4.

Radio Channels

Overview The key features of radio channels are

reviewed.
Source The material is mainly based on Chapters 2
and 3 of the course book [1] and also [2, 3] have
been used.

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4. Radio Channels
Outline of the Lecture
• Introduction
• Propagation characterstics
• Path loss
• Shadowing
• Small scale multipath fading
• Summary of radio channels
 Introduction
• Wireless channel distorts the signal in several
manners:
– free-space path loss (attenuation)
– shadowing (large scale fading)
– (small scale) fading due to multipath propagation.
• Wireless channels are always unpredictable to some
extent.
Wireless channels pose a main
technical / theoretical design / research challenge
for wireless communications.
Understanding the channels is crucial.

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4. Radio Channels
 Photonic
Networks and Systems

wireless system
operation
WHY?

Ashenafi Kiros Medhin 09.07.2012

 Photonic
Networks and Systems
Propagation Modes

A signal radiated from an antenna travels along one of three routes:

Ashenafi Kiros Medhin 09.07.2012

 Photonic
Networks and Systems

electromagnetic wave
induces a current

slow the wavefront near the e

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 Photonic
Networks and Systems

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 Photonic
Networks and Systems

Ashenafi Kiros Medhin 09.07.2012

 Photonic
Networks and Systems

Ashenafi Kiros Medhin 09.07.2012

 Photonic
Networks and Systems

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 Photonic
Networks and Systems

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 Photonic
Networks and Systems

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 Photonic
Networks and Systems

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 Photonic
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Characterstics of Wireless Communication

 The wireless radio channel poses a severe challenge as a

medium for reliable high-speed communication.
 It is susceptible to noise, interference, and other channel
impediments,
 moreover these impediments change over time in
unpredictable ways as a result of user movement and
environment dynamics.
 Generally signal in Wireless Channel is characterized by
 Path Loss
 Shadowing
 Multipath Fading Received Signal is varied
due to these impairments
 Noise

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 Path loss is caused by dissipation of the power radiated by the

transmitter as well as by effects of the propagation channel.
 Path-loss models generally assume that path loss is the same at a
given transmit–receive distance.
 Shadowing is caused b superb y obstacles between the transmitter
and receiver that attenuate signal power through
 absorption,
 reflection, If the attenuation is strong,
 scattering, the signal is blocked
 diffraction.

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 Photonic
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 Received power variation due to path loss occurs

over long distances (100–1000 m),
 whereas variation due to shadowing occurs over
distances that are proportional to the length of the
obstructing object
 (10–100 m in outdoor environments
 and less in indoor environments).
 Signal variations due to Path Loss and
Shadowing are sometimes referred to as large-
scale propagation effects.

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 Photonic
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 received power variations due to the constructive

and destructive addition of multipath signal
components.
 These variations are sometimes referred to as
small-scale propagation effects.
 These are variation due to rapid fluctuation of the
received signal strength over short distance or
short time duration

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 Photonic
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Path Loss  Linear with distance

Shadowing and Multipath- Random
Random Noise
Random Interference
Different Obstacles
Different Reflections…

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 Photonic
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 Therefore, characterizing a received signal in wireless

communication is tiresome.
 Number of multipath signal is not predicatable
 Number of reflection, refractions
 Number of obstacles
 Types of obstacles Affects Signal Strengthen
 Medium characteristic (absorption, scattering,
reflections (e.g.Perfect Conductors)
 We need a model that predicts.
 Free space propagation model
 Two ray model
 Knife Edge Diffraction model Take Different Assumptions
 Long Distance Path Loss Model for prediction

Ashenafi Kiros Medhin 09.07.2012

 Propagation Characteristics

• Path loss (includes average shadowing)

• Shadowing (due to obstructions)
• Small scale multipath fading

Slow
Pr/Pt Fast
Pt Pr Very slow
v

d =vt
d=vt
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4. Radio Channels
 Path Loss
• Signal attenuation due to radio wave propagation.
• More attenuation, the larger the distance.
• Behaviour explained by Maxwell’s equations.
Deterministic phenomenon in principle.
Ray tracing techniques approximate the propagation
of electromagnetic waves by representing the
wavefronts as simple particles and modeling
reflections and refractions.
• Due to complexity, stochastic channel models are
often needed.

