Multi-antenna Techniques for

Wireless Communications on
Wireless open-access research
platform (WARP)

By
Dr.P.Muthu Chidambaranathan
Professor, Department of ECE
NIT-Trichy

* 1
 Preface

* 2
Topics

* 3
Radio Wave Propagation

* 4
 Signal Loss due to three Effects:

2. Medium Scale Fading:

due to shadowing and
obstacles
3. Small Scale
Fading: due to
multipath

1. Large Scale
Fading: due to
distance

* 5
Fading

* 6
Small Scale Fading

* 7
Factors Affecting Small Scale
Fading

* 8
Doppler Shift
• A mobile moves at a constant velocity Doppler Shift Geometry
v, along a path segment having length
d between points X and Y.
• Path length difference
∆l = d cos ө = v∆t cos ө
-where ∆t is the time required to
travel X-Y distance
• Phase change in received signal

• Doppler shift

+ shift → mobile moving

toward S
− shift → mobile moving
away from S
* 9
Doppler Spread

* 10
Delay spread( στ )
• Each multipath signal travels different length, so
the time of arrival for each path is different.
• A signal transmitted pulse is spread in time when it
reaches the receiver. This effect which spreads out
the signal is called Delay spread.
• Delay spread leads to increase in the signal
bandwidth.

* 11
Coherent Bandwidth
• Coherent bandwidth , B C , is a statistic measure of the range of
frequencies over which the channel can be considered to be “flat”.
• The channel passes all the spectral components with equal gain and
linear phase .
• Two frequencies that are larger than coherence BW fade
independently
• 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
B C =1/ 50στ
• If the frequency correlation function is above 0.5
B C =1/ 5στ

where στ- RMS delay spread

* 12
Coherence Time
• Statistical measure of the time duration over which the
channel impulse response is time invariant.
• If the symbol period of the baseband signal is greater than
coherence time of the channel, then the channel will
change during transmission.
• Coherent time is used to characterize the time varying
nature of the frequency depressiveness of the channel in
the time domain.
• Signal arriving with a time separation more than TC are
affected differently by channel.

* 13
Types of Small-Scale Fading
• Multipath delay leads to:
• Time dispersion fading
• Frequency selective fading
• Doppler spread leads to:
• Frequency dispersion fading
• Time selective fading

* 14
Two independent fading issues

* 15
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.
• Signal undergoes flat fading when
• Bs(BW of signal) << Bc (BW of channel)
• Ts (symbol duration )>> στ (delay spread)

* 16
 Large Scale Fading: Free Space
Path Loss due to Free Space Propagation:

For isotropic antennas:

Transmit
antenna
Receive
antenna

wavelength

Path Loss in dB:

* 17
2. Medium Scale Fading: Losses due to Buildings, Trees, Hills, Walls …

The Power Loss in dB is random:

expected value

random, zero mean

approximately gaussian with

* 18
 Average Loss

Free space loss at reference

distance

dB

Reference distance
Path loss • indoor 1-10m
exponent
• outdoor 10-100m

Values for Exponent :

Free Space 2
Urban 2.7-3.5
Indoors (LOS) 1.6-1.8
Indoors(NLOS) 4-6
* 19
3. Small Scale Fading due to Multipath.
a. Spreading in Time: different paths have different lengths;

Receive
Transmit

time

Example for 100m path difference we have a time delay

* 20
Typical values channel time spread:

channel

* 21
b. Spreading in Frequency: motion causes frequency shift (Doppler)

Transmit Receive

time

for each path time

Doppler Shift

Frequency (Hz)

* 22
Put everything together

Transmit Receive

time

time

* 23
 channel

Re{.}
LPF LPF

Each path has … … attenuation… …shift in time …

paths …shift in frequency …

(this causes small scale time variations)

* 24
 2.1 Statistical Models of Fading Channels

Several Reflectors:

Transmit

* 25
For each path with NO Line Of Sight (NOLOS):

average time delay

• each time delay

• each doppler shift

* 26
 Some mathematical manipulation …

Assume: bandwidth of signal <<

… leading to this:

with random, time varying

* 27
Statistical Model for the time varying coefficients

random
By the CLT is gaussian, zero mean, with:

with the Doppler frequency shift.

