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Chapter 3

Mobile Radio Environment and


Signal Interference

November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 1


Outline
• Introduction
• Large-Scale Fading (Path Loss)
– Free Space Propagation Model
– Propagation Mechanisms
– Propagation Models
• Small-Scale Fading
– Multipath Propagation
– Parameters of Mobile Multipath Channels
– Types of Small-Scale Fading
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Introduction

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Mobile Radio Wave Propagation
• Mobile radio waves (signals) propagate outwards
from a transmitting antenna in a straight line and are
reflected in the same way that light is reflected.
• In free space a transmitter and receiver must be in
"line of sight'', i.e., must see each other.
• The RF signals are affected by terrain, atmospheric
conditions, and natural and/or artificial objects.
• Depending on frequency, there are three main
means of propagation of RF waves:
– ground waves
– ionospheric waves
– LOS/space/tropospheric waves

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November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 6
Mobile Radio Signals
• Mobile radio signals undergo a variety of
alterations as they travel from transmitter to
receiver. These alterations fall into four broad
classes.
– signal attenuation that increases with distance
– random variations due to environmental features
– signal variations due to terminal motion
– signal distortions due to signals taking multiple
paths to the receiver

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Mobile Radio Channel
• Mobile radio channel places fundamental
limitations on the performance of wireless
communication systems.
• Radio channels are extremely random and do
not offer easy analysis.
• Modeling the radio channel has historically
been one of the most difficult parts of mobile
radio system design.

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Free Space Propagation Model

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Free Space Propagation Model
• Used to predict received signal strength when transmitter
and receiver have a clear, unobstructed line-of-sight
(LOS) path between them.
• Friis free space equation:
Pt Gt Gr λ2
Pr (d ) =
(4π )2 d 2 L (1)
• Pt = transmitter power
• Pr = received power, a function of the transmitter-
receiver (T-R) separation, d
• Gt = transmitter antenna gain
• Gr = receiver antenna gain
• L = system loss factor not related to propagation (L ≥ 1)
• λ = wavelength in meters.
November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 10
Free Space Propagation Model
• The gain of antenna is related to its effective aperture, Ae by
4πAe
G=
λ2 (2)
• Ae is related to the physical size of antenna and wavelength,
λ is given by
c 2πc
λ= =
f ωc (3)
where f = carrier freq. (Hz), ωc = carrier freq. (rad/s), c = light’s
speed (i.e. 3x108 m/s).
• L (≥ 1) is due to transmission line attenuation, filter losses
and antenna losses. L=1 means no loss.
• Eq. (1) shows that received power decays with distance at a
rate 20dB/decade.
November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 11
Free Space Propagation Model
• Path loss, PL(dB) represents signal attenuation
– difference (dB) between the effective transmitted
power and the received power
– may and may not include the effect of the antenna
gains
• When antenna gains are excluded, the antennas
are assumed to have unity gain,
 Pt   λ2  (4)
PL(dB) = 10 log  = −10 log 2 2

 Pr   (4π ) d 

November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 12


Free Space Propagation Model
• Friis free space model is only a valid predictor for Pr
for values of d which are in the far-field of the
transmitting antenna.
• Far-field, or Fraunhofer region, of a transmitting
antenna is the region beyond the far-field distance df
2D 2
df =
λ (5a)
• D is the largest linear dimension of the antenna
aperture.
• Additionally, df must satisfy
d f >> D (5b)
d f >> λ (5c)
November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 13
Free Space Propagation Model
• Usually use a close-in distance, d0, as a known
received power reference point.
• Received power at a distance greater than d0 is:
2
 d0  (6)
Pr (d ) = Pr (d0 )  watts d ≥ d0 ≥ d f
d
 Pr (d 0 )   d0 
Pr (d ) dBm = 10 log   + 20 log  d ≥ d0 ≥ d f (7)
 0.001 W  d 
• Typical d0 using low gain antennas (1-2 GHz):
– Indoor: 1 meter
– Outdoor: 100 meter or 1 km
November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 14
Question 1
• Find the far-field distance for an antenna
with maximum dimension of 1 m and
operating frequency of 900 MHz.

