CHAPTER 6

THE WIRELESS
CHANNEL

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The Wireless Channel 6-1

 ANTENNAS
• An antenna is an electrical conductor or
system of conductors
– Transmission - radiates electromagnetic energy
into space
– Reception - collects electromagnetic energy from
space
• In two-way communication, the same antenna
can be used for transmission and reception

The Wireless Channel 6-2

 RADIATION PATTERNS
• Radiation pattern
– Graphical representation of radiation properties of an antenna
– Depicted as two-dimensional cross section
• Beam width (or half-power beam width)
– Measure of directivity of antenna
• Reception pattern
– Receiving antenna’s equivalent to radiation pattern
• Sidelobes
– Extra energy in directions outside the mainlobe
• Nulls
– Very low energy in between mainlobe and sidelobes

The Wireless Channel 6-3

6.1 ANTENNA RADIATION PATTERNS
The Wireless Channel 6-4
 TYPES OF ANTENNAS
• Isotropic antenna (idealized)
– Radiates power equally in all directions
• Dipole antennas
– Half-wave dipole antenna (or Hertz antenna)
– Quarter-wave vertical antenna (or Marconi antenna)
• Parabolic Reflective Antenna
• Directional Antennas
– Arrays of antennas
• In a linear array or other configuration
– Signal amplitudes and phases to each antenna are
adjusted to create a directional pattern
– Very useful in modern systems

The Wireless Channel 6-5

 ISOTROPIC RADIATOR
• Radiation and reception of electromagnetic waves, coupling of
wires to space for radio transmission
• Isotropic radiator: equal radiation in all directions (three
dimensional) - only a theoretical reference antenna
• Real antennas always have directive effects (vertically and/or
horizontally)
• Radiation pattern: measurement of radiation around an antenna

z
y z

y x ideal
x isotropic
radiator
6.2 SIMPLE ANTENNAS
The Wireless Channel 6-7
 y y z

x z x

Side view (xy-plane) Side view (zy-plane) Top view (xz-plane)

(a) Simple dipole

y y z

x z x

Side view (xy-plane) Side view (zy-plane) Top view (xz-plane)

(b) Directed antenna

6.3 RADIATION PATTERN IN THREE DIMENSIONS

The Wireless Channel 6-8
6.4 PARABOLIC REFLECTIVE ANTENNAS
The Wireless Channel 6-9
 ANTENNA GAIN
• Antenna gain
– Power output, in a particular direction, compared
to that produced in any direction by a perfect
omnidirectional antenna (isotropic antenna)
• Effective area
– Related to physical size and shape of antenna

The Wireless Channel 6-10

 ANTENNA GAIN
• Relationship between antenna gain and effective area
4p Ae 4p f Ae 2

G= =
l 2
c 2

• G = antenna gain
• Ae = effective area
• f = carrier frequency
• c = speed of light 3 ´ 108 m/s)
• λ = carrier wavelength

The Wireless Channel 6-11

 SPECTRUM CONSIDERATIONS
• Controlled by regulatory bodies
– Carrier frequency
– Signal Power
– Multiple Access Scheme
• Divide into time slots –Time Division Multiple Access
(TDMA)
• Divide into frequency bands – Frequency Division
Multiple Access (FDMA)
• Different signal encodings – Code Division Multiple
Access (CDMA)

The Wireless Channel 6-12

 SPECTRUM CONSIDERATIONS
• Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) bands
– Can be used without a license
– As long as power and spread spectrum regulations
are followed
• ISM bands are used for
– WLANs
– Wireless Personal Area networks
– Internet of Things

The Wireless Channel 6-13

 PROPAGATION MODES
• Ground-wave propagation
• Sky-wave propagation
• Line-of-sight propagation

The Wireless Channel 6-14

6.5 WIRELESS PROPAGATION MODES
The Wireless Channel 6-15
 GROUND WAVE PROPAGATION
• Follows contour of the earth
• Can propagate considerable distances
• Frequencies up to 2 MHz
• Example
– AM radio

