Wireless Cellular & LTE 4G Broadband

Module-1
Syllabus: Key Enablers for LTE features: OFDM, Single carrier FDMA, Single carrier FDE, Channel Dependent
Multiuser Resource Scheduling, Multiantenna Techniques, IP based Flat Network Architecture, LTE Network
Architecture. (Sec 1.4- 1.5 of Text).
Wireless Fundamentals: Cellular concept, Broadband wireless channel (BWC), Fading in BWC, Modeling BWC
Empirical and Statistical models, Mitigation of Narrow band and Broadband Fading (Sec 2.2 – 2.7 of Text).

Key Enabling Technologies and Features of LTE

Key Enabling Technologies and Features of LTE are
1. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
2. SC-FDE and SC-FDMA
3. Channel Dependent Multi-user Resource Scheduling
4. Multi-antenna Techniques
5. IP-Based Flat Network Architecture

1. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)

 Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is a method of digital data modulation, whereby
the data is divided into several separate sub-streams for transmission via multiple channels.
 OFDM uses the principle of frequency division multiplexing (FDM), where the available bandwidth is
divided into a set of sub-streams having separate frequency bands.
 Rather than transmit a high-rate stream of data with a single subcarrier, OFDM uses multiple
subcarriers within the same single channel.
 Each subcarrier is modulated with a conventional digital modulation scheme at low symbol rate.

Key features of OFDM

OFDM scheme differs from traditional FDM in the following ways:

 Multiple carriers (called subcarriers) carry the information stream

 The subcarriers are orthogonal to each other.

 A guard interval is added to each symbol to minimize the channel delay spread and intersymbol
interference.
The following advantages of OFDM led to its selection for LTE
(i) Elegant solution to multipath interference
(ii) Reduced computational complexity
(iii) Graceful degradation of performance under excess delay
(iv) Exploitation of frequency diversity
(v) Enables efficient multi-access scheme
(vi) Robust against narrowband interference
(vii) Suitable for coherent demodulation

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
 (viii) Facilitates use of MIMO
(ix) Efficient support of broadcast services
Elegant solution to multipath interference:

 The main aim in multipath communication is to achieve high Bit-rate transmissions and the main
challenge is to overcome the Inter Symbol Interference (ISI).
 OFDM is a multicarrier modulation technique which can be used to eliminate the ISI effect.
 In OFDM, the subcarriers are orthogonal to one another over the symbol duration. Thereby, instead of
using non-over lapping subcarrier, subcarrier can be overlapped over a channel which eliminates ISI.
Reduced computational complexity:

 OFDM can be easily implemented using Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT) at the sender side and Inverse
Fast Fourier Transforms (IFFT) at the receiving end.
 The computational complexity of OFDM is O(B log B T m), where B is the bandwidth and T m is the delay
spread.
 Reduced complexity is mainly seen in the downlink as it simplifies receiver processing and thus reduces
mobile device cost and power consumption.
Graceful degradation of performance under excess delay:

 The performance of an OFDM system degrades gracefully as the delay spread exceeds the designed
value.
 OFDM is well suited for adaptive modulation and coding, which allows the system to make the best use
of the available channel conditions.
Exploitation of frequency diversity:

 OFDM provides the range of frequencies to subcarriers in the frequency domain, which can provide
robustness against errors.
 OFDM also allows scaling of channel bandwidth without affecting the hardware design of the base
station and the mobile station.
 This allows LTE to be deployed in a variety of spectrum allocations and different channel bandwidths.
Enables efficient multi-access scheme:

 OFDM can be used as a multi-access scheme by dividing different subcarriers among multiple users.
This scheme is referred as OFDMA and is used in LTE standard.
 OFDMA offers the ability to provide fine granularity in channel allocation, which can achieve significant
capacity improvement.
Robust against narrowband interference:

 OFDM is relatively strong against narrowband interference, since such interference affects only a
fraction of the subcarriers.
Suitable for coherent demodulation:

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  It is relatively easy to do pilot-based channel estimation in OFDM systems, which makes them suitable
for coherent demodulation schemes, that are more power efficient.
Facilitates use of MIMO:

 MIMO stands for multiple input multiple output and refers to a collection of techniques that uses
multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver to improve system performance.
 For MIMO techniques to be effective, the channel conditions should be such that the multipath delays
should not cause ISI interference.
 OFDM converts a frequency selective broad band channel into several narrowband flat fading
channels, where the MIMO models work well.
Efficient support of broadcast services:

 It is possible to operate an OFDM network as a Single Frequency Network (SFN).

 This allows broadcast signals from different cells to combine over the air to significantly enhance the
received signal power, thereby enabling higher data rate broadcast transmissions.
Disadvantages of OFDM:

 Peak-to-Average Ratio (PAR): OFDM has high PAR, which causes non-linearity and clipping distortion
when passed through an RF amplifier.
 High PAR increases the cost of the transmitter.
 To overcome this issue, LTE incorporated a power efficient transmission scheme called Single-Carrier
Frequency Domain Equalization (SC-FDE).