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Question 2

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Propagation Mechanisms

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Three Basic Propagation
Mechanisms
• Reflection
• Diffraction
• Scattering

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Reflection, Diffraction, Scattering
BTS

Reflections

Mobile
BTS

Scattering

Diffraction

Mobile Mobile
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Reflection, Diffraction, Scattering

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Reflection
• Occurs when a propagating EM wave
impinges upon an object which has very
large dimension when compared to the
wavelength of the propagating wave.
– Earth’s surface, buildings, walls
• When a radio wave propagating in one
medium impinges upon another medium
having different electrical properties, the
wave is partially reflected and partially
transmitted.

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Reflection
• If the second medium is a
– Perfect (Loseless) dielectric, there is no
loss of energy in absorption
– Lossy dielectric, energy will be absorbed
– Perfect conductor, all incident energy is
reflected back into the first medium without
loss of energy
• It can be shown that ground may be
modeled as a perfect reflector.

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Ground Reflection (Two-Ray)
Model
• Free space propagation model (Eq. (4)) is in most
cases inaccurate when used alone, because the
single direct path between T-R is usually not the only
physical means for propagation.
• Two-ray ground reflection model:
– Based on geometric optics
– Considers direct path and a ground reflected propagation
path
• Two-ray model is more accurate.
– Large-scale signal strength over distances of several kms
for systems that use tall tower (>50 m)
– LOS microcell channels in urban environment
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Ground Reflection (Two-Ray)
Model

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Ground Reflection (Two-Ray)
Model
• Received power at a distance d from the
transmitter for the two-ray ground bounce model
can be expressed as
ht 2 hr 2
Pr (d ) = Pt Gt Gr
d4 (8)
• ht is the transmitter height; hr is the receiver
height
• Received power falls off with distance raised to
4th power, i.e. 40dB/decade rate, if d >> ht hr .

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Diffraction
• Diffraction occurs when the radio path between the
transmitter and receiver is obstructed by a surface
that has sharp irregularities (edges).
• The secondary waves resulting from the obstructing
surface are present throughout the space and even
behind the obstacle, giving rise to a bending of
waves around the obstacle, even when a line-of-
sight path does not exist between transmitter and
receiver.
• High freq: resulted waves depend on object
geometry, amplitude, phase, and polarization at
point of diffraction.
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Knife-Edge Diffraction Geometry

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Equivalent Knife-Edge Geometry

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Fresnel-Kirchoff Diffraction
Parameter
• Dimensionless Fresnel-Kirchoff diffraction
parameter ν is given by
2(d1 + d 2 ) 2d 1d 2 (9)
v=h =α
λd 1 d 2 λ (d1 + d 2 )

• Parameter h will be explained in following


slide.

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Knife-Edge Diffraction Geometry

Figure 4.12 Illustration of Fresnel zones for different knife-edge diffraction scenarios.

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Knife-Edge Diffraction Model
• Estimating the signal attenuation caused
by diffraction of radio waves over hills and
buildings is essential in predicting the field
strength in a service area.
• Attenuation caused by diffraction can be
estimated by treating the obstruction as a
diffracting knife edge.

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Knife-Edge Diffraction Model
• Diffraction gain due to the presence of a
knife edge is a function of ν
Gd (dB) = 0 ν ≤ -1 (10a)
Gd (dB) = 20 log(0.5 − 0.62v ) -1≤ ν ≤ 0 (10b)
Gd (dB) = 20 log(0.5 exp(− 0.95v )) 0≤ ν ≤ 1 (10c)
Gd (dB) = 20 log(0.4 − 0.1184 − (0.38 − 0.1v ) ) 1≤ν≤2.4 (10d)
2

Gd (dB) = 20 log 0.225  ν > 2.4 (10e)



 v 

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Knife-Edge Diffraction Model
• The following figure can also be used in finding Gd

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Knife-edge diffraction gain as a function of Fresnel diffraction parameter v.
Question 3

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Scattering
• Scattering occurs when the medium through
which the wave travels consists of objects with
dimensions that are small compared to the
wavelength, and where the number of obstacles
per unit volume is large.
• Scattered waves are produced by rough
surfaces, small objects, or by other irregularities
in the channel.
• In practice, foliage, street signs, and lamp posts
induce scattering.

