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Wireless
Communications
T L Singal

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Mobile
Communication
Engineering

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T L SINGAL : Wireless Communications McGraw-Hill Education © 2010

Mobile Communication Engineering

‰ Introduction
‰ The Radio Paths
‰ The Propagation Attenuation
‰ Basic Propagation Mechanisms
‰ Mobile Radio Channel
‰ Simulation of Wireless Fading
Channels

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Introduction

The mobile radio channel is

¾ extremely random in nature
¾ difficult to analyze
¾ places fundamental limitations on the
performance of wireless communication
systems

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Mobile Communication Engineering?

¾ A study of signal propagation - vital to

wireless communications
¾ Basic Propagation Mechanisms
¾ How wireless medium supports mobility
of the users
¾ Radio propagation characteristics

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Mobile Radio Environment

™ Radio Propagation Paths
™ Propagation Attenuation
™ Multi-path Propagation
™ Basic Propagation Mechanisms
™ Mobile Radio Channel
¾ Multipath Fading
¾ Multipath Delay Spread
¾ Effect of Mobility: Doppler Shift
¾ Coherence Bandwidth and Time

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Radio Propagation Paths

™ Direct wave Path - a path which is clear form
terrain contour.
™ Line of Sight (LOS) Path - a path clear form
buildings. In the mobile radio environment, line
of sight condition is generally not met.
™ Obstructive Path - a path when the terrain
contour blocks the direct wave path. The signal
may encounter diffraction resulting into
shadow or diffraction loss.

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The Propagation Attenuation

™ In general, the propagation path loss increases
with frequency of transmission, fc and the
distance between cell site and mobile, R.
™ In a real mobile radio environment, the
propagation path-loss varies as Lp∞ Rγ,
where γ is path-loss exponent which varies
between 2 and 6, depending on the actual
conditions.
™ γ= 2 is free-space condition and γ= 4 is typical
value for mobile radio environment.
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Path Loss Exponent Values

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Signal Attenuation Rate

™ Free-Space conditions: Signal strength
decays at the rate of 6 dB/octave or 20
dB/decade
™ Mobile Radio Propagation
Environment condition: Signal strength
decays at the rate of 12 dB/octave or 40
dB/decade

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Radio Propagation Mechanisms

(4) Building (1) Direct Signal
(2) Ground Reflected Signal
(3) Reflected Signal
(4) Scattered Signal
(5) Diffracted Signal

(1) (3)
(5)
ht

(2) hr

r
Cell-site Tx Mobile Rx

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Propagation Mechanisms
¾ Reflection : Propagating wave impinges on an
object which is large compared to wavelength,
such as the surface of the Earth, buildings,
walls, etc.
¾ Diffraction : Radio path between transmitter
and receiver obstructed by surface with sharp
irregular edges. Waves bend around the
obstacle, even when LOS does not exist
¾ Scattering : Objects smaller than the
wavelength of the propagating wave, e.g.
foliage, street signs, lamp posts.

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Effects of Reflection on Signal Propagation

BS - Tx
)
Direct path

Reflected path

120o MS - Rx
)

Building size >10m

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Diffraction
™ A change in wave pattern caused by interference
between waves that have been reflected from a
surface or a point
™ Causes regions of waves strengthening and
weakening
™ Results in bending of the wave
™ Can occur in different situations when waves
√ Pass through a narrow slit
√ Pass the edge of a reflector
√ Reflect off two different surfaces approximately one
wavelength apart

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Diffraction of Radio Signal

Direct path
BS - Tx
Diffracted path
)

MS - Rx
)

Object ≈33 cm

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Scattering of Radio Signal

BS - Tx
Scattering of
signals

MS - Rx

Object ≈33 cm

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Blocking and Absorption

™ Some substances like
trees and shrubs,
clouds, mist and other
atmospheric moisture
and dust, metal
screen, human body
near a hand held
absorb radio waves
™ Higher frequency
radio waves are
absorbed more than
lower frequency
radio waves

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Refraction
™ Refraction is the bending of electromagnetic
waves as they pass from medium of one
density into medium of another density.
™ Radio waves typically bend due to changes
in density of air caused by changes in
humidity, temperature or pressure.
™ Dielectric constant describes how the wave will
propagate through the material.

