USER DESCRIPTION

102/1553-HSC 103 12/4 Uen D

User Description, Antenna Hopping

Copyright
Ericsson AB 2003, all rights reserved.
Disclaimer
The contents of this document are subject to revision without notice due to continued
progress in methodology, design, and manufacturing.
Ericsson shall have no liability for any error or damages of any kind resulting from
the use of this document.
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Contents
1

Introduction

2
2.1
2.2

Glossary
Concepts
Abbreviations and acronyms

Capabilities

4
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5

Technical description
General
Algorithm
Main changes in Ericsson GSM system R10/BSS R10
GPRS/EGPRS impact
Related counters

5
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6

Engineering Guidelines
General
Antenna hopping gain
Configuration presumptions and possibilities
Applicability
Considerations related to combinations with other features
Impact of antenna hopping on frequency planning

6
6.1
6.2
6.3

Parameters
Main controlling parameters
Parameters for special adjustments
Value ranges and defaults values

References

1 Introduction
During a call connection, a burst can easily be lost when the mobile station happens
to be located in a fading dip for that particular frequency, or if it is subjected to
interference. The coding and interleaving scheme in GSM is constructed so that loss
of a single burst has minimal influence on the speech quality. The probability that
several bursts within a speech frame have poor signal quality is reduced if the bursts
are transmitted on different paths. This can be done by using antenna hopping. In
antenna hopping, transmit diversity is introduced by changing transmit antenna
between bursts.

Figure 1

Schematic picture of antenna hopping

This transmit diversity scheme mimics frequency hopping in the sense that the
fading changes rapidly between bursts due to transmission through different paths.
From a subscriber point of view, antenna hopping gives an improved speech quality.
From an operator point of view, antenna hopping is a very attractive scheme in
particular for traffic channels without frequency hopping, but also for traffic channels
frequency hopping over a relatively low number of frequencies, where it can provide
substantial diversity gains. What makes antenna hopping especially interesting as a
transmit diversity scheme is the fact that it can be used without increasing the
number of TRXs in a base station. Thus giving the operator the following benefits:

a possibility to tighter frequency reuse and increase in capacity,

a more robust radio environment,
a possibility to give subscribers a more uniform speech quality.

2 Glossary
2.1

Concepts

Antenna

Each transmitter transmits bursts on one and only one antenna. Each
receiver may receive bursts from more than one antenna.

Antenna System
Consists of a
number of
antennas
serving a
particular
sector. A base
station can be
connected to
up to three
antenna
systems.
Antenna
Hopping
Set

Consists of a number of transmitters that can antenna hop together.

The transmitters are selected such that at least two antennas in an
antenna system are addressed and all selected transmitters must have
identical radio capabilities (including nominal power and modulation
capabilities).

Filter Combiner
The filter
combiner is a
narrow band
combiner
where the
filter of each
transmitter is
tuned to the
transmitting
frequency.
Using
antenna
hopping on a
filter
combiner
would
require that
tuning takes
place for
each burst.
This tuning
can be done
automatically
but takes
some time
and for this
reason filter
combiners

can not be
used with
antenna
hopping.
Hybrid
Combiner

A hybrid combiner is a broadband combiner and does not require

tuning. It is therefore suitable for antenna hopping. A hybrid combiner
can combine two TRXs into one antenna.

Multipath Fading
Multipath
fading occurs
when signals
arrive at the
receiver both
directly from
the
transmitter,
and,
indirectly,
due to
propagation
through
objects or
reflection.
These signals
arrive at
slightly
different
times, with
different
amplitudes
and phases.
They sum
together
constructivel
y and also
destructively
(fading dips).
The fading
dips appear
at different
spatial
locations for
different
frequencies,
i.e. they are
frequency

and location
dependent.
This
phenomenon
is called
multipath
fading.
Fading dips
are separated
by approx. 17
cm for GSM
800 and
GSM 900,
and approx. 8
cm for GSM
1800 and
GSM 1900.
Transmit chain
The RF
transmit
chain from
(and
including)
transmitter
and antenna.
Independent
transmit
chains may
share
physical
equipment
(e.g. CDU)
but must be
separated as
far as the RF
signal is
concerned.
2.2

