MODULE- 1

Wireless
Fundamentals
Presented by: Ms Deepthi S R
B. E, M. Tech (Ph.D)
Assistant Professor
Department of ECE, SJEC
 CONTENT
• Communication system building blocks
• The broadband wireless channel: Path loss and shadowing
• Cellular systems:
• Cellular Concept
• Analysis of Cellular Systems
• Sectoring
• The broadband wireless channel: Fading
• Delay Spread and Coherence Bandwidth
• Doppler Spread and Coherence Time
• Angular spread and Coherence Distance
• Modeling broadband fading channels
• Statistical channel models.
Communication system building blocks

wireless digital communication system

 Communication system building blocks

Transmitter
Encoder: Function is to add redundancy to the bits. This redundancy helps in error
correction at the receiver end
Modulator: It converts it into signals suitable for transmission. It performs various operations
necessary to prepare the digital signal for the wireless channel
Channel
RF Module (Transmitter Side): Converts the digital signal into an analog format and then to
radio frequency (RF) signals that are transmitted over the air
Wireless Channel: It can be affected by various environmental factors like noise,
interference, and signal attenuation
 Communication system building blocks

Receiver
RF Module (Receiver Side): Receives the RF signals from the wireless
channel and converts them back into analog or digital format.
Demodulator: Processes the received signals to retrieve the modulated data.
Decoder: Takes the demodulated signals and decodes them, correcting errors
that might have occurred during transmission.
 The broadband wireless channel: Path
loss and shadowing
Key Wireless Channel Parameters:
 The broadband wireless channel: Path
loss and shadowing
Key Wireless Channel Parameters:
 The broadband wireless channel: Path
loss and shadowing
Key Wireless Channel Parameters:
Path loss -Free space propagation model -setting up the
environment
Assumptions

#1. Antenna are lossless

#2. Antennas are Isotropic

Gt Gr
#3. No obstacles considered

Aim: To predict the amount

D of signal that can be
Pt Pr
effectively received at the
TRANSMITTER RECEIVER
receiver end Pr
 Path Loss

Friis formula
Shadowing Temporary degradation of
signal strength caused by
obstacles like buildings and
trees between the transmitter
and receiver.
 Shadowing

● With shadowing, the empirical path loss

formula is Pr=Pt⋅Po⋅χ(do/d)α
● Shadowing is caused by macroscopic
objects and typically has a correlation
distance in the order of meters or tens of
meters - "large-scale fading."
● The shadowing value, χ is often modeled
as a lognormal random variable, defined
as:
 Cellular Concept

Cellular Concept Frequency Reuse

• The service area in cellular • To maximize the use of the available spectrum,
networks is divided into smaller the same frequency can be used in different
areas called cells, each served by cells that are sufficiently distant from each
its own base station. other to avoid interference.
• Division allows efficient • The frequency reuse factor f is defined as f≤ 1,
management of frequency spectra where f=1 means that all cells reuse all the
and minimizes interference by frequencies.
controlling the power levels at • Accordingly, f=1/3 implies that a given
each base station. frequency band is used by only 1 out of 3 cells.
● Hexagonal cellular system model with
frequency reuse factor f=1/7, where cells
labelled with the same letter use the
same frequency channels.

● In this model, a cluster is outlined in

bold and consists of seven cells with
different frequency channels
●
 Increased Capacity:
Advantages of Cellular ● Making the cells smaller and turning down the
power
systems
Support for Mobility:
● Handoff process - Seamless call transfer from
one cell to another or from one base station to
another

Need for more base stations (and their associated

Drawback hardware costs), and the need for frequent
handoffs
 Analysis of Cellular Systems

key aspects:
● Capacity
● Interference management
● Handoff mechanisms
● System performance
Co-Channel Interference (CCI):
Occurs when different cells using the same frequency band interfere with each other.
This interference is a major limiting factor in the performance of cellular systems.

Mitigation:
● Frequency Reuse: Frequencies are reused in non-adjacent cells to minimize
interference. The frequency reuse factor, f, determines how often a frequency
can be reused in the system.
● Sectoring: Dividing cells into smaller sectors using directional antennas
reduces co-channel interference by focusing signal transmission in specific
directions.
Co-Channel Reuse Ratio (Z):
● The co-channel reuse ratio is defined as the ratio of the distance between the centers
of co-channel cells (D) to the radius of a cell (R):
( hexagonal cell structure)
● A lower value of f reduces co-channel interference so that it improves the quality of
the communication link and capacity
● A higher reuse ratio results in better spatial isolation between cells, reducing
interference but decreasing spectral efficiency.

