A Simulated Method of Modeling Wireless

Channel Based on CDL

Jinbao Zhang Zaichen Zhang Xiaoyan Wang Zhenhui Tan Qiang Guo
Southeast University Southeast University Southeast University BJ JiaoTong University Southeast University
Building LiwenZheng Building LiwenZheng Building LiwenZheng Building Siyuan 813 Building LiwenZheng
Nanjing, 210096 Nanjing, 210096 Nanjing, 210096 Beijing, 100044 Nanjing, 210096

Abstract – Rapid development of wireless communications wireless channel to model macro fading, Doppler-effect and
gives prominence to simulation. Simulated methods of modeling polarization of wireless channel, while TDL based method
wireless channel are of significance to wireless communications
simulation on both link and system levels. There have been quite deals with micro fading. Current simulated methods only
a lot of theoretical models which have accurately described the combined the two types of methods simply, without
characteristics of wireless channel. However when it comes to the considering the intrinsic relationship among macro and micro
realization of wireless channel in simulation, there seem no fading, Doppler, multi-path and polarization effect [8].
accurate enough methods and conclusions. Current simulated This paper proposes a simulated method based on Cluster
methods are mostly built up based on TDL, which is a common
framework to model micro fading and mainly focused on micro Delay Line (CDL) to deal with wireless channel in simulation,
fading. As to macro fading, Doppler-effect and polarization of which is highlighted with synthetically combination of macro
electromagnetic wave, this method behaves not well enough, and and micro-fading, Doppler-effect, multi-path transmission and
other statistical approximations is indispensable, such as shadow so on. The paper is organized as follows. The second section
fading, Doppler power spectrum density and so on. gives a detailed description on the proposed method. Then
To the question existed, this paper proposes a simulated
method to accurately model wireless channel under given according to this proposed method, characteristics of wireless
wireless environment, on the basis of cluster delay line. This channel is analyzed and validated by simulation in Section III
method is highlighted with comprehensive consideration of and IV. Finally conclusions are drawn.
macro and micro fading, Doppler, multi-path and polarization
effect. Analysis and simulation results on characteristics of II. WIRELESS CHANNEL MODEL BASED ON CDL
wireless channel such as signal envelope, coherent time and A. Framework of CDL
bandwidth, validate the proposed model.
In wireless communications, wireless channel exists
Index Item - wireless communications simulation; wireless between transmitter and receiver. For example like cellular
channel modeling; fading; cluster delay line; system, the Base Station (BS) and Mobile Station (MS) are
connected by wireless channel. MS may move to any position
I. INTRODUCTION
within the range covered by BS, shown as the following Fig. 1.
Recently wireless communications have been inspired so
much by enormous demands and technical developments.
Simulation becomes more and more popular in evaluating
wireless system. To wireless communications, characteristics
of wireless channel are the most significant essentials which
must be analyzed and profiled [1, 2]. So far there have been
quite a lot of channel models under researching, and some of
them have been validated by testing data under some wireless
scenarios [3-5]. However, current researches are mainly
focusing on characteristic analysis of wireless channel. As to
simulated method of modeling wireless channel, there are not
enough conclusions.
There are mainly two types of simulating wireless channel.
One is statistical method, and the other is TDL based method
[6, 7]
. Statistical method uses Markov processes and statistics of
Fig. 1: Framework of Wireless Channel
This work is supported in part by the National S & T Major Project Note that there may be quite a lot of obstacles between BS
(2009ZX03006-008-02 and 2009ZX03003-009), Hi-tech research and MS. It is of too much difficulty to make full description
and development program of China (2007AA01Z277, on all of these obstacles. Thus concept of cluster is proposed
2009AA012000 and 2007AA01Z2b1), National Natural Science [8]
. These obstacles can be divided into several clusters, and
Foundation of China (60772035, 60802005 and 60902010), each cluster can be seen as one obstacle. Thus it is more
University Doctorial Foundation of China (20070004010) and
Natural Science Foundation of JiangSu (BK2009266).
possible to describe clusters than all obstacles.

