Chapter

Three
 
 

Mobile Radio Channel Modeling and

Mitigations Techniques
 
 

3.1 Wireless Channel Models and Signal

Propagations
Small Scale Fading
Multipath propagation

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 Objective of the Chapter

In cellular system, calls are occasionally disconnected

 Possible cause: Rapid fluctuation of radio signal’s amplitude over a short time period or

travel distance

Reasons for wireless channels to become selective and dispersive both in frequency and time

Sources of signal fluctuation: multipath propagation and mobility

Techniques to minimize or modify propagation loss.

To understand how physical parameters such as carrier frequency, mobile speed, bandwidth, delay

spread impact how a wireless channel behaves from the communication system point of view.

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 Lecture Outlines

 Introduction

 Parameters of the Mobile Radio Channel

 Impulse Response Model of the Wireless Channel

 Categorization of the Fading Channel

 Summary

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 Introduction to Wireless Channels

Electromagnetic (EM) signal can transmit through:

 A guided medium or

 An unguided medium.

 Guided media such as coaxial cables and fiber optic cables are far less hostile for the

information carrying EM signal than the wireless or the unguided medium. It presents limited

challenges and conditions which are unique for this kind of transmissions.

 As the signal travels through the wireless channel, it undergoes many kinds of propagation

effects such as reflection, diffraction and scattering due to the presence of buildings,

mountains and other such obstructions.

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 Reflection: occurs when the EM waves impinge on objects which have very large
dimension as compared to the wavelength of the incident wave.
Diffraction: occurs when the wave interacts with a surface having sharp irregularities.
Scattering: occurs when the medium through which the wave is travelling contains
objects which are much smaller than the wavelength of the EM wave. These varied
phenomena's lead to large scale and small scale propagation losses.
Hence unlike wired channels that are stationary and predictable, radio channels are extremely random

and time varying. Even the speed of motion impacts how rapidly the signal level fades as a mobile terminal

moves in space.

Due to the inherent randomness associated with such channels they are best described with the help of

statistical models. 5
We have two types of wireless channel models:
Large Scale Path Loss Models: predicts the mean signal strength for arbitrary transmitter-receiver
distances. They predict the average signal strength for large Tx-Rx separations, typically for hundreds of
kilometers.
Time constants associated with variations are very long as the mobile moves, many seconds or minutes.
 Useful in estimating the coverage area of an antenna
 More important for cell site planning.
Small Scale Fading Models: describes the signal strength variation in close spatial proximity to a particular
location.
Characterize the rapid fluctuations of the received signal strength:
• Over very short travel distances (a few wavelengths) or
• Over very short time durations (in the order of seconds)

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The received power may vary by 30-40 dB when the receiver is moved by fraction of a wavelength.
This is because the received signal is the sum of many contributions (the phases are random) coming from
different directions.
Example: Small scale and large scale fading
• Signal variations in an indoor radio communication system
• Signal fades rapidly as the receiver moves by more than 20 dBm.
 However, the average signal decays much more slowly with distance (smoothed line)
 Depends on terrain and obstructions.

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 Small Scale Fading and Multipath

 Small scale fading (simply fading) describes rapid fluctuation of amplitudes, phases, or
multipath delays of a radio signal over:
o Short period of time or

o Small travel distances

It is more severe than the large-scale path loss.
 Fading is caused by multipath (self) interference b/n two or more version of the transmit signal which
arrive at the receiver at slightly different times.
Multipath Waves: Two or more versions of a transmitted signal
 Multipath signals, if arrive at slightly different times, may combine at the receiver antenna
destructively that causes signal fluctuation.

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 Representation of multipath wireless propagation

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 Thus fading describes the rapid fluctuation of amplitudes, phases and multipath delays of the radio signal over a
short period of time.
The most important effects of this multipath fading are:

 Envelope fading: rapid change in signal strength over a small travel distance or time interval.

