Introduction to Mobile Computing: Part 2

Wireless Transmission Basics

CE-BE-MCC
Suvarna Chaure
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Computer Engineering,
SIES Graduate School of Technology

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 Topics to be Covered

• Electromagnetic Spectrum
• Antenna
• Signal Propagation
• Signal Characteristics
• Multiplexing, Spread Spectrum:
DSSS & FHSS

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 Important Aspects of Wireless
Communication
• Interference is the major aspect in wireless communication.
• The frequencies used for transmission are all regulated.
• Varying propagation characteristics create complications for radio
transmission, frequently causing transmission errors.
• Multiplexing is a major design topic as medium is always shared.
(Ensure low interference)
• Modulation is needed to transmit digital data via certain frequencies.
• Special transmission technique that is more robust against errors,
Spread Spectrum.

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 Frequency Spectrum
Relation between Wavelength and frequency
λ = c/f,
where c =3·108 m/s (the speed of light in vacuum) and f the frequency

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 Brain Storming

1. Waves in the low frequency (LF) range are used by

submarines. Discuss.
2. Why cant High frequency bands are used in
submarines.
3. What signals are used by cellphones?

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Regulations

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 Signals
• Signals are the physical representation of data.
• Users of a communication system can only exchange data through the
transmission of signals.
• Signals are functions of time and location. Signal parameters represent
the data values.
• Types of signals for radio transmission are periodic signals, especially
sine waves as carriers.
• Signal parameters are the amplitude A, the frequency f, and the phase
shift φ.
• Sine waves are of special interest, as it is possible to construct every
periodic signal g by using only sine and cosine functions according to a
fundamental equation of Fourier:
∞ ∞
g(t) = c + Σan sin(2πnft) + Σbn cos(2πnft)
n=1 n=1
In this equation the parameter c determines the Direct Current
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 Signal Representation

Frequency Domain Representation

Time Domain Representation

Phase Domain Representation

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 Antennas: Isotropic Radiators
• Wireless communication mode involves ‘getting rid’ of wires and
transmitting signals through space without guidance.
• Do not need any ‘medium’ (such as an ether) for the transport of
electromagnetic waves.
• Need to couple the energy from the transmitter to the out-side
world and, in reverse, from the outside world to the receiver.

Radiation Pattern of isotropic Radiator

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 Real Antennas: Directive Effects
Intensity of radiation is not same in all
directions of the antennas.

Drawback of dipole :
If an antenna is positioned, e.g., in a valley or
Marconi antenna. Dipole between buildings, an omnidirectional
radiation pattern is not very useful.

Radiation Pattern in a dipole

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 Directional
antennas

• Certain fixed preferential transmission and reception directions

can be used.

Radiation Pattern if lobe is along X-axis

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 Sectorized Antennas

Several directed antennas can be combined on a single pole.

Radiation Pattern in Sectorized Antennas

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 Multi-element antenna arrays

• Two or more antennas can also be combined to improve

reception by counteracting the negative effects of multi-path
propagation.
• One such scheme is switched diversity or selection diversity
where the receiver always uses the antenna element with the
largest output.

• two λ/4 antennas are combined with

a distance of λ/2 between them on
top of a ground plane.
• three standard λ/2 dipoles are
combined with a distance of λ/2
between them.

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 Smart Antennas

1. smart antennas which combine multiple antenna elements (also

called antenna array) with signal processing to optimize
the radiation/reception pattern in response to the signal environment.
2. Adapt to changes in reception power, transmission conditions and
many signal propagation effects.

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Signal Propagation
Transmission range: Within a certain radius of the
sender transmission is possible, i.e., a receiver
receives the signals with an error rate low enough
to be able to communicate and can also act as
sender.
● Detection range: Within a second radius,
detection of the transmission is possible, i.e., the
transmitted power is large enough to differ from
background noise. However, the error rate is too
high to establish communication.
● Interference range: Within a third even larger
radius, the sender may interfere with other
transmission by adding to the background noise. A
receiver will not be able to detect the signals, but
the signals may disturb other signals.

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 Path loss of radio signals
• In free space radio signals propagate as light.
• If such a straight line exists between a sender and a receiver it
is called line-of-sight (LOS).
• signal still experiences the free space loss even in vacuum
• Received power Pr is proportional to 1/d2 with d being the
distance between sender and receiver. (inverse square law).
• radio transmission takes place through the atmosphere –
signals travel through air, rain, snow, fog, dust particles, smog
etc.
• While the path loss or attenuation does not cause too much
trouble for short distances, the atmosphere heavily influences
transmission over long distances.

