5.

6.

7.

8.

ties in quantum-well laser diodes, IEEE J Quantum Electron 34 (1998), 120-140. R. Nagarajan, T. Fukushima, J.E. Bowers, R.S. Geels, and L.A. Coldren, Single quantum well strained InGaAs/GaAs lasers with large modulation bandwidth and low damping, Electron Lett 27 (1991), 10581060. L.V.T. Nguyen, A.J. Lowery, P.C.R. Gurney, and D. Novak, A timedomain model for high-speed quantum-well lasers including carrier transport effects, IEEE J Sel Top Quantum Electron 1 (1995), 494-504. D. McDonald and R.F. ODowd, Comparison of two- and three-level rate equations in the modeling of quantum-well lasers, IEEE J Quantum Electron 31 (1995), 1927-1934. P.S. Zory, Quantum well lasers, Academic Press, Orlando, FL 1993.

2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Figure 5 Turn-on delay time of SQWL as a function of leakage factor at zero laser polarization (IB 0 mA) and for two values of SCH layers (76 and 300 nm). Inset, magnied gure section. [Color gure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com]

EMPIRICAL PROPAGATION MODEL FOR WIMAX AT 3.5 GHz IN AN URBAN ENVIRONMENT

lvaro Valcarce Rial1, Harald Krauss2, Joachim Hauck3, A Martin Buchholz3, and Fernando Aguado Agelet1 1 Telecommunications, University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain; Corresponding author: faguado@tsc.uvigo.es 2 Telecommunications, University of Applied Sciences, Saarbruecken, Germany 3 RF Engineering, University of Applied Sciences, Saarbruecken, Germany Received 9 July 2007 ABSTRACT: Many Worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) eld trials are currently taken place around the world. In some countries, commercial WiMAX networks are running. This article presents an empirical propagation model obtained from a pilot project in Saarbruecken. Results of the extensive measurement campaign of this WiMAX trial in an urban environment, operating at a frequency of 3.5 GHz, are presented and compared to own eld strength predictions. 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 50: 483 487, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www. interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23112 Key words: IEEE 802.16; WiMAX; eld trial; triple play; eld strength prediction; propagation model; network planning 1. INTRODUCTION

omitted when we deal with frequency response analysis and optimization of ultrafast SQWL. 5.3. Turn-On Delay Time To determine SQWL turn-on delay time, we chose digital impulse which was 4-ns wide (from 2 to 6 ns) and 5-mA high. Since the delay time of output radiation is found during laser start when laser is polarized below threshold, we use unbiased SQWL (IB 0), i.e. the case when this delay is the largest. For real values of the leakage factor ( 0.7), turn-on delay time (see Fig. 5) increases by more than 100 ps for larger widths of the SCH layers and otherwise is constant for smaller widths of SCH layers. This delay is quite enough to degrade performances of ultrafast response systems. Therefore, leakage effect needs to be taken into account for wide SCH layers SQWL analysis when it is polarized below threshold.
6. CONCLUSION

In this paper, analyses of SQWL with leakage effect included has been carried out. Given results clearly show that, for large widths of SCH layers, inuence of leakage current on SQWL performances is emphasized increasing threshold current (more than 5%), decreasing operating speed (more than double) and degrading laser response to input digital signal (increasing turn-on delay time more than 100 ps). Because of that we can conclude that SQWL is applicable in optical communication systems only with narrower SCH layers (smaller than 100 nm).
REFERENCES 1. R. Nagarajan, M. Ishikawa, T. Fukushima, R.S. Geels, and J.E. Bowers, High speed quantum-well lasers and carrier transport effects, IEEE J Quantum Electron 28 (1992), 1990-2008. 2. M.F. Lu, C. Juang, M.J. Jan, and B.J. Lee, Study of carrier transport effect on quantum well lasers using a SPICE simulator, IEE Proc Optoelectron 142 (1995), 237-240. 3. B.P.C. Tsou and D.L. Pulfrey, A versatile SPICE model for quantumwell lasers, IEEE J Quantum Electron 33 (1997), 246-254. 4. M. Grupen and K. Hess, Simulation of carrier transport and nonlineari-

Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a wireless technology, which is mainly based on the IEEE standard 802.16-2004 and 802.16e-2005 for xed and mobile applications, respectively [1]. It aims to be the leading technology delivering wireless internet services and offers high-throughput broadband connections over longer distances than WiFi. WiMAX can be used for a number of applications, including last mile broadband connections, hotspots, and cellular backhaul with provision of guaranteed quality of services even under non line of sight (NLOS) conditions. There barely exist data for electromagnetic propagation at 3.5 GHz in NLOS conditions and in urban environments. Thats the reason, why there are not many empirical models, that would give a fast and accurate prediction of the radio propagation of a WiMAX signal at this frequency in a city [2, 3]. Therefore, one of the main objectives of this article is present the collection and analysis of such data to get a better understanding of the propagation conditions and the study of WiMAX system capabilities in this frequency range in general.

