Interference Hunting

Interference Hunting

Fast Reaction Time Exceptional Quality

2G 3G

LTE Nationwide Service

Interference Shutdown PIM

xternal Interference Hunting

700 MHz 850 MHz AWS PCS

Spectrum Refarming Measurements

Outdoor & In-building Installations

Pre- and Post-launch Investigation

Spectrum Clearance
There are many causes of interference. They all add up to an increased noise floor, resulting in either decreased QoS or the need to invest more CAPEX into the network deployment. Long story short: interference costs money. P3 communications offers spectrum clearance and audit services that measure and identify the interference in a given band, before service launch, or after. We help carriers to defend their licensed spectrum and to protect their investments. This improves network quality, capacity and coverage and frees valuable resources at the carriers organization. Interference hunting and spectrum clearance services are very CAPEX intensive services, that require expert knowledge and professional equipment. Our long collaboration with Rohde & Schwarz gives our experts access to professional equipment in use by many government agencies around the globe. The service is launched across the US. P3 communications investigated more than 500 interference problems in the US covering states as Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Washington D.C., West Virginia, Virginia, Michigan, Missouri, Illinois, Mississippi and Alabama. Since 2013 P3 offers its service nationwide. P3 communications experts have intensive knowledge of finding sources of interference in different environments from dense urban environments as Manhattan to rural areas.

Spectrum Measurements
Spectrum Scanning The first step in the radio spectrum clearance process is to get an overview of the status quo. When scanning frequency bands that are supposedly unused, interferers can easily be seen in the spectrum. An experienced equipment operator can often determine the type of the interfering signal from its shape and duration. With their long experience in measurements of all kinds of communication systems, P3 communications experts are one step ahead in recognizing different transmission systems from their spectral pattern. During scanning activities, P3 communications has also observed and analyzed complicated patterns, like inter-modulation products of digital and analogue transmissions. For the analysis of interfering sources, P3 communications is using equipment that is also able to demodulate the interfering signal. In case of analogue transmissions this often gives clues to finding the interfering source. A striking example of this was when P3 communications experts listened to an FM radio station over an inter modulation signal found in the frequency band reserved for cellular systems. In order to meet every customers needs, the P3 communications measurement system can be configured to automatically measure several frequency bands sequentially. Thus P3 communications is offering to evaluate, e.g., designated LTE spectrum plus UMTS uplink, UMTS downlink, and GSM bands simultaneously by driving a certain route only once. Typical spectral ranges scanned in the U.S. are: 698-798 MHz (LTE spectrum)

824849 MHz (850 MHz Uplink) 869894 MHz (850 MHz Downlink) 18501910 MHz (PCS Uplink) 19301990 MHz (PCS Downlink) 17101790 MHz (AWS Uplink) 21102170 MHz (AWS Downlink)

Scanning Results A useful visualization of the spectrum measurement is what is called a waterfall diagram, a graphical representation that shows the color coded signal level over time. The graph below shows the downlink (left) and the uplink portion (right) of the PCS band. Three different systems coexist in the band: a UMTS system (downlink center at 1.9675 GHz, uplink center at 1.8875 GHz), showing some downlink and occasional uplink activity (A). CDMA2000 systems which can be id en tified by bandwidths of 1.25 MHz (B) a GSM system (C) Additionally twice broadband interference is seen (D1, D2). The spectrum was taken during a drive test, so just from the measurement data it is impossible to see if the broadband interference existed only for a short time period or if it was caused by a weak local interferer that was only visible while the measurement vehicle was near. Although the spectrum in the downlink band is organized well, still problems can arise from such a spectrum allocation: Inadequate system setup (namely insufficient antenna down tilt resulting range overshooting) can cause interference in places with a different band allocation.

Localization Procedure & Shutdown

Localization Procedure The main objective of our interference hunting service is to pinpoint the main characteristics for any sources of interference, ideally including: Location, Address, Spectrum footprint, Geographic footprint of the interference, Power used, and Official site information (FCC). We employ various direction finding systems and handheld devices in order to cover most practical applications. This includes outdoor far-ranging measurements, urban near-field drivetests and portable indoor investigations. Localization of interfering sources is based on either triangulation or hunting activities. In triangulation the position of an interfering transmitter is estimated from the combination of multiple bearing results obtained at various measurement locations in the area where the interferer is present. This method applies in particular for high power interferers like unauthorized transmitters or harmonics of regular stations. The term hunting in this context means the continuous approaching of an interfering source by following the bearing results with respect to the surrounding environment (street canyons, buildings,

forest, trees, etc.). With our experienced measurement personnel it is possible to localize the actual source and arrive at its door sign within reasonable time. P3 communications supports the process of shutting down the culprit.

