Department of Telecomunications

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)

Communication & Coding Theory for Wireless Channels, October 2002
Problem Set
Instructor: Dr. Mohamed-Slim Alouini (E-mail: [email protected]).
Solutions: The detailed solution of all problems are available upon request from the instructor.
I- Review of Some Basics
Problem I.1: Log-Normal Distribution
Let X
dB
be a normal random variable (RV) with mean m
X
dB
and variance
2
X
dB
and let X = 10
X
dB
/10
be the corresponding log-normal RV.
(a) Express the mean of X in terms of m
X
dB
and
2
X
dB
.
(b) Express the variance of X in terms of m
X
dB
and
2
X
dB
.
(c) Express the median of X in terms of m
X
dB
. Based on that, can you now explain why the area mean
is sometimes referred to as the median link gain or median path loss.
Problem I.2: Outage Probability
Many wireless communication systems use the power outage probability as a performance measure,
where the power outage probability is dened as the probability that the received power falls below some
power threshold T
p
. Typically, the bit error rate for received power below T
p
is unacceptable for the desired
application.
(a) Assume you received signal has a Rayleigh fading amplitude with an average fading power .
(a-1) Derive the probability density function (PDF) of the fading power and deduce the power outage
probability in terms of and T
p
?
(a-2) Evaluate this outage probability for = 20 dB and T
p
= 5 dB.
(a-3) If your application requires a power outage probability of 10
2
for the threshold T
p
= 10dB, what
value of is required ?
(b) Assume now that your received signal has a LOS component, so its amplitude has a Rician distri-
bution with an average fading power and a Rician factor K.
(b-1) Derive the PDF of the fading power then deduce the outage probability in terms of the Marcum
Q-function
1
, , K, and T
p
.
(b-2) Check that your answer reduces to the Rayleigh case (as given by (a-1)) for K = 0.
(b-3) What happens if K tends to innity ?
(b-4) Plot the power outage probability as function of T
p
/ (from -10 dB to 20 dB) for K = 0, K = 5 dB,
and K = 10 dB. Use a dB scale on the x-axis and a log scale on the Y-axis. Comment on these curves.
1
The Marcum Q-function is traditionally dened by Q(a, b) =
_

b
xexp
_

x
2
+a
2
2
_
I
0
(ax) dx.
1
(c) Assume now that your received signal follows a Nakagami distribution with an average fading power
and a fading parameter m.
(c-1) Derive the PDF of the fading power then deduce the outage probability in terms of the complementary
incomplete gamma function
2
, , m, and T
p
. Show that you answer can be written in terms of a nite sum
for the particular case when m is restricted to integer values.
(c-2) Check that your answer reduces to the Rayleigh case (as given by (a-1)) for m = 1.
(c-3) Plot the power outage probability as function of T
p
/ (from -10 dB to 20 dB) for m = 1, m = 2 ,
and m = 4. Use a dB scale on the x-axis and a log scale on the Y-axis. Comment on these curves.
Problem I.3: Average Outage Rate and Average Outage Duration
Consider a mobile operating in isotropic scattering conditions and without line of sight. We are inter-
ested in measuring the maximum average rate at which the faded signal envelope (t) crosses a specied
level R.
(a) Assuming that the local mean = 3 dB nd the level R (in dB) that maximizes the average level
crossing rate.
(b) Assuming that the mobile velocity is 50 Km/hr and the carrier frequency is 900 MHz, determine
the average number of times the signal envelope will fade below the level found in (a) during a 1 minute
test.
(c) How long, on average, will each fade in (b) last ?
Problem I.4: Average BER of BPSK over Rayleigh Fading
Show that the average BER of BPSK over Rayleigh fading channels is given by
P
b
(E) =
1
2
_
1

1 +
_
.
Problem I.5: Performance of Noncoherent BFSK in a Nakagami Shadowed Environment
Consider binary orthogonal signaling using noncoherent FSK modulation and demodulation. The
conditional bit error rate (BER) of noncoherent binary FSK is well know to be given by
P
b
(E/) =
1
2
e
/2
,
where =
2
E
b
/N
0
, is the fading envelope, E
b
is the energy-per-bit, and N
0
is the AWGN spectral
density. Suppose that the signal is aected by at Nakagami fading with fading parameter m and local
mean = E[
2
].
(a) Determine the average BER P
b
(E) of noncoherent binary FSK over this channel in terms of m and
the average SNR per bit = E
b
/N
0
.
2
The complementary incomplete gamma function is traditionally dened as (, x) =
_