2. SC-FDE and SC-FDMA

Single-Carrier Frequency Domain Equalization (SC-FDE)

 It is a single-carrier (SC) modulation combined with frequency-domain equalization (FDE).

 It uses QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) compared to FFT/IFFT used in OFDM to send data.
 SC-FDE retains all the merits of OFDM such as multipath resistance and low complexity, while having a
low peak-to-average ratio of 4-5dB.
 It keeps the mobile station cost down and the battery life up.
 LTE incorporated this modulation for the uplink.
Single-Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA)

 SC-FDMA is the multi-user version of SC-FDE.

 This allows multiple users to use parts of the frequency spectrum.
 The drawback of SC-FDE is that it increases the complexity of the transmitter and the receiver.

3. Channel Dependent Multi-user Resource Scheduling

 OFDMA allows for allocation in both time and frequency and it is possible to design algorithms to
allocate resources in flexible and dynamic manger to meet arbitrary throughput, delay, and other
requirements.
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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  The standard supports dynamic, channel-dependent scheduling to enhance overall system capacity.
 In OFDM, it is possible to allocate subcarriers among users in such a way that the overall capacity is
increased.
 Allocation of subcarriers among users is called as frequency selective multiuser scheduling, which
focuses on transmitting power in each user’s best channel portion.
 Frequency diverse scheduling is best suited for control signaling and delay sensitive services.

4. Multi-antenna Techniques
 The LTE standard provides multi-antenna solutions to improve link robustness, system capacity, and
spectral efficiency.
Multi-antenna techniques supported in LTE include:
 Transmit diversity
 Beam forming
 Spatial multiplexing
 Multi user MIMO
Transmit diversity: The transmitter will send copies of the same data stream by each antenna. This will
introduce redundancy on the system. This redundancy makes possible to reduce fading and also have a better
signal-noise ratio at the receiver. Since all the antennas are transmitting the same information there is no
increase in data speed.
Beam forming: Beamforming is a technique that focuses a wireless signal towards a specific receiving device,
rather than having the signal spread in all directions from a broadcast antenna, as it normally would.
Beamforming provides higher signal quality at the receiver, which in practice means faster information
transfer and fewer errors without boosting the broadcast power.
Spatial multiplexing: In spatial multiplexing, multiple antennas are used on the receive end and transmit end
and multipath components in spatial communication are used, allowing signals to be transmitted in the same
frequency band. This technology makes the channel capacity linearly increase with the growing number of
antennas. In spatial multiplexing, serial-to-parallel conversion is performed on the transmitted signal to
produce several parallel signal flows, which are then transmitted using their respective antennas in the same
frequency band.
Multi user MIMO: MU-MIMO (multi-user, multiple input, multiple output) is a wireless technology that allows
a single access point to simultaneously communicate with multiple devices to improve overall efficiency. It is
an enhanced form of MIMO technology that is gaining acceptance. The main difference between SU-MIMO
(Single User MIMO) and MU-MIMO is that SU-MIMO allows only a pair of wireless devices to simultaneously
send or receive multiple data streams, while MU-MIMO allows multiple wireless devices to simultaneously
receive the multiple data streams.
5. IP-Based Flat Network Architecture
 The main feature of LTE is the flat radio and core network. Flat implies fewer nodes and less
hierarchical structure for the network which reduces the infrastructure cost.

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  Less nodes also allow better optimization of radio interface, merging of some control plane protocols,
and short session start-up time.
 It also means fewer interfaces and protocol-related processing and reduced inter-operability testing,
which lowers the development cost.
 A key aspect of the LTE flat architecture is that all services including voice are supported on the IP
packet network using IP protocols.
 The 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) network architecture has evolved over few releases
toward the flat LTE SAE (System Architecture Evolution) architecture.

3GPP evolution toward a flat LTE SAE architecture

 3GPP Release 6 architecture has four network elements in the data path: Base Station (BS), Radio
Network Controller (RNC), Serving GPRS Service Node (SGSN), and Gateway GRPS Service Node
(GGSN).
 Release 7 introduced a direct tunnel option from the RNC to GGSN, which eliminated SGSN from the
data path.
 LTE (Release 8) on the other hand, will have only two network elements in the data path: the enhanced
Node-B (eNode-B) and a System Architecture Evolution Gateway (SAE-GW). LTE merges the BS and
RNC functionality into a single unit.
 The control path includes a functional entity called the Mobility Management Entity (MME), which
provides control plane functions related to subscriber, mobility, and session management.