Abbreviations and acronyms

Transmitter

3 Capabilities
Antenna hopping can reduce the effect of multipath fading. With antenna hopping, a
non-moving mobile will typically not remain in a specific fading dip longer than one
TDMA frame. The low signal strength dips in multipath fading are thus leveled out,
and the mobile will perceive a more constant radio environment.

Figure 2 Schematic picture of multipath fading at one frequency and antenna

hopping between two antennas for a slow/non-moving mobile station
The transmit diversity obtained through antenna hopping, by switching transmit
antenna between bursts, can be exploited through coding and interleaving. Antenna
hopping mimics frequency hopping by providing diversity between bursts with regard
to the fast fading, and can serve as a substitute for frequency hopping on traffic
channels without frequency hopping. Also for traffic channels frequency hopping over
a limited number of frequencies, antenna hopping can be used as a complement in
order to increase the number of paths through which data may be transmitted. One
important distinction between antenna hopping and frequency hopping in
interference limited environments, however, is the fact that with frequency hopping,
a mobile is interfered by different base stations in different bursts (so called
"interference diversity") while with antenna hopping (and no frequency hopping) the
same interferer is present in all bursts. It is only the fast fading that changes

between bursts (this resembles the effect which is known from a system perspective
as "frequency diversity").
The advantage of antenna hopping is more evident with slow/non-moving mobiles.
Fast moving mobiles can obtain similar improvements by their speed alone.
For traffic channels without frequency hopping, or frequency hopping over a low
number of frequencies, antenna hopping is a very attractive technique since it
enables improved performance without additional hardware in the base station.
Simulations have shown that substantial gains can be expected for coding schemes
with low code rates, e.g. EFR, AMR, CS1, EGPRS MCS-1 and MCS-5, in particular for
no frequency hopping, but also for frequency hopping over up to five frequencies.
Codecs with high code rate e.g. EGPRS MCS-4 and MCS-9, on the other hand, suffer
from antenna hopping, just as they do from frequency hopping.
For the special cases of half rate channels, where the channel is sent every second
burst, switching antenna every burst would result in no transmit diversity in a two
antenna configuration. Selecting a scheme where antenna is switched every second
burst, if two antennas are used, introduces antenna hopping gains on half rate
channels at the cost of a minor decrease of the gain achieved for full rate channels.

4 Technical description
4.1

General

Antenna hopping is activated per transceiver group (TG). No possibility exist to select
that antenna hopping shall be activated for only a part of the TG, e.g. only for one
antenna system (sector). However, at activation it is possible to select if the channels
on the BCCH frequency/frequencies shall antenna hop.

4.2
4.2.1

Algorithm
General

When antenna hopping is activated the RBS groups enabled transmitters into
antenna hopping sets (AHS). The transmitters in an AHS are selected such that at
least two antennas in an antenna system are addressed. All selected transmitters
must have identical radio capabilities (including nominal power and modulation
capabilities) and fulfill the transmitter dedication information as stated in chapter
Section 4.2.2 Dedicating transmitters to Cell and Channel Groups.
Antenna hopping is started on each AHS when the AHSs has been created. The
hopping is performed such that the following pattern is achieved:

(FN + (FN DIV Nant)) MOD Nant, if the number of antennas is two. N.B. This
pattern is selected to achieve transmit diversity for half rate channels, where
the channel is sent every second burst.
FN MOD Nant, if the number of antennas is three or more.

Where FN = Frame Number and Nant = number of antennas.

