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Measurement and verification of an HF channel model

Conference Paper · February 1985

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'!EASUREMENT AND VERI FICATION OF AN HF CHANNEL MODEL
J. Serrat-Fe rnandez,* J . A. De l ga do -P e nin,*E . Munday , P. G. Farrell+
*Universidad Po lit ecn i ca de Barcelo n a , Spain;
Manchester, U.K.
l. INTRODUCT I ON
The design and p e rf o rm a n ce analysis o f digital
communicat i o n systems for HF radio c h a nn e ls
r e lies o n t he existence of a n appr opriate
channe l mo del . It is diffi c u lt to construct
suc h a mo de l for a particular HF l ink from
general prop agation th e o ry and d at a , because
of the extremely time v a ri able nat ure of HF
radio paths . One way of overcom in g this
difficulty i s to p r o pa se a su it ab l e f or m for
the mode l, a nd t he n , by mea ns of measurements
on the lin k , to d eterm i ne t h e parameters of
the model and its va li d i ty for t he u se
in tende d .
The contrib u tion de s cribes suc h an
investigat i o n, carri e d o ut for the 1,lOOKm
path betwee n Barcelon a i n Spa i n an d
Can te rb u ry i n England. Th e t ime - var ying
imp u lse res ponse h(T, t ) of t he c hannel was
meas u re d, using the pseudo - ran do m sequence
correlation technique . From the s e me asure-
ments, t he parameters o f a two - mo d e channel
model were de t e rmined, a nd then u sed to
predict t he error-ra te performance of the
li nk. Th e res ults obtained agreed reasonabl y
well with the p e rfo rmance to b e expected f r om
such a link . A number of difficulties we r e
noted in connect ion wi th the invest i ga tio n,
however, aris i n g partly from the s hort comings
of t he measureme n t system, a nd part l y from
theoret ical a nd computational d iffic ul t i e s
a ssoc iated wit h t he applicatio~ of t he model .
Th ese d i ff i c ulties are disc u ssed, an d an
a ssess mcnt o f the u sef ul ness of this me t hod of
characterisi ng HF c han nels is presente d .
2. PROPOSED CHANNEL MODEL
The propose d c hann el model for the l ink is
basically the Watter so n mo del ( 1 ) . It should
be no te d that t his is a short term fa ding
mode l, vali d i n a ba n dwi dth of 3kHz. I ts
main character i st i cs a re now describe d .
The HF channe l is a t ~n e - varia n t l i near sy st e m
whos e resp onse a t time t to an i mp u lse a p plied
T ~nits of t ime befare ca n b e writte n as :
n fr e qu e ncy and the period(numbe r of bits),
h(T 1 t ) l: Gi ( t ) O(T ·- \ ) (1)
i=l
where n i s t he n umber of p at hs or
prop a gation mo d es,
T ~ is t he delay correspond in g t o
mode i, a nd
G (t) is the comp l ex random pro c ess
1 irr e gularities i n t he t r ansfer function
character i stic of the fad in g of
mode i .
The comple x processes G. (t) are Gauss ian
(ampl itu de distributed [ccord i ng to t he
Rayleigh distribution, and uniform phas e ) ,
u ncorrelated , and have power dens i t y which
may be expres sed as the overlap of t wo
functions of th e Butterworth type (i n order t o
contemplate the existence of two mag net oionic
components in each propagation mode) , c en t red
--"- -
0
º Uni v; r s it y of Kent, U.K . , + Univ e r s i ty of
at f.a a n d fib (Doppl e r s hift) a nd wi t h width
(3 d BJ e qual to 2fca and 2f c b (fr e que ncy
spread) re spectively. The s hap e of the
s p ec trum di f fers from th e o ne propo s ed by
Watterso n in that he make s i t Gaus s ian. Use
of a Butterworth shape aims to facilitate the
impl eme ntation of a channel simulator as an
exact r ep lica of the mode l.
Th e h yp ot h eses describ e d a llow us to express
th e co r r e l a tion function of the r e al part of
the proc e s s Gi ( t)-identi ca l to it s imaginary
p art - in t hi s way:
Fi ( 6t ) g E[Re{ Gi(t) }Re{ Gi( t + 6t) } ]
1 2 Ci a(O )exp ( - 1 2 nfca6t)s in( / 2 n fca 6 t +
n /4)cos2 nf i a6 t +
+ 12 Ci!:i(O)exp(-/2 Ti f c b 6 t)sin(/2nfcb6t +
( 2)
Th e c h annel mode l will be spec ifi e d b y t he
number of propagatio n modes and the ir
respective delay s (the diffe r entia l de lay s
wit h out loss of gene r ality) , and for e ach mod e
t he six paramete rs appearing in (2) with
p h ysica l mean ing as d e s cr i be d i n r e f e rence ( 1 ) .
3. MEAS UREMENT OF THE IMPULS E RES PONSE
Th e goa l of t he experime nt carri e d o u t is t o
meas u re a re alisation o f th e ra nd om process
h( T, t ) wh ic h will determin e th e par ameters of
the c h a nn el. The proc es s of me a s ur e ment is
simil a r t o the one used to me a s ur e t he
impu lse r e sponse of tim e -inv a ri a n t linear
c h a nn e l s , a nd is based on t he cross-
c orre lat ion qualities (input-out put) of the
c h an nel , whe n t he inpu t i s a p se udor a ndom
seque nc e th e parameters of wh i ch s hould be
c hose n bearing in mind the c harac t eristics
o f t he c h a nnel under anal ys i s.
3.1 S timulation Signal
Thi s i s a PN sequence, the maximum l e ngt h of
whi c h we need to ~etermin e to set clock
base d on the following crit e ria:
(a) The spectrum of th e s timul at ion s ignal
