Tips and best practices

Digital radio coverage: How to increase yours

Engineering, equipment and external factors determine how far your signal travels. Today's mobile professionals can't afford to run into communication blind spots. So how can you broaden your digital radio coverage?

EADS_aeroport_207.jpg1. The Three E's of radio coverage

The physics of "radio wave propagation" - or how far a signal travels - boil down to the Three E's:

  • Engineering
  • Equipment
  • External factors

Here's what you can do about them in your trunked radio network.

2. Don't blow your cover

How to increase your trunked radio coverage:

Factor - External factors:

Why it matters:

What you can do:

Signal frequency

A 400MHz signal travels 50% further than an 800MHz signal of the same power.

Nothing. Regulators, not network builders, generally determine frequency.

Terrain

If a radio wave encounters a mountain or a skyscraper, or the base station is in a forest, the signal strength can be significantly reduced.

Not much.

Factor - Equipment:

Why it matters:

What you can do:

Transmission power

Doubling the range requires about 10 times more power.

Choose the right equipment. Digital radio products by Airbus have one of the best ratios of power to sensitivity on the market today.

Base station and terminal sensitivity

The transmission power of a base station in a typical PMR network is between 20 and 50 watts. The terminal power is between 1 and 10 watts. So the sensitivity of the base stations is crucial, since the signal coming back from the terminal will be weaker than the signal transmitted from the network to the end user.

Choose the right equipment. Digital radio products by Airbus have one of the best ratios of power to sensitivity on the market today.

Factor - Engineering

Why it matters

What you can do

Base station location

The better the location, the broader the coverage.

Your radio engineer will develop a plan to maximize coverage. Products from Airbus have special features that help get the best coverage, and radio engineers from Airbus are familiar with those features. They can therefore help you achieve the best results.

Antenna height

The antenna is always a compromise between coverage and cost: A taller antenna is more expensive but delivers more coverage.

Your radio engineer will develop a plan to maximize coverage. Products from Airbus have special features that help get the best coverage, and radio engineers from Airbus are familiar with those features. They can therefore help you achieve the best results.

Antenna configuration

The right antenna configuration will maximise coverage.

Radio engineers can have the biggest impact increasing coverage through antenna configuration.

3. Engineering the network

The third E - network engineering - greatly influences the maximum distance between base station and end user. That, of course, influences the network cell radius.

Once you've chosen your private mobile radio technology and network products, your radio network engineer can optimise coverage with Three Cs:

  • Customer requirements. These include the areas that need coverage and the Quality of Service. QoS depends on the terminals you choose and the voice quality you expect.
  • Cost. There's always a compromise between coverage and cost: A taller antenna, for instance, is more expensive but also delivers more coverage.
  • Other constraints. These include power and frequency restrictions and base station site availability.

Taking all of this into account, your engineer conducts a network study to maximise coverage. It's a skilled, iterative process, but your engineer should deliver a study that covers the entire network.

The goal: A network that provides full coverage using the minimum number of sites in the most cost-effective way.