EC8562 – Wireless Communication

UNIT – IV
DIVERSITY
 Diversity
• A technique used to compensate for fading channel
impairments
• powerful communication receiver technique that provides
wireless link improvement at relatively low cost
– similarity between equalization and diversity
• quality of mobile communications link improved
without increasing transmitted power or bandwidth
– difference between equalization and diversity:
• equalization : used to counter effects of time
dispersion (ISI)
• diversity: used to reduce depth and duration of fades
experienced by receiver in flat fading channel
 Diversity
• A technique used to compensate for fading channel impairments
• powerful communication receiver technique that provides
wireless link improvement at relatively low cost
– similarity between equalization and diversity
• quality of mobile communications link improved
without increasing transmitted power or bandwidth
– difference between equalization and diversity:
• equalization : used to counter effects of time dispersion
(ISI)
• diversity: used to reduce depth and duration of fades
experienced by receiver in flat fading channel
• Diversity exploits the random nature of radio propagation by finding independent (or at
least highly uncorrelated) signal paths for communication. In virtually all applications,
diversity decisions are made by the receiver, and are unknown to the transmitter.
 Diversity
• diversity techniques:
– can be used at both BS and mobile receivers
• various ways to implement:
– use of multiple antennas
– time diversity
– frequency diversity
– antenna polarization
– CDMA systems: use
RAKE receiver:
• provides link
improvement
through time
diversity
 Diversity
• powerful communication receiver technique that
provides wireless link improvement at relatively low
cost
• difference between equalization and diversity:
• diversity requires no training overhead:
training sequence not required by transmitter
• wide range of diversity implementations:
• practical and provide significant link
improvement with little added cost
• how does diversity work:
– exploits random nature of radio propagation by
finding independent or highly uncorrelated signal
paths for communication
 Diversity
• how does diversity work:
– if one radio path undergoes deep fade, another
independent path may have strong signal
– more than one path to select from: both
instantaneous and average SNRs at receiver may be
improved
– improvement by as much as 20 dB to 30 dB
• diversity:
• decided by type of fading
• microscopic diversity: diversity techniques in
small- scale fading
• deep and rapid amplitude fluctuations mobile
moves over distances of just few wavelengths
– results in Rayleigh fading distribution of
signal strength over small distances
 Diversity
• to prevent deep fades: microscopic diversity
techniques:

• example: if two antennas separated by fraction of

one meter:
one may receive null while other receives strong signal
• antenna/space diversity : select best antenna signal at
all
times
 Diversity
• macroscopic diversity: diversity in large-scale fading:
– cause of large-scale fading: caused by shadowing
due to variations in both terrain profile and
nature of surroundings
– large-scale fading: log-normally distributed with
standard deviation of about 10 dB in urban
environments
– provide diversity:
• select base station: not shadowed when others
are shadowed
• the mobile can improve substantially average SNR
on forward link
 Diversity
• macroscopic diversity:
• diversity in large-scale fading:
– useful at base station receiver
– use base station antennas which are sufficiently
separated in space
• BS able to improve reverse link by selecting antenna
with strongest signal from mobile
 Diversity
• diversity combining techniques:
• antenna/space diversity reception methods :
– concept of antenna space diversity used in base
station design
– at each cell site: multiple base station receiving
antennas used
– important scatterers are on ground in vicinity of
mobile
– base station antennas must be spaced considerably
far apart to achieve decorrelation
– separations on order of several tens of wavelengths
are required at base station
 Diversity
• diversity combining techniques: generalized block
diagram:

1. Selection diversity
2. Feedback diversity
3. Maximal ratio combining
4. Equal gain diversity
 Selection diversity
• m demodulators used to provide m diversity
branches
• gains adjusted to provide same average SNR for
each branch
• receiver branch having highest instantaneous SNR
connected to demodulator
• antenna signals themselves could be sampled
• best one sent to single demodulator
• practical selection diversity system cannot
function on truly instantaneous basis
– designed so that internal time constants of
selection circuitry shorter than reciprocal of signal
fading rate
Feedback or scanning diversity
• similar to selection diversity
• instead of always using best of M signals: M signals
are scanned in fixed sequence
– until one found to be above predetermined
threshold
• signal is then received until it falls below threshold
• then scanning process again
• resulting fading statistics somewhat inferior to
those obtained by other methods
• advantage with this method: very simple to
implement —
only one receiver required
Feedback or scanning diversity
 Maximum ratio combining
• signals from all of M branches weighted
according to their individual signal voltage to noise
power ratios
• then summed
• individual signals must be co-phased before being
summed (unlike selection diversity)
– requires individual receiver and phasing circuit for
each
antenna element
• MRC: produces output SNR equal to sum of individual
SNRs
• advantage: produces output with acceptable SNR even
when none of individual signals are acceptable
• technique gives best statistical reduction of fading of
any known linear diversity combiner
Maximum ratio combining
 Equal gain combining
• certain cases: not convenient to provide variable
weights required for true maximal ratio combining
– branch weights all set to unity
– signals from each branch co-phased to provide
equal gain combining diversity
• allows receiver to exploit signals simultaneously
received
on each branch
• possibility of producing acceptable signal from number
of unacceptable inputs still retained
• performance marginally inferior to maximal ratio
combining
 Selection Diversity
• quantitative advantage that can be achieved using
diversity
• M independent Rayleigh fading channels available
at receive
• each channel: called diversity branch
• assume each branch has same average SNR
• allows receiver to exploit signals simultaneously
received on each branch

• if each branch has instantaneous SNR

• pdf of instantaneous SNR with = mean SNR of
each branch:
 Selection diversity
• probability that single branch has SNR less than
threshold

• probability that all M independent diversity branches

receive signals simultaneously less than some
specific SNR threshold
:
,
probability of all branches failing to achieve
SNR
• if single branch achieves , then
probability for more branches given by

• The above expression is for probability of exceeding a

threshold when selection diversity used
 Selection diversity
• To determine the average signal-to-noise ratio of the received signal when
diversity is used, it is first necessary to find the pdf of the fading signal. For
selection diversity, the average SNR is found by first computing the derivative
of PM(γ). Proceeding along these lines,

• average SNR improvement offered by selection diversity

• Example: assume four branch diversity is used, where each

branch receives an independent Rayleigh fading signal. If
the average SNR is 20 dB, determine the probability that
the SNR will drop below 10 dB. Compare this with the
case of a single receiver without diversity.
Problem
 Derivation of Maximal Ratio
Combining Improvement
Selection diversity is easy to implement because all that is needed is a
monitoring station and an antenna switch at the receiver. However, it is not
an optimal diversity technique because it does not use all of the possible
branches simultaneously. Maximal ratio combining uses each of the M
branches in a co-phased and weighted manner such that the highest
achievable SNR is available at the receiver at all times.