Antennas and Propagation

By Quan Le-Trung, Dr.techn.

http://sites.google.com/site/quanletrung/
Introduction
 An antenna is an electrical conductor or
system of conductors
 Transmission - radiates electromagnetic energy
into space
 Reception - collects electromagnetic energy
from space
 In two-way communication, the same
antenna can be used for transmission and
reception
Radiation Patterns
 Radiation pattern
 Graphical representation of radiation properties of an
antenna
 Depicted as two-dimensional cross section
 Beam width (or half-power beam width)
 Measure of directivity of antenna
 Reception pattern
 Receiving antenna’s equivalent to radiation pattern
Types of Antennas
 Isotropic antenna (idealized)
 Radiates power equally in all directions
 OmniDirectional antennas
 Dipole antennas
 Half-wave dipole antenna (or Hertz antenna)
 Quarter-wave vertical antenna (or Marconi antenna)
 Yagi/Uda-Yagi antennas
 Parabolic Reflective Antenna
Types of Antennas
Types of Antennas
 Types of Antennas

Typical Radiation Pattern of a Directional Antenna with Calibrated Lobes

Antenna Gain
 Antenna gain
 Power output, in a particular direction,
compared to that produced in any direction by a
perfect omnidirectional antenna (isotropic
antenna)
 Effective area (aperature)
 Related to physical size and shape of antenna
 Portion of the power of a passing electro-
magnetic wave which the receiving antenna
delivers to its terminal
Antenna Gain
 Relationship between antenna gain and effective
area
4Ae 4f Ae 2
G 
2 c2
 G = antenna gain
 Ae = effective area
 f = carrier frequency
 c = speed of light (» 3*108 m/s)
  = carrier wavelength
Propagation Modes
 Ground-wave propagation
 Sky-wave propagation
 Line-of-sight propagation
Ground Wave Propagation
Ground Wave Propagation
 Follows contour of the earth
 Can Propagate considerable distances
 Frequencies up to 2 MHz
 Example
 AM radio
Sky Wave Propagation
Sky Wave Propagation
 Signal reflected from ionized layer of atmosphere
back down to earth
 Signal can travel a number of hops, back and forth
between ionosphere and earth’s surface
 Reflection effect caused by refraction
 Examples
 Amateur radio
 CB radio
Line-of-Sight Propagation
Line-of-Sight Propagation
 Transmitting and receiving antennas must be
within line of sight
 Satellite communication – signal above 30 MHz not
reflected by ionosphere
 Ground communication – antennas within effective line
of site due to refraction
 Refraction – bending of microwaves by the
atmosphere
 Velocity of electromagnetic wave is a function of the
density of the medium
 When wave changes medium, speed changes
 Wave bends at the boundary between mediums
Line-of-Sight Equations
 Optical line of sight
d  3.57 h
 Effective, or radio, line of sight
d  3.57 h
 d = distance between antenna and horizon (km)
 h = antenna height (m)
 K = adjustment factor to account for refraction,
rule of thumb K = 4/3
Line-of-Sight Equations
 Maximum distance between two antennas
for LOS propagation:


3.57 h1  h2 
 h1 = height of antenna one
 h2 = height of antenna two
LOS Wireless Transmission
Impairments
 Attenuation and attenuation distortion
 Free space loss/Path-loss
 Noise
 Atmospheric absorption
 Multipath
 Refraction
 Thermal noise
Attenuation
 Strength of signal falls off with distance over
transmission medium
 Attenuation factors for unguided media:
 Received signal must have sufficient strength so that
circuitry in the receiver can interpret the signal
 Signal must maintain a level sufficiently higher than
noise to be received without error
 Attenuation is greater at higher frequencies, causing
distortion
Free Space Loss
 Free space loss, ideal isotropic antenna

Pt 4d  4fd 
2 2
 
Pr 2
c 2

 Pt = signal power at transmitting antenna

 Pr = signal power at receiving antenna

  = carrier wavelength

 d = propagation distance between antennas

8
 c = speed of light (» 3 x 10 m/s)

where d and  are in the same units (e.g., meters)

Free Space Loss
 Free space loss equation can be recast:

Pt  4d 
LdB  10 log  20 log 
Pr   

 20 log   20 logd   21.98 dB

 4fd 
 20 log   20 log  f   20 logd   147.56 dB
 c 
Free Space Loss
 Free space loss accounting for gain of other
antennas
Pt 4  d  d  cd 
2 2 2 2
  
