Rayleigh and Ricean Distributions

8/8/2018 Rayleigh and Ricean Distributions - National Instruments
Rayleigh and Ricean Distributions

Publish Date: Jul 19, 2018
Overview
National Instruments has partnered with Prentice Hall to bring you large portions of in-depth technical topics from several PTR
RF and Communications books, including Digital Communications: Fundamentals and Applications, 2nd Edition
(http://www.informit.com/title/0130847887). This series of content is designed for a broad range of audiences, from experts
who want to review a specific topic to students who need easy-to-understand documentation for their projects.
Table of Contents
1. 5.6 Rayleigh and Ricean Distributions
2. 5.6.2 Ricean Fading Distribution
3. Relevant NI products
4. Buy the Book
1. 5.6 Rayleigh and Ricean Distributions

5.6.1 Rayleigh Fading Distribution
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. It is well known that the envelope of the sum of two quadrature Gaussian noise
signals obeys a Rayleigh distribution. Figure 5.15 shows a Rayleigh distributed signal envelope as a
function of time. The Rayleigh distribution has a probability density function (pdf) given by
where σ is the rms value of the received voltage signal before envelope detection, and σ2 is the
time-average power of the received signal before envelope detection. The probability that the
Figure 5.15 A typical Rayleigh fading envelope at 900 MHz [from [Fun93] © IEEE].
envelope of the received signal does not exceed a specified value R is given by the corresponding
cumulative distribution function (CDF)
The mean value rmean of the Rayleigh distribution is given by
and the variance of the Rayleigh distribution is given by σ2r , which represents the ac power in
the signal envelope
The rms value of the envelope is the square root of the mean square, or
http://www.ni.com/white-paper/14912/en/ 1/3
where σ is the standard deviation of the original complex Gaussian signal prior to
envelope detection.
The median value of r is found by solving
and is
Thus the mean and the median differ by only 0.55 dB in a Rayleigh fading signal. Note
that the median is often used in practice, since fading data are usually measured in the field and
a particular distribution cannot be assumed. By using median values instead of mean values, it is
easy to compare different fading distributions which may have widely varying means.
Figure 5.16 illustrates the Rayleigh pdf. The corresponding Rayleigh cumulative distribution
function (CDF) is shown in Figure 5.17.
2. 5.6.2 Ricean Fading Distribution
When there is a dominant stationary (nonfading) signal component present, such as a line-ofsight
propagation path, the small-scale fading envelope distribution is Ricean. In such a situation,
random multipath components arriving at different angles are superimposed on a stationary
dominant signal. At the output of an envelope detector, this has the effect of adding a dc component
to the random multipath.
Just as for the case of detection of a sine wave in thermal noise [Ric48], the effect of a
dominant signal arriving with many weaker multipath signals gives rise to the Ricean distribution.
As the dominant signal becomes weaker, the composite signal resembles a noise signal
which has an envelope that is Rayleigh. Thus, the Ricean distribution degenerates to a Rayleigh
distribution when the dominant component fades away.
Figure 5.16 Rayleigh probability density function (pdf).
Figure 5.17 Cumulative distribution for three small-scale fading measurements and their fit to
Rayleigh, Ricean, and log-normal distributions [from [Rap89] © IEEE].
The Ricean distribution is given by
The parameter A denotes the peak amplitude of the dominant signal and I0(•) is the
modified Bessel function of the first kind and zero-order. The Ricean distribution is often
described in terms of a parameter K which is defined as the ratio between the deterministic signal
power and the variance of the multipath. It is given by K= A2/ (2σ2) or, in terms of dB
Figure 5.18 Probability density function of Ricean distributions:K = – ∞ dB (Rayleigh) and

K=6 dB. For K >> 1, the Ricean pdf is approximately Gaussian about the mean.
The parameter K is known as the Ricean factor and completely specifies the Ricean distribution.
As A → 0, K → –∞ dB, and as the dominant path decreases in amplitude, the Ricean
distribution degenerates to a Rayleigh distribution. Figure 5.18 shows the Ricean pdf. The
Ricean CDF is compared with the Rayleigh CDF in Figure 5.17.
3. Relevant NI products
Customers interested in this topic were also interested in the following NI products:
RF and Communication Hardware and Software
(http://www.ni.com/rf)
Other Modular Instruments (digital multimeters, digitizers, switching, etc...) (http://www.ni.com/modularinstruments/)
LabVIEW Graphical Programming Environment (http://www.ni.com/labview/)
For the complete list of tutorials, return to the NI RF and Communications Fundamentals Main page
(http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/3992).
4. Buy the Book
Publication Information
Author: Theodore S. Rappaport Book: Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice

(2nd Edition)
Copyright: 2002 ISBN: 0130422320
Purchase Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice (2nd Edition) (http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?

isbn=0130422320) from Prentice Hall
Legal Note
Excerpt from the book published by Prentice Hall Professional (http://www.phptr.com (http://www.phptr.com)). Copyright Prentice Hall Inc. 2006. All rights reserved.

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8/8/2018 Rayleigh and Ricean Distributions - National Instruments

1. 5.6 Rayleigh and Ricean Distributions

The mean value rmean of the Rayleigh distribution is given by

Figure 5.16 Rayleigh probability density function (pdf).

Figure 5.18 Probability density function of Ricean distributions:K = – ∞ dB (Rayleigh) and

Author: Theodore S. Rappaport Book: Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice

Copyright: 2002 ISBN: 0130422320

Purchase Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice (2nd Edition) (http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?

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