LTE Network Architecture

 The Long Term Evolution Standard (LTE) is a wireless communication, high-speed data standard for
mobile phones and data terminals.
 The core network design by 3GPP Release 8 to support LTE is called the Evolved Packet Core (EPC).
Releases 9, 10 and 11 brings new features and enhancements to the network.
 EPC is designed to provide a high capacity, reduced latency and supports all IPs.
 Flat architecture reduces cost and supports advanced real-time operations.

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  Function of LTE architecture includes access control, packet routing and transfer, mobility
management, security, radio resource management and network management.
 LTE uses either Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) or Time Division Duplex (TDD). While FDD makes use
of separate bands to transmit uplink and downlink data, TDD uses time slots on the same frequency for
both uplink and downlink.
The EPC/LTE architecture includes four new elements:
 Serving Gateway (SGW)
 Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW)
 Mobility Management Entity (MME)
 Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF)

LTE Network Architecture (Evolved Packet Core)

Serving Gateway (SGW):

 The main function of the Serving Gateway is routing and forwarding of user data packets.
 The S-GW acts as a router, and forwards data between the base station and the PDN gateway.
 The S-GW also performs replication of the user traffic in case of lawful interception.
Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW/PDN Gateway):

 The PDN Gateway is the connecting node between UEs (User Equipment) and external networks.
 It is the entry point of data traffic for UEs. In order to access multiple PDNs, UEs can connect to several
PGWs at the same time.
 The functions of the PGW include: Policy enforcement, Packet filtering, Charging support, Lawful
interception and Packet screening.
Mobility Management Entity (MME):

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  The Mobility Management Entity (MME) handles all of the signaling exchanges between the UEs and
the EPC, as well as those between the eNode-B and the EPC.
 Its main functions are:
 Authentication – Enables UEs to authenticate to the network by exchanging authentication information
between the UE and the HSS.
 Mobility management – Allows the subscriber’s mobility within the network or across networks.
 Location update – Keeps track of the subscriber’s location within the network, and of its current state.
 Bearer establishment – Establishes bearers by deciding on a gateway router to the Internet if there are
more gateways available.
 Handover support – Enables handover between eNode-B.
Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF):

 The Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF), is a combination of the Charging Rules Function
(CRF) and the Policy Decision Function (PDF), and ensures the service policy and sends Quality of
Service (QoS) information for each session begun and accounting rule information.
 These policies are enforced in the eNodeB.

Wireless Fundamentals/Cellular concept

 In a cellular network, total area is subdivided into smaller areas called “cells”. Each cell can cover a
limited number of mobile subscribers within its boundaries. Each cell can have a base station with a
number of RF channels.
 Early wireless systems had a high-power transmitter, covering the entire service area. This required a
very huge amount of power and was not suitable for many practical reasons.
 Cellular concept based network uses lower power, shorter range and more transmitters for data
transmission.
 Frequencies used in a given cell area will be simultaneously reused at a different cell which is
geographically separated.
 A hexagon cell shape is highly recommended for its easy coverage and calculations.
 For example, in a seven-cell pattern, the total available frequency resources are divided into seven
parts, each part consisting of a number of radio channels and allocated to a cell site.
 In a group of 7 cells, available frequency spectrum is consumed totally. The same seven sets of
frequency can be used after certain distance. This is called Frequency reuse or frequency planning.
 The group of cells where the available frequency spectrum is totally consumed is called a cluster of
cells.
 Two cells having the same number in the adjacent cluster, use the same set of RF channels and hence
are termed as “Co-channel cells”.
 The distance between the cells using the same frequency should be sufficient to keep the co-channel
interference to an acceptable level. Hence, the cellular systems are limited by Co-channel interference.
 In the diagram, the cells with the same alphabet uses same set of frequencies and are called co-
channel cells or co-cells.
 The overall system capacity can be increased by making the cells smaller and turning down the power.
As the cell size decreases, the transmit power of each base station also decreases correspondingly.
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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  For example, if the radius of a cell is reduced by half when the propagation path loss exponent is 4, the
transmit power level of a base station is reduced by 12 dB (=10log16 dB).
 Since cellular systems support user mobility, call transfer from one cell to another should be provided.

Cellular system with f =1/7.