Other cell interference (OCI) is a decreasing function of the radius of the cell ( R)
and the distance to the center of the neighboring co-channel cell and an increasing
function of transmit power
Signal-to-Interference Ratio (SIR):
● SIR is the ratio of the received signal power to the interference power from other
co-channel base stations:
( hexagonal cell structure)
Where: SIR: The amount of
● S is the received signal power. desired power to the
amount of transmitted
● Ii is the interference from the i-th interfering base station. power.
● NI is the number of interfering cells.

Impact of SIR: The quality and capacity of the communication link are
directly related to the SIR. High SIR means better communication
quality and higher data rates, while low SIR leads to poor communication
performance.
 Sectoring
● A technique used in cellular networks to improve capacity and reduce
interference by dividing a cell into smaller sections
● By using directional antenna as instead of an omni - directional antenna
at the base station, the co-channel interference can be significantly
reduced

Purpose:
Reduce Co-channel Interference: By focusing the signal in specific directions, sectoring
helps reduce interference from neighboring cells using the same frequency.
Increase Capacity: Each sector can use the same frequency channels independently,
effectively increasing the total capacity of the cell without increasing bandwidth.
Types of Sectoring:
● 3-Sector Cells: The cell is divided into 3 sectors (each covering 120°).
● 6-Sector Cells: The cell is divided into 6 smaller sectors (each covering 60°),
which further improves capacity and reduces interference.
 ● Improved Signal Quality: Since the signal is
directed into specific areas, users in a sector
experience less interference and better signal
Advantages quality.
● Higher Network Capacity: More users can be
served in each cell because each sector operates
independently, allowing more frequency reuse.

● Although intersector handoff is simpler

compared to intercell handoff, sectoring also
Drawback
Drawback increases the overhead due to the increased
number of intersector handoffs.
● Also in channels with heavy scattering, desired
power can be lost into other sectors which can
cause intersector interference as well as power
loss.
The broadband wireless channel: Fading
 The broadband wireless channel: Fading

● Fading in Wireless Channels Fading refers to the

fluctuation in the strength of a received signal due to the
reception of multiple versions of the same signal.
● Multipath signals, are caused by reflections from surfaces
such as buildings, trees, or other objects in the
environment.
● Fading affects wireless communications and is distinct
from other forms of signal attenuation, like path loss or
shadowing.
Constructive and Destructive Interference:

● Depending on the phase of the

arriving multipath signals,
interference can either amplify or
cancel the signal.
● Small changes in position can
significantly affect the signal's
amplitude without affecting the
overall path loss.
● Let us consider the time-varying
tapped-delay line channel model.
● As either the transmitter or
receiver move relative to each
other, the channel response h(t)
will change.
● Movement in the propagation
environment will also cause the
channel response to change over
time.
● This channel response has two
dimensions: a delay dimension τ &
a time dimension t as shown in
figure .
● Since the channel changes over
distance (and hence time), the values
of h0,h1,.....hv may be totally different
at time t vs. time t+∆t.
● The most important & fundamental
function used to statistically describe
broadband
● Fading channels is the
two-dimensional auto correlation
function, A(∆τ,∆t).

