International Journal For Research & Development in Technology

Volume: 2, Issue: 2, AUGUST-2014

ISSN (Online):- 2349-3585

Improvement of signal coverage using

WCDMA signal repeater for 3G systems
K. Sangeethalakshmi1, S.Sesha vidhya2, P.Sivalakshmi3, A. Chitra4
1234

Department Of Electronics & Communication Engineering,

RMK College of Engineering and Technology

ABSTRACT:-Wireless communication has become an

indispensable technology for the society. In broadband
wireless data transmission technique, 3G cellular systems
are expected to provide high data rate and less probability of
error. This repeater finds application in areas of poor signal
coverage and connectivity. The repeater consists of a patch
panel antenna for receiving WCDMA signals from the base
station and amplifying the signals using a wideband RF
amplifier. The signals are then retransmitted to the weak
coverage area using a directional Yagi-Uda antenna. The
antenna characteristics such as return loss and VSWR are
measured using a Network analyzer. The component of the
repeater are mounted in a stand and the performance of the
entire unit was evaluated using a WCDMA generator, act as
a base station, transmitting at 869 MHz and 5dBm output
power. A spectrum analyzer with WCDMA analyzer is used
as a receiver, the RF signal level and constellation plots with
error vector magnitude are determined.
Keywords : WCDMA, Yagi-Uda antenna, Repeater, VSWR,
3G systems, CDMA.

I.INTRODUCTION
W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) is a
type of 3G cellular network. W-CDMA is the higher speed
transmission protocol used in the Japanese FOMA system and
in the UMTS system, a third generation follow-on to the 2G
GSM networks deployed worldwide. W-CDMA transmits on a
pair of 5 MHz-wide radio channels, while CDMA2000
transmits on one or several pairs of 1.25 MHz radio channels.
Though W-CDMA does use a direct sequence CDMA
transmission technique like CDMA2000, W-CDMA is not
simply a wideband version of CDMA2000. The W-CDMA
system is a new design by NTT DoCoMo, and it differs in
many aspects from CDMA2000. From an engineering point of
view, W-CDMA provides a different balance of trade-offs
between cost, capacity, performance, and density; it also
promises to achieve a benefit of reduced cost for video phone
handsets
.
1.1 WCDMA DEVELOPMENT
W-CDMA was developed by NTT DoCoMo as the air
interface for their 3G network FOMA. Later NTT DoCoMo
submitted
the
specification
to
the
International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) as a candidate for the
international 3G standard known as IMT-2000. The ITU

eventually accepted W-CDMA as part of the IMT-2000 family

of 3G standards, as an alternative to CDMA2000, EDGE, and
the short range DECT system. Later, W-CDMA was selected
as the air interface for UMTS, the 3G successor to GSM.
Code Division Multiple Access communication networks have
been developed by a number of companies over the years, but
development of cell-phone networks based on CDMA (prior to
W-CDMA) was dominated by Qualcomm, the first company
to succeed in developing a practical and cost-effective CDMA
implementation for consumer cell phones, its early IS-95 air
interface standard. IS-95 evolved into the current CDMA2000
(IS-856/IS-2000)standard.
WCDMA will support packet data rates upto 2.048Mbps per
user (if the user is stationary), thereby allowing high quality
data, multimedia, streaming audio, streaming vedio and
broadcast type services to consumers. Future version of
WCDMA will support stationary user data rates in excess of
8Mbps. WCDMA provides public and private network futures,
as well as video conferencing and virtual home entertainment
(VHE). With WCDMA, data rates from as low as 8kbps to as
high as 2Mbps will be carried simultaneously on a single
WCDMA 5MHz radio channel, and each channel will be
able to support between 100 and 350 simultaneous voice
calls at one, depending on antenna sectoring, propagation
conditions employs variable / selectable direct sequence
spread spectrum chip rates that can exceed 16 Megachips per
second per user. WCDMA will provides at least a six time
increase in spectral efficiency over GSM when compared on a
system wide basis.
WCDMA has two different types of packet data transmission
possibilities. Short data packets can be appended directly to a
random access burst. This method is called common channel
packet transmission. Large or more frequent packets are
transmitted
using
a
single
packet-scheme.

