Regulation – 2022 (CBCS Scheme) Wireless Communication Systems – BEC703

MODULE 1

Principles of Wireless Communications

Principles of Wireless Communications: The Wireless Communication Environment, Modelling of

wireless systems, System model for narrowband Signals, Rayleigh fading Wireless Channel.
The Wireless Channel: Basics of Wireless Channel Modelling, Average Delay Spread in Outdoor
Cellular Channels, Coherence bandwidth, Relation between ISI and Coherence Bandwidth,
Doppler fading, Doppler Impact on a wireless Channel, Coherence Time.
[Text1: 3.1 to 3.4, 4.1 to 4.7]

1. Aditya K Jagannatham, “Principles of Modern Wireless Communication systems, Theory

and Practice ”, Mc Graw Hill Education (India) Private Limited, 2017, ISBN 978-81- 265-
4231-4.

1.1 The Wireless Communication Environment

• In conventional wireline communication systems, there is a single signal-propagation path

between the transmitter and the receiver, which is constrained by the propagation medium
such as a coaxial cable or a twisted pair.
• In wireless systems, the signal can reach the receiver via direct, reflected, and scattered paths
as shown in Figure 1.1.

Fig. 1.1 Schematic of the wireless-propagation environment

• As a result, at the receiver, there is a superposition of multiple copies of the transmitted signal.

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• These signal copies experience different attenuations, delays, and phase shifts arising from
the varied propagation distances and properties of the scattering media.
• Hence, at the wireless receiver, there is interference of signals received from these multiple
propagation paths, which is termed multipath interference.
• The multipath interference, in turn, results in an amplification or attenuation of the net
received signal power observed at the receiver, and this variation in the received signal
strength arising from the multipath propagation phenomenon is termed multipath fading
or simply fading.
• Strong destructive interference at the receiver is referred to as a deep fade, and such
a condition may result in temporary failure of communication due to a severe drop in the
SNR at the receiver.

1.2 Modelling of Wireless Systems

• Let us start by considering the transmitted passband wireless signal s(t), which is
transmitted across a wireless channel. Such a passband signal can be described analytically
as,

----------- 1.1
The quantity sb(t) is the complex baseband representation of the transmitted signal and
fc is simply the carrier frequency employed for transmission.
• We will assume initially that the wireless channel is time invariant.
• Let us consider a channel with L multipath components.
• Observe that each path of the wireless channel basically has two characteristic
properties.
➢ Firstly, it delays the signal because of the propagation distance.
➢ Secondly, there is an attenuation of the signal arising because of the scattering
effect.
• Let the signal attenuation and delay of the ith channel be denoted by the quantities ai, τi
respectively.
• The impulse response of an LTI system which attenuates a signal by ai and delays it by τi
is given as

The above equation gives the impulse response of a single path of a wireless
communication system.
• The wireless channel represents a linear input–output system, since the signal observed at
the receiver is the sum of the different multipath signal copies impinging on the receive
antenna.
• A typical Channel Impulse Response (CIR) of a multipath-scattering based wireless channel
is given by the sum of the above impulse responses corresponding to the individual model,

---------- 1.2

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• The above impulse response is also termed the tapped delay-line model because of the
nature of the arrival of several progressively delayed components of the signal.
• The above wireless channel model consists of L propagation paths arising from the several
reflection and scattering multipath Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) components.
• One of the multipath components can also be a direct Line-Of-Sight (LOS) component.
Each such ith path is characterized by two parameters, which are,
1. The attenuation factor ai
2. The path delay τi
• Since the above wireless is a linear time-invariant (LTI) system, the received signal y(t)
can be expressed as the convolution of the transmitted signal s (t) with the CIR h (t).
Therefore, the received wireless signal y (t) is given as

By inserting the expression for the tapped delay-line channel in Eq. (1.2) in the above
convolution, the expression for the received wireless signal y (t) across this tapped delay-
line channel can be derived as

Further, this expression for the received signal can be written in terms of the transmitted
baseband signal sb(t) by substituting the relation between s(t) and sb(t) in Eq. (1.1) in the
above expression and simplifying it as

From the above expression, it can be seen that yb(t), the complex baseband signal
equivalent of the received signal y (t), is simply given as

--------- 1.3

In addition to the attenuation and delay parameters in the passband channel model
described earlier, the baseband system model consists of the addition phase
parameter.

This basically arises because of the path delay of the carrier signal
corresponding to the ith path.

