Course Title: Mobile Cellular Communication

Course Code: EEE 465

Course Conducted by
Md. Motiur Rahman Tareq
Lecturer, Dept. of EEE, HSTU.

Reference Book
Wireless Communications Principles and Practice
By
Theodore S. Rappaport
Mobile Radio Propagation: Small Scale Fading &
Multipath
▪ The multipath propagation of radio signals over a short period of time or to
travel a distance is considered to be the small scale multipath propagation.
▪ As every type of multipath propagation results in generating a faded signal
at receiver, the small scale multipath propagation also results in small scale
fading.
▪ Hence, the signal at the receiver is obtained by combining the various
multipath waves. These waves will vary widely in amplitude and phase
depending on the distribution of the intensity and relative propagation time
of the waves and bandwidth of the transmitted signal.
 Fading effects due to the small scale multipath
propagation
The three fading effects that are generally observed due to the small scale
multipath propagation are:
1. Fast variations in signal strength of the transmitted signal for a lesser
distance or time interval.
2. The variations in Doppler shift on various multipath signals are responsible
for random frequency modulation.
3. The time dispersed signals are resulted due to multipath propagation delays.
 Factors Influencing Small Scale Fading
Many physical factors in the radio propagation channel influence small-scale
fading. Thes includes the following:
Multipath Propagation:
• The presence of reflecting objects and scatters in the channel creates a
constantly environment.
• Causes the signal at receiver to fade or distort.
Speed of the Mobile:
• The relative motion between the transmitter and receiver results in a random
frequency modulation due to different doppler shift on each of the multipath
signals
• Doppler shift may be positive or negative depending on direction of
movement of mobile
 Factors Influencing Small Scale Fading
Speed of Surroundings Object:
• If the speed of the surroundings objects is greater than mobile, the fading is
dominated by those objects.
• If the surroundings objects are slower than the mobile, then their effect can
be ignored.
The Transmission Bandwidth:
• Depending on the relation between the signal bandwidth and coherence
bandwidth of the channel, the signal is either distorted or faded.
• If the signal bandwidth is greater than coherence bandwidth, it creates
distortion.
• If the signal bandwidth is smaller than coherence bandwidth, it creates small
scale fading.
 Coherence Bandwidth

The coherence bandwidth of a wireless channel is the range of the

frequencies that are allowed to pass through the channel without
distortion. This is the bandwidth over which the channel transfer
function remains virtually constant.
 Doppler Shift
Change in the apparent frequency of a signal Tx and Ty move toward or away
from each other.
If mobile is moving towards the direction of arrival of the signal, the Doppler
shift is positive (apparent received frequency is increased i.e; 𝑓𝑐 + 𝑓𝑑 ) and vice
versa. [Figure shows the illustration of Doppler effect]
Mathematically: The phase change in the received signal due to the difference in
path length is therefore
2𝛱Δ𝑙 2𝜋𝜈Δ𝑡
Δ𝜙 = = cos 𝜃
𝜆 𝜆
The apparent change in frequency
1 Δ𝜙 𝑣
𝑓𝑑 = = cos 𝜃
2𝜋 Δ𝑡 𝜆
 Techniques to determine the Small Scale Fading Effects
In order to determine the small scale fading effects, we employ certain techniques.
They are,
▪ Direct RF pulse measurement
▪ Spread spectrum sliding correlation measurement.
▪ Swept frequency measurement.
➢ The first technique provides a local average power delay profile.
➢ The second technique detects the transmitted signal with the help of a narrow
band receiver preceded by a wide band mixer though the probing (or received)
signal is wide band.
➢ The third technique is helpful in finding the impulse response of the channel in
frequency domain. By knowing the impulse response we can easily predict the
signal obtained at the receiver from the transmitter.
 Parameters of mobile multipath channel

❑ Time dispersion parameters

▪ Grossly quantifies the multipath channel
▪ Determined from power delay profile
▪ Parameters include Ⅰ) Mean access delay Ⅱ) RMS delay spread Ⅲ)
Excess delay spread (X dB)
❑ Coherence Bandwidth
❑ Doppler Spread and Coherence Time
 Time dispersion parameters
The mean access delay is the first moment of the power delay profile and is defined to
be

The RMS delay spread is the square root of the second central moment of the power
delay profile and is defined to be
 Time dispersion parameters