1.2. Spread spectrum

WCDMA uses a spread spectrum technique. Spreading the
bandwidth has several advantages. The main advantage is the
resistance to narrowband interference.

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International Journal For Research & Development in Technology

Paper Title:- Improvement of Signal Coverage using WCDMA
Signal Repeater for 3G System (Vol.2, Issue 2)

Variable mission on a 10 ms frame basis.

Multimode transmission.
Adaptive power control based on SIR (Signal-toInterference Ratio).
Multi-user detection and smart antennas can be used to
increase capacity and coverage.
Multiple types of handoff (or handover) between
different cells including soft handoff, softer handoff and
hard handoff.

Fig.1. Spread Spectrum Technique

Idealised narrowband signal is sending from a user with power

density dP/df. The sender is spreads the signal, that is converts
the narrowband signal into broadband signal. The energy
needed to transmit the signal is the same, but it is now spread
over a large frequency range. The power level of the spread
signal can be much lower than that of the original narrowband
signal without losing data.

ISSN (O):- 2349-3585

1.4 .YAGI ANTENNA

The Yagi antenna's overall basic design consists of a
"resonant" fed dipole (the fed dipole is the driven element and
in the picture above and the second from the left side ), with
one or more parasitic elements. These parasitic elements are
called the "reflector and the "directors. The reflector is on
the far left in the picture above and the directors are all of the
elements starting from the third element from the left and
continuing to the right side of the picture. The horizontal
section between all of the elements in the Yagi is called the
boom.

Fig.3. Yagi Antenna

Fig.2 Wideband Code Division Multiple Access

During the transmission, narrowband and broadband
interferences are added to the spreaded signal. The sum of the
interference and the user signal is received. The receiver now
knows how to despread the signal, converting the spread user
signal in to narrowband signal again, while spreading the
narrowband interference and leaving the broadband
interference. Then the receiver applies a bandpass filter to cut
off frequencies left and right of the narrowband signal. Finally,
the receiver can reconstruct the original data, because the
power level of the user signal is high enough, that is the signal
is much stronger than the remain interference
1.3. TECHNICAL FEATURES
Radio channels are 5MHz wide.
Chip rate of 3.84 Mcps
Supports two basic modes of duplex: frequency
division and time division. Current systems use
frequency division, one frequency for uplink and one
for downlink. For time division, FOMA uses sixteen
slots per radio frame, whereas UMTS uses fifteen slots
per radio frame.
Employs coherent detection on both the uplink and
downlink based on the use of pilot symbols and
channels.
Supports inter-cell asynchronous operation.

1.5. WCDMA ANTENNA (PATCH PANEL)

Specially designed for indoor applications

Available in 7.5 & 8.5 dB gain

Attractive exterior

High gain

Wall mounting structure

Frequency range (in MHz)

800-960/1700-2200/ 2400-2500

Gain (dBi) - 7.5 / 9 dBi

Impedance (in Ohms) 50 ohms
VSWR - < 1.5 : 1
Horizontal Beam width - 90
Vertical Beam width - 80
Power - 100 W
Weight (in gms) 500
Dimensions(in mm) - 225 x186x 50
Casing material - Fiber glass re-enforced plastic

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International Journal For Research & Development in Technology

Paper Title:- Improvement of Signal Coverage using WCDMA
Signal Repeater for 3G System (Vol.2, Issue 2)

ISSN (O):- 2349-3585

II. WCDMA WORKING PRINCIPLES

Fig.4. Patch panel Antenna

Fig. 7. Block diagram of WCDMA

The generalized WCDMA block diagram is shown in above
fig.6. It consists of various blocks such as Analog to Digital
converter, Digital signal processor, link sub system RF source,
Base band generator and RF interface. These are used to
generate WCDMA signal band of frequencies from RF
interface.
Fig.5. Radiation Pattern-Vertical

