Antenna Tilting

v1.0
Definitions
1. Mechanical Tilt
 =

Characteristics:
- required downtilt is only valid for the main direction
of horizontal radiation pattern
- in the tilt axis direction (+/- 90° from main beam) -->
no tilt at all !
 the resulting gain reduction depends on the
azimuth direction (see fig. 1)
fig. 1
Definitions
2. Electrical adjustable Tilt
=0




Characteristics:

- dipols in the antenna are fed with a rising phase

 downtilt angle is constant over the whole azimuth
range (see fig. 2) !

fig. 2
Definitions
2. Electrical adjustable Tilt

Electrical
adjustable tilt

Manually Electrical
Remote Electrical Tilt
Tilt (MET)
(RET)

- electrical tilt adjustable remotely over

- electrical tilt manually RANOS using an ASC (Antenna
adjustable by switch at System Controler) + stepping motor +
antenna Kathrein Antenna
 Why down-tilting ?

1. Coverage improvement at small cell sites with high antenna position

- maximal antenna gain of 18dB used in the link budget is only valid in the direction of the
main beam
-  = vertical angle from the RBS-antenna to the mobile;
- if the RBS-antenna was not downtilted, the antenna gain for the mobile would
correspond to the angle -  in the antenna pattern

 reduced signal strength at the receivers !

Tilt calculation for coverage improvement

- tilt antenna until vertical main-beam points towards the cell border and add 1° downtilt (for
18dBi gain antennas --> vertical beamwith = 6.5° --> 1° additional downtilt will create only
neglectable reduced signal strength at cell border !)

h = antenna height

 c r = cell range
h
 = down- tilt angle
. 

h
  arctan  
r
Difference between UMTS - GSM:

In GSM fix cell range - in UMTS cell breathing with different cell ranges for different
services

PS 384 PS 128 Voice 12.2

- when calculating downtilt for coverage improvement, calculate

with cell range of service with biggest cell range otherwise
coverage of this service will be cut !
- when calculating downtilt for interference reduction, calculate
with cell range of service with smallest cell range (see page 8) !
 Why down-tilting ?

2. Maximum reduction of inter-cell interference

- point the minimum between the main beam and first side lobe in the vertical antenna pattern
towards the area where a reduction of interference is desired (horizon).
- this may however result in an undesired decrease in signal strength at the cell border (see p.7)
!

first minimum at
example : horizon
typical 18dBi gain antenna with 6.5° vertical
beamwith
-->  = 8° (for first minimum at horizon)
Factors influencing tilting:

antenna height
above roof
antenna height antenna distance
above ground from roof edge

antenna environment Tilting NISV

(obstacles)

Interference levels
antenna pattern
maximal coverage area
Factors influencing tilting: antenna height above ground

- theoretical maximal coverage is directly related to the antenna height above ground.
- in urban environments, cell size is normally determined by capacity --> maximizing coverage by
high antenna positions is not an issue.
- in order not to create unnecessary interference, the antenna should only cover the area it is
designed for.

The antenna should be mounted as low as possible over

the roof top, reducing coverage further by tilting !
Factors influencing tilting: antenna height above roof

- Fresnel zone should be free of obstacles in the vertical direction --> antenna 5m above closest
obstacle
- the roof of a site is an obstacle itself and risks to distort the beam if the antenna is mounted too
close to the rooftop

Ericsson recommendations:

Distance of the rooftop Height above rooftop, h

h D edge, D
0-2 m 0.5 m*
2-10 m 1 m*
> 10 m 2m

* if there is a risk that people can walk close to the antenna, 2m

are recommended as the minimum height
Factors influencing tilting: NISV

- for any change in the antenna construction (for example mechanical tilt) an approval from
BAKOM is required
- when using an adjustable electrical downtilt, an approval for all possible electrical tilt
configurations can be requested from the beginning on

using adjustable electrical downtilt keeps flexibility for

optimization and reduces costs (only one approval from
BAKOM necessary) !
General tilt recommendations:

- Ericsson recommends to use for planning purposes default tilting values for urban, suburban
and rural areas.
- to keep the biggest flexibility in network optimizing, only adjustable electrical tilt is
recommended to be used as default configuration.
- avoid downtilting more than the angle that corresponds to having the first null towards the
horizon, since the effect of such large tilts is difficult to predict. Instead, if necessary a
reduction of output power should be considered.
- as Sunrise will start at the launch (phase 1a) with a grid of a reduced number of sites which
will be completed in a later phase
--> the site to site distance will decrease
--> when planning the initial phase 1a, an additional margin in tilting is required
to be able to reduce interference in later phases.
- adding a new site, the downtilt angles of all neighboring cells should be revised to reduce
their coverage are.
 Recommended default tilt values (based on Sunrise assumptions*):

Full cell plan deployment (interference limited)

clutter heigth [m] cell range PS384 [m] downtilt angle [deg]
Dense Urban / Urban 25 273 6
Suburban 30 771 4
open/semi-open/forest 40 5042 2

phase 1a cell plan

clutter heigth [m] cell range PS384 [m] downtilt angle [deg]
Dense Urban / Urban 25 474 4
Suburban 30 1349 3
open/semi-open/forest 40 6690 2

* Sunrise assumptions: antenna heights, cell range based on link budget v0.5
Conclusions:

- For nominal cellplanning purposes, assuming different average heights for the different
clutter types, the default configurations for Dense urban/urban, suburban and rural sites,
can be used in the planning tools.
- Of course each site needs an individual configuration, including tilting which has then to
be adapted to the local environment by the cell planner.
- Especially when getting back from site acquisition different site options, the tilting has to
be adapted to the real final configuration.
- In general adjustable electrical down tilt should be preferred as it allows a much easier
and cheaper change of the tilt in the future if necessary.