Dr.

Ahmed Said Eltrass

Spring 2022

Lecture 4:
Small Scale Fading: Multi-Path Fading

Office hours: Monday 02:30 p.m. to 04:30 p.m.

 Recall: Classification of Channel
Problems
1- Large scale effects :
A- path loss : Deterministic- Cause attenuation
B- Shadowing (Diffraction and scattering): Random - Cause
attenuation

2- Small scale effects : (Multi-Path fading):

- May cause distortion
Factors Influencing Fading in Mobile Radio Channel
1) Multipath Propagation
❑ Number and strength of multipath signals
❑ Time delay of signal arrival
◼ Large path length differences → large differences in
delay between signals
❑ Urban area with many buildings distributed over
large spatial scale
◼ Large # of strong multipath signals with only a few
having a large time delay
❑ Suburban with nearby office park or shopping mall
◼ Moderate # of strong multipath signals with small to
moderate delay times
❑ Rural → few multipath signals (LOS + ground
reflection)
2) Speed of Mobile
❑ Relative motion between base station & mobile
causes random frequency modulation due to
Doppler shift (fd)
❑ Different multipath components may have different
frequency shifts.
3) Speed of Surrounding Objects
❑ Also influence Doppler shifts on multipath signals
❑ Dominates small-scale fading if speed of objects >
mobile speed
◼ otherwise ignored
 Doppler Shift
◼ Motion causes frequency modulation due to
Doppler shift (fd)
v : velocity (m/s)
λ : wavelength (m)
θ : angle between mobile direction and
arrival direction of RF energy
+ shift → mobile moving toward S
− shift → mobile moving away from S

◼ Multipath signals will have different fd’s for constant v

because of random arrival directions!!
4) Transmitted signal bandwidth (Bs)
❑ The mobile radio channel is modeled as filter
with specific bandwidth (BW)
❑ The relationship between the signal BW & the
channel BW will affect fading rates and distortion,
and so will determine:
a) if small-scale fading is significant
b) if time distortion of signal leads to inter-symbol
interference (ISI)
Highbandwidth
(Wideband)
Signal

Lowbandwidth
(Narrowband)
Signal
Types of Small-scale Fading
Small-scale Fading
(Based on Multipath Tİme Delay Spread)

Flat Fading Frequency Selective Fading

1. BW Signal < BW of Channel 1. BW Signal > Bw of Channel

2. Delay Spread < Symbol Period 2. Delay Spread > Symbol Period

Small-scale Fading
(Based on Doppler Spread)

Fast Fading Slow Fading

1. Low Doppler Spread

1. High Doppler Spread
2. Coherence Time > Symbol Period
2. Coherence Time < Symbol Period
3. Channel variations smaller than baseband
3. Channel variations faster than baseband
signal variations
signal variations
 Multipath Channel Parameters
1- Delay spread(  )
Maximum Delay of the paths in wireless channel
2- Coherence Bandwidth (BC)
◼ BC : Range of frequencies over which the channel can be considered
flat (i.e. channel passes all spectral components with equal gain and
linear phase).
❑ It is a definition that depends on RMS Delay Spread.

◼ Channel response is flat = passes all frequencies with ≈ equal

gain & linear phase
◼ Amplitudes of different frequency components are correlated
◼ if two sinusoids have frequency separation greater than Bc, they
are affected quite differently by the channel.

f1

Receiver
f2

Multipath Channel Frequency Separation: |f1-f2|

❑ Frequency correlation between two sinusoids: 0 ≤ Cr1, r2 ≤ 1.

❑ Amplitude correlation → multipath signals have close to the

same amplitude → if they are then out-of-phase they have
significant destructive interference with each other (deep
fades)
❑ so a flat fading channel is both “good” and “bad”
◼ Good: The channel is like a bandpass filter and passes
signals without major attenuation from the channel.
◼ Bad: Deep fading can occur.

so the coherence bandwidth is “the range of frequencies

over which two frequency components have a strong
potential for amplitude correlation.”
◼ Estimates
❑ 0.9 correlation → Bc ≈ 1 / 50   (signals are 90% correlated
with each other)
❑ 0.5 correlation → Bc ≈ 1 / 5  Which has a larger
bandwidth
Summary
1- If we define Coherence Bandwidth (BC) as the range of frequencies over which
the frequency correlation is above 0.9, then
1
BC =   is rms delay spread.
50 
2- If we define Coherence Bandwidth as the range of frequencies over which
the frequency correlation is above 0.5, then
1
BC = This is called 50% coherence bandwidth.
5 

Note : Specific channels require detailed analysis for a particular transmitted

signal – these are just rough estimates
Example:
◼ For a multipath channel,  is given as 1.37ms.

