Wireless Networks

Mobile Radio Propagation: Large Scale Path Loss

 Terrestrial Propagation:
Large Scale Physical Models

2
Effective LOS
• Line of sight (LoS) is a type of propagation that can
transmit and receive data only where transmit and
receive stations are in view of each other without any
sort of an obstacle.

• However, for Wireless Networks a modified line-of-sight

transmission is used, which is made possible through a
combination of effects like diffraction, multipath
reflection, and rapid handoff. Therefore, receiver should
be in an effective region covered by the Transmitter.

3
Terrestrial Propagation: Physical Models
• In most wireless communication scenarios, terrestrial
environment (buildings, terrain, vegetation, etc.) block
line-of-sight communication

• In this case, radio waves undergo three types of

phenomena:
• Reflection: caused by large objects; radio waves are reflected
by the surface of the object

• Diffraction: caused by sharp/irregular objects; radio waves

bend around objects

• Scattering: caused by small objects; radio waves are

obstructed by the objects

4
Reflection
• A wireless signal may reach the receiver from multiple
paths due to reflections from nearby objects

• This phenomenon is referred to as multipath

propagation

5
Reflection
• Multipath signals interfere with each other

• This interference can be constructive or destructive

depending on whether the multiple signals are
synchronized or de-synchronized
Constructive with each other
interference

6
Reflection
• Multipath signals interfere with each other

• This interference can be constructive or destructive

depending on whether the multiple signals are
synchronized or de-synchronized
Destructive with each other
interference

7
Reflection: Plane-Earth Model
• Due to the interference caused by multipath signals, the receive signal power of an
antenna can be quite different from what is observed in the (ideal) free-space
propagation model

• As a first step, we only consider reflections from the earth’s surface.

• Moreover, we assume a flat (or plane) earth surface and ignore the affect of the earth’s
curvature on propagation
• This model is valid for distances of less than tens of kilometers
• This model is also called the two-ray or flat-earth propagation model

hT
hR

d 8
Reflection: Plane-Earth Model
• We want to find the power at the receive antenna

• Recall that the received power for a directional antenna is

PT
PR GTGR
Lp
• So we essentially need to find the path loss Lp for the two-ray propagation
environment

hT
hR

d 9
Reflection: Phase Difference
• We need to find the path loss Lp for the two-ray propagation
environment
• We first find the difference in the distance traveled by both rays
• Then we can use the following expression to find the phase
difference of the received waves

d
2
Number of additional
Conversion to radians wavelengths travelled
in distance ∆d

hT
hR

d
10
Reflection: Phase Difference
dd
hT -hR

2hT dr hR

hT +hR dr

d
d dr dd (hT hR )2 d2 (hT hR )2 d2
2 2
hT hR hT hR
d 1 1
d d

1 1 x
d 1 2
(hT hR )2 2
(hT hR )2 1, 1 x 1 ,x 1
2d 2d 2

11
Reflection: Phase Difference
dd
hT -hR

2hT dr hR

hT +hR dr

1 2 1
d d 1 2
(hT hR ) 2
(hT hR )2 1
2d 2d
2hT hR assumption: hT hR d
d
d
d 4 hT hR
2
d

12
Example
hT = 10m
hR = 2m

d = 500m

Find the phase difference introduced by the above two-

ray scenario when the carrier frequency is fc = 900 MHz.

13
Reflection: Received Power
hT 4 hT hR
hR
d
d
-1 for grazing earth distance
See Example 4.4 in Ref. book

E Ed Er Ed Ed e j e j

j j
Ed Ede Ed (1 e )
j
E Ed 1 e Ed 1 cos j sin
Ed (1 cos ) j (sin ) Ed (1 cos )2 sin2
Ed 1 2 cos cos2 sin2
Ed 2 2 cos
14
Reflection: Phase Difference
hT 4 hT hR
hR
d
d

1 1
E Ed 2 2 cos 2 Ed cos
2 2
E 2 Ed sin2 2 Ed sin
2 2

15
Reflection: Phase Difference
hT
hR E 2 Ed sin
2
d
2 2
E Ed
PR Ae Ae 4 Ae sin2
2
Characteristic impedence of free space Received power in free space
from the direct path
Recall that the received power in free space is: PTGTGR
(4 d / )2
So the received power for the two ray model is:
2 2 2