Wide Sense Stationary Uncorrelated

Scattering (WSSUS)
Delay Spread (τ):
● If Large: When τ is much greater than the symbol time TTT, the channel
exhibits frequency-selective fading. This means the channel distorts the
transmitted signal differently across frequencies, causing inter-symbol
interference (ISI).
● If Small: When τ is much smaller than TTT, the channel exhibits
frequency-flat fading, meaning the channel affects all frequencies of the
signal equally.
● LTE Design Impact: Larger delay spread increases ISI and affects the
receiver's ability to distinguish between consecutive symbols. As the delay
spread increases, the symbol time needs to be adjusted to prevent
interference.
Coherence Bandwidth (Bc):
● If Large: When 1/Bc is much smaller than the symbol time TTT, the
channel is frequency flat, meaning it affects all frequencies similarly.
● If Small: When 1/Bc is much larger than TTT, the channel is frequency
selective, causing different frequency components of the signal to
experience different levels of fading.
● LTE Design Impact: Coherence bandwidth helps in determining the
appropriate subcarrier width in an OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency
Division Multiplexing) system. The guideline is to set the subcarrier width
to about Bc/10, and the number of subcarriers should satisfy L≥10B/Bc
Doppler Spread (fD):
● If Large: When fD is much greater than the carrier frequency ccc, the
channel experiences fast fading due to rapid changes in the channel
caused by mobility.
● If Small: When fD is much smaller than ccc, the channel experiences slow
fading.
● LTE Design Impact: High Doppler spread causes subcarriers to lose
orthogonality, degrading OFDM performance. When fD/Bc becomes
significant, the system needs to account for this loss.
Coherence Time (Tc):
● If Large: When Tc is much greater than the symbol time T, the channel
experiences slow fading.
● If Small: When Tc is smaller than or equal to T, the channel exhibits fast
fading, meaning the channel changes faster than the symbol duration.
● LTE Design Impact: Small coherence time requires frequent channel
estimation and reduces the duration of the OFDM symbol, but provides
more time diversity, which is beneficial for signal robustness.
Angular Spread (θrms):
● If Large: In a Non-LOS (Line of Sight) channel, there is a lot of diversity,
leading to a rich multipath environment.
● If Small: In an Effectively LOS channel, there is not much diversity since
there are fewer paths.
● LTE Design Impact: Large angular spread benefits multi-antenna array
design (e.g., MIMO), allowing for beamforming and enhanced diversity.
Coherence Distance (Dc):
● If Large: In an Effectively LOS channel, there is not much diversity, and
signals from different paths are not significantly different.
● If Small: In a Non-LOS channel, there is lots of diversity.
● LTE Design Impact: Coherence distance helps determine antenna
spacing. A smaller coherence distance indicates a more diverse multipath
environment, allowing for closer antenna spacing.
 Delay Spread and Coherence Bandwidth
● The delay spread is a very important property of a wireless channel since it
specifies the duration of the channel impulse response h(τ,t).
● The delay spread is the amount of time that elapses between the first
arriving path and the last arriving path.
● The delay spread can be found by setting ∆t=0 in the channel
autocorrelation funtion.
● Aτ(∆τ) is often referred to as Multipath Intensity Profile or power delay
profile.
● If Aτ(∆τ) has non-negligible values from (0,τmax), the maximum delay
spread is τmax.
● The number of taps ν needed in the discrete representation of the channel
impulse response is v ≅ τmax /Ts where Ts is the sampling time.
● The average and rms delay spread are often used instead of τmax and are
defined as follows:

τrms gives a measure of the “width” or “spread” of the channel response in time
or it describes channel duration.
● A general rule of thumb is that τmax ≅5 τrms.
● The coherence bandwidth gives a rough measure for the maximum
separation between a frequency f1 and a frequency f2 where the channel
frequency response is correlated. That

● Bc is the value describing the range of frequencies over which the channel
stays constant.
● Given the channel delay spread it can be shown that
 Doppler Spread and Coherence Time

● The Doppler power spectrum gives the statistical power distribution of the
channel versus frequency for a signal transmitted at just one exact frequency
● The power delay profile is caused by the multipath between the transmitter
and the receiver.
● The Doppler power spectrum is caused by motion between the transmitter
and the receiver.
● The Doppler power spectrum is the Fourier transform of At(∆t), that is :

● The Doppler power spectrum is non-zero strictly for ∆f (-fD, fD), where fD is
called the maximum Doppler, or Doppler spread. That is, ρt(∆f) is strictly
bandlimited.
 Doppler Spread and Coherence Time

● The Doppler spread is

where ν is the maximum speed between the transmitter and the receiver, fC is
the carrier frequency, and c is the speed of light.
● Channel coherence time Tc gives the period of time over which the channel is
significantly correlated. Mathematically

● The coherence time and Doppler spread are also inversely related,
● If the transmitter and the receiver are moving fast relative to each other and
hence the Doppler is large, the channel will change much more quickly than if
the transmitter and receiver are stationary.
 Angular Spread and Coherence Distance