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Practical Link Budget Design
Using Path Loss Models

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Practical Link Budget Design Using
Path Loss Models
• Most radio propagation models are derived
using a combination of analytical and empirical
methods.
• By using path loss models to estimate the
received signal level as a function of distance, it
becomes possible to predict the SNR for a
mobile communication system.
• For example, the two-ray model was used to
estimate capacity in a spread spectrum cellular
system, before such systems were deployed.

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Log-Distance Path Loss Model
• Both theoretical and measurement-based propagation
models indicate that average received signal power
decreases logarithmically with distance, whether in
outdoor or indoor radio channels.
• Average large-scale path loss,
n
 d 
PL (d ) ∝  
 d0  (11)

 d 
PL (dB ) = PL (d 0 ) + 10 n log  
 d0  (12)
• n is the path loss exponent
• d0 is the close-in reference distance determined from
measurements close to the transmitter

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Typical Large Scale Path Loss
• n depends on the specific propagation
environment

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Log-Normal Shadowing
• The model in Eq. (12) does not consider the fact that the
surrounding environmental clutter may be vastly different at two
different locations having the same T-R separation.
• Measurements have shown that at any value of d, the path loss
PL(d) at a particular location is random and distributed log-
normally (normal in dB) about the mean distance-dependent
value.
d 
PL(d )[dB] = PL(d ) + X σ = PL(d 0 ) + 10n log  + X σ (13a)
 d0 
Pr (d )[dBm] = Pt [dBm] − PL(d )[dB] (antenna gains included in PL(d ))
(13b)
• Xσ is zero-mean Gaussian distributed random variable (in dB)
with standard deviation σ (in dB).

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Log-Normal Shadowing
• The log-normal distribution describes the
random shadowing effects which occur over a
large number of measurement locations which
have the same T-R separation, but have
different levels of clutter on the propagation
path. This phenomenon is referred to as log-
normal shadowing.
• Log-normal shadowing implies that measured
signal levels (in dB units) at a specific T-R
separation have a Gaussian (normal)
distribution about the distance-dependent
mean of Eq. (12).

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Outdoor Propagation Models

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Outdoor Propagation Models
• The terrain profile of a particular area
needs to be taken into account for
estimating the path loss.
• A number of propagation models are
available to predict path loss over
irregular terrain.
• Models aim to predict signal strength, vary
in their approach, complexity and accuracy.

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Okumura Model
• One of the most widely used models for
signal prediction in urban areas.
• Freq. range 150 MHz to 1920 MHz,
distances of 1 km to 100 km, BS antenna
heights from 30 m to 1000 m.
• Okumura developed a set of curves giving
the median attenuation relative to free
space (Amu), in an urban area over a
quasi-smooth terrain (hte=200 m, hre=3 m).

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Okumura Model
• The model can be expressed as:
L50(dB) = LF + Amu(f,d) – G(hte) – G(hre) - GAREA (14)
• L50 is the 50th percentile (i.e. median) value of
propagation path loss.
• LF – free space propagation loss
• G(hte) – BS antenna height gain factor*
• G(hre) – mobile antenna height gain factor*
*are strictly a function of height
• GAREA – gain due to the type of environment

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Okumura Model

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Okumura Model

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Okumura Model
• Okumura found that:

G (hte ) = 20 log
hte 
(15a)
 1000m > hte > 30m
 200 
 hre 
G (hre ) = 10 log  hre ≤ 3m
 3 
(15b)

G (hre ) = 20 log
hre 
 10m > hre > 3m
(15c)
 3 
• Model is wholly based on measured data and
does not provide any analytical explanation.

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Question 4
• Find the median path loss using
Okumura’s model for d = 50 km, hte = 100
m, hre = 10 m in a suburban environment.
If the base station transmitter radiates an
EIRP of 1 kW at a carrier frequency of 900
MHz, find the power at the receiver
(assume a unity gain receiving antenna).