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• The received baseband signal consists of multiple delayed copies sb(t – τi) of the
transmitted signal sb(t). Each such ith signal copy arising from the ith multipath component
is associated with the following three parameters.
1. The attenuation factor ai .
2. The path delay τi .
3. The phase factor

• The different signal copies for a typical baseband BPSK information signal sb (t) is shown
in Figure 1.2. The quantity T denotes the symbol time, while Tm, which is the delay
between the first and last arriving copies of the signal, is termed the delay spread.
• We will assume a narrowband channel, i.e., one in which Tm << T .

Figure 1.2 Multipath signal components at the receiver

Example 1: Consider a wireless signal with a carrier frequency of fc = 850 MHz, which is
transmitted over a wireless channel that results in L = 4 multipath components at delays of
201, 513, 819, 1223 ns and corresponding to received signal amplitudes of 1, 0.6, 0.3, 0.2
respectively. Derive the expression for the received baseband signal yb(t) if the transmitted
baseband signal is sb(t).

Solution: As given in the expression for the received baseband signal in

, we need
to compute the factors for i = 0, 1, 2, 3 to derive the expression for the
received baseband signal yb (t). Accordingly, the factor is given as

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Similarly, the other factors for i = 1, 2, 3 can be computed as 0.57 − j0.19, 0.18 − j0.24, −0.19 +
j0.06 respectively. Hence, the receive baseband signal is, therefore, given as

Thus, the receiver sees L = 4 signal copies sb(t − τi), each delayed by τi, attenuated and
phase shifted by

1.3 System Model for Narrowband Signals

• For a sufficiently narrowband signal sb(t), the different delayed components sb(t – τi) are
approximately equal to each other, i.e., sb(t – τi) ≈ sb(t).
• Hence, for a narrowband transmit signal sb(t), the expression for the received baseband
signal yb(t)

------1.4
Where is termed the complex fading
channel coefficient.

Hence, the output baseband signal yb(t) is related to the input baseband signal sb(t) by a
complex attenuation factor .

The fading nature of the wireless channel can now be readily observed
from the above expression. The signal power at the receiver critically depends on the
magnitude of the overall attenuation factor .

For instance, consider a two-component multipath channel with identical magnitude and
exactly out-of-phase components, i.e., a0 = a1 and .

• The received signal yb(t) = 0, resulting in 0(i.e., −∞ dB) received signal power and the
channel is in a deep fade.
• Thus, the fortunes of the signal processor at the receiver are hinged on this erratic factor
, which is also termed the complex baseband fading coefficient or simply, the
fading coefficient.
• The narrowband assumption essentially implies that the carrier phase is sensitive to
the delay spread while the baseband signal is not.
• One of the most common assumptions in communication systems, which states that “the
bandwidth of the transmitted signal is usually orders of magnitude smaller than the
carrier frequency fc”.
• Next, we initiate a statistical characterization of the fading coefficient.

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Example 2: For the wireless channel given in Example 1, derive the corresponding received
signal with the narrowband assumption.

Solution: As given in

the received signal with the narrowband assumption is given as

Thus, the net received baseband signal in this case can be expressed as yb(t) = hsb(t),
where h the channel coefficient is h = 1.14 + j0.44.

1.4 Rayleigh Fading Wireless Channel

• The complex fading coefficient h can be expressed in terms of its real and imaginary
components as,

Thus, X, Y , which are the real and imaginary components of the fading coefficient
, are derived from the summation of a large number of random multipath
components xi, yi, especially in a rich urban setting which allows for a large number of
scatterers.
Hence, it is reasonable to assume that X, Y are random in nature.
• A simplistic model for the statistical characterization of X, Y would be to assume that
they are Gaussian and un-correlated.
The assumption of Gaussianity is lent support by the central limit theorem,
which in simple terms states that a normalized random variable derived from the sum of
a large number of independent identically distributed random components, converges
to a Gaussian random variable.

• The above assumption is valid as L → ∞, i.e., the number of multipath components is

fairly large. Hence, X, Y are distributed as N (0, ½) (assuming zero-mean and variance ½).

• Further, since X, Y are Gaussian in nature and un-correlated, it directly follows that they
are independent. The joint distribution of X, Y is given by the standard multivariate
Gaussian as

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• One can now derive the statistics of the fading coefficient in terms of its amplitude
and phase factors a, φ. It can be seen through elementary trigonometric properties that

x = a cos φ, y = a sin φ

• The joint distribution f A,φ (a, φ) can be derived from f X,Y (x, y) using the relation for
multivariate PDF transformation as

where we have used the property that x2 + y2 = a2 in the above expression.

• The quantity J X,Y is termed the Jacobian of X, Y and is given by the expression

where |A| denotes the determinant of the matrix A.

Substituting the Jacobian in the expression for multivariate PDF transformation above,
the joint PDF with respect to the random variables A, Φ can be derived as

The marginal distributions fA, fφ with respect to the amplitude and phase factor random
variables A, Φ can be readily derived from the above joint distribution as

We have now derived one of the most popular and frequently employed models for the
wireless channel, termed a Rayleigh fading wireless channel.

