Channels and Channel Models

EIT 140, tom<AT>eit.lth.se

Channel types: single-user / multi-user

Depending on the topology of the channel, we distinguish single-user channels and multi-user channels: Single-user channel Broadcast channel

. .
Multiple-access channel Interference channel

. .

. .

. .

Channel types: SISO, MIMO, SIMO, MISO

Depending on the number of ports of a user-to-user link, we distinguish Single-input single-output (SISO) channel Single-input multi-output (SIMO) channel Multi-input single-output (MISO) channel Multi-input multi-output (MIMO) channel SISO SIMO MISO MIMO

= port-to-port link
Examples: Multi-antenna systems Multi-pair cables

Channel types: information theoretic view

Sometimes, all the blocks like modulation, demodulation, up-conversion, (physical) channel, down-conversion, etc. are modelled as a single entity called digital channel:

Modulator

D/A Converter

Up-Converter

Channel

Down-Converter

A/D Converter

Demodulator

Digital Channel

digital refers to the quantisation in amplitude (the set of output symbols is nite) digital channel is described by transition probabilities p (yk |xl ), i.e., the conditional probabilities that yk is detected given that xl was transmitted

Channel types: classication according to medium

Depending on the medium, we distinguish guided channels wire (e.g.: copper twisted-pairs in the access network) cable (e.g.: coax cables used in cable networks) bre (e.g.: optical bres in backbone networks) microwave guides (e.g.: feeder pipes for high-power RF transmitters, radar) unguided channels wireless channel underwater acoustic channel

Channel properties

The transmitted waveforms may experience eects like reection absorption attenuation (scaling in amplitude) dispersion (spreading) in time refraction (bending due to variation of the medias refraction index) diraction (scattered re-radiation, caused by an edge or an object whose size is in the order of the wave length)

Channel properties contd

The net eect of every channel can be described by modication of the signal addition of noise sequence notation: r (n ) = h (n )s (n ) + w (n ) linear / non-linear channels time-invariant / time-variant (fading) channels frequency-at / frequency-selective (time-dispersive) channels The additive noise can be Gaussian / non-Gaussian correlated in time/frequency, spatially (in MIMO system), over users (in multi-user systems) matrix notation: r = Hs + w Depending on the channel properties, a channel can be

Wireline channel: physical mechanisms/eects

essentially time-invariant, frequency-selective attenuation, or equivalently, dispersion in time crosstalk: electromagnetic coupling among wire pairs (also called loops) in a cable extrinsic noise/interference (impulse noise, radio frequency interference) background noise (thermal noise, front-end noise)

Wireline channel: physical mechanisms/eects contd

RFI impulses

1 2 . . . K side A

FEXT

NEXT

1 2 . . . K side B

Far-end crosstalk (FEXT) Near-end crosstalk (NEXT) Impulse noise Radio frequency interference (RFI)

Wireline channel: modelling as LTI system

Assuming proper termination, the insertion loss can be modelled as LTI system: Hloop (f , d ) = e where f is the frequency in Hz d is the length of the loop in m k1 , k2 , k3 are constants depending on the diameter of the wire; exemplary values for 0.5mm loop: k1 = 3.8 103 , k2 = 0.541 108 , k3 = 4.883 105
d d 0 d ( k1 f + k2 f ) j d k3 f

(47)

Wireline channel: modelling as LTI system

Assuming proper termination, the NEXT coupling and FEXT coupling can be modelled via LTI systems:

HFEXT (f , d ) = kf

f f0

d |Hloop (f , d )|, kf = 1045/20 , f0 = 1 MHz, d0 = 1 km d0 (48)

3 4

HNEXT (f , d ) = kn

f f0

1 |Hloop (f , d )|4 , kn = 1050/20 , f0 = 1 MHz (49)

where f is the frequency in Hz d is the coupling length of the loops in m

Wireline channel: receive PSDs

50 70
PSD in dBm/Hz Signal NEXT FEXT AWGN 500m 1000m 2000m

90

110 130

150 0

5 10 frequency f in MHz

15

Transmit signal PSD: at 60 dBm/Hz

Wireless channel: physical mechanisms/eects

Fixed terminals
Path loss Background noise

Mobile terminal(s)
Path loss Background noise Doppler eect Time-varying impulse response
dispersion in frequency receive signal amplitude uctuations (fading)

