EC403-Mobile

Communication

Subject Coordinator:
Dr. Mrs. Shweta Shah
 EC 403: MOBILE COMMUNICATION
(NEW) (4-0-2)
• INTRODUCTION TO CHANNEL MODEL(06 Hours)
• AWGN Channel, Multipath and Fading Effects, Large and Small Scale
Fading, Flat and Frequency Selective Fading, Slow and Fast Fading,
Rayleigh, Rician and Nakagami Channel Models.

• INTRODUCTION TO CELLULAR MOBILE SYSTEMS(12 Hours)

• A Basic Cellular System, Cellular Communication Infrastructure: Cells,
Clusters, Cell Splliting, Frequency Reuse Concept And Reuse Distance
Calculation, Cellular System Components, Operations of Cellular
Systems, Handoff/Handover, Channel Assignment-Fixed And Dynamic,
Cellular Interferences: Co-Channel And Adjacent Channel, Antennas
For The Base Stations, Sectorization, Attributes Of CDMA in Cellular
Systems.
• MOBILE SWITCH AND MOBILE TRAFFIC CALCULATION(06
Hours)
• Channels, Call Handling And Grade Of Service, Erlang B And C
Formula, Traffic Calculaton Examples.

• GSM: GLOBAL SYSTEM FOR MOBILES COMMUNICATIONS(10

Hours)
• GSM: Architecture, Features Of GSM, Cell Size, GSM Network
Components, GSM Identifiers, GSM Terrestrial Interfaces, GSM
Channels, Handover, Introduction To Microcellular, Call And
Radio Resource Management.
• GPRS: GENERAL PACKET RADIO SERVIC(08 Hours)
• GPRS and Its Features, GPRS Network Architecture, GPRS
Protocol Architecture, GPRS Backbone Network, GPRS
Interworking With External Network, Call Routing in GPRS,
Logical Channels Of GPRS, GPRS Applications.
• EDGE: ENHANCED DATA - RATES FOR GLOBAL EVOLUTION(02
Hours)
• An Overview: EDGE, EDGE Upgradations, GPRS Vs EDGE,
EDGE Services.
• IS-95 TO CDMA 2000 SYSTEMS AND EVOLUTION (04 Hours)
• UMTS: UNIVERSAL MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEM
(09 Hours)
• UMTS Architecture, UMTS Radio Or Air Interface, UMTS TDD
and FDD, UMTS/WCDMA Channels, UMTS/WCDMA Packet
Handling And Handover.
 BOOKS RECOMMENDED
• Dalal Upena,"Wireless Communication", Oxford
University Press, 1st Ed., 2009.

• Lee William C. Y.,"Mobile Cellular

Telecommunications", McGraw-Hill, 3rd Ed.,
2008.

• Rappaport Theodore,"Wireless
Communications - Principles and Practice",
Pearson Education -LPE, 2nd Ed., 2002.
Mobile communication
fundamentals
What is Wireless and Mobile
Communication?
• Transmitting voice and data using
electromagnetic waves in open space
• Electromagnetic waves
• Travel at speed of light (c = 3x108 m/s)
• Has a frequency (f) and wavelength ()
»c=fx
• Higher frequency means higher energy
photons
• The higher the energy photon the more
penetrating is the radiation
 Electromagnetic Spectrum
104 102 100 10-2 10-4 10-6 10-8 10-10 10-12 10-14 10-16

Radio Micro Cosmic

IR UV X-Rays
Spectrum wave Rays

104 106 108 1010 1012 1014 1016 1018 1020 1022 1024
1MHz ==100m
100MHz ==1m
10GHz ==1cm
Visible light < 30 KHz VLF
30-300KHz LF
300KHz – 3MHz MF
3 MHz – 30MHz HF
30MHz – 300MHz VHF
300 MHz – 3GHz UHF
3-30GHz SHF
> 30 GHz EHF
Wavelength of Some
Technologies
• GSM Phones:
– frequency ~= 900 Mhz
– wavelength ~= 33cm
• PCS Phones
– frequency ~= 1.8 Ghz
– wavelength ~= 17.5 cm
• Bluetooth:
– frequency ~= 2.4Gz
– wavelength ~= 12.5cm
 Frequency Carries/Channels
• The information from sender to receiver
is carrier over a well defined frequency
band.
– This is called a channel
• Each channel has a fixed frequency
bandwidth (in KHz) and Capacity (bit-
rate)
• Different frequency bands (channels)
can be used to transmit information in
parallel and independently.
 Example
• Assume a spectrum of 90KHz is allocated over a base frequency b for
communication between stations A and B
• Assume each channel occupies 30KHz.
• There are 3 channels
• Each channel is simplex (Transmission occurs in one way)
• For full duplex communication:
– Use two different channels (front and reverse channels)
– Use time division in a channel

Channel 1 (b - b+30)