s h o uld be flat in th e b a nd in que s t i on
( 3kHz ).
(b ) The separat ion b etween spectral lines
must b e such as to r esolve the
a p pearing d ue to s elect i v i ty fading
e f fects.
(e ) The impulse response of the channel must
not change durin g the time when the
c orr e lation is car r i ed out.
(d) The volume of da ta generated wi t h t hi s
expe riment mus t b e small enough to
fac ilitat e its acqu i s i t i on with the
 r e sou r c e s available .
By combining the sta t ed r equirements with the
spectr al ch a ract e ri sti c s o f PN se qu e nc e s (2)
and t he v al ue o f the e s t i ma te d p a rame t e rs f or
the li nk, i t was d e t e r mi n ed t hat the bit c lock
freque ncy sho uld be lOkHz and t he length of
the se quen c e 63 bits . Re fere n ce (3) explains
the c al c ul atio n s in de t ail .
3.2 Measurement syst e m
Sin c e h(1 ,t) is a comp l e x quantity , its
mea su r emen t requires demodulation inquadrature
of t he r eceived signal, and correlation of a
p s eud o ra ndom sequence, iden t ical t o t hat
t ra nsmi t t e d , wi t h the output s i gn a ls o f the
i n- p h a s e and quadrature branche s of the
demodu l a t or , in orde r to ob t ain th e real and
i ma gi n ar y parts of h(T ,t ) resp e ctive l y .
Co he re nt demodulation requires the us e of
freq u e ncy standards a t both t er minals,
unjus ti f ied by the e xperiment's aim . In fact ,
the goal of the experiment is not the
exha ustive validat i on of t he model , which has
bee n c a rried out partiall y or t o t all y by
other r ese archers, but is rathe r to find sorne
ev idence of it s suitability for the proposed
link , using equipme nt of low cost and general
a pp licability .
Base d on this viewpoi nt , the demodulation of
the s i gnal was carri e d o ut wi t h an SSB
rece iv e r whose audio out p u t is c o rre l ated
wit h the local PN s e quence . Wh at may then be
cal l e d the observab l e result of t h e experiment
is a li near combination o f the r e a l an d
i ma ginar y parts o f t h e impulse response
h(T , t ) ( 3) . The r efe r ence mentioned shows
that i f the hy p o t heses of the channel model
were t r ue, the co r r elation f unction of t he
observ abl e of the experiment equals the
c orre l a ti on func tion of the real o r i maginary
p ar t of t h e impulse response h(1,t ) , for
wh ic h (2) is the hypothetical expre ssion .
Fi g ure l(a) sh ows t h e block diagr am of the
s ys t em used f o r the f i els trials a nd
Fi gu r e l ( b) shows the equ i pment use d fo r the
measur e ment . Channel 1 of the r ecorder
co nt ains the pseudorandom sequ en c e ob t ai n ed
with l(a), a nd ch a nnel 2 an impulse t rain with
a rep et i t i on period of 3 s econ ds approximately .
The si gn al of c h annel 2 is used a s a time
re f e r e nc e: eac h i mpulse re l a ting t o an
i nst an t o f o bservat i o n in the t domai n. The
synch r onisat i on and contro l s ubs ys tem allows
the se le ct ion o f one of t he s e instants of
observati on , wh i c h select s a sh ifte d
pseudorandom s e quenc e, and fr ame s t he
corre l a t or toget her wi t h t he s tart a nd stop
correlat i on si gn al s . I n thi s wa y , as t he
delay of the sequence increases wi t h re g ard
to t he ti me origin c ho sen, a s we e p of the
impulse resp onse i n t h e T d oma in , f or t he
i nstant o f obs e rvat io n t, is obtained .
Fi nal l y, a c omment on the factors that limit
the resolut i o n of t he measuremen t system
sho u l d be mad e.
(a) The li mi tat ion of t h e bandwid t h of the
system t o 3kHz limits t he temporal
r esoluti on t o propagation modes with
di f ferenti al delays above abo u t 0 . 5ms.
Neverthel e ss , this is not an obstacle
for th i s e xp e riment , since only two
modes a r e n e c e ss ar y to enabl e the
analys is of t he indepe n dence hypothesis ,
since th e lin k examined c a n easily give
two modes wit h diff e renti a l de lay abov e
0 . 5ms.
(b) The drifts of the oscillators affect the
frequency resolution in that they may
al t er the mode cor r elation function of
the observable result. Nevertheless, if
the dr if t is small in the stretch of time
whe n the correlation function is not z e ro,
its effects are negligible . The results
obtain e d show tha t the mode wi t h the
slowest fading rate has a corr el ation
function falling to a tenth of its
original value in 50 seconds. During
this time it was experimenta l ly verified
that the impulse response of the trans -
ceivers is practical l y unaltered .
(c) The resolu t ion in the domain of the
variab l e T is about O. lms, and this is
the value which delimits the uncertainty
found in synchronising the local PN
sequence (2) . This uncertainty brings
about sorne difficulties when the
statistics of the observable have to be
appraised if the samples are taken at the
peaks of the global response of the system
(where the maximum degree of response is
obtained, and therefore where a greater
sensitivity to the shifting of the
sampling instant can be found). It is
for this reason, and with a view to the
analysis of the hypotheses, that the
