Module 1

Radio propagation over

wireless channel
 Key Topics
• Radio propagation fundamentals
• Radio propagation in atmospheric layers
• Radio communication cases
• Free space propagation model
• Various channel noises and losses
• Multipath fading effects
• Delay spread: small-scale fading and large-scale fading
• Coherence bandwidth: flat fading and frequency-selective
fading
• Doppler effect: fast fading and slow fading
• Shadowing
Wireless channel and radio propagation fundamentals

A wireless channel is a dielectric unguided medium that can be

analysed in the following different ways:
• By using the fundamentals of electromagnetic (EM) wave theory,
such as phase velocity, phase propagation constant, amplitude,
frequency, and phase
• By using ray theory, refractive index dependence, reflection,
refraction, and diffraction of EM waves (rays)
• By using the fundamentals of digital signal processing (DSP) such as
channel transfer function, spectrum, channel impulse response
(CIR), and convolution with transmitting signal
 Radio Waves
EM waves are the energy propagated through free space at the
velocity of light (3 × 108 m/s).
 Linear, circular, and elliptical polarized waves

The electric component of the wave results from the voltage

changes that occur as the antenna element is excited by the
alternating waveform. This electric field is measured in terms of the
change of potential over a given distance, for example, volts per
metre, and this is known as the field strength .
 Polarization
Polarization of an EM wave indicates the plane in which it is
vibrating.
• Linear polarization It includes vertical and horizontal
polarizations, which are the most straightforward forms.
Here, the wave can be thought of as vibrating in one plane.
• Circular polarization It can be visualized by imagining a
signal propagating from a rotating antenna. The tip of the
electric field vector can be seen to trace a helix or corkscrew
as it travels away from the antenna. Circular polarization
can be either right-handed or lefthanded, depending upon
the direction of rotation as seen from the transmitting
antenna.
• Elliptical polarization It occurs when there is a combination
of both linear and circular polarizations.
 Basic Propagation Mechanisms
• Line of sight The line-of-sight (LOS) propagation is the wave propagation in which
the EM ray follows a straight line from the transmitter to the receiver. It is shown
as a direct ray in the next figure.
• Non-line of sight The non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation mechanism is based
on and is the resultant of the following mechanisms:
• Reflection This occurs when the propagating wave impinges on an object that is
larger than its wavelength. Examples of such objects are the surface of the earth,
buildings, and walls.
• Diffraction This occurs when the radio path between the transmitter and the
receiver is obstructed by a surface with sharp irregular edges, which results in
the waves bending around the obstacle. Diffraction is more with low- frequency
(LF) signals than with high-frequency (HF)
• Scattering This occurs when the propagating wave is obstructed by objects that
are smaller than its wavelength. Examples of such objects are lamp posts, foliage,
street signs, and particles in the air.
• Refraction Due to variations in the refractive index of the atmospheric layers, the
EM wave bends (in the cases other than satellite communication).
• All the effects described in the previous slide except
refraction are shown in Figure below, an urban
scenario
 Propagation Channel Effects
• Attenuation It is the drop in the signal power when it is being
transmitted from one point to another. It is caused by the
transmission path length, obstructions in the signal path, and
multipath effect.
• Fading As there are obstacles and reflectors in the wireless
propagation channel, the transmitted signal arrives at the receiver
from various directions over multiple paths. Such a phenomenon is
called multipath. Fading is the result of multipath in which the signal
strength varies continuously with respect to distance and with time
from the transmitter to the receiver along with the attenuation
• Shadowing This occurs whenever there is an obstruction between
the transmitter and the receiver, and it can be observed in long-
distance as well as short distance communication. It is generally
caused by buildings and hills.
 Types of Channels
• Time-invariant non-dispersive channel
– Example: Microwave point-to-point links or satellite communication links
are established for very large distance communication where LOS is
established or the signal penetrates the atmospheric layers correspondingly
and hence, there are no significant reflections or multipaths.

The dynamic range required at the receiver will consequently be small.

• Time-variant dispersive channel

– Example: Multipath links are usually described by the resultant of both the
following:
• Line-of-sight component The direct path between the transmitter and the
receiver
• Non-line-of-sight components The path due to the reflection from reflectors,
scatterers, and diffractors

The dynamic range required at the receiver will consequently be large

Radio Propagation in Atmospheric Layers

Two important
layers are
Troposphere and
ionosphere,
that are described
next .
 Troposphere
• It is found that low clouds occur at altitudes of up to 2 km,
whereas medium-level clouds extend to about 4 km and the
highest clouds are found at altitudes up to 10 km. Modern jet
airliners fly above this at altitudes of up to 15 km.
• Within the troposphere, there is generally a steady fall in
temperature with height. The fall in the temperature continues in
the troposphere until the tropopause is reached. This is the area
where the temperature gradient levels out and then the
temperature starts to rise. At this point, the temperature is
approximately −50°C.
• The refractive index of the air in the troposphere plays a
dominant role in radio signal propagation. The refractive index
depends on the temperature, pressure, and humidity.
 Ionosphere
• This is a region where there is a very high level of free electrons and
ions. It is found that free electrons affect radio waves.