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Refraction of Radio Signal

troposp
here or
ionosp
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si g ref
dio lec
ra te dr
ed adi
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rf a ign
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re i o s i gnal
ad
direct r
Earth

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Mobile Radio Channel

™ Mobile radio channels introduce noise, fading,
interference, and other distortions into the
signals that they transmit.
™ In mobile communication system, a signal
experiences multipath propagation which
causes rapid signal level fluctuations of the
amplitude of a radio signal in a short time
over a short distance called fading.

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Impairment to Radio Channel - Fading

™ Multipath waves are generated because the
antenna height of mobile is lower than its
typical surroundings, and the operating wave
length is much less than the sizes of the
surrounding structures at mobile.
™ The sum of multipath waves causes a
signal fading phenomenon.
™ The signal may fade in range of about 40 dB
(10 dB above and 30 dB below the average
signal). If the mobile moves fast, the rate of
signal fluctuations is fast.

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Multipath Fading in a Mobile Radio

Environment
Tx Antenna

Wireless
Medium

Multipath fading
Radio path

~100λ

Cell Site
Cell Site

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Types of Fading
™ Fading effects due to multipath time
delay spread
¾ Flat (non-frequency selective) fading
¾ Frequency selective fading
™ Fading effects due to Doppler spread
¾ Fast fading (Rayleigh fading)
¾ Slow fading (Rician fading)

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Flat (Non-frequency Selective) Fading

™ When radio channel has a constant gain and
linear phase response but its bandwidth is
greater than that of the transmitted signal
™ All frequency components of the received
signal fluctuates in the same proportions
simultaneously
™ Described by Rayleigh distribution
™ Typical flat fading channels cause deep
fades, (20 or 30 dB)

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Frequency Selective Fading

™ When radio channel has a constant gain and
linear phase response but its bandwidth is less
than that of the transmitted signal
™ Affects the different spectral components
of a radio signal unequally
™ Due to time dispersion of the transmitted
symbols within the channel, the channel
induces intersymbol interference
™ Frequency selective fading channels are
also known as wideband channels

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Fast Fading (Rayleigh fading)

™ Rapid fluctuations in received signal strength
occur over distances of about one-half a
wavelength.
™ The channel impulse response changes
rapidly within the symbol duration.
™ The coherence time of the channel is smaller
than symbol period of the transmitted signal.
™ This causes frequency dispersion, also
called time selective fading, due to Doppler
spreading.
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Slow Fading (Rician fading)

™ Rapid fluctuations in received signal strength
occur over distances of about one-half a
wavelength.
™ The channel impulse response changes
rapidly within the symbol duration.
™ The coherence time of the channel is smaller
than symbol period of the transmitted signal.
™ This causes frequency dispersion, also
called time selective fading, due to Doppler
spreading.
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A Typical Fading Signal Received

-80

-90
Signal Level (dBm)

-100

-110

-120

-130

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Relative Position (m)

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Shadow Fading
¾ The variation of the signal strength due to
location
¾ Similar to slow fading
¾ Typically modeled by attenuation in signal
amplitude that follows a log-normal
distribution
¾ The variation in shadow fading is
specified by the standard deviation of the
logarithm of this attenuation

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Effects of Multipath Fading

(as noticed by the listener)
9 Rapid change in volume
9 Random frequency modulation
9 Echoes
9 Distortion
9 Dropped call

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Multipath Delay Spread

™ Multipath propagation yields signal paths of
different paths with different times of arrival at
the receiver.
™ Spreads/smears the signal, could cause inter-
symbol interference, limits maximum symbol
rate
™ Delay Spread also occurs due to Rayleigh
fading which results from the signal’s
amplitude and phase being altered by
reflections.

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Delay spread of a received signal

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Typical Delay Spread Values

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Doppler Shift
™ The relative motion between the cell site and
mobile results in random frequency change
due to different Doppler shifts on each of the
multipath components.
™ The Doppler shift, fd is given by
fd = (1/λc) Vm cos θ
where λc is the wavelength of the carrier signal, Vm is
the relative velocity of the mobile, the angle θ is
between the motion of the mobile and direction of
arrival of the scattered waves.