PR 4PTGTGR sin2 4PTGTGR

4 d 2 4 d 2
2 2 2
2 hT hR hT hR
PR 4PTGTGR PTGTGR
4 d d d2 16
Reflection: Received Power
2
hT hR
PR PTGTGR
d2

Thus the path loss term for two-ray propagation is

2
2
d
Lp
hT hR

hT
hR

d 17
 Reflection: Received Power
2
hT hR
PR PTGTGR
d2
Received power is a
function of:
• Antenna heights:
Higher the antennas,
greater the received
power
• Distance between the
transmit and receive
antennas: inverse
fourth power
decrease; attenuation
is much faster than in
free-space
18
Source: A. Goldsmith Book on Wireless Communications
Exercise
hT
hR

d
A mobile is located 4 km away from a base station and uses a λ/2
monopole antenna with a gain of 2.55 dB to receive signals from
the base station. The transmitter produces 50W of power and the
carrier frequency is 900 MHz.

b) Find the received power at the mobile using the two ray model
assuming base station antenna height of 40 m and mobile antenna
height of 2.5m.

19
Exercise
hT
hR

d
Consider a 10 Watt transmitter communicating with a mobile
receiver having a sensitivity of -100 dBm (in watts it is equivalent
to 10-13). Assume that the receiver antenna height is 2 m, and then
transmitter and receiver antenna gains are 1 dB. What height of
base station antenna would be necessary to provide a service area
of radius 10 Km. If the receiver is mobile, and the maximum
radiated power is restricted by regulation to be 10 watts or less,
what realistic options are there for increasing the service area?

20
Exercise
hT
hR

d
Answer:
The plane earth model indicates the base station antenna would have
to be 4 meters in height. Service area may be increased either by
improving receiver sensitivity, or boosting the transmitter antenna
height, or increasing antenna gain. Realistically, a 4-meter antenna
would be unlikely to provide a line of sight path over a distance of 10
km, thus the plane-earth model is applicable but service area would
not be covered.

21
The Usability of Plane earth model
• The plane-earth model applies only for R (or d) >> hR, hT. The plane-
earth model shows less loss than free-space at distances less than a
kilometer, Is this reasonable? How large should R be to apply the
plane-Earth model?

22
 Terrestrial Propagation:
Large Scale Physical Models

23
Terrestrial Propagation: Physical Models
• In most wireless communication scenarios, terrestrial
environment (buildings, terrain, vegetation, etc.) block
line-of-sight communication

• In this case, radio waves undergo three types of

phenomena:
• Reflection: caused by large objects; radio waves are reflected
by the surface of the object

• Diffraction: caused by sharp/irregular objects; radio waves

bend around objects

• Scattering: caused by small objects; radio waves are

obstructed by the objects

24
Diffraction
• Diffraction or shadowing is the bending of a radio wave
around obstructions

• This bending allows radio waves to reach locations when

there is no line-of-sight.

• While the signal strength decreases as one moves more

and more towards the obstruction (shadow), there is
still enough power in the diffracted signal that it can be
decoded at the receiver.

25
Diffraction: Huygen’s Principle

Each point on a wave front acts as a point source for

further propagation. However, the point source does not
radiate equally in all directions but favors the forward
direction of the wavefront.

26
Diffraction: Huygen’s Principle

Diffraction is caused by the propagation of secondary

wavelets into a shadowed region.

Wavefront

Diffracted
Wavefront

Knife Edge Obstruction 27

Diffraction: Phase Difference
• We want to quantify the phase difference that the
diffracted wave will experience

• We know that the phase difference is given by:

d
2

where ∆d is the difference in distance between the direct

and diffracted waves

28
Diffraction: Phase Difference
• To compute ∆d, let us consider propagating from point T to R

• An obstruction is blocking the LoS path

• The obstruction has a circular radius, h

Q
h
d2
O

T d1

29
Diffraction: Phase Difference
• Any wave propagating through TQR is traveling more
distance that TOR
d | TQR | | TOR |

Q
h
d2
O

T d1
Diffraction: Phase Difference
2 2 2 2
d | TQR | | TOR | d 1
h d2 h (d1 d2 )
2 2
h h
d1 1 d2 1 (d1 d2 )
d1 d2
R