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4. Radio Channels
 Path Loss Models

• Maxwell’s equations
– complex and impractical.
• Free space path loss model
– often too simple.
• Ray tracing models
– require site-specific information.
• Empirical Models
– do not always generalize to other environments.
• Simplified power fall off models
– main characteristics: good for high-level analysis
– used when path loss dominated by reflections
– most important parameter is the path loss exponent ,
determined empirically:
d0
Pr Pt K ,2 8.
d
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4. Radio Channels
 Free Space Line-of-Sight (LOS) Model

d = vt

• Path loss for unobstructed LOS path

• Power falls off:
– Inversely proportional to d 2
– Proportional to 2 (inversely proportional to f 2)

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4. Radio Channels
 Example1:

Consider an indoor wireless LAN with fc = 900 MHz, cells of radius

100 m, and nondirectional antennas. Under the free-space path loss model, what
transmit power is required at the access point in order for all terminals within the cell
to receive a minimum power of 10μW? How does this change if the system frequency
is 5 GHz?
We must find a transmit power such that the terminals at the cell boundary
receive the minimum required power.

Solution:

Substituting in G = 1 (Omni directional antennas), λ = c/fc = .33 m, d = 10 m, and

Pr = 10μWyields Pt = 1.45W = 1.61 dBW. (Recall that P watts equals 10 log10(P )
dBW, dB relative to 1W). At 5 GHz only λ = .06 changes, so Pt = 43.9 kW= 16.42
dBW.
 Ray Tracing Approximation

• Represent wavefronts as simple particles.

• Geometry determines received signal from each
signal component.
• Typically includes reflected rays, can also include
scattered and diffracted rays.
• Requires site parameters:
– geometry
– dielectric properties.
Computer packages often used.
• Complex for a large number of rays.

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4. Radio Channels
 Ray Tracing (2)

• Two-ray model
– Parameters: antenna heights and critical distance.
– Power falls off
• proportional to d 2 (small d)
– Constructive add
• proportional to d 4 (d > dc)
– Constructive and destructive add
• independent of (f )
– Destructive add
• General ray tracing
– Reflections
– Scattering
– Diffraction

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4. Radio Channels
 Ray Tracing
a radio signal transmitted from a fixed source will
encounter multiple objects in the environment that
produce
reflected,
 diffracted, or
Scattered copies of the transmitted signal
These additional copies of the transmitted
signal, known as multipath signal components, can
be
Attenuated in power,
Delayed in time,
Shifted in phase and/or frequency with
respect to the LOS signal path at the receiver.
When the transmitted and multipath signal are
summed, they produce a distortion at the receiver.

The details of the multipath propagation can then be solved using Maxwell’s
equations with appropriate boundary conditions
 Two ray model
The complexity of maxiwell’s computational solution makes it impractical as a
general modeling tool.
Ray-tracing techniques approximate the propagation of electromagnetic
waves by representing the wave-fronts as simple particles.
Thus, the effects of reflection, diffraction, and scattering on the wave-front are
approximated using simple geometric equations instead of Maxwell’s more complex
wave equations.
The error of the ray-tracing approximation is smallest when the receiver is many
wavelengths from the nearest scattered and when all the scatterers are large relative
to a wavelength and fairly smooth.
.
It is used when a single ground reflection dominates the multipath effect.
Direct ray that follows LOS path
Reflected ray from ground
The total received E-fieild is

ETOT = ELOS + Eg
To Drive the final expression for E-field, lets consider Eo to be the free space
Electric field at the reference distance do.

The electric field at a distance d, will change both in magnitude and phase.
According to the figure, signal with ELOS travels
'
d whereas signal with Eg travels d ''
Therefore, the LOS and the ground
reflected E fields are derived to be

According to law of reflection, incident angle is equal with reflected angle.

According to maxiwell, incident field is related with reflected and transmitted electric
Field as follow.
Where is reflection coefficient
 Assuming earth as a perfect conducto, =-1

Therefore, the total electric field is

The path difference between the LOS wave and the ground reflected wave
(using the concept of imaging) is
 When the T-R separation distance is very large compared to Tx and Rx height,
The path difference can be approximated as

The phase difference is

The time difference between the two signals is

For large d , ( d ' − d '' ) Appears to be small, therefore the two signals
will have the same amplitude, but different phase

That is,

Therefore, the total E field at some

time t=d’’/c is evaluated to be
Therefore, E-field is the resultant of two E field, and

Using Trigonometry,

For small value of,

C
 Now lets drive for the received power due to this electric field.