If antenna hopping is activated and there is a fault on TRU/dTRU (or if it is otherwise
taken out of service), antenna hopping is automatically reconfigured and antenna
hopping continues on the remaining TRXs.
4.2.2

Dedicating transmitters to Cell and Channel Groups

If external equipment is used in the transmit chain (e.g. external power boosters),
the capabilities of the transmitters is not enough to ensure that the radio capabilities
of transmit chains are identical and additional input is needed to the transmitter
selection algorithm when AHSs are built. To handle this antenna hopping reuses the
existing possibility dedicate a transmitter to cell or (cell and) channel group. How this
information is used when building the AHS is described in the following table.
Table 1 TX selection rules when a transmitter is dedicated to a cell or a (cell and)
channel groupTX DedicationTX selection ruleNoneThe TX can

be included in any AHS (within the same antenna

system)CellThe transmitter can be included in any AHS
where the other transmitters are dedicated to the same
cell and transmitters without dedication information.Cell
and Channel groupThe transmitter can be included in any
AHS where the other transmitters are dedicated to the
same channel group, transmitters dedicated to the same
cell and transmitters without dedication information. 4.3
Main changes in Ericsson GSM system R10/BSS R10
Antenna Hopping is a new feature in BSS R10.

4.4

GPRS/EGPRS impact

In antenna hopping, all GPRS/EGPRS channels are treated as traffic channels.

GPRS/EGPRS has no impact on the antenna hopping feature nor poses any limitation.

4.5

Related counters

There is no counter that is directly related to antenna hopping. For further

information, please refer to User Description, Radio Network Statistics.

5 Engineering Guidelines
5.1

General

Antenna hopping is an optional feature and is beneficial on non-frequency hopping

channels and channels frequency hopping over a limited number of frequencies. The
transmit diversity obtained through antenna hopping improves the quality for slow

moving mobile stations, thus balances the quality between slow and fast moving
mobile stations. Slow and fast moving users can thereby be treated in the same way
when designing the radio network. Transmit diversity can be seen as a C/N (carrier
to noise) gain. The transmit diversity implies that the network can cope with a higher
interference level and thereby a tighter frequency reuse. This implies increased
capacity compared to a non-hopping network. The transmit diversity can, in turn, be
expressed as a C/I (carrier to interference) gain. Antenna hopping is an important
feature for supporting high capacity networks (with limited number of frequencies
available) with maintained quality, though in a high capacity network efficient use of
frequency hopping, DTX, MAIO allocation, MS and BTS power control are also
essential.

5.2

Antenna hopping gain

The gain from antenna hopping depends on factors such as propagation

environment, number of antennas to hop on, number of hopping frequencies and
interference characteristics.
The antenna hopping gain increases with the number of antennas to hop on, but
there is a "law of diminishing returns". For example, increasing the number of
antennas from two to three does not give as much improvement as increasing it from
one to two. Two antennas per cell result in a substantial gain and are usually
sufficient.
When antenna hopping is used in combination with frequency hopping the gain from
antenna hopping decreases when the number of frequencies available for frequency
hopping increases.
The following table can be used as a "rule-of-thumb" for the expected gain from
antenna hopping in a typical urban (TU) environment. The expected gain in other
environments may be smaller.
Expected gain (C/I) from antenna hopping in a TU environment Channel
typeNo FHOPFHOP on 5 frequenciesFHOP on 8 frequenciesInterleaved control
channels (e.g. BCCH, CCCH) 2 to 3 dB1 to 2 dB0 to 0,5 dBNot interleaved control
channels (e.g. SCH, FCCH) 0 dB0 dB0 dBSpeech2 to 3 dB1 to 2 dB0-0,5 dBData(1)-2
to 2,5 dB-1 to 1 dB-0,5 to 0,5 dB(1) Dependent of load and configuration of the
network. At high load (resulting in poor signal quality) there is a performance gain
with antenna hopping, at low load (resulting i high signal quality) there is a
performance loss with antenna hopping.
Table 2

5.3

Configuration presumptions and possibilities

An antenna hopping enabled configuration needs two transmit antennas or a dualpolarised antenna in at least one antenna system. If some of the antenna systems
have more than one transmit chain and others don't, only those with more than one
transmit chain will be hopping.

