Radio Propagation

CSCI 694
24 September 1999
Lewis Girod
 Outline
• Introduction and terminology
• Propagation mechanisms
• Propagation models

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 2

 What is Radio?
• Radio Xmitter induces E&M fields
– Electrostatic field components 1/d3
– Induction field components 1/d2
– Radiation field components 1/d
• Radiation field has E and B component
– Field strength at distance d = EB 1/d2
– Surface area of sphere centered at transmitter

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 3

 General Intuition
• Two main factors affecting signal at receiver
– Distance (or delay)  Path attenuation
– Multipath  Phase differences

Green signal travels 1/2 farther than

Yellow to reach receiver, who sees Red.
For 2.4 GHz,  (wavelength) =12.5cm.

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 4

 Objective
• Invent models to predict what the field
looks like at the receiver.
– Attenuation, absorption, reflection, diffraction...
– Motion of receiver and environment…
– Natural and man-made radio interference...
– What does the field look like at the receiver?

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 5

 Models are Specialized
• Different scales
– Large scale (averaged over meters)
– Small scale (order of wavelength)
• Different environmental characteristics
– Outdoor, indoor, land, sea, space, etc.
• Different application areas
– macrocell (2km), microcell(500m), picocell

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 6

 Outline
• Introduction and some terminology
• Propagation Mechanisms
• Propagation models

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 7

 Radio Propagation Mechanisms
• Free Space propagation
• Refraction
– Conductors & Dielectric materials (refraction)
• Diffraction
– Fresnel zones
• Scattering
– “Clutter” is small relative to wavelength

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 8

 Free Space

• Assumes far-field (Fraunhofer region)

– d >> D and d >>  , where
• D is the largest linear dimension of antenna
  is the carrier wavelength
• No interference, no obstructions

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 9

 Free Space Propagation Model
• Received power at distance d is

Pt
Pr (d ) K 2 Watts
d

– where Pt is the transmitter power in Watts

– a constant factor K depends on antenna gain, a
system loss factor, and the carrier wavelength
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 10
 Refraction

• Perfect conductors reflect

with no attenuation
• Dielectrics reflect a fraction
of incident energy  r
– “Grazing angles” reflect max* t
– Steep angles transmit max*
• Reflection induces 180 phase shift
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 11
*The exact fraction depends on the materials and frequencies involved
 Diffraction
• Diffraction occurs when waves
hit the edge of an obstacle
– “Secondary” waves propagated
into the shadowed region
– Excess path length results in T
R
a phase shift
– Fresnel zones relate phase shifts 1st Fresnel zone
to the positions of obstacles
Obstruction

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 12

 Fresnel Zones
• Bounded by elliptical loci of constant delay
• Alternate zones differ in phase by 180
– Line of sight (LOS) corresponds to 1st zone
– If LOS is partially blocked, 2nd zone can
destructively interfere (diffraction loss)
Path 1

Path 2

Fresnel zones are ellipses with the T&R at the foci; L 1 = L2+
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 13
 Power Propagated into Shadow
• How much power is propagated this way?
– 1st FZ: 5 to 25 dB below free space prop.
LOS

0 0o
-10 90
-20 180o
dB -30
-40
-50 Obstruction

-60 Tip of Shadow Rappaport, pp. 97

1st 2nd
Obstruction of Fresnel Zones 
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 14
 Scattering
• Rough surfaces
– critical height for bumps is f(,incident angle)
– scattering loss factor modeled with Gaussian
distribution.
• Nearby metal objects (street signs, etc.)
– Usually modelled statistically
• Large distant objects
– Analytical model: Radar Cross Section (RCS)
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 15
 Outline
• Introduction and some terminology
• Propagation Mechanisms
• Propagation models
– Large scale propagation models
– Small scale propagation (fading) models

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 16

 Propagation Models: Large
• Large scale models predict behavior averaged
over distances >> 
– Function of distance & significant environmental
features, roughly frequency independent
– Breaks down as distance decreases
– Useful for modeling the range of a radio system
and rough capacity planning

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 17

 Propagation Models: Small
• Small scale (fading) models describe signal
variability on a scale of 
– Multipath effects (phase cancellation)
dominate, path attenuation considered constant
– Frequency and bandwidth dependent
– Focus is on modeling “Fading”: rapid change in
signal over a short distance or length of time.

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 18

 Large Scale Models

• Path loss models

• Outdoor models
• Indoor models

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 19

 Free Space Path Loss
• Path Loss is a measure of attenuation based
only on the distance to the transmitter
• Free space model only valid in far-field;
– Path loss models typically define a “close-in”
point d0 and reference other points from there:
2
d   d 
Pr (d ) Pr (d 0 ) 0  PL(d ) [ Pr (d )]dB  PL(d 0 )  2  
 d   d 0  dB
What is dB?