* 28
Each coefficient is complex, gaussian, WSS with autocorrelation

and PSD

with maximum Doppler frequency.

This is called Jakes spectrum.

* 29
Bottom Line. This:

time
time

time

… can be modeled as:

time time

* 30
delays
For each path

• unit power
• time invariant
• time varying (from autocorrelation)
• from power distribution

* 31
Parameters for a Multipath Channel (No Line of Sight):

Time delays: sec

Power Attenuations: dB

Doppler Shift: Hz

Summary of Channel Model:

WSS with Jakes PSD

* 32
 Non Line of Sight (NOLOS) and Line of Sight (LOS) Fading Channels
1. Rayleigh (No Line of Sight).
Specified by:

Time delays

Power distribution

Maximum Doppler

2. Ricean (Line of Sight)

Same as Rayleigh, plus Ricean Factor

Power through LOS

Power through NOLOS

* 33
 1. Time Spread and Frequency Coherence Bandwidth

Try a number of experiments transmitting a narrow pulse at different random times

We obtain a number of received pulses

transmitted

* 34
Take the average received power at time

More realistically:

Received Power

time

* 35
This defines the Coherence Bandwidth.
Take a complex exponential signal with frequency . The response of the channel is:

If then

i.e. the attenuation is not frequency dependent

Define the Frequency Coherence Bandwidth as

* 36
This means that the frequency response of the channel is “flat” within the
coherence bandwidth:

Channel “Flat” up to the

Coherence Bandwidth

frequency
Coherence Bandwidth

Flat Fading Just attenuation, no distortion

<
Signal Bandwidth Frequency Coherence
>
Frequency Selective
Distortion!!!
Fading
* 37
 Summary of Time/Frequency spread of the channel

Frequency Spread

Time Coherence

Time Spread

Frequency
Coherence

* 38
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.
• Received signal is multiple version of transmitted
signal which are attenuated.
• Caused by multi-path which exceeds the symbol
period of the transmitted symbol
• Signal undergoes frequency selective fading when
• Bs(BW if signal) > Bc ( BW of channel)
• Ts (symbol duration) < στ (delay spread)

* 39
Frequency Selective Fading
Channel Characteristics

* 40
Fading due to Doppler Spread
• Depends on how fast the baseband signal changes
compared to the rate of change of the channel
• Not due to propagation loss
• Fast fading: channel response changes rapidly than
baseband signal changes
• Signal undergoes Fast fading when
• TS (symbol duration)> > TC (coherence time)
• BS (BW of signal)< BD (doppler spread)

* 41
Fading due to Doppler Spread
• Slow fading: channel response changes at a rate
much slower than Transmitted baseband signal
• Signal undergoes slow fading when
• TS (symbol duration)<< TC (coherence time)
• BS (BW of signal)>>BD (doppler spread)

* 42
Fading distribution
• Statistical characterization of the variation of the
envelope of the received signal over time.
• Two most common distribution
1. Rayleigh Fading
2. Ricean fading

* 43
Rayleigh Fading
• If all the multipath components have
approximately the same amplitude ( i.e. When MS
is far away from BS), the envelope of the received
signal is Rayleigh distributed.
• No dominant signal component ( such as the LOS
component).

