The Basics of Mobile Propagation

Jean-Paul M.G. Linnartz

Nat.Lab., Philips Research
 Mobile Propagation

Path Loss
Free Space Loss
Ground Reflections
Reflections and Diffraction
Micro-cellular Propagation
Indoor propagation
Shadowing

Multipath Reception and Scattering

Frequency - selectivity (dispersion)
Time - selectivity (fading)
 Free Space Loss

Isotropic antenna: power is distributed homogeneously

over surface area of a sphere.

Received power is power through effective antenna

surface over total surface area of a sphere of radius d
 Free Space Loss

The power density w at distance d is

w PT 2
4 d
where PT is the transmit power.

The received power is

PR A P
2 T
4 d
with A the `antenna aperture' or
the effective receiving surface area.
 FREE SPACE LOSS, continued
The antenna gain GR is related to the aperture A according to

GR 4 A
2is
Thus the received signal power

2
1
PR = PT G R
4 4 d 2
Received power decreases with distance, PR :: d-2
Received power decreases with frequency, PR :: f -2
 Groundwave loss:

Waves travelling over land interact with the earth's surface.

Norton: For propagation over a plane earth,

=
E i E 0i 1 + Rc e
j
+ ( 1 - Rc ) F( ) e + ,
j

where
Rc is the reflection coefficient,
E0i is the theoretical field strength for free space
F(.) is the (complex) surface wave attenuation
D is the phase difference between direct and
ground-reflected wave
 Three Components

Bullington: Received Electric Field =

direct line-of-sight wave +
wave reflected from the earth's surface +
a surface wave.

Space wave:
the (phasor) sum of the direct wave, and
the ground-reflected wave
 Space-wave approximation for
UHF land-mobile communication

Received field strength = LOS + Ground-reflected wave.

Surface wave is negligible, i.e., F() << 1, for the usual
antenna heights

The received signal power is

2

PR = 1 Re j PT G T G R
4 d
 Space-wave approximation
{(ht - hr)2 +d2}
hr
ht

{(ht + hr)2 +d2}

The phase difference is found from Pythagoras.

Distance TX to RX antenna = ( ht - hr)2 + d2
Distance mirrored TX to RX antenna =
(ht + hr)2 + d2
 Space-wave approximation

The phase difference is

=
2
2
d 2 + ( ht + hr ) - d 2 + ( ht - h r )
2

At large a distance, d >> 5 ht hr,
4 hr ht

d
So, the received signal power is

2
4 j hr ht
PR = 1 R exp PT G T G R
4 d d
 Space-wave approximation

2
4 j hr ht
PR = 1 Rc exp PT GT G R
4 d d

The reflection coefficient approaches Rc -1 for

large propagation distances (d )
low antenna heights

So 0, and
LOS and ground-reflected wave cancel!!
 Two-ray model
For Rc = -1, the received power is
2
1 2 2 hr ht
PR = sin GT G R PT
4 d 4 d

Macro-cellular groundwave propagation:

For small d (d >> 4 hr ht), we approximate sin(x) x:
2 2
PR = r h4 t PT G R G T
h
d
Thus, an important turnover point occurs distances dg
such that
2 h r ht

dg 2
 Two-Ray Model
Observations:

40 log d beyond a turnover

point
Attenuation depends on
antenna height
Turnover point depends on
antenna height
Wave interference pattern at
Free space short range
ht = 100 meter
ht = 30 meter
ht = 2 meter
 Eglis semi-empirical model Wireles
s

fc
L = 40 log d + 20 log - 20 log hr ht .
40 MHz

Loss per distance:................ 40 log d

Antenna height gain:............. 6 dB per octave
Empirical factor:................... 20 log f
Error: standard deviation...... 12 dB
 Micro-cellular models
Statistical Model
At short range, Rc may not be close to -1. Therefor, nulls
are less prominent than predicted by the simplified two-ray
formula.
UHF propagation for low antennas (ht = 5 .. 10 m)

Typically 2
- 2
d
Typically 3.2 p = d 1 1+
-
d g

Deterministic Models:
Ray-tracing (ground and building reflection, diffraction,
scattering)
 Wireles

Indoor Models s

Difficult to predict exactly

Ray-tracing model prevail (diffraction, reflection)
Some statistical Models, e.g.
COST 231: 800 MHz and 1.9 GHz
Environment Exponent Propagation Mechanism
Corridors 1.4 - 1.9 Wave guidance

Large open rooms 2 Free space loss

Furnished rooms 3 FSL + multipath

Densely furnished rooms 4 Non-LOS, diffraction, scattering

Between different floors 5 Losses during floor / wall traverses

Statistical Fluctuations

R eceiv ed P o w er [d B ]
Area-mean power
is determined by path loss ln(Distance)

is an average over 100 m - 5 km

Local-mean power Relevant to
is caused by local 'shadowing' effects operator
has slow variations
is an average over 40 (few meters)
Instantaneous power Relevant to
fluctuations are caused by multipath reception manufacturer
depends on location and frequency
depends on time if antenna is in motion
has fast variations (fades occur about every half a wave length)
 Shadowing: = 3 .. 12 dB

"Large-area Shadowing":
Egli: Average terrain: 8.3 dB for VHF and 12 dB (UHF)
Semi-circular routes in Chicago: 6.5 dB to 10.5 dB

"Small-area shadowing: 4 .. 7 dB
 How do systems handle shadowing?