possibility of sampling the response of
the system at other instants was
considered .
3.3 Field trials
The trials were done on a Canterbu r y - Barcelona
( 1 , lOO Km) li n k . Fo r pr a ctica l re ason s the
20 met e r band was chose n, and the average
power o f the transmi t ter was set at 80W. It
was po ssible to i nstall t h e an te nn a s (YAGI
t ype with 3 e l emen t s) in areas of low urba n
d e nsity, in arder t o have a low man-made no i se
t emperature .
The propagation experiments last e d 22 days,
divided into three periods . The first perio d
from September 14th to Septe mber 23rd, 198 1 ;
the second from December 7th, to Dece mber 16 th,
1981 and the third from April lst to April 7th,
1982 . Each experiment took place around s olar
midday and lasted for approximately 45 mi nute s
divided into two periods : a first one to
establish the link, followed by the tra ns -
mission and recording of the respons e to the
sequence train . Out of the 22 recordings only
the two that offered the bes t possibilit i es
of success were chosen . Since the back g r ound
noise was low, there were few interferences
from other users , and the dynamic margin of
the r e corder had not been surpass e d duri n g
the 12 minutes that the effective re c or d i ng
had lasted . The results discussed refer to
one of these two recordings .
4. RESULTS OF THE EXPERIMENT
The results of the measurement were 5 000
samples stored in the computer in mat r i x form
(200 lines , 25 columns) corresponding t o 200
observations, with 25 significant val ue s
each. In this way , each column of the matrix
corresponds to a random process sampled with
a frequency of approximately 0 . 3Hz . Ea ch
process is denoted h(i,r), with i an i nteger
variable that goes from 1 to 25 , and r a real
variable that identifies the sampling i nstant
in the t domain . In order to identif y the
possible propagation modes, the matrix was
plotted graphically .
After establishing the propagation mode s,
t h e ir correlation functions were first
CóllCLtla ted:
N-k
r~l h(i,r) h(i,r+k) ( 3)
where k is an integer multiple of sampling
periods, shifting from O to N-1 , and
N = 200
Then expression (3) was fitted to (2) by
means of the method of least squares in arder
to determine the six parameters of each mode.
Finally, tests of the three basic hypotheses
of the model, with a confidence level of 10%,
were carried out. For the Gaussian dispersion
hypothesis a x2 test was done; for the
independence hypothesis, a test based on the
cross correlation between two propagation
modes; and for the hypothesis specifying the
modal correlation function, a test based on
the error resulting between (2) and (3). The
details resulting frorn administering the
tests can be seen in reference (3).
Figure 2 shows four consecutive observations
of the measured impulse response in cascade,
in which t he presence of two propagation modes,
with a differential delay of 1.lms, can be
seen. In the link und er consideration this
delay can be attributed to the reflection in
layers E and F2· Table 1 gives the parameters
for each one of the modes being considered.
Note f irst that there are three and not six
because the fit with two magnetoionic
components in each mode gave always a bigger
error than with one component. As regards to
the values of these parameters, a difference
of 6dB between C¡a(O) and c 2 a(O) should be
noted, rather small for what could be expected
of modes E and F2· It is believed that this
should be attributed to the antenna radiation
diagrams rather than to the method of
measurement or to other related factors.
Likewise, a fading rate outstandingly higher
in the second mode is noted, as shown by the
Doppler and frequency spread. In any case
the fading rate is within the estimated
margins when determining the parameters of the
PN sequences.
Figure 3 shows correlation functions (2) and
(3) overlapped after the fitting process. It
should be noted that in the fastest mode the
sampling frequency appears somewhat critical
to characterise the temporary evolution of
the random process. On the other hand, for
a short time At, a good fit between both
functions can be observed. The dispersion
noticed for an increase of longer periods can
be attributed to the variance of the estimator
gi ven in ( 3).
The hypotheses tests were administered in
principle to processes h(2,r) and h(13,r), 2
and 13 being the values of the i variable
where the two modes were identified.
The result of the Gaussian dispersion test
was negative and this is attributed to the
before-men tioned effect produced by the
uncertainty of O.lms in the sampling of the
response in the T domain . It is for t his
reason that the test was administered again
using pairs of random processes with delay of
1.lms but sampling the matrix h(i,r) in areas
of a lesser gradient . In this manner the
result was positive for h(9,r) and h(20,r).
The independence test applied to the initial
process was also negative, its cause being the
residual correlation among processes resulting
from the band limitation of the measurement
system. To make it evident, the test was
