the standard deviation of terrain heights (m) within a 110 km x 110 km area with a
30 s resolution (e.g. the Globe “gtopo30” data). The area should be aligned with the longitude, such
that the two equal halves of the area are on each side of the longitude that goes through the path
centre;
p0  Kd 3.0 (1 | ε p |) 1.2 10 0.033 f  0.001h
L
%
(10.5)
for quick planning applications, with K obtained from:
K  10 4.2 0.0029dN 1 (10.6)

The magnitude of the path inclination |p| (mrad) is calculated from the antenna heights he and hr
((m) above sea level), from:
| ε p || hr  he | / d (10.7)
where d is the path length (km).
With p0 as a parameter, Fig. 10.1 gives a family of curves providing a graphical representation of
the method.
Figure 10.1 - Percentage of time pw exceeded in an average worst month, with p0 ranging from
0.01 to 1000.
ENGINEERING

10.3 Prediction of selective fading outage
Signatures can be measured by approximating actual fades by a two-ray simulator. The simplified
three-ray model has the transfer function:
H()  a 1  b  exp  j    0      (10.8)

where a unity amplitude direct ray, and a ray of amplitude, b, delayed by  is assumed, and a is a
scaling factor. The “notch” point of this fade is f0 away from the channel centre frequency, and has a
depth B  –20 log  with   1 – b. The signature is then the plot of critical value Bc, as a function
of f0 at the outage error ratio. Although a value of 6.3 ns for  has been used by several
administrations, and the associated statistical distributions for b and f0 have been determined from
the study of a large number of fading events, signatures are sometimes measured for other values of
. Non-minimum phase fades can be taken into account by equation (10.8) by means of negative
values of the delay .
Scaling rules are needed to estimate the variation of bc () with . The linear one rule, applicable for
small delays only, indicates that the height in wavelengths () is proportional to . More precise
scaling rules may also be applied.
Signature width W( f0) remains practically constant vs. delay, except for the case when delay
approaches to zero, when it doubles for halving delay.
The concept of signatures is useful to compute Ps.

Ps is given by the product of the probability of multipath fading, , and the probability of outage by
intersymbol interference during multipath fading, Ps/mp:
Ps =  · Ps/mp (10.9)
To calculate Ps/mp, a single echo fade model is assumed with the relative echo amplitude, b, the echo
delay, , and the notch frequency offset, f0, as random parameters. The effect of equipment
characteristics on the outage probability is expressed by the system signatures.
Relative occurrences of minimum phase and non-minimum phase fades are considered equal in case
where deep fading occurs, i.e. increasing the fading the number of minimum and non minimum
phase events tend to be the same.
 : the propagation parameter  in equation (10.9) can be theoretically related to the deep
fade occurrence factor, P0 (Recommendation ITU-R P.530). A simplified empirical rule is:

  1  exp  0.2  P0
3/4
 (10.10)
 pb(b): the pdf of the relative echo amplitude B is Rayleigh-over-Rayleigh.

 p (): the echo delay has negative exponential distribution with mean value m that depends
on path length D. The following empirical relation between m (ns) and D (km) is used for
paths without significant surface reflections:
 m =  m0 · (D / 50)1.3 (10.11)
ENGINEERING

where m0 is the mean relative delay and is.
 m0 =0.7 (10.12)
 MPF/NMPF: account must be taken of the relative occurrences of minimum phase fade and
non-minimum phase fade conditions by computing outage probability separately when
signatures for minimum phase and non-minimum phase are different. The relative
occurrence probabilities of minimum phase and non-minimum phase for deep fades the
probabilities tend to be equal while for shallow fades the minimum phase case predominates
 Signatures: the method use signatures to express the effect of equipment characteristics
(such as modulation scheme, roll-off factor and equalization) on the outage probability.
The effect of equipment characteristics is expressed through the values of normalised system
parameter Kn, where this parameter is evaluated from measured system signatures. Conceptually,
one can consider the normalised system parameter as being evaluated from a “normalised system
signature”. If one scales system signatures to a specified baud period (1 ns) and relative echo delay
(1 ns), then such scaled system signatures, known as “normalised signatures”, are a characteristic of
the system parameters such as modulation method, roll-off factor and type of equaliser. Using a
rectangular approximation for the signature, Kn is given by:
Kn  (T 2 · W ·  a ) /  r (10.13)
where:
T : system baud period (ns)
W : signature width (GHz)
a : average of (linear) signature c ( f )  1 – bc ( f )
r : reference delay for a (ns).
Table 10.1 shows values of Kn for receivers without adaptive equalization. The use of adaptive
baseband transversal equalizers improves system performance so the figures for the normalized
signature area Kn are normally reduced to about 1/10 of the values reported in Table 10.1.
Modulation method Kn
64-QAM 15.4
16-QAM 05.5
8-PSK 07.0
4-PSK 01.0
Table 10.1 - Values for Kn for various modulation methods
where no equalizer is employed
ENGINEERING

When use is made of normalized signatures, all the methods lead to the same conclusions, which
may be summarized according to the following relationship:
Ps/mp  C · pb(1) · Kn ·   2  / T 2 (10.14)
where T and Kn are as above, and

 2  : second moment of p () (ns2). For exponentially distributed delays,  2  is equal to 2 . m2,
pb(1) : value of pb(b) for b  1
C: constant factor.
Assuming:
Wx : signature width (GHz)

Bx : signature depth (dB)
τ r ,x : the reference delay (ns) used to obtain the signature, with x denoting either minimum phase ( M )
or non - minimum phase ( NM ) fades
the selective outage probability is calculated from:

 τ 2m τ 2m 
PS  2.15 η  W M x10 BM / 20  W NM x10 B NM / 20  (10.16)
 | τ r ,M | | τ r , NM | 
where the mean time delay is:
1.3
 d 
τ m  0 .7   ns (10.17)
 50 
where d is the path length (km).
ENGINEERING

10.4 Prediction of XPD outage due to clear-air effects
The XPD can deteriorate sufficiently to cause co-channel interference and, to a lesser extent,
adjacent channel interference. The reduction in XPD that occurs during both clear-air and
precipitation conditions must be taken into account.
The combined effect of multipath propagation and the cross-polarization patterns of the antennas
govern the reduction in XPD occurring for small percentages of time. To compute the effect of this
reduction in link performance, the following step-by-step procedures should be used:
Step 1: Compute
 XPD g  5 for XPD g  40
XPD0   (10.18)
45 for XPD g  40
Where XPDg is the manufacturer’s guaranteed minimum XPD at boresight for both the transmitting
and receiving antennas, i.e., the minimum of the transmitting and receiving antenna boresight
XPDs.
Step 2: Evaluate the multipath activity parameter:
η  1  e 0.2  P0 
0.75
(10.19)
where p 0  p w / 100 is the multipath occurrence factor corresponding to the percentage of the time
pw (%) in the average worst month.
Step 3: Determine:
Q  10log 

 1  k x2 
η
 (10.20)
 P0 
where the kx parameters is evaluated as follow:
k x2  k XPD
2
k st2
with:
- K XPD  0.55
2
s 
- 210  6  t 
- K st  e  
where:
0.7 one transmit antenna

1  k  1  0.3exp- 4x10  6  s t  
2
2
x   two transmit antennas (10.21)
     
 
In the case where two orthogonally polarized transmissions are from different antennas, the vertical
separation is st (m) and the carrier wavelength is  (m).
ENGINEERING

Step 4: Derive the parameter C from:
C  XPD0  Q (10.22)
Step 5: Calculate the probability of outage PXP due to clear-air cross-polarization from:
M XPD

PXP  P0  10 10 (10.23)
where MXPD (dB) is the equivalent XPD margin for a reference BER given by:
 C
C  I min without XP IC
M XPD  (10.24)
C
C  0  XPIF with XPIC
 I min
C
Here, is the minimum carrier-to-noise ratio for a reference BER, which has been introduced
I min
in §9.3.
XPIF is a laboratory-measured cross-polarization improvement factor that gives the difference in
cross-polar isolation (XPI) at sufficiently large carrier-to-noise ratio (typically 35 dB) and at a
specific BER for systems with and without cross-polar interference canceller (XPIC) (see Annex A)
10.5 Diversity protection techniques
A technique to improve link performance is based on the fact that adopting a diversity scheme,
using one main radio bearer and a stand-by one, the probability of outage can be reduced. The
diversity configurations are:
1) Frequency diversity
2) Space diversity
3) Space and Frequency diversity (two, three or four antennas).
4) Angle diversity
The diversity can made by means of a switch that selects the best channel or, a combiner that adds
signals elaborated with a suitable algorithm.
ENGINEERING

10.5.1 Frequency diversity
This configuration uses a protection channel at another frequency, by means of BB hitless

switching. The two bearers are not uncorrelated and the correlation coefficient is:
Kf  exp(0.9f .m ) (10.25)
f = Frequency diversity [MHz]

 m = Mean time delay to be evaluated by means of expression (10.17)
This formula follows from experimental tests and intuitively, depends only on hop length (through
m); in fact, two bearers are more uncorrelated if the hop length and/or the frequency spacing is
larger, while their allocation in different frequency bands is not significant.
Figure 10.2 - Frequency diversity configuration
In order to evaluate the outage with a frequency diversity scheme, the correlation between the
bearers, considering the occurrence factor of multipath fading, must be evaluated. Basically, it is
necessary to evaluate the diversity parameter m defined as follows:
m   (1  K 2f ) (10.26)
where  can be calculated by means of (10.10).