Maximum Excess delay spread (X dB):

▪ Defined as the time delay value after which the multipath
energy falls to X dB below the maximum multipath energy.
▪ It is also called excess delay spread.
 Coherence Bandwidth
❑ Range of frequencies over which the channel can be considered flat
(i.e. channel passes all spectral components with equal gain and linear
phase). It is a definition that depends on RMS Delay Spread.
❑ The coherence bandwidth of a wireless channel is the range of the
frequencies that are allowed to pass through the channel without
distortion. This is the bandwidth over which the channel transfer
function remains virtually constant.
❑ Coherence Bandwidth is a statistical measure of the range of
frequencies over which the channel can be considered flat that is a
channel which passes all spectral components with approximately
equal gain and linear phase.
 Doppler Spread and Coherence Time
❑ Delay spread and Coherence bandwidth describe the time dispersive
nature if the channel in a local area. They don’t offer information about
the time varying nature if the channel caused by relative motion of
transmitter and receiver.
❑ Doppler Spread and Coherence time are parameters which describe the
time varying nature if the channel in a small-scale region.
❑ Time varying nature of channel caused either by relative motion between
BS and mobile or by motions of objects in channel are categorized by 𝐵𝐷
and 𝑇𝑐 .
 Doppler Spread
❑ Measure of spectral broadening caused by motion.
❑ We know how to compute Doppler shift: 𝑓𝑑
𝑣
❑ Doppler spread, 𝐵𝐷 , is defined as the maximum Doppler shift:𝑓𝑚 =
𝜆
❑ If 𝑇𝑥 signal bandwidth (𝐵𝑠 ) is large such that 𝐵𝑠 >> 𝐵𝐷 then effects of
Doppler spread are not important so Doppler spread is only important for
low bps (data rate) applications (e.g. paging) slow fading channel.
 Coherence Time
❑ Coherence time is the time duration over which the channel impulse is
essentially invariant.
❑ If the symbol period of the baseband signal (reciprocal of the baseband
signal bandwidth) is greater the coherence time, than the signal will
distort, since channel will change during the transmission of the signal.
 Coherence Time

❑ Coherence time is also defined as

❑ Coherence time definition implies that two signals arriving with a time
separation greater than 𝑇𝑐 are affected differently by the channel.
 Fading
The time variation of received signal power due to changes in transmission
medium or paths is known as fading. In fixed scenario, fading depends on
atmospheric conditions such as rainfall, lightening etc. In mobile scenario,
fading depends on obstacles over the path which are varying with respect to
time. These obstacles create complex transmission effects to the transmitted
signal. This figure depicts amplitude versus distance chart for slow fading and
fast fading types which we will discuss later.
 Fading Types
Considering various channel related impairments and position of
transmitter/receiver following are the types of fading in wireless
communication system.
 Large Scale Fading & Small Scale Fading
Large Scale Fading: It includes path loss and shadowing effects.
Small Scale Fading: It is divided into two main categories viz. multipath
delay spread and doppler spread.
The multipath delay spread is further divided into flat fading and frequency
selective fading.
Doppler spread is divided into fast fading and slow fading.
❖ Fading models: Above fading types are implemented in various models
or distributions which include Rayleigh, Rician, Nakagami, Weibull etc.
❖ As we know, fading signals occur due to reflections from ground and
surrounding buildings as well as scattered signals from trees, people and
towers present in the large area. There are two types of fading viz. large
scale fading and small scale fading.
 Large Scale Fading

▪ Large scale fading occurs when an obstacle comes in between

transmitter and receiver.
▪ This interference type causes significant amount of signal strength
reduction.
▪ This is because EM wave is shadowed or blocked by the obstacle.
▪ It is related to large fluctuations of the signal over distance.
 Small Scale Fading
❑ Small scale fading is concerned with rapid fluctuations of received signal
strength over very short distance and short time period.
❑ Based on multipath delay spread there are two types of small scale
fading viz. flat fading and frequency selective fading. These multipath
fading types depend on propagation environment.
Flat Fading
Flat Fading
 Flat Fading
▪ The wireless channel is said to be flat fading if it has constant gain and linear
phase response over a bandwidth which is greater than the bandwidth of the
transmitted signal.
▪ In this type of fading all the frequency components of the received signal
fluctuate in same proportions simultaneously. It is also known as non-
selective fading.
• Signal BW << Channel BW
• Symbol period >> Delay Spread
▪ The effect of flat fading is seen as decrease in SNR. These flat fading
channels are known as amplitude varying channels or narrowband channels.
Frequency Selective Fading
 Frequency Selective Fading