The Wireless Channel 6-16

 SKY WAVE PROPAGATION
• Signal reflected from ionized layer of atmosphere
back down to earth
• Signal can travel a number of hops, back and forth
between ionosphere and earth’s surface
• Reflection effect caused by refraction
• Examples
– Amateur radio
– CB radio

The Wireless Channel 6-17

LINE-OF-SIGHT PROPAGATION
• Transmitting and receiving antennas must be within
line of sight
– Satellite communication – signal above 30 MHz not
reflected by ionosphere
– Ground communication – antennas within effective line of
site due to refraction
• Refraction – bending of microwaves by the
atmosphere
– Velocity of electromagnetic wave is a function of the
density of the medium
– When wave changes medium, speed changes
– Wave bends at the boundary between mediums

The Wireless Channel 6-18

6.6 REFRACTION OF AN ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVE
The Wireless Channel 6-19
 FIVE BASIC PROPAGATION
MECHANISMS
1. Free-space propagation
2. Transmission
– Through a medium
– Refraction occurs at boundaries
3. Reflections
– Waves impinge upon surfaces that are large compared to
the signal wavelength
4. Diffraction
– Secondary waves behind objects with sharp edges
5. Scattering
– Interactions between small objects or rough surfaces

The Wireless Channel 6-20

 LOS WIRELESS TRANSMISSION
IMPAIRMENTS
• Attenuation and attenuation distortion
• Free space loss
• Noise
• Atmospheric absorption
• Multipath
• Refraction
• Thermal noise

The Wireless Channel 6-21

 ATTENUATION
• Strength of signal falls off with distance over
transmission medium
• Attenuation factors for unguided media:
– Received signal must have sufficient strength so that
circuitry in the receiver can interpret the signal
– Signal must maintain a level sufficiently higher than noise
to be received without error
– Attenuation is greater at higher frequencies, causing
distortion

The Wireless Channel 6-22

 FREE SPACE LOSS
• Free space loss (Friis Model):
Pt (4d ) 2 (4df ) 2
 
Pr Gt Gr  2
Gt Gr c 2
• Pt = signal power at transmitting antenna
• Pr = signal power at receiving antenna
• λ = carrier wavelength
• d = propagation distance between antennas
• c = speed of light 3 ×108 m/s)
• Gt = transmitter antenna gain (=1 for isotropic antenna)
• Gt = receiver antenna gain (=1 for isotropic antenna)

where d and λ are in the same units (e.g., meters)

The Wireless Channel 6-23

 FREE SPACE LOSS
• Free space loss (isotropic antenna) equation
can be recast:
Pt æ 4pd ö
LdB = 10log = 20log ç
Pr è l ÷ø
 20 log   20 logd   21.98 dB

 4fd 
 20 log   20 log f   20 logd   147.56 dB
 c 

The Wireless Channel 6-24

6.8 FREE SPACE LOSS
The Wireless Channel 6-25
 DERIVATION OF THE FRIIS
EQUATION
• Power Flux Density: power spread over the sphere’s surface:
𝑃𝑡
– 𝑝= 𝐺𝑡
4𝜋𝑟 2

• Antenna’s Apperture or Effective Area:

𝜆2 𝑃𝑜
– 𝐴𝑒𝑓𝑓 = 𝐺 =
4𝜋 𝑟 𝑝
– Where 𝑃𝑜 ≡ 𝑃𝑟 is the antenna’s output power that feeds the
receiver circuit’s load.
– Note: Antenna’s apperture efficiency (0≤ 𝑒𝑎 ≤ 1):
𝐴𝑒𝑓𝑓
• 𝑒𝑎 = , where 𝐴𝑝ℎ𝑦𝑠 is the physical apperture of e.g., parabolic
𝐴𝑝ℎ𝑦𝑠
dish or horn