This nomenclature arises from the distribution fA of the amplitude factor a, which is the
well known Rayleigh density, shown in Figure 1.3.

• Observe that the average power in the amplitude a of the Ralyeigh fading channel
coefficient h is given as

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Figure 1.3 Rayleigh density for amplitude factor a

• The term Rayleigh refers to the distribution of the amplitude factor, the Rayleigh fading
wireless channel characterizes both the amplitude factor as a Rayleigh fading random
variable and the phase factor as uniformly distributed in (−π, π).
• Finally, it can be readily seen that the joint distribution f A,φ(a, φ) is related to the marginals
fA(a) , fφ(φ) as,

essentially implying that the random variables A, Φ are independent.

This is a fairly important result since it suggests that the random varying nature of the
phase factor of the arriving signal is independent of that of the amplitude, i.e., for a given
amplitude a, all phase factors in (−π, π) are equiprobable.

• Figure 1.4 shows a scatter plot of the real and imaginary components of 10000 randomly
generated samples of the Rayleigh fading coefficient.
• From the circular symmetry of the plot, it can be readily seen that the phase of the
Rayleigh coefficient is distributed uniformly in (−π, π).

Figure 1.4 Scatter plot of the Rayleigh fading channel coefficient h

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 Regulation – 2022 (CBCS Scheme) Wireless Communication Systems – BEC703

Example 3: Derive the probability density function of the channel power gain g = a2, where a,
as defined above, is the magnitude of the Rayleigh fading channel with E { a2 } = 1.

Solution: The pdf of the magnitude of the channel coefficient a, where E { a2 } = 1, is given by
the Rayleigh distribution as

Define the function w as g = w(a) = a2. Then, from the standard result of the probability density
of a function of a random variable, the distribution of g is given by the pdf transformation

Observe that since g = w (a) = a2, we have w -1(g) = a = √g. Hence, the above expression can
simplified as

Thus, the expression for the power gain of the wireless channel has a rather simple expression
given as fG (g) = e-g . However, it should be kept in mind that this is valid only for the case
E { a2 } = E {g} = 1. Further, one can confirm that E {g} = 1 as

Example 4: In the wireless Rayleigh fading channel described above, consider a transmit power
Pt ( dB) = 20 dB. What is the probability that the power at the receiver is greater than
Pr ( dB) = 10 dB ?

Solution: First, let us begin by computing the appropriate linear power values for the above
given dB values. Pt( dB) = 10 log10 (Pt).

Hence, the linear transmit power Pt is given as Pt = 10Pt( dB)/10 = 102 = 100.

Similarly, the linear receiver power corresponding to Pr ( dB) = 10 dB is given as Pr = 101 = 10.

Also, observe that given a power gain g, the received power is simply Pr = gPt.
Hence, for a received power Pr > 10, it naturally implies that

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Thus, the probability that the received power is greater than 10 essentially corresponds to the
probability that the random power gain g of the Rayleigh fading wireless channel is greater
than 1/2. This probability can be readily computed as

1.4.1 Baseband Model of a Wireless System

• The baseband digital wireless communication system model for the above Rayleigh
fading channel can be now readily derived as follows.
• Let x(k), y(k) be the kth transmitted and received symbols respectively and h denote the
Rayleigh fading channel coefficient. The baseband system model for symbol detection in
this channel is given as
y(k) = hx(k) + n(k)------ 1.5

where n(k) is the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN).

• Without loss of generality, one can assume that the AWGN is of unit power,
i.e., E {|n (k)| 2 } = 1 (for if this does not hold then the whole system can be scaled by a
constant scaling factor without affecting the performance, since the SNR is invariant
under scaling by a constant factor).
• In particular, the information symbols x(k) are derived from a digital modulation
constellation such as BPSK, QPSK, etc.
• For instance, if the symbol constellation is BPSK of average symbol power P , the
transmitted symbol levels are given as +√P , −√P for the information symbols 1, 0
respectively.
• Finally, one can derive the standard nonfading model for the conventional wireline
systems as
y(k) = x(k) + n(k)-------- 1.6

where the Rayleigh fading factor a has simply been replaced by the constant 1 in the
previous system model, which is essentially due to the fact the there is no multipath
fading phenomenon in a wireline system.

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 Regulation – 2022 (CBCS Scheme) Wireless Communication Systems – BEC703

The Wireless Channel

1.5 Basics of Wireless Channel Modelling

• The fading wireless channel comprises several multipath components arising from the
presence of multiple Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) Signal-propagation paths.
• These NLOS components arise from the scattering effects of objects in the wireless
environment such as buildings, trees, vehicles, water bodies, etc.