x
e
t
t
1
dt.
2
(b) Assume that the local mean is subject to log-normal shadowing with area mean (logarithmic mean)

dB
and shadowing standard deviation (logarithmic standard deviation)
dB
.
(b-1) If an outage is declared when the average BER P
b
(E) (computed in (1)) exceeds a pre-determined
threshold BER
T
, express the system outage probability in terms of m,
dB
,
dB
, E
b
/N
0
, and BER
T
.
(b-2) What is this outage probability for Rayleigh fading, BER
T
= 10
3
, E
b
/N
0
= 18 dB,
dB
= 25 dB,
and
dB
=4 dB.
II- Diversity Systems
Problem II.1: Derivation of the Alternative Representation of the erfc Function
The erfc function is traditionally dened by
erfc (x) =
2

_

x
e
t
2
dt. (1)
In class, we have seen that the alternative representation of the erfc function is very useful when we want
to evaluate the performance over fading channels. The alternative representation is :
erfc (x) =
2

_
/2
0
e
x
2
/ sin
2

d. (2)
(a) Starting with a product of two erfc functions, then going to polar coordinates, show the alternative
representation of the erfc function. Using the same type of proof nd an alternative desired form for the
erfc
2
function.
(b) In the remainder of this problem, we shall derive the alternative representation of the erfc function
by purely algebraic techniques.
1. Consider the integral
I
x
(a)

=
_

0
e
at
2
x
2
+t
2
dt. (3)
Show that I
x
(a) satises the following dierential equation :
x
2
I
x
(a)
dI
x
(a)
da
=
1
2
_

a
. (4)
2. Solve the dierential equation (??) and deduce that
I
x
(a) =

2x
e
ax
2
erfc (x

a). (5)
Hint: I
x
(a) is a function in two variables x and a. However, since all our manipulations deal with a
only, you can assume x to be a constant while solving the dierential equation.
3. Setting a = 1 in (??) and making a suitable change of variables in the LHS of (??), derive the
alternative representation of the erfc function :
erfc (x) =
2

_
/2
0
e
x
2
/ sin
2

d
3
Problem II.2: Performance of MRC Reception over Frequency-Selective Rayleigh Fading
Channels
A spread-spectrum signal is transmitted over a frequency-selective fading channel constituted of L
independent Rayleigh paths with an exponentially decaying power delay prole such that the lth path
average fading power
l
is given by

l
=
1
e
(l1)
, l = 1, L,
where 0 is the power decay factor and
1
is the average fading power of the rst path. A RAKE
receiver resolves these L paths and combine them as per the rules of maximal ratio combining (MRC).
(a) Can you propose a combiner that, knowing the amplitude and phase of the fading on the L paths,
improves upon the performance of MRC ?
(b) Assuming that MRC is used, express the average total SNR at the combiner output
t
in terms of
L, , and
1
=
1
E
b
/N
0
.
(c) Assuming that a modulation scheme for which the conditional BER is given by
P
b
(E/) = e

is used, nd the average BER, P

b
(E), when L = 3, = 0.1, and
t
= 8 dB.
Problem II.3: Performance of Switch-and-Stay Combining
Consider a dual branch (L = 2) switch and stay combiner (SSC). Let
ssc
denote the SNR per bit at
the output of the SSC combiner and let
T
denote the predetermined switching threshold. Assume that
the fading over the two branches is independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) with an average SNR
per bit per branch denoted by .
(1) Show that the outage probability of SSC is given by
P
out
=
_
P

(
T
) P

(
th
)
th
<
T
P

(
th
) P

(
T
) +P

(
th
) P

(
T
)
th

T
,
where P

() is the CDF of the SNR per bit branch.