 When the mobile travels along a path it crosses different cells. Each time it enters into a different cell
associated with different frequency, control of the mobile is taken over by the other base station. This
is known as ‘Hand off’.
Advantages of the cellular system

 High capacity
 Less transmission power
 Reduced set up times
 It reduces the interference which increases the total system capacity
 It improved S/N ratio
 More robust against the failure of single components
 Local interference only
 Robustness.
Disadvantages of the cellular system

 Handover is needed
 Good infrastructure needed
 Frequency planning should be good
 Increases the number of an antenna in the system
Analysis of Cellular System

 The performance of wireless cellular systems is significantly limited by Co-channel interference (CCI)
and other cell interference (OCI) which comes from other users in the same cell or from other cells.
 The cellular systems performance (capacity, reliability) is measured by SIR (signal-to-interference ratio)
of the desired cell, i.e., the amount of desired power to the amount of transmitted power.
 The spatial isolation between co-channel cells can be measured by defining the parameter Z, called co-
channel reuse ratio is given by
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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
 Where, D = distance between the co-cells
R = radius of the desired cell
 The overall spectral efficiency decreases with the size of a cluster, so f should be chosen just small
enough to keep the received signal-to-interference-noise ratio (SINR) above acceptable levels.
 SNR of a cellular system is given by

Where S = Received power of desired signal and Ii= Interference power from the ith co-cell base station
 The received SIR depends on the location of each mobile station, and it should be kept above an
appropriate threshold for reliable communication.
 The received SIR at the cell boundaries is of great interest since this corresponds to the worst
interference scenario.

Sectoring
 One way to increase to subscriber capacity of a cellular network is replace the Omni-directional
antenna at each base station by three (or six) sector antennas of 120 (or 60) degrees opening.
 In cell sectoring a single Omni-directional antenna at base station is replaced by several directional
antennas, each radiating within a specified sector.
 When sectoring is employed, the channels used in a particular cell are broken down into sectored
groups.
 By using directional antennas, power is transmitted in single direction, which decreases the number of
interfering co-channel cells and co-channel interference.
 The factor by which the co-channel interference is reduced depends on the amount of sectoring used.
A cell is normally partitioned into three sectors.
 For cluster size 7, sectoring reduces co-channel cells from 6 to 2 for 120 0 sectoring and to 1 for 60 0
sectoring.

120° Sectoring and 60° Sectoring

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
 Illustration of how sectoring reduces co-channel interference

 For 1200 sectoring, only two of the six co- channel cells receive interference with a particular sectored
channel group. Considering the mobile located in sector in the center cell labelled ‘5’ in the figure,
there are three co-channel sectors labelled ‘5’ to the right of the center cell and three to the left of the
center cell. Out of these six co-channel cells, only two have sectors with antenna pattern which radiate
into center cell hence mobile in center cell experiences interference from only two sectors.
Advantages of sectoring

 It is an effective and practical approach to overcome the Interference problem.

 Improvement in S/I ratio.
 It is an antenna technique to increase the system capacity.
Drawbacks of sectoring

 Sectoring increases the number of antennas at each base station, hence it increases the cost and the
number of handoffs increases.
 It increases the overhead due to the increased number of inter sector handoffs.
 It causes inter sector interference as well as power loss.
 Decrease in trunking efficiency due to channel sectoring at the base station.

New Approaches to Other Cell Interference

 Use advanced signal processing techniques at the receiver and/or transmitter as a means of reducing
or cancelling the interference.
 Use network-level approaches such as cooperative scheduling or encoding across Base station.
 Adopt multi-cell power control and distributed antenna technique.
 These network level approaches require relatively little channel knowledge and effectively reduce
other cell interference through macro diversity and efficient sharing of spectrum.

Fading in Broadband Wireless Channel (BWC)

 In Wireless Communication, fading refers to the attenuation of the transmitted signal power due to
various variables during wireless propagation.
 These variables can be atmospheric conditions such as rainfall and lightning, geographical position,
time, radio frequency etc.

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  The channel between transmitter and receiver can also be time varying or fixed depending upon
whether the transmitter/receiver are fixed or moving with respect to each other which can cause
fading to occur.
 Transmitted signals encounter multiple reflectors in the environment during its propagation before
reaching the receiver.
 This creates multiple paths and as a result, the receiver sees multiple copies of the transmitted signal,
each traversing in a different path.
 Each signal copy experiences different attenuation, delays and phase shifts while propagating. This can
result in either constructive or destructive interference, amplifying or attenuating the signal power
seen at the receiver.
 Fading can cause decline in performance in a wireless communication system because it results in the
loss of signal power thus reducing the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR).
 It can even cause temporary failure of communication due to a severe drop in SNR.

Path Loss in Broadband Wireless Channel

 Path loss is defined as the ratio of the transmit power to the receive power. It refers to the attenuation
when a signal is transmitted over large distances.
 Wireless signals spread as they propagate through the medium and as the distance increases, the
energy per unit area starts decreasing.
 Assuming an isotropic antenna is used as shown in figure, the propagated signal energy expands over a
spherical wave front, so that the energy received at the antenna with a distance of d away is inversely
proportional to the sphere surface area 4πd2.

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
 Free space propagation

 The free space path formula or Friis formula is given as

Where Pr = received power, Pt = transmitted power, G is the gain and 𝜆 is the wavelength. And also we know
that λ = C/fc where C is the speed of light.

