Coherence Time

Doppler spread and coherence time describe the time

varying nature of the channel
It is a statistical measure of the time duration over
which the channel impulse response is essentially
invariant
Tc

Ts

Channel appears static for

transmitted digital symbols

Envelope of the
Received signal
The channel fading at time t
will be very different from
that at time t-Tc or earlier.

Slow and Fast Fading

If the channel coherence time is larger than

the symbol interval of the transmitted signal,
the channel exhibits slow fading to the signal
because the channel changing rate is smaller
than the transmission symbol rate.

Tc > Ts
Ts > Tc

Slow fading
Fast fading

Narrowband vs Wideband

Individual multipath components resolvable

Multipath components are clustered around resolvable time
intervals.
True when time difference between components exceeds
signal bandwidth

Tm 1 / B
Non-resolvable time of
arrivals by the receiver

Tm 1 / B

The receiver sees a single pulse

Narrowband

c(t)

Wideband

c(,t)

Two-Path Example in Frequency

Domain

Output of LTV Channel

The channel can be represented in terms of the low pass

equivalent channel impulse response and the channel input by
1

, =

( )

=0

t is time when impulse response is observed

t- is time when impulse put into the channel
is how long ago impulse was put into the channel for the current
observation, i.e., path delay for multipath component currently
observed.

LTI Channel Response

Each multipath component corresponds to a

single reflector
(, )

Time-varying case
(, 1 )
(, 2 )

(, 1 )
(, 2 )

Time-invariant case
()

Impulse Response of an LTV

Channel

As the channel propagation environment

changes over the time duration [0,t1], the
channel output h2(t) is not simply h1(t)
delayed by t1 (i.e., h2(t) h1(t-t1)).

The impulse response of an LTV channel,

h(,t), is the channel output at t in response
to an impulse applied to the channel at t-.

The variable represents the propagation delay

The Linear Channel Model

Multipath Intensity Profile

The function Ah() represents

It measures the average psd at the channel

output as a function of the propagation delay, ,
Measurements can be used to predict Ah()
Average of |h(t,)|2

Power delay profile

Multipath intensity profile
Time Dispersion

measured in local area

spatial averaging (2-6 m)

Many multi-path channel parameters are derived

from the multipath intensity profile.

Multipath Intensity Profile

Examples of Multipath Intensity Profile

Ac()

Analytical and measured

Measured Multipath
intensity profile

The nominal width of the power delay profile pulse is called the
multipath delay, denoted by Tm.

Time Dispersion Parameters

Average and rms delay spread are typically

defined in terms of the power delay profile Ac()
as
=

Note that if we define the pdf pTm of the delay

spread Tm
() =

Disrete-Time Dispersion
Parameters

These parameters grossly quantify the multipath channel

Mean excess delay:

( )

( )

( )
( )

Maximum delay spread Tmax

Rms delay spread:

T 2 ( T )2
m

Typical Time Dispersion

Values
environment

f(MHz)

Tm

urban

900

10-25 s

suburban

900

200-300 ns

rural

1500

70-90 ns

Frequency Selective Fading

Multipath Delay Spread and Coherence

Bandwidth
Flat fading vs frequency-selective fading
Multipath delay spread Tmax

The nominal width of the power delay profile pulse is called the
multipath delay, denoted by Tmax
Delay spread Tm is the measure of time when Ac()> 0 for < Tm.
If Ts >> Tm, ISI is negligible.

Coherence bandwidth Bc

Ac(f)=0 implies signals separated in frequency by will be

uncorrelated after passing through channel
The frequency Bc where AH(f) )=F[Ah()] 0 for all f > Bc is called the
coherence bandwidth of the channel.

Ah()
TMax

Ah(f)
BC

Coherence Bandwidth

Statistical measure of the range of frequencies over

which the channel can be considered flat
Bc: f where frequencies become uncorrelated

When Ts >> Tm the system experiences negligible ISI.

For calculations one can assume that Ts >> Tm implies
Ts<kTm and Ts >> Tm where k >1 is a constant that indicates
approximations at various levels

Bc >> 1/TMax
Corr. > 0.5
Corr. > 0.9

Flat fading channel

Bc = 1/(5 Tm )
Bc = 1/(50 Tm )
1

Frequency selective
channel

Time Dispersion Example

Time dispersion parameters from power delay profile
measurement

Tm

Tmax

Tm

COST207 Multipath Channel Models

The COST207 models were developed and standardized

for the GSM system.

A typical digital communication system consists of the

combination of a tranmitter filter, modulator, waveform channel,
demodulator and receiver filter.
Data symbols are fed into the transmit filter every T seconds.
The overall digital communication system can be modelled a Tspaced finite impulse response (FIR) filter
The channel is still random;
Multipath intensity profile captures
average effects

Frequency Selective Fading

Channel

Due to greater relative of propagation delays

in the channel, echoes cause time dispersion

Wireless channel is now represented with multiple

taps {h[m]}
h[m] is sample version of h(,t) at some time t,
h[m]=h(mTs,t)
Each tap can fade Rayleigh or Ricean
The channel effect is captured by convolution

Impact on Communication

sk

Assume that the transmitter sends a sequence of pulses

(digital pulse transmission) through a wideband channel
Receiver

Transmitter
h()
1

Narrowband
flat fading
wireless channel

skh(1)

skh(0)

Convolution must be used

We ignored the noise in the receiver

sk-1h(0)
|h(t)|

=0

10