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 20

 Log-Distance Path Loss Model
• Log-distance generalizes path loss to
account for other environmental factors
d
PL(d )  PL(d 0 )    
 d 0  dB
• Choose a d0 in the far field.
• Measure PL(d0) or calculate Free Space Path Loss.
• Take measurements and derive  empirically.

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 21

 Log-Distance 2
• Value of  characterizes different environments

Environment 
Exponent
Free Space 2
Urban area 2.7-3.5
Shadowed urban area 3-5
Indoor LOS 1.6-1.8
Indoor no LOS 4-6
Rappaport, Table 3.2, pp. 104
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 22
 Log-Normal Shadowing Model

• Shadowing occurs when objects block LOS

between transmitter and receiver
• A simple statistical model can account for
unpredictable “shadowing”
– Add a 0-mean Gaussian RV to Log-Distance PL
– Markov model can be used for spatial correlation

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 23

 Outdoor Models

• “2-Ray” Ground Reflection model

• Diffraction model for hilly terrain

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 24

 2-Ray Ground Reflection
• For d >> hrht,
– low angle of incidence allows the earth to act
as a reflector
– the reflected signal is 180 out of phase
– Pr  1/d4 (=4)

T R
ht hr
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 25
Phase shift!
 Ground Reflection 2
• Intuition: ground blocks 1st Fresnel zone
– Reflection causes an instantaneous 180 phase shift
– Additional phase offset due to excess path length
– If the resulting phase is still close to 180, the gound ray will
destructively interfere with the LOS ray.

180

T p0 R
ht p1 hr
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 26
 Hilly Terrain
• Propagation can be LOS or result of
diffraction over one or more ridges
• LOS propagation modelled with
ground reflection: diffraction loss
• But if there is no LOS,
diffraction can actually help!

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 27

 Indoor Path Loss Models

• Indoor models are less generalized

– Environment comparatively more dynamic
• Significant features are physically smaller
– Shorter distances are closer to near-field
– More clutter, scattering, less LOS

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 28

 Indoor Modeling Techniques
• Modeling techniques and approaches:
– Log-Normal, <2 for LOS down corridor
– Log-Normal shadowing model if no LOS
– Partition and floor attenuation factors
– Computationally intensive “ray-tracing” based
on 3-D model of building and attenuation
factors for materials

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 29

 Outline
• Introduction and some terminology
• Propagation Mechanisms
• Propagation models
– Large scale propagation models
– Small scale propagation (fading) models

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 30

 Recall: Fading Models
• Small scale (fading) models describe signal
variability on a scale of 
– Multipath effects (phase cancellation)
dominate, path attenuation considered constant
– Frequency and bandwidth dependent
– Focus is on modeling “Fading”: rapid change in
signal over a short distance or length of time.

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 31

 Factors Influencing Fading
• Motion of the receiver: Doppler shift
• Transmission bandwidth of signal
– Compare to BW of channel
• Multipath propagation
– Receiver sees multiple instances of signal when
waves follow different paths
– Very sensitive to configuration of environment

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 32

 Effects of Multipath Signals
• Rapid change in signal strength due to
phase cancellation
• Frequency modulation due to Doppler shifts
from movement of receiver/environment
• Echoes caused by multipath propagation
delay

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 33

 The Multipath Channel
• One approach to small-scale models is to
model the “Multipath Channel”
– Linear time-varying function h(t,)
• Basic idea: define a filter that encapsulates
the effects of multipath interference
– Measure or calculate the channel impulse response
(response to a short pulse at fc):

h(t,)
t  
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 34
 SKIP
Channel Sounding
• “Channel sounding” is a way to measure the
channel response
– transmit impulse, and measure the response to find
h().
– h() can then be used to model the channel response to
an arbitrary signal: y(t) = x(t)h().
– Problem: models the channel at single point in time;
can’t account for mobility or environmental changes
h(t,)
 
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 35
 Characterizing Fading*
*Adapted from EE535 Slides, Chugg ‘99