Station A Channel 2 (b+30 - b+60) Station B

Channel 3 (b+60 - b+90)
 Simplex Communication
• Normally, on a channel, a station can
transmit only in one way.
• This is called simplex transmission
• To enable two-way communication
(called full-duplex communication)
• We can use Frequency Division Multiplexing
• We can use Time Division Multiplexing
Duplex Communication - FDD
• FDD: Frequency Division Duplex

Mobile Forward Channel Base Station

Terminal B
Reverse Channel
M

Forward Channel and Reverse Channel use different frequency

bands
Duplex Communication - TDD
• TDD: Time Division Duplex

Mobile Base Station

Terminal M B M B M B
B
M

A singe frequency channel is used. The channel is divided into time

slots. Mobile station and base station transmits on the time slots
alternately.
 What is Mobility
• Initially Internet and Telephone
Networks is designed assuming the
user terminals are static
• No change of location during a call/connection
• A user terminals accesses the network always
from a fixed location
• Mobility and portability
– Portability means changing point of
attachment to the network offline
– Mobility means changing point of
attachment to the network online
 Degrees of Mobility
• Walking Users
• Low speed
• Small roaming area
• Usually uses high-bandwith/low-latency access

• Vehicles
• High speeds
• Large roaming area
• Usually uses low-bandwidth/high-latency
access
• Uses sophisticated terminal equipment (cell
phones)
Basic Model of Wireless Digital Communication Link
 What is PCS
• Personal Communication Services
– A wide variety of network services that
includes wireless access and personal
mobility services
– Provided through a small terminal
– Enables communication at any time, at any
place, and in any form.
• The market for such services is
tremendously big
– Think of cell-phone market
 Several PCS systems
• High-tier Systems
– GSM: Global System for Mobile
Communications
• The mobile telephony system that we are using
– IS-136
• USA digital cellular mobile telephony system
• TDMA based multiple access
– Personal Digital Assistant
– IS-95 cdmaOne System
• CDMA based multiple access
 Several PCS systems
• Low-tier systems
– Residential, business and public cordless
access applications and systems
• Cordless Telephone 2 (CT2)
• Digital Enhanced Cordless Telephone (DECT)
• Personal Access Communication Systems
(PACS)
• Personal Handy Telephone System (PHS)
 Several PCS systems
• Wideband wireless systems
– For Internet access and multimedia
transfer
• Cdma2000
• W-CDMA, proposed by Europe
• SCDMA, proposed by Chine/Europe
 Several PCS systems
• Other PCS Systems
– Special data systems
• CDPD: Cellular Digital Packet Data
• RAM Mobile Data
• Advanced Radio Data Information System
(ARDIS)
– Paging Systems
– Mobile Satellite Systems
• LEO, MEO, HEO satellites for data/voice
– ISM band systems: Bluetooth, 802.11, etc.
 Very Basic Cellular/PCS
Architecture
Mobility
Public Switched Database
Base Station
Telephone Network Controller

Mobile
Switching
Center
(MSC)

Radio Network

Base Station
(BS) Mobile Station
 Radio Propagation –
Large-Scale Path Loss
Basics

 When electrons move, they create

electromagnetic waves that can propagate
through the space
 Number of oscillations per second of an
electromagnetic wave is called its
frequency, f, measured in Hertz.
 The distance between two consecutive
maxima is called the wavelength,
designated by 
Basics

 By attaching an antenna of the

appropriate size to an electrical circuit,
the electromagnetic waves can be
broadcast efficiently and received by a
receiver some distance away.
 In vacuum, all electromagnetic waves
travel at the speed of light: c = 3x108
m/sec.
 In copper or fiber the speed slows down
to about 2/3 of this value.
 Relation between f,  , c: f = c
Basics

 We have seen earlier the electromagnetic

spectrum.
 The radio, microwave, infrared, and
visible light portions of the spectrum can
all be used to transmit information
 By modulating the amplitude, frequency, or
phase of the waves.
Basics

 We have seen wireless channel concept earlier:

it is characterized by a frequency band (called
its bandwidth)
 The amount of information a wireless channel
can carry is related to its bandwidth
 Most wireless transmission use narrow
frequency band (f << f)
 f: frequency band
 f: middle frequency where transmission occurs
 New technologies use spread spectrum
techniques
 A wider frequency band is used for transmission
Basics - Propagation

 Radio waves are

 Easy to generate
 Can travel long distances
 Can penetrate buildings
 They are both used for indoor and outdoor
communication
 They are omni-directional: can travel in all directions
 They can be narrowly focused at high frequencies
(greater than 100MHz) using parabolic antennas (like
satellite dishes)
 Properties of radio waves are frequency dependent
 At low frequencies, they pass through obstacles well, but
the power falls off sharply with distance from source
 At high frequencies, they tend to travel in straight lines
and bounce of obstacles (they can also be absorbed by
rain)
 They are subject to interference from other radio wave
 Basics - Propagation
At VLF, LF, and MF bands, radio
waves follow the ground. AM
broadcasting uses MF band

reflection

At HF bands, the ground Ionosphere

waves tend to be absorbed by the
earth. The waves that reach ionosphere
(100-500km above earth surface),
are refracted and sent back to
earth.
absorption
Basics - Propagation
VHF Transmission
LOS path