The theoretical outage probability for a protected link with the frequency diversity scheme in fig.
10.2 can be evaluated as follows:
p1 . p2
P FD  (10.27)
m
where p1 and p 2 are the outage probability for the bearers at frequency f1 and frequency f2. These
outages can be either due to nonselective fading or selective fading: expression (10.27) must be
applied for estimating both nonselective and selective outages.
ENGINEERING

Unfortunately, under certain conditions, the outage probability P FD could not be better than the
single terms p1 and p 2 . For this reason the terms to be use to evaluate the total outage Pt in
expression (10.1) must be evaluated as follows:
PDIVns  min( p1ns , p2 ns , PFDns ) (10.28)

PDIVS  min ( p1S , p 2 S , PFDS ) (10.29)
where the sub-scripts “ns” represent the outage share relevant to the not selective fading while the
sub-scripts “s” represent the outage share relevant to the selective fading.
10.5.2 Space diversity
The use of two different antennas at the receiving sides with vertical separation “S” [m], gives an
effective improvement of performances. The correlation coefficient depends upon this separation
and the wavelength:
 6  S 
2

Ks  exp  4  10    (10.30)
    
In order to evaluate the outage probability for a link deploying the space diversity scheme shown in
fig. 10.3, the same method as the frequency diversity scheme (fig. 10.2) can be applied. In this case,
however, the parameter K s in (10.30) must be used instead of the parameter K f .
p11
SL p12 SR
p21
p22
Figure 10.3 - Space diversity configuration
In this diversity scheme, in principle, there are four bearers even though two of them are stand-by
bearers. In fact, in this diversity scheme only one transmitter on each site is active while the others
are in stand-by and become active only in presence of failure on the main ones. In addition, the
distance “S” between antennas could be different on each link’s side (in fig. 10.3 they are shown as
SR and SL).
The outage probability for the space diversity scheme shown in fig. 10.3 must be evaluated by
means of the following procedure:
ENGINEERING

 By means of (10.30) evaluate K s and K s parameters by using the antenna distances S R and
R L
SL
 Select the best couple of bearers on both side of the link:
PL  min( p11  p 21 , p12  p 22 ) PR  min( p11  p12 , p 21  p 22 )
 By means of (10.26) evaluate m R and m L by using, respectively, K s R and K s L
The theoretical outage probability for the space diversity scheme shown in fig. 10.3 is:
 P P 
PSD  Max L , R 
 mL mR 
Under certain conditions, the outage probability P SD could not be better than the single bearer
outage. For this reason the terms to be use to evaluate the total outage Pt in (10.1) must be
evaluated as follows:
PDIVns  min( p11 ns , p12ns , p 21ns , p 22ns PSDns ) (10.31)

PDIVS  min( p11 S , p12 S , p 21S , p 22 S PSDS ) (10.32)
10.5.3 Space and frequency diversity
For this diversity scheme are possible two configurations. In the first configuration (fig. 10.4) only
one transmitting antenna is deployed. In this case, the correlation coefficient considers separately
the benefit of space diversity and frequency diversity:
K sfd  K s K f (10.32)
2 2
where K s is evaluated by means of (10.30) while and K f is evaluated by means of (10.25).
Figure 10.4 - Space and frequency diversity configuration with single transmitting antenna
ENGINEERING

For the scheme in fig. 10.4 the outage probability can be evaluated by means of the same procedure
described for the frequency diversity scheme by using the correlation parameters (10.33):
m   (1  K sfd
2
)


MAX p 1L  p 2 L , p 1R  p 2 R 
P SFD 
m
where the subscripts “L” and “R” represents the labels “left” and “right”. In fact, if and asymmetric
antenna selection has been made, the bearer outages on the two directions could be different. For
this reason, for the evaluation of PSD the worst direction must be selected.
If four antennas are used (fig. 10.5) to achieve space diversity in both link sides, the formula
becomes:
K sfd  (10.33)
2 2 2
K s1 K s 2 K f
where K s 1 is evaluated by considering antennas distance in one side while K S 2 is evaluated by

considering the antenna distance on the other side.
f1
S1 S2
f2
Figure 10.5 - Space and frequency diversity configuration with two transmitting antennas
For the scheme in fig. 10.5 the outage probability can be evaluated by means of the same procedure
described for the frequency diversity scheme by using the correlation parameters (10.33):
m   (1  K sfd
2
)

p1 . p2
P SFD 
m
ENGINEERING

where p1 and p 2 are the outage probability for the two bearers. Finally, the terms to be use to
evaluate the total outage Pt in expression (10.1) must be evaluated as follows:
PDIVns  min( p1ns , p2ns , PSFDns ) (10.34)

PDIVS  min( p1S , p 2 S , PSFDS ) (10.35)
10.5.4 1+1 System configuration with four receivers
As seen in the figures, there are two possibilities for this configuration including, or not, the space
diversity on both sides: space diversity correlation in transmission is generally given by Ks1 , and its
value will be 1 in the case in which there is only one antenna.
Then in order to analyze these configurations it is necessary to extend the definitions given in
(10.25) and (10.30) to the general case of n-order diversity schemes. In this case the diversity
parameter “m” becomes:
m n   n1 det  K n  (10.36)
where
 k 11 k 12 . k 1n 
 
 k 12 . . . 
Kn   (10.37)
. . . . 
 
k . . k nn 
 n1
Kij is the correlation coefficient between “i” and “j” bearer and the theoretical outage probability
for a the n-order protection scheme becomes:
 4 4

Max  pi L ,  pi R 
 i 1 i 1  (10.38)
P 4 Rx 
m n
where p i represents the outage probability of each single bearer. It is important to highlight that,
due to asymmetric antenna selection, the bearers transmitted from left to right could have different
outage probability with respect the bearers transmitted from right to left. For this reason, in (10.38)
it is necessary to select the worst product between the outage probabilities of the set of bearers
transmitted from left to right (subscript “L”) and vice versa (subscript “R”).
It can be noted that formula (10.25) and (10.27) are a particular case of (10.37) and (10.38) with
i = 2.
ENGINEERING

S
Figure 10.6 - 1+1 system configuration with four receivers and a single Tx antenna
Let us consider the diversity scheme shown in fig. 10.6. In this case, the correlation matrix can be
expressed as follows:
 1 Ks Kf KSK f 
 
 Ks 1 KSK f Kf 
Kn   (10.40)
K KSK f 1 Ks 
 f 
k Kf Ks 1 
 n1
where K S can be evaluated by means of (10.30) while K f can be evaluated by means of (10.25).
By applying (10.36) e (10.37) it is possible to achieve the theoretical outage probability P 4 rx .
However, as treated for the previous diversity schemes, the configuration in fig. 10.6 could not
provide any improvement with respect the single component scheme. In fact, the configuration in
fig. 10.6 can be seen as an ensemble of many diversity schemes: the outage of each them must be
evaluated and compared with the ensemble outage( P 4 rx ) in order to select, between them, the best
one. The first step is to identify the single components of the ensemble scheme in fig. (10.6) :
a) Space diversity component schemes: bearers 1-2 and bearers 3-4
b) Frequency diversity component schemes: bearers 1-3 and bearers 2-4
c) Space and frequency component schemes: bearers 1-4 and 2-3
The diversity schemes listed in items (a), (b) and (c) represents the 2nd order component schemes of
the configuration in fig. 10.6. In principle, it would be necessary to consider also the 3rd component
schemes (those with 3 receiver). In this document, for simplicity reason, 3 rd order component
schemes will not be considered.
Having selected the component schemes, the performance computation is made for each 2 nd order
scheme, according to the diversity type.
ENGINEERING

The results of the outage estimation for each 2nd order component scheme can be summarised as in
table 10.3.
Bearers Outage Probability

1-2 P SD12
3-4 P SD34
1-3 P FD13
2-4 P FD24
1-4 P SFD14
2-3 P SFD23
Table 10.3 - Outage probability for the 2nd order component schemes for
the configuration in fig. 10.6
Each term in table 10.3 must be evaluated by means of the procedure described in the previous
paragraphs (§10.5.1 for FD, §10.5.2 for SD and §10.5.3 for SFD).
Finally, the terms to be use to evaluate the total outage Pt in expression (10.1) for the diversity
scheme in fig. 10.6 are as follows:
PDIVns  min( P SD12ns , P SD34ns , P FD13ns , P FD24ns , P SFD14ns , P SFD23ns , P4 Rxns ) (10.41)
PDIV S  min( P SD12s , P SD34s , P FD13s , P FD24s , P SFD14s , P SFD23s , P4 Rx s ) (10.42)
Regarding the diversity scheme shown in fig. 10.7 the correlation matrix can be expressed as
follows:
 1 K S1 K S2 K f K S1 K f K S 2 
 
 K S1 1 K S1 K f K S 2 K S1 K f 
Kn    (10.43)
K S2 K f K S1 K f K S 2 1 K S1
 
K K K K S1 K f K S1 1 
 S1 f S 2 
ENGINEERING

Figure 10.7- 1+1 system configuration with four receivers and two Tx antennas
For the calculation of the diversity outage probability P 4 rx , the same procedure as for the scheme
in fig. 10.6 will apply. Even though for the scheme in fig. 10.7 there is a higher symmetry between
the outage probability of the bearers transmitted in opposite direction, the cross bearers could have
different performance due to antenna selection.
The 2nd order single components of the ensemble scheme in fig. (10.7) are :
a) Space diversity component schemes: bearers 1-2 and bearers 3-4
b) Space and frequency component schemes: bearers 1-3 and bearers 2-4
c) Space and frequency component schemes: bearers 1-4 and 2-3
The space and frequency diversity components in bullet (b) are referred to the scheme in fig. 10.4
while the components in bullet (c) are referred to the scheme in fig. 10.5.
The outage probability of the single component schemes are shown in table 10.4
Bearers Outage Probability

1-2 P SD12
3-4 P SD34
1-3 P SFD13
2-4 P SFD24
1-4 P SFD14
2-3 P SFD23
Table 10.4 - Outage probability for the 2nd order component schemes for the configuration in
fig. 10.6
ENGINEERING

Finally, the terms to be use to evaluate the total outage Pt in expression (10.1), for the diversity
scheme in fig. 10.6, are as follows:
PDIVns  min( P SD12ns , P SD 34ns , P SFD13ns , P SFD24ns , P SFD14ns , P SFD23ns , P4 Rx ns ) (10.44)

PDIV S  min( P SD12s , P SD34s , P SFD13s , P SFD24s , P SFD14s , P SFD23s , P4 Rx s ) (10.45)
ENGINEERING

10.6 Multichannel systems
Multichannel systems, also known as N+1 systems, in their basic configuration are, intrinsically,
frequency diversity systems. However, the main difference with respect the scheme shown in fig.
10.2 is that in a multicarrier system N>1. In fact, there are N active bearers (with N>1) plus one
protection bearer: each bearer is active on its own frequency carriers (fig. 10.8).
f1 f1
f2 f2
f1, f2,…., fN+1
fN+1 fN+1
 
Figure 10.8 - Multicarrier System: basic configuration
The outage probability for a N+1 system is greater than a classical frequency diversity system (fig.
10.2) because it may happen that more than one channel requires, at the same time, to be switched
over the stand-by bearer. For this reason it is common practice to calculate (10.1) for all bearers
including the stand-by one.
Let us define p i as the outage probability of the ith bearer, where 1 i  N+1. The performance
calculation for multicarrier system can be made by means of the following procedure:
 Define the index p of the stand-by bearer
 Select the MAX( p i ) for 1 i  N+1, ip
 Estimate the outages of the frequency diversity system PDIVns and PDIVS as described in
(10.28) and (10.29) by using MAX( p i ) 1 i  N+1, ip and p p in (10.27) and using in
(10.25) the minimum frequency diversity between bearers.
After having calculated the outage probability PDIV and PDIV for the 1+1 equivalent system as
ns S
previously described, the outage probability of each bearer can be estimated by evaluating the
worsening factor. This factor can be achieved by means of the following expression:
1 1 N 1 1
Wk    i  k, i  p (10.46)
k  p 2 i 1 i  k
where k represent the index of the bearer and p the index of the stand-by bearer.
ENGINEERING

