Mobile communication

(COM5108)

Lecture 5
Chapter 4: Mobile Radio Propagation:
Small-Scale Fading and Multipath
 4.1 Small-Scale Multipath Propagation
• The three most important effects
– Rapid changes in signal strength over a small travel distance or time
interval
– Random frequency modulation due to varying Doppler shifts on
different multipath signals.
– Time dispersion caused by multipath propagation delays
• Factors influencing small-scale fading
– Multipath propagation: reflection objects and scatters
– Speed of the mobile: Doppler shifts
– Speed of surrounding objects
– Transmission bandwidth of the signal
• The received signal will be distorted if the transmission bandwidth is greater
than the bandwidth of the multipath channel.
• Coherent bandwidth: bandwidth of the multipath channel.
• Doppler Shift
– A mobile moves at a constant velocity v, along a path segment having
length d between points X and Y.
– Path length difference
l d cos  vt cos 
– Phase change
2l 2vt
   cos 
 
– Doppler shift

1  v
fd    cos 
2 t 
 4.2 Impulse Response Model of a Multipath Channel

• Small scale variation of mobile radio can be directly related to the impulse
response of the mobile radio channel .
• The Impulse response is a wideband channel characterization and contains all
information necessary to simulate or analyze any type of radio transmission
through the channel.
• This stem from the fact that a mobile radio channel may modeled as a linear
filter with a time varying impulse response ,where the time variation is due
to receiver motion in space.
• Filtering nature of the channel is caused by the summation of amplitudes and
delays of the multiple arriving waves at any instant of time.
• The impulse response is a useful characterization of the channel ,it used
to predict and compare the performance of many different mobile
communication systems and transmission bandwidths for particular
mobile channel condition .
 4.2 Impulse Response Model of a Multipath Channel
• A mobile radio channel may be modeled as a linear filter with a time
varying impulse response
– time variation is due to receiver motion in space
– filtering is due to multipath

• The channel impulse response can be expressed as h(d,t). Let x(t)

represent the transmitted signal, then the received signal y(d,t) at
position d can be expressed as



y ( d , t )  x (t )  h( d , t )  x ( )h( d , t   )d

• For a causal system t


y ( d , t )  x ( )h( d , t   )d

• The position of the receiver can be expressed as
d vt
• We have
t
y ( vt , t )   x( )h(vt, t   )d

• Since v is a constant, y ( vt , t ) is just a function of t.
t


y (t )  x ( )h( vt , t   )d

• In general, the channel impulse response can be expressed h(t , )
– t : time variation due to motion
–  : channel multipath delay for a fixed value of t.
• With the channel impulse response h(t , ) , we may have the output
t
y (t )   x( )h(t, )d  x(t )  h(t, )


• For bandlimited bandpass channel, then h(t , ) may be equivalently

described by a complex baseband impulse response hb (t , )
– The equivalent baseband output
1 1 1 1
r (t )  c(t )  hb (t , ) or r (t )  c(t )  hb (t , )
2 2 2 2
 1
x(t ) Rec(t ) exp( jc t ) r (t )  c(t )  hb (t , )
2
y (t ) Rer (t ) exp( jc t )
• Discretize the multipath delay axis  into equal time delay segments
called excess delay bins.
• The baseband response of a multipath channel can be expressed as
N1
hb (t , )  ai (t , ) exp j 2f c i (t )  j (t , )  (   i (t )) Its represent phase
i 0 shift due to free
ai (t , ) : amplitude of the ith multipath component space propagation
 i (t ) : excess delay of ith multipath component of the ith multipath
component ,plus
• Define  i (t , ) 2f c i (t )   (t , ) and additional
phase shift which
are encountered in
the channel .
• If the channel impulse response is assumed to be time invariant, the
channel impulse response may be simplified as
N1
hb ( )  ai exp j i  (   i )
i 0

• The impulse response may be measured by using a probing pulse p (t )

which approximates a delta function.
p (t )  (t   )

• The instantanous power:

 FADING…
• It is the rapid fluctuations of received signal strength
over short time intervals and/or travel distances
• Caused by interference from multiple copies of Tx
signal arriving at Rx at slightly different times.
• Three most important effects:
1. Rapid changes in signal strengths over small travel
distances or short time periods.
2. Changes in the frequency of signals.
3. Multiple signals arriving at different times. When added
together at the antenna, signals are spread out in time. This
can cause a smearing of the signal and interference
between bits that are received.
 Multipath Propagation - Fading

a b
No direct path
Diffracted Reflected
wave wave

a a
Antenna y=a+b Antenna y=0
b b

a & b are in phase a & b are out of phase by 

Complete fading when

Z. Ghassemlooy 2d/ = n, d is the path difference
 • Even stationary Tx/Rx wireless links can
experience fading due to the motion of objects
(cars, people, trees, etc.) in surrounding
environment off of which come the reflections.
Transmitting a short pulse over a
(i) frequency-selective (delay-spread) fading channel:
Transmitted Received

t t
Tp Tp + dt

(ii) time-selective (Doppler-spread) fading channel:

Transmitted Received

t t
Tp Tp
 DELAY SPREAD
• The different signal paths between Tx and a Rx
corresponds to different transmission times. For an
identical signal pulse from the Tx, multiple copies of
the signals are received at the receiver at different
moments.
• The signal on the shortest path (typically LOS) reaches
first than those on longer paths. The direct effect of
these un-simultaneous arrivals of signal causes the
spread of the original signal in time domain.
• This spread is called the DELAY SPREAD.
 Multipath Delay Spread

• First-arrival delay (τA)

• Mean excess delay  e (   A ) P( )d

Z. Ghassemlooy
 Effects of delay spread:
• It causes-
INTER SYMBOL INTERFERENCE (ISI)
 if the bandwidth of a transmitter signal is less
than the channel coherence bandwidth, the
channel shows flat fading to be free of ISI.
 otherwise, the channel shows frequency
selective fading and may suffer from ISI.

•Delay spread varies with the terrain with typical values for
rural, urban and suburban areas:
0.2 s rural  3.0s urban 0.5s suburban 
 4.4.1 Time Dispersion Parameters
• Time dispersion parameters
– mean excess delay
– RMS delay spread
– excess delay spread
• Mean excess delay

 k k
a 2
 P( ) k k
  k
 k

a k
2
k  P( ) k
k

• RMS delay spread

    2  ( 2 )

where  k k
a 2 2
 k k
P ( ) 2

2  k
 k

a k
2
k  P(
k
k )
 4.4.2 Coherent Bandwidth
• Coherent bandwidth,Bc , is a statistic measure of the range of
frequencies over which the channel can be considered to be “flat”.
• Two sinusoids with frequency separation greater than Bc are affected
quite differently by the channel.
• If the coherent bandwidth is defined as the bandwidth over which the
frequency correlation function is above 0.9, then the coherent
bandwidth is approximately
1
Bc 
50 
• If the frequency correlation function is above 0.5
1
Bc 
5 
 Coherence Bandwidth

• Corresponding to the concept of delay spread,

there is a term called COHERENCE
BANDWIDTH used to measure the up-limit
bandwidth that can be transmitted for a
channel to be free of ISI.
• Defn: Defined as the 10% of the recipocal of
rms delay spread. In this the channel passes all the
spectral components with approx. equal gain and phase.
 Coherence Bandwidth

•The coherence bandwidth Bc, is the range

of frequencies within which the signal
impairments of the channel don’t vary
significantly.
•Bc is inversely proportional to Tm.
4.4.3 Doppler Spread and Coherent Time
• Doppler spread and coherent time are parameters which describe the
time varying nature of the channel in a small-scale region.
• When a pure sinusoidal tone of f c is transmitted, the received signal
spectrum, called the Doppler spectrum, will have components in the
range f c  f d and f c  f d , where f d is the Doppler shift.

Channel

fc fc  fd fc fc  fd

• f d is a function of the relative velocity of the mobile, and the angle

between the direction of motion of the mobile and direction of arrival
of the scattered waves
• Coherent time TC is the time domain dual of Doppler spread.
• Coherent time is used to characterize the time varying nature of the
frequency dispersiveness of the channel in the time domain.
1
TC 
fm
f m : maximum Doppler shift given by f m v / 
v : speed of the mobile

• Two signals arriving with a time separation greater than TC are

affected differently by the channel
• A statistic measure of the time duration over which the channel
impulse response is essentially invariant.
• If the coherent time is defined as the time over which the time
corrleation function is above 0.5, then
9
TC 
16f m
 4.4 Types of Small-Scale Fading
• Multipath delay spread leads to time dispersion and frequency
selective fading.
• Doppler spread leads to frequency dispersion and time selective
fading.
• Multipath delay spread and Doppler spread are independent of one
another.
 4.5.1 Flat Fading
• If the channel has a constant gain and linear phase response over a
bandwidth which is greater than the bandwidth of the transmitted
signal, the received signal will undergo flat fading.
• The received signal strength changes with time due to fluctuations in
the gain of the channel caused by multipath.
• The received signal varies in gain but the spectrum of the transmission
is preserved.
• Flat fading channel is also called amplitude varying channel.
• Also called narrow band channel: bandwidth of the applied signal is
narrow as compared to the channel bandwidth.
• Time varying statistics: Rayleigh flat fading.
• A signal undergoes flat fading if
BS  BC
and
TS   
TS : reciprocal bandwidth (symbol period)
BS : bandwidth of the transmitted signal
BC : coherent bandwidth
  : rms delay spread
 4.5.1 Frequency Selective Fading
• If the channel possesses a constant-gain and linear phase response
over a bandwidth that is smaller than the bandwidth of transmitted
signal, then the channel creates frequency selective fading.
signal spectrum S ( f )