administered to processes with a greater
differential delay in arder to diminish the
before-mentioned residual correlation. The
test was positive when working with processes
with a delay bigger than or e qual to 1.6ms .
The autocorrelation test was positive for the
i nitial processes. It should be added that in
all the processes that were analysed, the mean
value was always two orders of magnitude less
than their respect i ve typical deviations which
indicated that they were zero mean processes.
5. AN APPLICATION EXAMPLE
In order to show one of the possible uses of
the model described, the behaviour of a digital
modulation scheme in fading and white Gaussian
noise environment was analised by computer
simulation. The final goal aimed at is to
determine the average error probability P(e)
of the modulation scheme as a function of the
modulation speed. A problem that may arise
with the H.F. channe l is that a great number
of samples may have to be used in arder to
obtain the average error probability with a
given precision, and this would make the
methodology inapplicable.
DPSK with two and four phases were the
modulation schemes chosen, and the modulation
speed was made to vary between 50 and 1,200
Bauds. The signal/noise ratio was chosen so
that the error probability would be limited to
typical values for HF. As far as the channel
parameters are concerned, they were given
values that would cover extreme situations
enabling general conclusions to be reached.
Following the recommendations giv n by CCIR (4)
and in arder to simplify the task, three types
of channel called A, B and C were chosen, the
parameters of which are given in Table l .
The simulation was done in two ways. The
first consisted in determining the number of
errors created in a binary sequence by counting
(Monte Carla method), and the second in giving
an average for the conditionederrorprobabili ty
at the output of the channel, which had
previously been calculated analitycally (5).
The reason why it was decided to salve each
problem with two methodologies was to determine
the relat i ve efficiencies (6) and also, to
have the possibility of checking the
coin6idence of both results. Both methods
were carried out with 10 % confidence level and
(0.7P(e), 1.2P(e)) confidence interval.
Figure 4 is a sample of the various results
obtained. It gives specific information on
the P(e) of DPSK-2 for four modulation speeds,
channel type A, and three signal/noise ratios.
Considering that the two modes of channel A
show a differential delay of lms, it could be
expected that P(e) might be similar to the one
resulting from the presence of a slow and flat
fading. The before-mentioned figure also
shows the behaviour of DPSK-2 in slow and flat
fading for signal/no ise ratios of 20 and 26dB;
note the match found up to 400 Bauds . For a
speed of 600 Bauds there i s a considerabl e
increase of P(e) due to the intersymbol
interference caused by the selectivity fading
phenomenon. In short, the results obtained
are those that could be expected for this
transmission system.
The compute r time used by both methods is REFERENCES
very similar, al th ough they show consi derable
differences d epe nding on the c han nel. In fact 1. Wat terson, C., 1970, "Expe rimenta l
the t im e used to obtain a sol ut ion with con f irmation of an HF channel model",
channel n is longer t h an when usin g channel A, IEEE Tran s. Comm., Vol. COM-18, pp . 792 -
a n d t hi s o ne is in t urn longer th an wit h 803.
channel C. In conclusion, simulation i s not
feasible i f th e fading is slow and fo r the 2.• MacW illi ams, F . J . , 1 976, "Pse udorandom
specif i ed enviro nment con ditions, the sequences and arrays", Proc. of IEEE,
efficiency of both met hods is similar. December .
6. CONCLUSIONS 3. Serrat, J . , 1983, "Contribu cion al
estudio d e la transmision nume rica en
Fr om the previous con si derat i ons and r esu lt s canales dispersivos de HF " , Te sis
obtained, i t may b e dedu ce d that the Doctoral, Universidad Politecnica de
proce dur e for measurement of th e imp uls e Cataluna.
respo ns e is valid for any kind of HF ch annel ,
a nd it could eve n be applied to an a lysi s of 4. "HF ionospheri c channel simulator s", 1974,
other bands . Concerning the measurement CCIR XIII Plenary Assembly, Vol . 6,
system used, i ts main limitations can be Report 549.
summarised unde r three h e ads:
5. "On board message switching and signal
( a) It doe s not allow ex hau stive validation proc e ssin g ", 19 78, CSELT/Politecnico di
of the mode l. Torino, Estec Contract 2872/76/NL/SR,
Final Report .
(b) The tempora l reso lution of differen t
propagation mode s is limited to a fa ctor 6. Shanmugam, K. S., 1980, "A modified
inversely proportional to the bandwidth Monte -Ca rla simulation technique for th e
(3kHz) of the measurement equipment. eva lu ation of the erro r rate in digital
communication systems", IEEE Trans. Comm.,
(c) The synchronisation of t h e p seudorandom Vol. COM-28, pp . 1916-1924.
sequence at the re ceiver is not accurate
e nou g h and can be the cause of mis ta kes
in measurement.