● The rms angular spread of a channel can be denoted as θ rms and refers to the
statistical distribution of the angle of the arriving energy.
● A large θrms implies that the channel energy is coming in from many directions
, whereas a small θrms implies that the received channel energy is more
focussed.
● A large angular spread generally occurs when there is a lot of local scattering
and this results in more statistical diversity in the channel.
● More focused energy results in less statistical diversity.
● Coherence Distance DC: Dual of angular spread.
● As the angular spread increases the coherence distance decreases and vice
versa.
● A coherence distance of d means that any physical positions separated by d
have an essentially uncorrelated received signal amplitude and phase.
 Angular Spread and Coherence Distance

● An approximate rule of thumb is

● For the case of Rayleigh fading, which assumes uniform angular spread, the
relation is
● From the above relations coherence distance increases with the carrier
wavelength λ.
● So higher frequency systems have shorter coherence distances.
● The coherence distance gives a rule of thumb for how far antennas should be
spaced apart, in order to be statistically independent.
● If the coherence distance is very small, antenna arrays can be effectively
employed to provide rich diversity.
● On the other hand if the coherence distance is large, it may not be possible
due to space constraints to take advantage of spatial diversity.
Modeling broadband fading channels - Statistical channel models

● In order to design and benchmark wireless communication systems,

it is important to develop channel models that incorporate their
variations in time, frequency and space.
● The two main classes of models are Statistical model & Empirical
model.
● Statistical models are simpler and are useful for analysis &
simulations.
● The empirical models are more complicated, but usually represent a
specific type of channel more accurately.
 Statistical channel models

● The received signal in a wireless system is the superposition of

numerous reflections, or multipath components.
● Statistical methods that can be used to characterize the amplitude &
power of received signal r(t) when all the reflections arrive at about
the same time.
● The following statistical models are considered:
1. Rayleigh Fading Model
2. Line-of-Sight Channels - The Ricean Distribution
3. A more general model: Nakagami - m Fading
 Rayleigh Fading Model

● Rayleigh fading is a reasonable model when there are many objects in

the environment that scatter the radio signal before it arrives at the
receiver.
● The central limit theorem holds that, if there is sufficiently much
scatter, and the angles of arrival between them are uncorrelated, the
channel impulse response will be well modelled as a Gaussian process
irrespective of the distribution of the individual components. The
envelope of the channel response will therefore be Rayleigh
distributed.
● The in-phase (cosine) and quadrature (sine) components of received
signal r(t) follow two independent time - correlated Gaussian random
processes.
 Rayleigh Fading Model

● The distribution of the envelope amplitude is Rayleigh

distribution

● The received power is exponentially distributed

where Pr is the average received power due to shadowing and path

loss.
● The path loss and shadowing determine the mean received power and
the total received power fluctuates around this mean due to fading
 Rayleigh Fading Model

● The Gaussian random variables rI and

rQ each have zero mean and variance σ2
= Pr/2.
● The phase of r(t) is defined as

which is uniformly distributed from 0

to 2π, or equivalently from [−π, π] any
other contiguous full period of the The three major channel
carrier signal attenuation factors are shown
in terms of their relative
spatial (and hence temporal)
scales.
 Line-of-Sight(LoS) Channels - The Ricean Distribution

● An important assumption in the Rayleigh fading model is that, all the

arriving reflections have a mean of zero.
● For LoS signal, the received envelope distribution is more accurately
modelled by a Ricean distribution.
● It is given by

where µ2 is the power of the LoS component and I0 is the 0th order,
modified Bessel function of the first kind.
 Line-of-Sight(LoS) Channels - The Ricean Distribution

● Ricean distribution reduces to Rayleigh distribution in the absence of a LOS

component.
2
● Since the Ricean distribution depends on the LOS component's power µ , a
common way to characterize the channel is by the relative strengths of the
LOS and scattered paths.
● This factor K is quantified as K= µ2 /2σ2 and it describes how strong the LOS
component is relative to the nonLOS(NLOS) components.
● For K=0, the Ricean distribution reduces to Rayleigh and as K , the physical
meaning is that there is only a single LOS path and no other scattering.
● The average received power under Ricean fading is the combination of
scattering power and LOS power. i.e., Pr= 2σ2 + µ2
 A more general model: Nakagami - m Fading

● The Probability Density Function (PDF) of Nakagami - m fading is

parameterized by m and is given as

● The power distribution for Nakagami fading is

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