EIRP: effective isotropic radiated power


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Hata Model
• The Hata model is an empirical formulation of the graphical
path loss data provided by Okumura and is valid from 150
MHz to 1500 MHz.
• The standard formula for median path loss in urban areas
is given by:
L50(urban)(dB) = 69.55 + 26.16 log fc - 13.82 log hte
-a(hre) + (44.9 - 6.55 log hte) log d (16)
• fc is the frequency (MHz)
• hte is the effective BS antenna heights (30-200m)
• hre is the effective mobile antenna heights (1-10m)
• d is the T-R separation distance (km)
• a(hre) is the correction factor for hre which is a function of the size
of the coverage area.
November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 50
Hata Model
• The mobile antenna correction factor correction
factor:
– Small to medium sized city:
a(hre) = (1.1 log fc - 0.7) hre - (1.56 log fc - 0.8) dB (17a)
– Large city:
a(hre) = 8.29(log 1.54 hre)2 - 1.1 dB, fc ≤ 300MHz (17b)
a(hre) = 3.2(log 11.75 hre)2 - 4.97 dB, fc > 300MHz (17c)
• Hata model is well suited for large cell mobile
systems, but not PCS which have cells on the
order of 1km radius.

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Example of building a path loss
model*
• Durgin et al. studied outdoor path loss,
house penetration loss, and tree loss in
residential areas.
• 5.85 GHz band
• 3 homes selected

Source: Durgin, Rappaport, and Xu, “Measurements and models for radio path loss and penetration loss in and around
homes and trees at 5.85 GHz,” IEEE Trans. Comm., vol. 46, no. 11, pp. 1484-1496, Nov 1998.

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Method*

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Result*

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Model*

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Indoor Propagation Models

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Indoor Propagation Models
• Propagation within buildings is strongly
influenced by building related features such as
the layout, building type, construction materials,
etc.
• Indoor radio propagation is dominated by the
same mechanisms as outdoor: reflection,
diffraction, and scattering.
• However, conditions are much more variable.
Example: signal levels vary greatly depending
on whether doors are open or closed, mounting
locations of antennas, etc.
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Question 5
• Given an indoor path loss model of the form:
PL(d )[dB] = 40 + 20 log10 d + ∑ FAF[dB], d ≥ 1 m
• where d is measured in meters, FAF represents
a floor attenuation factor for a specified number
of building floors. Find the mean received power
between three floors of a building if FAF is 15
dB per floor. Assume the transmitter radiates 20
dBm and unity gain antennas are used at both
the transmitter and receiver, and that the
straight-line path between the transmitter and
receiver is 15 m through the floors.
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Small-Scale Fading

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Introduction
• (Small-scale) Fading describes the rapid
fluctuations of the amplitudes, phases, or
multipath delays of a radio signal over a short
period of time or travel distance, so that large-
scale path loss effects may be ignored
• Fading is caused by interference between two or
more versions of the transmitted signal which
arrive at the receiver at slightly different times
• These multipath waves combine at the receiver
antenna to give a resultant signal which can vary
widely in amplitude and phase
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Small-scale and large-scale
fading

Large-scale fading

Small-scale fading

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Figure 4.1 Small-scale and large-scale fading. 61
Small-Scale Multipath Propagation
• 3 most important small-scale fading
effects:
– Rapid changes in signal strength over a small
travel distance or time interval
– Random frequency modulation due to varying
Doppler shifts on different multipath signals
– Time dispersion (echoes) caused by multipath
propagation delays

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Factors Influencing Small-Scale
Fading
• Multipath propagation
– the presence of reflecting objects and
scatterers, the result of multiple versions of
the transmitted signal that arrive at the
receiving antenna.
• Speed of the mobile
• Speed of surrounding objects
• Transmission bandwidth of the signal

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Multipath Propagation

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Multipath Propagation

Base Station

Mobile

• Multipath occurs due to the reflections from the ground and surrounding structure.