* 44
* 45
* 46
Diversity Techniques

* 47
Diversity Techniques
• Mitigates fading effects by using multiple received signals
which experienced different fading conditions
• Requires no training overhead
• Can provides significant link improvement with little added
cost
• Diversity decisions are made by the Rx, and are unknown to
the Tx
• Diversity concept
If one radio path undergoes a deep fade, another
independent path may have a strong signal
By having more than one path to select from, both the
instantaneous and average SNRs at the receiver may be
improved, often by as much as 20 dB to 30 dB

* 48
Diversity Techniques
• Signal combining methods
• Selection diversity
• Feedback diversity
• Maximal Ratio combining
• Equal gain combining
• Space diversity is classified into micro-diversity and
macro-diversity.
• Micro-diversity: Antennas are spaced closely to the order of a
wavelength. Effective for fast fading where signal fades in a
distance of the order of a wavelength.
• Macro (site) diversity: Antennas are spaced wide enough to cope
with the topographical conditions ( eg: buildings, roads, terrain).
Effective for shadowing, where signal fades due to the
topographical obstructions.

* 49
Spatial Diversity
• Antenna diversity
• Use more than one antenna to receive signal
• Requirement: the distance between two antennas should
exceed
• GSM 900M, wavelength: 16.6cm
distance > λ/2
• PCS 1800M, wavelength: 8.3cm
• Practical consideration
• Size of mobile station (MS) Antenna
• Suitable for base station (BS) Receiver

* 50
Time Diversity

• Send multiple bits in different time

slots Bit 1 Bit 2
Send multiple
bits per symbol t
N Copies
• Requirement: time spacing should
exceed Coherence Time:

> Coherent time

b1 b2 b3 b1 b2 b3 b1 b2 b3 t

Diversity Combining
* 51
Time Diversity
• Disadvantages:
• reduce the bit rate due to the redundancy of sending
multiples copies
• require storage at both the receiver and transmitter,
increasing delay
• Advantages:
• Less affected by “burst” error
• No hardware limitation like spatial diversity

* 52
Frequency Diversity
• Send signal on more than one carrier frequency

Same information
with different carrier
f
f1 f2 f3
carrier space > Bc

• Requirement: carrier space should exceed Coherence

Bandwidth:
• Disadvantages Delay Spread
• need more bandwidth to transmit the same amount of data
• Using more modulators and demodulators

* 53
Polarization Diversity

• Diversity transmission and reception wherein the

same information signal is transmitted and received
simultaneously on orthogonally polarized waves

Power Power
(Horizontal) (Vertical)

Time
* 54
Angle diversity
• Angle diversity is a technique using multiple
antenna beams to receive multipath signals arriving
at different angles.

* 55
Selection combining
• Monitor all branches, pick the branch with the
highest SNR
• The receiver branch having the highest
instantaneous SNR is connected to the
demodulator
• The antenna signal themselves could be sampled
and the best one sent to a single demodulator

* 56
Selection diversity performance
We assume:
(a) Consider an M-branch space diversity system
(b) Signal received at each branch has Rayleigh distribution.
(c) All branch signals are independent of one another
(d) Assume the constant mean signal and noise power ⇒ the same mean
SNR for all branches. Eb = average carrier energy
N0 = noise power spectral density

If each branch has an instantaneous SNR= , The pdf of

Probability that single branch has an instantaneous SNR less than

threshold γ :

* 57
• The probability that all M independent diversity branches Rx
signal which are simultaneously less than some specific SNR
threshold , and, if single branch achieve SNR> ,then the
probability that SNR> for one or more branches

• The pdf of : when M branches are used

58
 The mean SNR is expressed as

Average SNR improvement offered by

selection diversity

* 59
Scanning combining
• Scan each antenna until a signal is found above
predetermined threshold
• If signal drops below threshold → rescan
• only one Rx is required (since only receiving one signal at a
time), so less costly → still need multiple antennas

* 60
Maximal Ratio Combining
• Combined all the signal in a cophased and weighted manner
so as to have the highest achievable SNR at the receiver at all
times
• Output SNR = sum of individual SNR
• Slightly better performance than EGC but more complex
• Advantage is producing an output with an acceptable SNR
even when non of the individual signals are in acceptable level