Nev e rt h eless, th e characteristi c s of t h e l in k

for which the field test s wer e don e , and
c on t inuing analysis of th e s ample , a ll ow the
c on c lusion tha t l imitati o ns b a nd e ar e not
si g ni f icant wh e n ch e ckin g t he v ali d i ty of th e
hypothes e s. On th e o th er h a nd, s eve ral
res e arch e rs have ch e cke d t he se h ypo thes e s, so
that from a physical point o f vie w, and fo r
us e in cases such as t he o n e d e scribed in the
p r evious section , limita t ion a do e s not
p r esent an un solvable ob st acl e for t he
purposes of accepting th e v a l i d it y of the
hypotheses. I mprov e men t of th e measurement
system under aspects b and c is being furt her
cons idere d, without involv i ng too much
difficulty or an increase in costs, thus
making of the sy st em a fl e xible tool for the
analys i s of HF ch an nels under any co nditions.

TABLE 1 Parameters for the me as ured and s imulated channels

Channel Mode De la y Normalis ed Doppler shift Frequency spread

(ms) a u toco r relation (Hz) (Hz)
llt =O(dB)
i ci a eo) Cib(O) f.
J.a fib 2f
ca
2f
cb

UEAS1.JRW 1 o - O. 9 -0 .008 0.017

2 1.1 - 7. 1 -0.056 0.204

A
1 o - 3. 4'1 - 3.4 7 0.16 o . 18 o. 3'1 0 . 34
2 1 -1 0 0 . 16 0 .34

1 o - 4. 'l'/ o 0 . 01
B 2 ü .66 -4. '11 o 0 .01
3 l. 33 -4.77 o 0 . 01

e 1 ü o o 100
 (o)

RECORDER
(b)

Figure 1 (a) System used in the trials (b) System used to measure h( y,t )

05 7 7.5 P(e)
't (ms)

f=Os
70-l

r
\ ~
!
10-2
t =]S
~---
/"

~ t=6s

10-J
~-
~---'-- - - - - - -
26d8
- - - - - --

Modulotion rote ( Boud)

700 200 400 G?O
t =9 s ~--L
1
1

Figure 2 Four samples of h(T,t); 200 were Figure 4 DPSK-2 performance f or channel A and
used to characterise the channel white noise. (---) slow and flat
fading.

0.5 tJ t in . seconds

0.5 1
1
1
1
\
h., o o o
o
o o... _::_ __ a_..fJ __ o_____ o o o
o
o

Figure 3 Autocorrelation functions for the two propagation modes. Hypothetical (---) and
calculated (ooo) .

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