Figure 1.5 Schematic of an L = 4 tap wireless channel profile

• The impulse response of the standard multipath wireless channel can be modelled as,

where each δ (t – τi) corresponds to delaying the signal by τi, and ai is the attenuation
associated with the ith path. The quantity L denotes the number of paths or multipath
components. From the above impulse response, one can define the multipath power
profile of the multipath channel as

--------- 1.7

where gi = |ai|2 is the power gain of the ith path.

For instance, consider an L = 4 path multipath channel. The gains and the corresponding
delays of the paths of this multipath channel can be listed as given in Table 1.1, and this
is schematically shown in Figure 1.5.

The total energy corresponding to the transmitted wireless signal is received in

increments at the receiver, with a part of it arriving in each multipath component. For
instance, power with gain g0 is received after a delay of τ0, while a gain of g1 is received
after a delay τ1, and so on, till the last path arriving at a delay of τL-1 delivers

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power with a gain of g L-1.

Thus, the total power received in a multipath wireless channel occurs over a
spread of time referred to as the delay spread.

This spread of the arriving power at the wireless receiver is schematically shown in Figure
1.6.
The delay spread of a wireless channel is a key parameter that characterizes the nature
of the wireless environment and is denoted by the parameter στ .
We describe the procedure for computation of the delay-spread parameter στ of a
wireless channel next.

Figure 1.6 Schematic of a typical wireless channel power profile and delay spread

Table 1.1 Path gains and associated delays for an L = 4 multipath channel

1.5.1 Maximum Delay Spread στmax

• A framework to quantify the delay spread of a wireless channel is through the maximum
delay spread of the channel denoted by στmax .
• Consider a wireless channel with L multipath components, with the first path arriving at a
delay of τ0 and the last signal copy arriving at τ L-1 . The maximum delay spread is simply
defined as

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 Regulation – 2022 (CBCS Scheme) Wireless Communication Systems – BEC703

------ 1.8

Figure 1.7 Schematic of the wireless-propagation environment

• The time interval between the arrival of the first and last signal copies at the receiver. This
is a simple measure of the spread of the energy in the wireless channel, while effectively
capturing the multipath signal arrival.
• A larger value of στmax naturally implies a richer scatter environment and larger
differential propagation delays between the paths.
• The delay spread does NOT depend on the absolute delays τ0, τL-1, but the difference τ L-1
– τ0. Thus, the distance of the mobile receiver node from the base station has no impact
on the delay spread, which leads to a larger propagation delay.
• For instance, consider a scenario where there is a single propagation path,
corresponding to a large delay τ0 for a mobile at a large distance from the base station.
Since there is only a single path in this case, the first and last components correspond to
the single component arriving at a delay of τ0.
• Hence, the corresponding delay spread is τ0 – τ0 = 0.
Thus, the delay spread indeed depends critically on the presence of multipath components
and the richness of the scatter environment, which basically affects the total number of
multipath scatter-signal components arriving at the receiver.

Example 4: Consider an L = 4 multipath channel with the delays τ0, τ L-1 corresponding to the first
and last arriving paths, given as τ0 = 0 μs and τL-1 = 5 μs. Such a wireless-channel power
profile is shown schematically in Figure 1.8. What is the maximum delay spread στmax
corresponding to this wireless channel ?

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Figure 1.8 Power profile for Example 4

Solution:

for L multipath components, it can be seen that the

maximum delay spread is

1.5.2 RMS Delay Spread στRMS

• In typical wireless channels, the paths which arrive later are significantly lower in power
due to the larger propagation distances and weaker reflections as shown in Figure 1.9.

• This results in a large value of the maximum delay spread σ τ max even though several of
the later paths comprise weak scatter components with negligible power.

• Thus, the maximum delay spread metric is not a reliable indicator of the true power
spread of the arriving multipath signal components in such scenarios, since it does not
weight the delays in proportion to the signal power in the multipath components.

• For this purpose, the RMS delay spread is a more realistic indicator of the spread of the
signal power in the arriving components. Further, since it weights the delays of the signal
components with respect to the power in the arriving paths, it is not susceptible to
distortion in scenarios with a large number of trailing weak components, unlike the
maximum delay spread.