The power received by an antenna mounted at a distance d from the transmitter

is directly proportional to E field. Therefore, using above equation C and using
Direct relation of power and E of equation D below

Using the power density at distance d for LOS as

The total received power at distance d for 2-ray model is

For large d, the power falls with distance raised to the fourth power,
which is much rapid power loss than free space propagation
Example 1:
 Empirical Path Loss Models

• Okumura model (1-100 km, 150-1500 MHz)

– empirically based (site/freq specific)
– awkward (clumsy) (uses graphs).
• Hata model (often called Okumura-Hata model)
– analytical approximation to Okumura model
– commonly applied in cellular system simulations.
• COST 136 model
– extends the Hata model to higher frequency (2 GHz).
• Walfish/Bertoni model
– COST 136 extension to include diffraction from rooftops.
• Indoor models
– each indoor environment is different.

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4. Radio Channels
 Summary of Path Loss Models

• Path loss models simplify the Maxwell’s equations.

• Models vary in complexity and accuracy.
• Power falloff with distance is proportional to d 2 in free
space, d 4 in a two path model.
• General ray tracing is computationally complex.
• Empirical models often used in cellular system
simulations.
• Main characteristics of path loss captured in simple model
Pr = Pt K [d0/d]
K is unitless constant (antenna, average attenuation)
d0 is reference distance, and pathloss exponent

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4. Radio Channels
 Shadowing
• Large scale fading.
• Models attenuation from obstructions.
• Random due to the random number and type of
obstructions.
• Typically follows a log-normal distribution:
– dB value of power is normally distributed (Gaussian) with =0
(mean captured in path loss), 4 < 2 < 12 (empirical).
– Decorrelated over decorrelation distance Xc.
• Distance at which autocovariance equals 1/e of its maximum =>
empirical dependence is removed

Xc
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4. Radio Channels
 Combined Path Loss and Shadowing

• Linear model: lognormal Pr d0

K .
Pt d

10logK Slow

Pr /Pt [dB]
Very slow
-10
• dB model:
log d
Pr d
(dB) 10 log10 K 10 log10 dB ,
Pt d0
2
dB ~ N (0, )
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4. Radio Channels
 Outage Probability and Cell Coverage
Area
• Path loss: circular cells
• Path loss + random shadowing: amoeba cells:
– tradeoff between coverage and interference.
• Outage probability:
– probability received power below given minimum.
• Cell coverage area
– % of cell locations at desired power
– increases as shadowing variance decreases
– large % indicates interference to other cells. Pr
Path loss and average shadowing

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4. Radio Channels
 Model Parameters from Empirical
Measurements
• Fit a model to the observed measurement data.
• Path loss (K, ), d0 known:
– “Best fit” line through dB data.
– K obtained from measurements at d0.
– Exponent is MMSE estimate based on data.
– Captures mean due to shadowing.
• Shadowing variance
– Variance of data relative to path loss model (straight line)
with MMSE estimate for K (dB)
2
y
Pr (dB)
10
log(d )
log(d0)
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4. Radio Channels
 Summary of Shadowing

• Random attenuation due to shadowing modeled as

log-normal (empirical parameters).
• Shadowing decorrelates over decorrelation distance.
• Combined path loss and shadowing leads to outage
and amoeba-like cell shapes.
• Cellular coverage area dictates the percentage of
locations within a cell that are not in outage.
• Path loss and shadowing parameters are obtained
from empirical measurements.

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4. Radio Channels
Small Scale Multipath Fading
• Different signals take different paths and the delay
between the first LOS signal and the next/last arriving signal
causes a delay.
-->If the delay spread is small compared to the inverse of the signal bandwidth, then there is little
time spreading in the received signal.
--> However, if the delay spread is relatively large then there is significant time spreading of the
received nsignal, which can lead to substantial signal distortion.
Rapid channel state variations due to multiple
propagation paths.
• Causes significant changes over short distances or
time intervals.
==> A very small movement can cause drastic change in
the signal power.
 Multipath Channel Impulse Response

• A random number of multipath components, each

with random and time-varying
– amplitude
– phase
– Doppler shift
– delay.
A time-varying channel impulse response.

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4. Radio Channels