UEC1602 Wireless Communications

Prabagarane.N
prabagaranen@ssn.edu.in
 Session Meta Data

Author Prabagarane N

Reviewer

Version Number 1

Release Date 20 Jan 2021

2 v1
 Revision History

Revision Date Details Version

no.

3 v1
 Session Objectives

The objectives of this session are

To understand the concepts

• Flat and frequency selective fading

• Slow and fast fading

4 v1
 Session Outcomes

At the end of the session, the student will be able to:

• Analyze effects of Flat, frequency selective, slow and fast fading on

the performance of a typical cellular communications.

5 v1
 Coherent bandwidth
• Analogous to the delay spread parameters in the time
domain, coherence bandwidth is used to characterize
the channel in the frequency domain.
• Coherence bandwidth is a statistical measure of the
range of frequencies over which the channel can be
considered flat.
• Two sinusoids with frequency separation greater than Bc
are affected quite differently by the channel.
f1

Receiver

Frequency Separation: |f1-f2|

Multipath Channel f2
6 v1
 Coherence Bandwidth
• Frequency correlation between two sinusoids.
• Coherence bandwidth is the range of frequencies over
which two frequency components have a strong potential
for amplitude correlation.
–  is rms delay spread
– If correlation is above 0.9, then BC  1
50
1
– If correlation is above 0.5, then BC 
5

– This is called 50% coherence bandwidth

7 v1
 Example
• For a multipath channel,  is given as 1.37ms.
• The 50% coherence bandwidth is given as: 1/5 =
146kHz.
– 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.

– Equalizers are needed in order to use transmission frequencies

that are separated larger than this value.

– 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).

8 v1
 Coherence Time
• 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 and Coherence time are parameters

which describe the time varying nature of the channel in
a small-scale region.

9 v1
 Doppler Spread
• Measure of spectral broadening caused by motion, the
time rate of change of the mobile radio channel, and is
defined as the range of frequencies over which the
received Doppler spectrum is essentially non-zero.
• We know how to compute Doppler shift: fd
• Doppler spread, BD, is defined as the maximum Doppler
shift: fm = v/λ
• If the baseband signal bandwidth is much less than BD
then effect of Doppler spread is negligible at the
receiver.

10 v1
 Coherence Time
• Coherence time is the time duration over which the
channel impulse response is essentially invariant.
• If the symbol period of the baseband signal (reciprocal of
the baseband signal bandwidth) is greater the coherence
time, than the signal will distort, since channel will
change during the transmission of the signal .

TS Coherence time (TC) is defined as:

TC TC  1
fm

t1 Dt=t2 - t1 t2
11 v1
 Coherence Time
0.423
Coherence time is also defined as: TC  9
• 16f m2
fm
• Coherence time definition implies that two signals
arriving with a time separation greater than TC are
affected differently by the channel.
• Coherence time Tc is the time domain dual of Doppler
spread and is used to characterize the time varying
nature of the frequency dispersiveness of the channel in
the time domain.
• If the coherence time is defined as the time over which
the time correlation function is above 0.5, then the
coherence time is approximately, Tc  9 where f m  v
16f m 

12 v1
 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)

Slow Fading
Fast 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

13 v1
 Flat Fading

s(t) r(t)
h(t,t)

t << TS

0 TS 0 t 0 TS+t

Occurs when: BC: Coherence bandwidth

BS << BC BS: Signal bandwidth
and TS: Symbol period
TS >> t t: Delay Spread
14
 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.

• Radio channel has a constant gain and linear phase

response over a bandwidth which is smaller than the
bandwidth of the transmitted signal.

• Frequency selective fading is due to time dispersion of the

transmitted symbols within the channel.

• Thus the channel induces inter-symbol-interference.

15
 Frequency Selective Fading
• Statistical impulse response model and computer
generated impulse responses are used for analyzing
frequency selective small-scale fading.

• Frequency selective fading channels are known as

wideband channels since the BW of the signal is wider
than the BW of the channel impulse response.

• As time varies, the channel varies in gain and amplitude

across the spectrum of s(t), resulting in time varying
distortion in the received signal r(t).

• If Bs  Bc , and Ts < t  Frequency selective fading

16 v1
 Frequency Selective Fading

s(t) r(t)
h(t,t)

t  TS

0 TS 0 t 0 TS TS+t

Causes distortion of the received baseband signal

Causes Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI)

Occurs when:
BS > BC As a rule of thumb: TS ≥ 10t Flat Fading
and TS < 10t Frequency Selective
TS < t

17 However, depends on the modulation used

 Fast Fading
• Due to Doppler Spread
– 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
– It causes frequency dispersion due to Doppler spread
and leads to distortion.
– Note that, when a channel is specified as a fast or slow fading
channel, it does not specify whether the channel is flat or frequency
selective
Occurs when:
BS: Bandwidth of the signal
BS < BD
BD: Doppler Spread
and TS: Symbol Period
TS > TC TC: Coherence Bandwidth
18
 Fast Fading
• A flat, fast fading channel the amplitude of the
delta function varies faster than the rate of change of the
transmitted baseband signal.

• A frequency selective, fast fading channel the

amplitudes, phases, and time delays of any one of the
multipath components varies faster than the rate of
change of the transmitted baseband signal.

19 v1
 Slow Fading
• Due to Doppler Spread
– 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 Bandwidth

20
 Different Types of Fading
• With Respect To SYMBOL PERIOD
TS

Flat Fast
Flat Slow
Fading
Fading

Symbol Period of
Transmitting Signal

t Frequency Selective Frequency Selective

Slow Fading Fast Fading

TC
TS
Transmitted Symbol Period
21
 Different Types of Fading
• With Respect To BASEBAND SIGNAL BANDWIDTH

BS
Frequency Selective Frequency Selective
Fast Fading Slow Fading
Transmitted
Baseband BC
Signal Bandwidth

Flat Fast Flat Slow

Fading Fading

BD
BS
Transmitted Baseband Signal Bandwidth

22
 Summary
We studied the following.

• Flat Fading and Frequency Selective Fading

• Slow and Fast Fading

23 v1
 Self Assessment Questions
• Determine the max and min spectral frequencies received from a stationary
GSM transmitter that has a center frequency of 1950.000000 MHz
assuming that the receiver travelling at a speed of 100 Km/hr.

• Comment on the properties of wideband channels.

24 v1
 Reference
• Andreas F. Molisch, Wireless Communications, John
Wiley India, Second Edition, 2013.
• Rappaport T.S, Wireless communications, Pearson
Education, Second Edition, 2014.

25 v1