Pre or Post-Launch
Naturally, one prefers to clear any interference in a spectrum band before launching the service using that spectrum. However, new interference sources may come up and the spectrum should closely be monitored during service operation. P3 communications provides bespoke solutions for both scenarios: Spectrum clearance services in a pre-launch stage and interference hunting for all post-launch cases. The impact of interference on the performance of a base station depends on the usage type of the affected frequency band. Uplink interference impacts the overall performance of one or several base stations. The interference must be received by the base station to impact its performance. Uplink interference problems can be investigated during regular network operation depending on UL traffic volume. Downlink interference impacts only a certain geographical area of one or more base stations. Any downlink interference has an impact on the user inside of the interfered area. Downlink interference can only be measured in a pre-launch phase without impacting network operation. Pre-Launch A thorough spectrum audit before launching a service will ensure clear spectrum for proper network operation. Although the P3 communications service is identifying the interference source in a timely manner, the process of shutting down the interfering transmitter may require legal actions or other possibly time-consuming steps. Additionally, localization of weak interferers in downlink bands may require downtime of the interfered network nodes. Pre-launch spectrum clearance can prevent these disadvantages and is, therefore, the preferable solution. Post-Launch Due to constant changes in the network and the introduction and installation of further wireless devices new sources of interference will inevitably show up. Those can be identified during proactive spectrum audits or reactive and specific interference hunting activities. In most cases, the flexibility of the deployed measurement equipment and the expertise of the engineers in charge enables P3 communications to identify the interference sources without the need for service-impacting network downtime. Often, the customer will have problems with specific cell sites that show suboptimal performance. The deployed network equipment may also allow for first spectrum scans at the location of the cell site and provides well understood KPIs (access failures, call drops, etc.). The P3 communications service will leverage these insights and expertise on the customers side and will prevent any doubled work during the project execution. The P3 communications engineers will closely cooperate with the customers personnel and bring in the experience of previous interference hunts. At the beginning, they will ask the right questions to limit the number of possible options what type of interference source may cause the observed problems. These preparations ensure that no existing piece of information is neglected and allow for more efficient measurements out in the field. Integrated approach The background in the areas of network benchmarking and optimization enables P3 communications to also consider more than only power measurements on the physical layer. Taking into account higher layer information available from the network scanner allows for an integrated approach that is especially helpful in postlaunch scenarios. In operational networks, bad signals, i.e., interference, and good signals, i.e., customer calls or data transmissions, have to be differentiated. However, interfering signals may have a multitude of spectral shapes and may look very similar to the active network transmissions. Weak interferers may hardly be identified and wrong conclusions may easily be drawn. In this context, the expertise of the experienced P3 communications engineers is key to efficient and reliable service provi-

sion. The status data of the live network provides additional side information to guide the interference hunt and to prevent the engineers from mixing good and What to do about it?

bad signals. Due to the broad communication engineering knowledge P3 communications considers all pieces of information that

give hints for identifying the interference source also during regular network operation in a post-launch scenario.

P3 communications measurement and interference hunting results are intended to provide sufficient information to initiate the necessary steps or legal actions in order to get rid of an interfering signal. Owner and address data might be used to contact the responsible party directly, the information on frequency, position, call sign, site ID in combination with the elaborated measurement results can be passed to FCC for further actions. As far as possible P3 communications will support the process to shut-down interference sources or P3 communications engineers switch of the sources themselves.

Measurement Equipment
The measurement results obtained will not only be used by the customer, but the customer may also want to present it to third parties (e.g. as legal proof). P3 communications is aware of the absolute necessity to deliver highest quality measurement results. In order to guarantee reliability and accuracy, P3 communications sends welltrained measurement experts to the field and is using equipment from the worlds best measurement equipment manufacturers. For the scanning and interference hunting, P3 communications has selected equipment made by Rohde & Schwarz which is also in use with many government agencies. Each piece of measurement equipment is connected to a PC or laptop, such that the data measured is stored continuousNetwork and Spectrum Scanning
Band 1 Band 2 Filter GPS
Electronic Compass, Antenna Element Control

ly. The measurement expert is monitoring the spectrum continuously. This way, whenever an interferer is found he can start the bearing immediately, thereby increasing the chance to also find sources of interference that transmit only over a short time span. GPS data is recorded continuously and a correlation between measurement result and position can be established. Using a spectrum scanner that is capable of demodulating signals, P3 communications has the means to inInterference Hunting Outdoor
GPS

vestigate signal sources more deeply. In case of AM/FM modulated audio signals being part of the interference, the audio signal can directly be listened to. With the modular setup of the P3 communications measurement system it is also possible for the measurement expert to unplug the spectrum scanner (typically a handheld Rohde & Schwarz PR100), connect a handheld narrow beam antenna to it, and to trace the interfering transmitter down to the last yard, even inside buildings. Interference Hunting - Indoor
Portable Receiver PR 100 Spectrum and spectrogram (waterfall) display LAN interface for remote control and data output Ergonomic and rugged design for portable use Portable operation using a highly directive antenna for direction finding Map-based direction finding supported using multiple measurements taken at different locations

RF

Amplifier

RF Data

Data

Spectrum Analyzer TSMW Input frequency range from 30 MHz to 6 GHz Two independent RF and signal processing paths, each with a bandwidth of 20 MHz Spectrum measurements with RF power scan option Parallel measurements in GSM, WCDMA, LTE, CDMA, Tetra, WiMAX High accuracy and sensitivity Integrated GPS with PPS

Digital Directional Finder DDF255 Direction finding of signals with almost any modulation Wide-aperture behavior above 300 MHz Very short signals of 10 ms detectable High accuracy and sensitivity Bandwidth setting independent of receiver AC supply or battery operation Simultaneous operation of all DF antennas (HF and VHF/UHF) without replacing antennas

P3 communications, Inc, 412 Mt. Kemble Ave, Suite G2, Morristown, 07960 NJ, USA phone +1 973 984 6050, [email protected]

Headquarters: Morristown (NJ, USA), Aachen (GER), Belgrade (SRB), Sydney (AUS)