• From the impulse response we can

characterize the channel:
• Characterizing distortion
– Delay spread (d): how long does the channel
ring from an impulse?
– Coherence bandwidth (Bc): over what
frequency range is the channel gain flat?
 d1/Bc Inof time domain, roughly corresponds to the “fidelity”
the response; sharper pulse requires wider band
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 36
 Effect of Delay Spread*
For a system with bw W and symbol time T...
• Does the channel distort the signal?
– if W << Bc: “Flat Fading”
• Amplitude and phase distortion only
– if W > Bc: “Frequency Selective Fading”
• If T < d, inter-symbol interference (ISI) occurs
• For narrowband systems (W  1/T), FSF  ISI.
• Not so for wideband systems (W >> 1/T)
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 37
 Qualitative Delay Spread
RMS Delay spread ()

Typical values for  :

Indoor: 10-100 ns
Mean excess delay Outdoor: 0.1-10 s
Power(dB)

Noise threshold

Delay
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 38
 Characterizing Fading 2*
• Characterizing Time-variation: How does
the impulse response change with time?
– Coherence time (tc): for what value of  are
responses at t and t+ uncorrelated? (How
quickly is the channel changing)
– Doppler Spread (fd): How much will the
spectrum of the input be spread in frequency?
– fd1/tc
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 39
 Effect of Coherence Time*
For a system with bw W and symbol time T...
• Is the channel constant over many uses?
– if T << tc: “Slow fading”
• Slow adaptation required
– if T > tc: “Fast fading”
• Frequent adaptation required
• For typical systems, symbol rate is high compared
to channel evolution
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 40
 Statistical Fading Models

• Fading models model the probability of a

fade occurring at a particular location
– Used to generate an impulse response
– In fixed receivers, channel is slowly time-varying; the
fading model is reevaluated at a rate related to motion
• Simplest models are based on the WSSUS
principle
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 41
 WSSUS*
• Wide Sense Stationary (WSS)
– Statistics are independent of small perturbations in time
and position
– I.e. fixed statistical parameters for stationary nodes
• Uncorrelated Scatter (US)
– Separate paths are not correlated in phase or attenuation
– I.e. multipath components can be independent RVs
• Statistics modeled as Gaussian RVs
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 42
 Common Distributions
• Rayleigh fading distribution
– Models a flat fading signal
– Used for individual multipath components
• Ricean fading distribution
– Used when there is a dominant signal
component, e.g. LOS + weaker multipaths
– parameter K (dB) defines strength of dominant
component; for K=-, equivalent to Rayleigh
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 43
 Application of WSSUS
• Multi-ray Rayleigh fading:
– The Rayleigh distribution does not model
multipath time delay (frequency selective)
– Multi-ray model is the sum of two or more
independent time-delayed Rayleigh variables

s(t) 
R1
 r(t)
R2
Rappaport, Fig. 4.24, pp. 185.
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 44
 Saleh & Valenzuela (1987)
Rappaport, pp. 188

• Measured same-floor indoor characteristics

– Found that, with a fixed receiver, indoor
channel is very slowly time-varying
– RMS delay spread: mean 25ns, max 50ns
– With no LOS, path loss varied over 60dB range
and obeyed log distance power law, 3 > n > 4
• Model assumes a structure and models
correlated multipath components.
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 45
 Saleh & Valenzuela 2
• Multipath model
– Multipath components arrive in clusters, follow Poisson
distribution. Clusters relate to building structures.
– Within cluster, individual components also follow
Poisson distribution. Cluster components relate to
reflecting objects near the TX or RX.
– Amplitudes of components are independent Rayleigh
variables, decay exponentially with cluster delay and
with intra-cluster delay

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 46

 References
• Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice, Chapters 3 and 4,
T. Rappaport, Prentice Hall, 1996.
• Principles of Mobile Communication, Chapter 2, G. Stüber, Kluwer
Academic Publishers, 1996.
• Slides for EE535, K. Chugg, 1999.
• Spread Spectrum Systems, Chapter 7, R. Dixon, Wiley, 1985 (there is
a newer edition).
• Wideband CDMA for Third Generation Mobile Communications,
Chapter 4, T. Ojanpera, R. Prasad, Artech, House 1998.
• Propagation Measurements and Models for Wireless Communications
Channels, Andersen, Rappaport, Yoshida, IEEE Communications,
January 1995.