◼ The 50% coherence bandwidth is given as: 1/5  = 146 kHz.

❑ This means that, for a good transmission from a transmitter to a

receiver, the range of transmission frequency (channel
bandwidth) should not exceed 146kHz, so that all frequencies in
this band experience the same channel characteristics.

❑ This coherence bandwidth is enough for an AMPS channel

(30kHz band needed for a channel), but is not enough for a
GSM channel (200kHz needed per channel).
Notes:
1- A channel that is not a flat fading channel is called frequency
selective fading because different frequencies within a signal are
attenuated differently by the channel.

2- The definition of flat or frequency selective fading is defined

with respect to the bandwidth of the signal that is being
transmitted.

3- Bc and στ parameters do NOT characterize the time-varying

nature of the channel due to the mobility of the mobile and/or
surrounding objects (Bc and στ do not characterize the mobility
of the Tx or Rx).

4- Bc and στ characterize the statics, (how multipath signals are

formed from scattering/reflections and travel different distances)
Coherence Time and Doppler Spread
◼ Delay spread and Coherence bandwidth
describe the time dispersive nature of the
channel in a local area.
◼ They don’t offer information about the time varying nature
of the channel caused by relative motion of transmitter and
receiver.

◼ Doppler Spread (BD) and Coherence time (Tc)

are parameters which describe the time varying
nature of the channel in a small-scale region.
3- Doppler Spread (BD)
❑ BD : measure of spectral broadening of the Tx signal
caused by motion → i.e., Doppler shift
◼ Doppler spread, BD, is defined as the maximum Doppler shift:
v/l, where cos(θ) = 1 for maximum Doppler.

◼ If Transmitted signal bandwidth (Bs) is large such that Bs >> BD

then effects of Doppler spread are NOT important so Doppler
spread is only important for low bps (data rate) applications (e.g.
paging)
 4- Coherence Time
• Coherence time (Tc ) is the time duration over which the channel impulse response
is essentially invariant → amplitude & phase of multipath signals ≈ constant

• Coherence Time (Tc) = passes all received signals with virtually the same
characteristics because the channel has not changed

• If the symbol period of the baseband signal (reciprocal of the baseband signal
bandwidth) is greater than the coherence time, the signal will distort, since
channel will change during the transmission of the signal .

TS For digital communications

coherence time (TC) and Doppler
TC spread (BD ) are related by
f2
f1 0.423
TC  9
16f m2
=
f mD
B
t1 Dt=t2 - t1 t2
Coherence time definition implies that two signals arriving with a time
separation greater than TC are affected differently by the channel, since
the channel has changed within the time interval.
Recall : Types of Small-scale Fading
Small-scale Fading
(Based on Multipath Tİme Delay Spread)

Flat Fading Frequency Selective Fading

1. BW Signal < BW of Channel 1. BW Signal > Bw of Channel

2. Delay Spread < Symbol Period 2. Delay Spread > Symbol Period

Small-scale Fading
(Based on Doppler Spread)

Fast Fading Slow Fading

1. Low Doppler Spread

1. High Doppler Spread
2. Coherence Time > Symbol Period
2. Coherence Time < Symbol Period
3. Channel variations smaller than baseband
3. Channel variations faster than baseband
signal variations
signal variations
 Fading due to Delay Spread
1- Flat Fading
◼ Occurs when the amplitude of the received signal changes with
time (For example according to Rayleigh Distribution, will be proved)
◼ Occurs when symbol period of the transmitted signal is much larger
than the Delay Spread of the channel
❑ Bandwidth of the applied signal is narrow.

s(t) r(t)
h(t,)
 << TS

0 TS 0  0 TS+

BC: Coherence bandwidth Occurs when:

BS: Signal bandwidth BS << BC
TS: Symbol period and
: Delay Spread TS >> 
 Flat Fading → Bs << Bc or Ts >>  
 Ts  10 
 Signal fits easily within the bandwidth of the channel
 channel BW >> signal BW

◼ most commonly occurring type of fading

What does Ts >>   mean??

