Wireless Channel[1, 2]

Dr. Manjunatha. P
[email protected]

Professor
Dept. of ECE

J.N.N. College of Engineering, Shimoga

March 5, 2015
 Wireless Channel Syllabus

Wireless Channel: [1, 2]

Slides are prepared based on the book“Fundamentals of Wireless

Communication” by David Tse and Pramod Viswanath
Slides are prepared to use in class room purpose, may be used as a
reference material
All the slides are prepared based on the reference material
Most of the figures/content used in this material are redrawn, some
of the figures/pictures are downloaded from the Internet.
This material is not for commercial purpose.
This material is prepared for the subject Wireless Communication for
M Tech in DECS course as per Visvesvaraya Technological University
(VTU) syllabus (Karnataka State, India).
Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 2 / 49

Wireless Channel Syllabus

Wireless Channel
Physical modeling for wireless channels
1 Free space, fixed transmit and receive antennas
2 Free space, moving antenna
3 Reflecting wall, fixed antenna
4 Reflecting wall, moving antenna
5 Reflection from a ground plane
6 Power decay with distance and shadowing
7 Moving antenna, multiple reflectors
Input /output model of the wireless channel
1 The wireless channel as a linear time-varying system
2 Baseband equivalent model
3 A discrete-time baseband model
Time and frequency coherence
1 Doppler spread and coherence time
2 Delay spread and coherence bandwidth
Statistical channel models
1 Modeling philosophy
2 Rayleigh and Rician fading
3 Tap gain auto-correlation function

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 3 / 49

 Physical modeling for wireless channels Introduction

Introduction

The transmission path between transmitter and receiver is varying due to obstruction by
buildings, mountains and foliage (trees).
Wired channels are stationary and predictable, but radio channels are extremely random
and difficult to analzye.
Modeling the radio channels has been one of the most difficult task of mobile radio
system design, and is typically done in a statical method based on measurements [2].
The electromagnetic wave propagation is attributed to reflection, diffraction and
scattering.
The high rise buildings cause severe diffraction loss.
The received signal strength decreases as the distance between the transmitter and
receiver increase.
Due to multiple reflectors from objects, the electromagnetic wave travel along different
paths of varying lengths and causes multipath fading.
The propagation models that predict the mean signal strength as a function of distance
are called large-scale fading.
The propagation models that characterize the rapid fluctuations of the received signal
strength as a function of short distance or short time durations are called sall-scale fading.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 4 / 49

Physical modeling for wireless channels Introduction

Diffraction of signals: Occurs when the path between transmitter and receiver is
obstructed by a sharp edges of an objects.
Reflection of signals: Occurs when EM wave impinging upon a object which has very large
in dimension when compared to the wavelength.
Scattering of signals: Occurs when the medium through which the wave travels consists of
objects which are small in dimension in compared to wavelength and very large number of
obstacles per unit volume is large.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 5 / 49

 Physical modeling for wireless channels Introduction

Large-scale (slow) fading:

Large-scale fading is due to path loss of signal
as a function of distance and shadowing and is
frequency independent.
Shadowing is caused by the obstacles which
are buildings, big trees, and hills in the rural Figure 1: Slow and fast fading
side.
Small-scale (Fast) fading:
Small-scale fading is occurs due due to the
constructive and destructive interference of the
multiple signal paths between the transmitter
and receiver and is frequency dependent.
This is depending on the relative phase
difference between the received signals.

Figure 2: Multipath propagation

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 6 / 49

Physical modeling for wireless channels Free space, fixed transmit and receive antennas

Free space, fixed transmit and receive antennas

Consider a fixed antenna radiating its electromagnetic field into the free space.
The electric and magnetic field at any given location are perpendicular to each other and
are to the direction of propagating antenna.
Consider an electromagnetic sinusoid wave with frequency f i.e, cos2πft is transmitted.
The electric far field received at a point u with a distance r is

αs (θ, ψ, f )cos2πf (t − r /c)

E (f , t, (r , θ, ψ)) =
r

where, (r , θ, ψ) represents the point u at which the electric field measured.

(θ, ψ) represents the vertical and horizontal angles from the antenna to u respectively.
Constant c is the speed of light
αs (θ, ψ, f ) is the radiation pattern of the sending antenna at frequency f in the direction
(θ, ψ); it also contains a scaling factor to account for antenna losses.
The phase of the field varies with fr /c, corresponding to the delay caused by the radiation
traveling at the speed of light.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 7 / 49

 Physical modeling for wireless channels Free space, fixed transmit and receive antennas

1
The electric field is proportional to the distance r and given as E ∝ r
and the power per
square meter in the free space wave decreases as r −2 .
If we considered electric field as concentric spheres of increasing radius r around the
antenna, the total power radiated through the sphere remains constant, but the surface
area increases as r 2 .
For a fixed receive antenna at the location u = (r , θ, ψ), the received electric field is

α(θ, ψ, f )cos2πf (t − r /c)

Er (f , t, u) =
r

The magnetic field at a distance u is

α(θ, ψ, f )e −j2πfr /c
H(f ) =
r

Then the E and H are related as:

Er (f , t, u) = [H(f )e j2πft ]

