Link budget

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A link budget is the accounting of all of the gains and losses from the transmitter, through the medium (free
space, cable, waveguide, fiber, etc.) to the receiver in a telecommunication system. It accounts for the
attenuation of the transmitted signal due to propagation, as well as the antenna gains, feedline and
miscellaneous losses. Randomly varying channel gains such as fading are taken into account by adding some
margin depending on the anticipated severity of its effects. The amount of margin required can be reduced by
the use of mitigating techniques such as antenna diversity or frequency hopping.
A simple link budget equation looks like this:
Received Power (dBm) = Transmitted Power (dBm) + Gains (dB) Losses (dB)
Note that decibels are logarithmic measurements, so adding decibels is equivalent to multiplying the actual
numeric ratios.
Contents
[hide]

1 In radio systems
o

1.1 Simplifications needed

1.2 Transmission line and polarization loss

1.3 Endgame

1.4 Equation
2 Non-line-of-sight radio
3 In waveguides and cables
4 Examples

4.1 EarthMoonEarth communications

4.2 Voyager Program

5 See also

6 External links

In radio systems
For a line-of-sight radio system, the primary source of loss is the decrease of the signal power due to
uniform propagation, proportional to the inverse square of the distance.

Transmitting antennas are for the most part not isotropic aka omnidirectional.

Completely omnidirectional antennas are rare in telecommunication systems, so almost every link
budget equation must consider antenna gain.

Transmitting antennas typically concentrate the signal power in a favoured direction, normally that in
which the receiving antenna is placed.

Transmitter power is effectively increased (in the direction of highest antenna gain). This systemic gain
is expressed by including the antenna gain in the link budget.

The receiving antenna is also typically directional, and when properly oriented collects more power
than an isotropic antenna would; as a consequence, the receiving antenna gain (in decibels from
isotropic, dBi) adds to the received power.

The antenna gains (transmitting or receiving) are scaled by the wavelength of the radiation in question.
This step may not be required if adequate systemic link budgets are achieved.

Simplifications needed
Often link budget equations can become messy and complex, so there have evolved some standard
practices to simplify the link budget equation

The wavelength term is often considered part of the free space loss equation. This complexity
reduction is acceptable for terrestrial communication systems, where only line of sight is considered.

Considering all carrier wave propagation to be wavelength-independent. This is justified by the

conservation of energy law that requires that the electric field decrease in power as the square of the
distance regardless of frequency (in free space propagation conditions).

Transmission line and polarization loss

In practical situations (Deep Space Telecommunications, Weak signal Dxing, etc) other sources of signal
loss must also be accounted for:

The transmitting and receiving antennas may be partially cross-polarized.

The cabling between the radios and antennas may introduce significant additional loss.

Doppler shift induced signal power losses in the receiver.

Endgame
If the estimated received power is sufficiently large (typically relative to the receiver sensitivity), which may
be dependent on the communications protocol in use, the link will be useful for sending data. The amount
by which the received power exceeds receiver sensitivity is called the link margin.

Equation
A link budget equation including all these effects, expressed logarithmically, might look like this:

where:
= received power (dBm)
= transmitter output power (dBm)
= transmitter antenna gain (dBi)
= transmitter losses (coax, connectors...) (dB)
= free space loss or path loss (dB)
= miscellaneous losses (fading margin, body loss, polarization mismatch, other losses...) (dB)
= receiver antenna gain (dBi)
= receiver losses (coax, connectors...) (dB)
The loss due to propagation between the transmitting and
receiving antennas, often called the path loss, can be written in
dimensionless
wavelength:

form

by

normalizing

the

distance

to

the

(dB) = 20log[4distance/wavelength] (where distance and wavelength are in the same

units)
When substituted into the link budget equation above, the
result is the logarithmic form of the Friis transmission
equation.
In some cases it is convenient to consider the loss due to
distance and wavelength separately, but in that case it is
important to keep track of which units are being used, as
each choice involves a differing constant offset. Some
examples are provided below.
(dB) = 32.45 dB + 20log[frequency(MHz)] + 20log[distance(km)] [1]
(dB) = - 27.55 dB + 20log[frequency(MHz)] + 20log[distance(m)]
(dB) = 36.6 dB + 20log[frequency(MHz)] + 20log[distance(miles)]
These alternative forms can be derived by
substituting wavelength with the ratio of
propagation

velocity

(c,

approximately

310^8 m/s) divided by frequency, and by

inserting

the

proper

conversion

factors

between km or miles and meters, and between

MHz and (1/sec).

Non-line-of-sight radio
Because of building obstructions such as walls and ceilings, propagation losses indoors can be
significantly higher. This occurs because of a combination of attenuation by walls and ceilings, and
blockage due to equipment, furniture, and even people.
For example, a 2 x 4 wood stud wall with drywall on both sides results in about 6dB loss per wall.
Older buildings may have even greater internal losses than new buildings due to materials and line of
sight issues.
Experience has shown that line-of-sight propagation holds only for about the first 3 meters. Beyond 3
meters propagation losses indoors can increase at up to 30dB per 30 meters in dense office
environments.

This is a good rule-of-thumb, in that it is conservative (it overstates path loss in most cases). Actual
propagation losses may vary significantly depending on building construction and layout.

In waveguides and cables

Guided media such as coaxial and twisted pair electrical cable, radio frequency waveguide and optical
fiber have losses that are exponential with distance.
The path loss will be in terms of dB per unit distance.
This means that there is always a crossover distance beyond which the loss in a guided medium will
exceed that of a line-of-sight path of the same length.
Long distance fiber-optic communication became practical only with the development of ultra-transparent
glass fibers. A typical path loss for single mode fiber is 0.2 dB/km, [2] far lower than any other guided
medium.

Examples
EarthMoonEarth Communications
Link budgets are important in EarthMoonEarth communications. As the albedo of the Moon is very low
(maximally 12% but usually closer to 7%), and the path loss over the 770,000 kilometre return distance is
extreme (around 250 to 310 dB depending on VHF-UHF band used, modulation format and Doppler
shift effects), high power (more than 100 watts) and high-gain antennas (more than 20 dB) must be used.

In practice, this limits the use of this technique to the spectrum at VHF and above.

The Moon must be visible in order for EME communications to be possible.

Voyager Program
The Voyager Program spacecraft have the highest known path loss and lowest link budgets of any
telecommunications circuit. Although the Deep Space Network has been able to maintain the necessary
technological advances to maintain the link, the received field strength is still many billions of times
weaker than a battery powered wristwatch.