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2. PROPAGATION MODELS

The urban radio propagation environment is one of the hardest ones in which to obtain accurate propagation predictions. Both the facts that it is not time stationary and also its nonheterogeneous structure have the effect that several propagation phenomena take place, making it therefore difcult for a propagation model to give a perfect explanation of all possible effects. There exist nowadays several models that dene propagation predictions in macrocells for new generation systems. We summarize next some of the most widely employed ones:

Erceg model: In [3] a recommendation is made to make use of this model, which is dened in [4]. This empirical model is based on data collected in the USA at a frequency of 1.9 GHz. In [3], for instance two correction terms introduced to the model allow its use at frequencies and receiver antenna heights other than 2 GHz and 2 m. COST 231 Walsch-Ikegami Model: In chapter 4 of [5], this model is presented as an appropriate model for macrocells in urban environments. Unfortunately, this model is restricted to the frequency range from 800 MHz to 2 GHz and once again correction terms such as Hata must be applied. Har-Xia-Bertoni Model: This empirical model was presented in [6] with the purpose of dening new formulas that will allow accurate predictions for urban environments in the neighborhood of the transmitting antenna. Nevertheless, its valid frequency range is quite far from the 3.5 GHz band employed worldwide for WiMAX, reducing therefore its applicability.

Figure 1 Measured power. [Color gure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com]

3. MEASURING SETUP

Though some work on the wideband properties of the 3.5 GHz channel in suburban areas [7, 8] is already done, there is still a big lack of empirical models for such a band in city centers. In this article, we present the results of a WiMAX eld trial in a metropolitan area and use the recorded measurements to deduce a formula that will allow propagation predictions at 3.5 GHz in urban environments for a given set of input parameters. The used base station is a MacroMax from Airspan Networks [9] and two 120 sectors. The rst sector feeds the inner city with higher buildings (512 oors). The second sector feeds an area with smaller buildings (up to 35 oors) and industrial settlements. Up- and downlink frequencies are located in the 3.5 GHz band. For the two different sectors, a 3.5

MHz channel bandwidth is used in FDD-mode. Table 1 summarizes the base-station parameters. The used measurement equipment allows in principle the following parameters to be measured: EVM, IQ-offset, gain imbalance, quadrature error, center frequency error, clock error, burst power, crest factor, RSSI standard deviation, and CINR standard deviation. To measure the needed parameters with high mobility as precise and as fast as possible, a test vehicle is equipped with necessary hardware like an uninterruptible power supply, spectrum analyzer FSQ8 from Rohde&Schwarz [10], differential-GPS, an omni-directional antenna with 10dBi gain mounted at heights of 2 and 4 m above ground, and an outdoor-CPE to check the transmission channel or to change parameters of the base stations management system. Measuring of the spectrum analyzer is automated by a proprietary VEE application [11], to measure all necessary parameters of the K93 WiMAX option combined with the actual geographical position. All data are saved to a le for subsequent post processing of data. A maximum of 1800 measurements per hour is possible only for the antenna of 2 m height. Measuring with the 4 m high antenna is only possible when car stops.

TABLE 1

Main Parameters of Base Station Two 120 Sectors 3.5 GHz 3.5 MHz 120 10 14 dBi 1 37 dBm (5 W) 2.34 dB 48.7 dB (74 W) N: 49 14 9 O: 6 58 34 25 m Figure 2 Measured CINR. [Color gure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com]

MacroMaxBase Station Frequency Channel bandwidth Antenna horizontal beam width Antenna vertical beam width Measured antenna gain at 3.5 GHz Antenna tilt Measured output power Measured cable attenuation Calculated EIRP Geographical location of base station (Building of the university) Altitude of antenna above ground

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Figure 3 Predicted received modulation and throughput. [Color gure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at www. interscience.wiley.com] 4. MEASUREMENT RESULTS