This factor is the ratio between N+1 system performance and 1+1 system performance. Let us
consider, for example a multicarrier system with a 3+1 configuration. Let us also suppose to select
the 2nd bearer as the stand-by bearer.
In this example, it is necessary to evaluate the worsening factor for bearers 1, 3 and 4 so that the
terms to be used for the evaluation of the total outage Pt in expression (10.1):
 1  1 1  17
P1ns  W1  PDIVns  1       PDIVns   PDIVns (10.47)
 2  2 3  12
17
P1 s  W1  PDIV s  P (10.48)
12 DIV s
 11  7
P3 ns  W3  PDIVns  1    1    PDIVns   PDIVns (10.49)
 2 2  4
7
P3 s  W3  PDIV s   PDIV s (10.50)
4
 11  14
P4 ns  W4  PDIVns  1    1    PDIVns   PDIVns (10.51)
 2 3  12
14
P4  W4  PDIV  P (10.52)
s
12 DIV
s s
The bearers outage probability in (10.47), (10.48), (10.49), (10.50), (10.51) and (10.52) can be
straightforwardly used in (10.1). For the stand-by bearer the calculation of the outage probability is
much simpler because it will not benefit of any improvement due to diversity:
4
P2ns   p ins (10.53)
i 1
4
P2 ss  p
i 1
i ss (10.54)
In case of space diversity configuration (fig. 10.9), the outage probability calculation for a
multicarrier system can be made by exploiting the procedure described in §10.5.5. In fact, a
multicarrier system deployed in space diversity configuration is very similar to the configuration
shown in fig. 10.6 and most of the results achieved for this configuration can be re-used also for
multicarrier system.
ENGINEERING

f1 f1
f2 f2
A1
f1, f2,…., fN+1
fN+1 fN+1
 
f1
,f
2,
…
f1
.,
fN
+1
f2
A2
fN+1

Figure 10.9 - Multicarrier System with space diversity configuration
and p i L as the outage probability of the ith bearer (where 1 i  N+1)

( A1 ) ( A2)
Let us define p i L
received, respectively, by antenna A1 and antenna A2 and transmitted from left to right. Let us define
p i(RA1) and p i(RA 2 ) as the outage probability of the ith bearer (where 1 i  N+1) received,
respectively, by antenna A1 and antenna A2 and transmitted from right to left. The performance
calculation for the multicarrier system in fig. 10.9 can be made by means of the following
procedure:
1. Define the index p of the stand-by bearer
2. Select the MAX pi L  ( A1 )

 pi(LA 2 )  p(pAL 1)  p(pAL 2 ) , pi(RA1)  pi(RA 2 )  p(pAR1)  p(pAR 2 ) for 1 i  N+1, ip
3. Estimate the outages of the frequency diversity system (4Rx) by means of expression (10.38)
by using the four bearers selected at step 1. Later on, estimate PDIV and PDIV as described in ns S
(10.41) and (10.42) by using:
a) MAX( p i ) 1 i  N+1, ip and p p
( A1 ) ( A1 )
with the minimum frequency separation between
nd
bearers for the first frequency diversity 2 order component scheme.
b) MAX( p i L  p pL , p i R  p pR ) 1 i  N+1, ip with the minimum frequency separation
( A2 ) ( A2) ( A2) ( A2)
between bearers for the second frequency diversity 2nd order component scheme.
c) MAX pi L  ( A1 )

 pi(LA 2 ) , pi(RA1)  pi(RA 2 ) 1 i  N+1 for first space diversity 2nd order component
scheme.

d) MAX p j L  p j L , p j R  p j R
( A1 ) ( A2) ( A1 ) ( A2 )
 1 j  N+1, ji (i represents the index selected at the step
“c”) for the second space diversity 2nd order component scheme.
ENGINEERING


e) MAX pi L  p p L , pi R  p p R
( A1 ) ( A2) ( A1 ) ( A2)

with the minimum frequency separation between bearers
for the first frequency and space diversity 2nd order component scheme

f) MAX pi L  p p L , pi R  p p R
( A2 ) ( A1 ) ( A2) ( A1 )

with the minimum frequency separation between bearers
for the second frequency and space diversity 2nd order component sch
After having calculate the outage probability PDIV and PDIV for the 1+1 space and frequency
ns S
equivalent system, the outage probability of each bearer can be estimated by evaluating the
worsening factor as in (10.46) and applying the same procedure as for a multicarrier system without
space diversity.
ENGINEERING

10.7 Angle diversity
The use of one angle diversity antenna at the receiving side with angle diversification between
‘’main’’ and ‘’diversity’’ lobes gives an effective improvement of performance. The correlation
coefficient depends upon this angular separation:
         
KAD  exp 0.1   (10.55)
   3    3 
where:
 3 = semi-lobe width of antenna (gain reduced by 3 dB at this angle)
 = angle diversification between “main” and “diversity” lobes if one angle diversity antenna is
used or panning difference between antennas if two different dishes are used.
   is the applicable average difference between arrival angles of the atmospheric paths during
multipath and can be expressed as follows:
   C    / 50   d / 50  (10.56)
where:
C = 0,1 to 0,2 degrees
 = standard deviation of the vertical gradient of the radio refractive index
d = path length (km)
The system is not used only when one antenna per side is used.
In many practical cases, when space diversity is used in links in presence of reflection, normally a
good countermeasure against received level fluctuations is to up tilt one antenna in the more
convenient side. This particular arrangement works like angle and space diversity and it is true that
normally the received field is lost but the space diversity improvement is increased by angle
diversity improvement.
Otherwise in re-used system with space diversity, where space diversity increase the uncorrelation
coefficient between vertical and horizontal fields, an imperfect panning of the four antennas, the
uncorrelation factor is increased by angle correlation.
ENGINEERING

11 Prediction of outage due to rain
11.1 Prediction of the total unavailability
Calculate the total unavailability outage due to clear-air effects from:
Punav  MAX  PRain , PXPR  (11.1)

obtained by methods given in the following sections. In particular PRain is the unavailability
outage due to ran while PXPR is the unavailability probability due to XPD.
11.2 Computing of outage due to hydrometers
Attenuation can occur as a result of absorption and scattering by hydrometers as rain, snow, hail and
fog. Although rain attenuation can be ignored at frequencies below 5 GHz, it must be included in
design calculations at higher frequencies, where its importance increases rapidly.
The following technique may be used for estimating the long-term statistics of rain attenuation:
Step 1: Obtain the rain rate R0.01 exceeded for 0.01% of the time (with an integration time of 1
min). If this information is not available from local sources of long-term measurements, an
estimate can be obtained from the information given in Recommendation ITU-R P.837-4 [20].
Step 2: Compute the specific attenuation, R (dB/km) for the frequency, polarisation and rain rate of
interest using the power-law relationship:
 R  k  R (11.2)
The frequency-dependent coefficients k and  are given in table 11.1 for linear polarizations
(horizontal: H, vertical: V) and horizontal paths. Values of k and  at frequencies other than those in
table 11.1 can be obtained by interpolation using a logarithmic scale for frequency, a logarithmic
scale for k and a linear scale for . The values in table 11.1 have been tested and found to be
sufficiently accurate for attenuation prediction up to frequencies of 55 GHz.
ENGINEERING

Frequency kH kV H V
(GHz)
1 0.0000387 0.0000352 0.912 0.880

2 0.000154 0.000138 0.963 0.923
4 0.000650 0.000591 1.121 1.075
6 0.00175 0.00155 1.308 1.265
7 0.00301 0.00265 1.332 1.312
8 0.00454 0.00395 1.327 1.310
10 0.0101 0.00887 1.276 1.264
12 0.0188 0.0168 1.217 1.200
15 0.0367 0.0335 1.154 1.128
20 0.0751 0.0691 1.099 1.065
25 0.124 0.113 1.061 1.030
30 0.187 0.167 1.021 1.000
35 0.263 0.233 0.979 0.963
40 0.350 0.310 0.939 0.929
45 0.442 0.393 0.903 0.897
50 0.536 0.479 0.873 0.868
60 0.707 0.642 0.826 0.824
70 0.851 0.784 0.793 0.793
80 0.975 0.906 0.769 0.769
90 1.06 0.999 0.753 0.754
100 1.12 1.06 0.743 0.744
120 1.18 1.13 0.731 0.732
150 1.31 1.27 0.710 0.711
200 1.45 1.42 0.689 0.690
300 1.36 1.35 0.688 0.689
400 1.32 1.31 0.683 0.684
Table 11.1 - Regression coefficients for estimating specific attenuation
Step 3: Compute the effective path length, deff, of the link by multiplying the actual path length d by
a distance factor r. An estimate of this factor is given by:
1
r (11.3)
1  d / d0
where, for R0.01 < 100 mm/h:

d 0  35e 0.0015 R0.01 (11.4)
For R0.01 > 100 mm/h, use the value 100 mm/h in place of R0.01.
Step 4: An estimate of the path attenuation exceeded for 0.01% of the time is given by:
A0.01   R d eff   R d r dB (11.5)
ENGINEERING

Step 5: For radio links located in latitudes equal to or greater than 30° (North or South), the
attenuation exceeded for other percentages of time p in the range 0.001% to 1% may be estimated
from the following power law:
Ap
 0.12 p  ( 0.546  0.043 log 10 p ) (11.6)
A0.01
This formula has been determined to give factors of 0.12, 0.39, 1 and 2.14 for 1%, 0.1%, 0.01% and
0.001% respectively, and must be used only within this range.
Step 6: For radio links located at latitudes below 30° (North or South), the attenuation exceeded for
other percentages of time p in the range 0.001% to 1% may be deduced from the following power
law:
Ap
 0.07 p  ( 0.855 0.139 log 10 p ) (11.7)
A0.01
This formula has been determined to give factors of 0.07, 0.36, 1 and 1.44 for 1%, 0.1%, 0.01% and
0.001%, respectively, and must be used only within this range.
Step 7: If worst-month statistics are desired, calculate the annual time percentages p corresponding
to the worst-month time percentages pw using climate information specified in Recommendation
ITU-R P.841-4 [21]. The values of A exceeded for percentages of the time p on an annual basis will
be exceeded for the corresponding percentages of time pw on a worst-month basis.
The prediction procedure outlined above is considered to be valid in all parts of the world at least
for frequencies up to 40 GHz and path lengths up to 60 km.
For link design purposes, the outage probability PRain is calculated by solving equation (11.6) o
(11.7), where p (%) is the percentage of time that rain attenuation is equal the link margin M (dB).
The equation (11.6) is solved determining the following parameters:

 23.26 log A p / 0.12 A0.01
m
 if m  40
(11.8)
40 otherwise
and

n   12.7  161.23  4m / 2  (11.9)
The equation (11.7) is solved determining the following parameters:

7.19 log A p / 0.07 A0.01
m
 if m  9
(11.10)
9 otherwise
and
n   6.15  37.84  4m / 2  (11.11)
Finally, the rain outage probability is calculated from:
PRain  10  n  2  (11.12)
ENGINEERING

11.3 Prediction of XPD outage due to precipitation
11.3.1 XPD statistics during precipitation conditions
Intense rain governs the reductions in XPD observed for small percentages of time. For paths on
which more detailed predictions or measurements are not available, a rough estimate of the
unconditional distribution of XPD can be obtained from a cumulative distribution of the co-polar
attenuation (CPA) for rain (see § 11.2) using the equi-probability relation:
XPD  U  V ( f ) log CPA dB (11.13)
The coefficients U and V(f) are in general dependent on a number of variables and empirical
parameters, including frequency, f . For line-of-sight paths with small elevation angles and
horizontal or vertical polarization, these coefficients may be approximated by:
U  U 0  30 log f (11.14)
V  f   12.8 f 0.19
for 8  f  20 GHz
(11.15)
V  f   22.6 for 20  f  35 GHz
An average value of U0 of about 15 dB, with a lower bound of 9 dB for all measurements, has been
obtained for attenuations greater than 15 dB.
The variability in the values of U and V(f) is such that the difference between the CPA values for
vertical and horizontal polarizations is not significant when evaluating XPD. The user is advised to
use the value of CPA for circular polarization when working with equation (11.10).
Long-term XPD statistics obtained at one frequency can be scaled to another frequency using the
semi-empirical formula:
XPD 2  XPD1  20 log  f 2 / f 1  for 4  f 1 , f 2  30 GHz (11.16)
where XPD1 and XPD2 are the XPD values not exceeded for the same percentage of time at
frequencies f1 and f2.
The relationship between XPD and CPA is influenced by many factors, including the residual
antenna XPD that has not been taken into account. Equation (11.13) is least accurate for large
differences between the respective frequencies. It is most accurate if XPD1 and XPD2 correspond to
the same polarization (horizontal or vertical).
ENGINEERING

11.3.2 Stepbystep procedure for predicting XPD outage due to precipitation effects
Step 1: Determine the path attenuation, A0.01 (dB), exceeded for 0.01% of the time from equation
(11.4).
Step 2: Determine the equivalent path attenuation, Ap (dB):
A p  10   U C 0 / N  XPIF  / V  (11.17)
where U is obtained from equation (11.11) and V from equation (11.12), C0/N (dB) is the carrier-
to-noise ratio defined for the reference BER, and XPIF (dB) is the cross-polarized improvement
factor for the reference BER due to XPIC.
If an XPIC device is not used, set XPIF = 0.
Step 3: Determine the following parameters:

 23.26 log A p / 0.12 A0.01
m
 if m  40
(11.18)
40 otherwise
and

n   12.7  161.23  4m / 2  (11.19)
Valid values for n must be in the range of -3 to 0. Note that in some cases, especially when an XPIC
device is used, values of n less than -3 may be obtained. If this is the case, it should be noted that
values of p less than -3 will give outage BER < 1 x 10-5.
Step 4: Determine the outage probability from:
PXPR  10  n  2  (11.20)
ENGINEERING

11.4 Outage due to hydrometers for protected configurations
The contribution PRain to be used in (11.1) must be carefully evaluated in case of protected
configuration for the evaluation of the total unavailability Punav of the link . As a first step it is
necessary to evaluate the terms PRain for all the active bearers in the link as well as for all stand-
by/protection bearers. On the basis of the information it is possible to select the proper PRain
contribution to be used in (11.1).
11.4.1 Frequency diversity, Space diversity, Space and frequency diversity and 1+1 with four
receivers configurations
With this kind of protection schemes, the PRain contribution to be used in (11.1) must be evaluated
as follows:
PRain  min PRain

(i )
i
  (11.20)
(i )
where PRain represents the outage due to hydrometer due to i-th bearer that can be evaluated with
expression (11.12). Expression (11.20) comes up form the concept that, in case of hydrometer
fading, the protection scheme will switch over the strongest bearer. If the outage probability of each
single bearer is asymmetric (substantial outage difference on the two propagation directions)
(11.20) bust be applied on both direction and the worst outage must be taken.
11.4.2 Multicarrier system
With this kind of system, it is necessary to evaluate Punav for any active bearer. In practice, it is
necessary to evaluate as many PRain terms as the number of active bearers. Referring to the scheme
in fig. 10.8, the term PRain must be evaluated for all the bearers carried by the frequency carriers
f 1 , f 2 , …, f N  1
If the multicarrier system is deployed with space diversity configuration the PRain terms must be
evaluated by considering the best bearers for each frequency carrier. Referring to the scheme in fig.
10.9, the transmitting antenna radiates, for each frequency carrier, two bearers: one bearer towards
the first receiving antenna and the other towards the second antenna. The terms PRain for each
frequency carrier must be evaluated by selecting the best bearer radiated by the transmitting
antenna:
 ( f (1) )
PRain  min PRaini , PRaini
( f ( 2) )
 (11.21)
ENGINEERING

(1 ) (2)
( fi ) ( fi )
where PRain , PRain represent the outage due to hydrometer for the two bearers carried by the
frequency carrier f i (see (11.12). If the outage probability of each single bearer is asymmetric
(substantial outage difference on the two propagation directions) (11.21) bust be applied on both
direction and the worst outage must be taken.
11.5 Calculation example
L = 20 Km; frequency 12 GHz; polarization H; Fade margin = 40 dB; R = 42mm/h
From Table 11.1
KH = 0.0188 H = 1.217
 = 0.0188 * 421.217 = 1.777
1
r  0.482
20
1
35 exp(0.015 x 42)
A0.01 = deff = 17.14 dB
By setting M=Ap = 40 dB (from data set)
PRain = 7.35 . 10 -4
If R was equal to 120 mm/h
 = 0.0188.1201.217 = 6.376
1
r  0.281
20
1
35 exp(0.015 x100)
A0.01 = deff = 35.81 dB
PRain = 7.41. 10-3
ENGINEERING

12 Link designing procedure
I. Select the quality and unavailability objectives that must be fulfilled by the radio link
under analysis (§1, §2 and §3). The selection of the performance objectives means also the
selection of the reference BER (BER=103 for G.821, BER=104 for G.826 [2] and G.828
[3] or any other reference BER in case of custom objectives)

II. Estimate the received power level by using the procedure described in §6. Let us define
the following sets:  f c  ,  Pol  and  Path .  f c  represents the set of all active
frequency carriers on the link,  Pol  represents the set of active polarisation(s) and
 Path represents the set of active and stand-by radio path. Expression (6.1) must be
applied to any combination of the set of three  f c , Pol , Path . In practice, link budget
(6.1) must be calculated for any bearer. For example, in case of frequency re-use two link
budgets as in (6.1) must be estimated (the first for vertical polarisation and the second for
horizontal polarisation). In case of multi-carriers equipment, the basic configuration is N+1
so that N+1 link budgets must be estimated. In addition, in case of space diversity
configuration, expression (6.1) must be applied four times (see §10.5.2). Annex A provides
all the necessary parameters to carry out step II.
III. For any bearer, calculate all the interfering power levels at the receiver sites as described in
§8.4. If a link is deployed with a frequency re-use configuration (same frequency carrier
both for vertical and horizontal polarisation) the amount of interference between its own
polarisations must not be taken into account.
IV. By using the interfering signal level calculated in step III, calculate, for any bearer, the
overall amount of interfering signal level I by using expression (8.4). The proper NFD
scaling factors can be found in Annex D.
V. For any bearer’s link budget estimated in step II and using the interfering signal levels
estimated in step IV, calculate the margin M as described in §9.
VI. Estimate the outage probability Pt due to clear-air effects by means of the procedure
described in §10, expression (10.1)
VI.1 For any bearer, by using the margin M calculated in step V, estimate the Pns
by means of expression (10.2). The multipath occurrence factor can be
calculated by means of the algorithms shown in recommendations ITU-R 530-
8 [7] or ITU- 530-11 [8] described in §10.
VI.2 For any bearer, estimate the Ps by means of expression (10.16).
ENGINEERING

VI.3 By means of the outage probabilities Pns and Ps of each bearer estimated in
steps VI.1 and VI.1, calculate the total outage Pt .
VI.3.I If a single bearer link has been considered without any diversity
protection scheme the outage probabilities Pns and Ps estimated,
respectively, at step VI.1 and VI.2 can be straightforwardly used in
(10.1)
VI.3.II If a frequency reuse link has been considered without any diversity
protection scheme, procedure VI.3.I must be applied twice: the total
outage in (10.1) must be evaluated both for the vertical polarised
bearer and for the horizontal polarised bearer. For this reason it is
necessary to evaluate the terms Pns and Ps to be used in (10.1)
both for the vertical polarised bearer and for the horizontal polarised
bearer. In addition, both outages Pt (the vertical one and the
horizontal one) must be added by the PXP contribution that can be
estimated as described in §10.4.
VI.3.III If a frequency diversity scheme has been deployed, PDIV and ns
PDIVS contributions to be used in (10.1) must be evaluated as

described in §10.5.1. If a multicarrier system has been deployed, the
procedure described in §10.6 must be applied.
VI.3.IV If a frequency reuse link has been considered with a frequency

diversity protection scheme, procedure VI.3.III must be applied
twice: the total outage in (10.1) must be evaluated both for the
vertical polarised bearer and for the horizontal polarised bearer. For
this reason it is necessary to evaluate PDIV and PDIV to be used
ns S
in (10.1) both for the vertical polarised bearer and for the horizontal
polarised bearer. In addition, the total outages Pt (the vertical one
and the horizontal one) must be added by the PXP contribution that
can be estimated as described in §10.4.
VI.3.V If a space diversity scheme has been deployed, the contributions

PDIVns and PDIVS to be used in (10.1) must be evaluated as
described in §10.5.2. If a multicarrier system has been deployed with
a space diversity configuration, the procedure described in §10.6
must be applied.
ENGINEERING

VI.3.VI If a frequency reuse link has been considered with a space diversity
protection scheme, procedure VI.3.V must be applied twice: the total
outage in (10.1) must be evaluated both for the vertical polarised
bearer and for the horizontal polarised bearer. For this reason it is
necessary to evaluate PDIV and PDIV to be used in (10.1) both
ns S
for the vertical polarised bearer and for the horizontal polarised
bearer. In addition, the total outages Pt (the vertical one and the
horizontal one) must be added by the PXP contribution that can be
estimated as described in §10.4.
VI.3.VII If a space and frequency diversity scheme has been deployed,