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 8 / 49

Physical modeling for wireless channels Free space, moving antenna

Free space, moving antenna

Consider a fixed antenna and a receiving antenna is moving away from the transmitting
antenna with a speed v .
The receive antenna is at a moving location described as u(t) = (r (t), θ, ψ) with
r (t) = r0 + vt.
The free space electric field at the moving point u(t) is

αs (θ, ψ, f )cos2πf (t − r0 /c − vt/c)

E (f , t, (r0 + vt, θ, ψ)) =
r0 + vt

f (t − r0 /c − vt/c) = f (1 − v /c)t − fr0 /c

The sinusoid at frequency f has been converted to a sinusoid of frequency −fv /c there
has been a Doppler shift of −fv /c due to the motion of the observation point.
The electric field at a point u(t), is

αs (θ, ψ, f )cos2πf [(1 − v /c)t − fr0 /c]

E (f , t, (r0 + vt, θ, ψ)) =
r0 + vt

The amount of doppler shift depends on the frequency f.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 9 / 49
 Physical modeling for wireless channels Reflecting wall, fixed antenna

Reflecting wall, fixed antenna

Consider a fixed antenna transmitting the sinusoid cos2πft, a fixed receive antenna, and a
single perfectly reflecting large fixed wall as shown if Figure.
The electromagnetic field received at the antenna is the sum of the free space field
coming from the transmit antenna and a reflected wave from the wall.
It is assumed that the presence of the receive antenna does not affect the reflected wave.
This means that the reflected wave from the wall has the intensity of a free space wave at
a distance equal to the distance to the wall and then back to the receive antenna, i.e.,
(2d-r) (except for a sign change).
The electric field is given by

αcos2πf (t − r /c) αcos2πf (t − (2d − r )/c)

Er (f , t) = −
r 2d − r

Transmit Reflecting
antenna Receive Wall
antenna

Figure 3: Illustration of a direct and Reflected path

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 10 / 49

Physical modeling for wireless channels Reflecting wall, fixed antenna

The phase difference between the two waves is

   
2πf (2d − r ) 2πfr 4πf
Δθ = +π − = (d − r ) + π
c c c

When the phase difference is an integer multiple of 2π, the two waves add constructively,
and the received signal is strong.
When the phase difference is an odd integer multiple of π, the two waves add
destructively, and the received signal is weak.
As a function of r, this translates into a spatial pattern of constructive and destructive
interference of the waves.
The distance from a peak to a valley is called the coherence distance:

λ
Δxc =
4

where λ = c/f is the wavelength of the signal. At distances much smaller than Δxc , the
received signal at a particular time does not change appreciably.
The distance in space over which a fading channel appears to be unchanged.


Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 11 / 49
 Physical modeling for wireless channels Reflecting wall, fixed antenna

The constructive and destructive interference pattern also depends on the frequency f: for
a fixed r, if f changes by
 
1 2d − r r −1
−
2 c c

from a peak to a valley.

The delay spread of the channel, that is the difference between the propagation delays
along the two signal paths is defined as.

2d − r r
Td = −
c c

The constructive and destructive interference pattern does not change appreciably if the
frequency changes by an amount much smaller than 1/Td (coherence bandwidth).
Coherence bandwidth: The range of frequencies over which the channel can be
considered flat. GSM is of 200 KHz bandwidth, if coherence bandwidth is less than 200
KHz then interference will occur.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 12 / 49

Physical modeling for wireless channels Reflecting wall, moving antenna

Reflecting wall, moving antenna

Consider a receive antenna which is moving with a velocity v as shown in Figure.

When it moves, the received signal strength increases or decreases due to the pattern of
constructive and destructive interference created by the two waves.
The phenomenon is known as multipath fading.
The time taken to travel from a peak to a valley is c/(4fv ), and it is called the coherence
time of the channel.

Transmit Reflecting
antenna Receive Wall
antenna

r(t)

Speed v

d 

Figure 4: Illustration of a direct and Figure 5: Received signal oscillating at

Reflected path frequency f with slowly varying envelope at
frequency Ds /2

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 13 / 49

 Physical modeling for wireless channels Reflecting wall, moving antenna

Consider a receive antenna located at r0 at time 0 and taking r = r0 + vt.

αcos2πf [(1 − v /c)t − r0 /c] αcos2πf [(1 + v /c)t + (r0 − 2d/)c]
Er (f , t) = −
r0 + vt 2d − r0 − vt

The first term, the direct wave, is a sinusoid at frequency f (1 − v /c), experiencing a
Doppler shift D1 := −fv /c. The second is a sinusoid at frequency f (1 + v /c),
experiencing a Doppler shift D2 := +fv /c. The Dopper shift is positive, if the mobile is
moving toward the direction of arrival of the wave and is negative, if the mobile is moving
away from the direction of arrival of the wave. The Doppler spread is defined as
Ds = D2 − D1

Example, Consider a mobile is moving at 60 km/h and the carrier frequency of the signal
is f = 900 MHz, then the Doppler spread is
D1 = fv /c = [(900x106 )x16.66]/(3x108 ) = 49.8  50Hz