 From the equation it implies that transmitted signal attenuates over distance as the signal is being
spread over larger and larger area from transmit end towards receive end.
Shadowing in Broadband Wireless Channel

 In Path loss, distance was the major factor affecting the total received power. However, many factors
apart from distance can have a large effect on the total received power.
 For example, obstacles such as trees and buildings may be located between the transmitter and
receiver and cause temporary degradation in the received signal strength.
 Shadowing is the effect that the received signal power fluctuates due to objects obstructing the
propagation path between transmitter and receiver.
 With shadowing the empirical path loss formula given as

Where 𝜒 = sample of the shadowing random process. Hence the received power is now modeled as a random
process.

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
 Shadowing can cause large deviations from path loss predictions
Wireless Channel Parameters / Broadband Fading Parameters
The key broadband fading parameters to evaluate the wireless channels are:
1. Delay Spread and Coherence Bandwidth
2. Doppler Spread and Coherence Time
3. Angular Spread and Coherence Distance

1. Delay Spread and Coherence Bandwidth

 The delay spread is mostly used in the characterization of wireless channels. It is a measure of the
multipath richness of a communications channel.
 The delay spread is the amount of time that elapses between the first arriving path and the last arriving
path.
 Delay spread can be quantified through different metrics, although the most common one is the root
mean square delay spread (𝜏rms).
 Coherence bandwidth (BC) is a statistical measure of the range of frequencies over which the channel
can be considered flat (i.e., it passes all spectral components with approximately equal gain and linear
phase).
 All frequency components of the transmitted signal within the coherence bandwidth will fade
simultaneously.
 The coherence bandwidth gives a rough measure for the maximum separation between a frequency f 1
and a frequency f2 where the channel frequency response is correlated. That is:
|f1 − f2| ≤ BC

 The coherence bandwidth is inversely proportional to the delay spread.

 A general rule of thumb is that 𝜏𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 5 𝜏𝑟𝑚𝑠.

2. Doppler Spread and Coherence Time

 Doppler spread is a measure of the spectral broadening caused by the rate of change of the mobile
radio channel. It is defined as the range of frequencies over which the received Doppler spectrum is
non-zero.
 The Doppler power spectrum is caused by motion between the transmitter and receiver.
 Doppler spread (fd or fD) is given by

Where v = maximum speed between the transmitter and receiver, f c = the carrier frequency and c = the
speed of light.

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  Coherence time Tc is used to characterize the time varying nature of the frequency of the channel in
the time domain. It is a statistical measure of the time duration over which the channel impulse
response is invariant.
 The coherence time and Doppler spread are also inversely related

3. Angular Spread and Coherence Distance

 Angular Spread and Coherence Distance give the measure of how far the antennas have to the
placed and the antenna angle for signal transmission.
 Angular Spread (θrms) is the measure of the angle of the arriving energy. A large 𝜃𝑟𝑚𝑠 implies that
channel energy is coming in from many directions and a small 𝜃𝑟𝑚𝑠 implies that the channel energy
is coming in from only one direction.
 A large angular spread generally occurs when there is a lot of local scattering.
 The coherence distance (DC) is the measure of distance between the antenna’s in the region.
 An approximate rule of thumb between angular spread and coherence distance is

 As the angular spread increases, the coherence distance decreases, and vice versa.

Modeling Broadband Fading Channels

 In order to design and benchmark wireless communication systems, it is important to develop
channel models that incorporate their variations in time, frequency, and space.
 The two major classes of models are:
1. Statistical models
2. Empirical models
Statistical models

 Statistical models are simpler and are useful for analysis and simulations using mathematical approach.
 These models are used to characterize the amplitude and power of a received signal r(t) when all the
reflections arrive at about the same time.
 This is only true when the symbol time is much greater than the delay spread, i.e., T >>𝜏𝑚𝑎𝑥 so these
models are often said to be valid for "narrowband fading channels.
 Some of the popular statistical models are:
1. Rayleigh Fading
2. Ricean Distribution
3. Nakagami-m fading
1. Rayleigh Fading Model

 The Rayleigh fading model is ideally suited to situations where there are large numbers of signal paths
and reflections.

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  Rayleigh fading models assume that the magnitude of a signal that has passed through such a
transmission medium will vary randomly, or fade, according to a Rayleigh distribution — the radial
component of the sum of two uncorrelated Gaussian random variables.
 When the signals reach the receiver, the overall signal is a combination of all the signals that have
reached the receiver via the multitude of different paths that are available.
 Some of the received signal will be in phase and others may be out of phase, depending upon the
various path lengths, and therefore some will tend to add to the overall signal, whereas others will
subtract.
 As there is often movement of the transmitter or the receiver this can cause the path lengths to change
and accordingly the signal level will vary. Rayleigh fading equation is given as

Where Pr is the average received power due to shadowing and path loss.
2. Ricean Distribution (Line of Sight Channels) Model

 An important assumption in the Rayleigh fading model is that all the arriving reflections have a mean of
zero.
 This will not be the case if there is a dominant path, like the “line-of-sight (LOS)” path, between the
transmitter and receiver.
 For a LOS signal, the received envelope distribution is more accurately modelled by a Ricean
distribution model.
 Ricean distribution model is given by

Where 𝜎 = standard deviation, μ = mean which determines power of LOS and x = value set.
3. Nakagami-M Fading (The General Model)

 Nakagami-m fading model is a generalized way to model small scale fading.

