EC4012D RADIATION

AND ANTENNA THEORY

• Fading
• Diversity
 Fading
•  Fading in wireless communication is defined as the fluctuation in
the strength of the signal received at the receiver.

• These are basically unwanted variations introduced at the time

when the signal propagates from an end to another by taking
multiple paths.

• Fading is said to be a common characteristic of sky wave signals

that propagates utilizing wireless communication.
Fading
• It is the fluctuation in signal strength at a receiver and may be
rapid/slow; general/frequency selective
• In each case it is due to interference between two waves, which left
the same source but arrived at the destination by different paths
• Since the signal received at any instant is the vector sum of all the
waves received, alternate cancellations & reinforcements may result
depending on the path difference between various rays of same signal
• Such fluctuation is more likely with smaller wavelengths, i.e., at higher
frequencies
Fading (-contd.)
• The main causes of fading are:

– Variation in ionospheric conditions

– Multi path reception
VARIATION IN IONOSPHERIC CONDITIONS
• As the ionosphere is not stable and electron density
changes, signal path length changes and hence there will
be a change in phase.
• This causes the received field strength to change.
MULTI PATH RECEPTION
• Fading is classified in terms of the duration of the variation in
signal strength. They are:

– Rapid fluctuations These are due to multi-path interference

and they occur for a few seconds.

– Short-term fluctuations These are due to variation in the

characteristics of the propagating medium and they occur for a few
hours.

– Long-term fluctuations These are due to seasonal

variations in the propagation medium and they occur for a few
days.
Effects of Fading:

• Because fading is frequency selective, it is quite possible for adjacent

portions of a signal to fade independently, although their frequency
separation is only a few dozen Hertz
• It can cause great damage to the reception of AM signals, which are
seriously distorted by such frequency selective fading.

• On the other hand, SSB signals suffer less from this fading & may
remain quite intelligible under these conditions, the effect of fading
on radiotelegraphy is to introduce errors, and thus diversity
technique is used here wherever possible
Various types of fading
Selective Fading
• It is also known as frequency selective fading.

• when waves propagate through different paths by being

reflected from various man-made entities then the different
frequencies get affected to different degrees.

• This will lead to cause variation in the amplitude and phase of

the signals to a different extent while propagating in the channel.
Contd…

• Thus when the signals are received at the receiving antenna then
there will be changes in the received signal from the actually
transmitted one.

• as this type of fading is frequency selective, thus at the time of

propagation, even adjacent parts of the signal fade
independently even if their frequency of separation is small.
Interference fading

• Interference fading is also a result of the multipath propagation of

signals transmitted from the antenna.

• It occurs when waves interfere at the channel while propagating

from an end to another.

• Suppose a signal is propagated through sky wave propagation,

then the waves travel by getting reflected from the upper and
lower regions of the ionosphere.
• Sometimes the waves propagate through single or multiple hops
also, in case of low-frequency signals. Thereby leading to cause
interference of signals in the channel.
Absorption fading

• when the signal propagates from an end to another then there are
losses that are introduced by the transmission medium.

• When the signal is propagated through any medium, then the

medium possesses some amount of signal absorption.

• However, the amount of signal being absorbed by the medium is not

constant as this depends on various factors.

• Due to the absorption of the signal by the transmission medium, the

strength of the signal varies and this deteriorates the received signal.
Polarization fading
• Polarization fading is the result of variation in the polarization of the
waves reaching the surface of the earth.

• In sky wave propagation when wave reflects back to the surface of earth
then its polarization changes.

• The change in polarization of the reflected wave is the result of the

superposition of other waves (ordinary and extraordinary) with opposite
polarization that are having different amplitudes and phases.

• This leads to cause change in polarization of the wave continually with the
antenna. Hence the amplitude of the signal received at the receiver also
varies. Thus is known as polarization fading.
Skip fading

• This type of fading is associated with skip distance of radio wave

propagation.

• It generally occurs near the skip distance region. This type of

fading is an outcome of variation in the height and ionization
density of the ionospheric region.

• This is minimised by AVC and AGC in the receiver.

 Diversity
• Diversity is a power communication technique that provides wireless
link improvement at relatively low cost.
• It provides two or more inputs at the receiver such that the fading
• Diversity reception is used to minimize the effects of fading.
DIVERSITY TECHNIQUES

• The different diversity techniques are:

– Frequency diversity
– Space diversity
– Polarity diversity
– Time diversity
Frequency diversity
• In this, the transmitter will send two or more frequencies
simultaneously with the same modulating information.
• As the different frequencies will fade differently, one will always be
strong.
Space diversity technique
• A single transmitter frequency is used.
• At the receiving site, two or more receiving
antennas spaced at one-half wavelength
apart are used.

• The signal will fade at one antenna while it

increases at the other antenna.

• A three antenna system may be used.

• Three separate but identical receivers tuned

by the same master local oscillator are
connected to three antennas.
• Audio mixing on the basis of the strongest signal
keeps the audio output constant while RF signal
fades.
Polarity diversity system
• In this, vertical and horizontal polarisation antennas are used
to receive the signal.
• As in the case of space diversity system, the two receivers
are combined to produce constant output.
Time diversity

• In this, the same signals are transmitted at

different times.

• As fading is time-dependent, some signals may be

strong and fading is less.
Thank You