Fig.6. Radiation Pattern- Horizontal

2.1. Circuit Description

The
generated
WCDMA
signal
(849 -864 Mhz ) band is transmitted from base station to
mobile station and which act as base substation. Our aim is to
retransmit the received signal with appreciable level of
transmission power. To achieve this it needs to have signal
amplifier at the both ends. This amplifier helps to make the
signal magnitude to 0dbm with input of -20dbm as input to
the amplifier.
The ASL550, a wideband linear amplifier MMIC, has a high
linearity and low noise over a wide range of frequency 50
MHz to 1 GHz, being suitable for use in the fiber receiver,
distribution amplifiers and drop amplifiers of CATV systems,
and in the mobile wireless repeaters and BTS. The amplifier is
avail- able in an SOT-89 package and passes through the
stringent DC, RF, and reliability tests.
2.2. SOLAR PANNEL SYSTEM
A solar cell, also called a photovoltaic cell, is used to convert
solar energy into electrical energy. Solar cells are the basic
elements of a solar module (also known as a solar panel).
Silicon is by far the commonest of a variety of semiconductors
from which solar cells are made. A typical modern solar cell is
squared-shaped measuring 10 cm 10 cm.
There are three main types of solar cells, which are
distinguished by the type of crystal used in them. They are
monocrystalline, polycrystalline, and amorphous. To produce

Copyright 2014- IJRDT

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International Journal For Research & Development in Technology

Paper Title:- Improvement of Signal Coverage using WCDMA
Signal Repeater for 3G System (Vol.2, Issue 2)

ISSN (O):- 2349-3585

a monocrystalline silicon cell, absolutely pure semiconducting

material is necessary. Monocrystalline rods are extracted from
melted silicon and then sawed into thin plates. This production
process guarantees a relatively high level of efficiency.
Table1.
Different types of material
Material

Efficiency in
lab (%)

Efficiency of
production cell (%)

monocrystalline
silicon

about 24

14-17

polycrystalline
silicon

about 18

13-15

amorphous silicon

about 13

5-7

Table

Fig.7. Solar Panel

2.3. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP TESTING

WCDMA Repeater

Mobile station

Fig.8. RF Experimental Setup

RF Experimental setup consists of base station, WCDMA

Repeater and mobile station It consists of vector signal
generator, power amplifier and transmitter antenna
(Yagi).WCDMA signal is generated by Vector signal generator
with centre frequency 869MHz and it is transmitted with
signal
level
of
0dBm.
The Vector signal generator itself, encode and modulate the
signal and it act as a base station. The signal is encoded in
order to make the signal more robust to noise, interference and
best suited to transmission over radio path. In wireless
network, digital transmission cannot be used. So we modulate
the signal by using QPSK method which converts digital
signal in to analog signal. Apart from the translation of digital
data into analog signal, wireless transmission requires an
additional modulation, an analog modulation that shifts the
centre frequency of the baseband signal generated by the
digital modulation up to the radio carrier. In QPSK method,
two bits can be coded in to one phase shift. The phase shift
can always be relative to a reference signal. In this a phase
shift of 0 means that the signal is inphase with the reference
signal. A QPSK signal will then exhibits a phase shift of 45 for
the data 11, 135 for 10, 225 for 00 and 315 for 01 relative to
the reference signal.
The WCDMA Repeater consists of Patch panel
antenna, power amplifier and Yagi antenna. The transmitted
WCDMA signal by the base station can be received by the
WCDMA repeater by using the Patch panel antenna with
power level of -30dBm.
The effect of distortion and noise produced by the
channel is reduced by reconstructing the WCDMA signal by
means of WCDMA Repeater located at sufficiently close
spacing along the transmission route. Three basic functions are
performed by the repeater are as follows:
1. Receiving the WCDMA signal by Patch panel antenna.
2. Amplifying the received signal
3. Retransmitting the signal by Yagi antenna.
The repeater shapes the received signal so as to
compensate for the effects of amplitude and phase distortion
produced by the transmission characteristic of the channel.
The Spectrum analyzer act as a mobile station and the
reconstructed signal can be received by the WCDMA receiver
which is in-built in spectrum analyzer. The distance between
repeater and receiver was kept at 20 feet under laboratory
conditions. The spectrum analyzer demodulated the received
signal and then decoded. The WCDMA spectrum was found
that can be shown in fig. 10.