Figure 1.9 Power profile with weak trailing paths of very low power

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 Regulation – 2022 (CBCS Scheme) Wireless Communication Systems – BEC703

Consider the power profile comprising of L multipath components defined in Eq. (1.7),
with gi = |ai|2 , 0 ≤ i ≤ L − 1 denoting the power gain of each multipath component. We
define a new quantity bi as

where gi denotes the total power corresponding to the ith path, while g0 + g1 + . . . + g L-1
denotes the total power in the multipath power profile.
Thus, the ratio bi denotes the fraction of power in the ith multipath component.
One can now conveniently employ this quantity bi proportionally with the multipath
delay components.
The various bi define a power distribution for the above multipath power profile since
each bi > 0 and b0 + b1 + . . . bL-1 = 1.
Therefore, the average delay can be computed to the mean of the above power
distribution as

It can be seen that the average delay is obtained by weighing each delay τ in
proportion to the fraction of the power bi. Finally, the RMS delay spread στRMS
can be computed as the standard deviation of the power distribution, which is defined as

------ 1.9

---------- 1.10

Thus, the RMS metric to characterize the delay spread defined above is not sensitive to
spurious multipath components of weak signal power since it weights each delay in

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proportion to its power, thereby automatically suppressing the contribution of weaker

paths.

Example 5: Consider the multipath power profile of a wireless channel shown in Figure 1.10
comprising L = 4 multipath components. Compute the RMS delay spread στRMS for this wireless
channel.

Figure 1.10 Power profile for Example 5

Solution: Consider the first path corresponding to τ0 = 0 μs. The power associated with this
path is g ( dB) = −20 dB. Hence, the linear power can be obtained as

10 log10 g0 = −20 dB
⇒ log10 g0 = −2
⇒ g0 = 10 -2 = 0.01

Also, the amplitude a0 associated with this path can be derived as

Thus, one can compute the corresponding power gi and amplitude ai for each of the L = 4
multipath components corresponding to 0 ≤ i ≤ 3.

Table 1.2 Table of gains for Example 5

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The mean delay for this channel as

The RMS delay spread can be computed as

The RMS delay spread is 0.8573 μs, which is much more realistic compared
the maximum delay spread στRMS = 5 μs. This is because the initial path at 0 μs is of a
significantly smaller power of −20 dB compared to the rest of the components. Since the
RMS delay spread weighs each delay by the appropriate power, it is not susceptible to this
distortion.

1.5.3 RMS Delay Based on Average Power Profile

• Consider the instantaneous power |h (τ )|2 corresponding to the delay τ . The

average power associated with this delay can be defined as

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The above quantity φ (τ ) can be thought of as the average power associated with the delay
τ at various instants of time. It can also be thought of as the power at delay τ for the
wireless channels of different users in an area. The former is averaging over time, while
the latter represents an averaging over the ensemble of channels.

The fractional power associated with the delay τ as

where f (τ ) denotes the power distribution density corresponding to the delay τ , i.e.,
f (τ ) Δτ is the fraction of power in a delay interval of Δτ around τ .

The average can, therefore, be defined as

The RMS delay spread for the above power profile φ (τ ) is defined as

Example 6: Consider the average power profile φ (τ ) = αe -τ/β, where α = 3 dB, β = 1 μs.
Compute the RMS delay spread στRMS for this profile which is schematically shown in Figure
1.11.

Figure 1.11: Power profile for Example 6

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Solution: Firstly, given that α ( dB) = 3 dB. Hence, we have α = 2. Therefore, φ (τ ) = 2e -τ/β. To
compute the normalized delay profile f (τ ), the normalization factor can be computed as

= 2β
The fractional power profile f (τ ) can be obtained as

The average delay is given as

The mean delay spread = β = 1 μs. To compute the RMS delay spread στRMS , we begin with
the computation of E {τ2 } defined as

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The RMS delay spread στRMS for the above average power profile αe -τ/β can be computed as
στRMS = 1 μs.

1.6 Average Delay Spread in Outdoor Cellular Channels

• Consider an outdoor cellular wireless communication scenario. The cell radii of typical cells
are in the range of 1–5 km, i.e., outdoor wireless signal-propagation distances are of the
order of a few kilometres.

• Consider two paths illustrated in Figure 1.12, where the direct and scatter distances are
given as d0 = 2 km, d0 = 3 km respectively. Hence, the propagation delays τ0, τ1 are given
as

where c = 3 × 108 m/s.

• Hence, the delay spread in this case is given as

• In typical outdoor cellular scenarios, where the distances and signal-propagation paths
are of the orders of kilometres, the delay spreads are of the order of 1–3 μs.
• This value is of great importance in the design and analysis of practical
wireless-communication systems. Also, similarly, corresponding to indoor distances of
around 10 m, typical indoor delay spreads are of the order of 10–50 ns.

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Figure 1.12 Typical delay spread in outdoor cellular channels

1.7 Coherence Bandwidth in Wireless Communications

• Let us define the frequency response H (f ) of the wireless channel as

To understand the relation between these two fundamental quantities, i.e., the delay
spread στ and coherence bandwidth Bc of the wireless channel, let us begin by considering
a simple case corresponding to στ = 0, shown in Figure below.