▪ It affects different spectral components of a radio signal with different

amplitudes. Hence the name selective fading.
• Signal BW > Channel BW
• Symbol period < Delay Spread
▪ Based on doppler spread there are two types of fading viz. fast fading
and slow fading. These doppler spread fading types depend on mobile
speed i.e. speed of receiver with respect to transmitter.
Fast Fading
 Fast Fading

The phenomenon of fast fading is represented by rapid fluctuations of signal

over small areas (i.e. bandwidth). When the signals arrive from all the directions
in the plane, fast fading will be observed for all directions of motion.
Fast fading occurs when channel impulse response changes very rapidly within
the symbol duration.
• High doppler spread
• Symbol period > Coherence time
• Signal Variation < Channel variation
 Fast Fading
▪ These parameters result into frequency dispersion or time selective fading due
to doppler spreading. Fast fading is result of reflections of local objects and
motion of objects relative to those objects.
▪ In fast fading, receive signal is sum of numerous signals which are reflected
from various surfaces. This signal is sum or difference of multiple signals
which can be constructive or destructive based on relative phase shift between
them. Phase relationships depend on speed of motion, frequency of
transmission and relative path lengths.
▪ Fast fading distorts the shape of the baseband pulse. This distortion is linear
and creates ISI (Inter Symbol Interference). Adaptive equalization reduces ISI
by removing linear distortion induced by channel.
 Slow Fading
▪ Slow fading is result of shadowing by buildings, hills, mountains and
other objects over the path.
• Low Doppler Spread
• Symbol period <<Coherence Time
• Signal Variation >> Channel Variation
▪ Slow fading results in a loss of SNR. Error correction coding and
receiver diversity techniques are used to overcome effects of slow
fading.
Slow Fading
Fading Distributions
Rayleigh and Ricean Distributions
 Rayleigh Fading Distribution
• In mobile radio channels, the Rayleigh distribution is commonly used to describe the
statistical time varying nature of the received envelope of a flat fading signal, or the
envelope of an individual ,multipath component.
• It is well known that the envelope of the sum of two quadrature Gaussian noise signals
obeys a Rayleigh distribution. Figure 1 shows a Rayleigh distributed signal envelope as a
function of time.
• Probability density function ( PDF) of Rayleigh Distribution is given by
𝑟 𝑟2
P (r) =ቐσ2 exp − 2
2σ
0≤𝑟≤α
0 𝑟<0
σ - Rms value of the received voltage signal before envelope detection

σ2 - The time average power of the received signal before envelope detection
Figure 1: A Rayleigh distributed signal envelope as a function of
time.
 Rayleigh Fading Distribution
• The probability that the envelope of the received signal does not exceed a
specified value R is given by the corresponding cumulative distribution function
(CDF)
𝑅 𝑅2
P(R)= Pr(r ≤ 𝑅)= ‫׬‬0 𝑃 𝑟 𝑑𝑟 = 1 − exp(− 2 )
2σ
• The mean value 𝑟mean of the Rayleigh distribution is given by,
∞ ᴨ
𝑟mean = E(r)= ‫׬‬0 𝑟𝑝 𝑟 𝑑𝑟 = σ = 1.2533 σ
2

and the variance of the R.D is given by σ2 , which represent the ac power in the
signal envelope

2 ∞ 2 σ2 ᴨ ᴨ
σ =𝐸
𝑟 𝑟2 − 𝐸 2 (𝑟)= ‫׬‬0 𝑟 𝑝 𝑟 𝑑𝑟 − = σ2 (2 − ) = 0.429 σ2
2 2
 Rayleigh Fading Distribution

• The RMS value of the envelope is the square root of the mean square or 2σ,
where σ is the standard deviation of the original complex gaussian signal prior to
envelope detection.

• The median value of r is found by solving

1 𝑟
= ‫׬‬0 𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑃 𝑟 𝑑𝑟 and is
2

𝑟𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑛 = 1.1777 σ

Thus, the mean and median differ by only 0.55dB in a Rayleigh Fading Signal.