PDIVns and PDIV S contributions to be used in (10.1) must be
evaluated as described in §10.5.3.
VI.3.VIII If a 1+1 system configuration with four receivers has been

deployed, PDIV and PDIV contributions to be used in (10.1)
ns S
must be evaluated as described in §10.5.4.
VI.3.IX If a multicarrier system has been deployed the outage calculation

method has been described in §10.6.
VI.3.X If a frequency reuse link has been considered with a multicarrier

system, procedure VI.3.IX must be applied twice: the total outage in
(10.1) must be evaluated both for the vertical polarised bearers and
for the horizontal polarised bearers. For this reason it is necessary to
evaluate PDIVns and PDIV S to be used in (10.1) both for the
vertical polarised bearer and for the horizontal polarised bearer. In
addition, the total outages Pt of each bearer (the vertical ones and
the horizontal ones) must be added by the PXP contribution that
can be estimated as described in §10.4.
VII. Estimate the total unavailability probability Punav due to rain effects by means of the
procedure described in §11 expression (11.1).
VII.1 For any bearer, by using the margin M calculated in step V, estimate the
PRain by means of expression (11.12).
VII.2 If a frequency reuse link has been considered estimate PXPR contribution by
means of the procedure explained in §11.3
VII.3 By means of the probability PRain estimated in step VII.1 and PXPR (if any)
estimated in step VII.2 evaluate the link unavailability probability:
ENGINEERING

VII.3.I If a single bearer link has been considered without any diversity
protection scheme the probability PRain estimated at step VII.1 can
be straightforwardly used in (11.1).
VII.3.II If a frequency reuse link has been considered without any diversity
protection scheme, procedure VII.3.I must be applied twice: the
unavailability probability PRain must be evaluated both for the
addition, the worst between PRain and PXPR must be taken (11.1).
VII.3.III If a protection scheme has been deployed, the contribution PRain to

be used in (11.1) must be evaluated as described in §11.4.
VII.3.IV If a frequency reuse link has been considered with a diversity

protection scheme, procedure VII.3.III must be applied twice: the
unavailability probability PRain must be evaluated both for the
addition, the worst between PRain and PXPR must be taken (11.1).
VIII. Compare the outages achieved in step VI and step VII with the objectives selected in step I
and take the proper countermeasures if the link do not fulfil the requirements.
VII.I
sdgag
VII.II
VII.Ia
I.
VII.Ib
i.
ENGINEERING

VII.Ic
II.
ENGINEERING

ANNEX A – Guaranteed figures for SIAE’s radio equipment
A.1 Equipment in the 6U GHz band
A.1.1 ALS 6U SDH equipment
Nominal values at C-C’ point (1+0):

Capacity 128QAM
Standard Version
STM-1 23 dBm
ACCP
Standard Version
STM-1 23dBm
ACAP
High Power Version
STM-1 26 dBm
ACCP
High Power Version
STM-1 26 dBm
ACAP
Receiver sensitivities @10-3 at point C - C’ (1+0):

STM-1
128QAM -70.5

STM-1
128QAM -69.5
Guaranteed Signature for performance

calculation at BER 10-6 : Bit Rate: STM-1
Delay: 6.3 ns
Signature Height: 20 dB for 128QAM
Signature Width: 26 MHz 128QAM
ENGINEERING

Branching Losses: 1+1 HSB configuration with
single antenna Balanced Hybrid Tx<2dB
Rx<4dB
1+1 FD Configuration Tx<1.0dB

Rx<1.0dB
1+1 SD Configuration with two antennas negligible
1+1 SFD Configuration with two antennas negligible
2+0 Configuration negligible
XPIF factor: 17 dB for 128QAM
Filter Sub-Bands:
SUB-BAND 1L SUB-BAND 2L SUB-BAND 3L SUB-BAND 4L

6460MHz 6500MHz 6540MHz 6580MHz
SUB-BAND 5L SUB-BAND 6L SUB-BAND 7L SUB-BAND 8L
6620MHz 6660MHz 6700MHz 6740MHz
SUB-BAND 1H SUB-BAND 2H SUB-BAND 3H SUB-BAND 4H
6800MHz 6840MHz 6880MHz 6920MHz
SUB-BAND 5H SUB-BAND 6H SUB-BAND 7H SUB-BAND 8H
6960MHz 7000MHz 7040MHz 7080MHz
Transceiver Sub-Bands:
Transceiver Available Channels with

SUB-BAND 40 MHz channel spacing
SB 1L 1..4L
SB 2L 5..8L
SB 1H 1..4H
SB 2H 5..8H
ENGINEERING

A.1.2 ALS 6U Spectrum Mask
5
+2
0-32
Transmitter Spectral Power Density [dB]
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-50
-55
-60
-100 -67 -54 -24 -20 -14 0 14 19.5 24 54 67 100
[MHz]
ALS6U SDH RADIO EQUIPMENT

128QAM - STM-1 – 40 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY – ACAP/ACCP
ENGINEERING

A.2 Equipment in the 13 GHz band
A.2.1 AL13 PDH equipment
Nominal output values at C-C’ point (1+0): 25 dBm (1+0 version 4 QAM)
20 dBm (1+0 version 16/32 QAM)
Receiver sensitivities @10-3 at point C - C’(1+0):

2x2 4x2 10 8x2 16x2/34 2x34/32x2 100
4QAM -92.5 -89.5 -88.5 -86.5 -83.5 n.a. n.a.
16QAM n.a. -85.5 n.a. -82.5 -79.5 -76.5 n.a.
32QAM n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. -73.5

2x2 4x2 10 8x2 16x2/34 2x34/32x2 100
4QAM -90.5 -87.5 -86.5 -84.5 -81.5 n.a. n.a.
16QAM n.a. -83.5 n.a. -80.5 -77.5 -74.5 n.a.
32QAM n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. -71.5

calculation at BER 10-6 :
4QAM Bit Rate: 34 Mbit/s
Delay: 6.3 ns
Signature Height: 23 dB
Signature Width: 20 MHz
16QAM Bit Rate: 2x34 Mbit/s

Delay: 6.3 ns

Delay: 6.3 ns
ENGINEERING

Branching Losses: 1+1 HSB configuration single antenna
Balanced Hybrid Tx<3.7dB
Rx<3.7dB
Unbalanced Hybrid TX<1.6/6.6dB
Rx<1.6/6.6dB
1+1 FD Configuration (Note ) 3

negligible
Filter and Transceiver Sub-Bands:
12.75 to 13.25 GHz - GO-RETURN 266 MHz

(CEPT T/R 12 –02 E - f0=12996 MHz )
SUB BAND 1
Channel spacing (MHz) Lower half of the band Upper half of the band Available Channels
3.5 fn= f0-246.75+3.5n f’n= f0+19.25+3.5n n=1, .., 24
7 fn= f0-248.5 +7n f’n= f0+17.5+ 7n n=1, .., 12
14 fn= f0-252+14n f’n= f0+14+14n n=1, …, 6
28 fn= f0-259+28n f’n= f0+7+28n n=1, …, 3
SUB BAND 2
3.5 fn= f0-246.75+3.5n f’n= f0+19.25+3.5n n=25, .., 48
7 fn= f0-248.5 +7n f’n= f0+17.5+ 7n n=13, .., 24
14 fn= f0-252+14n f’n= f0+14+14n n=7, …, 12
28 fn= f0-259+28n f’n= f0+7+28n n=4, …, 6
SUB BAND 3
3.5 fn= f0-246.75+3.5n f’n= f0+19.25+3.5n n=41, .., 64
7 fn= f0-248.5 +7n f’n= f0+17.5+ 7n n=21, .., 32
14 fn= f0-252+14n f’n= f0+14+14n n=11, …, 16
28 fn= f0-259+28n f’n= f0+7+28n n=6, …, 8
3 Available only with one double polarized antenna. Including feeder loss with Integral Antenna
Configuration
ENGINEERING

A.2.2 ALS13 SDH equipment

Capacity 128QAM
Standard Version ACCP STM-1 21
Standard Version ACAP STM-1 22
High Power Version ACCP STM-1 24
High Power Version ACAP STM-1 25

STM-1
128QAM -70

STM-1
128QAM -69

Delay: 6.3 ns
Branching Losses: 1+1 HSB configuration with single antenna

Balanced Hybrid Tx<2dB
Rx<4dB

Rx<1.0dB
ENGINEERING

Filter Sub-Bands (CEPT Recommendation T/R 12-02):
SUB-BAND SUB-BAND SUB-BAND SUB-BAND SUB-BAND SUB-BAND SUB-BAND SUB-BAND

1L 2L 3L 4L 5L 6L 7L 8L
1275112779 1277912807 1280712835 1283512863 1286312891 1289112919 1291912947 1294712975
1H 2H 3H 4H 5H 6H 7H 8H
1301713045 1304513073 1307313101 1310113129 1312913157 1315713185 1318513213 1321313241
Transceiver Available Channels with Filter Sub-Band

SB 1 1,2,3,4 1,2,3,4
SB 2 5,6,7,8 5,6,7,8
ENGINEERING

A.2.3 US13 SDH equipment

Capacity 128QAM
ACCP STM-1 21 dBm
ACAP STM-1 22 dBm

STM-1
128QAM -67

STM-1
128QAM -66

Delay: 6.3 ns

Rx<4dB

Rx<1.0dB
ENGINEERING

Filter Sub-Bands (CEPT Recommendation T/R 12-02):

1L 2L 3L 4L 5L 6L 7L 8L
1275112779 1277912807 1280712835 1283512863 1286312891 1289112919 1291912947 1294712975
1H 2H 3H 4H 5H 6H 7H 8H
1301713045 1304513073 1307313101 1310113129 1312913157 1315713185 1318513213 1321313241
Transceiver Available Channels with Filter Sub-Band

SB 1 1,2 1,2
SB 2 3,4 3,4
SB 3 5,6 5,6
SB 4 7,8 7,8
ENGINEERING

A.2.4 AL13 Spectrum Mask
+1
0
Transmitter Spectral Power Density (dB)
-5
-10
-15
-20
-23
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-8,75 -7 -3,5 -2,8 -1,4 0 1,4 2,8 3,5 7 8,75
MHz
AL13 PDH RADIO EQUIPMENT

4QAM - 2x2 Mbit/s – 3.5 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-23
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-17,5 -13 -6,5 -5,6 -2,7 0 2,7 5,6 6,5 13 17,5
MHz

4QAM- 4x2 Mbit/s and 10 Mbit/s – 7 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-23
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-35 -26 -13 -11,2 -5,4 0 5,4 11,2 13 26 35
MHz

4QAM - 8x2 Mbit/s – 14 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-23
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-70 -45 -25 -19 -11 0 11 19 25 45 70
MHz

