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Home>Guide to Find Mobile Phone Towers>Step 5. Signal Path Analysis

Go to the Link Calculator to use in full screen version.

Note that the Ligowave link calculator has been updated and is different in appearance to the example below.
However, the necessary fields and procedure remain the same.
 

 

Default Settings, Hints and Explanation for LinkCalc.

 
TX SITE   RX SITE 
Name
Paste the site Name from ACMA Site Search
Radio Type   Radio Type - Custom 
Latitude
Latitude of the Tower ( eg. 28.041951 S )
Longitude
Longitude of the Tower ( eg. 153.293677 E )
Antenna Info
Height:
 30
m (AGL) Gain:
 17
dBi
Tower Antenna Height:
See: DEVICE_REGISTRATION_ID
 Tower Antenna Gain:
See:
ACMA ANTENNA_ID
 
TX Power
Use a conservative value: 43.
Cell Tower transmitters can be higher power than this, but this is a two-way communications system. The transmitter in your device is a much lower power than the Tower transmitter.
Name
Give Your Location a name.
Radio Type  Radio Type - Custom
Latitude
Latitude of Your Location ( eg. 27.986807 S )
Longitude
Longitude of Your Location ( eg. 153.335586 E )
Antenna Info
 4.00
m   (AGL) Gain:
16
dBi
TX Threshold
-85
dBm  
This is the "unsatisfactory" signal level below which, connectivity could be considered unstable.
Modems: -85           Mobile Phones: -100

 

OTHER PARAMETERS

  
Frequency
typ: 803 890 960 1880 2170 2400 2700 (Upper Freq)
Polarization   Horizontal            Vertical
Misc. Loss (eg. cable loss)
6
dBm 
(optional)
Coax, connector and Patch Cable loss : Table here
Foliage Depth
10
m    (optional)
Height of trees forest canopy, or other vegetation
Site Climate  Climate Type
Units   English System        Metric System
ITU Rain Rate (0.01%)  
50
mm   (optional) Rain Rate
 
Acronym Description Acceptable values
RSSI:

Received Signal Strength Indication
RSSI is a dBm signal strength indicator of the wideband signal for the band to which the device is connected.
RSSI is a value that takes into account both RSCP and Ec/I0.
 

Calculated as follows:
RSSI [dBm] = RSCP [dBm] – Ec/I0 [dB]

The higher (less negative) the RSSI value,
the better the signal quality.
Range (dBm)
 Rating Expected Connectivity
↑ -51
to -73		 Excellent Should not be affected by cell breathing/loading
-75 to -83 Good Normally no problem.
Should hold a connection, even with heavy cell loading.
-85 to- 95 Fair Workable under good conditions where interference from neighboring towers is not present. Could suffer poor data speeds and occasional dropped connection.
-97 to -113↓ Marginal Low data speeds and regular disconnects due to cell loading/breathing and dropped connections.
RSCP:

Received Signal Code Power
The pilot channel power level received by the mobile handset or modem for the connected cell (code signal) . Different cells using the same carrier are compared using this value to make cell re-election and cell handover decisions.
Ec/Io:

Energy per chip (Ec)
to total received power (Io) ratio.
This is the ratio between the connected code signal (RSCP) from the cell tower and the total noise, interference from other towers and non code signals (RSSI).

Higher (less negative) values can indicate a better signal quality.
However EC/Io is often misleading due to the nature of the interfering signals, and varies with the number uf users connected to the cell.
This value is less than 1 and negative when expressed as dBm.

Calculated as follows:
Ec/I0 [dB] = RSCP [dBm] – RSSI [dBm]
Cell ID:  The ID number of the Cell tower For Fixed Wireless installations, this value should not change.
If Cell ID changes at particular times of the day, especially at peak hour traffic times, this indicates that the tower you normally connect to is over loaded/oversubscribed.
 




You'll need to register with LigoWave to use the calculator

The LigoWave Link Calculator is a powerful calculator for determining the signal strength you should expect to achieve from the Mobile Phone Tower. To improve accuracy you need to enter the information as acurately as possible. Scroll down the page to see the Hints and Tips for default settings.

Note that you'll need to register with the LigoWave website to use the calculator. This requires a valid email address to verify your account. Once registered, set the Login Page to automatically sign you in at next visit.
If you have any issues viewing this page, please select the link for full-screen mode.

Index

Step 1. Google Earth

Step 2. Check the Coverage Map

Step 3. How to Search the ACMA / RADCOM Website

Search the ACMA Website

Step 4. Using Google Earth

Step 5. More Accurate Calculations

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