Dispersion in time, or equivalently, frequency selectivity

Obstacle-free transmission: path loss

The receive signal power is given by Pr = Pt Gt Gr Lp . Pt is the transmit power Gt is the transmit antenna gain (ratio of the received power compared to the power an isotropic antenna would receive; for a dish antenna with eective area A, the antenna gain is roughly G 4A/2 ), Gr is the receive antenna gain and Lp is the free-space path loss, given by Lp =
d distance wavelength
2

(50)

4d

(51)

Presence of obstacles: ray tracing

Simple two-ray model

ht d
2 2 ht hr Pr = Pt Gt Gr 4 d

hr

(d 2 ht hr )

(52)

ht height of transmit antenna hr height of receive antenna

Simplied path loss model

Pr = Pt Gt Gr Pr (d0 )/Pt
K

d0 d

(53)

d0 reference distance K ratio of receive and transmit power for d0 path loss exponent , depends on wavelength and environment, typically in the range 2 8 for 1 GHz

Mobile terminal(s)

Most often, only one of the terminals is moving, which we call the mobile terminal (MT). The other one, the xed terminal (FT), does not move Due to reciprocity, it does not matter whether we observe downlink (FT MT) or uplink (MT FT)

Mobile terminal(s): Doppler eect

When the FT transmits a signal with frequency f = c/, the MT receives this signal at frequency f + = f + v /, where v is the relative velocity of the MT with respect to the FT. Note that v is a signed quantity v1 1 FT v2 2 MT2
v2 = v2 cos 2

MT1
v1 = v1 cos 1

is called the Doppler shift (example: 83 Hz for 100 km/h and 900 MHz)

Mobile terminal(s): characterisation of eects

Dispersion in time
transmitted beam is reected and scattered along the way multi-path propagation often, there is neither a direct beam from the FT to the MT nor a stationary reection (both of which are referred to as line of sight (LOS) components) if the beams arrive with dierent delays, time-dispersion of the transmitted signal occurs

Dispersion in frequency
if either the MT or scatterers are moving, each received beam has a dierent relative velocity with respect to the MT frequency-dispersion of the transmitted signal occurs motion is not the exclusive cause of frequency dispersion; more generally, frequency dispersion is caused by a time-varying channel impulse response

Fluctuations in amplitude (fading)

Characterisation of amplitude uctuations (fading)

path loss (dotted green curve) large-scale (macroscopic) fading (dashed blue curve) small-scale (microscopic) fading (solid red curve)

amplitude in dB

time ( distance)

Small-scale fading: Rayleigh distribution, Rice distribution

1 MT v FT 2 many waves arrive from arbitrary directions the amplitudes AI N (mI , 2 ) and AQ N (mQ , 2 ) of inphase and quadrature receive component, respectively, are independent and Gaussian distributed (central limit theorem) no LOS component: mI = mQ = 0 amplitude U = has Rayleigh distribution A2 + A2 I Q

with LOS component: mI = 0 and/or mQ = 0 amplitude U has Rice distribution

Small-scale fading: Rayleigh/Rice distribution contd

Rayleigh distribution: u u22 pU (u ) = 2 e 2 , Rice distribution: u u2 +2s 2 us 2 pU (u ) = 2 e I0 ( 2 ), 0.7 0.6 0.5 pU (u ) 0.4 0.3 A0 = 0 A0 = 1 A0 = 2 u 0; s=
2 2 mI + mQ = A0 .

u 0.

(54)

(55)

0.2 0.1 0 0 1 2 u 3 4 5

Large-scale fading
Models the channel property changes caused by movement of the MT Characterises the mean value of the small-scale fading model The log-normal distribution has been found to yield a good match with measurements The mean value in dB dB is Gaussian distributed pdB (dB ) = 1 e 2dB
(dB mdB )2 2(dB )2

(56)

where dB , the standard deviation of dB , is typically in the range of 6-12 dB. Then the distribution of = 10dB /20 is given by 20 e p ( ) = 2dB ln 10
(20 log10 mdB )2 2(dB )2

(57)

Charaterisation of dispersion in time and frequency

Deterministic analysis channel is modelled as linear time-variant (LTV) system, described by a time-variant impulse response h (, t ) time-variant frequency response H (f , t ) = F {h (, t )} delay Doppler spreading function s (, ) = Ft {h (, t )} output Doppler spreading function B (f , ) = Ft {H (f , t )}