4QAM - 16x2/34 Mbit/s – 28 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-32
-35
-37
-40
-45
-50
-55
-4,375 -3,5 -1,75 -1,4 -0,7 0 0,7 1,4 1,75 3,5 4,375
MHz

16QAM- 2x2 Mbit/s – 1.75 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-32
-35
-37
-40
-45
-50
-55
-8,75 -7 -3,5 -2,8 -1,4 0 1,4 2,8 3,5 7 8,75
MHz

TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-32
-35
-37
-40
-45
-50
-55
-17,5 -14 -7 -5,6 -2,8 0 2,8 5,6 7 14 17,5
MHz

TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-32
-35
-37
-40
-45
-50
-55
-35 -28 -14 -11,2 -5,6 0 5,6 11,2 14 28 35
MHz

16QAM - 16x2/34 Mbit/s – 14 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-32
-35
-37
-40
-45
-50
-55
-70 -56 -28 -22,4 -11,2 0 11,2 22,4 28 56 70
MHz

16QAM – 32x2/2x34 Mbit/s – 28 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-32
-35
-37
-40
-45
-50
-55
-70 -48 -35 -17 -15 -12 0 12 15 17 35 48 70
MHz

32QAM – 100 Mbit/s – 28 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

A.2.4 ALS13 Spectrum Mask
5
+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-32
-35
-40
-45
-50
-55
-60
-70 -50 -40 -20 -17 -15 -13 0 12.5 15 17 20 40 50 70
[MHz]
ALS13 SDH RADIO EQUIPMENT

TX SPECTRAL DENSITY - ACAP
ENGINEERING

5
+2
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-32
-35
-36
-40
-45
-50
-55
-60
-70 -50 -40 -17 -16 -15 -12 0 12 14.5 15.5 17 40 50 70
[MHz]

TX SPECTRAL DENSITY - ACCP
ENGINEERING

A.2.5 US13 Spectrum Mask
10
+1
Transmitter Power Spectral DEnsity [dB]
0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60
-70
-80
-90
-100
-105
-110
-70 -60 -32 -21 -20 -13 0 13 20 21 31.5 60 70
[MHz]
US13 SDH RADIO EQUIPMENT

TX SPECTRAL DENSITY – ACAP
ENGINEERING

10
0+1
Transmitter Power Spectral DEnsity [dB]
-10
-20
-30
-32
-40
-50
-60
-65
-70
-80
-90
-100
-105
-110
-70
-60
-17
-16
-28
-20
-15
-12
0
12
14.5
16
60
70
17
20
28
[MHz]

TX SPECTRAL DENSITY – ACCP
ENGINEERING

A.3 Equipment in the 18 GHz band
A.3.1 AL18 PDH equipment
Nominal output values at C-C’ point (1+0): 20 dBm (1+0 version 4 QAM)
15 dBm (1+0 version 16/32 QAM)
Receiver sensitivities @10-3 at point C - C’(1+0):

2x2 4x2 10 8x2 16x2/34 2x34/32x2 100
4QAM -92 -89 -88 -86 -83 n.a. n.a.
16QAM n.a. -85 n.a. -82 -79 -76 n.a.
32QAM n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. -73

2x2 4x2 10 8x2 16x2/34 2x34/32x2 100
4QAM -90 -87 -85 -84 -81 n.a. n.a.
16QAM n.a. -83 n.a. -80 -77 -74 n.a.
32QAM n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. n.a. -71

Delay: 6.3 ns
16QAM Bit Rate: 2x34 Mbit/s

Delay: 6.3 ns

Delay: 6.3 ns
ENGINEERING

Branching Losses: 1+1 HSB configuration single antenna
Balanced Hybrid Tx<3.9dB
Rx<3.9dB
Unbalanced Hybrid TX<1.8/6.9dB
Rx<1.8/6.9dB
1+1 FD Configuration (Note ) 4

negligible
Filter and Transceiver Sub-Bands:
SUB-BAND 1
13.75 fn= f0-1000+13.75n f'n= f0+10+13.75n n=1, …., 24
27.5 fn= f0-1000+27.5n f'n= f0+10+27.5n n=1, …., 12
SUB-BAND 2
13.75 fn= f0-1000+13.75n f'n= f0+10+13.75n n=25, …., 48
27.5 fn= f0-1000+27.5n f'n= f0+10+27.5n n=13, …., 24
SUB-BAND 3
13.75 fn= f0-1000+13.75n f'n= f0+10+13.75n n=47, …., 70
27.5 fn= f0-1000+27.5n f'n= f0+10+27.5n n=24, …., 35
4 Available only with one double polarized antenna. Including feeder loss with Integral Antenna
Configuration
ENGINEERING

A.3.2 ALS18 SDH equipment

Capacity 32QAM 128QAM
Standard Version STM-1 20 dBm 16 dBm
ACCP 2xSTM-1 n.a. 16 dBm
Standard Version STM-1 20 dBm 17 dBm
ACAP 2xSTM-1 n.a. 17 dBm
High Power Version STM-1 22 dBm 18 dBm
ACCP 2xSTM-1 n.a. 18 dBm
High Power Version STM-1 22 dBm 19 dBm
ACAP 2xSTM-1 n.a. 19 dBm

STM-1 2xSTM-1
32QAM -72.5 n.a.
128QAM -68 -65

STM-1 2xSTM-1
32QAM -71.5 n.a.
128QAM -67 -64

Bit Rate: STM-1
Delay: 6.3 ns
Signature Height: 20 dB for 32QAM
20 dB for 128QAM
26 MHz 128QAM
Bit Rate: 2xSTM-1

Delay: 6.3 ns
Signature Height: 14 dB 128QAM
ENGINEERING

Rx<4dB

Rx<1.0dB
2+0 Configuration negligible

15 dB 32QAM
Filter Sub-Bands:
FILTER SUB-BAND 1
Channel spacing
Lower half of the band Upper half of the band Available Channels
(MHz)
27.5 fn= f0-986.25+27.5n f'n= f0+23.75 +27.5n n=1, …., 12
55 fn= f0-1000+55n f'n= f0+10+55n n=1, …., 6
FILTER SUB-BAND 2
Channel spacing Lower half of the band Upper half of the band Available Channels
(MHz)
27.5 fn= f0-986.25+27.5n f'n= f0+23.75 +27.5n n=13, …., 22
55 fn= f0-1000+55n f'n= f0+10+55n n=7, …., 11
FILTER SUB-BAND 3
(MHz)
27.5 fn= f0-986.25+27.5n f'n= f0+23.75 +27.5n n=23, …., 34
55 fn= f0-1000+55n f'n= f0+10+55n n=12, …., 17
FILTER SUB-BAND 4
(MHz)
27.5 fn= f0-986.25+27.5n f'n= f0+23.75 +27.5n n=9, …., 20
55 fn= f0-1000+55n f'n= f0+10+55n n=5, …., 10
ENGINEERING

Transceiver Available Channels with Available Channels with Filter Sub-

SUB-BAND 27.5 MHz channel spacing 55 MHz channel spacing Band
SB 1 n=1, …., 4 n=1, …., 2 1
SB 2 n=5, …., 8 n=3, …., 4 1
SB 3 n=9, …., 12 n=5, …., 6 1,4
SB 4 n=13, …., 16 n=7, …., 8 2,4
SB 5 n=17, …., 20 n=9, …., 10 2,4
SB 6 n=19, …., 22 n=10, …., 11 2
SB 7 n=23, …., 26 n=12, …., 13 3
SB 8 n=27, …., 30 n=14, …., 15 3
SB 9 n=31, …., 34 n=16, …., 17 3
ENGINEERING

A.3.2 US18 SDH equipment

Capacity 32QAM 128QAM
ACCP STM-1 19 dBm 15 dBm
ACAP STM-1 19 dBm 16 dBm

STM-1
32QAM -71
128QAM -66

STM-1
32QAM -70
128QAM -65

Delay: 6.3 ns
Signature Height: 21.5 dB for 32QAM
18 dB for 128QAM
28 MHz 128QAM

Rx<4dB

Rx<1.0dB

15 dB 32QAM
ENGINEERING

Filter Sub-Bands (ITU-R F.595):

1L 2L 3L 4L 5L 6L 7L 8L
17741.3 17768.8 17796.3 17823.8 17851.3 17878.8 17906.3 17933.8
1H 2H 3H 4H 5H 6H 7H 8H
18751.25 18778.75 18806.25 18833.75 18861.25 18888.75 18916.25 18943.75
9L 10L 11L 12L 13L 14L 15L 16L
17961.25 17988.75 18016.25 18043.75 18071.25 18098.75 18126.25 18153.75
9H 10H 11H 12H 13H 14H 15H 16H
18971.25 18998.75 19026.25 19053.75 19081.25 19108.75 19136.25 19163.75
17L 18L 19L 20L 21L 22L 23L 24L
18181.25 18208.75 18236.25 18263.75 18291.25 18318.75 18346.25 18373.75
17H 18H 19H 20H 21H 22H 23H 24H
19191.25 19218.75 19246.25 19273.75 19301.25 19328.75 19356.25 19383.75
25L 26L 27L 28L 29L 30L 31L 32L
18401.25 18428.75 18456.25 18483.75 18511.25 18538.75 18566.25 18593.75
25H 26H 27H 28H 29H 30H 31H 32H
19411.25 19438.75 19466.25 19493.75 19521.25 19548.75 19576.25 19603.75
SUB-BAND SUB-BAND
33L 34L
18621.25 18648.75
SUB-BAND SUB-BAND
33H 34H
19631.25 19658.75
Transceiver Available Filter Sub- Transceiver Available Filter Sub-

SUB-BAND Channels Band SUB-BAND Channels Band
SB 1 1,2 1,2 SB 10 19,20 19,20
SB 2 3,4 3,4 SB 11 21,22 21,22
SB 3 5,6 5,6 SB 12 23,24 23,24
SB 4 7,8 7,8 SB 13 25,26 25,26
SB 5 9,10 9,10 SB 14 27,28 27,28
SB 6 11,12 11,12 SB 15 29,30 29,30
SB 7 13,14 13,14 SB 16 31,32 31,32
SB 8 15,16 15,16 SB 17 33,34 33,34
SB 9 17,18 17,18
ENGINEERING

