5G mmW Link Range Uncertainties From RF System Calculations and OTA Measurements

Phased arrays in 5G millimeter wave (mmW) communication are used at both link ends to separate users and to enhance the link range. The radio hardware's RF performance metrics vary due to part-to-part variations within component tolerances. In this paper, we derive probability density functions...

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Main Authors: Marko E. Leinonen, Nuutti Tervo, Markku Jokinen, Olli Kursu, Aarno Parssinen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2021-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9359779/
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spelling doaj-1e6bb178d447401487896e29c9f3226b2021-03-30T15:08:47ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362021-01-019319563196610.1109/ACCESS.2021.306086093597795G mmW Link Range Uncertainties From RF System Calculations and OTA MeasurementsMarko E. Leinonen0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6259-9782Nuutti Tervo1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8450-3750Markku Jokinen2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3714-5951Olli Kursu3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8490-7069Aarno Parssinen4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5461-6148Center of Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Oulu, FinlandCenter of Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Oulu, FinlandCenter of Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Oulu, FinlandCenter of Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Oulu, FinlandCenter of Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Oulu, FinlandPhased arrays in 5G millimeter wave (mmW) communication are used at both link ends to separate users and to enhance the link range. The radio hardware's RF performance metrics vary due to part-to-part variations within component tolerances. In this paper, we derive probability density functions (PDFs) of over-the-air (OTA) transmission (TX) powers for individual transmitter (Tx) paths and total TX power of the 5G mmW array using Monte Carlo simulations based on component tolerances. The PDF of the TX power individual path of the array follows a log-normal distribution on a linear scale. Hence, the total array's OTA TX power is a sum of independent linear scale log-normal powers when the power combination happens in OTA towards the main beam direction. We show that the Tx array's mean power increases when multiple log-normally variated individual TX powers are summed together. Additionally, we prove that a link budget maps to a link range in a non-linear way, skewing the normally distributed link budget to a log-normally distributed link range. The link ranges based on RF system parameter analysis, RF system calculation, and OTA measured system error vector magnitude (EVM) based link range estimation had an excellent match when a 16-QAM 5G NR signal was used. The calculated link ranges are 410 and 434 meters, while the OTA measured system EVM measurement-based link range is 415 meters. For example, uncalibrated Tx array paths would increase the mean of the array's TX power by 1.2 dB, and the link range increases from 415 to 498 meters, but simultaneously the standard deviation increases from 26 to 51 meters.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9359779/Array receiverarray transmittererror vector magnitude (EVM)phased arrayprobability density functionreceiver sensitivity
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Marko E. Leinonen
Nuutti Tervo
Markku Jokinen
Olli Kursu
Aarno Parssinen
spellingShingle Marko E. Leinonen
Nuutti Tervo
Markku Jokinen
Olli Kursu
Aarno Parssinen
5G mmW Link Range Uncertainties From RF System Calculations and OTA Measurements
IEEE Access
Array receiver
array transmitter
error vector magnitude (EVM)
phased array
probability density function
receiver sensitivity
author_facet Marko E. Leinonen
Nuutti Tervo
Markku Jokinen
Olli Kursu
Aarno Parssinen
author_sort Marko E. Leinonen
title 5G mmW Link Range Uncertainties From RF System Calculations and OTA Measurements
title_short 5G mmW Link Range Uncertainties From RF System Calculations and OTA Measurements
title_full 5G mmW Link Range Uncertainties From RF System Calculations and OTA Measurements
title_fullStr 5G mmW Link Range Uncertainties From RF System Calculations and OTA Measurements
title_full_unstemmed 5G mmW Link Range Uncertainties From RF System Calculations and OTA Measurements
title_sort 5g mmw link range uncertainties from rf system calculations and ota measurements
publisher IEEE
series IEEE Access
issn 2169-3536
publishDate 2021-01-01
description Phased arrays in 5G millimeter wave (mmW) communication are used at both link ends to separate users and to enhance the link range. The radio hardware's RF performance metrics vary due to part-to-part variations within component tolerances. In this paper, we derive probability density functions (PDFs) of over-the-air (OTA) transmission (TX) powers for individual transmitter (Tx) paths and total TX power of the 5G mmW array using Monte Carlo simulations based on component tolerances. The PDF of the TX power individual path of the array follows a log-normal distribution on a linear scale. Hence, the total array's OTA TX power is a sum of independent linear scale log-normal powers when the power combination happens in OTA towards the main beam direction. We show that the Tx array's mean power increases when multiple log-normally variated individual TX powers are summed together. Additionally, we prove that a link budget maps to a link range in a non-linear way, skewing the normally distributed link budget to a log-normally distributed link range. The link ranges based on RF system parameter analysis, RF system calculation, and OTA measured system error vector magnitude (EVM) based link range estimation had an excellent match when a 16-QAM 5G NR signal was used. The calculated link ranges are 410 and 434 meters, while the OTA measured system EVM measurement-based link range is 415 meters. For example, uncalibrated Tx array paths would increase the mean of the array's TX power by 1.2 dB, and the link range increases from 415 to 498 meters, but simultaneously the standard deviation increases from 26 to 51 meters.
topic Array receiver
array transmitter
error vector magnitude (EVM)
phased array
probability density function
receiver sensitivity
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9359779/
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