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org>
Interference & Co-existence
Ryszard Struzak
www.ryszard.struzak.com

ICTP-ITU-URSI School on Wireless Networking for Development
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics ICTP, Trieste (Italy), 6 to 24 February 2006
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What is the purpose?
To review basic physics of interference
issues in microwave radio links
Communication range
Coverage area
Service degradation
Interference mechanism
How to avoid interference
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Outline
Basic concepts
Physical models
Summary
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Radio link: basic concepts
Transmitter Receiver
Radiator-Receptor; Source-Sink
Long distance short range
Fixed Transportable Mobile
Terrestrial Satellite Space
Simplex: Transmission in one direction (e.g. TV)
A simplex link = 1 transmitter & 1 receiver
Duplex: Transmission in both directions
A duplex link = 2 transmitters & 2 receivers
Full-duplex (FDX) circuit: Simultaneous transmission in
both directions
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PTP & PMT network topologies
PTP (point-to-point): One
station (node)
communicating with another
one
PMP (point-to-
multipoint): One node
communicating with two
or more other nodes
Broadcasting
IEEE 802.11Basic Service Set -
a set of stations is controlled/
coordinated by a common
Coordination Function
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Mesh network
Mesh network
topology (fully
connected):
there is a direct
communication
path between
any two nodes
The principle is
similar to the way
packets travel
around the wired
Internet: with
dynamic routing
data hop from one
device to another
until the
destination is
reached.
.
Source: http://research.microsoft.com/mesh/
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What is interference ?
Effect of unwanted energy upon
reception of the wanted signal
manifested by performance degradation,
misrepresentation, or loss of information
which would not happen in the absence
of that unwanted energy
May be unacceptable or harmful !
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Events involved
The probability of interference P(I) during the small
time period:
P(I) = P(A and B and C and D*)
A: The desired transmitter is transmitting".
B: The wanted signal is satisfactorily received in
the absence of unwanted energy
C: Another equipment is producing unwanted energy
D: The wanted signal is satisfactorily received in the
presence of the unwanted energy
D* is the negation (opposite) of the event D
All these refer to the same small time period.
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What causes interference?
Radio waves are unguided
Propagate freely in the space
Cannot be confined to any specific volume, unless
special screens are applied
Radio interference may be intentional
Jamming
Most often they are unintentional, due to
Faulty spectrum management (wrong use of frequencies)
Wrong deployment of the equipment
Spurious emissions
Spurious receiver responses
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What is coexistence?
Term known from politics. Popularized by IEEEs
Task Group TG2-802.15
TG2 Coexistence deals with radio interference between
Wireless Local Area Networks (802.11) and Personal Area
Networks (Bluetooth)
Not defined in major telecommunication
standards (e.g. American National Standard -
Telecom Glossary T1.523-2001).
We use it here as a synonym of electromagnetic
compatibility (EMC) defined internationally since
1970s
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What is EMC ?
Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC); the ability
of a system (equipment, device) to operate in its
intended operational environment
without suffering unacceptable degradation and
without causing unintentional degradation to the
environment
because of electromagnetic radiation or response
It requires interference-free operation achieved
by design, deployment and exploitation
application of sound EMC-related policy, concepts,
regulations, standards, etc.
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Outline
Basic concepts
Physical models
Summary
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Spurious vs. regular links
Regular
Useful / Wanted
Designed before
deployment
Checked/ controlled
Regulated nationally
and internationally
Require individual or
group license (except
ISM-type bands)
Spurious
Useless/ Unwanted/
Harmful
Not designed/ Random
Unchecked, often
unnoticed until harmful
interference appear
Regulations?
Interference can be modeled as interaction among regular and spurious radio links
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How many spurious links?
Maximum fully connected net
n (designed) simplex links
= n transmitters & n receivers
Each receiver may receive n
signals.
One of these signals is wanted;
the remaining (n-1) signals are
unwanted.
Each wanted signal may be in
potential conflict with one or more
unwanted signals
Thus, the maximum number of
potential spurious links = n(n-1).
5 receivers
5 transmitters
5 wanted links
20 potential spurious links
1
2
3
4
5
T
R
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How many potential conflicts?
0
500
1000
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
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Communication range
The distance from a
transmitter at which the signal
strength remains above the
minimum usable level for a
particular antenna and
receiver combination.
The usable signal level depends on
required system performance (e.g.
BER) and is associated with noise
power N
With constant noise power N, the S/
N and the range decrease with the
distance squared (in free space)
Min S/N required
S/N
Max communication
distance for given BER
m
S/N
m
S
N
Distance, m
W
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Coverage area
Coverage = geographical area within
which service from a radio communication
facility can be delivered under specified
conditions
E.g. BER < 10
-4
; S/N > 30 dB, etc.
In broadcasting, one uses population coverage
The coverage concept may be useful in analyzes
of financial efficiency: costs per unit area or cost
per user
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Example: ILS service volume
Instrument landing system
(ILS) is a radio-navigation
system which provides aircraft
with horizontal and vertical
guidance just before and during
landing and, at certain fixed
points, indicates the distance to
the reference point of landing.
[NTIA] [RR]
Aeronautical radio services use
108-130 MHz frequency band. If
not properly coordinated, they
may suffer interference from FM
broadcast stations operating in
the adjacent band of 88-108
MHz.
-15
-13
-10
-8
-5
-3
0
3
5
8
10
13
15
0 10 20 30 40
0
500
1000
1500
2000
0 10 20 30 40
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Signal protection
Over the coverage/ service area, the wanted
signal is to be protected against interfering
signal
The degree of protection is known as protection
ratio
Protection ratio is the minimum value of the wanted-to-
unwanted signal ratio at the receiver input, determined under
specified conditions (Analogous to signal-to-noise ratio)
Specified performance (reception quality of the wanted signal)
is assumed at the receiver output
The ratio of the carrier to the interference is also called carrier-
to-interference ratio (C/I)
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Coverage: Noise/ Interference-limited
Isolated transmitter
A minimum signal S/Nmin set
A test receiver & test points
specified
The receiver moved form one
test point to another and the
measured S/N compared with
the S/Nmin
The potential, or noise-limited
coverage is the set of the test
points at which S/N >= S/Nmin
Note: S/Nmin defines minimal
signal level
Transmitter + >1 interferer
A minimum protection ratio S/
Imin set
A test receiver & test points
specified
The receiver moved form one
test point to another and the
measured S/I compared with
the S/Imin
The interference-limited
coverage is the set of the test
points at which S/N >= S/Imin
Note: Thermal noise is
disregarded
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Coverage map (simulation 0i)
Potential coverage of an
isolated transmitter
(omnidirectional)
Blue line: border of
coverage area (noise-
limited)
Test points