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 47

 The End

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 48

 Scattering 2
• hc is the critical height of a protrusion to
result in scattering. h 
λ
c
8 sin(θ i )

• RCS: ratio of power density scattered to receiver

to power density incident on the scattering object
– Wave radiated through free space to scatterer and reradiated:

PR (dBm)PT (dBm)GT (dBi)  20 log(λ )  RCS [dB m 2 ]

 30 log(4π )  20 log(dT )  20 log(d R )
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 49
 Free Space 2a
• Free space power flux density (W/m 2)
– power radiated over surface area of sphere
Pt Gt
Pd 
4π d 2

– where Gt is transmitter antenna gain

• By covering some of this area, receiver’s
antenna “catches” some of this flux
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 50
 Free Space 2b
• Fraunhofer distance: d > 2D2/
• Antenna gain and antenna aperture
– Ae is the antenna aperture, intuitively the area
of the antenna perpendicular to the flux
– Gr is the antenna gain for a receiver. It is related to A e.
4π Ae Gλ 2
G 2 Ae 
λ 4π
– Received power (Pr) = Power flux density (Pd) * Ae
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 51
 Free Space 2c

1 Pt Gt Gr λ 2
Pr (d )  2 2
Watts
d (4π ) L

– where L is a system loss factor

– Pt is the transmitter power
– Gt and Gr are antenna gains
  is the carrier wavelength

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 52

 LNSM 2
• PL(d)[dB] = PL(d0) +10nlog(d/d0)+ X
– where X is a zero-mean Gaussian RV (dB)
  and n computed from measured data,
based on linear regression

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 53

 Ground Reflection 1.5
• The power at the receiver in this model is
– derivation calculates E field; ht2 hr2
Pr Pt Gt Gr
– Pr = |E|2Ae; Ae is ant. aperture d4

• The “breakpoint” at which the model

changes from 1/d2 to 1/d4 is  2hthr/
– where hr and ht are the receiver and transmitter
antenna heights
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 54
 Convolution Integral
• Convolution is defined by this integral:
y (t )  x(t )  h(t ) 

y (t )  x(τ )h(t  τ )dτ


Indexes relevant portion

of impulse response

Scales past input signal

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 55
 Partition Losses
• Partition losses: same floor
– Walls, furniture, equipment
– Highly dependent on type of material, frequency
• Hard partitions vs soft partitions
– hard partitions are structural
– soft partitions do not reach ceiling
• “open plan” buildings

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 56

 Partition Losses 2
• Partition losses: between floors
– Depends on building construction, frequency
– “Floor attenuation factor” diminishes with
successive floors
– typical values:
• 15 dB for 1st floor
• 6-10 dB per floor for floors 2-5
• 1-2 dB per floor beyond 5 floors

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 57

 Materials
• Attenuation values for different materials
Material Loss (dB) Frequency
Concrete block 13-20 1.3 GHz
Plywood (3/4”) 2 9.6 GHz
Plywood (2 sheets) 4 9.6 GHz
Plywood (2 sheets) 6 28.8 GHz
Aluminum siding 20.4 815 MHz
Sheetrock (3/4”) 2 9.6 GHz
Sheetrock (3/4”) 5 57.6 GHz
Turn corner in corridor 10-15 1.3 GHz

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 58

 What does “dB” mean?
• dB stands for deciBel or 1/10 of a Bel
• The Bel is a dimensionless unit for
expressing ratios and gains on a log scale
 P2   P2 
  10 log10   10(log( P2 )  log( P1 ))
 P1  dB  P1 

• Gains add rather than multiply

• Easier to handle large dynamic ranges
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 59
 dB 2
• Ex: Attenuation from transmitter to receiver.
– PT=100, PR=10
– attenuation is ratio of PT to PR
– [PT/PR]dB = 10 log(PT/PR) = 10 log(10) = 10 dB

• Useful numbers:
– [1/2]dB  -3 dB

– [1/1000]dB = -30 dB
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 60
 dB 3
• dB can express ratios, but what about
absolute quantities?
• Similar units reference an absolute quantity
against a defined reference.
– [n mW]dBm = [n/mW]dB
– [n W]dBW = [n/W]dB
• Ex: [1 mW]dBW = -30 dBW
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 61
 Channel Sounding 2

• Several “Channel Sounding” techniques can

measure the channel response directly:
– Direct RF pulse (we hinted at this approach)
– Sliding correlator
– Frequency domain sounding

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 62

 Channel Sounding 3
• Direct RF Pulse
– Xmit pulse, scope displays response at receiver
– Can be done with off-the-shelf hardware
– Problems: hard to reject noise in the channel
– If no LOS
• must trigger scope on weaker multipath component
• may fail to trigger
• lose delay and phase information

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 63

 Channel Sounding 4
• Sliding correlator
– Xmit PseudoNoise sequence
– Rcvr correlates signal with its PN generator
– Rcvr clock slightly slower; PN sequences slide
– Delayed components cause delayed correlations
– Good resolution, good noise rejection