• Free electrons are due to ultraviolet rays of sun striking the molecules in
the upper atmosphere.

• Although ions and electrons are present at lower altitudes, the number
of ions starts to rise noticeably at an altitude of about 30 km. However,
only at about the 60 km mark, it rises to a degree sufficient to have any
major effect on radio signals.

• This layer is mainly responsible for the phase errors in satellite

transmissions, especially in global positioning system (GPS)

• Ionospheric layers are divided into four layers and are given the
designations D, E, F1, and F2 layers. D layer disappears at night.
 Radio communication cases
• Long-distance Communication
– Can be categorized into various types depending upon the effects of
the media through which the signals propagate.
1. Free space propagation
2. Ground wave propagation
3. Ionospheric propagation or sky wave propagation
4. Tropospheric propagation or space wave propagation
• Short- and Medium-distance Communications
– NLOS multipath effects are observed majorly.
– Urban scenario.
Optical Horizon and Radio Horizon

Optical horizon
is just like the visual limit of
the transmitter to see the
receiver.
Radio horizon
is the locus of points at
which the direct rays from
an antenna are tangential to
the
surface of the earth.
Effects of Multipath with few terms
• Due to multipath effect, multiple versions of the transmitted
signal reach the receiver, which cause intersymbol interference
(ISI) or delay spread.
• It becomes very hard to extract the original information without
complicated equalizers or some modulation schemes designed to
combat ISI.
• The common representation of a multipath channel is the channel
impulse response (CIR), which is the response at the receiver if a
single impulse is transmitted. It can be calculated by channel
estimation procedures.
• Mobility of users, and hence mobile receivers, or mobility of
surrounding objects can cause a shift in the received carrier
frequency, which is called Doppler effect .
Multipath Scenario
 Free Space Propagation Model
• Free space propagation model is a Friis model.
• Free space is the space that does not interfere with the normal
radiation and propagation of radio waves. Thus, it does not
have any magnetic or gravitational fields, solid bodies, and
ionized particles.
• The concept of free space is used to study wave propagation in
a simplified manner, and the same conditions are then applied
to different categories of long-distance communication with
the actual scenario.
• It gives law or mathematical relationship for power vs distance.
• Power radiated from antenna propagates in space. This action
can also be related to the term power density, which is radiated
power per unit area. Power density reduces with distance.
 Free Space Propagation Scenario
Friis free space model is valid only for the values of d that are in the far
field of the transmitting antenna and less than the radio horizon.
The far field is called Fraunhofer region , from
the name of its inventor. For carrier wavelength
 Mathematical Derivation
• Considering the isotropic source of the transmitted
power (which may be a half-wave dipole antenna), the
flux density at a distance d can be calculated as

• Considering the gain of the transmitting antenna, we

get Effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) = Pt × Gt

• The power Pr received by a receiver antenna with an

area
– Ar = Flux (power) density × area of the receiver
antenna that receives the flux density
= F ×  Ar watts
– where Ar = Ae is the effective area of the receiving antenna
and  is the antenna aperture efficiency.
 Mathematical
Cont’d Derivation
• Substituting the value of F

• Now, the receiving antenna gain is

calculated as

• Now substituting wavelength

 Cont’d

If the wavelength is constant, the loss simply depends upon the

distance d between the isotropic transmitter and the receiver.
Considering the real systems, according to Friis free space
equation,

• where L is the system loss factor, which is not related to

propagation. L may be greater than or equal to one. L=1 means
no losses.
Path Loss Law
For unity gain antennas
 Channel Noises and Losses
Different Types of Noises
• External noise: This is caused by the surroundings of the transmitter and the receiver.
• Atmospheric noise: The atmospheric noise is generally called static and it is caused by the
natural disturbances occurring in the atmosphere. It is additive in nature. As atmospheric
noise has an infinite spectrum, just like white light, it is also called white noise .
• Extraterrestrial noise: This is of two types: solar and cosmic. Sun radiation causes solar
noise. Distant stars and galaxies are responsible for the cosmic noise.
• Industrial noise In urban, suburban, and other industrial areas. Automobiles and aircraft
ignition, electric motors and switching equipment, leakage from high-voltage lines, a
multitude of other heavy electric machines, and many such factors cause this type of noise.
• Internal noise This is caused by the components and connections used in the hardware of
transmitters and receivers.
• Thermal agitation noise : The noise generated in the resistance or the resistive component
is random and is referred to as the thermal, agitation, white, or Johnson noise.
• Shot noise: The most important of all the other sources is the shot effect . It leads to shot
noise in all amplifying devices and virtually all active devices such as transistors.
• Transit time noise: Due to transit time between emitter to collector at frequencies in the
upper VHF range and above, transit time effect takes place, and due to the noise input
admittance of the transistor increases.
• Intermodulation noise : Apart from this, when signals at different frequencies share the
• same transmission medium, it may result in intermodulation noise .
 Noise Parameters
• Noise factor: For components such as resistors, it is the ratio
of the noise produced by the real resistor to the simple
thermal noise of an ideal resistor. For a system, it is the ratio
of output noise power to input noise power.