In this scenario, since the delay spread is zero, the wireless channel comprises a single
propagation path. Hence, the delay profile h (τ ) is given as

The corresponding frequency response H (f ) is given as

Thus, the frequency response is the constant 1 and |H (f )| = 1. This is basically a flat
frequency response over the entire frequency band as shown in Figure below, i.e., of
infinite bandwidth.

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As the delay spread στ increases in Figure (a), the time spread of this response increases,
leading to a decrease in the bandwidth of the response H (f ) as shown in Figure (b).

(a) (b)

As the time spread of the response becomes ∞ as shown in Figure (c), the channel
filter becomes an impulse δ (f ) as shown in Figure (d) and the bandwidth of the channel
filter reduces to 0.

(c) (d)
• The coherence bandwidth Bc is then defined as the bandwidth of the response H (f ), i.e.,
the frequency band over which the response H (f ) is flat as shown in Figure 1.13.

• Consider any signal x (t) transmitted over the wireless channel, with corresponding
Fourier transform X (f ). The output response Y (f ) of the output signal y (t) is given as

Y (f ) = H (f ) X (f ) ------ 1.11

which is shown in Figure 1.13.

The impact of the coherence bandwidth Bc on the signal x (t) can be understood as
follows

Figure 1.13 Linear input-output system model for the wireless channel

• As shown in Figure 1.14, if the bandwidth Bs of the signal x (t) is less than Bc, then X (f )
spans the flat part of the channel response H (f ).

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• Hence, the output Y (f ) = H (f ) X (f ) is simply a scaled version of X (f ) corresponding to

the magnitude of the flat part. Thus, the input signal spectrum X (f ) is undistorted at the
output. Such a wireless channel is termed a flat-fading channel.

Figure 1.14 Signal bandwidth Bs less than coherence bandwidth Bc implying no distortion

• However, consider the case where the signal bandwidth Bs is greater than the coherence
bandwidth Bc.
• In this scenario, different parts of the signal spectrum X (f ) experience different
attenuations, i.e., the attenuation is frequency-selective.
• Thus, the output spectrum Y (f ) is a distorted version of the input spectrum X (f ). Such a
wireless channel is termed a frequency-selective channel due to the frequency-
dependent nature of the attenuation of the signal. This is schematically shown in Figure
1.15.

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Figure 1.15 Signal bandwidth Bs greater than coherence bandwidth Bc leading to distortion in
spectrum of received signal

• Thus, the impact of the frequency spectrum H (f ) of the wireless channel on the input
signal x (t) can be summarized as
Bs ≤ Bc ⇒ No distortion in received signal, i.e., flat fading
Bs ≥ Bc ⇒ Distortion in received signal, i.e., frequency-selective fading ------ 1.12

To derive an empirical relationship between the delay spread and coherence bandwidth
of a typical wireless channel, consider a wireless delay profile

The response H (f ) of this channel is given as

Thus, the frequency response of the channel is given as the sum of L harmonics, with
the lth component changing at the rate τl. Consider now the highest frequency harmonic
corresponding to , i.e., with phase varying at the rate τ L-1.

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Its values at frequencies 0 and are given as

• Thus, it can be seen that as f changes from 1 to , the phase changes significantly.
This leads to a significant change in the response H (f ) from f = 0 to f = . Thus,
is a point of significant change in the frequency response, where it changes
significantly compared to the response at f = 0, as shown in Figure 1.16.

Figure 1.16 Severe ISI caused by multiple scatter components

Thus, the bandwidth of the response H (f ) is approximately given as

-------- 1.13
Hence, the coherence bandwidth of the filter H (f ) is approximately given as

--------- 1.14
τL-1 is the maximum delay spread σ τ max of the channel. Thus, the coherence bandwidth
Bc can be related to the delay spread στ as

--------- 1.15

Thus, it can be seen that the coherence bandwidth Bc decreases as the delay spread στ
increases.

Finally, the approximate delay spread corresponding to outdoor channels with a typical
delay spread of 2 μs can be derived as

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-------- 1.16
Thus, the typical delay spread of outdoor cellular wireless channels is Bc = 250 kHz.

1.8 Relation Between ISI and Coherence Bandwidth

• We will explore the relation between the Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI) distortion at the
receiver and the coherence bandwidth Bc of the wireless channel.
• Consider a Pulse Amplitude Modulated (PAM) signal x (t) of symbol time Ts transmitted
by the base station. Let us also consider the presence of a scatter component at a delay
of τ1 = Td in addition to the direct line-of-sight component with a delay τ0 = 0. This is
shown in Figure 1.17.