Charaterisation of dispersion in time and frequency

Stochastic analysis auto-correlation function Rhh (1 , 2 , t1 , t2 ) = E {h (1 , t1 )h (2 , t2 )} of the impulse response
wide-sense stationarity (WSS) assumption: Rhh (1 , 2 , t1 , t2 ) depends only on the time dierence t = t2 t1 uncorrelated scattering (US) assumption: scatterers act independently it is sucient to observe Rhh (, t1 , t2 ) WSS + US WSSUS assumption: it is sucient to observe the delay cross-power spectral density Rhh (, t )

time-frequency correlation function RHH (f , t ) = F {Rhh (, t )}

scattering function Rs (, ) = Ft {Rhh (, t )} Doppler cross-power spectral density RB (f , ) = Ft {RHH (f , t )}

Exemplary system functions

Summary of wireless channel characterisation measures

Tmulti Multi-path spread

()1

Bcoh Coherence bandwidth

P ( ) Delay power density spectrum t = 0 Rhh (, t ) Delay cross-power spectral density

1 0 1111111111111 0000000000000

F (f )

RH (f ) Frequency correlation

1 0 1 0 1 0

F (f )

1 0 1 0
Cf ,t (f , t )

RHH (f , t )

1 0 =0 t 1 0 1 0
f = 0

RH (t ) Time correlation

1 0Ct (t ) 1 0
h(, t ) Time-variant impulse response

1 0 1 0

Time-frequency correlation function

Tcoh Coherence time

1 0 1 0 1 0
F (f )

H (f , t )

Time-variant frequency response

Ft ()

1 0 1 0| |2 1 0

Ft ( )

1 0 () F 1 0 1 0t 1 0
B (f , ) Output Doppler spreading function

s (, )

1 0
Rs (, ) Scattering function

Delay Doppler spreading function

1 0 1111111111111 0000000000000 F (f )

Cf (f )

1 0 1 0

1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1t () F 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 11 00
RB (f , ) f = 0

1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1t () F 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 11 00 Doppler power
P ()

()1

F (f )

Doppler cross-power spectral density

density spectrum

11 00

Bdop Doppler bandwidth

Charaterisation of dispersion in time and frequency

Two functions commonly used in practice:

1

delay power density spectrum (power delay prole) P ( ) = Rhh (, t )|t =0 species time-dispersion (or equivalently, frequency-selectivity) characteristic Doppler power density spectrum (Doppler spectrum) P () = RB (f , )|f =0 species frequency dispersion, or equivalently, the correlation of realisations observed over time of a given coecient of the tapped delay line lter

Charaterisation of dispersion in time and frequency

Two scalars commonly used in practice:

1

The multi-path spread Tmulti species the approximate support of the power delay prole P ( ), or equivalently, the approximate length of the channel impulse response. Dual measure: coherence bandwidth Bcoh 1/Tmulti . The coherence time Tcoh species the approximate support of the time correlation function RH (t ), or equivalently, the time during which the impulse response remains constant. Dual measure: Doppler bandwidth Bdop 1/Tcoh .

Assessment of wireless channels

The parameters Tcoh and Tmulti of a wireless channel have to be seen in context with symbol period Tsym of the system. replacements Bdop frequency selective fast fading frequency at fast fading Bcoh Tmulti frequency selective slow fading frequency at slow fading Tcoh

Ergodicity
useful description of a linear channel with additive noise: r = Hs + n s CS : channel input. r CR : channel output. H CR S : channel matrix. n CR : additive noise. Ergodic channel rn = Hn sn + nn . Hn are realizations of a random process. Transmitted symbol/codeword sn , n = 0, 1, . . . , N; N sees all channel states. Valid for fast fading channels. Nonergodic channel: Consider the model rn = Hsn + nn , Here, H is constant over the symbol/codeword sn , n = 0, 1, . . . , N; N . Transmitted symbol/codeword sees only one state (H). Valid for slowly fading channels.

Block fading

Interleavers spreads out codewords in time and/or frequency. Long interleaver can thus turn a nonergodic channel (where each codesymbol of a codeword sees one channel state only) into an ergodic channel (where each codesymbol of a codeword sees a dierent channel state) Block fading characterizes the situation in between those two extremes. If the interleaver is not long enough, blocks of codesymbols see the same channel state.

Summary
1

Classication of channels single-user, multi-user SISO, MIMO, MISO, SIMO digital channels (BSC, DMC) physical medium (copper, coax, ber, air/space)

Wireline channel essentially time-invariant, strongly frequency selective Wireless channel xed terminals
static view on attenuation (link budget) is sucient, limited by background noise

mobile terminal(s)
time-variant (frequency-dispersive), time-dispersive (frequency selective)

ergodicity