Unit-1:Multipath & Delay Spread

Delay Spread:

▪ It is a metric that quantifies the dispersion of these multipath signals.

▪ Specifically, it is the time difference between the arrival of the earliest (often the
line-of-sight) multipath component and the last detectable multipath component.

▪ Coherence bandwidth:

▪ Coherence bandwidth is a concept used in wireless communications to describe the

range of frequencies over which the channel can be considered "flat".

▪ A flat channel means that all frequency components of the signal within this
bandwidth experience approximately the same amount of fading.
Unit-1:Significance of Delay Spread
❑ Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI): If the delay spread is large relative to the symbol period of the
transmitted signal, then the delayed versions of one symbol can interfere with subsequent symbols.
This is called inter-symbol interference, and it can severely degrade the performance of a wireless
communication system.

❑ Coherence Bandwidth: The delay spread is inversely related to the coherence bandwidth of the
channel. If the delay spread is large, the coherence bandwidth is small, and vice versa. A signal with
a bandwidth greater than the coherence bandwidth of the channel will experience frequency-
selective fading. Conversely, if the signal's bandwidth is much less than the coherence bandwidth, it
will undergo flat fading.

❑ Channel Equalization: The presence of a significant delay spread necessitates the use of channel
equalization techniques at the receiver to mitigate the effects of ISI.
Unit-1:Mean Delay Spread
Mean Delay Spread:

❑The mean delay of the multipath components is given by:

, where 𝜏𝑖 is the delay of the i-th multipath component.

σ τi P τi
❑τmean = σ P τi

❑𝑃(𝜏𝑖 ) is the power of the ith multipath component.

❑The mean excess delay is then the difference between the mean delay and the
delay of the first arriving path:
𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 = 𝜏𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 − 𝜏0
Unit-1:RMS Delay Spread:
The RMS delay spread:

❑The RMS delay spread is a measure of the spread of the multipath

components around the mean delay. It's given by:

σ P τi τi − τmean 2
τRMS =
σ P τi
Unit-1:RMS Delay Spread:
Criteria/Aspect Flat Fading Frequency Selective Fading
Effect on Bandwidth Affects the entire Affects only certain frequency
bandwidth of the signal components of the signal
equally
Cause Caused by multipath Caused by multipath
propagation with small propagation with large delay
delay spread spread
Delay between Paths No significant delay Significant delay between the
between the multiple paths multiple paths
Signal Attenuation Signal attenuation is Different frequency components
uniform across the of the signal experience different
bandwidth levels of attenuation
Requirement of Equalizer is not typically Equalizer is often required to
Equalizer required mitigate the effects
Unit-2:Diversity combining Techniques
Mitigate Multipath Fading:

Diversity combining techniques are used in wireless

communication systems to enhance the reliability and quality of
signal reception.
Unit-2:Diversity combining Techniques
Mitigate Multipath Fading:

– Wireless signals often travel through multiple paths before

reaching the receiver. These paths can cause constructive and
destructive interference, leading to signal fading.

– Diversity combining helps in mitigating the effects of this

multipath fading.
Unit-2:Diversity combining Techniques
Improve Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR):

– By combining signals received from multiple

independent paths or sources, the effective SNR can be
improved. A higher SNR means better signal quality
and reduced error rates.
Unit-2:Diversity combining Techniques
Enhance System Capacity:

– Diversity techniques can increase the capacity of a

communication system by allowing simultaneous
transmission and reception of multiple signals without
significant interference.
Unit-2:Diversity combining Techniques
Reduce Outage Probability:
– In wireless communication, there's always a chance that the
signal might drop or become too weak to be detected.
– Diversity combining reduces the probability of such outages by
ensuring that there's always an alternative path or source for
the signal.
Unit-2:Diversity combining Techniques

Combat Shadowing and Fading:

– As mobile devices move, they might encounter obstacles or
regions where the signal strength drops significantly
(shadowing). Additionally, the signal strength can vary rapidly
over short distances or time intervals (fast fading).
– Diversity techniques help in combating both shadowing and fast
fading.
Unit-2:Diversity combining Techniques
Flexibility in Design:
– Diversity combining offers flexibility in system design.
For instance, spatial diversity can be achieved using
multiple antennas, while time diversity can be achieved
by transmitting the same information at different time
intervals.
Unit-2:Diversity combining Techniques

Improved Coverage:
With diversity combining, wireless systems can provide better
coverage in challenging environments, such as urban areas with
tall buildings or rural areas with natural obstacles., there's always
a chance that the signal might drop or become too weak to be
detected. Diversity combining reduces the probability of such
outages by ensuring that there's always an alternative path or
source for the signal.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Types
– Selection Combining (SC):

❖ Only the strongest signal among the available diversity branches is selected and used.