• Friis Equation:
– 𝑃𝑟 = 𝑝 ∙ 𝐴𝑒𝑓𝑓
 PATH LOSS EXPONENT IN
PRACTICAL SYSTEMS
• Practical systems – reflections, scattering, etc.
• Beyond a certain distance, received power
decreases logarithmically with distance
– Based on many measurement studies
2 2
Pt æ 4p ö n æ 4pf ö n
=ç ÷ d =ç ÷ d
Pr è l ø è c ø

LdB = 20log ( f ) +10nlog ( d ) -147.56 dB

The Wireless Channel 6-27
PATH LOSS EXPONENT IN
PRACTICAL SYSTEMS

The Wireless Channel 6-28

 MODELS DERIVED FROM
EMPIRICAL MEASUREMENTS
• Need to design systems based on empirical data applied to a
particular environment
– To determine power levels, tower heights, height of mobile
antennas
• Okumura developed a model, later refined by Hata
– Detailed measurement and analysis of the Tokyo area
– Among the best accuracy in a wide variety of situations
• Predicts path loss for typical environments
– Urban
– Small, medium sized city
– Large city
– Suburban
– Rural

The Wireless Channel 6-29

 CATEGORIES OF NOISE
• Thermal Noise
• Intermodulation noise
• Crosstalk
• Impulse Noise

The Wireless Channel 6-30

 THERMAL NOISE
• Thermal noise due to agitation of electrons
• Present in all electronic devices and
transmission media
• Cannot be eliminated
• Function of temperature
• Particularly significant for satellite
communication

The Wireless Channel 6-31

 THERMAL NOISE
• Amount of thermal noise to be found in a bandwidth
of 1Hz in any device or conductor is:

N 0  kT W/Hz 
• N0 = noise power density in watts per 1 Hz of bandwidth
• k = Boltzmann's constant = 1.3803 × 10-23 J/K
• T = temperature, in Kelvins (absolute temperature)

The Wireless Channel 6-32

 THERMAL NOISE
• Noise is assumed to be independent of frequency
• Average thermal noise power present in a bandwidth
of B Hertz (in watts):
N  kTB
or, in decibel-watts

 228.6 dBW 10 log T  10 log B

N  10 log k  10 log T  10 log B
The Wireless Channel 6-33
 NOISE TERMINOLOGY
• Intermodulation noise – occurs if signals with
different frequencies share the same medium
– Interference caused by a signal produced at a frequency that
is the sum or difference of original frequencies
• Crosstalk – unwanted coupling between signal paths
• Impulse noise – irregular pulses or noise spikes
– Short duration and of relatively high amplitude
– Caused by external electromagnetic disturbances, or faults
and flaws in the communications system

The Wireless Channel 6-34

 EXPRESSION Eb/N0
• Ratio of signal energy per bit to noise power density
per Hertz
Eb S / R S
 
N0 N0 kTR
• The bit error rate (i.e., bit error probability) for digital
data is a function of Eb/N0
– Given a value for Eb/N0 to achieve a desired error rate,
parameters of this formula can be selected
– As bit rate R increases, transmitted signal power must
increase to maintain required Eb/N0

The Wireless Channel 6-35

6.9 GENERAL SHAPE OF BER VERSUS Eb/N0 CURVES
The Wireless Channel 6-36
 OTHER IMPAIRMENTS
• Atmospheric absorption – water vapor and
oxygen contribute to attenuation
• Multipath – obstacles reflect signals so that
multiple copies with varying delays are
received
• Refraction – bending of radio waves as they
propagate through the atmosphere

The Wireless Channel 6-37

 THE EFFECTS OF MULTIPATH
PROPAGATION
• Reflection, diffraction, and scattering
• Multiple copies of a signal may arrive at different
phases
– If phases add destructively, the signal level relative to
noise declines, making detection more difficult
• Intersymbol interference (ISI)
– One or more delayed copies of a pulse may arrive at
the same time as the primary pulse for a subsequent bit
• Rapid signal fluctuations
– Over a few centimeters