2 Consider the Nakagami-m fading case. Write an explicit closed-form expression for the outage probabil-
ity of SSC in terms of the incomplete Gamma function. Plot on the same graph the outage probability of
SSC (dashed lines) and SC (solid lines) as function of
th
/ (from -15 dB to 15 dB) and for m=1, m=2,
and m=4. For SSC use
T
= . Compare with the outage probability without diversity reception and
comment on your curves.
3 Find the PDF of the SNR at the SSC output in terms of the CDF P

() and the PDF p

() of the
individual branches.
4 Consider again the Nakagami fading case.
4-1 Write an explicit closed-form expression for the PDF of the SNR at the SSC output.
4-2 Find a closed-form expression for the average bit error probability of SSC with DPSK over i.i.d. Nak-
agami fading channels.
4-3 Show that (for a xed and m) there is an optimum value, in a minimum average bit error probability
4
sense, for the switching threshold
T
.
4-4 Plot on the same graph the average probability of error of DPSK with dual-branch SSC (dashed lines)
and dual-branch SC (solid lines) (you need to generalize the derivation done in class for the Rayleigh case
to the Nakagami case) as function of (from 0 dB to 20 dB) and for m=1, m=2, and m=4. Compare
with the DSPK curves without diversity and comment on your curves.
Problem II.4: Impact of Correlation on Macroscopic Dual-Branch Selection Combining
Consider a mobile in the soft hando region. This mobile is continuously monitoring the local means
of two pilot signals from two neighboring base stations and is being connected only to the base station
with the strongest local mean. We assume that the two local means are log-normally distributed with
the same area mean and the same shadowing standard deviation . Because of the common shadowing
environment for the two base stations, we further assume that the two local means are correlated (i.e.,
the joint PDF of the two local mean dB values 10 log
10
(
1
) and 10 log
10
(
2
) follow a bivariate Gaussian
distribution with correlation coecient ).
(a) Derive a simple expression for the outage probability of this mobile and double check that you answer
makes sense for = 0 and = 1. An expression which involves only one-fold nite-range integrals is
acceptable. Hint: Show that the two-dimensional Gaussian Q-function dened by
Q(x
1
, y
1
; ) =
1
2
_
1
2
_

x
1
_

y
1
exp
_

x
2
+y
2
2xy
2 (1
2
)
_
dxdy
has the following desired representation
Q(x
1
, y
1
; ) =
1
2
_

2
tan
1
y
1
x
1
0

1
2
1 sin2
exp
_

x
2
1
2
1 sin 2
(1
2
) sin
2

_
d
+
1
2
_ tan
1
y
1
x
1
0

1
2
1 sin2
exp
_

y
2
1
2
1 sin 2
(1
2
) sin
2

_
d
.x
1
0y
1
0.
(b) Assume that = 10 dB and = 5 dB. Plot the outage probability (use a log-scale for the Y-axis) as
function of the outage threshold (use a dB scale for the X-axis) for = 0, 0.3, 0.6, 0.9 and 1, then comment
on the eect of the eect of shadowing correlation on the selection combining macroscopic diversity (as
currently used in the soft hando for IS-95).
Problem II.5: Impact of Correlation on Microscopic Dual-Branch Selection Combining
Assume that we are receiving via two antennas a signal that went through Rayleigh fading. We have
one receiver which selects then detects only the signal with the highest SNR/bit/branch. We are going
to assume that the average SNR/bit/branch of the antennas is the same, i.e.,
1
=
2
= . However,
we are going to assume that these two antennas are at the mobile unit and that we do not have enough
space to separate them by about half a wave-length. Hence, the fading over the two branches is going
to be correlated. The objective of this problem is to quantify the eect of this correlation on the outage
probability of the overall system. It is known that in this case the joint probability density function (PDF)
of
1
and
2
is given by
p

1
,
2
(
1
,
2
) =
1

2
(1
2
)
I
0
_
2

2
(1
2
)
_
exp
_

1
+
2
(1
2
)
_
,
1
0,
2
0,
5
where I
0
() is the 0-th order modied Bessel function of the rst kind and (0 1) is a coecient
that quanties the amount of correlation between the fading on the two branches, i.e., if = 0 the fading
over the two branches is uncorrelated and if = 1 the fading on the two branches is fully correlated.
(a) Let
max
denote the maximum of
1
and
2
. Express the outage probability of
max
(which is essentially
the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of
max
evaluated at a particular threshold
th
) in terms of
the complementary CDF of
1
, complementary CDF of
2
, and joint complementary CDF of
1
and
2
.
(b) Show that the joint complementary CDF of
1
and
2
is given by
P[
1
>
th
,
2
>
th
] = 2e

th
/
Q(a, a) e
a
2
I
0
(a
2
),
where a =
_
2
th
/((1
2
)), and Q(, ) is the Marcum Q-function.
(c) Deduce that the outage probability of
max
is given by
P
out
= P[
max

th
] = 1 e

th
/
(1 Q(a, a) +Q(a, a)).
(d) Numerical problems can be encountered when the Marcum Q-function is programmed according to
its traditional representation. Fortunately, this function has an alternative representation, which is well
behaved and which is given by (you do not need to prove this result but if you would like to test your
calculus skills you can do so)
Q(u, w)=
1
2
_