Figure 3 Three sector RBS where antenna hopping will occur in sector A and B but
not in sector C.
To achieve optimal gain of antenna hopping the same number of TRXs with identical
capabilities (modulation and min/max output capabilities) should be connected to
each antenna in the antenna system.
Adding more than two transmit chains to an antenna system is possible (and in some
configurations necessary) and antenna hopping will make use of all available transmit
chains for hopping.

5.4

Applicability

Antenna hopping can be applied on:

5.5

5.5.1

any CDU-G configuration of RBS 2106/2206/2207,

any CDU-A or CDU-C/C+ configuration of a RBS 2101/2102/2202 equipped
with DXU-21 and EDGE sTRU,
RBS 2308.

Considerations related to combinations with other

features
Antenna hopping and frequency hopping in combination

It is beneficial to use antenna hopping and frequency hopping (see User Description,
Frequency Hopping) in combination. However, the gain from antenna hopping
decreases as the number of frequencies available for frequency hopping increases. If
frequency hopping over more than eight frequencies there is a diminutive gain from
antenna hopping.
It is possible to use antenna hopping in combination with both baseband (BB)
hopping and synthesizer hopping. When antenna hopping is used in combination with
BB, it is important to avoid cyclic frequency hopping to ensure that any gain is
achieved from antenna hopping. Setting HSN not equal to zero when frequency
hopping is configured ensures that cyclic hopping is avoided and random hopping is
used.
5.5.2

Antenna hopping and TCC in combination

Antenna hopping is possible to use in combination with TCC (see User Description,
Boosting Downlink Output Power). To achieve antenna hopping it is however
important to fulfill that the capabilities (TCC configuration, modulation and min/max
output capabilities) of the two transmit paths are identical. E.g. to make it possible
to perform antenna hopping on the channels on a dTRU configured for TCC there has
to be another dTRU with identical capabilities configured for TCC connected to
another antenna in the same antenna system.

5.6
5.6.1

Impact of antenna hopping on frequency planning

General

Frequency planning in a network is done with respect to an acceptable interference

level. This level can be set to a lower value in antenna hopping network compared to
a network without antenna hopping.
5.6.2

BCCH frequency planning

Because of the importance of the BCCH, great care should be taken to protect these
channels from interference. The BCCH frequency cannot be planned according to a
tight reuse pattern.
Although antenna hopping can be applied on the BCCH frequency and gives
significantly improved performance on the control channels BCCH/CCCH and on TCH
channels, this improved performance can not necessarily be used for tighter BCCH
frequency reuse since there may be other limiting factors e.g. locating performance
(i.e. base station selection).
However, with the assumption that it is the speech quality on channels on the BCCH
carrier that is the limiting factor, antenna hopping can be a mean to facilitate the
possibility to reach a tighter (approximately 12) reuse.

6 Parameters
6.1
AHOP

6.2

Main controlling parameters

Defines the wanted state for antenna hopping on a transceiver group.
The wanted state can be either of ON, ONXC0 or OFF.
Note:
In state ONXC0, all channels except those on the BCCH
frequency/frequencies will antenna hop.

Parameters for special adjustments

CELL Defines, if set on a TX, that the TX is dedicated to a cell. For information on
how antenna hopping uses this information see Section 4.2.2 Dedicating
transmitters to Cell and Channel Groups
CHGR Defines, if set on a TX, that the TX is dedicated to the channel group. For
information on how antenna hopping uses this information see Section 4.2.2
Dedicating transmitters to Cell and Channel Groups

6.3

Value ranges and defaults values

Table 3

Value ranges and default values

Recommended valueValue rangeUnitParameter name

AHOPDefault value

OFF

ON/ONXC0/OFF

7 References
1. User Description, Radio Network Statistics
2. User Description, Frequency Hopping
3. User Description, Boosting Downlink Output Power