* 61
Maximal Ratio Combining

* 62
Equal Gain Combining
• In certain cases it is not convenient to provide for
the variable weighting capability.
• Gain of each branch signal is weighted to set it to
unity.
• These are cophased to provide EGC
• Advantage is producing an output with an
acceptable SNR even when non of the individual
signals are in acceptable level

* 63
 Multiple-Antenna Techniques for Wireless
Communications

❖ multiplexing gain to enhance the bit rate

❖ diversity gain to enhance the error performance
❖ antenna gain to enhance the signal-to-noise-plus-interference ratio

* 64
 ❖ We need a certain quality of service- high bit rates, a good error
performance.

❖ The disruptive characteristics of wireless channels, mainly caused by

multipath signal propagation (due to reflections and diffraction) and
fading effects.

❖ Given a fixed bandwidth, there is always a fundamental trade- off

between bandwidth efficiency (high bit rates) and power
efficiency (small error rates).

* 65
* 66
1. Higher Bit Rates with Spatial Multiplexing

Spatial multiplexing techniques simultaneously transmit independent

information sequences, (called layers), over multiple antennas.
Using M transmit antennas, the overall bit rate compared to a
single-antenna system is enhanced by a factor of M without requiring
extra bandwidth or extra transmission power. (compared to a
single-antenna system the transmit power per transmit antenna is
lowered by a factor of 1/M ).
A well-known spatial multiplexing scheme is the Bell-Labs Layered
Space-Time Architecture (BLAST).
The achieved gain in terms of bit rate (with respect to a single-antenna
system) is called multiplexing gain.

* 67
* 68
2. Smaller Error Rates through Spatial Diversity
❖ Similar to channel coding, multiple antennas can also be used to improve the error rate of a
system, by transmitting and/or receiving redundant signals representing the same information
sequence.
❖ By means of two-dimensional coding in time and space, commonly referred to as space-time
coding, the information sequence is spread out over multiple transmit antennas.
❖ At the receiver, an appropriate combining of the redundant signals has to be performed.
Optionally, multiple receive antennas can be used, in order to further improve the error
performance (diversity reception).
❖ The advantage over conventional channel coding is that redundancy can be accommodated in
the spatial domain, rather than in the time domain. Correspondingly, a diversity gain and a coding
gain can be achieved without lowering the effective bit rate compared to single-antenna
transmission.
❖ Well-known spatial diversity techniques for systems with multiple transmit antennas:
❖ Alamouti’s transmit diversity scheme,
❖ space-time trellis codes invented by Tarokh, Seshadri, and Calderbank.

* 69
Diversity gain

If the antenna spacing at transmitter and receiver are

sufficiently large, the multipath fading of the individual
transmission links can be regarded as statistically
independent. Correspondingly, the probability that all
links are degraded at the same time is significantly smaller
than that for a single link, thus leading to an improved
error performance.

* 70
 3. Improved Signal-to-Noise Ratios and Co-Channel-
Interference Mitigation Using Smart Antennas

❖ In addition to higher bit rates and smaller error rates, multiple-antenna techniques can also be utilized to

improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver and to suppress co- channel interference in a multiuser

scenario. This is achieved by means of adaptive antenna arrays (smart antennas or software antennas)

❖ Using beam- forming techniques, the beam patterns of the transmit and receive antenna array can be steered

in certain desired directions, whereas undesired directions (e.g., directions of significant interference) can be

suppressed (‘nulled’).

❖ Beamforming can be interpreted as linear filtering in the spatial domain. The SNR gains achieved by means

of beamforming are called antenna gains or array gains. The concept of antenna arrays with adaptive beam

patterns is not new and has its origins in the field of radar (e.g., for target tracking) and aerospace technology.

However, intensive research on smart antennas for wireless communication systems started only in the

1990’s.

