Analog Baseband Board Design and Architectural Studies for Millimeter wave Backhaul Beam-steering radio in 5G networks.
Siddiqui, Faizan Razzaq (2016)
Siddiqui, Faizan Razzaq
2016
Master's Degree Programme in Electrical Engineering
Tieto- ja sähkötekniikan tiedekunta - Faculty of Computing and Electrical Engineering
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2016-06-08
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201605264172
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201605264172
Tiivistelmä
The mobile data rates and number of devices are constantly increasing, creating new challenges for the network operators to increase the cell and area capacities of the mobile networks. For LTE-A and future 5G networks, one well-known solution to improve the capacity and coverage is network densification i.e. introduction of more and smaller cells in the network. As these small cells are typically located in cities and other urban areas, adoption of unconventional installation sites such as lamp posts and building walls is needed. Thus, the provisioning of the conventional wired backhaul might not be feasible.
Potential solutions for the small cell wireless backhaul are technologies utilizing millimeter wave (mmW) frequencies, which can provide several gigahertz of spectrum. Typically, frequencies between 60 - 80 GHz are used for backhauling applications. The adoption of the mmW frequencies calls for narrow antenna beams, less than a few degrees, to compensate for the high path losses and other attenuation sources at these frequencies. Such narrow-beam radio links also need vibration compensation mechanisms to mitigate the effect of the sways and twists of the installation structures caused by wind. Therefore, electrical beam steering capability is needed to control the direction of the antenna beam quickly during link operation.
The main scope of this thesis work is related to architecture studies and hardware development for a proof of a concept for an mmW beam steerable backhaul radio for small cells, which can support multi-gigabit data rates. This work has been carried out as a part of Nokia Bell Labs 5G mmW Backhaul proof of concept (PoC) project. The author’s contribution in the project includes system integration and system testing of the mmW radio PoC, whereas the other major thesis work and author contributions contain the specification, hardware design and testing of an analog baseband board and the associated satellite boards developed for the Nokia 5G mmW Backhaul PoC system.
The analog baseband board was designed to serve as a driver board for the integrated mmW transceiver and antenna module. All the supporting functions needed for mmW direct conversion transceiver like baseband amplifiers, microprocessor and reference oscillators, etc. were placed on this driver board. Based on the conducted module level tests, it was concluded that the analog baseband board was working up to the specifications of the system design. Moreover, during system integration testing with 500 MHz bandwidth modem, it was shown that the system is able to support up to 64-QAM and peak data rates of about 2 Gbit/s.
Potential solutions for the small cell wireless backhaul are technologies utilizing millimeter wave (mmW) frequencies, which can provide several gigahertz of spectrum. Typically, frequencies between 60 - 80 GHz are used for backhauling applications. The adoption of the mmW frequencies calls for narrow antenna beams, less than a few degrees, to compensate for the high path losses and other attenuation sources at these frequencies. Such narrow-beam radio links also need vibration compensation mechanisms to mitigate the effect of the sways and twists of the installation structures caused by wind. Therefore, electrical beam steering capability is needed to control the direction of the antenna beam quickly during link operation.
The main scope of this thesis work is related to architecture studies and hardware development for a proof of a concept for an mmW beam steerable backhaul radio for small cells, which can support multi-gigabit data rates. This work has been carried out as a part of Nokia Bell Labs 5G mmW Backhaul proof of concept (PoC) project. The author’s contribution in the project includes system integration and system testing of the mmW radio PoC, whereas the other major thesis work and author contributions contain the specification, hardware design and testing of an analog baseband board and the associated satellite boards developed for the Nokia 5G mmW Backhaul PoC system.
The analog baseband board was designed to serve as a driver board for the integrated mmW transceiver and antenna module. All the supporting functions needed for mmW direct conversion transceiver like baseband amplifiers, microprocessor and reference oscillators, etc. were placed on this driver board. Based on the conducted module level tests, it was concluded that the analog baseband board was working up to the specifications of the system design. Moreover, during system integration testing with 500 MHz bandwidth modem, it was shown that the system is able to support up to 64-QAM and peak data rates of about 2 Gbit/s.