• Noise figure It is a figure of merit. Noise figure (NF) is the

noise factor converted to decibel notation.

• Noise temperature It is a means for specifying noise in

terms of an equivalent temperature. The equivalent noise
temperature Te is not a physical temperature of the amplifier
or antenna but rather a theoretical or hypothetical construct
that represents the proportional amount of the noise
power.
Fading in land mobile systems
• Fading is majorly due to multipath as per
following scenario

Two types:
Large scale fading
Small scale fading
Fading Channel Manifestation
Difference between large and small scale fading
 Large scale fading

Large scale fading is mainly due to two effects : Attenuation and Shadowing
Small scale fading

Major Reasons:

•Random frequency
modulation due to varying
Doppler shifts on different
multipath signals

• Time dispersion (echoes)

caused by multipath
propagation delays due to
nearby objects

• Movement of surrounding
objects
Delay spread and Intersymbol interference
Delay spread effect is mainly due to small-scale fading. This can result in ISI or
bits crashing or smearing into one another.
 Measuring Access Delay
There is some finite delay between the time at which the antenna
receives the first copy of the signal on the shortest path and that
at which it receives the last copy of the same signal on the longest
path.
• Maximum delay time spread It is the total time interval during
which reflections with significant energy arrive.
• Root mean square delay spread It is the standard deviation (or
root mean square) value of the delay of reflections weighted
proportional to the energy in the reflected waves.
Inter-symbol Interference due to delay spread

ISI results in bit errors.

 Ways to reduce intersymbol interference
• Various types of equalizers are used to reject ISI.
• The orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)
modulation provides a fairly strong and simple ISI rejection
mechanism using cyclic prefix. Moreover, the symbol rate can be
reduced by reducing the data rate for each channel, that is, by
splitting the bandwidth into more channels using OFDM.
• It is possible to (ideally) remove the interference between
different symbols using a filter satisfying the Nyquist zero ISI
criterion.
• It is possible to manage ISI by controlling the transmission rate in
general.
Doppler Shift or Spread Scenario
Jake’s Model for Doppler Effect
 Doppler Power Spectrum
(for a sine wave suffering from Doppler effect)
 Excess Delay
There are two different forms of multipath scattering depending on
the excess time delay of the given channel tap: small excess and
large excess.
• Small excess time delays The channel taps may be modelled as
the successive of multipath components that are received from
the scatterers close to the mobile. This gives rise to the classical
Doppler power spectrum of the received multipath components.
• Large excess time delays The classical Doppler model does not
provide a satisfactory geometric model for this type of scattering.
Instead, multipath energy is more likely to have a narrow Doppler
spread, having risen from the reflections of isolated obstacles,
such as buildings or hills.
 Fading effects on signal and frequency
components

Correlation between delay spread and coherence bandwidth (time

spreading) as well as definition of flat and frequency-selective fading
• When the transmitted data rate is much smaller than the
coherence bandwidth, the wireless channel is referred to as
a flat channel or narrowband channel, and the effect that
the signal undergoes is called flat fading. In flat fading, all
the frequency components of the transmitted signal will be
equally affected and will be received with almost equal
power level.

• When the transmitted data rate is closely equal to or larger

than the coherence bandwidth, such a channel is called a
frequency-selective channel or wideband channel, and the
fading effect in this situation is called frequency-selective
fading. In this case, one can find the different power levels
of the different frequency components.
Correlation between Doppler spread and coherence time (time variance) as well as
definition of slow and fast fading
• For receivers that change their location relative to
the transmitter, other factors like Doppler spread
in addition to multipath reflection affect the
signal’s amplitude and phase. To distinguish them
from time spreading, these effects can be
described as time variance or spatial variance .
• This tells us about how rapidly the fading
conditions are changing. Coherence time is the
important factor, with respect to which the slow
and fast fading can be decided.
– If the symbol period is longer than the coherence time
( Ts > T0 ), the channel exhibits fast fading
– If Ts < T0 (or W > fd ), the channel exhibits slow fading
 Shadowing
• Shadowing is the effect that causes the received signal power to
fluctuate because of the objects obstructing the propagation
path between the transmitter and receiver.
• These fluctuations are experienced on local mean power, that is,
short-term average of fluctuations due to multipath fading.
• Shadowing complicates practical cell planning. To fully predict
local shadow attenuation, up-to-date and highly detailed terrain
databases are needed.
 Important Unit Conversions
• dBW (decimal-watt) If the value of 1 W is selected as the
reference, then the absolute level of power is defined as
Power in dBW = 10log10 (power in W/1W)

• dBm ( decimal-milliwatt ) If the value of 1 mW is selected

as the reference, then the absolute level of power is defined
as
Power in dBm = 10log10 (power in W/1mW)

• These units are extensively used in microwave applications.