1

Introduction to Diversity
Instructor: M.A. Ingram
ECE4823
Motivation
aIf a fading radio signal is received through
only one channel, then in a deep fade, the
signal could be lost, and there is nothing
that can be done
aDiversity is a way to protect against deep
fades
Diversity: Choice in Fading
aThe key: create multiple channels or
branches that have uncorrelated fading
t
t
The fading of two highly
correlated channels
Two channels with
uncorrelated fading
Diversity 1
aCommon assumption: signals that scatter
off of different objects fade independently
aDiversity is created when these signals
are separated in the receiver
aExamples:
`RAKE receiver - - separates paths by delay
[PATH DIVERSITY]
`Multibeam antenna - - separates paths by
angle [ANGLE DIVERSITY]
Diversity 2
aAnother way to create diversity: change
the relative phases of the multipath
signals
aExamples:
`Identical antennas, slightly different locations
[SPACE DIVERSITY]
`Same signal received on different RF carriers
[FREQUENCY DIVERSITY]. Required carrier
separation depends inversely on delay spread
Diversity 3
aStill other ways to generate diversity:
`dual polarized antennas [POLARIZATION
DIVERSITY]
`successive retransmission in a channel with
Doppler spread [TIME DIVERSITY]. Time
separation depends inversely on Doppler
spread.
2
Antenna Separation for
Spatial Diveristy
aThe required separation distance between
antennas for spatial diversity depends on the
angular spread of multipath
Wide spread
Spacing can be as small as
0.25 wavelength
Typical for indoor channels
Narrow spread
Spacing may need to be as wide
as 30 wavelengths
Typical for tall base stations
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
30
210
60
240
90
270
120
300
150
330
180 0
Fading as a Function of Rx
Position - Wide Angle Spread
M
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e
,

d
B
Relative amplitude and
angle-of-arrival of paths
Large angle spread implies large variation over short distance
0 20 40 60 80 100
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
0 20 40 60 80 100
-200
-100
0
100
200
magnitude of received signals
phase of received signals
P
h
a
s
e
,

d
e
g
Distance in half-wavelengths
Fading as a Function of Rx
Position - Narrow Angle Spread
M
a
g
n
i
t
u
d
e
,

d
B
P
h
a
s
e
,

d
e
g
Relative amplitude and
angle-of-arrival of paths
5 degree spread
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
30
210
60
240
90
270
120
300
150
330
180 0
0 20 40 60 80 100
-40
-20
0
20
0 20 40 60 80 100
-100
0
100
phase of received signals
Small angle spread implies slow variation over distance
Distance in half-wavelengths
(along direction )
Directional Antennas Limit
Angular Spread
aHighly directional antennas or phased arrays make
multipath seem to have a narrow angular spread
aIf you want to use such antennas or arrays for diversity
channels, they must be spaced widely apart
A phased array
Diversity Combining
aOnce you have created two or more
diversity channels, what do you do with
them?
Types of Diversity Combining
aSelection diversity
`Pick the branch with highest signal power
aMaximal Ratio Combining (MRC)
`Branches weighted prior to summing
`MRC=Matched filter--maximizes SNR of desired
signal in additive white Gaussian noise
`Necessary to estimate branch gains
aMinimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE)
`Same as MRC in absence of colored interference
3
Two-branch Spatial Diversity
s
0
Rx Antenna
1
Rx Antenna
2
Tx Antenna
h
1
h
2
n
0
n
1
Noise

