2022.06.08 - Video
At work we are assessing 5G field strength in space around a 5G transmitter base station and 5G phones. The intent is to understand field strength as a function of location in space around CoW antennas. This is our fourth in-air measurement campaign supporting this effort.
For these measurements we are using a mobile-trailer base station setup known as a Cell on Wheels, or CoW. In fact, this mobile base station comprises two CoWs.
The left-side trailer is a 3700–3800 MHz 5G CoW base station with a 30ft mast carrying one antenna. This CoW has capability to lock a 5G channel, lock an antenna beam, and lock transmit power. The middle trailer with mast is a 4G CoW.
The 4G CoW operates as the primary site or conduit for both 4G and 5G communications and the 5G CoW operates as the secondary site for 5G communications only. The dish antenna on the right-side of the 4G CoW provides backhaul support via a satellite link to connect this hybrid 4G/5G CoW setup to the core, which moves data and calls from one place to another. Such non-standalone hybrid systems are common now as 5G is rolled out. Later, standalone 5G systems will become prevalent.
The topic of radio interference that might possibly occur from some U.S. 5G transmitters to band-adjacent airborne radar altimeter (radalt) receivers is currently of great interest to federal agencies, U.S. industry, Congress, the White House, and the general public. A key technical aspect of the problem is the amount of power that is unintentionally radiated from 5G base station transmitter antennas at high elevation angles, where aircraft fly. Note that 5G base stations typically radiate with their intentional main antenna beams directed slighty downward toward user equipment (UEs, essentially phones), not upward where aircraft fly. NTIA’s Boulder laboratory, ITS, has begun performing measurements of the unintentional antenna radiation from 5G base stations, to quantify exactly how much power will impinge on aircraft flying near such tower locations.
2022.06.08 - Video
At work we are assessing 5G field strength in space around a 5G transmitter base station and 5G phones. The intent is to understand field strength as a function of location in space around CoW antennas. This is our fourth in-air measurement campaign supporting this effort.
For these measurements we are using a mobile-trailer base station setup known as a Cell on Wheels, or CoW. In fact, this mobile base station comprises two CoWs.
The left-side trailer is a 3700–3800 MHz 5G CoW base station with a 30ft mast carrying one antenna. This CoW has capability to lock a 5G channel, lock an antenna beam, and lock transmit power. The middle trailer with mast is a 4G CoW.
The 4G CoW operates as the primary site or conduit for both 4G and 5G communications and the 5G CoW operates as the secondary site for 5G communications only. The dish antenna on the right-side of the 4G CoW provides backhaul support via a satellite link to connect this hybrid 4G/5G CoW setup to the core, which moves data and calls from one place to another. Such non-standalone hybrid systems are common now as 5G is rolled out. Later, standalone 5G systems will become prevalent.
The topic of radio interference that might possibly occur from some U.S. 5G transmitters to band-adjacent airborne radar altimeter (radalt) receivers is currently of great interest to federal agencies, U.S. industry, Congress, the White House, and the general public. A key technical aspect of the problem is the amount of power that is unintentionally radiated from 5G base station transmitter antennas at high elevation angles, where aircraft fly. Note that 5G base stations typically radiate with their intentional main antenna beams directed slighty downward toward user equipment (UEs, essentially phones), not upward where aircraft fly. NTIA’s Boulder laboratory, ITS, has begun performing measurements of the unintentional antenna radiation from 5G base stations, to quantify exactly how much power will impinge on aircraft flying near such tower locations.