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Multipath Propagation Problem
• The incoming radio waves arrive from different
directions with different propagation delays.
• These multipath components combine vectorially
at the receiver antenna.
– Cause the signal received by the mobile to distort or
fade. Even if a mobile receiver is stationary, the
received signal may fade due to movement of
surrounding objects in the radio channel.
– Often lengthens the time required for the baseband
portion of the signal to reach the receiver, which can
cause smearing due to intersymbol interference.
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Multipath Propagation Problem
• If objects in the radio channel are static, and motion
is considered to be only due to that of the mobile,
then fading is purely a spatial phenomenon.
• The receiver sees the resulting spatial variations of
the signal as temporal variations as it moves
through the multipath field.
• Due to the constructive and destructive effects of
multipath waves summing at various points in
space, a receiver moving at high speed can pass
through several fades in a small period of time.

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Parameters of Mobile
Multipath Channels

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Parameters of Mobile Multipath
Channels
• Power delay profiles are generally represented as plots of
relative received power as a function of excess delay with
respect to a fixed time delay reference.

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Time Dispersion Parameters
• From power delay profile, the following
parameters that quantify the multipath
channel can be determined:
– Mean excess delay
– RMS delay spread
– Excess delay spread (X dB)
• They quantify the time dispersive
properties of multipath channels.

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Time Dispersion Parameters
• Mean excess delay
∑ kτ k
a 2
∑ P(τ )τ k k
τ= k
= k

∑ k
a 2

k
∑ P(τ )k
k (18)
• RMS delay spread
σ τ = τ − (τ )
2 2
(19)
∑ kτ k
a 2 2
∑ k k
P (τ )τ 2

τ2 = k
= k

∑ k
a 2

k
∑ P(τ )
k
k (20)

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Time Dispersion Parameters
• Typical rms delay spread values: microseconds
in outdoor; nanoseconds in indoor.
• Maximum excess delay (X dB) is defined as
τX–τ0, where τ0 is the first arriving signal and τX
(also called excess delay spread) is the
maximum delay at which a multipath component
is within X dB of the strongest arriving multipath
signal (not necessarily arrive at τ0).

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Coherence Bandwidth
• Analogous to delay spread parameters in time
domain, coherence bandwidth is used to
characterize the channel in the frequency domain.
• Coherence bandwidth is a statistical measure of
the range of frequencies over which the channel
can be considered “flat” (i.e. a channel which
passes all spectral components with approx. equal
gain and linear phase).
• Coherence bandwidth is the range of
frequencies over which two frequency components
have a strong potential for amplitude correlation.

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Coherence Bandwidth
• Coherence bandwidth, Bc, is counter-
proportional to the rms delay spread, στ.
• An approximate relation (frequency correlation
function is above 0.5):
1
Bc ≈ (21)
5σ τ
• Exact relationship between Bc and στ is a
function of specific channel impulse responses
and applied signals.

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Question 6

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Coherence Time
• Delay spread and coherence bandwidth
describe the time dispersive nature of a
channel.
• Doppler spread and coherence time describes
the time varying nature of the channel in small-
scale region.
– Doppler spread BD is a measure of the spectral
broadening caused by the time rate of change of
the mobile radio channel.
– Coherence time TC is the time domain dual of
Doppler spread.

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Coherence Time
• Coherence time, TC, is counter-proportional to
the maximum Doppler shift, fm:
0 .423
TC =
fm (22)
• Two signals that arrive with a time separation
>TC are affected differently by the channel.

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Doppler Shift
• The shift in received signal frequency (i.e.
frequency change) due to motion is called the
Doppler shift.

v
f d = cos θ (23)
λ

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Doppler Shift
• If the mobile is moving toward the direction of
arrival of the wave, Doppler shift has positive
value (i.e. apparent received frequency is
increased).
• If the mobile is moving away from the direction
of arrival of the wave, Doppler shift has negative
value.
• Maximum Doppler shift occurs for a wave
coming from the opposite direction as the
direction the mobile is moving to.
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Question 7

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Types of Small-Scale Fading

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Types of Small-Scale Fading
• RMS delay spread and coherence time
are channel parameters
• Bandwidth, symbol period, etc. are
signal parameters
• Depending on the relation between these
two groups of parameters, different
transmitted signals will undergo different
types of fading.