Figure 1.17 Coherence bandwidth showing point of change of response

• The net signal sensed by the receiver is the sum of the direct and scatter components,
i.e., x (t) and x (t – τ0).

• From Figure 1.17 if the delay spread στ = τ1 – τ0 is comparable to the symbol time Ts,
when these two signals are superposed at the receiver, the symbol s0 from x (t) adds to a
different symbol from x (t – τ0).

• For instance, in the figure, s0 adds to s-1, i.e., the previous symbol. The delay spread
increases, and the number of interfering paths correspondingly increases, the
severity of ISI increases, with several symbols superposing at the receiver. This can be
clearly seen in Figure 1.18.

Figure 1.18 Relation between ISI and delay spread

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The ISI at the receiver is related to the interplay between the symbol time Ts and delay
spread Td.
For instance, when the symbol time Ts is much larger than the delay spread Td as shown
in Figure 1.19, there is no ISI.
However, as the delay spread Td becomes comparable to Ts, it leads to ISI. Thus one can
empirically state the criterion for ISI as

Also, the symbol time Ts is related to the bandwidth Bs of the signal as Ts = 1/Bs.

The delay spread Td is related to the coherence bandwidth Bc as .

The criterion for inter-symbol interference above can be recast in terms of the
Bandwidths Bs, Bc as the same as the condition for frequency-selective signal distortion
as illustrated in Eq. (1.12).

The frequency-selective distortion and inter-symbol interference are essentially both

sides of the same coin.
In the time domain, if the delay spread is much larger compared to the symbol time, it
results in inter-symbol interference.
Correspondingly, in the frequency domain, this implies that the bandwidth of the signal
is much larger than the coherence bandwidth of the channel.
Thus, in effect, one is trying to push a signal of much higher bandwidth through a channel
filter, with a much smaller bandwidth. This results in frequency-selective distortion.
Thus, to correct for the inter-symbol interference at the receiver, one needs to intuitively
multiply by the inverse of the channel response filter, i.e., 1/H(f ) , to convert the
frequency selective channel into a system with a net flat-fading response. This process,
termed equalization is the different frequency components are being equalized to a
common flat-level.

Example 7: Consider the 2G Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard with a
signal bandwidth of BGSM = 200 kHz. Does the GSM signal experience frequency selective or
flat fading? Is there inter-symbol interference at the GSM receiver? Answer the same questions
as above in the context of the 3G Wideband Code Division for Multiple Access (WCDMA)
standard with a signal bandwidth BWCDMA = 5 mHz.
Solution: The coherence bandwidth Bc corresponding to outdoor cellular wireless channels is Bc
≈ 250 kHz. Hence, since the 2G GSM signal bandwidth BGSM = 200 kHz < Bc = 250 kHz, typically
the GSM signal experiences only frequency-flat and not frequency-selective fading.
There is no inter-symbol interference at the GSM receiver.
Since the WCDMA signal bandwidth B WCDA = 5 MHz > Bc = 250 kHz, the WCDMA signal experiences
frequency-selective fading, leading to inter-symbol interference at the receiver. Inter-symbol
interference is a boon and not a curse for CDMA systems. This is due to the fact that the CDMA
receiver can easily remove the effects of inter-symbol interference through the RAKE receiver.

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1.9 Doppler Fading in Wireless Systems

• The Doppler shift is a fundamental principle related to the electromagnetic radio-wave

propagation.
• In this context, the Doppler shift associated with an electromagnetic wave is defined as
the perceived change in the frequency of the wave due to relative motion between the
transmitter and receiver. This is schematically shown in Figure 1.19.

Figure 1.19 Doppler fading due to user mobility

The perceived frequency is higher than the true frequency if the transmitter is moving
towards the receiver and lower otherwise.
• Doppler fading is inherent in wireless communications due to the untethered nature of
mobile transceivers, which enables mobility in wireless systems, leading to relative
motion between the transmitter and the receiver. This is different compared to the
conventional wired communications, where the tethered nature of the fixed radio-access
medium does not allow for mobility.

1.9.1 Doppler Shift Computation

Consider the scenario shown pictorially in Figure 1.20, where the mobile station is
moving with a velocity v at an angle θ with the line joining the mobile and base station.

Figure 1.20 Doppler scenario

Let the carrier frequency be fc. The Doppler shift for this scenario is given as

----------------1.14
where c = 3 × 108m/s is the velocity of light, i.e., velocity of an electromagnetic wave in
free space. The Doppler shift increases with the velocity v.
Moreover, it depends critically on the angle θ between the direction of motion and the
line joining the transmitter and receiver.
For instance, the Doppler shift is maximum when θ = 0, π, i.e., when the relative motion
is along the line joining the transmitter and receiver.