1 + sin
1 + 2 sin +
2
exp
_

w
2
2
_
1 + 2 sin +
2
_
_
d; 0 =
u
w
< 1,
Q(u, w)=1 +
1
2
_

2
+ sin
1 + 2 sin +
2
exp
_

u
2
2
_
1 + 2 sin +
2
_
_
d; 0 =
w
u
< 1.
(d-1) In view of this alternative representation of the Marcum Q-function deduce that the outage proba-
bility is given by the following simple single nite-range integral representation
P
out
= 1 2e

th
/
+
1
2
2
_

2
th

_
1+ sin
1
2
_
1 +
2
+ 2 sin
d.
(d-2) Show that this result makes sense for = 0 ?
(e) Using the nite-range integral representation of the outage probability you are now in the position to
compute numerically and plot P
out
as function of 10 log
10
_

th

_
for = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 0.9, and 0.99.
Use a logarithmic scale on the Y-axis and a dB scale on the X-axis (going from -25 dB to 10 dB). Discuss
the eect of correlation on the outage probability performance of this system.
Problem II.6: Impact of Correlation on Dual-Branch Maximal-Ratio Combining
Assume that we are receiving via two antennas a signal that went through Rayleigh fading channels. The
signals are combined as per the rules of MRC. We are going to assume that the average SNR/bit/branch of
the antennas is the same, i.e.,
1
=
2
= . However, we are going to assume that these two antennas are
at the mobile unit and that we do not have enough space to separate them by about half a wave-length.
Hence, the fading over the two branches is going to be correlated. The objective of this problem is to
quantify the eect of this correlation on the performance of the system.
It is known that in this case the joint probability density function (PDF) of
1
and
2
is given by
p

1
,
2
(
1
,
2
) =
1

2
(1
2
)
I
0
_
2

2
(1
2
)
_
exp
_

1
+
2
(1
2
)
_
,
1
0,
2
0,
6
where I
0
() is the 0-th order modied Bessel function of the rst kind and (0 1) is a coecient
that quanties the amount of correlation between the fading on the two branches, i.e., if = 0 the fading
over the two branches is uncorrelated and if = 1 the fading on the two branches is fully correlated.
(a) Show that the MGF of the output (i.e., combined) SNR M
t
(s) is given by
M

t
(s) =
_
1 2 s + (1
2
)
2
s
2
_
1
; s 0.
(b) Show that fading correlation degrades the average symbol error probability of M-PSK when used in
conjunction with dual-branch MRC. (You need to give a mathematical proof not just plots).
(c) Show that the PDF of the output SNR p
t
(
t
) is given by
p
t
(
t
) =
1
2
_
exp
_

t
(1 +)
_
exp
_

t
(1 )
__
;
t
0.
(d) Deduce a closed form expression for (i) the average BER of BPSK and (ii) the outage probability
(i.e., the probability that the output SNR
t
fall below a particular threshold
th
. Double check that your
answers make sense for = 0 and = 1.
5- (1 point) Plot the average BER of BPSK as function of the average SNR per bit per branch for
= 0, = 0.3, = 0.6, = 0.9, and = 1, and compare with the no-diversity case.
Problem II.7: Optimization of Transmit Diversity Systems
A signal is transmitted from a base station over L independent frequency diversity paths each of
them being a slowly varying at fading channel. At the receiver the mobile unit combines the multiple
replicas as per the rules of maximal ratio combining. We assume that the transmitted signal on the lth
carrier undergoes Nakagami-m at fading with fading parameter m
l
and average fading power
l
= E(
2
l
)
(l = 1, , L). As such the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) per symbol of the lth diversity
channel is given by
l
= (
2
l
E
(l)
s
)/N
0
= (
2
l
P
l
T
s
)/N
0
, where N
0
is the AWGN power spectral density,
l
is
the fading amplitude of the lth diversity path, E
(l)
s
is the energy per symbol over the lth diversity path, P
l
is the power allocated to the lth carrier, and T
s
is the symbol time. Denoting G
l
= (
l
T
s
)/N
0
, the average
SNR of the lth path,
l
, can be written as
l
= P
l
G
l
.
We assume that the signal is transmitted over the L carriers using a modulation such us its conditional
bit error rate (BER) (conditioned on the SNR ) P
b
(E|) is well approximated by
P
b
(E|) = a exp(b), (6)
where a and b are constants. For example, a and b are 0.0852 and 0.4030, respectively, for the 16-QAM
case that you will consider later on in our numerical examples.
(1) Show that the average BER is given by
P
b
(E) = a
L