Reflected Wave

-Directional antennas are used

-Waves follow more direct paths
- LOS: Line-of-Sight Communication
- Reflected wave interfere with the
original signal
Basics - Propagation

 Waves behave more like light at higher

frequencies
 Difficulty in passing obstacles
 More direct paths
 They behave more like radio at lower
frequencies
 Can pass obstacles
Propagation Models

 We are interested in propagation

characteristics and models for waves with
frequencyy in range: few MHz to a few
GHz
 Modeling radio channel is important for:
 Determining the coverage area of a transmitter
 Determine the transmitter power requirement
 Determine the battery lifetime
 Finding modulation and coding schemes to improve
the channel quality
 Determine the maximum channel capacity
Radio Propagation Models

 Transmission path between sender and

receiver could be
 Line-of-Sight (LOS)
 Obstructed by buildings, mountains and foliage
 Even speed of motion effects the fading
characteristics of the channel
Radio Propagation
Mechanisms
 The physical mechanisms that govern radio
propagation are complex and diverse, but
generally attributed to the following three
factors
1. Reflection
2. Diffraction
3. Scattering
 Reflection
 Occurs when waves impinges upon an obstruction that is
much larger in size compared to the wavelength of the signal
 Example: reflections from earth and buildings
 These reflections may interfere with the original signal
constructively or destructively
Radio Propagation
Mechanisms
 Diffraction
 Occurs when the radio path between sender and receiver is
obstructed by an impenetrable body and by a surface with sharp
irregularities (edges)
 Explains how radio signals can travel urban and rural
environments without a line-of-sight path

 Scattering
 Occurs when the radio channel contains objects whose sizes are on
the order of the wavelength or less of the propagating wave and also
when the number of obstacles are quite large.
 They are produced by small objects, rough surfaces and other
irregularities on the channel
 Follows same principles with diffraction
 Causes the transmitter energy to be radiated in many directions
 Lamp posts and street signs may cause scattering
Radio Propagation
Mechanisms

transmitter R
Street
S
D
D

R: Reflection receiver
D: Diffraction Building Blocks
S: Scattering
Radio Propagation
Mechanisms
 As a mobile moves through a coverage
area, these 3 mechanisms have an impact
on the instantaneous received signal
strength.
 If a mobile does have a clear line of sight path to the
base-station, than diffraction and scattering will not
dominate the propagation.
 If a mobile is at a street level without LOS, then
diffraction and scattering will probably dominate the
propagation.
Radio Propagation Models

 As the mobile moves over small

distances, the instantaneous received
signal will fluctuate rapidly giving rise to
small-scale fading
 The reason is that the signal is the sum of many
contributors coming from different directions and
since the phases of these signals are random, the sum
behave like a noise (Rayleigh fading).
 In small scale fading, the received signal power may
change as much as 3 or 4 orders of magnitude (30dB
or 40dB), when the receiver is only moved a fraction of
the wavelength.
Radio Propagation Models

 As the mobile moves away from the transmitter

over larger distances, the local average received
signal will gradually decrease. This is called
large-scale path loss.
 Typically the local average received power is computed
by averaging signal measurements over a measurement
track of 5 to 40For PCS, this means 1m-10m track)
 The models that predict the mean signal
strength for an arbitrary T-R separation distance
are called large-scale propagation models
 Useful for estimating the coverage area of transmitters
Small-Scale and Large-Scale
Fading
Received Power (dBm)

-30

-40

-50

-60
This figure is just an illustration
to show the concept. It is not based on
read data.
-70
14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28
T-R Separation (meters)
 Wireless Channel is Very Different!
• Wireless channel “feels” very different from compared to a wired channel.
– Not a point-to-point link
– Variable capacity, errors, delays
– Capacity is shared with interferers
• Characteristics of the channel appear to change randomly with time, which makes
it difficult to design reliable systems with guaranteed performance.
• Cellular model vs reality:

stem designs are interference-limited, i.e. the interference dominates the noise floor
Signal Losses due to three Effects:

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

1. Large Scale
Fading: due to
distance
 Wireless Channel
Frequencies of Interest: in the UHF (.3GHz – 3GHz) and SHF (3GHz – 30 GHz)
bands;
Several Effects:
• Path Loss due to dissipation of energy: it depends on distance only
• Shadowing due to obstacles such as buildings, trees, walls. Is caused by
absorption, reflection, scattering …
• Self-Interference due to Multipath.