978-1-4244-7555-1/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE

 Wireless transmission may be affected by macro fading and NP
γ k (t )
Nk
polarization caused by obstacles, micro-fading caused r (t ) = ∑ Nk
∑ (cosϕ n,I + j sin ϕ n, Q ) s[t − τ k (t )] (5)
different delay of multi-path, and frequency variation caused k =1 n =1
by Doppler-effect. Moreover these affections are time varying Where φn,I and φn,Q are the phase shift of horizontal and
due to the relative mobility between BS and MS. All of these vertical elements of signal over the nth sub-path in the kth path
elements are closely dependant on the environments where the via the kth obstacle cluster. This models the polarization.
MS is, and all of them should be taken into account for Limited with length of the paper, polarization is not discussed
modeling such wireless channel. here. That is to say φn,I=φn,Q=φn, then
NP Nk
γ k (t )
∑ ∑ e ϕ s[t − τ
B. Modeling of Macro fading j
r (t ) = n
k (t )] (6)
Provided the current position of MS and layout of obstacles Nk
k =1 n =1
in the cellular, possible wireless transmission path may be
defined, as illustrated in Fig. 1. Take the kth path via the kth D. Modeling of Doppler-effect
obstacle cluster as example, using propagating attenuation Also each signal is of different Angle of Arrive (AoA) at
computation of electromagnetic wave in free space, so the receiver. These will make the signal through different multi-
macro fading is modeled as the following equation [9]. path behave varying frequency shift, which is known as
Pr 1 1 Doppler-effect.
γ k (t ) = = ηk (1) See Fig. 1, the angle θk is referred to the AoA value of the
Ps 4πd1.k (t ) 4πd 2.k (t )α
α
kth path, and v is speed of MS. Thus the Doppler frequency
Where, Pr and Ps are referred to the signal power at receiver
shift is
and transmitter respectively. ηk represents the absorbing factor
fC
of the kth cluster. d1,k and d2,k are distance between BS and f D, k (t ) = v(t ) cos[θ k (t )] (7)
cluster, cluster and MS respectively. α is propagating c
attenuation factor over distance. Supposed the transmitting Where fC is frequency of carrier, considering macro and
signal is s(t) and there are totally NP significant clusters micro fading and Doppler-effect comprehensively, received
between BS and MS, received signal is signal is
NP Nk
NP γ k (t )
r (t ) = ∑ γ k (t ) s(t ) (2) r (t ) = ∑
k =1 Nk
∑e
n =1
j{2πf D ,k [ t −τ k (t )] +ϕ n }
s[t − τ k (t )] (8)
k =1
Consequently the impulse response of wireless channel is
C. Modeling of Micro fading and Polarization NP Nk
γ k (t )
Micro-fading is mainly caused by the combination of signal
arriving at different time slots. Signal is propagating via
h(t ,τ ) = ∑
k =1 Nk
∑e
n =1
j{2πf D ,k [t −τ k (t )] +ϕ n }
s[t − τ k (t )] |s (t ) =δ (t )
different multi-path. Each path will delay the signal by NP Nk
γ k (t )
different time slot. This will make the combined signal
through different multi-path behave varying phases. Then
= ∑
k =1 Nk
∑e
n =1
j{2πf D ,k [t −τ k ( t )]+ ϕ n }
δ [t − τ k (t )] (9)