 The Nakagami model is an empirical model covering wide range of multipath fading patterns through
the introduction of the parameter m.
 It describes the amplitude of received signal after maximum ratio diversity combining.
 Nakagami-m fading is given by

Empirical models

 Statistical channel models do not take into consideration of specific wireless propagation
environments.
 Modeling of a channel requires the complete knowledge of the surrounding (ex. Buildings, plants, etc.)
time and computational demand. Hence empirical and semi empirical models were developed.

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  Empirical and semi-empirical wireless channel models are the specific models, which have been
developed to accurately estimate the path loss, shadowing, and small-scale fast fading.
 Empirical model is created by observation and experiment rather than mathematical aspects.
 These are more complicated but usually represent a specific type of channel more accurately.
 These models consider the realistic factors such as Angle of Arrival (AoA), Angle of Departure (AoD),
Antenna Array Fashion (AAF), Angle Spread (AS), and Antenna Array Gain(AAG) pattern and other real
time factors.
 Different empirical channel models exist for different wireless scenarios, such as sub- urban macro,
urban macro, urban micro cells, and so on.
 The major Empirical LTE channel models are:
1. LTE Channel Models for Path Loss
2. LTE Channel Models for Multipath
3. LTE Semi-Empirical Channel Models
1. LTE Channel Models for Path Loss

 These models are widely used in modeling the outdoor macro and micro cell wireless environments.
 These are also referred to as "3GPP" channel models.
 It provides a measure of Base Station (BS) to Base Station(BS) distance.
 For macro-cell environment, the path loss is given by COST HATA MODEL, which is given as

Where h𝑏= Base station antenna height, fc= Carrier frequency in MHz, d = Distance between the BS and
MS in kilometer, C0 = COST HATA model constant and a(h m) = relatively negligible correction function
for the mobile height.
 HATA Model for open areas is given as

2. LTE Channel Models for Multipath

 The received signal at the mobile receiver consists of N time-delayed versions of the transmitted signal.
 The number of paths N ranges from 1 to 20 and is dependent on the specific channel models. For
example, the 3GPP channel model has N = 6 multipath components.
 The power distribution normally follows the exponential profile, but other power profiles are also
supported.
 Each multipath component further corresponds to a cluster of M subpaths, where each subpath
characterizes the incoming signal from a scatter.
 For 3GPP, the phases are random variables uniformly distributed from 0 to 360 degrees.
 The Angle of Departure (AoD) is usually within a narrow range in outdoor applications, and is often
assumed to be uniformly distributed in indoor applications.
 The Angle of Arrival (AoA) is typically assumed to be uniformly distributed due to the abundance of
local scattering around the mobile receiver.
 The final channel is created by summing up the M subpath components.
3. LTE Semi-Empirical Channel Models
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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  Constructing a fully empirical channel model is time-consuming and computationally expensive due to
the huge number of parameters involved.
 Therefore, semi-empirical channel models are used which includes practical parameters in a real
wireless system and maintaining the simplicity of statistical channel models.
 Well-known examples of the simpler multipath channel models include the 3GPP2 Pedestrian A,
Pedestrian B, Vehicular A, and Vehicular B models, suited for low-mobility pedestrian mobile users and
higher mobility vehicular mobile users.
 The power delay profile of the channel is determined by the number of multipath taps and the power
and delay of each multipath component.
 The Pedestrian A is a flat fading model corresponding to a single Rayleigh fading component with a
speed of 3 km/hr.
 Pedestrian B model corresponds to a power delay profile with four paths of delays [0, 0.11, 0.19, 0.41]
μs and the power profile given as [1, 0.1071, 0.0120, 0.0052] at 3 km/hr.
 Vehicular A model, the mobile speed is specified at 30 km/hr. Four multipath components exist, each
with delay profile [0, 0.11, 0.19, 0.41] μs and power profile [1, 0.1071, 0.0120, 0.0052].
 For the vehicular B model, the mobile speed is 30km/h, with six multipath components, delay profile
[0, 0.2, 0.8, 1.2, 2.3, 3.7] μs and power profile [1, 0.813, 0.324 0.158, 0.166, 0.004]. These models are
often referred to as Ped A/B and Veh A/B.
 LTE standard additionally defined extended delay profile with increased multipath resolution known as
Extended Pedestrian A, Extended Vehicular A, and Extended Typical Urban.