Ds = D2 − D1 = 50 + 50 = 100Hz

Consider a mobile is moving at 60 miles/h and the carrier frequency is f = 1850 MHz,
then the Doppler spread is
D1 = fv /c = [(1850x106 )x26.82]/(3x108 ) = 49.8  16Hz

Ds = D2 − D1 = 16 + 16 = 32Hz
Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 14 / 49

Physical modeling for wireless channels Reflecting wall, moving antenna

When the attenuations are roughly same for both paths, then approximate the
denominator of the second term by r = r0 + vt.
Then, combining the two sinusoids,

2αsin2πf [vt/c + (r0 − d)]sin2πf [t − d/c]

Er (f , t) =
r0 + vt

This is the product of two sinusoids, one at the input frequency f, which is typically of the
order of GHz, and the other one at fv /c = Ds /2, which might be of the order of 50 Hz.
Thus, the response to a sinusoid at f is another sinusoid at f with a time-varying envelope,
with peaks going to zeros around every 5 ms.
The envelope is at its widest when the mobile is at a peak of the interference pattern and
at its narrowest when the mobile is at a valley.
Thus, the Doppler spread determines the rate of traversal across the interference pattern
and is inversely proportional to the coherence time of the channel.
Coherence time: The time duration in which channel impulse response is invariant.

1
Tc =
fm

Where fm is maximum doppler shift. If the reciprocal of the baseband of the signal is
greater than the coherence time then the channel will change during the transmission of
the baseband message thus causes the distortion at the receiver.
Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 15 / 49
 Physical modeling for wireless channels Reflection from a ground plane

Reflection from a ground plane

Consider a transmit and a receive antenna, both above a plane surface as shown in Figure.
When the horizontal distance r between the antennas becomes very large relative to their
height of antenna the difference between the direct path length and the reflected path
length goes to zero as r −1 with increasing r.
When r is large enough, this difference between the path lengths becomes small relative to
the wavelength c/f .
Since the sign of the electric field is reversed on the reflected path, these two waves start
to cancel each other out.
The electric wave at the receiver is then attenuated as r −2 , and the received power
decreases as r −4 .
This situation is important in rural areas where base-stations are placed on roads.
Transmit
antenna

r1
Direct path Receive
hs
r2 antenna
Reflected
path
Ground plane hr

Figure 6: Illustration of a direct path and reflected path off a ground plane

 
E0 d0 cos[ωc (t − d /c)] E0 d0 cos[ωc (t − d /c)]
Er (f , t) =  + (−1)
d d 
Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 16 / 49

Physical modeling for wireless channels Power decay with distance and shadowing

Power decay with distance and shadowing

The reflection from a ground plane the received power can decrease with distance faster
than r −2 in the presence of disturbances to free space.
There are several obstacles between the transmitter and the receiver and, these obstacles
might also absorb some power while scattering the remaining power.
The empirical evidence from experimental field studies suggests that while power decay
near the transmitter is r −2 , at large distances the power can even decay exponentially
with distance.
With a limit on the transmit power (either at the base-station or at the mobile), the
largest distance between the base-station and a mobile at which communication can
reliably take place is called the coverage of the cell.
For reliable communication, a minimal received power level has to be met and thus the
fast decay of power with distance constrains cell coverage.
The rapid signal attenuation with distance is also helpful; it reduces the interference
between adjacent cells.
In engineering jargon, the cell is said to be capacity limited instead of coverage limited.
The size of cells has been steadily decreased to micro cells and pico cells.
With capacity limited cells, the inter-cell interference may be intolerably high.
The inter-cell interference, is minimized by using the different parts of the frequency
spectrum in neighboring cells.
Rapid signal attenuation with distance allows frequencies to be reused at closer distances.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 17 / 49

 Physical modeling for wireless channels Power decay with distance and shadowing

Shadowing

The density of obstacles between the transmit and receive antennas depends very much
on the physical environment.
For example, outdoor plains have very little by way of obstacles while indoor environments
pose many obstacles.
This randomness in the environment is captured by modeling the density of obstacles and
their absorption behavior as random numbers; the overall phenomenon is called shadowing.
The effect of shadow fading differs from multipath fading in an important way.
The duration of a shadow fade lasts for multiple seconds or minutes, and hence occurs at
a much slower time-scale compared to multipath fading.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 18 / 49

Physical modeling for wireless channels Power decay with distance and shadowing

Moving antenna, multiple reflectors

Dealing with multiple reflectors, using the technique of ray tracing, is in principle simply a
matter of modeling the received waveform as the sum of the responses from the different
paths rather than just two paths.
The reflected field model is valid only at distances from the wall that are small relative to
the dimensions of the wall.
At very large distances, the total power reflected from the wall is proportional to both
d −2 and to the area of the cross section of the wall.
The power reaching the receiver is proportional to [d − r (t)]−2 .
Thus, the power attenuation from transmitter to receiver (for the large distance case) is
proportional to [d − r (t)]−2 rather than to [2d − r (t)]−2 .
Scattering
The type of reflection which occur in the atmosphere or in reflections from very rough
objects is known as scattering.
Here there are a very large number of individual paths, and the received waveform is better
modeled as an integral over paths with infinitesimally small differences in their lengths.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 19 / 49

 Input/output model of the wireless channel The wireless channel as a linear time-varying system

The wireless channel as a linear time-varying system

Consider a sinusoidal signal φ(t) = cos2πft is transmitted over multipath channel and the
received signal is the summation of the signal from all the paths is


y (t) = ai (f , t)φ[t − τi (f , t)]
i

where ai (f , t) and τi (f , t) are attenuation and propagation delay at time t on path i.