r
0
=s
0
h
1
+ n
0
r
1
=s
0
h
2
+ n
1
Maximal Ratio Combining
r
0
= s
0
h
1
+ n
0
r
1
=s
0
h
2
+ n
1
d
0
=h
1
r
0
+ h
2
r
1
* *
= (|h
1
|
2
+|h
2
|
2
) s
0
+ h
1
n
0
+ h
2
n
1
* *
The maximum likelihood decision statistic:
The received signals:
SNR After Diversity Combining
{ }
{ }
( ) { }
( ) { }
( ) { }
( ) ( ) { }
( ) { }
{ }
( ) { }
{ } { }
( ) { }
{ }
( )
{ }
{ }
( )
{ }
{ } { }
{ }
( )
{ }
{ }
2 /
, | pwr noise
, | pwr signal
0
2
1
2
1
2
2
2
1
2
1
2
0
2
1
2
1
2
2
2
1
2
1
2
0
2
2
2
1
2
1
2
*
2
2
*
1
2
0
2
2
2
2
1
2
1
2
*
2
2
0
2
*
1
2
0
2
2
2
2
1
2
1
2
*
2
2
0
2
*
1
2
0
2
2
2
2
1
2
1
*
2
2
0
*
1
2
0
2
2
2
2
1
2
1
*
2 0
*
1
2
0
2
2
2
2
1
2 1
2 1
N
h E
h E
h h
n E
s E h E
h E
h h
n E
s E
h h
n E h h
s E h h
n h E n h E
s E h h
n h n h E
s E h h
n h n h E
s E h h
n h n h E
s E h h
h h E
h h E
b
+
=
+
= + =
|
.
|

\
|
+
+
=
+
+
=
+
+
=
+
+
=
+
+
=
SNR Improvement
Factor
Avg SNR
for 1
branch
Received E
b
/N
o
with Diversity
aLet the received E
b
/N
o
without diversity on
the ith branch be denoted
i
aIn a flat-fading channel,
i
is a random
variable
aIf L diversity branches have iid
i
s, then
the E
b
/N
o
after MRC diversity combining is

=
=
L
i
i MRC
1

The CDFs of SNR Improvement
Factor for MRC on the Linear Scale
a10,000 trials of
iid complex
Gaussian
channel
aObserve shift to
the right as well
as a more
vertical
orientation
L=1
L=2
L=3
aChoppiness at
bottom end is
because I did
only 10,000
trials
L=1
L=2
L=3
The CDFs of SNR Improvement
Factor for MRC on the Log Scale
4
Performance Metrics 1
aSNR per bit after combining:
b
= E
b
/N
o
aSNR per bit before combining (per diversity branch):
el
aBoth are random variables that depend on the fading
state
Combiner

b

el
With MRC and K iid branches,
, K
el b
=
Where ) (
el el
E =
is the average SNR per bit
per branch and K is the
number of branches
Performance Metrics 3
aThe probability density function (pdf) of
b
: f

(
b
)
aProbability of error for given
b
:
aProbability of outage:
aAverage BER


=
out
b b out
d f P


0
) (
b b e
P erfc ) ( =

=
0
) ( ) (
b b b e
e d f P P
Performance Metrics 4
aWhen the average SNR per branch, , is
greater than 10 dB, can be approximated as
el

e P
|
|
.
|

\
|
|
|
.
|

\
|

K
K
K
P
el
e
1 2
4
1

for coherent BPSK. Therefore, error rate

decreases inversely with no. of diversity
branches.
Diversity Gain
18 dB 6 dB 3 dB
Diversity gain is the decrease
in the required SNR per
branch to achieve a desired
average BER
iid Rayleigh fading on each
diversity branch
Results shown for coherent
BPSK
Improvement in Reqd SNR
diminishes:
from 1 to 2: 18 dB
from 2 to 3: 6 dB
from 3 to 4: 3 dB
Antenna Gain
aThe antenna gain is the ratio of the
average SNR on the output of the array
combiner to the average SNR per branch
of the array
Transmit Diversity
aThe use of multiple antenna elements at
the transmitter to create diversity in the
receiver
Z
-1
Flat fading channel (no ISI caused by multipath)
Rake receiver
or Equalizer
Chips or
Symbols in
Symbols out
Example:
Base Station Transmitter
Mobile Receiver
ISI artificially created for
the equalizer. With MLSE,
2 Tx ants give 2-fold diversity
[Seshadri and Winters, JWIN94]
5
Space-time Block Coding
aLess receiver complexity than
Rake/equalizer
aDecoding gives MRC performance
aRequires no channel knowledge at
Transmitter
`Alamoutis space - time block codes
*can have two polarizations rather than two antennas
Alamoutis Scheme
Alamouti, IEEE JSAC, Oct 1998
s
0
-s
1
*
s
1
s
0
*
Tx Antenna
1
Tx Antenna
2
Rx Antenna
h
1
h
2