Mitigation of Narrow Band Fading

There are many different techniques used to overcome narrowband fading in modern communication
systems: Major techniques are:
1. Spatial Diversity
2. Coding and Interleaving
3. Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ)
4. Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC)
5. Combining Narrowband Diversity Techniques

1. Spatial Diversity
 Spatial diversity, is any one of several wireless diversity schemes that uses two or more antennas to
improve the quality and reliability of a wireless link.
 Especially in urban and indoor environments, there is no clear line-of-sight (LOS) between transmitter
and receiver. Instead the signal is reflected along multiple paths before finally being received.
 Each of these bounces can introduce phase shifts, time delays, attenuations, and distortions that can
destructively interfere with one another at the aperture of the receiving antenna.
 Antenna diversity is especially effective at mitigating these multipath situations. This is because
multiple antennas offer a receiver several observations of the same signal.
 Each antenna will experience a different interference environment. Thus, if one antenna is
experiencing a deep fade, it is likely that another has a sufficient signal. Collectively such a system can
provide a better result.
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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  Spatial diversity employs multiple antennas, usually with the same characteristics, that are physically
separated from one another. Depending upon the expected incidence of the incoming signal,
sometimes a space on the order of a wavelength is sufficient. Other times much larger distances are
needed.

2. Coding and Interleaving

 Error correcting code, (ECC) is used for controlling errors in data over unreliable or noisy
communication channels.
 The central idea is the sender encodes the message with redundant information in the form of an ECC.
The redundancy allows the receiver to detect a limited number of errors that may occur anywhere in
the message, and often to correct these errors without retransmission.
 Interleaving is a tool that is used to enhance existing error correcting codes so that they can be used to
perform burst error corrections as well.
 During interleaving, the message symbols are arranged over multiple code blocks by the interleaver
before sending over network channels.
 Due to this, long burst noise sequences are spread out among multiple blocks. When the decoder
rearranges the blocks, the errors appear as independent random errors or burst errors with short
lengths. The decoder is able to correct the errors using the error correcting algorithm.
 The depth of interleaving required depends upon the length of the noise bursts that the ECC can
recover from.
 The two main coding techniques are Convolution coding & turbo coding.
 Interleaving is typically used in both convolutional coding and turbo coding.
Convolution coding

 Convolutional codes are one of the most widely used channel codes in practical communication
systems. These codes are developed with a separate strong mathematical structure and are primarily
used for real time error correction.
 Convolutional codes convert the entire data stream into one single code word. The encoded bits
depend not only on the current k input bits but also on past input bits.
 The main decoding strategy for convolutional codes is based on the widely used Viterbi algorithm. A
convolutional encoder defined by LTE for use in the Broadcast Channel is shown in the figure.

Convolutional encoder
 The figure shows a rate 1/3 code as it has one input bit (𝐶𝑘) and 3 outputs (𝑑𝑘).
 The constraint length of this code is 7 and there are 6 delay elements or 64 possible states.

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  The generator polynomial G which consist of the generators Gi for each 3 outputs.
 For example, G0 = 133 in binary form is 1011011, where a 0 means the output does not include this tap
and a 1 means it does.
Turbo coding

 A Turbo code is a new technique, which is introduced for the burst error and which is also designed for
the forward error correction.
 Turbo codes are designed in such a way that an interleaver is used between the two encoders which
are connected in parallel.
 The presence of an interleaver will be used to generate very large code word length with good
performance, at low SNRs.
 The turbo encoders are formed with the help of a two RSC ( recursive systematic convolutional) encoders
in which they are separated by an interleaver, of length N.
 The RSC encoders used are systematic as the input bit will also occur at the output which will generates
N-information bits as the inputs are followed by the parity bits.
 This encoder is a parallel concatenated convolutional code that comprises an 8-state rate systematic
encoder and an 8-state rate 1 systematic encoder that operates on an interleaved input sequence, for
a net coding rate of 1/3.

Turbo encoder
 By systematic, we mean that one output is generated by a linear modulo-2 sum of the current encoder
state that is a function of both the input bits and the previous states, while the other outputs are
simply passed through to the output.
 At the decoder, a random or fixed coded bit is inserted in the decoding process.

3. Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ)

 Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) is an error-control mechanism for data transmission which uses
acknowledgements (or negative acknowledgements) and timeouts to achieve reliable data
transmission over an unreliable communication link.