l=1
_
1 +
b
l
m
l
_
m
l
. (7)
(b) Let P
t
denote the total power which equals the sum of the powers P
l
, i.e.,
P
t
=
L

l=1
P
l
. (8)
7
on the L diversity paths.
(b-1) Show that there exists a unique set of powers {P
l
}
L
l=1
which minimize the average BEP (??) subject
to the total power constraint (??).
(b-2) Show that the optimum power allocation for minimum average BER is given by
P
l
= m
l
Max
_
P
t

L
k=1
m
k
+

L
k=1
m
k
G
k
b

L
k=1
m
k

1
bG
l
, 0
_
. (9)
Hint: You may want to use the Lagrange multiplier J given by
J = a
L

l=1
_
1 +
bP
l
G
l
m
l
_
m
l
+
_
L

l=1
P
l
P
t
_
.
and set all
J
P
l
= 0 l = 1, , L.
(c) Assume L = 3 and compare the average BER of 16-QAM with uniform (i.e. P
1
= P
2
= P
3
= P
t
/3) and
optimized power allocation over the 3 diversity paths. Assume that m
1
= m
2
= m
3
= 4,
1
= 2
2
= 10
3
,
and plot the average BER versus the total power P
t
for the two power allocation strategies.
III- Co-Channel Interference
Problem III.1: Eect of Correlation on the Outage Probability
Consider the up-link in which a desired mobile is communicating with a base station (BS). This com-
munication is subject to co-channel interference due to a single mobile in a neighboring cell. We assume
that the local means (measured at the BS of interest) of the desired
D
and interfering
I
mobiles are log-
normally distributed with area means (logarithmic means)
D
dB
and
I
dB
, respectively, and with the same
shadowing standard deviation (logarithmic standard deviation)

dB
. Because of the common shadowing
environment that the desired and interfering signals undergo in the neighborhood of the BS of interest,
we further assume that these two local means are correlated (i.e., the joint PDF of the two local mean dB
values 10 log
10

D
and 10 log
10

I
follow a bivariate Gaussian distribution with correlation coecient .
(a) Assuming that an outage event is declared if the carrier-to-interference ratio (CIR) =
D
/
I
falls
below a predetermined threshold
th
, express the outage probability of the up-link under consideration in
terms of
th
,
D
dB
,
I
dB
,

dB
, and .
(b) Deduce the eect of the correlation between the desired and interfering signal on the up-link
performance (i.e., explain if this correlation improve or degrade the up-link performance).
Problem III.2: Outage Probability of Fully-Loaded Systems
Consider an FDMA macro-cellular mobile radio system in which the desired signal power s
d
is inde-
pendent from the N
I
interfering signal powers {s
i
}
N
I
i=1
. The desired user has an average fading power (i.e.,
local mean) denoted by s
d
and is subject to slowly-varying at Rayleigh fading. The N
I
active interfering
signals are assumed to be independent, to have the same average fading power denoted by s
i
, and to be
subject to slowly-varying at Rayleigh fading.
(a) Find the probability density function (PDF) of the total interference power s
I
=

N
I
n=1
s
i
.
8
(b) Show that for interference limited systems the outage probability P
out
= Pr[s
d
/s
I