Copyright 2014- IJRDT

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International Journal For Research & Development in Technology

Paper Title:- Improvement of Signal Coverage using WCDMA
Signal Repeater for 3G System (Vol.2, Issue 2)

ISSN (O):- 2349-3585

III. RESULT & DISCUSSION

The signal was received by repeater, the panel antenna at
signal is around -30dbm. It was amplified by 20db gain and
the signal transmitted through Yagi antenna was received
using WCDMA receiver in built in spectrum analyzer.
The following graphs are obtained. The distance between
receiver and transmitter was kept at 20 feet under laboratory
conditions. The WCDMA spectrum was found as shown in
fig., the WCDMA signal was decoded and the I/Q polar vector
are measured and EVM (Error Vector Magnitude) is measured
6.14% and its average value is 5.03%.
Further, the polar constellation was also obtained and
as shown in fig., the eye diagram also measured. The total
bandwidth measurement statistics is measured as shown in
fig., the gain level is -41.25db and band width is 4Mhz.

Fig .11. WCDMA Signal spectrum Response

Fig .12.I/Q polar vector measurement

Fig .9. Frequency Response of the entire setup
3.1. OVERALL BANDWIDTH
Center frequency
Gain level
Band width
Attention

869MHz
1.25dBm
4Mhz
10dB

Fig .13. Constellation diagram of WCDMA signal

The entire constellation was resolved, hence the
received signal is good.

Fig .10. WCDMA signal band overall band width

3.2. Signal bandwidth and eye pattern measurement
Center frequency

869 MHz
Gain level
-25.22dBm
Band width

6 Mhz
Attention

5dB
Start frequency

866 Mhz
Stop frequency

872 Mhz

Fig .14. Eye diagram of WCDMA signal spectrum

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International Journal For Research & Development in Technology

Paper Title:- Improvement of Signal Coverage using WCDMA
Signal Repeater for 3G System (Vol.2, Issue 2)

ISSN (O):- 2349-3585

The ISI in data transmission can be studied with the help of a

display in the oscilloscope called eye diagram. Here we use
spectrum analyzer to measure the eye pattern. In case of an Mary system, the eye pattern contain (M-1) eye openings are
stacked up vertically one on the other.
When the effect of ISI is severe, traces from the upper portion
of the eye pattern cross traces from the lower portion, with the
result that the eye is completely closed. In such a situation, it
is impossible to avoid erros. But the eye pattern of received
WCDMA signal is opened and we get only one eye opening.

CONCLUSION
WCDMA repeater was obtained for performing signal
improvement for better coverage in cellular networks. We
have tested the characteristics of Yagi and Patch panel
antennas at WCDMA downlink band (869 - 895) MHz.
The RF amplifier have also been designed and tested
for the WCDMA band of operation. The repeater worked
efficiently in retransmitting the amplified signals for better
WCDMA coverage. This concept also used to utilize the solar
power supply for energy efficiency.
Further this repeater can find application in Basements,
Tunnels and Shopping malls where the signal strength of
wireless is very much reduced.

REFERENCES
[1] IEEE 802.3 Gigabit Ehternet Standarde: 1000Base-SX for
short wavelength transceivers(850nm) and multimode fibre
[2] Jochen Schiller: Mobile Communications, Second Edition
[3] Photo receiver Model 8C478 SC-2A from Zarlink
Semiconductors.
[4] SCHUH R.E. WAKE D, VERRI B and SUNDBERG E:
Penalty free WCDMA radio signal transmission over fibre.
Proc.Microwave photonics. MWP 00 Oxford, UK,September
2000,pp 39-42
[5] Stefan Parkvall,Janne Peisa,John Torsner,Mats Sagfors,Peter
Malm: WCDMA Enhanced Uplink Principles and Basic
Operation-0-7803-8887-9/05/S20.002005IEEE
[6] THEODORE S.RAPPAPORT: Wireless Communications,
Principles and practice, Second Edition
[7] VCSEL Model 1A448 SC-2A from Zarlink Semiconductors.
[8] 3GPP TS 25.141 document, Technical Specification Group
Radio Access Networks: Base station conformance testing
(FDD).

10

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