Fading multipath radio

channels
Narrowband channel modelling
Wideband channel modelling
Wideband WSSUS channel
(functions, variables & distributions)
Low-pass equivalent (LPE) signal
Real-valued RF signal Complex-valued LPE signal
RF carrier frequency
In-phase signal component Quadrature component
( ) ( )
{ }
2
Re
c
j f t
s t z t e
t
=
( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
( ) j t
z t x t j y t c t e
o
= + =
Spectrum characteristics of LPE signal
f
f
magnitude
phase
Real-valued time
domain signal
(e.g. RF signal)
Signal spectrum
is Hermitian
0
0
Complex-valued LPE
time domain signal
Signal spectrum
is not Hermitian
Radio channel modelling
Narrowband modelling Wideband modelling
Deterministic models
(e.g. ray tracing,
playback modelling)
Stochastical models
(e.g. WSSUS)
Calculation of path loss
e.g. taking into account
- free space loss
- reflections
- diffraction
- scattering
Basic problem: signal
fading
Basic problem: signal
dispersion
Signal fading in a narrowband channel
magnitude of complex-valued
LPE radio signal
distance
propagation
paths
fade <=> signal replicas
received via different
propagation paths cause
destructive interference
Tx
Rx
Fading: illustration in complex plane
in-phase component
quadrature
phase
component
Tx
Rx
Received signal in vector form:
resultant (= summation result)
of propagation path vectors
Wideband channel modelling: in addition to magnitudes
and phases, also path delays are important.
path delays are not
important
Propagation mechanisms
C
A
D
B
Receiver
Transmitter
A: free space
B: reflection
C: diffraction
D: scattering
A: free space
B: reflection
C: diffraction
D: scattering
reflection: object is large
compared to wavelength
scattering: object is small
or its surface irregular
Countermeasures: narrowband fading
Diversity (transmitting the same signal at different
frequencies, at different times, or to/from different
antennas)
- will be investigated in later lectures
- wideband channels => multipath diversity
Interleaving (efficient when a fade affects many bits
or symbols at a time), frequency hopping
Forward Error Correction (FEC, uses large overhead)
Automatic Repeat reQuest schemes (ARQ, cannot be
used for transmission of real-time information)
Bit interleaving
Transmitter Channel Receiver
Bits are
interleaved ...
Fading affects
many adjacent
bits
After de-
interleaving of
bits, bit errors
are spread!
Bit errors in
the receiver
... and will be
de-interleaved
in the receiver
(better for FEC)
Channel Impulse Response (CIR)
time t
' h(t,t) '
zero excess delay
delay spread T
m

delay t
Channel is
assumed linear!
Channel presented in delay / time
domain (3 other ways possible!)
CIR of a wideband fading channel
t
path delay path attenuation path phase
LOS path
( ) ( )
( )
( )
1
0
,
i
L
j t
i i
i
h t a t e
o
t o t t

=
=

The CIR consists of L resolvable propagation paths

Received multipath signal
( ) ( )
k
k
s t b p t kT

=
=

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

= - =

( )
( )
( )
1
0
i
L
j t
i i
i
a t e s t
o
t

=
=

( ) ( ) ( )
0 0
f t t t dt f t o =

pulse waveform complex symbol

Transmitted signal:
Received signal:
Received multipath signal
The received multipath signal is the sum of L attenuated, phase
shifted and delayed replicas of the transmitted signal s(t)
T
T
m

( )
0
0 0
j
a e s t
o
t
( )
1
1 1
j
a e s t
o
t
( )
2
2 2
j
a e s t
o
t
Normalized delay spread D = T
m
/ T
:
Received multipath signal
The normalized delay spread is an important quantity.
When D << 1, the channel is
- narrowband
- frequency-nonselective
- flat
and there is no intersymbol interference (ISI).
When D approaches or exceeds unity, the channel is
- wideband
- frequency selective
- time dispersive
Important feature
has many names!
BER vs. S/N performance
Typical BER vs. S/N curves
S/N
BER
Frequency-selective channel
(no equalization)
Flat fading channel
Gaussian
channel
(no fading)
In a Gaussian channel (no fading) BER <=> Q(S/N)
erfc(S/N)
BER vs. S/N performance
Typical BER vs. S/N curves
S/N
BER
Frequency-selective channel
(no equalization)
Flat fading channel
Gaussian
channel
(no fading)
Flat fading (Proakis 7.3):
( ) ( )
BER BER S N z p z dz =

z = signal power level

BER vs. S/N performance
Typical BER vs. S/N curves
S/N
BER
Frequency-selective channel
(no equalization)
Flat fading channel
Gaussian
channel
(no fading)
Frequency selective fading <=> irreducible BER floor
BER vs. S/N performance
Typical BER vs. S/N curves
S/N
BER
Flat fading channel
Gaussian
channel
(no fading)
Diversity (e.g. multipath diversity) <=>
Frequency-selective channel
(with equalization)
improved
performance
Time-variant transfer function
( ) ( ) ( )
( )
1
2 2
0
, ,
i
i
L
j t
j f j f
i
i
H f t h t e d a t e e
o
t t t t
t t