The overall attenuation is the product of the attenuation factors due to the antenna
pattern of the transmitter and the receiver, the nature of the reflector, and a factor that is
a function of the distance from the transmitting antenna to the reflector and from the
reflector to the receive antenna.
If ai (f , t) and τi (f , t) do not depend on frequency f , then input/output relation to an
arbitrary input x(t) is: 
y (t) = ai (t)x[t − τi (t)]
i

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 20 / 49

Input/output model of the wireless channel The wireless channel as a linear time-varying system

The attenuation and delays for the direct path is:

|α| r0 + v (t) ∠φ1

a1 (t) = τ1 (t) = −
r0 + v (t) c 2πf

The attenuation and delays for the reflected path is:

|α| 2d − r0 − v (t) ∠φ2

a2 (t) = τ1 (t) = −
2d − r0 − v (t) c 2πf

where φj is phase change at the transmitter, reflector, and receiver.

In this case there is a phase reversal at the reflector hence φ1 = 0 and φ2 = π.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 21 / 49

 Input/output model of the wireless channel The wireless channel as a linear time-varying system

Consider an impulse x(t) transmitted at time (t − τ ) through the channel h its

input/output relationship at time t is:
 ∞  ∞
y (t) = h(t) ⊗ x(t) = h(τ, t)x(t − τ )dτ = h(τ )x(t − τ )dτ
−∞ −∞

The impulse response for the fading multipath channel is


h(τ, t) = ai (t)δ[τ − τi (t)]
i

When the transmitter, receiver and the environment are all stationary, ai (t) and τi (t) do
not depend on time t, then linear time-invariant channel with an impulse response

h(τ ) = ai (t)δ[t − τi ]
i

For the time-varying impulse response h(τ, t) the time varying frequency response
 ∞ 
H(f , t) = h(τ, t)e −j2πf τ dτ = ai (t)e −j2πf τi (t)
−∞ i

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 22 / 49

Input/output model of the wireless channel Baseband equivalent model

Baseband equivalent model

In typical wireless applications, communication occurs in a passband
[fc − W /2, fc + W /2] of bandwidth W around a center frequency fc .
The processing of signals, such as coding/decoding, modulation/demodulation, and
synchronization is done at the baseband.
At the transmitter, the last stage of the operation is to “up-convert” the signal to the
carrier frequency and the first step at the receiver is to “down-convert” the RF signal to
the baseband.
Therefore it is important to consider a baseband equivalent representation of the system.
S(f)

Consider a real signal s(t)with Fourier

1
transform S(f ), band-limited in
[fc − W /2, fc + W /2] with W < 2fc .
f
W W
Define its complex baseband equivalent sb (t)  fc 
2
 fc 
2 fc 
W
2
fc 
W
2

as the signal having Fourier transform:

Sb(f)
√ 2
Sb (f ) = 2S(f + fc ) f + fc > 0
f
W W
The signal s(t) is real, its Fourier transform 
2 2
∗
satisfies S(f ) = S (−f ), and sb (t) contains
exactly the same information as s(t) and is as Figure 7: Illustration of passband
shown in Figure:7. spectrum and baseband equivalent

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 23 / 49

 Input/output model of the wireless channel Baseband equivalent model
The signal sb (t) is band-limited in The relationship between s(t) and sb (t) is
[−W /2, W /2]. shown in Figure:8.
√ The passband signal s(t)√is obtained by
2S(f ) = sb (f − fc ) + sb∗ (−f − fc ) modulating [s
√b (t)] by 2cos2πfc t and
(t)] by − 2sin2πfc t and summing, to
[sb√
Taking inverse Fourier transform get 2[sb (t)e 2πfc t ](up-conversion).
The baseband signal√[sb (t)] is obtained by
modulating s(t) by 2cos2πfc t and
1 [s
s(t) = √ [sb (t)e j2πfc t +sb∗ (t)e −j2πfc t ] √b (t)] is obtained by modulating s(t) by
2 − 2sin2πfc t followed by ideal low-pass
√ filtering at the baseband [W /2, W /2]
= 2[sb (t)e j2πfc t ] (down-conversion).
2 cos 2S f ct 2 cos 2S f ct

1
ƒ[ sb (t )]
ƒ[ sb (t )]

W W

2 2
s (t )

1
‚[ sb (t )]

‚[ sb (t )] 
W W
2 2

 2 sin 2S f ct  2 sin 2S f ct

Figure 8: Illustration of up and down conversion

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 24 / 49

Input/output model of the wireless channel Baseband equivalent model

Consider a multipath fading channel with impulse response given by

 ∞
y (t) = h(τ, t)x(τ − t)dτ
−∞

Let xb (t) and yb (t) be the complex baseband equivalents of the transmitted signal x(t)
and the received signal y (t), respectively.
Figure 10 shows the system diagram from xb (t) to yb (t).
This implementation of a passband communication system is known as quadrature
amplitude modulation (QAM).
The signal [xb (t)] is sometimes called the in-phase component I and [xb (t)] the
quadrature component Q (rotated by π/2).
2 cos2S fct 2 cos2S fct

