Wideband fading channels

Dr Sudheesh P G
Dept of ECE, MIT
Narrowband vs wideband
• Two multipaths are resolvable only if the difference between them
exceeds inverse signal bandwidth

  1 / Bu   1 / Bu

 1  2
t t
Narrowband Wideband
Delay spread

• In wideband multipath channels the individual multipath components can be resolved

by the receiver. True if
• When signal is not narrowband, we get “another” signal distortion
• If the components can be resolved then they can be combined for diversity gain. Eg
equalizer
Scattering function

• Typically time-varying channel impulse response c(τ, t) is unknown, so

its wideband model must be characterized statistically.
• Under our random model with a large number of scatterers, c(τ, t) is
Gaussian. We assume it is WSS, so we only need to characterize its
mean and correlation, which is independent of time.
• Similar to narrowband model, for φn uniformly distributed, c(τ, t) has
mean zero.
• The autocorrelation function of c(τ, t) can be written as
Ac(τ1, τ2; Δ t)
• The channel response associated with a given multipath component
of delay τ1 is uncorrelated with the response associated with a
multipath component at a different delay τ2 and τ2 ≠ τ1.
Independent scatterers
Scattering function
• Autocorrelation of c(τ, t) is Ac(τ1, τ2; Δ t) == > Ac(τ ; Δ t)
• since we assume channel response associated with different scatterers is
uncorrelated. ie when τ1 ≠ τ2 , autocorrelation is zero.
• But here we consider a single path, We use Ac(τ ; Δ t)
• Now we take fourier transform – scattering function
Wideband channel-specs
• power delay profile, coherence bandwidth, Doppler power spectrum,
and coherence time
• Via auto correlation and scattering function
Power delay profile
• Ac(τ ; Δ t)

• Multipath intensity profile

• Ac(τ ; Δ t=0)=Ac(τ)
• i.e. the autocorrelation relative to delay at a fixed time.
• The average delay μTm and rms delay spread σTm are defined relative to Ac(τ).
These parameters approximate the maximum delay of nontrivial multipath
components.
Average and rms delay spread
• To avoid ISI choose
Coherence bandwidth
• Define
• By the Fourier transform relationship, the bandwidth over which
Ac(Δf) is nonzero is roughly Bc ≈1/σTm
• Bc defines the coherence bandwidth of the channel, i.e. the
bandwidth over which fading is correlated.

Channel correlation exceeds 0.9

Channel correlation exceeds 0.5

• When the coherence bandwidth is much larger than the signal
bandwidth, the signals at different frequencies experience similar
fading, called frequency flat fading.

• When the coherence bandwidth is much smaller than the signal

bandwidth, the signals at different frequencies may experience
completely different fading, called frequency selective fading.

• Impact on communication systems: in frequency flat fading, dead

once deep fade; in frequency selective fading, there are always some
frequencies being at good state, thus adding robustness. But
troublesome equalization is required for frequency selective systems.
Impact on designing wireless communication
system
• Avg delay spread is 1.37 micro seconds. Find coherence bandwidth, if
freq correlation is above 0.5
THANK YOU
Doppler power spectrum and coherence time
• We define the channel coherence time Tc to be the range of Δ t values
over which Ac(Δ t) is approximately nonzero.
• Time carrying channel decorrelates at Tc seconds
• Sc(ρ) is the Doppler power spectrum: FT of autocorrl interms of ρ
• Doppler spread BD- range of non zero values
Coherence time-Doppler spread
• If the correlation is above 0.5

• Rule of thumb is to take mean of both above

• Vehicle moving at 60 mph, 900 MHz.

• =2.22 ms, so choose symbol rate exceeding 1/ ie 454 bps for no

distortion due to Doppler.
How to find delay spread from
• Inverse transform

• Get power delay profile

• We can find coherence BW Bc from delay spread

Thank you