 Time Dispersion: Echo's caused by multipath propagation delays

 Frequency Dispersion: Random frequency modulation due to varying Doppler shifts on different multipath
signals

Factors that influence
 This Doppler small by
shift is caused scale fading: of mobile which causes an apparent shift in frequency.
the mobility

1. Multipath Propagation: due to the presence of reflecting objects and scaterers multiple versions of a
signal arrive at the receiver with different amplitude and time delays
2. Speed of Mobile: due to the relative motion of the base station, mobile station, and the surrounding
environment
• Causes Doppler shift (“+” or “-”) at each multipath component
• Results in random frequency modulation or apparent shift in frequency 10
  A receiver moving at high speed can pass through several fades in small period of time which causes time-
varying Doppler shift on the multipath components.
 If the surrounding objects move at a greater rate than the mobile, then this effect dominates the small-scale
fading and vice versa.
The term coherence time determines how “static” the channel is and depends on the Doppler shift,
 e.g., room environment, outdoor, urban

3. The bandwidth of the signal: If the bandwidth of the transmitted radio signal is greater than the bandwidth of the
multipath channel, the received signal will be distorted. Causes frequency selectivity.
 The channel bandwidth can be quantified by the term coherence bandwidth, Bc
 Coherence bandwidth measures the maximum frequency difference for which signals are still strongly correlated
in amplitude
 If BW of the signal is greater than the coherence bandwidth, the received signal will be distorted (filtered) in
frequency
However, the signal strength will not fade much over a local area (i.e., small-scale fading will not be significant)
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 If the transmitted signal has a narrow bandwidth as compared to the channel, signal will not be distorted in frequency
 Parameters of the Mobile Radio Channel
 Wireless propagation are mostly governed by a number of unpredictable factors.
 So, it is preferred to characterize the wireless channel from a statistical point of view using some
fundamental parameters.
 Here, we will see these fundamental parameters and their impacts on wireless communication.
1. Doppler Shift: is the change in frequency of a wave for an observer moving relative to the source of the
wave.
 Caused by movement of Tx, Rx, and environment
 Results multiplicative effect in time rendering the channel impulse response linear time variant (LTV).
For the mobile in the next figure, phase change in the received signal due to path difference is

  The apparent change in frequency

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• Relates the Doppler shift to the mobile velocity
• Shift can be “+” or “-” depending on direction of motion
 This is Doppler spreading.
 Which increase or decrease the signal frequency at Rx.

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Note that if:
 𝞱=0 then fD is positive
• Apparent received frequency:
 𝞱=π then fD is negative
• Apparent received frequency:
 𝞱= π/2 , then fD is zero
 Apparent received frequency:

 Hence, when a wave source (transmitter) and/or a receiver is/are moving, the
frequency of the received signal will not be the same as that of the transmitted
signal.
 When they are moving towards each other, the frequency of the received signal is
higher than the source.
 When they are moving opposite to each other, the received frequency decreases. 14
2. Time Dispersive Parameters
 

 The wireless channel is fully described by its impulse response model as

 
Where:
=the time-varying attenuation or power delay profile
=phase shift of the channel
=propagation delay of the lth path
Np= number of multipath of the wireless propagation

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3.Power Delay Profile (PDP):
 It is a statistical parameter indicating how the power of a Dirac delta function is dispersed in the time-
domain as a consequence of multipath propagation.
 It is usually given in a table where the average power associated with each multipath component is
provided along with the corresponding delay

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  In particular the average power of the lth path is given by

 Summing all quantities provides the total average received power PR.

   In practice the PDP is normalized so that the sum of is unity as

 
 Based on the , we define multipath channel parameters that are used to characterize the time
dispersive channel such as: mean excess delay, RMS delay spread, maximum excess delay and
coherence BW.

