Assignment # 1 (Advanced wireless Communication)

Submitted By:

Muhammad Tayyeb (18F-0863)

Umar Riaz (18F-0872)

Wireless Mobile Fading Channels

What is fading?

In wireless communications, fading is variation of the attenuation of a signal with various

variables. These variables include time, geographical position, and radio frequency. Fading is
often modeled as a random process. The fading is due to multipath propagation. With respect to a
stationary base station, multipath propagation creates a stochastic standing wave pattern, through
which the mobile station moves. Fading can cause poor performance in a communication system
because it can result in a loss of signal power without reducing the power of the noise. This
signal loss can be over some or all of the signal bandwidth.

A fading channel is a communication channel that experiences fading. In wireless systems,

fading may either be due to multipath propagation, referred to as multipath-induced fading,
weather, or shadowing from obstacles affecting the wave propagation, sometimes referred to
as shadow fading. When the signal moves from sender to receiver then multiple copies of signal
are formed due to obstructions in the path between sender and receiver. Each signal copy will
experience the different

a) Attenuation
b) Phase shift
c) Delay

Mobile fading channels:

Mobile Channel Fading is a loss in transmission intensity caused by changes in the transmission
medium. Conventionally, the multiplicative processes in the channel can be subdivided into three
types of fading - path loss, shadowing and multipath fading. As we know wireless
communication system consists of transmitter and receiver. The path from transmitter to the
receiver is not smooth and the transmitted signal may go through various kinds of attenuations
including path loss, multipath attenuation etc. The signal attenuation through the path depends on
various factors. They are time, radio frequency and path or position of transmitter/receiver. The
channel between transmitter and receiver can be time varying or fixed depending upon whether
the transmitter/receiver is fixed or moving with respect to each other.
A pictorial view of mobile fading channel is given below.

Types of fading:

There are three types of fading in wireless mobile channels.

1. Path loss
2. Shadowing or slow fading
3. Multipath fading or fast fading
1. Path Loss:

Path loss is the reduction in power density of an electromagnetic wave as it propagates through
the space. Path loss models are used to estimate the received signal level as a function of
distance. With the help of this model we can predict SNR for a mobile communication system.
The equation for path loss is given as.

4𝜋𝐷
𝑃𝐿 =
𝜆

2. Slow Fading:

Slow fading can be caused by events such as shadowing, where a large obstruction such as a hill
or large building obscures the main signal path between the transmitter and the receiver. In this
fading the rate of change of channel characteristics is much smaller than the rate of change of
transmitted signal.

Slow fading occurs when

 𝐵𝑠 ≫ 𝐵𝐷
𝑇𝑠 ≫ 𝑇𝑐
Where

𝐵𝑠 = Bandwidth of the signal

𝐵𝐷 = Doppler spread

𝑇𝑠 = Symbol period

𝑇𝑐 = Coherence bandwidth

3. Fast Fading:

Fast fading occurs when the coherence time of the channel is small relative to the delay
requirement of the application. In fast fading the rate of change of channel characteristics is
larger than the rate of change of transmitted signal. The channel changes during a symbol
period. The channel changes because of receiver motion.

For fast fading we have the following relations.

𝐵𝑠 < 𝐵𝐷
𝑇𝑠 < 𝑇𝑐
Fast and slow fading diagram:

The diagram for fast and slow fading is given as.

Causes of fading:

There are many causes of wireless mobile fading channels, some of them are explained below.

1. Ultraviolet Radiation (40%)

2. Visible Light (25%)
3. Heat (25%)
4. Other (10%)
5. Chemical Vapors
6. Age of the Fabric
7. Dye Fastness
8. Wear and tear physically removing coloring agents from the materials surface.

How to control it?

Fading and noise are the primary sources of distortion in communication channels. Most of the
techniques are implemented on receiver side for controlling of fading. Mostly we use the rectifier
filter circuit at receiver side which cancels the effect of fading. Adaptive filters are also used for
controlling of fadding.