Prec
10 log10
Ptransm

log10 distance
Small Scale Fading due to Multipath.
a. Spreading in Time: different paths have different lengths;

Transmit Receive

x(t )   (t  t0 ) y (t )   hk (t  t0   k )  ...

time t0  1  2 3
t0

Example for 100m path difference we have a time delay

100 102
   3  sec
1
c 3  108
Typical values channel time spread:

x(t )   (t  t0 )

t0  1  2  MAX
t0 channel

Indoor 10  50 n sec
Suburbs 2  101  2  sec
Urban 1  3  sec
Hilly 3-10  sec
b. Spreading in Frequency: motion causes frequency shift (Doppler)

x(t )  X T e j 2 Fct
Transmit Receive
j 2  Fc F t
y(t )  YRe
time

v
for each path time

Doppler Shift

f c Fc  F Frequency
(Hz)
Put everything together

x(t ) Transmit Receive y (t )

time

time
 w(t )
x(t ) channel
y (t )
gT (t ) Re{.} h(t ) g R (t )
LPF LPF

e j 2FC t e  j 2FC t

Each path has … … …shift in time …

attenuation…
 
y (t )  Re  a (t ) x(t   )e j 2 ( Fc  F )(t  ) 
 
paths …shift in frequency
…
(this causes small scale time variations)
Channel fading types
 Fading Channel
• For most channels, the free-space
propagation model is inadequate to describe
the channel behavior and predict system
performance.
• In wireless system, signal can travel from
transmitter to receiver over multiple reflective
paths. This phenomenon, called multipath
propagation, can cause fluctuations in the
received signal's amplitude, phase, and angle
of arrival, giving rise to the terminology
multipath fading.
Mobile Wireless Channel w/
Multipath
Small-Scale Fading:
Multipath & Doppler
• It is due to
» Random frequency modulation due to
varying Doppler shifts on different
multipath signals
» Time dispersion (echoes) caused by
multipath propagation delays due to
nearby objects
– Even when mobile is stationary, the
received signals may fade due to
movement of surrounding objects!
 Multipath Fading Effect
• Multipath will cause amplitude and phase fluctuations, and time
delay in the received signals.
MultiPath Interference: Constructive &
Destructive
 Factors Influencing Small-
Scale Fading
• Multipath propagation
• Speed of the mobile
• Speed of surrounding objects
• The transmission bandwidth of the
signal
• In addition to path loss over large distances, the
receive antenna will also experience fluctuations in
signal level that vary significantly over small
distances.
• The fluctuation is a result of two distinct processes:
– multipath propagation and Doppler shift.
• Time spreading/Delay spread (time domain) and Time
variance/Doppler effect (frequency domain) are the two
main effects observed on the signal due to small scale
fading and leads to the concept of coherence bandwidth
and coherence time.
Time domain
 Time spreading/Delay spread
• Delay spread is a type of distortion that is
caused when an identical signal arrives at
different times at its destination. The signal
usually arrives via multiple paths and with
different angles of arrival.
• The time difference between the arrival moment
of the first multipath component (typically the
line-of-sight component) and the last one, is
called delay spread.
• Because multiple reflections of the transmitted
signal may all get added constructively or
destructively. This can result in inter symbol
• This time dispersion of the channel is called
multipath delay spread which is an important
parameter to access the performance
capabilities of wireless systems.

• A common measure of multipath delay

spread is the Root Mean Square (RMS) delay
spread.
• There is some finite delay, when the
antenna receives the first copy of the signal
on the shortest path and when it receives
the last copy of the same signal on the
longest path. This is known as maximum
excess delay time and is represented by
Tm.
• Because of multipath reflections, the
channel impulse response of a wireless
channel looks likes a series of pulses with
decreasing amplitudes
• Example of impulse response and
frequency transfer function of a
multipath channel
ultipaths: Power-Delay Profile

Power
path-1
path-2
path-3
multi-path propagation path-2
Path Delay

path-1

path-3
Mobile Station (MS)
Base Station (BS)
 Time variance/Doppler shift
• the scenario of Doppler effect
• Along with the multiple reflected signals receiver undergo one
more effect of Doppler spread due to its own mobility
especially vehicular mobility.
• The Doppler spread is the width of the received
spectrum when a single tone is transmitted, and it is
related to the rate at which fading occurs.