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 Try
• Case study
1. Waves in the low frequency (LF) range are used by submarines.
Discuss.(1-15)
2. Is directional antenna useful for mobile phones? Why? How can the
gain of an antenna be improved?(16-30)
3. Free space loss(31-45)
4. Path loss/ attenuation(46-70)

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 Radio Waves : Three Fundamental
Propagations
Ground wave (<2 MHz): Waves with low frequencies follow the earth’s
surface and can propagate long distances. These waves are used for,
e.g., submarine communication or AM radio.
Sky wave (2–30 MHz): Many international broadcasts and amateur radio
use these short waves that are reflected at the ionosphere. This way the
waves can bounce back and forth between the ionosphere and the
earth’s surface, travelling around the world.
Line-of-sight (>30 MHz): Mobile phone systems, satellite systems,
cordless telephones etc. use even higher frequencies.

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Effects of Signal Propagation

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 Multipath Propagation

Delay spread: the original signal is spread due to different delays of parts of the signal

Typical values for delay spread are approximately 3 μs in cities, up to 12 μs can be observed. GSM, for
example, can tolerate up to 16 μs of delay spread, i.e., almost a 5 km path difference.

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Multipath Propagation

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 Effects of Delay Spread
• Short impulse will be smeared out into a broader impulse, or
rather into several weaker impulses.
• At the receiver, both impulses interfere, i.e., they overlap in time.
The energy intended for one symbol now spills over to the
adjacent symbol, an effect which is called inter-symbol
interference (ISI).
• ISI limits the bandwidth of a radio channel with multi-path
propagation.
Avoid ISI:
1. Channel characteristics should be known.
2. Sender may first transmit a training sequence known by
the receiver. The receiver then compares the received signal
to the original training sequence.
3. Programs an equalizer that compensates for the
distortion.

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 Effects of Signal Propagation

• ISI and delay spread already occur in the case of fixed radio
transmitters and receivers, the situation is even worse if receivers, or
senders, or both, move.
• Fading
1. The power of the received signal changes considerably over time. These
quick changes in the received power are also called short-term fading.
2. Depending on the different paths the signals take, these signals
may have a different phase and cancel each other.
3. The receiver now has to try to constantly adapt to the varying
channel characteristics, e.g., by changing the parameters of the
equalizer.
4. If receiver is very fast, it cannot adapt fast enough and the error
rate of transmission is high.

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Fading

Quick changes in the received power are also called short-

term fading.
Long-term fading, shown here as the average power
over time.

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 Try

https://www.menti.com/j487amdjmo

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 Multiplexing

• In telecommunications and computer networks, multiplexing is a

method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into
one signal over a shared medium.
• Multiplexing describes how several users can share a medium with
minimum or no interference.
• Multiplexing can be carried out in four dimensions:
space, time, frequency, and code

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SDM : Space Division Multiplexing
• Space is represented via circles
indicating the interference range.
• The space between the interference
ranges is called guard space.
• In wireless transmission, SDM
implies a separate sender for each
communication channel with a wide
enough distance between senders.
• waste of space, principle used by
the old analog telephone system.

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 Frequency Division Multiplexing
1. Frequency division multiplexing (FDM) describes schemes to subdivide the frequency
dimension into several non-overlapping frequency bands.
2. Senders using a certain frequency band can use this band continuously.
3. Guard spaces are needed to avoid frequency band overlapping (also called
adjacent channel interference).
4. scheme is used for radio stations within the same region, where each radio
station has its own frequency.
5. Radio stations broadcast 24 hours a day, mobile communication typically takes
place for only a few minutes at a time. Assigning a separate frequency for each
possible communication scenario would be a tremendous waste of (scarce)
frequency resources.

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 Time Division Multiplexing
1. Flexible multiplexing scheme for typical mobile communications is
time division multiplexing (TDM).
2. Channel ki is given the whole bandwidth for a certain amount of
time, i.e., all senders use the same frequency but at different
points in time.
3. Guard spaces, represent time gaps.
4. If two transmissions overlap in time, this is called co-channel
interference.

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Time and Frequency Division
Multiplexing (Used by GSM)

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 Code division multiplexing
(CDM)
• Separation is now achieved by assigning each channel its own ‘code’, guard
spaces are realized by using codes with the necessary ‘distance’ in code space,
e.g., orthogonal codes.
• CDM for wireless transmission is that it gives good protection against interference
and tapping.
• Receiver is highly complex.

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 Try

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Modulation Techniques
• Amplitude Modulation
Applications of AM
Portable two-way radios,
citizens band radio, VHF
aircraft radio and in modems
for computers
• Frequency Modulation
Application of FM:
Telemetry, radar and
seismic prospecting, EEG
monitoring of newborns.

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Thank You!
([email protected])

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