- All multipath signals arrive at mobile Rx during 1 symbol
period
∴ Little inter symbol interference occurs (no multipath
components arrive late to interfere with the next symbol)
 2- Frequency Selective Fading
- Occurs when channel multipath delay spread is greater than the symbol period.
- Symbols face time dispersion
- Channel induces Intersymbol Interference (ISI)
- Bandwidth of the signal s(t) is wider than the channel impulse response.

s(t) r(t)
h(t,)

 >> TS
0 TS 0  0 TS TS+

Causes distortion of the received baseband signal

Causes Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI)

Occurs when:
BS > BC As a rule of thumb: TS < 
and
TS <  
Frequency Selective Fading → Bs > Bc or Ts <  
❑ Bs > Bc → certain frequency components of the
signal are attenuated much more than others

• Ts < σ → delayed versions of Tx signal arrive during different symbol

periods
e.g. receiving an LOS → “1” & multipath “0” (from prior symbol!)
This results in intersymbol interference (ISI)
Undesirable

• it is very difficult to predict mobile Rx performance with frequency selective

channels
 Fading due to Doppler Spread
1- Fast Fading
◼ Rate of change of the channel characteristics is larger than the
Rate of change of the transmitted signal

◼ The channel changes during a symbol period.

◼ The channel changes because of receiver motion.

◼ Coherence time of the channel is smaller than the symbol period of

the transmitter signal

Occurs when: BS: Bandwidth of the signal

BS < BD BD: Doppler Spread
and TS: Symbol Period
TS > TC TC: Coherence Time
Fast Fading → Bs < BD or Ts > Tc
❑ Bs < BD
◼ Doppler shifts significantly alter spectral BW of TX signal
◼ signal “spreading”

❑ Ts > Tc
◼ Channel changes within 1 symbol period
◼ rapid amplitude fluctuations

❑ uncommon in most digital communication systems

2- Slow Fading

◼ Rate of change of the channel characteristics

is much smaller than the
Rate of change of the transmitted signal

Occurs when: BS: Bandwidth of the signal

BS >> BD BD: Doppler Spread
and TS: Symbol Period
TS << TC TC: Coherence Time
Slow Fading → Ts << Tc or Bs >> BD
❑ Channel is constant over many symbol periods

❑ slow amplitude fluctuations

❑ for v = 60 mph @ fc = 2 GHz → BD = 178 Hz

∴ Bs ≈ 2 kHz >> BD
◼ Bs almost always >> BD for most applications

◼ ** NOTE: Typically use a factor of 10 to

designate “>>” **
 Different Types of Fading
TS

Flat
Flat
Fast Fading
Slow Fading

Transmitted Symbol 
Period

Frequency Selective Frequency Selective

Slow Fading Fast Fading

TC
TS
Transmitted Symbol Period

With Respect To SYMBOL PERIOD

Different Types of Fading
BS
Frequency Selective Frequency Selective
Fast Fading Slow Fading
Transmitted
Baseband BC
Signal Bandwidth

Flat Flat
Fast Fading Slow Fading

BD
BS
Transmitted Baseband Signal Bandwidth

With Respect To BASEBAND SIGNAL BANDWIDTH

 Fading Distributions
◼ Describes how the received signal amplitude
changes with time.
◼ Remember that the received signal is combination of multiple
signals arriving from different directions, phases and
amplitudes.
◼ With the received signal we mean the baseband signal,
namely the envelope of the received signal (i.e. r(t)).

◼ Its is a statistical characterization of the multipath

fading.

◼ Two distributions
❑ Rayleigh Fading
❑ Ricean Fading
Rayleigh and Rician Distributions
1- Rayleigh Distribution
◼ Describes the received signal envelope
distribution for channels, where all the
components are non-LOS:
◼ i.e. there is no line-of–sight (LOS) component.

2- Rician Distribution
◼ Describes the received signal envelope
distribution for channels where one of the
multipath components is LOS component.
◼ i.e. there is one LOS component.
 1- Rayleigh Distribution
◼ Rayleigh probability distribution function
r  r2 
P(r ) = 2 exp  − 2  0r 
  2 

❑ Used for flat fading signals.

❑ σ2 : The variance of Rayleigh distribution; ac power of signal
envelope
❑ σ : RMS value of Rx signal before detection (demodulation)
❑ Common model for Rx signal variation
◼ urban areas → heavy clutter → no LOS path

❑ Probability that signal does not exceeds predefined threshold

level R
R R2
− 2
P( R) = Pr (r  R) =  p(r )dr = 1 − e 2

0
Rayleigh PDF
0.7

0.6065/
0.6
mean = 1.2533
variance = 0.42922
0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 
1 2
2 3
3 4
4 5
5
 2- Rician Distribution

◼ When one dominant signal component (LOS path)

along with weaker multipath signals, then the
envelope distribution is Ricean.
❑ suburban or rural areas with light clutter

◼ The Ricean distribution degenerates to Rayleigh when

the dominant component fades away (A = 0).