* 71
 4. Combined Techniques

❖ Spatial multiplexing is related to mlultiuser communications and aims at a

multiplexing gain compared to a single-antenna system.
❖ Space-time coding is more in the field of modulation and channel coding and
aims at a (coding and) diversity gain.
❖ Smart antennas and beamforming techniques belong more in the area of signal
processing and filtering and aim at an antenna gain, i.e., at an improved SNR
or an improved signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR).
❖ Given a fixed number of antennas, there are certain trade-offs between
multiplexing gain, diversity gain, and SNR gain.

* 72
❖ In fact, a strict distinction between the above three types of multiple-antenna
techniques is sometimes difficult.
❖ For example, spatial multiplexing techniques can also accomplish a diversity
gain, e.g., if an optimum receiver in the sense of maximum-likelihood (ML)
detection is employed.
❖ Similarly, spatial diversity techniques can also be used to increase the bit rate
of a system, when employed in conjunction with an adaptive
modulation/channel coding scheme.

* 73
 adaptive modulation/channel coding scheme

❖ If the error rate accomplished by means of spatial diversity is smaller

than desired, one can switch to a higher-order modulation scheme or to
a channel coding scheme with less redundancy.
❖ By this means, it is possible to trade error performance for a higher
effective bit rate (since higher-order modulation schemes typically
come with a loss in power efficiency).
❖ In fact, adaptive modulation and channel coding schemes are
employed in most state- of-the-art wireless communication systems.

* 74
 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems

the maximum bit rate at which error-free transmission is theoretically possible, of a MIMO
system with M transmit and N receive antennas grows (approximately) linearly with the
minimum of M and N .
The BLAST spatial multiplexing scheme was introduced that accomplished bit rates
approaching those promised by theory (at non-zero error rates).
Alamouti proposed his simple transmit diversity scheme for systems with two transmit
antennas, and design criteria for space-time trellis codes were derived

* 75
Drawbacks of Multiple-Antenna Systems

* 76
* 77
 WARP V3- HARWARE SPECIFICATION
✔ Xilinx Virtex-6 LX240T FPGA
✔ 2 programmable RF interfaces, each with: 2.4/5 GHz
transceiver
✔ (40MHz RF bandwidth) 12-bit 170MSps DACs, 12-bit
100MSps
✔ ADCs Dual-band PA (20dBm Tx power) Shared
clocking for MIMO
✔ applications
✔ 2 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces
✔ DDR3 SO-DIMM slot
✔ FPGA configuration through JTAG, SD card or flash
* 78
 WARP-LAB: WARP with MATLAB
SPECIFICATION:
✔WARP V3 operating band - 2.4 GHZ
✔Sampling frequency - 40MHz
✔Sample duration 2.5 s
✔Tx RF Gain - 1 (Range 1-3)
✔Tx Baseband Gain - 25 (Range 1-31)
✔Nodes and PC link - 1 Gbps Switch
✔Number of secondary users Node 1
✔Fusion center - Node 2
✔Testing Distance 3.5m
✔MATLAB R2011b.
* 79
 WARP-LAB Setup

* 80
 Antenna-LAB Setup

Supports Single Band Transmission Supports Dual Band Transmission

* 81
 WARPV3-Laboratory Setup

* 82
 TESTING
• For testing, the signal is transmitted randomly in full buffer
size of 32K ,
• Sample index ranges: 0-960, 5314 -14018, 18372 -27076
• Zeros or no signal ranges: 961 – 5313, 14019 – 16371,
27077 - 32768.

* 83
 Energy Detection with 1 x 1– LOS

* 84
 Energy Detection with 2 x 1– LOS

* 85
 Energy Detection with 1 x 2– LOS

* 86
 Energy Detection with 2 x 2– LOS

* 87
 Energy Detection with 1 x 1– NLOS

* 88
 Energy Detection with 2 x 1– NLOS

* 89
 Energy Detection with 1 x 2– NLOS

* 90
 Energy Detection with 2 x 2– NLOS

* 91
 The End

* 92