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 64

 Channel Sounding 5
• Frequency domain sounding
– Sweep frequency range
– Compute inverse Fourier transform of response
– Problems
• not instantaneous measurement
• Tradeoff between resolution (number of frequency
steps) and real-time measurement (i.e. duration as
short as possible)

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 65

 Digression: Convolutions
• The impulse response “box” notation
implies the convolution operator, 
– Convolution operates on a signal and an
impulse response to produce a new signal.
– The new signal is the superposition of the
response to past values of the signal.
– Commutative, associative

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 66

 Convolutions 2
• y(t) is the sum of scaled, time-delayed responses

x(t)  h(t) = y(t)

h(t)

Each component of the sum is scaled

by the x(t)dt at that point; in this
+ example, the response is scaled to 0
where x(t) = 0.
y(t)
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 67
 Convolutions 3
• Graphical method: “Flip & Slide”
x(t)  h(t) = y(t)

Pairwise multiply x*h

and integrate over 
x()

h(t-)
h(t-)
h(t-) h(t-) Flip
h(t-)
Flip
Flip
& &&&
Flip Slide:
Slide:
Slide: h(t-)
Slide:
Flip
h(t-)h(t-)
h(t-)
& Slide: h(t-)

and Store y(t) y(t)

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 68
 Frequency and Time Domains
• The channel impulse response is f(time)
– It describes the channel in the “time domain”
• Functions of frequency are often very useful;
– Space of such functions is “frequency domain”
• Often a particular characteristic is easier to
handle in one domain or the other.

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 69

 Frequency Domain
• Functions of frequency
– usually capitalized and take the parameter “f”
– where f is the frequency in radians/sec
– and the value of the function is the amplitude of
the component of frequency f.
• Convolution in time domain translates into
multiplication in the frequency domain:
– y(t) = x(t)h(t)  Y(f) = X(f)H(f)
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 70
 Frequency Domain 2
• Based on Fourier theorem:
– any periodic signal can be decomposed into a
sum of (possibly infinite number of) cosines
• The Fourier Transform and inverse FT
– Convert between time and frequency domains.
– The frequency and time representations of the
same signal are “duals”

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 71

 Flat Fading
• T >> d and W << BC  minimal ISI

s(t) h(t,) r(t)

Delay spread

Time domain 0 Ts
t
0
t
= 0 Ts+
t

(convolve)
Coherence BW

Freq domain f f
= f

(filter) fc fc fc

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 72

 Frequency Selective Fading
• T << d and W >> BC  ISI

s(t) h(t,) r(t)

Delay spread

Time domain 0 Ts
t
0 
t
= 0 Ts Ts+
(convolve)
Coherence BW

Freq domain f f
= f

(filter) fc fc fc

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 73

 Review
• Object of radio propagation models:
– predict signal quality at receiver
• Radio propagation mechanisms
– Free space (1/d2)
– Diffraction
– Refraction
– Scattering

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 74

 Review 2
• Factors influencing received signal
– Path loss: distance, obstructions
– Multipath interference: phase cancellation due
to excess path length and other sources of phase
distortion
– Doppler shift
– Other radio interference

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 75

 Review 3
• Approaches to Modelling
– Models valid for far-field, apply to a range of
distances
– large scale models: concerned with gross
behavior as a function of distance
– small scale (fading) models: concerned with
behavior during perturbations around a
particular distance

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 76

 Relevance to Micronets
• Micronets may require different models
than most of the work featured here
– Smaller transmit range
– Likely to be near reflectors: on desk or floor.
• On the other hand, at smaller scales things are less
smooth: “ground reflection” may turn into scattering
– Outdoors, throwing sensors on ground may not
work. Deployable tripods?

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 77

 Relevance 2
• Consequences of “Fading”
– You can be in a place that has no signal, but
where a signal can be picked up a short distance
away in any direction
• Ability to move? Switch frequencies/antennas? Call
for help moving or for more nodes to be added?
• If stuck, may not be worth transmitting at all
– Reachability topology may be completely
irrelevant to location relationships
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 78
 Relevance 3
• Relevant modelling tools:
– Statistical models (Rice/Rayleigh/Log Normal)
• Statistical fading assumes particular dynamics, this
depends on mobility of receivers and environment
– CAD modelling of physical environment and
ray tracing approaches.
• For nodes in fixed positions this is only done once.

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 79

 Relevance 4
• An approach to modelling?
– Characterize wireless system interactions with
different materials, compare to published data
– Assess the effect of mobility in environment on fixed
topologies, relate to statistical models
– Try to determine what environmental structures and
parameters are most important:
• Scattering vs. ground reflection?
• can a simple CAD model help?

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 80