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However, when θ = π/2 , i.e., the motion is perpendicular to the receive direction, the
Doppler shift is zero.
Also, the Doppler shift is positive in the sense that the perceived frequency is higher if
0 ≤ θ ≤ π/2, in which case cos θ > 0.
On the other hand, it is negative, leading to a lower perceived frequency that the
transmit frequency is π/2 ≤ θ ≤ π.

Example 8: Consider a vehicle moving at 60 miles per hour at an angle of θ = 30◦ with the line
joining the base station. Compute the Doppler shift of the received signal at a carrier frequency
of fc = 1850 MHz.

Solution: We convert the velocity v from units of miles per hour to the standard metres per
second. Noting that a mile is equal to 1.61 km, the required velocity in meters per second can be
derived as
60 mph = 60 × 1.61 kmph
= 60 × 1.61 × 5/18 m/s = 26.8 m/s

The doppler shift fd can be computed as

= 143 Hz

Since the mobile user is moving towards the base station, the Doppler shift is positive, i.e., the
perceived frequency fr is higher compared to the carrier frequency fc and is given as
fr = fc + fd = 1850 MHz + 143 kHz.

1.10 Doppler Impact on a Wireless Channel

Consider the impulse response of the ith component of the multipath channel given as
aiδ (t – τ i).
Let the vehicle be moving with velocity v at an angle θ with respect to the line joining the
mobile and base station.

Observe that the distance between the base station and the mobile is changing constantly
due to the motion of the user. Therefore, as a result, the delay of the ith signal component
is also changing. Let the initial distance for the ith signal component be di. The initial
propagation delay is therefore,

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After a small interval of time t, this distance decreases by vt cos θ, since v cos θ is the
component of the velocity in the direction of the base station. Hence, the delay of the ith
component after time t is correspondingly given as

The flat-fading wireless-channel coefficient has been defined as

The equivalent model for the flat-fading channel coefficient h taking into account the
velocity v of the user can now be derived by simply replacing the delay τi of the ith
component by τi (t). Naturally, the resulting channel coefficient is a function of the time t.
This model for the time-varying channel coefficient h is given as

------ 1.15

where the last equality follows by substituting .

Observe now that the quantity e j2πfdt represents the time-varying phase of the wireless
channel. The rate of variation of the phase is given by the Doppler frequency fd . Thus, to
summarize, the mobility of the user in a wireless communication system leads to a Doppler
shift, which in turn results in a time-varying wireless channel coefficient.
This time-varying nature of the wireless channel is also termed time selectivity and the
time-varying wireless channel is termed a time-selective channel.

As frequency selectivity refers to different signal attenuations in different bands, time

selectivity refers to different attenuations at different instants of time. Further, a channel
can be both time- and frequency-selective. Such channels are termed doubly selective
wireless channels.

1.11 Coherence Time of the Wireless Channel

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Consider the i th multipath component of the time-varying channel coefficient in Eq.

(1.15), which is given as

The value of this ith component corresponding to t = 0, π/2 can be obtained as

The channel changes significantly from time t = 0 to t = 1/4fd since the phase changes by
pi/2 . This time duration in which the channel changes significantly due to the mobility of
the user is termed the coherence time, Tc. Further, although fd depends on the angle of
motion θ, a conservative estimate, i.e., minimum coherence time can be obtained by
setting θ = π/2 , in other words, corresponding to the fastest rate of change fd for a given
velocity v. This value of the coherence time Tc can be defined as

The impact of coherence time can be understood as follows. Consider a wireless channel
which is changing with time. The coherence time Tc is the approximate duration of time
for which the wireless channel can be assumed to be constant. This can also be
expressed as

------ 1.16

where Bd = 2fd is the Doppler spread of the wireless channel.

Example 9: Consider the scenario described above in Example 8, i.e., a mobile user in a vehicle
moving at 60 miles per hour. Compute the coherence time Tc at the carrier frequency fc = 1.85
GHz.

Solution: To compute the coherence time Tc, we start by computing the maximum Doppler
shift fd max corresponding to θ = 0◦.

Hence, the corresponding Doppler spread is given as Bd = 2 × fd max = 330 Hz. Hence, the
coherence time Tc is given from the relation

= 1.5ms

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The value of Tc in practical wireless systems, at vehicular velocities around 60 mph and carrier
frequencies in the 2 GHz range is of the order of milliseconds (ms).
Thus, the Doppler spread of a wireless system gives the wireless-system designer an idea of the
rate of change of the wireless-channel coefficient.
A larger Doppler spread Bd corresponds to a smaller coherence time Tc leading to a faster rate of
channel variation.

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