Module 5

Diversity Techniques
Fundamentals of Diversity Reception
• What is diversity?
• Diversity is a technique to combine several copies of
the same message received over different channels.

• Why diversity?
• To improve link performance
Diversity

❖ If one radio path undergoes a deep fade another

Independent path may have a strong signal.
❖ SNR Improvement: 20 – 30 dB
Criteria
Two criteria necessary to obtain a high degree of
improvement from a diversity system are :
❖The fading in individual branches should have
low cross-correlation or highly uncorrelated.
❖The mean power available from each branch
should be almost equal.
Degradation Due to Fading
Improvement due to Diversity
Relation between BER and SNR for 1 receiver
antenna
At high SNR
 Relation between BER and SNR for L receiver
antennas

BER =

Probability of deep fade

 Approximate formula for BER

Maximum BER
Diversity order
 Diversity
• Diversity combats fading by providing the receiver with multiple
uncorrelated replicas of the same information bearing signal.
• Diversity is a way to protect against deep fades, a choice to
combat fading.
• The key: create multiple channels or branches that have
uncorrelated fading.
 Fading
❑ Reflectors in the environment surrounding a transmitter and receiver
create multiple paths that a transmitted signal can traverse.
❑ The receiver sees the superposition of multiple copies of the
transmitted signal, each traversing a different path Each signal copy
will experience differences in attenuation, delay and phase shift while
travelling from the source to the receiver.
❑ This can result in either constructive or destructive interference,
amplifying or attenuating the signal power seen at the receiver.
❑ Strong destructive interference is frequently referred to as a deep
fade and may result in temporary failure of communication due to a
severe drop in the channel signal- to-noise ratio.
Diversity
❖ is a powerful communication technique that
provides wireless link improvements at
relatively low cost.
❖ Diversity exploits the random nature of radio
propagation by finding independent signal
path for communication.
❖ These independent paths are highly
uncorrelated.
Macroscopic Diversity
❖ Large scale fading is caused by shadowing due
to the presence of fixed obstacles in radio path.
❖ Long term fading can be mitigated by
macroscopic diversity (apply on separated
antenna sites) like the diversity using two
base stations.
Microscopic Diversity

Short term fading can be mitigated by the diversity using

multiple antennas on the base station or mobile unit.
Polarization Diversity
Methods for obtaining multiple replicas

• Antenna Diversity
• Space Diversity
• Frequency Diversity
• Time Diversity
• Polarization Diversity
• Angle Diversity
Types of Diversity
❖ Space Diversity:
o Using antennas spaced enough (at Tx or Rx).
❖ Polarization Diversity:
o Using antennas with different polarizations.
❖ Frequency Diversity:
o Using frequency channels separated in frequency more
than the channel coherence bandwidth.
❖ Time Diversity:
❖ Using time slots separated in time more than the
channel coherence time.
Space Diversity
❖ Spatial separation between antennas, so that the diversity branches
experience uncorrelated fading
❖ More hardware/ antennas

Receiver Diversity (SIMO)

Antenna separation λ/2

Transmit Diversity (MISO)

Antenna separation 10λ
The total transmitted power is
split among the antennas
Frequency Diversity
❖ Modulate the signal through L different carriers
❖ The separation between the carriers should be at least the
coherent bandwidth,
❖ not effective over frequency-flat channel
❖ Only one antenna is needed
❖ The total transmitted power is split among the carriers, not
BW efficient
Time Diversity
❖ Each symbol is transmitted L times
❖ The interval between symbol repetitions should be at
least the coherence time,
❖ not effective over slow fading channel
❖ Only one antenna is needed
❖ Reduction in efficiency
(effective data rate < real data rate)
Polarization Diversity
❖Polarization diversity uses antennas of different
polarizations i.e. horizontal and vertical.
❖The antennas take advantage of the multipath
propagation characteristics to receive separate
uncorrelated signals
❖SNR is improved by up to 12 dB even in LoS channels.
 Space Diversity (1)
• Two antennas separated
by several wavelengths
will not generally
experience fades at the
same time

• Space Diversity can be

obtained by using two
receiving antennas and
switching instant-by-
instant to whichever is
best

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COMPUTER ENG. DEPT. WIRELESS
 Space Diversity (2)

• Several (receive) antennas (M)

• Uncorrelated branches Distance between

antennas ≈ λ/2, where λ is the wavelength

• In GSM, λ ≈ 30 cm
 Space Diversity (3)
• Single-input, single-output (SISO) channel
No spatial diversity

• Single-input, multiple-output (SIMO) channel

Receive diversity

• Multiple-input, single-output (MISO) channel

Transmit diversity

• Multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) channel

Combined transmit and receive diversity
Space Diversity (4)
Space Diversity (5)
 Angle diversity
❑Waves from different angles of arrival are combined optimally, rather than
with random phase
❑Directional antennas receive only a fraction of all scattered energy.
❑Directional antennas provide angle (or directional) diversity by restricting the
receive antenna beamwidth to a given angle.
❑ In the extreme, if the angle is very small then at most one of the multipath
rays will fall within the receive beamwidth, so there is no multipath fading from
multiple rays.
❑This diversity technique requires either a sufficient number of directional
antennas to span all possible directions of arrival or a single antenna whose
directivity can be steered to the arrival angle of one of the multipath
components (preferably the strongest one).
❑The SNR may decrease owing to the loss of multipath components that fall
outside the receive antenna beamwidth – unless the directional gain of the
antenna is sufficiently large to compensate for this lost power.
Frequency diversity