The Wireless Channel 6-38

6.10 EXAMPLES OF MULTIPATH INTERFERENCE
The Wireless Channel 6-39
6.11 SKETCH OF THREE IMPORTANT PROPAGATION MECHANISMS
The Wireless Channel 6-40
 REAL WORLD EXAMPLES

www.ihe.kit.edu/index.php
6.12 TWO PULSES IN TIME-VARIANT MULTIPATH
The Wireless Channel 6-42
6.13 TYPICAL LARGE-SCALE AND SMALL-SCALE FADING IN AN URBAN
MOBILE ENVIRONMENT The Wireless Channel 6-43
 TYPES OF FADING
• Large-scale fading
– Signal variations over large distances
– Path loss LdB as we have seen already
– Shadowing
• Statistical variations
– Rayleigh fading
– Ricean fading

The Wireless Channel 6-44

 TYPES OF FADING
• Doppler Spread
– Frequency fluctuations caused by movement
– Coherence time Tc characterizes Doppler shift
• How long a channel remains the same
– Coherence time Tc >> Tb bit time  slow fading
• The channel does not change during the bit time
– Otherwise fast fading
• Example 6.11: Tc = 70 ms, bit rate rb = 100 kbs
– Bit time Tb = 1/100 × 103 = 10 μs
– Tc >> Tb? 70 ms >> 10 μs?
– True, so slow fading

The Wireless Channel 6-45

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jochen H. Schiller www.jochenschiller.de MC - 2013

DOPPLER SHIFT
• Deviation from the signal frequency due to
relative motion between sender and receiver:
𝑣
Δ𝑓 = ∙ cos(𝜃)
𝜆
 TYPES OF FADING
• Multipath fading
– Multiple signals arrive at the receiver
– Coherence bandwidth Bc characterizes multipath
• Bandwidth over which the channel response remains relatively constant
• Related to delay spread, the spread in time of the arrivals of multipath signals
– Signal bandwidth Bs is proportional to the bit rate
– If Bc >> Bs, then flat fading
• The signal bandwidth fits well within the channel bandwidth
– Otherwise, frequency selective fading
• Example 6.11: Bc = 150 kHz, bit rate rb = 100 kbs
– Assume signal bandwidth Bs ≈ rb, Bs = 100 kHz
– Bc >> Bs? 150 kHz >> 100 kHz?
– Using a factor of 10 for “>>”, 150 kHz is not more than 10 ×100 kHz
– False, so frequency selective fading

The Wireless Channel 6-47

6.14 FLAT AND FREQUENCY SELECTIVE FADING
The Wireless Channel 6-48
6.15 THEORETICAL BIT ERROR RATE FOR VARIOUS FADING
CONDITIONS The Wireless Channel 6-49
 FRESNEL ZONES
• 1st Fresnel Zone
– Obstruction must be <20% in order to result in propagation loss
equivalent to free space.

• Radius of the nth Fresnel Zone at point P (d1, d2, lambda in

meters):
 TWO-RAY MODEL

• 𝑑 < 𝑑𝑐 : Friis model

𝑃𝑡 ∙𝐺𝑡 ∙𝐺𝑟 ∙ ℎ𝑡 2 ∙ ℎ𝑟 2
• 𝑑 > 𝑑𝑐 : 𝑃𝑟 =
𝑑 4 ∙𝐿
• Crossover distance: 𝑑𝑐 = 4𝜋 ∙ ℎ𝑡 ∙ ℎ𝑟 /𝜆
 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER IN A
MODEL
(EXTRA)
𝑥
𝑃𝑟 = 𝛼2 ∙ 1010 ∙ 𝑔(𝑑) ∙ 𝑃𝑡 ∙ 𝐺𝑡 ∙ 𝐺𝑟