n
0
n
1
Noise
Output at time t
0
: r
0
=s
0
h
1
+ s
1
h
2
+ n
0
Output at time t
1
: r
1
=s
0
h
2
- s
1
h
1
+ n
1
* *
Input at time t
0
:
Input at time t
1
:
Combining Scheme
Alamouti, IEEE JSAC, Oct 1998
(

=
(

=
(

=
*
1
*
2
2 1
1
0
01
1
0
01
, ,
h h
h h
H
n
n
n
s
s
s
where , n then , Let
01 01 *
1
0
+ =
(

= Hs r
r
r
r
Observe that H is a scaled unitary matrix:
( )
(

+ =
1 0
0 1
2
2
2
1
h h H H
H
Combining, contd.
( )
01 01
2
2
2
1
01 01 01
) n (
~
So,
n H s h h
Hs H r H s
H
H H
+ + =
+ = =
Diversity from two branches
Simple linear combining (matched filtering)
Gaussian noise
Combining, Concluded
aObserve that two time-slots are required
for two symbols (code rate=1).
aIf total transmit power is conserved,
decrease diversity gain by 10log
10
N
`This decrease is the power - splitting loss
`This loss is also suffered by the time - transmit
diversity discussed prior to STBC
Alamouti, IEEE JSAC, Oct 1998
Average BER Results
Alamouti, IEEE JSAC, Oct 1998
10
0
10
-1
10
-2
10
-3
10
-5
10
-6
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
BER
10
-4
No diversity (1 Tx, 1 Rx)
2 Tx, 1 Rx
1 Tx, 2 Rx
2 Tx,
2 Rx
1 Tx,
4 Rx
faded Eb/No per receive antenna
6
Extensions to the Alamouti Scheme
aN>2 transmit antennas uses Q symbols
and >Q time-slots, so code rate is not as
good. Same benefit as N receive diversity
branches, if total transmit power increases
multiplies by N.
aRate 1/2 codes exist for any N
aRate 3/4 codes exist for N= 3 or 4
aFor real-only symbols, rate 1 codes exist
for N=2, 4, or 8, only.
Tarokh, et al., IEEE Trans Info Theory, July 1999
Notes
aIf L multiple users all use same space-
time code, synchronously, then the extra
transmit antennas do NOT count as extra
interferers from the point of view of
cancellation [Naguib et al., 32nd Asilomar Conf, 98]..
aS-T coded systems are degraded by
frequency selective channels, but can be
used in concert with MIMO equalizers [Gong
and Letaief, VTC 99].
Yet Another Kind of Transmit
Diversity: Adaptive Array
aSuppose the transmitter knows the channel
coefficients
aIt can weight each transmit antennas waveform
with the conjugate of the respective channel
coefficient
aThese weights will have the effect of maximizing
the SNR at the receive antenna output
aThis approach has the benefit of no power -
splitting loss and no loss in code rate for more
than two antennas. Its disadvantage is the
requirement of channel knowledge at the
transmitter
Adaptive Array Transmitter
aIn TDD, slow- fading systems, the channel
coefficients can be learned on the uplink and
their conjugates applied on the downlink. This
condition can be satisfied in indoor WLANs
ArrayComm.com, 1999
Summary
aReceive and transmit diversity techniques
have been discussed
aDiversity gain is the reduction in fade
margin provided by diversity combining
aMRC transmit diversity, with the exception
of adaptive arrays, give the same
performance as receive diversity except
for the power-splitting loss