Pr Gr Gt 2
Ar At 2
f Ar At
 Gt = gain of transmitting antenna
 Gr = gain of receiving antenna
 At = effective area of transmitting antenna
 Ar = effective area of receiving antenna
Free Space Loss
 Free space loss accounting for gain of other
antennas can be recast as

LdB  20 log   20 logd   10 log At Ar 

 20 log f   20 logd   10 log At Ar   169.54dB

Path Loss Models
 1 (LoS): free loss space
 2 (LoS + ground reflections): plane earth loss
 3 (plane earth loss + diffraction losses): diffraction
model type 1
 4 (plane earth loss + diffraction losses): diffraction
model type 2
 5 (plane earth loss + diffraction losses): diffraction
model type 3
Categories of Noise
 Thermal Noise
 Intermodulation Noise
 Crosstalk Noise
 Impulse Noise
Thermal Noise
 Thermal noise due to agitation/vibration of
electrons
 Present in all electronic devices and
transmission media
 Cannot be eliminated
 Function of temperature
 Particularly significant for satellite
communication
Thermal Noise
 Amount of thermal noise to be found in a
bandwidth of 1Hz in any device or
conductor is:
N0  kT W/Hz 
 N0 = noise power density in watts per 1 Hz of
bandwidth
 k = Boltzmann's constant = 1.3803 * 10-23 J/K
 T = temperature, in kelvins (absolute temperature)
Thermal Noise
 Noise is assumed to be independent of frequency
 Thermal noise present in a bandwidth of B Hertz
(in watts):

N  kTB
or, in decibel-watts

N  10 log k  10 log T  10 log B

 228.6 dBW  10 log T  10 log B
Noise Terminology
 Intermodulation noise – occurs if signals with
different frequencies share the same medium
 Interference caused by a signal produced at a frequency
that is the sum or difference of original frequencies
 Crosstalk – unwanted coupling between signal
paths
 Impulse noise – irregular pulses or noise spikes
 Short duration and of relatively high amplitude
 Caused by external electromagnetic disturbances, or
faults and flaws in the communications system
Expression Eb/N0
 Ratio of signal energy per bit to noise power
density per Hertz
Eb S / R S
 
N0 N0 kTR
 S: Transmitted Signal Power
 R: Bit Rate
 The bit error rate for digital data is a function of
Eb/N0
 Given a value for Eb/N0 to achieve a desired error rate,
parameters of this formula can be selected
 As bit rate R increases, transmitted signal power must
increase to maintain required Eb/N0
Other Impairments
 Atmospheric absorption – water vapor and
oxygen contribute to attenuation
 Multipath – obstacles reflect signals so that
multiple copies with varying delays are
received
 Refraction – bending of radio waves as they
propagate through the atmosphere
Multipath Propagation
Multipath Propagation
 Reflection - occurs when signal encounters a
surface that is large relative to the wavelength of
the signal
 Diffraction - occurs at the edge of an impenetrable
body that is large compared to wavelength of radio
wave
 Scattering – occurs when incoming signal hits an
object whose size in the order of the wavelength
of the signal or less
The Effects of Multipath
Propagation
 Multiple copies of a signal may arrive at
different phases
 If phases add destructively, the signal level
relative to noise declines, making detection
more difficult
 Intersymbol interference (ISI)
 One or more delayed copies of a pulse may
arrive at the same time as the primary pulse for
a subsequent bit
Types of Fading
 Fast fading
 Slow fading
 Flat fading
 Selective fading
 Rayleigh fading
 Rician fading
 See more definitions from Wiki
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fading
Error Compensation Mechanisms
 Forward error correction
 Adaptive equalization
 Diversity techniques
Forward Error Correction
 Transmitter adds error-correcting code to data
block
 Code is a function of the data bits
 Receiver calculates error-correcting code from
incoming data bits
 If calculated code matches incoming code, no error
occurred
 If error-correcting codes don’t match, receiver attempts
to determine bits in error and correct
Adaptive Equalization
 Can be applied to transmissions that carry analog
or digital information
 Analog voice or video
 Digital data, digitized voice or video
 Used to combat intersymbol interference
 Involves gathering dispersed symbol energy back
into its original time interval
 Techniques
 Lumped analog circuits
 Sophisticated digital signal processing algorithms
Diversity Techniques
 Diversity is based on the fact that individual
channels experience independent fading events
 Space diversity – techniques involving physical
transmission path
 Frequency diversity – techniques where the signal
is spread out over a larger frequency bandwidth or
carried on multiple frequency carriers
 Time diversity – techniques aimed at spreading
the data out over time