= =

( ) ( )
( )
( )
1
0
,
i
L
j t
i i
i
h t a t e
o
t o t t

=
=

Time-variant CIR:
Time-variant transfer function (frequency response):
In a narrowband channel
this reduces to:
( ) ( )
( )
1
0
,
i
L
j t
i
i
H f t a t e
o

=
=

Example: two-ray channel (L = 2)

( ) ( ) ( )
1 2
1 1 2 2
j j
h a e a e
o o
t o t t o t t = +
( )
1 1 2 2
2 2
1 2
j j f j j f
H f a e e a e e
o t t o t t
= +
( )
1 2 constructive
H f a a = +
( )
1 2 destructive
H f a a =
At certain frequencies the two terms add constructively
(destructively) and we obtain:
f
Deterministic channel functions
Time-variant
impulse response
Time-
variant
transfer
function
Doppler-variant
transfer function
Doppler-
variant
impulse
response
( )
, h t t
( )
, H f t
( )
, d t v
( )
, D f v
(Inverse)
Fourier
transform
Stochastical (WSSUS) channel functions
Channel intensity
profile
Frequency
time
correlation
function
Channel Doppler
spectrum
Scattering
function
( )
;
h
t o t A
( )
;
H
f t o A A
( )
;
h
S t v
( )
;
H
S f v A
( )
h
o t
( )
H
S v
( )
H
f o A
( )
H
t o A
T
d

B
m

T
m

B
d

t
o
Stochastical (WSSUS) channel variables
Maximum delay spread: T
m

Maximum delay spread may be
defined in several ways.
For this reason, the RMS delay
spread is often used instead:
( )
( )
( )
( )
2
2
h h
h h
d d
d d
t
t o t t t o t t
o
o t t o t t


=




( )
h
o t
t
T
m

Stochastical (WSSUS) channel variables
Coherence bandwidth
of channel:
1
m m
B T ~
( )
H
f o A
B
m

f
0
Implication of
coherence bandwidth:
If two sinusoids (frequencies) are spaced much less apart
than B
m
, their fading performance is similar.
If the frequency separation is much larger than B
m
, their
fading performance is different.
Stochastical (WSSUS) channel variables
Maximum Doppler spread:
The Doppler spectrum is often
U-shaped (like in the figure on
the right). The reason for this
behaviour is the relationship
(see next slide):
v
B
d

0
B
d

( )
H
S v
cos cos
d
V
f v o o

= =
Task: calculate p(v) for the case where p(o) = 1/2t (angle of
arrival is uniformly distributed between 0 and 2t).
( ) ( )
H
S p v v ~
Physical interpretation of Doppler shift
V
o
arriving path
direction of receiver
movement
Rx
cos cos
d
V
f v o o

= =
Maximum Doppler shift
Angle of arrival of arriving
path with respect to
direction of movement
V = speed of receiver
= RF wavelength
Doppler frequency shift
Delay - Doppler spread of channel
Doppler shift v
delay t
0
L = 12 components in
delay-Doppler domain
B
d

( ) ( )
( )
( )
1
2
0
,
i i
L
j t
i i
i
h t a t e
tv o
t o t t

+
=
=

Fading distributions (Rayleigh)

( )
2 2
2
2
a
a
p a e
o
o

=
( )
1
2
p o
t
=
( ) ( )
( )
( ) ( ) ( )
( )
i
j t j t
i
i
c t a t e x t j y t a t e
o o
= = + =

In a flat fading channel, the (time-variant) CIR reduces to a

(time-variant) complex channel coefficient:
When the quadrature components of the channel coefficient
are independently and Gaussian distributed, we get:
Rayleigh distribution Uniform distribution
Fading distributions (Rice)
In case there is a strong (e.g., LOS) multipath component
in addition to the complex Gaussian component, we obtain:
From the joint (magnitude and phase) pdf we can derive:
Rice distribution
Modified Bessel function of
first kind and order zero
( ) ( )
( )
( )
( )
0 0
i
j t j t
i
i
c t a a t e a a t e
o o
= + = +

( )
( )
2 2 2
0
2
0
0
2 2
a a
a aa
p a e I
o
o o
+ | |
=
|
\ .
Representation in complex plane
iy
Complex Gaussian distribution
is centered at the origin of the
complex plane => magnitude
is Rayleigh distributed, the
probability of a deep fade is
larger than in the Rician case
Complex Gaussian distribution
is centered around the strong
path => magnitude is Rice
distributed, probability of deep
fade is extremely small
( )
, p x y
iy
0
a
Bell-shaped function
x x
Countermeasures: wideband systems
Equalization (in TDMA systems)
- linear equalization
- Decision Feedback Equalization (DFE)
- Maximum Likelihood Sequence Estimation
(MLSE) using Viterbi algorithm
Rake receiver schemes (in DS-CDMA systems)
Sufficient number of subcarriers and sufficiently long
guard interval (in OFDM or multicarrier systems)
Interleaving, FEC, ARQ etc. may also be helpful in
wideband systems.