WIRELESS COMMUNICATION-MODULE 2

Module 2

WIRELESS CHANNELS

2.1 Path loss and shadowing : Free space path loss, Two-Ray model, Shadowing,
2.2 Statistical Multipath Channel Models: Time-varying channel impulse
response Narrowband fading, Wideband fading models, Delay spread and
Coherence bandwidth, Doppler spread and Coherence time, Flat fading versus
frequency selective fading, Slow fading versus fast fading, Discrete-time model
2.3 Capacity of Wireless Channels: Review of Capacity in AWGN, Capacity of
flat fading channel – Ergodic capacity, Capacity with Outage, Capacity with CSI-R.
(Derivations of capacity formulae are not required; Only expressions, computations
and significance required.)

 Usually, the wireless channel is noisy. We can’t have a noise-free

communication. We often use the AWGN (Additive White Gaussian Noise)
model for interpretation of the channel noise.
 Noise is assumed to get added to the signal and at the receiver; we have a
signal that carries both the data and the noise.

 It is important that signal level at the receiver is reasonably above the noise
floor so that the detector can faithfully detect and decode the signal data.

 Apart from noise, losses in the atmosphere can also distort the transmitted signal.

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 Some of the common losses taken into consideration during the design of
wireless link budgets include atmospheric absorption loss, scattering loss
(includes rain attenuation), reflection loss, diffraction loss and path loss.

PATH LOSS

Path loss, or path attenuation, is the reduction in power density (attenuation) of

an electromagnetic wave as it propagates through space. Path loss is a major
component in the analysis and design of the link budget of a telecommunication
system.

Path loss models can be divided into two models.

1. Free Space model

2. Two-Ray model

FREE SPACE PROPAGATION MODEL

 The free space propagation model is used to predict received signal strength.

 The transmitter and receiver should have a clear, unobstructed line-of-sight

path between them.
 The free space power received by a receiver antenna is given by the Friis
free space equation

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 The Friis free space equation shows that the received power decays
with distance at a rate of 20dB/decade.
 The miscellaneous losses L are usually due to
 Transmission line attenuation
 Filter losses
 Antenna losses in the communication system.
 The gain of an antenna is related to its effective aperture,

Effective aperture, Ae is related to the physical size of the antenna.

Wavelength λ, is related to the carrier frequency by

 An isotropic radiator is an ideal antenna which radiates power with unit

gain uniformly in all directions.
 It is often used to reference antenna gains in wireless systems.
 The Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) represents the
maximum radiated power available from a transmitter in the direction
of maximum antenna gain and is defined

 In practice, effective radiated power (ERP) is used instead of EIRP to

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denote the maximum radiated power as compared to a half-wave dipole

antenna (Instead of an Isotropic antenna).
 Antenna gains are given in units of
dBi (dB gain with respect to an isotropic antenna) or
dBd (dB gain with respect to a hail-wave dipole antenna)
 The path loss is defined as the difference between the effective
transmitted power and the received power.
 The path loss represents signal attenuation as a positive quantity measured in
dB.
 The path loss for the free space model when antenna gains are included is
given by

 The path loss for the free space model when antenna gains are excluded is
given by

The Friis free space model is a valid for values of d which are in the
far-field of the transmitting antenna.

Far-field or Fraunhofer region:

The far-field or Fraunhofer region of a transmitting antenna is

defined as the region beyond the far-field distance df, which is related
to the largest linear dimension of the transmitter antenna aperture and
the carrier wavelength.

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The Fraunhofer distance is given by

 Pr (d0) is in units of Watts.

 The reference distance d0 is chosen to be 1m in indoor environments and
100m or 1km in outdoor environments. So that the numerator in above two
equations is a multiple of 10.

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TWO RAY (2-RAY) OR GROUND REFLECTION MODEL

 The free space propagation model is inaccurate when used alone

The 2-ray ground reflection model is a useful propagation model that is based
on geometric optics.
It considers both the direct path and a ground reflected propagation
path between transmitter and receiver.
This model is accurate for predicting the large-scale signal strength over
distances of several kilometers for mobile radio systems.
The maximum T-R separation distance is at most only a few tens of
kilometers. Earth is assumed to be flat.

The total received E-field, ETOT, is then a result of the direct line-of-
sight component, ELOS, and the ground reflected component, Eg.

Figure 1.3: Two-ray ground reflection model.

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The free space propagating E-field is given by

Two propagating waves arrive at the

receiver:
 Direct wave that travels a distance d'
 Reflected wave that travels a distance
d''

E-field due to the line-of-sight component at the receiver can be expressed

as

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 For small values of θ i , the reflected wave is equal in magnitude and 180°
out of phase with the incident wave
 The resultant total E-field is the vector sum of ELOS and Eg is given by

Figure 1.4: The method of images is used to find the path difference
between the line-of-sight and the ground reflected paths.

 Using the method of images, the path difference Δ, between the line-of-
sight and the ground reflected paths can be expressed as

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When the T-R separation distance d is very large compared to ht+hr ,

equation (10) can be simplified using a Taylor series approximation

 When d becomes large, the difference between the distances d' and d becomes
very small, and the amplitudes of ELOS and Eg are virtually identical and differ
only in phase.

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Figure: Phasor diagram showing the electric field components of the line-of-sight,
ground reflected, and total received E-fields, derived from equation

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SHADOWING

 Some practical path loss estimation techniques are

 Log-distance Path Loss Model

 Log-normal Shadowing

 Determination of percentage coverage area.

 Shadowing is the effect that the received signal power fluctuates due to objects

obstructing the propagation path between transmitter and receiver.

 These fluctuations are experienced on local-mean powers, that is, short-term

averages to remove fluctuations due to multipath fading.

 Experiments reported by Egli in 1957 showed that, for paths longer than a few

hundred meters, the received (local-mean) power fluctuates with a 'log-

normal' distribution about the area-mean power.

 By 'log-normal' is meant that the local-mean power expressed in logarithmic

values, such as dB or neper, has a normal (i.e., Gaussian) distribution.

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RAJESH T S, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR ECE, MG COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING VANDITHADAM