From Figure 1, we can conclude that barely measure any signal beyond a distance of 2 km. Though there exists some locations at distances of 2.5 and 5 km, where some power is indeed received, these points are minority and caused by an almost complete line-of-sight view to the base station, being therefore not representative of the propagation in urban environments. In Figure 2, we show the values of the measured carrier to interference and noise ratio (CINR) parameter, which plays a decisive role when comes to the digital modulation that a WiMAX terminal is able to demodulate. The CINR achieves in this case values as high as of 30 dB in the proximities of the base station, and decreases with distance. Though, the CINR values do not greatly vary with distance and are quite uniformly distributed in each direction of the urban center, being 18.4 dB its mean value, with a standard deviation of 5.1 dB. During our eld trial we test several subscriber terminals of two different manufacturers. Taking for instance the specica-

tions of the EasyST CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) model of Airspan, we show in Figure 3 the potential receivable modulation and download rate for a BER 106. Basic statistical calculations of the predicted modulation values at all of the studied locations have shown that the points situated within a 2 km circle centered at the base station should in mean receive a 16QAM34, being BPSK12 and QPSK12 the most improbable modulations. For such a CPE and a MacroMax model base station, the gross throughput for a 16QAM34 in our 3.5 MHz wide channel is 8.7 Mbps, both in downlink and uplink. This result indicates that, even though the received power decreases with distance to the base station, the achievable data rate can still be quite high due to the robustness that the OFDM-based WiMAX design grants to the subscriber terminals. Having also knowledge of the transmitter and receiver antenna gains, it is possible to obtain the attenuation undergone by the signal in the channel at each location. In Figure 4, the blue crosses represent the measured attenuation values at each location and its corresponding value is indicated on the right ordinate axis. We also show a graph bar that indicates the proportion of points with positive reception, against the total number of points within several 100-m wide intervals. Such a graph indicates an estimate of the plausibility of receiving the displayed attenuations for a given distance to the base station and in an urban environment similar to that of Saarbruecken. The values of the reception points proportion are indicated on the left ordinate axis.

5. EMPIRICAL MODEL DEFINITION

In Figure 4 the general tendency of the attenuation with respect to the distance from the base station is made clear. Therefore, we perform an interpolation of such points to compare them to the previously presented propagation models. It must be mentioned that the total number of points within the 2-km range is 3668, what allows for quite reliable statistics to be made. Following a similar approach to that already explained in [4] and due to the physical nature of propagation, we will assume a logarithmic evolution of the channels attenuation as the distance to the base station increases. The employed interpolation formula is:

Figure 4

Channel attenuation. [Color gure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com]

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Figure 5

Models comparison. [Color gure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com]

A A 0 10 logd/d0 where A0 is the intercept attenuation value at a distance d0 from the base station. For the case of our concern, we chose for d0 the closest value to 200 m, which in our case supposes a measured attenuation of A0 105.45 dB. The interpolation algorithm applied was the known Least Square Error Regression Method, implemented with the robust LAR (Least Absolute Residuals) variant, which led to a result of 3.911 for the path loss exponent. The 95% condence interval of this value ranges from 3.886 until 3.935, and the root mean square error of the t acquired a value of 4.362 dB. Among other t goodness parameters we shall mention a value of R2 0.9612, which means that our regression explains about 96% of the data variation. To verify the obtained formula, we calculate the attenuation curves for the previously mentioned propagation models. The applied parameters are chosen to better describe the structure of the city of Saarbruecken:

in this case the residuals follow a gaussian distribution of mean 0.4 dB and standard deviation of 9.5 dB.
6. CONCLUSION

As seen, this article presents some empirical data and an empirical model from this data has been obtained. The structure of the city, the terminals sensitivity, and the emitted power are parameters that should be taken into account when performing such calculations. In case of our study and with the system parameters given in Table 1, we have obtained that 99% of all reception points measured with a 2-m high antenna, take place within a radius of 1500 m. This does not necessarily have to be the case of other cities or systems and this range is expected to be longer when using higher antennas.

Average building height: 20 m Average street width: 15 m Average separation between buildings: 20 m Average horizontal distance to the receiver from the last rooftop: 10 m

In Figure 5, we show the different studied models. Out of such a picture, it is quite clear, that the proposed formula is in high concordance with the COST 231 Walsch-Ikegami and Erceg models. The Har-Xia-Bertoni prediction is far too pessimistic, which is probably due to the fact that our base stations antenna is positioned high above the surrounding rooftops, being this not quite the case of the last model. Out of the proposed formula, it is also possible to characterize the error to which it is subject. We therefore dene the residuals as the difference between the predicted and the measured values, whose histogram is depicted in Figure 6. It has been concluded that

Figure 6 Residuals histogram. [Color gure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at www.interscience.wiley.com]

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We are investigating measurement and simulation results in terms of various modulation schemes and bandwidths in one base station sector to adapt a load generator and WiMAX emulation scenario for more accurate predictions in urban areas. These predictions can support network operators management to scale their users.