• 𝛼 ≡ Small-scale fading, random variable (e.g., Riccean,

Rayleigh), such that 𝐸 𝛼 2 = 1

• 𝑥 ≡ Shadow fading (large-scale effect), random variable

(e.g., Log-Normal), such that 𝐸 𝑥 =0

• 𝑔(𝑑) ≡ Large-scale Channel gain with distance (e.g.,

Friis, Two-Ray, Log-Distance)
 CHANNEL CORRECTION
MECHANISMS
• Forward error correction
• Adaptive equalization
• Adaptive modulation and coding
• Diversity techniques and MIMO
• OFDM
• Spread Spectrum (bandwidth expansion)

The Wireless Channel 6-53

 FORWARD ERROR CORRECTION

• Transmitter adds error-correcting code to data block

– Code is a function of the data bits
• Receiver calculates error-correcting code from
incoming data bits
– If calculated code matches incoming code, no error
occurred
– If error-correcting codes don’t match, receiver attempts to
determine bits in error and correct
• Subject of Chapter 10

The Wireless Channel 6-54

10.5 FORWARD ERROR CORRECTION PROCESS
The Wireless Channel 6-55
 ADAPTIVE EQUALIZATION
• Can be applied to transmissions that carry analog or
digital information
– Analog voice or video
– Digital data, digitized voice or video
• Used to combat intersymbol interference
• Involves gathering dispersed symbol energy back into
its original time interval
• Techniques
– Lumped analog circuits
– Sophisticated digital signal processing algorithms

The Wireless Channel 6-56

6.16 LINEAR EQUALIZER CIRCUIT
The Wireless Channel 6-57
 ADAPTIVE MODULATION AND
CODING (AMC)
• The modulation process formats the signal to best
transmit bits
– To overcome noise
– To transmit as many bits as possible
• Coding detects and corrects errors
• AMC adapts to channel conditions
– 100’s of times per second
– Measures channel conditions
– Sends messages between transmitter and receiver to
coordinate changes

The Wireless Channel 6-58

 DIVERSITY TECHNIQUES
• Diversity is based on the fact that individual channels
experience independent fading events
• Space diversity – techniques involving physical
transmission path, spacing antennas
• Frequency diversity – techniques where the signal is
spread out over a larger frequency bandwidth or
carried on multiple frequency carriers
• Time diversity – techniques aimed at spreading the
data out over time
• Use of diversity
– Selection diversity – select the best signal
– Combining diversity – combine the signals
The Wireless Channel 6-59
 MULTIPLE INPUT MULTIPLE
OUTPUT (MIMO) ANTENNAS
• Use antenna arrays for
– Diversity – different signals from different antennas
– Multiple streams – parallel data streams
– Beamforming – directional antennas
– Multi-user MIMO – directional beams to multiple
simultaneous users
• Modern systems
– 4 × 4 (4 transmitter and 4 reciever antennas)
– 8×8
– Two dimensional arrays of 64 antennas
– Future: Massive MIMO with many more antennas

The Wireless Channel 6-60

6.18 FOUR USES OF MIMO
The Wireless Channel 6-61
6.19 MIMO SCHEME
The Wireless Channel 6-62
 CHANNEL CORRECTION
MECHANISMS
• Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) –
Chapter 8
– Splits signal into many lower bit rate streams called subcarriers
– Overcomes frequency selectivity from multipath
– Spaces subcarriers apart in overlapping yet orthogonal carrier
frequencies
• Spread spectrum (Chapter 9)
– Expand a signal to 100 times its bandwidth
– An alternative method to overcome frequency selectivity
– Users can share the channel by using different spreading codes
• Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

The Wireless Channel 6-63

SIGNAL PROPAGATION RANGES
• Transmission range
– communication possible
– low error rate
• Detection range
– detection of the signal sender
possible
– no communication transmission
possible
• Interference range detection
distance

– signal may not be

detected interference
– signal adds to the
background noise
• Warning: figure misleading – bizarre shaped, time-varying ranges in
reality!