1
ƒ[ xb (t)]
ƒ[ yb (t )]

W W

2 2
x(t ) y (t )
h(W , t )

1
‚[ yb (t )]

‚[ xb (t )] 
W W
2 2

 2 sin 2S fct  2 sin 2S fct

Figure 9: Illustration of up and down conversion

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 25 / 49

 Input/output model of the wireless channel Baseband equivalent model

The estimation of its baseband equivalent channel is as follows.


y (t) = ai (t)x[t − τi (t)]
i

√ √
x(t) = 2[xb (t)e j2πfc t ] and y (t) = 2[yb (t)e j2πfc t ]


[yb (t)e j2πfc t ] = ai (t)[xb (t − τi (t))e j2πfc (t−τi (t)) ]
i
 
=  ai (t)xb (t − τi (t))e −j2πfc τi (t) e j2πfc t
i

Similarly,
 
[yb (t)e j2πfc t ] =  ai (t)xb (t − τi (t))e −j2πfc τi (t) e j2πfc t
i

The baseband equivalent channel is


yb (t) = aib (t)xb (t − τi (t))
i

where
aib (t) = ai (t)e −j2πfc τi (t)

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 26 / 49

Input/output model of the wireless channel Baseband equivalent model

The baseband equivalent impulse response is


hb (τ, t) = aib (t)δ(t − τi (t))
i

The baseband output is the sum, over each path, of the delayed replicas of the baseband
input.
The magnitude of the ith such term is the magnitude of the response on the given path.
The phase is changed by π/2 when the delay on the path changes by 1/(4fc ), or
equivalently, when the path length changes by a quarter wavelength, i.e., by c/(4fc ).
If the path length is changing at velocity v, the time required for such a phase change is
c/(4fc v ).
The Doppler shift D at frequency f is fv /c, and noting that f ≈ fc for narrowband
communication, the time required for a π/2 phase change is 1/(4D).
For the single reflecting wall example, this is about 5 ms (assuming fc = 900MHz and v =
60km/h). The phases of both paths are rotating at this rate but in opposite directions.

S 3S
S 2S
2 2
T
1
T
fc

S
Phase shifted by
2
1
4 fc

Figure 10: Sinusoidal signal phase shifted by 1/fc

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 27 / 49
 Input/output model of the wireless channel A discrete-time baseband model

A discrete-time baseband model

Consider an input waveform is band-limited to W and its baseband equivalent is then
limited to W/2 and can be represented as

xb (t) = x[n]sinc(Wt − n)
n

where x(n) is given by xb (n/W ) and sinc(t) is defined as

sin(πt)
sinc(t) =
πt

The baseband output is given by

 
yb (t) = x[n] aib (t)sinc(Wt − W τi (t) − n)
n i

The sampled outputs at multiples of 1/W, y [m] = yb (m/W ), are then given by
 
y [m] = x[n] aib (m/W )sinc[m − n − τi (m/W )W ]
n i

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 28 / 49

Input/output model of the wireless channel A discrete-time baseband model

Let  = m − n.
 
y [m] = x[m − ] aib (m/W )sinc[ − τi (m/W )W ]
 i

= h [m]x[m − ]
n

where h [m] is denoted as filter tap at time m and is

depend on the gains aib (t) of the paths, whose delays
τi (t) are /W as shown in Figure:12.

h = aib (m/W )sinc[ − τi (m/W )W ]
i

When the gains aib (t) and the delays τi (t) of the paths
are time-invariant, then the channel is linear
time-invariant.

h [m] = aib sinc[ − τi W ]
i Figure 11: Plot of h[m]

The th tap can be interpreted as the sample (/W )th of the low-pass filtered baseband channel
response hb (τ ) convolved with sinc(W τ ).

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 29 / 49

 Input/output model of the wireless channel A discrete-time baseband model

Figure 12: Discrete-Time Impulse Response Model for a Multipath Channel

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 30 / 49

Input/output model of the wireless channel A discrete-time baseband model

The sampling operation can be interpreted as modulation and demodulation in a

communication system.
At time n, the complex symbol x[m] (in-phase plus quadrature components) modulated
by the sinc pulse before the up-conversion.
At the receiver, the received signal is sampled at times m/W at the output of the
low-pass filter.