• Each message is transmitted at different carrier

frequencies simultaneously.
• Frequency separation >> coherence bandwidth
• Carriers are spaced sufficiently apart from each other
to provide independently fading versions of the signal.
• Channel gain varies across the bandwidth of the
transmitted signal.
• Replicas sent in bands separated by at least the
coherence bandwidth uncorrelated channels.
As two or more different frequencies
experience different fading, at least one will
have strong signal.
Frequency diversity consumes extra bandwidth.
 Time diversity
• Each message is transmitted in different time slots
• The interval between successive time slots is greater than or equal to
the coherence time of the channel.
• Repetition code for error-control coding.
• Channel coding with interleaving.
• Time diversity does not require increased transmit power but it does
lower the data rate, since data is repeated in the diversity time slots
rather than sending new data in those time slots.
Spatial diversity
 Selection Methods

•Selection Diversity
•Equal Gain Combining
•Maximum Ratio Combining
 SPACE DIVERSITY
1) Selection diversity
2) Feedback diversity
3) Maximal ratio combining
4) Equal gain diversity
 Selection Combining
• Simple and cheap
• Receiver selects branch with highest instantaneous SNR
• New selection made at a time that is the reciprocal of the fading rate
• This will cause the system to stay with the current signal until it is likely
the signal has faded.

Monitor Select
SNR branch

h1

x y

h2
1) Selection Diversity → simple & cheap
• Rx selects branch with highest instantaneous SNR
• new selection made at a time that is the reciprocal
of the fading rate
• this will cause the system to stay with the current
signal until it is likely the signal has faded
• SNR improvement :
•  is new avg. SNR
• Γ : avg. SNR in each branch
Derivation of Selection Diversity Improvement
• M independent branches
• Variable gain & phase at each branch → G∠ θ
• Each branch has same average SNR:
Eb
SNR =  =
N0
• Instantaneous SNR =  i the pdf of i

  − i −
1
Pr  i    =  p( i )d  i =  e 
d i = 1 − e 

0 0
 39
 • The probability that all M independent diversity branches Rx signal
which are simultaneously less than some specific SNR threshold γ
Pr  1 ,... M    = (1 − e− /  ) M = PM ( )
Pr  i    = 1 − PM ( ) = 1 − (1 − e− /  ) M
• The pdf of 
d M
pM ( ) =
d
PM ( ) =

(1 − e −
)
 M −1
e − 

• Average
 SNR improvement
 offered by selection diversity
 =   pM ( )d  =   Mx (1 − e )
− x M −1
e dx, x =  
−x

0 0

 1 M
=
 k =1 k 40
 Pr  1 ,... M    = (1 − e− /  ) M = PM ( )
Pr  i    = 1 − PM ( ) = 1 − (1 − e − /  M
)

45
2) Scanning Diversity
• scan each antenna until a signal is found that is
above predetermined threshold
• if signal drops below threshold → rescan
• only one Rx is required (since only receiving
one signal at a time), so less costly → still need
multiple antennas
3) Maximal Ratio Diversity
• signal amplitudes are weighted according to each SNR
• summed in-phase
• most complex of all types
• a complicated mechanism, but modern DSP makes
this more practical → especially in the base station Rx
where battery power to perform computations is not
an issue
• gives optimal SNR improvement :
• Γi: avg. SNR of each individual branch
• Γi = Γ if the avg. SNR is the same for each branch
M M
 M =   i = i =M 
i =1 i =1
Maximal ratio combiner
 Derivation of Maximal Ratio Combining Improvement
• The voltage signals ri, from each of the M diversity branches are co-
phased to provide coherent voltage addition
• Individually weighted to provide optimal SNR
• Resulting envelope applied to the detector

• Total noise power applied to detector

52
 • SNR applied to the detector

• Using Chebychev’s inequality, M is maximised when Gi=ri/N

• SNR out of the diversity combiner is the sum of SNRs in each

branch.

53
• Resulting pdf

• The probability that M is less than SNR threshold 

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4) Equal Gain Diversity

 combine multiple signals into one

 G = 1, but the phase is adjusted for each received signal so that

The signal from each branch are co-phased.

vectors add in-phase

 better performance than selection diversity

 Equal Gain Combining
• Simplified method of Maximal Ratio Combining

• Combine multiple signals into one

• The phase is adjusted for each receive signal so that

➢ The signal from each branch are co-phased

➢ Vectors add in-phase

• Better performance than selection diversity

 Comparison

Technique: Circuit Complexity: C/N improvement factor:

Threshold simple, cheap 1 + γT/Γ exp(-γT/Γ) for L = 2
single receiver optimum for γT/Γ: 1 + e 1.38
Selection L receivers 1 + 1/2 + .. + 1/L

EGC L receivers 1 + (L - 1) π/4

co-phasing

MRC L receivers L
co-phasing
channel estimator