Statistical Modeling and Characterization of

Fading Channels

A large part of these note are derived from notes by Dr. Y. Xin
EE4109 Spread Spectrum Communications

Mobile Radio Propagation

Large Scale Fading
characterize signal strength over relatively large distances (could be several
hundreds or thousands of meters)
More relevant to Cell-site Planning
Examples: Path loss or Shadowing

Small Scale Fading

characterize the rapid fluctuations of the received signal strength over short
travel distance (a few wavelengths) or short time durations (on the order of
seconds)
More relevant to designs of reliable communication systems. Focus of our
lecture.

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Large Scale Fading: Path Loss

Path loss (due to the distance):

It is due to dissipation of the power radiated by transmitter and effects of the
propagation channel. It is generally assumed that for a given distance of Tx-Rx,
path loss will be same for the same propagation medium.

Free space propagation model

clear and unobstructed line-of-sight (LOS)
is the received signal power and the transmitted signal power,
respectively, and is the T-R separation distance in meters
too simple and unrealistic
Variation of signals due to path loss over very large distances (100-1000 meters)

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Large Scale Fading: Shadowing

Shadowing (due to surrounding objects, e.g., buildings and hills)
It is due to obstructing objects between Tx and Rx that attenuate signal
power through absorption, reflection, scattering, diffractions.
Considers surrounding environment in the model
For the same T-R separation, the power decay at different locations could
be different due to different surrounding environment.

Variation due to shadowing occurs over distances that is proportional

to the length of the obstructing object (typically 10-100 meters in outdoor
environment and less indoor environment)
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Small Scale Fading

What is small scale fading
(simply called fading)?
Rapid fluctuation of the
amplitude of a radio
signal over a short
period of time or travel
distance
Caused by destructive and
constructive interference of
the transmitted signals
Influencing Factors
multi-path propagation
speed of the mobile
trans. bandwidth of the signal
….
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An Illustration Example

Slow
Fast

Very slow
Pr/Pt

d
(The above Figure is taken from Goldsmith’s
book)

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Multi-path Fading Channel Models

The received signal

represents the amplitude fluctuation introduced to the

transmitted signal by the nth scatterer at time t
is the carrier frequency
is the associated propagation delay
denotes the Dirac delta function
denotes the number of scatterers at time t

The channel output (Time variant Channel)

Impulse response of a multi-path model

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An Illustration Example

(The above Figure is taken from Rappaport’s book)

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Channel Functions
Time dispersion
The mobile channel introduces delay spread into the received signal. The received
signal has a longer during than that of the transmitted signal.
Frequency dispersion
The mobile channel introduces Doppler spread into the received signal. The
received signal has a larger bandwidth than that of the transmitted signal.
Time-variant transfer function

Delay-Doppler spread function

Doppler spread function

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Wide-Sense Stationary Random Process

Auto-correlation function of a random process

Wide-sense stationary (WSS) random process

The mean of the random process is independent of time instant and the
autocorrelation function satisfies the following property that

Power spectrum density (PSD) of a stationary random process

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Channel Characterization Parameters (I)

Assumptions (wide-sense stationary uncorrelated scattering (WSSUS))
is a wide-sense stationary (WSS) process in variable t;
for any , are uncorrelated if

Autocorrelation function of (due to WSSUS assumption for the channel)

When , is called multi-path intensity profile

(power delay spectrum).

The multipath intensity profile of the channel provides an estimate of

the average multipath power as a function of the relative delay .

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Channel Characterization Parameters (II)

The mean propagation delay

The root-mean-square (rms) delay spread

Example (Goldsmith’s book): The multi-path intensity profile is given as

Determine the mean propagation delay and the rms delay spread

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Main Points
Introduce mobile propagation models
1) large scale fading model: path loss and shadowing
2) small scale fading model: multi-path fading

Statistical model of multi-path fading channel

1) time variant nature
2) WSSUS assumption
3) introduction of the concept: multi-path intensity profile

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