2 cos2S fct 2 cos2S fct

ƒ[ xb (t )] 1 ƒ[ yb (t )] ƒ[ y[m]]
ƒ[ x[m]]
sin c(Wt  n)

W W

2 2
x(t ) y (t )
h(W , t )

‚[ xb (t )] 1 ‚[ yb (t )] ‚[ y[ m]]
‚[ x[m]]
sin c(Wt  n)
W W

2 2

 2 sin 2S fct  2 sin 2S fct

Figure 13: System diagram of transmitter and receiver.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 31 / 49

 Input/output model of the wireless channel Additive white noise

Additive white noise

Consider an additive noise in our input/output model.
We make the standard assumption that w (t) is zero-mean additive white Gaussian noise
(AWGN) with power spectral density N0 /2 (i.e., E [w (0)w (t) = (N0 /2)δ(t).


y (t) = ai (t)x(t − τi (t)) + w (t)
i

y [m] = hl [m]x[m − l] + w [m]
l

2 cos2S fct 2 cos2S fct

ƒ[ xb (t )] 1 ƒ[ yb (t )] ƒ[ y[m]]
ƒ[ x[m]] w(t )
sin c(Wt  n)

W W

y (t ) 2 2
x(t )
h(W , t )

‚[ xb (t )] 1 ‚[ yb (t )] ‚[ y[m]]
‚[ x[m]]
sin c(Wt  n)
W W

2 2

 2 sin 2S fct  2 sin 2S fct

Figure 14: A complete system diagram.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 32 / 49

Input/output model of the wireless channel Additive white noise

where w[m] is the low-pass filtered noise at the sampling instant m/W.
The white noise w(t) is down-converted, filtered at the baseband and ideally sampled.
 ∞
(w [m]) = w (t)ψm,1 (t)dt
−∞
 ∞
(w [m]) = w (t)ψm,2 (t)dt
−∞

where
√
ψm,1 (t) = 2W cos(2πfc t)sinc(Wt − m)
√
ψm,2 (t) = − 2W sin(2πfc t)sinc(Wt − m)

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 33 / 49

 Time and frequency coherence Doppler spread and coherence time

Doppler spread and coherence time

The channel parameter is the time-scale of the variation of the channel. The variation of the
channel parameter i.e., taps h [m] as a function of time m defined as

h [m] = ai (m/W )e −j2πfc τ (m/W ) sinc[ − τ (m/W )W ]
i

From this expression the significant changes in ai occur over periods of seconds.
Significant changes in the phase of the ith path occur at intervals of 1/(4Di ), where

Di = fc τi (t) is the Doppler shift for that path.
Due to the different Doppler shifts from different paths will have significant changes in
the magnitude of h [m].
The Doppler spread Ds is defined as the largest difference between the Doppler shifts:

 
Ds = max fc |τi (t) − τj (t)|

The Doppler spread Ds is a measure of spectral broadening caused by motion.

If the baseband signal bandwidth is much greater than Ds then the effect of Doppler
spread is negligible at the receiver.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 34 / 49

Time and frequency coherence Doppler spread and coherence time

Coherence Time
The coherence time Tc of a wireless channel is defined as the interval over which h [m] changes
significantly as a function of m.
1
Tc =
4Ds

If the symbol period of a baseband signal is greater than the coherence time, then the
signal will distort, since channel will change during the transmission of the signal.
Coherence time definition implies that two signals arriving with a time separation greater
than Tc are affected differently by the channel.
If the coherence time is defined as the time over which the time correlation function is
above 0.5, then it is approximated as

9 0.179
Tc = =
16fm fm
v
where fm = maximum Doppler shift and is given by fm = fd, max = λ
= v cf
The channels are categorized as fast fading and slow fading.
The channel is fast fading if the coherence time Tc is much shorter than the delay
requirement of the application, and slow fading if Tc is longer.
A channel is fast or slow fading depends not only on the environment but also on the
application.
For example in voice communication, typically has a short delay requirement of less than
100 ms, while some types of data applications can have a laxer delay requirement
Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 35 / 49
 Time and frequency coherence Delay spread and coherence bandwidth

Delay spread and coherence bandwidth

The multipath delay spread, Td , is defined as the difference in propagation time between
the longest and shortest path, counting only the paths with significant energy.
 
Td = max|τi (t) − τj (t)|

In cellular communication coverage distance is of few kilometers or less, hence path

difference is less than 300 to 600 meters and this makes the path delays are of one or two
microseconds.
As cells become smaller due to increased cellular usage, Td also shrinks.
The delay spread Td is much smaller than the coherence time Tc .
The bandwidths of cellular systems range between several hundred kilohertz and several
megahertz, and thus, for the above multipath delay spread, all the path delays lie within
the peaks of two or three sinc functions.
Adding a few extra taps to each channel filter because of the slow decay of the sinc
function, the cellular channels can be represented with at most four or five channel filter
taps.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 36 / 49

Time and frequency coherence Delay spread and coherence bandwidth

The delay spread of the channel dictates its frequency coherence.

Wireless channels change both in time and frequency.
The time coherence shows us how quickly the channel changes in time, and similarly, the
frequency coherence shows how quickly it changes in frequency.
The frequency response at time t is

H(f , t) = ai (t)e −j2πf τi (t)
i

The contribution due to a particular path has a phase linear in f.

For multiple paths, there is a differential phase, 2πf (τi (t) − τk (t))
This differential phase causes selective fading in frequency.
This says that Er (f , t) changes significantly, not only when t changes by 1/(4Ds ), but
also when f changes by 1/(2Ds ). The coherence bandwidth, Wc, is given by
1
Wc =
2Td

The coherence bandwidth is reciprocal to the multipath spread.