th
] is given by
the following compact closed-form expression
P
out
= 1
_
1 +

th
s
i
s
d
_
N
I
(c) Assuming a fully-loaded system (N
I
= 6), a protection ratio
th
= 18 dB, and an average fading power
for the interferers s
i
= 2 dB, what should be the average power of the desired signal s
d
(in dB) to meet an
outage probability requirement of P
out
= 10
2
.
Problem III.3: Outage Probability of Partially-Loaded Systems
Consider an FDMA macro-cellular mobile radio system in which the cells are divided into 60 degrees
sectors and each cell has N
s
available voice channels. The desired signal power s
d
is independent from the
interfering signal powers s
i
. The desired user has an average fading power (i.e., local mean) denoted by s
d
and is subject to slowly-varying at Rayleigh fading. The active interfering signals are assumed to have
the same average fading power denoted by s
i
, and to be subject to slowly-varying at Rayleigh fading.
An outage is declared if either the carrier-to-interference-ratio (CIR) falls below a predetermined thresh-
old
th
or the desired signal power falls below another specied threshold s
th
. Assuming that the system
was designed for a blocking probability B, derive a closed-form expression for the outage probability of
this system (in terms of B, N
s
, s
d
, s
i
,
th
, and s
th
).
Problem III.4: Outage Probability with Non IID Interferers
Consider a cellular system with N
I
co-channel interferers.
(1) Assume that the desired user is Nakagami distributed with fading parameter m
d
and local mean
d
and that the interferers are i.i.d. Nakagami with fading parameters m
I
= m
d
= m and local mean
I
.
(1-a) Find the distribution of the total interference power s
I
=

N
I
k=1
s
k
.
(1-b) Show that for interference limited systems
P
out
= P
r
( =
s
d
s
I

th
) = I
x
(m, mN
I
)
where x =
1
1+

d

th
and I
x
(, ) is the incomplete Beta function ratio as dened in class.
(1-c) Find the outage probability when we also impose a minimum desired signal power requirement i.e.
P
out
= P
r
(
th
or s
d
s
th
). Express your answer in terms of the incomplete Gamma function.
(1-d) Plot the outage probability of (1-b) and (1-c) as function of the normalized average SIR =

d

th
for m = 2 and N
I
= 6. For (1-c) use s
th
= 17 dB and
d
= 40 dB. Use log scale for the y-axis and dB
scale (from 0 to 30 dB) for the X-axis.
(2) Assume that the desired user is Nakagami distributed with fading parameter m
d
and local mean
d
and that the interferers are not necessarily i.i.d. Nakagami with fading parameter m
k
, k = 1, 2, . . . , N
I
.
(2-a) Assume local mean power
k
, k = 1, 2, . . . , N
I
. Applying the Gil-Palaez lemma covered in class,
show that the outage probability (in the case of interference limited systems) is given by
P
out
= P
r
_
=
s
d

N
I
k=1
s
k

th
_
=
1
2
+
1

_
+
0
sin
_

N
I
k=1
m
k
tan
1
_

th

k
m
k
t
_
m
d
tan
1
_

d
m
d
t
__
t
_
1 +
_

d
m
d
t
_
2
_
m
d
2
N
I
k=1
_
1 +
_

th

k
m
k
t
_
2
_
m
k
2
dt
9
(2-b) Let
th
= 18 dB, m
d
= 2, N
I
= 3, m
1
= 1, m
2
= 0.5, m
3
= 0.75, and
1
= 5 dB,
2
= 2 dB,
3
= 1
dB. Plot P
out
as function of
d
(from 0 to 20 dB).
Problem III.5: Diversity to Combat Co-Channel Interference
Diversity can also be used to improve the performance of wireless systems subject to co-channel inter-
ference. Consider a dual-branch diversity receiver in the presence of a single co-channel interferer. We will
compare the outage probability of this system (assuming a minimum desired signal power constraint s
th
)
when selection combining or switching combining are used.
(1) Assume that both the desired and interfering signals independent and are both subject to Rayleigh
type of fading with local mean
D
and
I
, respectively.
(1-a) Derive the outage probability of a SC diversity system in which the receiver picks and processes only
the branch with the best desired signal.
(1-b) Deduce the outage probability formulas for the limiting (interference-limited and noise-limited) cases.
(2) Assume again that the desired and interfering signals are independent and are both subject to Rayleigh
type of fading with local mean
D
and
I
, respectively.
(2-a) Derive the outage probability of a SSC diversity system in which the receiver switches as per the
rules of SSC according to the variations of the desired signal power.
(2-b) Find the optimal switching threshold that minimizes the outage probability.
(2-c)Deduce the outage probability and optimal switching threshold formulas for the limiting (interference-
limited and noise-limited) cases.
(3) Illustrate the diversity gain by plotting the outage probability as function of the normalized CIR
(
D
/(
I