• Motion of a receiving antenna produces Doppler shifts

of incoming received waves.
• Such motion of the antenna leads to (time varying)
phase shifts of individual reflected waves.
• Due to multipath many waves arrive, all with different
shifts.
• Thus, their relative phases change all the time, and so it
affects the amplitude of the resulting composite signal.
• So the Doppler effects determine the rate at which the
amplitude of the resulting composite signal changes.
Fading Effects to the Signal and Frequency
Components
• Fading effects to the frequency components are
related to bit or symbol transmission rate and time
spreading of those pulses.
• When the transmitted data rate is much less than the
coherence bandwidth, the wireless channel is
referred to as the flat channel or narrowband channel
and the effect which the signal undergoes is called
Flat Fading.
• In flat fading all the frequency components of the
transmitted signal will be affected equally/ received
with almost equal power level.
• Bandwidth: The amount of data that can be
transmitted in a fixed amount of time, expressed in
 coherence bandwidth
• The coherence bandwidth Bc, is the
range of frequencies within which the
channel impairments don’t vary
significantly.
• Bc is inversely proportional to Tm.
• In other words, if two signals are sent
that are more than Bc apart from each
other in frequency, they will experience
different channel conditions.
 …coherence bandwidth
• The channel may be considered
relatively constant over the transmit
bandwidth. This criterion is found to be
satisfied if the transmission bandwidth
does not substantially exceed the
'coherence' bandwidth Bc of the
channel. This is the bandwidth over
which the channel transfer function
remains virtually constant.
Correlation between delay spread
and coherence bandwidth (Time
spreading)
Delay Spread –Time Domain
interpretation
Delay Spread- Freq. Domain
Interpretation
Time spreading : Coherence

Freq
Freq
Bandwidth

W
W

f0
Channel frequency
response Channel frequency
response
 More on flat fading
response
frequency
Channel

• f0
W

Freq

Condition f0 > W does not guarantee flat fading. As shown

above, frequency nulls (frequency selective fading) may
be there occasionally even though f0 > W.

Similarly, frequency selective fading channel may also

show flat fading sometimes.
Coherence Bandwidth
 Coherence bandwidth is a statistical measure of
the range of frequencies over which the channel
can be considered “flat”
 Flat fading is a channel which passes all spectral
components with approximately equal gain and
linear phase
 The coherence bandwidth can be expressed as
Bc 
1 (above 90% correlation)
50 

Bc 
1 (above 50% correlation)
5 
• Since signaling rate is inversely proportional to
symbol period, this is equivalent to the case where
the symbol bandwidth W is less than the coherence
bandwidth (W < Bc). the path is said to exhibit flat
fading.

• In other words, If the time taken to transmit one

symbol is Ts which is longer than the maximum
delay spread (Ts > Tm), this means that all the
multipath components of the transmitted symbol are
received within one symbol period.
• When the transmitted data is closely
equal to or larger than the coherence
bandwidth, such a channel is called the
frequency-selective channel or wideband
channel and the fading effect in this
situation is called Frequency Selective
Fading.

• In this one can find the different power

level of different frequency
components .
Correlation between delay spread
and coherence bandwidth (Time
spreading)
• On the other hand, frequency selective fading occurs
when Ts < Tm or when W > Bc. In this case, different
spectral components of the signal will be altered by the
channel in different ways. As a result, a wideband signal
could see a large variation in received power over its
bandwidth.

• Delay spread is related to stationary receiver.

Flat Fading
 If the mobile radio channel has a constant gain
and linear phase response over a bandwidth which
is greater than the bandwidth of the transmitted
signal, then the received signal will undergo flat
fading
Flat Fading
 Flat fading channels are also known as amplitude
varying channels
 It is also sometimes referred to as narrowband
channels
 The most common amplitude distributions are:
Rayleigh, Rician, and Nakagami
 Summarize: a signal undergoes flat fading if

Bs < Bc
Ts > στ
Frequency Selective Fading
 If the channel has 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 on the
received signal
Frequency Selective Fading
 The received signal includes multiple versions of
the transmited waveform which are attenuated
and delayed in time, and hence the received signal
is distorted
 Frequency selective fading is due to time
dispersion of the transmitted symbols within the
channel
 Thus, the channel induces intersymbol
interference (ISI)
 The modeling for this kind of channel is more
difficult since each multipath signal must be
modeled and channel must be considered to be a
linear filter
Frequency Selective Fading
 It is sometimes called wideband channels since
the bandwidth of the signal is wider than the
bandwidth of the channel impulse response
 Summarize: a signal undergoes frequency
selective fading if
Bs  Bc

Ts   
 Coherence Bandwidth and delay
spread
 There is no exact relationship between Coherence
bandwidth and delay spread. For at least 0.9
correlation for channel’s complex frequency transfer
function, Coherence bandwidth f0 is approximated by
following relation:
Where is r.m.s. delay spread

 For dense scattered model which is useful for urban

surroundings, coherence bandwidth is defined as
assuming at least 0.5 correlation:

 Another popular approximation assuming at least 0.5

correlation:
 Time variance
• For receivers that change their location relative to
the transmitter, there are other factors in addition to
multipath reflection that affect the signal’s amplitude
and phase.
• These effects can be described as time variance or
spatial variance. This tells us not about the fading
conditions, but how rapid the fading conditions are
changing.

