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Cellular Networks Signal Losses

Wireless signals propagate through three main modes: ground wave, sky wave, and line of sight. Propagation is affected by limitations including attenuation, distortion, dispersion, and noise. Fading, caused by multipath propagation and mobility, refers to variation in signal strength over time and distance. Multipath propagation results in multiple copies of signals arriving through different paths and times, interacting with each other.

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24 views4 pages

Cellular Networks Signal Losses

Wireless signals propagate through three main modes: ground wave, sky wave, and line of sight. Propagation is affected by limitations including attenuation, distortion, dispersion, and noise. Fading, caused by multipath propagation and mobility, refers to variation in signal strength over time and distance. Multipath propagation results in multiple copies of signals arriving through different paths and times, interacting with each other.

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Doncollins Munene
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Propagation Losses

Antennae
Antenna and Wave propagation plays a vital role in wireless communication networks. An
antenna is an electrical conductor or a system of conductors that radiates/collects (transmits or
receives) electromagnetic energy into/from space. An idealized isotropic antenna radiates equally
in all directions.

Propagation Mechanisms
Wireless transmissions propagate in three modes. They are −
 Ground-wave propagation
 Sky-wave propagation
 Line-of-sight propagation
Ground wave propagation follows the contour of the earth, while sky wave propagation uses
reflection by both earth and ionosphere.
Line of sight propagation requires the transmitting and receiving antennas to be within the line
of sight of each other. Depending upon the frequency of the underlying signal, the particular
mode of propagation is followed.
Examples of ground wave and sky wave communication are AM radio and international
broadcasts such as BBC. Above 30 MHz, neither ground wave nor sky wave propagation
operates and the communication is through line of sight.

Transmission Limitations

In this section, we will discuss the various limitations that affect electromagnetic wave
transmissions. Let us start with attenuation.

Attenuation

The strength of signal falls with distance over transmission medium. The extent of attenuation is
a function of distance, transmission medium, as well as the frequency of the underlying
transmission.

Distortion
Since signals at different frequencies attenuate to different extents, a signal comprising of
components over a range of frequencies gets distorted, i.e., the shape of the received signal
changes.
A standard method of resolving this problem (and recovering the original shape) is to amplify
higher frequencies and thus equalize attenuation over a band of frequencies.

Dispersion

Dispersion is the phenomenon of spreading of a burst of electromagnetic energy during


propagation. Bursts of data sent in rapid succession tend to merge due to dispersion.

Noise

The most pervasive form of noise is thermal noise, which is often modeled using an additive
Gaussian model. Thermal noise is due to thermal agitation of electrons and is uniformly
distributed across the frequency spectrum.

Other forms of noise include −

 Inter modulation noise (caused by signals produced at frequencies that are sums or


differences of carrier frequencies)
 Crosstalk (interference between two signals)
 Impulse noise (irregular pulses of high energy caused by external electromagnetic
disturbances).
While an impulse noise may not have a significant impact on analog data, it has a noticeable
effect on digital data, causing burst errors.
The above figure clearly illustrates how the noise signal overlaps the original signal and tries to
change its characteristics.

Fading

Fading refers to the variation of the signal strength with respect to time/distance and is widely
prevalent in wireless transmissions. The most common causes of fading in the wireless
environment are multipath propagation and mobility (of objects as well as the communicating
devices).

Multipath propagation

In wireless media, signals propagate using three principles, which are reflection, scattering, and
diffraction.
 Reflection occurs when the signal encounters a large solid surface, whose size is much
larger than the wavelength of the signal, e.g., a solid wall.
 Diffraction occurs when the signal encounters an edge or a corner, whose size is larger
than the wavelength of the signal, e.g., an edge of a wall.
 Scattering occurs when the signal encounters small objects of size smaller than the
wavelength of the signal.
One consequence of multipath propagation is that multiple copies of a signal propagation along
multiple different paths, arrive at any point at different times. So the signal received at a point is
not only affected by the inherent noise, distortion, attenuation, and dispersion in the channel
but also the interaction of signals propagated along multiple paths.

Delay spread

Suppose we transmit a probing pulse from a location and measure the received signal at the
recipient location as a function of time. The signal power of the received signal spreads over
time due to multipath propagation.
The delay spread is determined by the density function of the resulting spread of the delay over
time. Average delay spread and root mean square delay spread are the two parameters that
can be calculated.

Doppler spread

This is a measure of spectral broadening caused by the rate of change of the mobile radio
channel. It is caused by either relative motion between the mobile and base station or by the
movement of objects in the channel.
When the velocity of the mobile is high, the Doppler spread is high, and the resulting channel
variations are faster than that of the baseband signal, this is referred to as fast fading. When
channel variations are slower than the baseband signal variations, then the resulting fading is
referred to as slow fading.

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