American University of Beirut

Faculty of Engineering and Architecture

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
EECE 640 Wireless Communications Prof. Dawy
Pathloss Models: Derivations Fall 2009-2010
Free Space and Ray Tracing Pathloss Models
The telecom company mtchug decided to improve the pathloss models that they use in their cel-
lular network planning tools. They asked their expert Dr. ElectMag to select a suitable pathloss
model. As a result, Dr. ElectMag decided to start her analysis with the free space pathloss
model due to its simplicity.
In the free space pathloss model, the signal propagates from transmitter to receiver along a line
of sight (LOS) without any obstruction. Assume the following parameters: transmit power P
t
,
receive power P
r
, transmitter antenna gain G
t
, receiver antenna gain G
r
, carrier frequency f
c
,
wavelength , and separation distance d.
(a) What is the expression for the eective isotropic radiated power (EIRP)?
(b) What is the expression for the power density at a distance d from the transmitter antenna?
Justify your answer.
(c) What is the relation between antenna eective area and antenna gain at the receiver?
(d) For a free space pathloss model, prove the following expression:
P
r
P
t
=
G
t
G
r

2
16
2

1
d
2
. (1)
(e) Using a free space pathloss model, calculate the transmit power in W, dBW, and dBm for
the following given parameters: isotropic antennas, f
c
= 1800 MHz, d = 1 km, target bit
error rate of 10
3
, and target received power P
r
= 1 W.
(f) Give an example of a practical wireless communication system where the free space pathloss
model could be an accurate model.
(g) By the way, what is the relation between the eective area and the physical area of an
antenna?
Dr. ElectMag knew that the free space pathloss model is not accurate for cellular systems.
Therefore, she decided to improve it by taking into account a second ray reected from the
ground as shown in Figure 1.
Dr. ElectMag found out that using Maxwells equations to solve the problem is too complex and
not scalable. Therefore, she decided to use a simpler but approximate technique known as ray
Figure 1: Two-ray system model.
tracing. After working for a couple of hours, she came up with the following expression for the
total received signal r(t):
r(t) = r
1
(t) + r
2
(t)
R
_

G
t
G
r
4
u(t)e
j2fct
e
j2d
1
/
_
1
d
1
+
e
j2(d
2
d
1
)/
d
2
__
, (2)
where r
1
(t) is the received signal from the line of sight component, r
2
(t) is the received signal
from the reected component, u(t) is a complex baseband transmitted signal, is the ground
reection coecient, d
1
is the distance travelled by the LOS signal, and d
2
= x+y is the distance
travelled by the reected signal. Note that to obtain this expression, Dr. ElectMag assumed the
same antenna gain for the two paths which is realistic when omnidirectional antennas are used.
Moreover, she assumed that the amplitude of the transmitted signal is slowly varying with time
which justies taking u(t) as a common factor.
Performing some integrations for power calculation, Dr. ElectMag obtained the following ex-
pression that relates the received power to the transmitted power:
P
r
= P
t
_

G
t
G
r
4
_
2

1
d
1
+
e
j2(d
2
d
1
)/
d
2

2
. (3)
An ECE student from AUB called AnaCanDo was doing his internship at mtchug and was asked
to continue the task to get a simpler form which depends directly on the distance d. To achieve
this, he had to work hard for a couple of hours where he had to solve many interesting problems.
(h) Using the assumptions made by Dr. ElectMag and assuming that each path alone behaves
as in a free space pathloss model, derive Equation (2).
(i) Calculate d
1
and d
2
as a function of h
t
, h
r
, and d.
(j) Assume d is very large compared to h
t
+ h
r
, show that d
2
d
1
2h
t
h
r
/d.
(Hint:

1 + x (1 + x/2) for x 1)
(k) For asymptotically large d: d
1
d
2
d, 0, and 1. Substitute these approxima-
tions in addition to those of part (c) in (3). Prove the following expression:
P
r
P
t
_

G
t
G
r
4
_
2 _
4 sin
2
2h
t
h
r
d
_
. (4)
(l) To make the end result look even simpler, prove the following expression:
P
r
P
t

G
t
G
r
h
2
t
h
2
r
d
4
. (5)
Pathloss Models: Solution
(a) The eective isotropic radiated power can be expressed as EIRP = G
t
P
t
(b) The power density can be expressed as:
S(d) =
EIRP
4d
2
where 4d
2
is the area of a sphere with radius d. Isotropic antennas radiate uniformly in
all directions, i.e. radiated pattern would look like a sphere.
(c) The relation between antenna eective area and antenna gain at the receiver can be expressed
as:
A
eff
=