blue if the T
0
-R link
does operate correctly

cross if the T
0
-R link
does not operate
correctly
Coverage Loss = 0
How close can we put
neighboring stations?
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Coverage map (simulation 1i)
1 additional (identical
omnidirectional transmitters in
free-space with tangent
potential coverage areas
Blue line: Potential
coverage (the other
transmitter switched-off)
Red line: actual coverage
Brown line: interference-
limited coverage (noise-free
receiver)
Coverage loss = 33%
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Coverage map (simulation 2i)
3 identical omnidirectional
transmitters in free-space with
tangent potential coverage areas
Blue line: Potential coverage (the
other transmitters switched-off)
Red line: actual coverage
Brown line: interference-limited
coverage (noise-free receiver)
Coverage loss = 52%
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Coverage map (simulation 6i)
7 identical omnidirectional
transmitters in free-space with
tangent potential coverage areas
Blue line: Potential coverage (the
other transmitters switched-off)
Red line: actual coverage
Brown line: interference-limited
coverage (noise-free receiver)
Coverage loss = 76%
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Coverage loss
May be expressed in terms of Volume,
Surface, Population, Costs, etc. (absolute
or relative)
It was proposed as an objective characteristics in
evaluation of operation of radio systems in
congested environment
Struzak R: Simulation model for evaluating interference threat to radiocommunication
systems; Telecommunication Journal, Vol. 57 XII/1990, p. 827-839
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Transmission system
A message, generated by a source of messages, is to be
delivered from the source to a distant destination via
telecommunication channel consisting of a transmitter,
propagation path and receiver.
Message in its most general meaning is the object of communication. Depending on the
context, the term may apply to both the information contents and its actual presentation,
or signal.
The baseband signal usually consist of a finite set of symbols.
E.g. text message is composed of words that belong to a finite
vocabulary of the language used. Each word in turn is composed
by letters of a (finite) alphabet. (Analog-to-digital conversion)
The transmitter and receiver process the signal using a
common communication protocol under a common
communication policy.
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The transmitting station:
1. Generates a RF carrier and combines it with
the baseband signal into a RF signal through
modulation
2. Performs additional operations
E.g. analog-to-digital conversion, formatting, coding,
spreading, adding additional messages/ characteristics
such as error-control, authentication, or location
information
3. Radiates the resultant signal in the form of a
radio wave
Shortly - it maps the original message into the
radiated radio-wave signal
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Some characteristics of RF wave
Quantity Unit
No. of
dimensions
Frequency Hz, MHz, GHz 1
Time ms, s, hr, year 1
Spatial location (geographical
longitude and latitude and altitude)
Degree, m, km, 3
Elevation angle of launch/ arrival Degree 1
Azimuth angle of launch/ arrival Degree 1
Polarization Sense (left, right) 1
The radio-wave signal has a number of characteristics/
variables that generate a multidimensional space
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Visualization of radio-wave signals
+
x
3
: Frequency
x2
:

N
o
r
t
h

d
i
s
t
a
n
c
e
x
1
:

E
a
s
t

d
i
s
t
a
n
c
e
Coverage
area
Time
Frequency
Power
Message Length
Frequency
Band
Occupied
Only projections on a plane (or cuts) possible
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Spectrum masks
Spectrum masks for
WiFi examples of
the projection of
multidimensional
signal solid onto the
Frequency-Power
plane
Morrow R: Wireless network coexistence; McGraw-Hill 2004 p. 201 & 221
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Propagation process:
Transforms, or maps, the radio-wave
signal radiated by the transmitter into the
incident radio wave at the receiver
The propagation mapping involves extra
variables (e.g. distance, latency),
additional radio waves (e.g. reflected),
random uncertainty (e.g. noise, fading)
and distortions
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Receiver:
Filters the incident signals : rejects
unwanted signals and extract the wanted
signal
The receivers response defines a solid
window in the signal hyperspace
Recovers the original message through
reversing the transmitter operations
(demodulation, decoding),
compensating propagation
transformations, and correcting
transmission distortions
Shortly: Maps the incident signals into
the recovered message
Receiver
+
Wanted signal
Unwanted signals
Noise
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How the whole system operates?
A series of mappings
Following the algorithm/ protocol/ policy
Mapping errors = effects of
interference, noise, distortions, etc.
Incomplete (distorted) recovery of the original
message, or its loss -- the recovered
message differs from the original
What errors are acceptable?
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How big is small error?
BE
R
Subjective effect (voice)
10
-6
Not audible interference
10
-5
Barely audible
10
-4
Audible, but not disturbing
10
-3
Disturbing, but speech still understandable
10
-2
Most disturbing, speech difficult to understand
Source: Townsend AAR: Digital line-of-sight radio links, Prentice Hall, p.570
It is application-dependent. In computer communications it
is BER. People prefer subjective criteria.
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How to keep error small?
Every component of the wanted
signal must fit exactly into the
receiver reaction window (RRW)
in signal hyperspace
For each unwanted signal, at
least one component must fall
outside the RRW
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How to implement it?
By filtering/ separing in signal
hyperspace
Frequency separation (FMDA)
Time separation (TDMA)
Code separation (CDMA)
Other filters (direction, distance,
polarization, etc.)
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Frequency filter
The receiver
frequency-window
may consist of a
series of non-
contiguous
openings (white
rectangles)
The receiver
rejects red
frequencies
Regular sampling
Irregular sampling
Frequency
Power
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Time filter
The receiver time-
window may consist
of a number of
separate openings at
discrete time
instances (white
rectangles)
The receiver rejects
red impulses
Regular sampling
Irregular sampling
Time
Power
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Direction filter
The receiver rejects
signals arriving at angles
outside its direction-of-
arrival window
Usually the azimuth and
elevation assumed to be
independent
Azimuth angle
E
l
e
v
a
t
i
o
n

a
n
g
l
e
z
y
x
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How BER relates to energy (SNR)?
BER versus
SNR for the four
data rates of
WiFi (IEEE
802.11b) along
with values for
Bluetooth (IEEE
802.15.1),
WiMedia (IEEE
802-15.3) and
ZigBee (IEEE
802.15.4), all
operating in the
2.4 GHz band
Morrow R: Wireless network coexistence; McGraw-Hill 2004 p. 192
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Multiple interferers
Probabilistic approach
Resultant probability of interference due to a set of
independent interferers equals the product of
probabilities of interference due to individual
interferers: Prob
tot
= !(Prob
i
)
Energetic approach
Resultant power of a number of unwanted signals
equals the sum of powers of individual interfering
signals I
tot
= "(I
i
)
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Outline
Basic concepts
Physical models
Summary
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Thank you for your attention
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X
Important notes
Copyright 2006 Ryszard Struzak. This work is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/
licenbses/by/1.0) and may be used freely for individual study,
research, and education in not-for-profit applications. Any other use
requires the written authors permission. These materials and any
part of them may not be published, copied to or issued from another
Web server without the author's written permission. If you cite these
materials, please credit the author.
Beware of misprints!!! These materials are preliminary notes for my
lectures and may contain misprints. If you notice some, or if you have
comments, please send these to [email protected].