Q
h
d2
O

T d1

31
Diffraction: Phase Difference
x
1 x 1 for x 1
2
h2 h2
d d1 1 d2 1 d1 d2
2d12 2d22
h2 h2 h2 1 1
d1 2 d2
2d1 2d22 2 d1 d2
h 2 d1 d2
2 d1d2

32
Diffraction: Phase Difference
h 2 d1 d2
d
2 d1d2
2 2(d1 d2 )
h
2 d1d2
• We define the Fresnel-Kirchhoff diffraction parameter as:
2(d1 d2 )
h
d1d2
2

33
Example
Find the phase difference introduced in the following
scenario when the carrier frequency fc = 900 MHz.

Q
h = 50mm
d2 = 200m
O

T d1 = 300m

34
Diffraction: Phase Difference
2(d1 d2 ) 2
h
d1d2 2
• Fresnel-Kirchhoff diffraction parameter characterizes the
phase difference between the LoS and a diffracted path
R

Q
h
d2
O

T d1

35
Diffraction: Fresnel Zones
• We are interested in answering two completely separate
questions:
• What is impact of height +h (unknown till yet) on
Diffraction losses?
- the ellipsoidal shape is dependent on h. the
greater the h, the larger the ellipsoid and higher the
Fresnel zone and so the losses.
• What is impact on the LOS communication in the
presence of any height h (+ive, -ive, or zero)
- for that we want to get the first Fresnel zone clear
from obstruction. R
h
d
O 2

T d 36
 Diffraction: Fresnel Zones
• Let us define a series of circular holes on the obstruction
such that the length of each diffracted path is
q
d , q 1,2,...

2
Fresnel zones represent successive regions where secondary waves
have a path length from the transmitter to the receiver, which are
qλ /2 greater than the total path length of a LOS Path.

h
d2
O

T d1
37
 Diffraction: Fresnel Zones
• Circles on the obstruction with an excess length equal to
an integer multiple of half wavelengths define a series of
concentric ellipsoids

Site A

d1

Site B

Image courtesy of Lecture on Wireless d2

Communication Systems, University of
Surrey 38
Diffraction: Fresnel Zones
• Circles on the obstruction with an excess length equal to an integer multiple of
half wavelengths define a series of concentric ellipsoids
• Volume enclosed be q-th ellipsoid is called the q-th Fresnel Zone

T
39
Diffraction: Fresnel Zones

First Fresnel Zone

Second Fresnel Zone
O Third Fresnel Zone

40
Diffraction: Fresnel Zones
• Since q is an integer, the path length difference (from the LoS path) of the q-th Fresnel zone is

• And the corresponding phase difference is

(q 1) q
d
2 2

(q 1) q

R
First Fresnel Zone
Second Fresnel Zone
O
Third Fresnel Zone

T 41
Diffraction: Fresnel Zones
(q 1) q
• Every Fresnel zone is introducing a phase difference of π

• Thus successive Fresnel zones are in phase opposite

directions and interfere destructively.

R
First Fresnel Zone
Second Fresnel Zone
O
Third Fresnel Zone

T 42
Diffraction: Fresnel Zones
• Fresnel zones can be thought of as containing the propagated
energy of the wave.

• A general rule of thumb is that:

We must keep the first Fresnel zone free of obstructions to
obtain transmission under free-space conditions

R
First Fresnel Zone
Second Fresnel Zone
O
Third Fresnel Zone

T 43
Diffraction: Fresnel Zones
• Any obstructions which do not enter the 1st Fresnel zone
have little effect on the signal

• A clearance of at least 0.6r1 (r1: radius of first Fresnel

zone) is ensured in practical microwave links

Forbidden Region First Fresnel Zone

r1
0.6r1

44
Diffraction:

Fresnel Zones
If there are obstacles near the path, the radio waves reflecting
off those objects may arrive out of phase with the signals that
travel directly and reduce the power of the received signal.

 On the other hand, reduction in the height of the antenna causes

an increase in the signal to noise ratio.

45
Exercise
• A company owns two office towers in a city and wants to set up a 4-
GHz microwave link between the two towers. The two towers have
heights of 10m each, and are separated by 2 km. In the line of sight
(LOS) and midway between the two towers is a third tower of height
5 meters. Will line-of-sight transmission be possible between the two
towers? Justify your answer. Describe an engineering solution to
obtain line-of-sight transmission.

46