A.3.4 AL18 Spectrum mask
+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-23
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-8.75 -7 -3.5 -2.8 -1.4 0 1.4 2.8 3.5 7 8.75
[MHz]
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-23
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-17.5 -13 -6.5 -5.6 -2.7 0 2.7 5.6 6.5 13 17.5
[MHz]
4QAM- 4x2 Mbit/s and 10 Mbit/s– 7 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-23
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-34.375 -26 -13 -11.2 -5.4 0 5.4 11.2 13 26 34.375
[MHz]
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-23
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-68.75 -45 -25 -19 -11 0 11 19 25 45 68.75
[MHz]
4QAM - 16x2/34 Mbit/s – 27.5 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-32
-35
-37
-40
-45
-50
-55
-8.75 -7 -3.5 -2.8 -1.4 0 1.4 2.8 3.5 7 8.75
[MHz]
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-32
-35
-37
-40
-45
-50
-55
-17.5 -14 -7 -5.6 -2.8 0 2.8 5.6 7 14 17.5
[MHz]
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-32
-35
-37
-40
-45
-50
-55
-34.375 -28 -14 -11.2 -5.6 0 5.6 11.2 14 28 34.375
[MHz]
16QAM - 16x2/34 Mbit/s – 13.75 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-32
-35
-37
-40
-45
-50
-55
-68.75 -56 -28 -22.4 -11.2 0 11.2 22.4 28 56 68.75
[MHz]
16QAM – 32x2/2x34 Mbit/s – 27.5 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

+1
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
-37
-40
-45
-50
-68.75 -48 -35 -17 -15 -12 0 12 15 17 35 48 68.75
[MHz]
32QAM – 100 Mbit/s – 27.5 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
TX SPECTRAL DENSITY
ENGINEERING

A.3.5 ALS18 Spectrum mask
10
Transmitter Spectral Power Density
+1
0
-10
-20
[dB]
-30
-40
-50
-60
-137.5 -70 -33 -22.5 0 22.5 33 70 137.5
[MHz]
ENGINEERING

10
+2
0
-10
-20
-30
-32
-35
-40
-50
-60
-68.75 -42.5 -20 -17 -15 -12.5 0 12.5 15 17 20 42.5 68.75
[MHz]

128QAM - STM-1 – 27.5 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
ENGINEERING

10
+2
0
-10
-20
-30
-32
-36
-40
-45
-50
-60
-68.75 -47 -40 -17 -15.5 -14.5 -12 0 12 14.5 15.5 17 40 47 68.75
[MHz]

ENGINEERING

10
+2
0
-10
-20
-30
-32
-35
-40
-50
-60
-137,5 -85 -40 -34 -30 -25 0 25 30 34 40 85 137,5
[MHz]

128QAM - 2xSTM-1 – 55 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
ENGINEERING

10
+2
0
-10
-20
-30
-32
-36
-40
-45
-50
-60
-137.5 -94 -80 -34 -31 -29 -24 0 24 29 31 34 80 94 137.5
[MHz]

128QAM - 2xSTM-1 – 55 MHZ CHANNEL SPACING
ENGINEERING

A.3.6 US18 Spectrum mask
5
0+1
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-32
-35
-40
-45
-50
-55
-60
.8 .0 0 0 0 0
0. 20. 17. 15. 12.
5
0.
0 .5 .0 .0 .0 .0 .0 .8
-6
8
-5
0
-4 - - - - 12 15 17 20 40 50 68
[MHz]

TX SPECTRAL DENSITY – ACAP
ENGINEERING

5
+2
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-32
-35
-36
-40
-45
-50
-55
-60
.8
.0
.8
.5
.5
.0
.0
.0
0
2.
0.
0.
0.
7.
5.
4.
12
68
14
15
17
40
50
8
-6
-5
-4
-1
-1
-1
-1
[MHz]
ENGINEERING

A.4 Threshold degradation curves
4.0
Threshold Degradation [dB]
3.5 BER =10-3
3.0 BER =10-4
2.5 BER =10-6
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
13.0 14.0 15.0 16.0 17.0 18.0 19.0 20.0 21.0 22.0 23.0
C/I [dB]
Threshold degradation curve for AL 4QAM
3.5
BER =10-3
3 BER =10-4
2.5 BER =10-6
2
1.5
0.5
0
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
C/I [dB]

ENGINEERING

4.0
BER =10-3
3.5
3.0 BER =10-4

2.5 BER =10-6
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
22.0 23.0 24.0 25.0 26.0 27.0 28.0 29.0 30.0 31.0 32.0
C/I [dB]
4.0
3.5
BER =10-3
3.0 BER =10-4

2.5 BER =10-6
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
28.0 29.0 30.0 31.0 32.0 33.0 34.0 35.0 36.0
C/I [dB]
Threshold degradation curve for ALS/US 128QAM
ENGINEERING

4.0
3.5 BER =10-3

3.0 BER =10-4

2.5 BER =10-6
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
22.0 23.0 24.0 25.0 26.0 27.0 28.0 29.0 30.0
C/I [dB]
Threshold degradation curve for ALS/US 32QAM
ENGINEERING

Annex B – Guaranteed figures for SIAE’s multicarrier radio
equipment
Output power
(Note ):5
Standard power: +29 dBm ±1 dB for 4-L8GHz band
High power: +32 dBm ±1 dB for 4-L8GHz band
+29 dBm ±1 dB for 11GHz band
+27 dBm ±1 dB for 13GHz band
Modulation: 64 state Quadrature Amplitude Modulation with Multi Level Coded

Modulation type FEC (64 QAM MLCM) for 4/5/U6/11 GHz bands
128 state Quadrature Amplitude Modulation with Multi Level Coded

Modulation type FEC (128 QAM MLCM) for U4/L6/L7/U7/L8/13 GHz
bands
Capacity: Single-feed /Alternated operation: One (1) STM-1 (155.52 Mbit/s) signal
per RF frequency
Co-channel operation: Two (2) STM-1 (155.52 Mbit/s) signals per RF

frequency carrier
Threshold levels: 64 QAM MLCM: BER = 10–3 at RSL of –74.5 dBm guaranteed
BER = 10–6 at RSL of –70.5 dBm guaranteed
Note 1 RSL is 1 dB higher for 11 GHz band.

Note 2: Space diversity improves RSL by 2 dB.
128 QAM MLCM: BER = 10–3 at RSL of –72.0 dBm guaranteed

BER = 10–6 at RSL of –68.0 dBm guaranteed
Note 1 : Space Diversity improves RSL by 2 dB.

Note 2 : RSL is 0.5 dB higher for L8G and 2.5 dB
higher for 13 GHz.
RF Spectrum Mask: According to ETSI EN 302 217-2-1 V1.1.3

64QAM system: Figure C.1 (40MHz spacing)
128QAM system: Figure B.5 (29/29.65 MHz) & B.6
(28 MHz spacing)
XPIF factor: 18 dB (measured on the BER=10–3 interference curve)
5 Measured at MSTU unit output (see fig. B1)

ENGINEERING

Insertion Loss of Loss Equalized RF Branching Network
Figure B1 - Loss equalized RF branching network for 1+1 protection system
Where: adpt: MSTU adaptor

DL: Dummy load (termination)
Reference A’ (ref. A’): MSTU unit RF output port
Reference A (ref. A): MSTU unit RF input port
Reference C and C’: DUP input/output waveguide flange port
In this allocation, RF branching network location of M1 channel in the transmitter side is most far
from DUP and in the receive side RF branching network location of M1 channel is the nearest from
duplexer (DUP).
ENGINEERING

Table B1 - Insertion Loss of N+1, Single-feed Operation
When the innermost RF channels are allocated on customer’s request, BEF should be added only
for the innermost RF channel. In this case, only insertion loss for innermost RF channels will be
added to BEF loss, 3 dB for U6 GHz and 2.5 dB for other band.
Above insertion loss is typical value. For guaranteed value, add to 1 dB.
ENGINEERING

Table B2 - Insertion Loss of N+1, Alternated Operation
ENGINEERING

Table B3 - Insertion Loss of N+1, Co-Channel Operation
ENGINEERING

Table B4 - Insertion Loss of 2x(N+1), Co-Channel Operation
for the innermost RF channel. In this case, only insertion loss for innermost RF channels will be add
to BEF loss, 3 dB for U6 GHz and 2.5 dB for other band.
ENGINEERING

Annex C – Calculation method for the multipath occurrence
factor p0 according to ITU-R 530-8
Method for small percentages of time according to Rec. ITU-R P. 530-8 [7].
p0  K  d 3.6  f 0.89

 1  p   1.4
% (C.1)
where:
f is the frequency (GHz).
k geoclimatic factor.
d is the path length (km).
The geoclimatic factor, K , can be estimated for the average worst month from fading data for the
geographic area of interest, knowing the other parameters in C.1, otherwise K is computed
following the method here below.
Inland links: K can be estimated for links in inland areas (see Note 1 for definition of inland links)
from the following empirical relation in the climatic variable p L (i.e., the percentage of time that
the refractivity gradient in the lowest 100 m of the atmosphere is more negative than –100 N
units/km in the estimated average worst month; see below):
k  5.0  107  100.1  C 0  C Lat  C Lon   pL (C.2)

The value of the coefficient C 0 in equation (C.2) is given in Table C.1 for three ranges of altitude
of the lower of the transmitting and receiving antennas and three types of terrain (plains, hills, or
mountains). In cases of uncertainty as to whether a link should be classified as being in a plains or
hilly area, the mean value of the coefficients C 0 for these two types of area should be employed.
Similarly, in cases of uncertainty as to whether a link should be classified as being in a hilly or
mountainous area, the mean value of the coefficients C 0 for these two types of area should be
employed. Links traversing plains at one end and mountains at the other should be classified as
being in hilly areas. For the purposes of deciding whether a partially overwater path is in a largely
plains, hilly, or mountainous area, the water surface should be considered as a plain.
For planning purposes where the type of terrain is not known, the following values of the
coefficient C 0 in equation (C.2) should be employed:
C 0 = 1.7 for lower-altitude antenna in the range 0-400 m above mean sea level;
C 0 = 4.2 for lower-altitude antenna in the range 400-700 m above mean sea level;
C0 = 8 for lower-altitude antenna more than 700 m above mean sea level.
The coefficient C Lat in equation (C.2) of latitude  is given by:
C Lat 0 dB for 5N or °S (C.3)
ENGINEERING

C Lat –53dB for 5N or °S 6N or °S (C.4)
C Lat 7 dB for ³6N or °S (C.5)
and the longitude coefficient C Lon , by:
C Lon 3 dB for longitudes of Europe and Africa (C.6)

C Lon –3 dB for longitudes of North and South America (C.7)
C Lon 0 dB for all other longitudes (C.8)
Altitude of lower antenna and type of link terrain C 0 [dB]