• Variance in channel conditions over time is an important

factor when designing a mobile communication system.
• If fast variations happen, it can lead to severe pulse
distortion and loss of SNR subsequently causing
irreducible BER.
 Time variant behavior of the
channel h(t)

Impulse time
Excess delay spread
response

h(t)

Impulse
response time
Excess delay spread

Relative movement between transmitter and receiver or objects between those

causes variation in channel’s characteristics over time. This happens due to
propagation path change over time. Relative movement also creates
frequency spreading due to Doppler effect
Basic Doppler effect
t)

c is the light velocity and vm is the car speed

Propagation time is a function of time due to
mobile car.
Review of Doppler Shift
 The received signal may experience Doppler shift
v eff

 If the receiver is moving towards the transmitter,

the Doppler freq is positive, otherwise it is
negative
 Doppler spread in Multipath
vm cos (θ1)
vm θ1
θ2
vm cos (θ2)

|X(f)| After passing through |Y(f)|

fc + fd
multipath channel

fc + fd1 fc + fd2 freq

fc freq

Due to multipath, a single sinusoid by base station is perceived

as summation of 3 sinusoids fc+fd1, fc+fd2 and fc+fd , where fd is
maximum Doppler frequency = fc*(vm/d). Due to different arrivals
of angle due to multipath, perceived velocity is different for
multipath.
 Doppler Spectrum
Imagine now multiple paths with
different angles of arrival
causing combination of various
frequencies between fc +fd & fc-
fd.
A popular model assumes that
distribution of angle of arrival is
distributed uniformly between 0 &
2π which leads to following
spectrum

This is called classical Doppler spectrum & shows how a single sinusoid
ends up having a broad spectrum due to multipath & relative motion between
Tx and Rx.
 coherence time
• One important thing to know while
sending a signal through a varying
channel is how long you have the
signal before the conditions of the
channel gets change. This is called the
coherence time, T0.
• The coherence time T0, is the time
period over which the channel
conditions don’t vary significantly and
the channel’s impulse response is
 Time variant Channel:
Coherence Time
 Maximum Doppler frequency is an important measure of
time variance of channel characteristics. It depends on
relative speed of any movement between Tx & Rx and
the carrier frequency
Coherence time (T0 or Tc): Approximate time
duration over which the channel’s response remains
invariant

 Where fd is Maximum Doppler Frequency 0.423

Tc 
v
 Frequency Dual
Fourier
Transform

T0

Function denotes space time correlation for the

channel response to a sinusoid . So this indicates the
amount of correlation between two sinusoids sent at
different times t1 & t2 .
• If we look at time variance in the
frequency domain, we see that a receiver
antenna in constant motion will
experience shifts in frequency that are
dependent on the angle of arrival of the
incoming signal and on the speed of
motion.
• Instead of the signal being spread in time, we
shall see it being spread in frequency.
• This Doppler spread, which is represented
by fd, is reciprocally related to the
coherence time T0.
Fast Fading
 In a fast fading channel, the channel impulse
response changes rapidly within the symbol
duration
 In other words, the coherence time of the channel
is smaller than the symbol period of the
transmitted signal
 This causes frequency dispersion (time selective
fading) due to Doppler spread, which lead to signal
distortion
 Signal distortion due to fast fading increases with
increasing Doppler spread relative to the
bandwidth of the transmitted signal
 Summarize: a signal undergoes fast fading if

Ts  Tc

Bs  BD
Slow Fading
 In a slow fading channel, the channel impulse
response changes at a rate much slower than the
transmitted signal.
 In other words, the coherence time of the channel
is larger than the symbol period of the
transmitted signal
 The channel may be assumed to be static over
one or several reciprocal bandwidth interval
 The Doppler spread of the channel is much less
than the bandwidth of the baseband signal
 Summarize: a signal undergoes slow fading if