When the bandwidth of the input is less than Wc , the channel is referred as flat fading.
In this case, the delay spread Td is much less than the symbol time 1/W, and a single
channel filter tap is sufficient to represent the channel.
When the bandwidth is much larger than Wc , the channel is said to be
frequency-selective, and it has to be represented by multiple taps.
The flat or frequency-selective fading is depends the relationship between the bandwidth
W and the coherence bandwidth Td
Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 37 / 49
 Time and frequency coherence Delay spread and coherence bandwidth

Table 1: physical parameters of the channel

Key channel parameters and time-scales Symbol Representative values
Carrier frequency fc 1 GHz
Communication bandwidth W 1 MHz
Distance between transmitter and receiver d 1 km
Velocity of mobile v 64km/h
Doppler shift for a path D = fc (v /c) 50 Hz
Doppler spread of paths corresponding to a tap Ds 100 Hz
Time-scale for change of path amplitude d/v 1 minute
Time-scale for change of path phase 1/(4D) 5 ms
Time-scale for a path to move over a tap c/(vW ) 20 s
Coherence time Tc = 1/(4Ds ) 2.5 ms
Delay spread Td 1 μs
Coherence bandwidth Wc = 1/2Td 500 kHz

Table 2: Types of wireless channels

Types of channel Defining characteristic
Fast fading Tc  delay requirement
Slow fading Tc  delay requirement
Flat fading W  Wc
Frequency-selective fading W  Wc
Underspread Td  Tc

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 38 / 49

Statistical channel models Modeling philosophy

Modeling philosophy
All analytical work is done with simplified models, like white Gaussian noise is often
assumed in communication models but the model is valid only for small frequency bands.
Doppler spread, multipath spread, etc. are defined for wireless channel with probabilistic
models, but these channels are very different from each other and cannot be characterized
by probabilistic models.
Consider a continuous time multipath fading channel defined as

y (t) = ai (t)x(t − τi (t)) + w (t)
i

The discrete-time baseband model in terms of channel filter taps is


y [m] = h [m]x[m − ] + w [m]


where h [m]

h [m] = ai (m/W )e −j2πfc τ (m/W ) sinc[ − τ (m/W )W ]
i

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 39 / 49

 Statistical channel models Rayleigh Fading Distribution

Rayleigh Fading Distribution

The delays associated with different signal paths in a multipath fading channel change in an
unpredictable manner and can only be characterized statistically. When there are a large number
of paths, the central limit theorem can be applied to model the time-variant impulse response of
the channel as a complex-valued Gaussian random process. When the impulse response is
modeled as a zero mean complex-valued Gaussian process, the channel is said to be a Rayleigh
fading channel.
In mobile radio channels, the Rayleigh distribution is commonly used to describe the
statistical time varying nature of the received envelope of a flat fading signal, or the
envelope of an individual multipath component
The envelope of the sum of two quadrature Gaussian noise signals obeys a Rayleigh
distribution
The simplest probabilistic model for the channel filter taps is based on the assumption
that there are a large number of statistically independent reflected and scattered paths
with random amplitudes in the delay window corresponding to a single tap.
10

−5

−10

−15

−20

−25

−30

−35

−40
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000

Figure 15: Rayleigh distribution.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 40 / 49

Statistical channel models Rayleigh Fading Distribution

The phase of the ith path is 2πfcτi modulo 2π. It is assumed that the phase for each
path is uniformly distributed between 0 and 2π and that the phases of different paths are
independent.
fc τi = di /λ

where di is the distance traveled by the ith path and λ is the carrier wavelength.
Since the reflectors and scatterers are far away relative to the carrier wavelength, i.e.,
di λ,
It is assumed that the phase for each path is uniformly distributed between 0 and 2π and
that the phases of different paths are independent.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 41 / 49

 Statistical channel models Rayleigh Fading Distribution

The contribution of each path in the tap gain h [m] is


h [m] = ai (m/W )e −j2πfc τi (m/W ) sinc[ − τi (m/W )W ]
i

It follows that (h [m]) is the sum of many small independent real random variables, and
so by the Central Limit Theorem, it can reasonably be modeled as a zero-mean Gaussian
random variable.
Similarly, because of the uniform phase,(h [m]e jφ ) is Gaussian with the same variance
for any fixed φ.
The magnitude h [m] of the th tap is a Rayleigh random variable with probability density
function (pdf) is given by
 
x x2
p(x) = 2 exp − 2 x ≥0
σ 2σ

where x is the envelope amplitude of the received signal

σ= rms value of the received voltage signal before envelop detection
σ 2 = time-average power of the received signal before envelop detection

Figure 16: Rayleigh distribution.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 42 / 49

Statistical channel models Ricean Distribution

Ricean Distribution
When there is a dominant stationary (non-fading) signal component present, such as a
line-of-sight propagation path, the small-scale fading envelope distribution is Ricean
The pdf of the Ricean distribution is given by
   
x x 2 + A2 Ax
p(x) = 2 exp − I0 A ≥ 0, x ≥ 0
σ 2σ 2 σ2

where A= peak amplitude of the dominant (LOS) signal

I0 (.) = modified Bessel function of the first kind and zero-order
2
A
k = 2σ 2
Along with line-of-sight propagation (specular) path and if there are also a large number
of independent paths.
In this case hl [m] at least for one value of l can be modeled as

k 1
h [m] = σl e jθ + CN(0, σl 2 )
k +1 k +1

The first term corresponding to specular path and second term corresponding to the
aggregation of the large number of reflected and scattered paths.
The parameter k is the ratio of the energy in the specular path to the energy in the
scattered paths.
Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 43 / 49
 Statistical channel models Tap gain auto-correlation function