❖ It requires a mechanism to compare the signal strengths from all the branches and then select the best
one.

– Equal Gain Combining (EGC):

– Signals from all the diversity branches are co-phased (aligned in phase) and then added together.

– It provides a balance between complexity and performance.

– Maximal Ratio Combining (MRC):

– Signals from all the diversity branches are weighted according to their signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs)
before being summed.

– It provides the best performance among linear combining techniques but requires knowledge of the
SNR of each branch.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Types
Switch and Stay Combining (SSC):

1. The receiver switches to another branch if the current branch's signal falls below a certain threshold.

2. It stays with the new branch until its signal also falls below the threshold.

Space Diversity:

1. Uses multiple antennas at the transmitter, receiver, or both to exploit the spatial dimension.

2. The antennas are placed far enough apart so that the probability of simultaneous deep fades is
minimized.

Frequency Diversity:

1. The signal is transmitted on multiple frequency bands.

2. Due to the different propagation characteristics at different frequencies, it's unlikely that all bands will
experience deep fades at the same time.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Types
Time Diversity:

– The signal is transmitted at different time intervals.

– By retransmitting the signal multiple times, the receiver has multiple chances to correctly decode it.

Polarization Diversity:

– Uses antennas with different polarizations (e.g., vertical and horizontal) to receive the signal.

– Different polarizations of a signal can experience different fading characteristics.

Angle Diversity:

– Uses directional antennas to receive signals from different directions.

– Different directions can have different multipath fading characteristics.

Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Selection Combining
❖ Diversity combining is a method used in wireless
communication to improve the reliability of data transfer.
❖ The principle behind diversity is that multiple replicas of a
signal are transmitted and/or received and then combined in
the receiver to improve the signal quality. The primary
motivation for using diversity is to overcome the deleterious
effects of multipath fading.
❖ Selection Combining (SC) is one of the simplest and most
widely used diversity combining techniques.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Selection Combining
❖ In Selection Combining (SC), multiple copies (or
branches) of the same signal are received through
different paths or antennas. The receiver then
selects the strongest signal among these copies
and processes only that signal. This is done based
on the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) or other
quality metrics.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Working Principle of SC
❖ Multiple Branches: There are multiple reception branches
(could be different antennas, different frequency bands, etc.).
❖ Signal Strength Measurement: The strength of the signal in
each branch is measured. This can be done by measuring the
SNR or any other relevant metric.
❖ Selection: The branch with the highest signal strength (or best
quality metric) is selected.
❖ Processing: Only the selected branch's signal is processed and
used for further decoding or demodulation. The other branches
are ignored.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Advantages of SC

❖ Simplicity: Among all diversity combining techniques, SC is one

of the simplest to implement.
❖ Low Complexity: Since only one branch is processed, the
complexity and power consumption can be lower compared to
other techniques that might combine signals from all branches.
❖ Effective in Overcoming Fading: By always choosing the best
branch, SC effectively mitigates the effects of multipath fading.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Disadvantages of SC

❖ Wasted Resources: The signals in non-selected branches are

ignored, which means there's potential information being
discarded.
❖ Not Always Optimal: In situations where the signal strength
across branches is comparable, other combining techniques like
maximal ratio combining might offer better performance.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Applications of SC
Selection Combining is commonly used in:
❖ Wireless Communication Systems: To improve signal quality
and reliability in environments with multipath fading.
❖ MIMO Systems: In Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO)
systems, SC can be used to select the best antenna pair for
transmission and reception.
❖ Satellite Communications: To select the best satellite or beam
for communication.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Applications of SC
Consider a system with N diversity branches. The signal received
in the ith branch can be represented as:
𝒓𝒊 = 𝒉𝒊 · 𝑺 + 𝒏𝒊
Where:
• 𝒓𝒊 is the received signal in the ith branch.
• s is the transmitted signal.
• hi is the channel fading coefficient for the ith branch.
• ni is the noise in the ith branch.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Applications of SC
The Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) for the ith branch is:

SNR
Where:
• Ps is the power of the transmitted signal s.
• Pn is the power of the noise ni.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Applications of SC