envelope of combined signal varies, which is known as micro

fading. III. CHARACTERISTICS ANALYSIS
Polarization is mainly caused by the varying phase shift for For wireless channel modeling, characteristics like received
vertical and horizontal elements of electromagnetic wave on signal envelop, coherent bandwidth and time are focused on.
different obstacles. This section provides theoretical analysis on these
Consider the nth sub-path in the kth path via the kth obstacle characteristics.
cluster as example. In each cluster, there are also many sub-
paths. For the sake that distance variance among sub-path are A. Received Signal Envelop
somewhat puny comparing with multi-paths, all sub-paths Take single frequency signal as example, the received
corresponding to the same cluster are of the same distance and signal is
propagating attenuation [8]. The time delay is r (t ) = s (t ) * h(t ,τ ) = e j2πf C t * h(t ,τ )
d1, k (t ) + d 2, k (t ) NP Nk
τ k (t ) = γk
c
(3)
= e j2πf C t ∑
k =1
Nk ∑e
n =1
j2π[ f D ,k ( t )t − f D ,k (t )τ k (t ) − f Cτ k (t )] + jϕ n
(10)
Where c is propagating speed of electromagnetic wave,
received signal is First consider the kth path, complex envelop is
Nk
NP γk
r (t ) = ∑ γ k (t ) s[t − τ k (t )] (4) Ak =
Nk ∑e
n =1
j2π[ f D ,k (t )t − f D ,k ( t )τ k ( t ) − f Cτ k (t )] + jϕ n
(11)
k =1
But the phase shift is varying over different sub-paths [8], so Generally speaking, Nk is quite bigger than 1. According to
received signal is rewritten as central limit theory [10], Ak complies complex Gaussian. The
expectation and square variation of real and imaginary parts B. Simulation Results and Analysis
are respectively as According to configuration proposed previous, wireless
μ k , real = E{real( Ak )} , σ k , real 2 = E{real( Ak ) 2 } − μ k , real 2 channel impulse response is generated dynamically.
Simulation results are listed as bellows.
μ k , imag = E{imag( Ak )} , σ k ,imag 2 = E{imag( Ak ) 2 } − μ k ,imag 2 See envelop Probability Density Function (PDF) of received
(12) signal firstly. Theoretical Gaussian and Rician are plotted in
For non-LOS path, μk is 0; for LOS path, μk is a time the figures with solid and dot lines. Also simulated envelop of
varying value. So the envelop of |Ak| complies Rician for LOS received signal PDF are plotted with circle marked lines.
propagation, and Rayleigh for non-LOS [10]. Theoretical analysis in previous section point out that PDF of
real and imaginary part of received signal are both Gaussian,
B. Coherent Bandwidth and envelop PDF with LOS propagation is Rician. Simulation
Wireless channel response in frequency domain is results shown in Fig. 2 and 3 validate this conclusion.
computed as Although there are slight differences between theoretical and
+∞
simulated curves, the simulation results have validated that the
∫ h(t ,τ )e
− j2 πft
H ( f , t) = dt proposed simulated method will model wireless channel quite
−∞ accurately.
+∞ N P Nk
γ k (t )
∫∑ ∑e j{2πf D ,k [t −τ k (t )] + ϕ n }
= δ [t − τ k (t )]e − j2 πft dt (13)
Nk
− ∞ k =1 n =1
Self-correlation in frequency domain is defined as
E{H ( f , t ) H ( f + Δf , t )*}
RF ( Δf , t ) = (14)
E{H ( f , t ) H ( f , t )*}
Then 3dB coherent bandwidth is defined as
Bc (t ) = 2 FB |RF ( FB , t ) = RF ( 0,t ) / 2 (15)
Here H(f, t) is determined by impulse response h(t, τ), and
h(t, τ) depend on the layout of obstacle clusters, which is
varying with time. Thus Bc is dependent on layout of obstacle
clusters and MS speed.
C. Coherent Time
Self-correlation in time domain is defined as
⎧ E{H ( f , Δt ) H ( f , t + Δt )*} ⎫ Fig. 2: PDF of real and imaginary part signal
RT ( Δt ) = E ⎨ * ⎬ (16)
f
⎩ E{H ( f , t ) H ( f , t ) } ⎭
Then 3dB coherent time is defined as
Tc = 2TB |RT (TB ) = RT ( 0) / 2 (17)
It is the same as Bc that Tc is dependent on layout of
obstacle clusters and MS speed also.
IV. SIMULATION VALIDATION
In this section, the proposed Method of Modeling Wireless
Channel Based on CDL is realized and analyzed.
A. Simulation Configuration
The layout of obstacle clusters is random generated by
simulation, and MS speed is set to 70 kmph. Carrier central
frequency is 900 MHz, which is a typical value for GSM
system. The number of cluster is supposed to be 6, which is
also a typical value used in e-ITU channel model [1]. The Fig. 3: PDF of signal envelop
number of sub-paths is set to 32, which is given by e-ITU Then check the coherent bandwidth and time.
channel model [1]. Propagating attenuation factor ‘α’ is 2, for Simulation results of self-correlation of channel response in
the sake that this factor in atmosphere is very close to the frequency domain are shown in the following Fig. 4. Solid line
value in free space. Absorbing factor ‘η’ for each cluster is set shows the theoretical self-correlation of wireless channel
to 1 for simplification. Also assume that there is one LOS follow equation (14). The dash line gives the self-correlation
propagation between BS and MS. of wireless channel generated by the proposed method. The
same as previous results, although there are slight differences
between theoretical and simulated curves, the simulation
results have validated that the proposed simulated method will
model wireless channel quite accurately.
Fig. 4: Self-correlation for channel response in frequency domain
Self-correlation of channel response in time domain is
shown in Fig. 5. The theoretical computation of self-
correlation in time domain is based on equation (16). This also
validates the proposed simulated method.
Fig. 6: Self-correlation for channel response in time domain
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper proposes a simulated method to model time
varying wireless channel under complex wireless environment,
on a basis of characteristics which lie in electromagnetic wave
propagation though cluster delay line scenario. This involves
macro and micro fading, Doppler-effect and polarization.
These effects are taken into account during generation of
wireless channel in wireless simulation.
Simulation carried out in this paper have proven that the
proposed method will model wireless channel in simulation
quite accurately in the aspect of envelop PDF, self-correlation
in both frequency and time domains. Meanwhile, the
validation of the proposed simulated method is verified.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work is supported in part by the National S & T Major
Project (2009ZX03006-008-02 and 2009ZX03003-009), Hi-
tech research and development program of China
(2007AA01Z277, 2009AA012000 and 2007AA01Z2b1),
National Natural Science Foundation of China (60772035,
60802005 and 60902010), University Doctorial Foundation of
China (20070004010) and Natural Science Foundation of
JiangSu (BK2009266).
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