1. INTRODUCTION

REFERENCES 1. IEEE Standard Std. 802.16-2004 and 802.16e-2005, IEEE standard for local and metropolitan area networks, IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society, 2006. 2. G. Plitsis, Coverage prediction of new elements of systems beyond 3G: The IEEE 802.16 system as a case study, 58th Vehicular Technical Conference VTC, 2003. 3. V. Erceg et al., Channel models for xed wireless applications, IEEE 802.16 Broadband Wireless Access Working Group, 2001. 4. V. Erceg, et al., An empirically based path loss model for wireless channels in suburban environments, IEEE J Selected Areas Commun 17 (1999), 12051211. 5. D.J. Cichon and T. Ku rner, Digital mobile radio towards future generation systems, COST 231 Final Report, 1999. 6. D. Har, H.H. Xia, and H.L. Bertoni, Path loss prediction models for microcells, IEEE Trans on Veh Technol 48 (1999), 14531462. 7. C.L. Hong, I.J. Wassell, G.E. Athanasiadou, S. Greaves, and M. Sellars, Wideband channel measurements and characterization for broadband wireless access, Twelfth International Conference on Antennas and Propagation (ICAP 2003), 2003, vol. 1, pp. 429 432. 8. C.L. Hong, I.J. Wassell, G.E. Athanasiadou, S. Greaves, and M. Sellars, Wideband tapped delay line channel model at 3.5 GHz for broadband xed wireless access system as function of subscriber antenna height in suburban environment, Proceedings of the 2003 Joint Conference of the Fourth International Conference on Information, Communications and Signal Processing, 2003 and the Fourth Pacic Rim Conference on Multimedia, 2003, vol. 1, pp. 386390. 9. Airspan Networks Inc, www.airspan.com 10. Rohde&Schwarz, www.rohde-schwarz.de 11. Agilent Technologies, www.agilent.com 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H) is a new standard for delivering broadcast television to mobile terminals. The frequency band of 474 698 MHz has been specied for the operation of the DVB-H system. This 224-MHz bandwidth has been divided into 28 ultra high frequency (UHF) channels from UHF channel 21 49 with a step of 8 MHz [1]. One of the major challenges in this UHF band is the design of terminal antennas which are required to be small in size while maintaining the performance as required by the specications. The design of DVB-H terminal antennas has received considerable attention over the past few years. A DVB-H receiver antenna, consisting of a nonresonant coupling element, a chassis, and a matching circuit, has been studied in Ref. 2. A planar invert-F antenna (PIFA) and a folded-patch on a big ground plane have also been designed to operate in DVB-H UHF band in Ref. 3. However, the antenna performance of those antennas is very dependent on the ground plane or the chassis, as they act as the main radiators. A ground plane independent folded monopole antenna was proposed in our previous work [4], which is 106 mm, 13.5 mm, and 20 mm in length, width, and height, respectively. The antenna was operating at 610 MHz, with a 6-dB return loss bandwidth of 30 MHz. It was operated with a tunable matching circuit to cover the entire DVB-H band. However, this design is still too large for commercial applications as the terminal size is shrinking with less available ground plane space. The antenna also suffers from a second resonance (750 MHz), which occurs within the DVB-H bandwidth. In this article, a dielectric-loaded monopole antenna is proposed to overcome these limitations presented in the previous folded monopole antenna. Its dimensions have been reduced to 60 mm, 13.5 mm, and 18 mm in length, width, and height,

STUDY OF A DIELECTRIC-LOADED FOLDED MONOPOLE ANTENNA AT UHF BAND FOR DVB-H TERMINALS
Y. Gao, R. Kariyawasam, C. C. Chiau, X. Chen, Clive G. Parini Department of Electronic Engineering, Queen Mary University of London, London, E1 4NS, United Kingdom; Corresponding author: yue.gao@elec.qmul.ac.uk Received 9 July 2007 ABSTRACT: This article presents a study on a dielectric-loaded folded monopole antenna operating at ultra high frequency band for Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld terminals. It is an optimization of the folded monopole antenna in our previous work. The proposed antenna has a 43% reduction in volume when compared with the previous design. Because of the ground plane independency of the antenna, the proposed antenna can be mounted on any type of ground plate, thus improving the adaptability to different terminal designs. 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 50: 487 490, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23111 Key words: DVB-H; folded monopole; UHF Figure 1 (a) Conguration and (b) return loss results of the folded monopole antenna structure [4]

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