2
4
G
r
where is the wavelength and G
r
is the receiver antenna gain.
(d) The received power can be related to transmit power as follows:
P
r
= S(d) A
e
=
G
t
P
t
4d
2


2
G
r
4
This results in the following expression for free space pathloss model:
P
r
P
t
=
G
t
G
r

2
16
2

1
d
2
(e) Plugging in all values, one obtains = c/f
c
= 1/6 m and the following values for transmit
power:
P
t
(W) = 5684.9 W
P
t
(dBW) = 10 log
10
5684.9
1W
= 37.5 dBW
P
t
(dBm) = 10 log
10
5684.9
1mW
= 67.5 dBm
Note that these number is not realistic in practice. Normally power transmitted in wireless
communications systems is much lower. For example, a base station total transmit power in
cellular system ranges between 5 W and 40 W. The power transmitted in satellite systems
is much higher than cellular systems since the communication range is much larger.
(f) Some examples of applications where there might be LOS communication between trans-
mitter and receiver are:
Satellite communication systems
Microwave communication systems
(g) The eective area and physical area of an antenna are related by:
A
e
= A
phy
,
where is the aperture eciency with typical values between 0.35 and 0.85.
(h) Each path behaves as in the free space pathloss model. In a free space pathloss model:
r(t) = R
_

G
e
e
j2d/
4d
u(t)e
j2fct
_
We have two paths:
LOS: r
1
(t) = R
_

G
t
G
r
e
j2d
1
/
4d
1
u(t)e
j2fct
_
Multipath: r
2
(t) = R
_

G
t
G
r
e
j2d
2
/
4d
2
u(t )e
j2fct
_
Assume u(t) is slowly varying, this implies that we can consider u(t) u(t ). With this
approximation, the two paths can be combined and the total received signal r(t) can be
expressed as:
r(t) = r
1
(t) + r
2
(t)
R
_

G
t
G
r
4
u(t)e
j2fct
e
j2d
1
/
_
1
d
1
+
e
j2(d
2
d
1
)/
d
2
__
(i) d
1
and d
2
can be calculated using Pythagoras rule as:
d
1
=
_
d
2
+ (h
t
h
r
)
2
d
2
= x + y =
_
d
2
+ (h
t
+ h
r
)
2
(j) d >> h
t
+ h
r
implies that (h
t
+ h
r
)/d 1 and (h
t
h
r
)/d 1. Using the approximation

1 + x 1 +
x
2
for x << 1, the following simplications can be made:
d
1
= d

1 +
_
h
t
h
r
d
_
2
d
_
1 +
1
2
_
h
t
h
r
d
_
2
_
Similarly,
d
2
d
_
1 +
1
2
_
h
t
+ h
r
d
_
2
_
Hence
d
2
d
1

1
2d
_
(h
t
+ h
r
)
2
(h
t
h
r
)
2
_
=
2h
t
h
r
d
(k) Using d
1
d
2
d, 0, 1:
P
r
= P
t
_

G
t
G
r
4
_
2

1
d
1
+
e
j2(d
2
d
1
)/
d
2

2
P
t
_

G
t
G
r
4
_
2

1 e
j2

.
2h
t
hr
d

2
= P
t
_

G
t
G
r
4
_
2
|1 cos x + j sinx|
2
,
where x = (4h
t
h
r
)/(d).
Moreover, |1 cos x + j sinx|
2
= (1 cos x)
2
+ sin
2
x = 2(1 cos x) = 4 sin
2
(x/2) . This
implies that:
P
r
P
t
_

G
t
G
r
4
_
2 _
4 sin
2
2h
t
h
r
d
_
(l) Since d
1
d
2
,
2hthr
d
<< 1 and knowing that sinx x for x << 1:
sin
2
2h
t
h
r
d

_
2h
t
h
r
d
_
2
Substituting, we get:
P
r
P
t
_

G
t
G
r
4
_
2 _
4 sin
2
2h
t
h
r
d
_
P
t
_

G
t
G
r
4
_
2
_
4 4
2
h
2
t
h
2
r

2
d
2
_
= P
t
_
G
t
G
r
h
2
t
h
2
r
d
4
_