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Doppler Spread
¾ Doppler shift will be positive or negative depending
on whether the mobile receiver is moving towards or
away from the cell site.
¾ In mobile radio applications, the Doppler
spectrum or Doppler spread for a Rayleigh fading
channel is usually modeled by
D(λ) = (0.16/fdm) x [1-( λc / fdm)2]-0.5 for - fdm ≤ λc ≤ fdm
where fdm is the maximum Doppler frequency possible
fdm = Vm / λc

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Level Crossing Rate

¾ It is possible to relate the time rate of change of the
received signal to the signal level and velocity of the
mobile.
¾ The level crossing rate, NL is defined as the
expected rate at which the Rayleigh fading
envelope, normalized to the local RMS signal level,
crosses a specified threshold level in a positive-
going direction.
NL = 2.5 fdm ρ e- ρ2
ρ is the value of the specified level L, normalized to the local
rms amplitude of the fading envelope, that is, L/Lrms.

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Fade Rate and Fade Duration

¾ Fade rate is defined as the number of times
that the signal envelope crosses the threshold
value in a positive going direction per unit
time.
Average fade rate = 2 Vm / λc
¾The average fade duration is defined as
the average period of time for which the
received signal is below a specified level L.
Average fade duration, Ť = 0.4(eρ2-1)/(fdm ρ)

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Coherence Bandwidth
™ The coherence bandwidth is a statistical
measure of the range of frequencies over
which the channel can be considered flat.
™ The coherence bandwidth, Bc represents
the correlation between two fading signal
envelopes at frequencies f1 and f2 and is a
function of delay spread Ŧd.
Bc ≈ 1 / (2 π Ŧd)
Where Ŧd is the delay spread.

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Coherence Time
™ Coherence time is the time duration over which
two received signals have a strong potential for
amplitude correlation.
™ It is used to characterize the time varying nature of
the frequency dispersiveness of the channel in the
time domain.
™ Coherence time, Ŧc is inversely proportional of
Doppler spread.
Ŧc ≈ 0.423 / fdm
Where fdm is the maximum Doppler shift given by Vm /λc.

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Wireless Fading Channels

™ Simulating a wireless communication system
involves modeling a mobile radio channel
based on mathematical descriptions of the
channel.
™ Even when a mobile receiver is stationary, the
received signal may fade due to movement of
surrounding objects in the radio channel.
™ Rayleigh and Rician fading channels are useful
models of real-world phenomena in wireless
communications.

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Impulse Response of Channel

™ The wireless channels can be characterized by a
parameter U, defined as ratio of the power in the
dominant path to the power in the scattered path.
9 When U = 0 (that is, power in the dominant path is zero),
the channel is Rayleigh channel.
9 When U is equal to infinity (that is, power in the scattered path
is zero), the channel is AWGN.
™ The impulse response is a wideband channel
characterization and contains all information
necessary to simulate any type of radio
transmission through the channel.

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Simulating a Fading Channel

™ The BERTool of Communications ToolBox of technical
computing simulation software MATLAB implements a
baseband channel model for multipath propagation
conditions.
™ A mobile radio channel may be modeled as a linear
filter with a time varying impulse response, where
the time variation is due to receiver motion in
space.
™ The Communications Toolbox models a fading
channel as a linear Finite Impulse Response (FIR)
filter.

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BER Plot for Fading Channels

1

(1)
(1)

(1) Frequency-selective or Fast fading

10-1 (2) Flat and slow fading Rayleigh limit U=0
(3) Rician fading U=4
(4) Rician fading U=16
(5) Additive white gaussian noise U=∞
Bit Error Rate (BER)

10-2

(2)

10-3 (4) (3)

(5)

10-4
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Eb/N0 (dB)

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Summary
™ Impairments to propagation include reflection,
diffraction, scattering, and many other similar
phenomena.
™ Channel impairments cause multipath
propagation and mobile signal fading.
™ Multipath propagation results in delay spread,
which causes intersymbol interference limiting
the bandwidth of the channel, and irreducible
error rates.

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