Tap gain auto-correlation function

Modeling each h [m] as a complex random variable provides the statistical description.
A statistical quantity that models the rate of channel variation is known as the tap gain
auto-correlation function, R [n]. It is defined as

R [n] = E{h [m]h [m + n]}

For each tap , R [n] gives the auto-correlation function of the sequence of random
variables assuming that this is not a function of time m.
  
h [m] is independent of h [m ] for all  =  and all m, m . This final assumption is
intuitively plausible since paths in different ranges of delay contribute to h [m] for
different values of .

The coefficient R [0] is proportional to the energy received in the th tap.

The multipath spread Td can be defined as the product of 1/W times the range of 
which contains most of the total energy ∞=0 R [0]
The coherence time Tc defined as the smallest value of n > 0 for which R [n] is
significantly different from R [0].

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 44 / 49

Statistical channel models Clarkes model

Clarkes model
This is a popular statistical model for flat fading.
The transmitter is fixed, the mobile receiver is moving at speed v, and the transmitted
signal is scattered by stationary objects around the mobile.
There are K paths, the ith path arriving at an angle θi : 2πi/K , i = 0 . . . K − 1, with
respect to the direction of motion.
The scattered path arriving at the mobile at the angle θ has a delay of τθ (t) and a time
invariant gain aθ (t), and the input/output relationship is given by


K −1
y (t) = aθi x(t − τθi (t))
i=0

The received power distribution p(θ) and the antenna gain pattern α(θ) are functions of
the angle θ
It is assumed as uniform
√ power distribution and isotropic antenna gain pattern, i.e., the
amplitudes aθ = a/ K for all angles θ.
The details of the description is as shown in Figure 17 known as the one ring model.
√
The amplitude of each path scaled by K so that the total received energy along all
paths is a2 .

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 45 / 49

 Statistical channel models Clarkes model

When the communication bandwidth W is much smaller than the reciprocal of the delay
spread, then the complex baseband channel can be represented by a single tap at each
time:
y [m] = h0 [m]x[m] + w [m]

The phase of the signal arriving at time 0 from an angle θ is 2πfc τθ (0) mod 2π, where fc
is the carrier frequency.
Making the assumption that this phase is uniformly distributed in [0, 2π] and
independently distributed across all angles θ, the tap gain process hl [m] is a sum of many
small independent contributions, one from each angle.
By the Central Limit Theorem, it is modeled the process as Gaussian with an
autocorrelation function R0 [n] as shown in Figue 18given by:
R0 [n] = 2a2 πJ0 (nπDs /W )
where J0 (.) is the zeroth-order Bessel function of the first kind
 π
Rx
J0 (x) = e jxcosθ dθ
0

and Ds = 2fc v /c is the Doppler spread. The power spectral

density S(f ), defined on [-1/2, +1/2], is given by

4a2 W Figure 17: The one-ring

S(f ) = 
Ds 1 − (2fW /Ds )2 model.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 46 / 49

Statistical channel models Clarkes model



Figure 18: Auto-correlation function
Figure 19: Doppler spectrum

Sinwave
1
Amplitude

0.5

−0.5

−1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Time, [s]
Autocorrelation function of the sinewave
1000
Autocorrelation

500

−500
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Lags

Figure 20: Auto-correlation function

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 47 / 49
 Statistical channel models Clarkes model

For the following data calculate doppler shift

fc 1850 MHz, 60mile/hour (mph)
Solution
λ = c/fc = 3 × 108 /1850 × 106 = 0.162m
v = 60mph = 26.82m/s
The mobile is moving toward the transmitter, fd = 26.82 / 0.162 = 1850.0 Hz
The mobile is moving away the transmitter, fd = - 1850.0 Hz
Tc = 9/16fm = 2.22ms
If a digital transmission is used, max. symbol rate Rc = 1/Tc = 454 bps.
Distortion could result from multipath time delay spread
Using the practical rule, Tc = 0.423/fm = 6.77ms , max. symbol rate Rc = 1/Tc = 150bps

An aircraft is heading towards a control tower with 500 kmph, at an elevation of 20◦ .
Communication between aircraft and control tower occurs at 900 MHz. Find out the expected
Doppler shift.
Solution
v = 500 kmph
The horizontal component of the velocity is

v = vcosθ = 500 × cos20. = 130m/s
900×106
Hence, it can be written that λ = 3×108
= 13m
130
fd = 1/3
= 390Hz
If the plane banks suddenly and heads for other direction, the Doppler shift change will be
390Hz to -390Hz.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 48 / 49

References

D. Tse and P. Viswanath, Fundamentals of Wireless Communication, 1st ed. Cambridge

University Press, 2005.
T. S. Rappaport, Wireless Communications priinciples and practice, 2nd ed. Prentice-Hall
of India, 2006.

Dr. Manjunatha. P (JNNCE) Wireless Channel[1, 2] March 5, 2015 49 / 49