Quality Measurements on the Radio Interface of the Mobile Communication in the Proximity of the Power System

Abstract

Problem statement: The electric power lines and its associated equipments generally produce an electromagnetic noise in their environment, which are likely to have dangerous effects on propagation environment to the Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) cellular mobile network. Approach: In this study, we analyzed the characteristics of the power line noise and its correlation with the GSM burst; showing that the considered noise source to the Mobile Station (MS) and Base Transceiver Station (BTS) of GSM system is due to the presence of fundamentals and harmonics fields (electric and magnetic fields) in the proximity of power lines functioning at the permanent state; specially the present of the 5th harmonic field which is close to the GSM pulsed field at the frequency 217 Hz. Results: This study shows the measurements and analysis results for QoS of GSM network based on the GSM metrics such as Mobile Station Power (MSP), Received signal power level (RxLevl), Received signal quality (RxQual), Carrier to Interference ratio (C/I) and Frame Error Rate (FER). These experiments were done inside and outside an area of 50m distance from the tower of power line and take on consideration the two real situations (in the case of the absence of BTS and in the case of the presence of the BTS inside an area of radius 50m around the power line). Conclusion/Recommendations: The experimental results in idle and dedicated mode are more important and it has been observed that the influence of this noise produced by these power lines leading to a degradation of the MSP, RxLev and RxQual respectively with an important FER.