Low altitude antenna (0-400 m) – Plains:
Overland or partially overland links, with lower-antenna altitude less than 400 m above mean sea level, 0
located in largely plains areas
Low altitude antenna (0-400 m) – Hills:
Overland or partially overland links, with lower-antenna altitude less than 400 m, above mean sea level, 3.5
located in largely hilly areas
Medium altitude antenna (400-700 m) – Plains:
Overland or partially overland links, with lower-antenna altitude in the range 400-700 m above mean sea 2.5
level, located in largely plains areas
Medium altitude antenna (400-700 m) – Hills:
Overland or partially overland links, with lower-antenna altitude in the range, 400-700 m above mean sea 6
level, located in largely hilly areas
High altitude antenna (>700 m) – Plains:
Overland or partially overland links, with lower-antenna altitude more than 700 m above mean sea level, 5.5
located in largely plains areas
High altitude antenna (>700 m) – Hills:
Overland or partially overland links, with lower-antenna altitude more than 700 m above mean sea level, 8
located in largely hilly areas
High altitude antenna (>700 m) – Mountains:
Overland or partially overland links, with lower-antenna altitude more than 700 m above mean sea level, 10.5
located in largely mountainous areas
Table C.1 - Values of coefficient C0 in equations (10.4) and (10.13) for three ranger of lower
antenna altitude and three types of terrain
The value of the climatic variable p L in equation (C.2) is estimated by taking the highest value of
the –100 N units/km gradient exceeding from the maps for the four seasonally representative
months of February, May, August and November given in Figs. 7 to 10 of Recommendation ITU-R
P.453-9 [19]. An exception to this is that only the maps for May and August should be used for
latitudes greater than 60° N or 60° S.
It may be desirable in some cases to obtain expansions of the maps in Figs. 7 to 10 of
Recommendation ITU-R P.453-9 [19] in the area of the link in question and accurately plot the
point corresponding to the centre of the link to obtain the p L value. Since the maps are on a
Mercator projection, the following relation should be employed to accurately plot the centre point
latitude
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ln tan 45  0.5    ln tan 45  0.5 1  
z L  z  (C.9)
ln tan 45  0.5 2    ln tan 45  0.5 1  
Here z is the distance (e.g. in mm) between the nearest lower and upper latitude grid lines at
latitudes  1 and  2 , respectively (e.g. 30° and 45°); z L is the required distance (e.g. in mm)
between the lower latitude grid line and the point corresponding to the centre of the link. The centre
point longitude can be plotted by linear interpolation.
Coastal links over/near large bodies of water: if measured data for K are not available for
coastal links (see Note 2 for definition) over/near large bodies of water (see Note 3 for definition of
large bodies of water), K can be estimated from:
 K l ( rc )  10  1 rc  log K  rc log K cl for K cl ³ K

K (C.10)
K for K cl  K
where rc is the fraction of the path profile below 100 m altitude above the mean level of the body
of water in question and within 50 km of the coastline, but without an intervening height of land
above 100 m altitude, K is given by the expression equation (C.2), and:
0.1C 0  0.11 
K cl  2.3  10 4  10 (C.11)
with C 0 given in Table C.1. Note that the condition K cl  K in equation (C.10) occurs in a few
regions at low and mid latitudes.
Coastal links over/near medium-sized bodies of water: if measured data for K are not available for
coastal links (see Note 2 for definition) over/near medium-sized bodies of water (see Note 3 for
definition of medium-sized bodies of water), K can be estimated from:
 K m ( rc )  10  1 rc  log K  rc log K cm for K cm ³ K

K (C.12)
K for K cm  K
and
K cm  10 0.5(log K  log K cl ) (C.13)
with K cl given by equation (C.11). Note that the condition K cm  K in equation (C.12) occurs in a
few regions at low and mid latitudes.
NOTE 1 – Inland links are those in which either the entire path profile is above 100 m altitude (with
respect to mean sea level) or beyond 50 km from the nearest coastline, or in which part or all of the
path profile is below 100 m altitude for a link entirely within 50 km of the coastline, but there is an
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intervening height of land higher than 100 m between this part of the link and the coastline. Links
passing over a river or a small lake should normally be classed as passing over land. For links in a
region of many lakes, see Note 4.
NOTE 2 – The link may be considered to be crossing a coastal area if a fraction rc of the path
profile is less than 100 m above the mean level of a medium-sized or large body of water and within
50 km of its coastline, and if there is no height of land above the 100 m altitude (relative to the
mean altitude of the body of water in question) between this fraction of the path profile and the
coastline.
NOTE 3 – The size of a body of water can be chosen on the basis of several known examples:
Medium-sized bodies of water include the Bay of Fundy (east coast of Canada) and the Strait of
Georgia (west coast of Canada), the Gulf of Finland, and other bodies of water of similar size.
Large bodies of water include the English Channel, the North Sea, the larger reaches of the Baltic
and Mediterranean Seas, Hudson Strait, and other bodies of water of similar size or larger. In cases
of uncertainty as to whether the size of body of water in question should be classed as medium or
large, K should be calculated from:
K  10  1 rc  log K  0.5rc  log K cm  log K cl  (C.14)

K in the expression (C.14) is given by the expression equation (C.2)
NOTE 4 – Regions (not otherwise in coastal areas) in which there are many lakes over a fairly
large area are believed to behave somewhat like coastal areas. The region of lakes in southern
Finland provides the best known example. Until such regions can be better defined, K should be
calculated from:
K  10 0.5 2  rc  log K  rc log K cm (C.15)
The magnitude of the path inclination   p (m rad) can be calculated from:
 p  hr  he / d (C.16)
with hr and he antenna heights (in metres above sea level or some other reference height).
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ANNEX D – NFD matrixes for SIAE’s radio equipments
D.1 Equipment in the 6U GHz band
VICTIM ALS 6U – STM-1

INTERFERER ALS 6U – STM-1
f (MHz)
0 0
40 49
80 74
120 94
160 94
Table D1 - NFD matrix: Victim ALS/US 6U 128QAM; Interferer ALS/US 6U128QAM
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D.2 Equipment in the 13 GHz band
Table D2 - NFD matrix: Victim AL13 4QAM; Interferer AL13 4QAM
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Table D4 - NFD matrix: Victim ALS13 128QAM; Interferer AL13 4QAM
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Table D8 - NFD matrix: Victim AL13 32QAM; Interferer AL13 4QAM/16QAM/32QAM
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Table D9 - NFD matrix: Victim AL13 4QAM/16QAM; Interferer AL13 32QAM
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Table D11 - NFD matrix: Victim AL13 32QAM; Interferer ALS13 128QAM
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Table D14 - NFD matrix: Victim ALS13 128QAM; Interferer ALS13 128QAM
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Table D15 - NFD matrix: Victim US13 128QAM; Interferer AL13 4QAM
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Table D18 - NFD matrix: Victim AL13 32QAM; Interferer US13 128QAM
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Table D21 - NFD matrix: Victim US13 128QAM; Interferer US13 128QAM
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Table D22 - NFD matrix: Victim US13 128QAM; Interferer ALS13 128QAM
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Table D23 - NFD matrix: Victim ALS13 128QAM; Interferer US13 128QAM
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D.3 Equipment in the 18 GHz band
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Table D25 - NFD Matrix: Victim AL18 4QAM; Interferer AL18 16QAM
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Table D26 - NFD Matrix: Victim AL18 4QAM; Interferer ALS18 128QAM/32QAM
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Table D29 - NFD Matrix: Victim ALS18 128/32QAM; Interferer AL18 16QAM
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Table D30 - NFD Matrix: Victim AL18 32QAM; Interferer AL18 4QAM/16QAM/32QAM
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Table D31 - NFD Matrix: Victim AL18 4QAM/16QAM; Interferer AL18 32QAM
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Table D32 - NFD Matrix: Victim ALS18 128QAM/32QAM; Interferer AL18 32QAM
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Table D36 - NFD Matrix: Victim ALS18 128QAM/32QAM; Interferer ALS18 128QAM/32QAM
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Table D37 - NFD Matrix: Victim US18 128QAM/32QAM; Interferer AL18 4QAM
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Table D40 - NFD Matrix: Victim AL18 32QAM; Interferer US18 128QAM/32QAM
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Table D43 - NFD Matrix: Victim US18 128QAM/32QAM; Interferer US18 128QAM/32QAM
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Table D44 - NFD Matrix: Victim ALS18 128QAM/32QAM; Interferer US18 128QAM/32QAM
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Table D45 - NFD Matrix: Victim US18 128QAM/32QAM; Interferer ALS18 128QAM/32QAM
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siae microelettronica s.p.a.

Planning criteria for digital

Property of Document Number Ver.

Property of Document Number Ver.

Property of Document Number Ver.

Property of Document Number Ver.

Property of Document Number Ver.

[10] ITU-R Recommendation F.634-4:“ERROR PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES FOR REAL DIGITAL

[11] ITU-T Recommendation F.697-2:“ERROR PERFORMANCE AND AVAILABILITY OBJECTIVES FOR

[12] ITU-R Recommendation F.556-1:“HYPOTHETICAL REFERENCE DIGITAL PATH FOR RADIO-RELAY

Property of Document Number Ver.

[16] ITU-R Recommendation P.526-9: “Propagation by diffraction”

[17] ITU-R Recommendation P.834-5:“Effects of tropospheric refraction on radiowave

[18] ITU-R Recommendation P.833-5: “Attenuation in vegetation”

[20] ITU-R Recommendation P.837-4: “Characteristics of precipitation for propagation

[21] ITU-R Recommendation P.841-4: “Conversion of annual statistics to worst-month statistics”

Property of Document Number Ver.

Property of Document Number Ver.

1250 km 25 000 km 1250 km

Local (Note 2) Medium (Note 1) High (Note 1) Medium Local

2 LE denotes the local exchange or equivalent point.

Figure 1.1: Circuit quality demarcation of longest HRX

Property of Document Number Ver.

Error performance parameters are derived from the following events:

Performance is defined by means of the following parameters:

The ratio (n/N)i for the ith s is:

Property of Document Number Ver.

Performance classification Objective (Note 1)

Severely Errored Second Ratio 0.002

Table 1.1 - Error performance objectives for international ISDN connections

Property of Document Number Ver.

Circuit classification Allocation of the objectives given in Table 1

Local grade (2 ends) 15% block allowance to each end

Table 1.2 - Allocation of the objectives for the three-circuit classifications

Property of Document Number Ver.

Circuit classification (see Figure 1) Network performance objectives

Local grade 0.012

Table 1.3 - Allocation of Errored Second Ratio objective

Circuit classification Allocation of SESR objectives

Local grade 0.00015 block allowance to each end

High grade 0.0004

Table 1.4 - Allocation of Severely Errored Second Ratio objective

Property of Document Number Ver.

Table 1.5 - Allocation of 0.001 SESR for Medium Grade objectives

Property of Document Number Ver.

 that the ESR should not exceed (L /2 500)0.32 % in any month;

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4

Table 1.6 - Error performance objectives

The Rec. ITU-R F.696-4 [9] recommends also :

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1.6 Unavailability objectives

 The digital signal is interrupted (i.e. alignment or timing is lost)

Property of Document Number Ver.

Class 1 Class 2 Class 3 Class 4

Property of Document Number Ver.