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  In an ARQ scheme, the receiver uses an error detection code, typically a Cyclic Redundancy Check
(CRC), to detect whether the received packet is in error.
 If no error is detected in the received data, the transmitter is notified by sending a positive
acknowledgement. If an error is detected, the receiver discards the packet and sends a negative
acknowledgement to the transmitter, and requests a re-transmission.
 An Acknowledgement (ACK) or Negative Acknowledgement (NACK) is a short message sent by the
receiver to the transmitter to indicate whether it has correctly or incorrectly received a data packet,
respectively.
 Hybrid automatic repeat request (hybrid ARQ or HARQ) is a combination of high-rate forward error
correction (FEC) and automatic repeat request (ARQ) error-control. Hybrid ARQ performs better than
ordinary ARQ in poor signal conditions.
 In Hybrid ARQ, the original data is encoded with an FEC code, and the parity bits are either
immediately sent along with the message or only transmitted upon request when a receiver detects an
erroneous message.

4. Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC)

 LTE systems employ Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) in order to reduce fluctuations in the
channel over time and frequency.
 The basic idea of AMC:
 Transmit at a high data rate when the channel is good.
 Transmit at a lower rate when the channel is poor in order to avoid excessive dropped packets.
 Lower data rates are achieved by using a small constellation such as QPSK and low rate error
correcting codes such as rate 1/3 turbo codes.
 The higher data rates are achieved with large constellations such as 64QAM and less robust error
correcting codes.
 To perform AMC, the transmitter must have some knowledge of the instantaneous channel gain.
 Once it does, it can choose the modulation technique that will achieve the highest possible data rate
while still meeting a BER or PER (Packet Error Rate) requirement.
 A key challenge in AMC is to efficiently control three different quantities at once: transmit power,
transmit rate (constellation), and the coding rate.

Block diagram of an AMC

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  The goal of the transmitter is to transmit data from its queue as rapidly as possible, subject to the data
being demodulated and decoded reliably at the receiver.
 Feedback is critical for adaptive modulation and coding since the transmitter needs to know the
"channel SINR".

5. Combining Narrowband Diversity Techniques

 Combination of various narrowband techniques can maximize gain and robustness in the channel.
 Use of diversity in one domain can decrease the gain in another domain; hence combination with other
technique can increase the gain as well as robustness.

Mitigation of Broadband Fading

 In LTE, Inter Symbol Interference (ISI) is the serious problem. This is due to frequency selective
fading which causes dispersion in time.
 OFDM is the most popular choice for combating ISI in a range of high rate systems.
 The main techniques for ISI mitigation of broadband fading are
1. Spread Spectrum and RAKE Receivers
2. Equalization
3. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)
4. Single-Carrier Frequency Domain Equalization (SC-FDE)
1. Spread Spectrum and RAKE Receivers
 The main advantage of spread spectrum communication technique is to prevent “interference”
whether it is intentional or unintentional.
 The signals modulated with these techniques are hard to interfere and cannot be jammed.
 An intruder with no official access is never allowed to crack them. The spread spectrum signals
transmit at low power density and has a wide spread of signals.
 The spread spectrum signals are highly resistant to interference or jamming.
 The two major types of spread spectrum are: Frequency Hopped Spread Spectrum (FHSS) and Direct
Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS).
 In frequency hopping technique, the users are made to change the frequencies of usage, from one to
another in a specified time interval.
 Whenever a user wants to send data using this DSSS technique, each and every bit of the user data is
multiplied by a secret code, called as chipping code.
 A rake receiver is a radio receiver designed to counter the effects of multipath fading. It does this by
using several "sub-receivers" called fingers, that is, several correlators each assigned to a different
multipath component.
 Each finger independently decodes a single multipath component; at a later stage the contribution of
all fingers are combined in order to make the most use of the different transmission characteristics of
each transmission path.
 This could very well result in higher signal-to-noise ratio in a multipath environment than in a "clean"
environment.

2. Equalization
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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet
  Equalizers are a technique which is used to suppress ISI without the use of additional bandwidth or
antennas.
 Equalizers are implemented at the receiver, and attempt to reverse the distortion introduced by the
channel.
 Equalizers are classified into two classes: linear and decision-directed (nonlinear).
Linear Equalizers:

 In linear equalizer, the received signal is passed through a digital filter which generally uses FIR filer.
 The problem with this approach is that it inverts not only the channel, but also the received noise. This
noise enhancement can severely degrade the receiver performance, especially in a wireless channel
with deep frequency fades.
 Linear receivers are relatively simple to implement, but achieve poor performance in a time-varying
and severe-ISI channel.
Nonlinear Equalizers:

 A nonlinear equalizer uses previous symbol decisions made by the receiver to cancel out their
subsequent interference, and so is often called a Decision Feedback Equalizers (DFE).
 Problem with this approach is that it is common to make mistakes about what the prior symbols were
(especially at low SNR), which causes error propagation and is a time consuming approach due to
feedback.
 Nonlinear equalizers increase the computational complexity.

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Dr. Navaneeth Bhaskar, Associate Professor, Dept. ECE, CIT Ponnampet