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Types of Small-Scale Fading
• Fading effects due to multipath time
delay spread
– Flat fading
– Frequency selective fading
• Fading effects due to Doppler spread
– Fast fading
– Slow fading

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Flat Fading
• If the mobile radio channel has a constant gain
and linear phase response over a bandwidth
which is greater than the bandwidth of the
transmitted signal, then the received signal will
undergo flat fading.
• Spectral characteristics of the transmitted signal
are preserved at the receiver.
• Reciprocal bandwidth TS (e.g. symbol period)
of the transmitted signal is much larger than the
multipath time delay spread of the channel.

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Flat Fading

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Flat Fading
• A signal undergoes flat fading if
BS << BC (24)
TS >> στ (25)
• BS is the bandwidth and
• TS = 1/ BS is symbol period of the transmitted
modulation
• στ is the rms delay spread and
• BC is the coherence bandwidth of the channel

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Rayleigh Distribution
• Rayleigh distribution is commonly used to describe the
statistical time varying nature of the received envelope of a
flat fading signal.

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Rayleigh Distribution

, σ = rms value of the received voltage


signal before envelope detection

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Ricean Distribution
• When there is a dominant stationary (non-fading) signal
component present, such as a line-of-sight propagation
path, the small scale fading envelope distribution is Ricean.
• In such a situation, random multipath components arriving
at different angles are superimposed on a stationary
dominant signal.
• The effect of a dominant signal arriving with many weaker
multipath signals gives rise to the Ricean distribution.
• As the dominant signal becomes weaker, the composite
signal resembles a noise signal which has an envelope that
is Rayleigh.
• Thus, the Ricean distribution degenerates to a Rayleigh
distribution when the dominant component fades away.
November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 89
Ricean Distribution
• PDF of Ricean distribution: K= -∝ dB (Rayleigh) and K=6 dB.
K= -∞ dB

p(r)
K=6 dB

Received signal envelope voltage r (volts)


• The Ricean distribution is often described in terms of a parameter K
which is defined as the ratio between the deterministic signal power
and the variance of the multipath.
• As A→0, K→∞ dB, and as the dominant path decreases in amplitude,
the Ricean distribution degenerates to a Rayleigh distribution.
November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 90
Frequency Selective Fading
• If the mobile radio channel has a constant gain
and linear phase response over a bandwidth
which is smaller than the bandwidth of the
transmitted signal, then the received signal will
undergo frequency selective fading (exactly
opposite to the flat fading conditions).
• Viewed in the frequency domain, certain
frequency components in the received signal
spectrum have greater gains than others.
• Freq. selective fading is caused by multipath
delays which approach or exceed the symbol
period of the transmitted symbol.
November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 91
Frequency Selective Fading

November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 92


Flat Fading vs.
Frequency Selective Fading
• A signal undergoes frequency selective fading if
BS > BC (26)
TS << στ (27)
• Rule of thumb:
– Flat fading if TS ≥ 10 στ
– Freq. selective fading if TS < 10 στ

November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 93


Fast Fading
• Depending on how rapidly the transmitted
baseband signal changes as compared to the
rate of change of the channel, a channel may
be classified as fast fading or slow fading
channel.
• In a fast fading channel, the channel impulse
response changes rapidly within the symbol
duration.
• Coherence time TC of the channel is smaller
than the symbol period TS of transmitted signal.
TS > TC (28)
November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 94
Slow Fading
• In a slow fading channel, the channel
impulse response changes at a rate
much slower than the transmitted
baseband signal.
• Channel may be assumed to be static
over one or several reciprocal bandwidth
intervals.
• A signal undergoes slow fading if
TS << TC (29)
November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 95
Fast Fading vs.
Slow Fading

Fast
fading
Signal
strength

Slow
fading

Time

November 2010 ETM3086 Mobile and Satellite Communications 96


Summary

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