 Ts < Tc
 Bs > Bd
Correlation between Doppler spread and
coherence time (Time Variance)
Types of Small-Scale Fading
Summary
Remarks
 When a channel is specified as a fast or slow fading
channel, it does not specify whether the channel is flat
fading or frequency selective
 Fast fading only deals with the rate of change of the
channel due to motion
 In flat fading channel, we can approximate the impulse
response to be simply delta function
 A flat fading, fast fading channel is a channel in which
the amplitude of the delta function varies faster that
the rate of the transmitted baseband signal
 A frequency selective, fast fading channel, the
amplitudes, phases, and time delays of any one of the
multipath components vary faster than the rate of
change of the transmitted signal
Channel model
 Outline
• Rayleigh Fading Model
• Rician fading model
• Nakagami Fading Model
 Channels may be time varying or static. (Multipath effect
makes the channel time varying and depending upon the
constructive or destructive interference, the quality of the
received signal will vary).
 Effect of mobility is that, channel varies with user’s location
and time, which results in rapid fluctuations of received
power. Less variations will be observed, the slower you move.
 Channels may be time dispersive or non dispersive. (due to
dispersion pulse spreading will be observed, which will result
in ISI effect)
 Channels may be linear or nonlinear.
 All channels act as a low pass filter under certain conditions
as they show pulse spreading effect.
 Channel may be fast fading or slow fading, frequency
selective or flat fading.
Channel response over fading
and nonfading environment
• In non-fade channel if the C/I ratio is increased slightly,
there will be considerable drop in bit errors.
• In a fading channel the received signal is very weak and
many bit errors occur. This phenomenon remains
present, even if the (average) signal-to-noise ratio is
large.
 Fading distribution
• Statistical characterization of the variation of
the envelop of the received signal over time
leads us two fading distributions.
• the two most common distributions
– Rayleigh fading
• which happens when we have a lot of multipath
components similar to one another but no direct line of
sight
– Ricean fading
• which is occurring when we have a clear line of sight as
well as multipath components.
 Rician/Ricean Fading
 When there is actually a dominant stationary signal
component present such as a line of sight or a very strong
reflection which is usually possible when the mobile station
and base station are close to each other.
 Another fading model used for similar scenario is known as
Nakagami channel model.
 Rician Fading
 r  r2  A2   Ar 
 2 exp    I0  2  A  0,0  r  
pr  σ  2σ 2
 σ 
 r 0
 0

 Where,
 A : Peak amplitude of the dominant signal
 I(.): Modified Bessel function of the first kind and zero-
order
 σ2: Time average received power of the non-dominant
components
 Rician Fading
 The Ricean distribution is often described in terms of a
parameter ‘K’
A2 A2
K  2  K  dB   10 log 2
2σ 2σ

 Note: A represents the most dominant component and σ is

the strength of all the other components.
 So it tells us the energy or the ratio of the energy in the
dominant component with respect to all other components.
 If A tending to zero, results in the Rayleigh distribution
means there is no LOS component.
 If A is much larger than σ2, than all the other reflections are
kind of negligible with respect to the signal which is in the
dominant component, then we should somehow tend to the
Gaussian distribution.
• Besides Rayleigh and Rician fading, a refined
models for the PDF of a signal amplitude exposed to
mobile fading have been suggested.
• The distribution of the amplitude and signal power
can be used to find probabilities on signal outages.
– If the envelope is Nakagami distributed, the corresponding
instantaneous power is gamma distributed.
– The parameter m is called the 'shape factor' of the Nakagami
or the gamma distribution.
– In the special case m = 1, Rayleigh fading is recovered, with
an exponentially distributed instantaneous power
– For m > 1, the fluctuations of the signal strength reduce
compared to Rayleigh fading.
• Nakagami m-distribution
m
2 m  2 m 1  m 2
f ( )     exp   
 ( m)      
2
 , m  1 / 2, m  2
(  ) 2

• Γ = Gamma function
• m = parameter used to adjust the pdf to data samples
• For, m = 1, Nakagami reduces to Rayleigh dist.
• The parameter Ω is the mean square value of amplidue =
E[a2].
• Nakagami can be converted to Rice by changing m.
• Nakagami and Rice distributions are quite similar
and each can be approximately converted to the
other for m ≥ 1:
(K 1) m
2 2

K m
m
m m m
2
(2 K  1)
Rayleigh Fading Model
 Rayleigh Fading
• 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.
 Rayleigh fading
• If all the multipath components have approximately
the same amplitude that is, when the mobile station
is far from the base stations and there are several
reflectors, the envelop of the received signal is
approximately Rayleigh distributed.
• No dominant signal component must exist even if
there are no line of sight.
• One or two reflections should not be much stronger
than the other reflection. Otherwise you will not
have Rayleigh fading.
• This assumption is generally true for mobile
scenarios when the mobile station is far away from
the base station.
 Typical Rayleigh distribution
 Various deep fades and nulls
 It is measured at 900MHz. the scenario will change at a higher
frequency.
 These fades will become much more frequent if we go and do the
measurement at 2.4 GHz.
 The observation from this variation says that:
 On the x axis we have plotted the elapsed time in
milliseconds for a car which is travelling at about 120
km/hr.
 The y axis in this graph plots the envelop given. if you plot
the histogram of the values here, you will come up the
distribution which is resembling the Rayleigh distribution
 How many times per second do we get into the fade?
 For that we must define what is the acceptable signal
strength below which we say that the signal is not usable. So
we need a threshold and then we need to come up with a
parameter which tells number of crossings per second.
 If you have this distribution, then statistically if you draw a
horizontal line here and define a threshold, then you can
statistically calculate the number of crossings per second.
That will be the level crossing rate.
 what the average duration of fade ?
 For that we need to know again a threshold.
 How much time do we stay below that line that will
give me the average duration of fade. Clearly if I give
you the PDF- probability density function, of the
Rayleigh distribution, then I can statistically calculate
the average duration of fade.
Rayleigh Distribution
 The notation ‘r’ Rayleigh (σ) means that the
random variable ‘r’ has a Rayleigh distribution
with shape parameter σ. The probability density
function (X > 0) is:

 σ is the rms value of the received voltage signal

before envelope detection
 σ2 is the time-average power of the received signal
before envelope detection.
  The probability that the envelop of the received
signal does not exceed a specified value of R is
given by the cumulative distribution function –
‘CDF’.
 now this is important because we can have a pdf but at
the end, we are interested in finding out how often
does it fade, what is the probability that the envelop
received at the receiver is above a certain threshold
level, how often is it above the receiver sensitivity, etc.
R
 R2 
Probability the received signal Pr  r  R    p  r  dr  1  exp   2 
does not exceed a value R 0  2σ 
 Other property of Rayleigh

π
Mean value of the Rayleigh rmean  E  r    rp  r  dr  σ  1.2533σ
2
distribution 0


2 π
σ r  E  r   E  r    r p  r  dr  σ
 2
 2 2
Variance of the Rayleigh 2
0
distribution
 π
σ r  σ 2  2    0.4292σ 2
 2

Median of the Rayleigh

distribution
 Rayleigh Distribution
 The mean is nearly equal to the standard deviation σ.
 The tail is much larger than the normal distribution or the Gaussian
distribution.
 The spread is much larger and we can say that you are in a deep fade
when p(r) is greater than 3 sigma.
 Observe the PDF with different value of σ. the spread increases as you
increase the σ.
 It’s a typical Rayleigh pdf. Based on the PDF we have to find out what is the
σ for our case and then based on that σ, we have to carry out calculations
and found the average durations of fade and the level crossing rates.
 Both will depend upon the actual value of σ. if the number of scatterers
increase, then our σ will tend to increase.
 What do we do with this distribution?
 What kind of information do we gather or infer from
this distribution?
 We want to know
 how many times do we dip below a certain threshold ?
 what is the average duration, we stay below a threshold?
 our answer lies in either the level crossing rate or the average
duration of fade scenarios.
 level crossing rate
 Definition: the level crossing rate or LCR is defined as
the expected rate at which the Rayleigh fading envelop
normalized to the local root mean square signal level
crosses a specified threshold level in the positive going
direction.
 The number of level crossings per second is given by
 ρ2
N R  2π f m ρe
ρ:= R/rrms = specified envelope value normalized to rrms

fm: Maximum Doppler shift

 R is that special threshold value and r rms is a

characteristic of the Rayleigh distribution.
 level crossing rate (example)
 Scenario
 Rayleigh fading environment
 carrier frequency = 900MHz
 maximum vehicular speed = 50km/hr
 ρ =1 (i.e threshold = RMS level)
 Find the level crossing rate
 ρ2
N R  2π f m ρe
 λ = 3*108/(900*106) = 0.33m
 fm = v/ λ = ((50*103)/3600)/0.33 = 41.67Hz
 NR = 38.42 crossing / sec

 Now take value of ρ and observe the result.

Average fade duration
 Definition: the average period of time for which the
received signal is below a specified level R.
 this R can be specified by us and has to be a
function of the receiver sensitivity or the minimum
quality of service.
 For Rayleigh fading scenario, this is given by:
1
τ Pr  r  R 
NR
R
Pr  r  R    p  r  dr  1  exp   ρ 2 
0

exp  ρ 2   1
τ
2π f m ρ
 there are two things
 if you move fast.
 This fm goes up.
 But you must also remember that
 Just staying below a threshold depends on how fast you are
travelling but very soon we might get back into the fade that
must come from this NR.
 That is the significance of NR. You couldn’t have calculated the
average duration of fade without the notion of the level
crossing rate.
 They are interrelated.
Nakagami Fading Model
AWGN Channel
 AWGN
• In reality, transmission is always corrupted by noise
whatever may be the type of channel assumed.
• The usual mathematical model of the radio channel
is the Additive White Gaussian Noise channel.
– It is a very good model for the physical reality as long as the
thermal noise at the receiver is the only source of
disturbance.
• The AWGN channel model can be characterized as
follows:
– The noise is additive. The noise w(t) is an additive random
disturbance of the useful signal s(t), that is, the receive
signal is given by
r(t) = s(t) + w(t)
• White noise is a random signal (or process) with a flat power
spectral density. In other words, the signal contains equal
power within a fixed bandwidth at any centre frequency.
Hence, the autocorrelation of the noise in time domain is zero
for any non-zero time offset.
• The noise samples have a Gaussian distribution of amplitude.
Gaussian probability density function with variance 2 is given
by
1  ( x  m ) / 2 2
2
p( x)  e
2  2
END OF THE CHAPTER