th
)) for (1) without diversity, (2) SSC diversity with optimal threshold, and (3) SC diversity.
Assume
D
/s
th
= 10 dB and use a log-scale on the Y-axis. Comment on your curves.
(4) Actually in presence of co-channel interference, the combining decision algorithm is not unique. For
example, with SC the selection of the branch can be based on total (desired plus interference) power,
CIR, or desired signal power (as analyzed in (1)). Since the two former decisions algorithms are harder to
analyze in closed-form, evaluate their outage probability performance by using Monte-Carlo simulations.
In your sumulations, consider SC only and plot the outage probability as function of the normalized CIR
(
D
/(
I

th
)) for the three dierent decision algorithms. Again assume
D
/s
th
= 10 dB and use a log-scale
on the Y-axis. Comment on your curves.
Part IV- Multi-hop Communication Systems
Problem IV.1: End-to-End Average BER of Dual-Hop Communication Systems
Consider a dual-hop wireless communication system in which two terminals are communicating via
a third terminal that acts as a relay. As such the signal propagates from the source terminal to the
destination terminal through the two hops/links in series. Assume that the two hops are subject to
independent Rayleigh fading with average SNR per bit
1
and
2
, respectively. Binary DPSK for which
the conditional BER is given by
P
b
(E/) =
1
2
e

is used on the two links. Assume that the relay acts in a regenerative fashion (i.e., decodes the received
signal from the source and then transmits the detected version to the destination terminal).
10
(a) Show that the end-to-end (i.e. from source to destination) average BER is given by
P
b
(E) =
1 +
1
+
2
2 (1 +
1
)(1 +
2
)
.
(b) What happens to the end-to-end average BER if
1
=
2
= and << 1 or >> 1 ?
Problem IV.2: Outage Probability of Multi-hop Communication Systems over Log-Normal
Shadowed Channels
Ad-Hoc networks rely on the idea of taking advantage of the mobile users themselves to act as
nodes of the network. For instance, in these kind of networks, there is no need for an infrastructure of
base stations to carry information between mobile users. Users that are close to each other communicate
directly while users that are far away communicate via other users that act as relays. There are many
issues related to this topic, but we will focus in this problem on the end-end outage probability of these
multi-hop links where the information is conveyed from the transmitting user to the receiving user via
multiple relay users.
Consider a multi-hop wireless system consisting of N hops. The source user is transmitting the infor-
mation to a destination user via N 1 users that act as relays of the information. The N hops are subject
to log-normal shadowing and are assumed to be independent and identically distributed (i.i.d). As such
the carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) of the N hops {
n
}
N
n=1
are independent and log-normally distributed with
the same logarithmic mean and the same shadow logarithmic standard deviation (i.e., 10 log
10

n
are
Gaussian with mean and standard deviation for all n = 1, N.). In this problem, we are going to
compare two strategies of relaying the information.
(a) In the rst strategy, termed the decode-and-forward or the regenerative strategy, the relay
detects and decodes the signal, regenerates the symbols, then re-transmits them to the next relay or the
destination user. An outage event is declared if the CNR of any of the N hops falls below an acceptable
predetermined threshold
th
. Derive a simple formula for the end-to-end (from the source to the desti-
nation) outage probability P
df
out
for this rst strategy. Express your answer in terms of , , N, and
th
.
(Hint: Think about the probability of no outage).
(b) In the second strategy, termed the amplify-and-forward or the non-regenerative strategy, the relay
does not attempt to detect or decode the signal. It just amplies it and re-transmits it to the next relay
or the destination user. It can be shown that the end-to-end CNR
af
of a system using this strategy is
given (under certain conditions that are beyond the scope of this problem) by
1

af
=
1

1
+
1

2
+ +
1

N
. (10)
An outage event is declared if the end-to-end CNR
af
falls below an acceptable predetermined threshold

th
. Express the end-to-end outage probability P
af
out
in terms of , , N, and
th
. (Hint: You may want
to rely on the Fenton-Wilkinson method/approximation for nding the statistics of the sum of log-normal
random variables (see for example pages 129-131 from Stuber textbook, 2nd Edition)).
(c) Focus on the two-hop case (N = 2), x = 10 and = 4 and plot on the same gure the end-to-end
outage probability for both strategies as function of the outage threshold
th
. Use a log-scale for the
end-to-end outage probability and a dB scale for the outage threshold. Compare and comment on the
11
end-to-end outage performance of the two strategies.
(d) Fix = 10, = 4, and
th
= 1 (0 dB) and plot on the same gure the end-to-end outage probability
(on a log-scale) for both strategies as function of the number of hops N. Comment on and compare the
end-to-end outage performance behavior with respect to the number of hops for both strategies.
12