For Selection Combining, the receiver selects the branch

with the maximum SNR. Let’s denote the branch with
the highest SNR as SNRmax Then:
SNRmax = max(SNR1,SNR2,...,SNRN)
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Applications of SC
Average Output SNR:
The average output SNR for Selection Combining can be derived
by considering the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the
SNR for each branch. If F(𝜸) represents the CDF of SNR, then the
probability that the maximum SNR is less than some value 𝜸 is:
𝑷(𝑺𝑵𝑹𝒎𝒂𝒙 < 𝜸) = 𝑭(𝜸). 𝑵
The average output SNR for SC can then be calculated as:
SNRavg
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Maximal Ratio Combining
(MRC)

o MRC is a method of combining signals in telecommunications.

MRC is a type of receive diversity technique that improves the
signal quality of the receive end.
o MRC is similar to classical beamforming.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Maximal Ratio Combining
(MRC)
o MRC works by weighting each received signal branch with a
factor that is proportional to the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of
that branch.
i.e. give more weight to the branches that have a higher SNR, and
less weight to those with a lower SNR.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Maximal Ratio Combining
(MRC)
In MRC each signal branch is multiplied by a weight factor that is
proportional to the signal amplitude. That is, branches with
strong signal are further amplified, while weak signals are
attenuated.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Maximal Ratio Combining
(MRC)

𝑦 = ෍ 𝑤𝑖 𝑟𝑖
𝑖=1

𝑟𝑖 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑒𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑐ℎ

𝑤𝑖 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑏𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑐ℎ,
ℎ𝑖∗
𝑤𝑖 =
ℎ𝑖 2 + σ2
ℎ𝑖 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑒𝑙 𝑐𝑜 − 𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑡ℎ branch
σ2 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑖𝑠𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒
ℎ𝑖∗ ) 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑥 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑗𝑢𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑖
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Maximal Ratio Combining
(MRC)
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Maximal Ratio Combining
(MRC): Benefits

Benefits of MRC
❖ Improved SNR: MRC can significantly improve the SNR of the
combined signal, leading to a lower bit error rate (BER).
❖ Combats Fading: By optimally combining the signals from
different branches, MRC can effectively mitigate the effects of
multipath fading.
❖ Efficient Utilization: MRC makes the most out of the available
diversity branches, ensuring maximum signal strength at the
output.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Maximal Ratio Combining
(MRC): Drawbacks and Challenges

• Requires CSI: MRC needs accurate Channel State Information

(CSI) at the receiver. If the CSI is not accurate, the
performance of MRC can degrade.

• Complexity: As the number of diversity branches increases,

the computational complexity of MRC also increases.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Maximal Ratio Combining
(MRC): Application Areas

MRC is widely used in various wireless communication

systems including:
• Cellular systems (like LTE, 5G)
• Wireless LANs (like Wi-Fi)
• Satellite communications
• MIMO systems
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Threshold Combining

❑ In Threshold Combining, each branch or channel's

signal strength (or SNR - Signal-to-Noise Ratio) is
compared to a predetermined threshold.
❑ Only those signals that surpass this threshold are
considered for further processing or combining.
❑ The idea behind this method is to discard weak
signals that might deteriorate the combined signal
quality.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Operational Steps
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Threshold Combining

Choosing the Threshold:

❑ The threshold value is crucial in TC. It determines which
signals are "good enough" to be considered. The threshold
should ideally be set considering:

❑ The expected SNR or signal strength in the operating environment.

❑ The desired quality of service or error rate.
❑ The noise level in the environment.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Threshold Combining

Advantages:
• Simplicity: TC is relatively simple to implement compared to other
diversity techniques.
• Reduced Noise: By discarding weak signals, TC can potentially reduce
the impact of noise and interference on the combined signal.
Disadvantages:
❖ Potential for Discarding Useful Signals: Depending on the threshold level,
TC might discard signals that could have been useful in improving the
combined signal quality.
❖ Performance Variability: The performance of TC can vary significantly
based on the threshold setting. An improperly set threshold can lead to
sub-optimal performance.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Equal Gain Combining
(EGC)

❑ In equal gain combining, all received signals are combined

with equal weights.
❑ It is a simple form of maximal ratio combining (MRC), where
the signals are combined with weights proportional to their
SNR.
❑ In EGC, the phase of each received signal is adjusted to be
coherent with the desired signal, but their amplitudes are
not scaled.
Unit-2:Diversity Techniques: Equal Gain Combining
(EGC)