GSM
Planning of base station location and frequency
Power control
DECT
Select good base station locations
IS95
Power control
Select good base station locations
Digital Audio Broadcasting:
Single frequency networks
 Multipath fading

Multiple reflected waves arrive at the receiver

Narrowband model
Different waves have different phases.
These waves my cancel or amplify each other.
This results in a fluctuating (fading) amplitude of the
total received signal.
 Models for Multipath Fading

Rayleigh fading
(infinitely) large collection of reflected waves
Appropriate for macrocells in urban environment
Simple model leads to powerful mathematical
framework

Ricean fading
(infinitely) large collection of reflected waves plus line-
of sight
Appropriate for micro-cells
Mathematically more complicated
Models for Multipath Fading
Rayleigh fading
(infinitely) large collection of
reflected waves
Appropriate for macrocells in
urban environment
Simple model leads to powerful
mathematical framework

Transmitted carrier s(t) = cos(c t)

Received carrier N
v(t) = n cos (c t + n ) ,
where n=1

n is the amplitude of the n-th reflected wave

n is the phase of the n-th reflected wave
 Rayleigh Multipath Reception
Amplitude The received signal
amplitude depends
on location and
frequency
If the antenna is
moving, the location
x changes linearly
with time t (x = v t)
Parameters:
Frequency
Time (ms) probability of fades
duration of fades
bandwidth of fades
 Rayleigh Model

Central Limit Theorem: inphase and quadrature

components are zero-mean independently identically
distributed (i.i.d.) jointly Gaussian random variables
PDF:
1 2 + 2
f ( , ) = 2
exp - 2
2 2
Q

Conversion to polar co-ordinates:
Received amplitude : 2 = 2 + 2. I
= cos ;
= sin ,
 Wireles

Received Amplitudes
s

Q Probability

Density

I
Threshold

Amplitude

r r 2

Amplitude f R r = exp - .
p 2 p

1 1
Power f P p = exp - .
p p
 Fade Margin

Fade margin is the ratio of the average received power

over some threshold power, needed for reliable
communication.
dB r.m.s. amplitude = local-mean
fade margin
receiver threshold

Time

PDF of signal amplitude

Fade margin Outage probability
 Fade Margin

Fade margin

plocal-mean/pthreshold

The signal outage probability is

Pr(p < pthreshold) = Pr(p < plocal-mean /

p/ 1 p
p 1
Pr( p ) exp - dp 1 exp - .
0 p p
 Wireles

Effect of Flat Fading

s

In a fading channel, the BER only improves very

slowly with increasing C/I
Fading causes burst errors
Average BER does not tell the full story
 Ricean Multipath Reception

Narrowband propagation model: reflections

line of sight

TX RX

Transmitted carrier s(t) = cos(c t)

Received carrier N
v(t)= C cos c t + n cos( c t + n ) ,
n=1
where
C is the amplitude of the line-of-sight component
n is the amplitude of the n-th reflected wave
n is the phase of the n-th reflected wave
Ricean Multipath Reception

Received carrier:
N
v(t)= C cos c t + n cos( c t + n ) ,
n=1

where
is the in-phase component of the reflections
is the quadrature component of the reflections.
I is the total in-phase component (I = C + )
Q is the total quadrature component (I = C + )
 Wireles

Ricean Amplitude
s

Ricean PDF of

2 + C2 C
f = exp - I0
q
,
q 2 q

where
I0(.) is the modified Bessel function of the first kind and zero
order
q is the total scattered power (q = 2).
 Ricean K-factor

Definition: K = direct power C2/2 over scattered power q

Measured values
K = 4 ... 1000 (6 to 30 dB) for micro-cellular systems

Light fading (K -> infinity)

Very strong dominant component
Ricean PDF approaches Gaussian PDF with small

Severe Fading (K = 0):

Rayleigh Fading
 Summary

Three mechanisms: Path loss, shadowing, multipath

Rapid increase of attenuation with distance helps
cellular system operators
Multipath fading: Rayleigh and Ricean models
Fading has to be handled within user terminal

Exercises: See Wireless Communication CD-ROM

Plane Earth Loss
Quiz questions