channel response

f
BC

received signal spectrum

f
• Frequency selective fading is due to time dispersion of the transmitted
symbols within the channel.
– Induces intersymbol interference
• Frequency selective fading channels are much more difficult to model
than flat fading channels.
• Statistic impulse response model
– 2-ray Rayleigh fading model
– computer generated
– measured impulse response
• For frequency selective fading
BS  BC
and
TS   
• Frequency selective fading channel characteristic
 4.5.2 Fading Effects Due to Doppler Spread
• Fast Fading: The channel impulse response changes rapidly within
the symbol duration.
– The coherent time of the channel is smaller then the symbol period of the
transmitted signal.
– Cause frequency dispersion due to Doppler spreading.
• A signal undergoes fast fading if
TS  TC
and
BS  BD
• Slow Fading: The channel impulse response changes at a rate much
slower than the transmitted baseband signal s(t).
– The Doppler spread of the channel is much less then the bandwidth of the
baseband signal.
• A signal undergoes slow fading if
TS  TC
and
BS  BD
 4.6 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.
• Consider a carrier signal at frequency 0 and with an amplitude a

s(t ) a exp( j0t )

• The received signal is the sum of n waves

n
sr (t )  ai exp( j0t  i ) r exp j (0t   ) r exp( j ) exp( j0t )
i 1
n
where
r exp j   ai exp(i )
i 1

define n n
r exp j   ai cos(i )  j  ai sin(i )  x  jy
i 1 i 1
We have
n n
x  ai cos(i ) r cos( ) and y  ai sin(i ) r sin( )
i 1 i 1
• It can be assumed that x and y are Gaussian random variables with
mean equal to zero due to the following reasons
– n is usually very large.
– The individual amplitude ai are random.
– The phases  have a uniform distribution.
i
• Because x and y are independent random variables, the joint distribution p(x,y)
is
1  x2  y2 
p( x, y )  p( x ) p( y )  exp  
2 2  2 2 
 
• The distribution p ( r ,  ) can be written as a function of p ( x, y )

p( r,  )  J p( x, y )
x / r x /  cos  r sin 
J   r
y / r y /  sin  r cos
• We have
r  r2 
p( r, )  exp  
2 2  2 
2
 
• The Rayleigh distribution has a pdf given by
 r  r2 
2  2 exp   r 0
p ( r )  p ( r ,  ) d     2 
2
0  
 0 otherwise

• pdf of Rayleigh distribution
 r  r2 
 exp   0 r 
2 
p ( r )   2  2 
 0 r0

: rms value of the received signal before envelop detection
 2: time - average power of the received signal before envelop detection
• Cumulative distribution function (CDF)

R  R2 
P ( R ) Pr( r  R )  p ( r )dr 1  exp  
2 
• 0
The mean value of the Rayleigh distribution is given by  2 

• The variance of the Rayleigh distribution is given by

 
rmean E[ r ] rp ( r )dr  1.2533
0 2

  2
 E[r ]  E [r ]  r p( r )dr 
2
r
2 2 2
0 2
 
 2  2   0.4292 2
 2
• Ricean Fading Distribution: When there is a dominant stationary
(non-fading) signal component present, such as a line-of-sight
propagation path, the small-scale fading envelope distribution is
Ricean. Scattered waves Direct wave

sr (t ) r exp j (0t   )  A exp( j0t )

[( x  A)  jy ] exp( j0t )
r 2 ( x  A) 2  y 2
x  A r cos 
y r sin 
• By following similar steps described in Rayleigh distribution, we
obtain
 r  r 2  A2   Ar 
 exp  I
2  0 2 
A 0, r 0
p ( r )   2  2    
 0 r0


where
 Ar  1 2  Ar cos  
I0  2  
   2
0
exp
 
2 d

is the modified Bessel function of the first kind and zero-order.
• The Ricean distribution is often described in terms of a parameter K
which is defined as the ratio between the deterministic signal power
and the variance of the multipath. It is given by K  A /(2 ) or in
2 2

terms of dB 2
A
K ( dB ) 10 log dB
2 2
• The parameter K is known as the Ricean factor and completely
specifies the Ricean distribution.
• As A  0 , we have K   dB. The dominant path decrease in
amplitude, the Ricean distribution degenerates to a Rayleigh
distribution.