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The Mean Excess Delay (τ): is the first moment of the power delay profile and is defined as

 Where , is the average power of the delay profiles in linear power units and is the relative delay in
seconds.
The RMS Delay Spread (Ϭτ): is the square root of the second central moment of the power delay profile
and is given by

Where:

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These delays are measured relative to the first detectable signal arriving at the receiver at τ0 =0.
 Typical values of RMS delay spread are on the order of microseconds in outdoor
mobile radio channels and on the order of nanoseconds in indoor mobile radio channels.
 Note that: the RMS delay spread and mean excess delay are defined from a single power delay
profile which is the temporal or spatial average of consecutive impulse response measurements
collected and averaged over a local area.
 The maximum excess delay (XdB):the time delay during which multipath energy falls to XdB
below the maximum.

 τx-τ0 where τ0 is the first arrival signal and τx is the maximum signal point at which the
multipath component is XdB of the strongest arrival signal.
 The value of τx is sometimes called the excess delay spread of a power delay profile, but in
all cases it must be specified with a threshold that relates the multipath noise floor to the
maximum received multipath component.
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Coherence Bandwidth(Bc): is a statistical measure of the range of frequencies over which the channel can be
considered “flat”.
 Flat channel is a channel which passes all spectral components with approximately equal gain and linear
phase.
 While the delay spread is a natural phenomenon caused by reflected and scattered propagation paths in
the radio channel, the coherence bandwidth is defined based on the relation derived from the RMS delay
spread.
 The range of frequencies over which two frequency components have a strong potential for amplitude
correlation.
Two sinusoids with frequency separation greater than BC are affected differently.
 If the coherence bandwidth is defined as the bandwidth over which the frequency correlation function is 0.9.

 If the coherence bandwidth is defined as the bandwidth over which the frequency correlation function is
0.5
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The Coherence Time (Tc):
 Delay spread and coherence bandwidth are parameters which describe the time dispersive nature of the
wireless channel.
 But, they do not offer information about the time varying nature of the channel caused by either relative
motion between the mobile and base station, or by movement of objects in the channel

Doppler spread and coherence time are parameters which describe the time varying nature of the channel
in a small-scale region.

 Doppler spread fm is a measure of the spectral broadening caused by the time rate of change of the
mobile radio channel and it is the range of frequencies over which the received Doppler spectrum is
essentially nonzero.
 Coherence time is the time domain dual of Doppler spread and is used to characterize the time varying
nature of the frequency depressiveness of the channel in the time domain.
 The Doppler spread and coherence time are inversely proportional to one another as Tc=1/ fm 21
 Coherence time is the time duration over which two received signals have a strong potential for
amplitude correlation.
 If the reciprocal bandwidth of the baseband signal is greater than the coherence time of the
channel, then the channel will change during the transmission of the baseband message, thus
causing distortion at the receiver.
 If the coherence time is defined as the time over which the time correlation function is above 0.5,
then the coherence time is approximately

 A popular rule of thumb for modern digital communications is to define the coherence time as the
geometric mean of the above two equations as

 Generally coherence time implies that two signals arriving with a time separation greater than Tc are
affected differently by the channel. 22
Measure Multipath Power Delay Profile
(PDP)

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Example: Indoor Power Delay Profile

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 Impulse Response Model of the Wireless Channel
Small-scale variations of a signal is related to the impulse response of the mobile radio channel. The impulse response is
 A wideband channel characterization
 Contains all information necessary to simulate or analyze any type of channel
 A wireless channel can be modelled as a linear time varying (LTV) filter.
 The time variation is due to the receiver motion in space.
 We use discrete-time impulse response model
 Filtering is caused by the summation of amplitudes and delays of multipath signals at any instant of time. In
multipath channel, the received signal is the sum of line-of-sight path component & all resolvable multipath
components. Hence the received low pass signal can be described by

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Thus the low pass equivalent impulse response of the wireless channel is given by the LTV equation

 In this LTV model h(τ,t):

 t represents the time variations due to motion
 τ represents the channel multipath delay for a fixed value of t.
 Impulse response of a LTV filter h(τ,t) is the channel output at when the channel input is an impulse
applied at t-τ.
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 h (τ,t) is a function of two time variables:
1. The instant when the impulse is applied to its input (initial time)
2. The instant of observing the output (final time)
Example:

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 Multipath component characteristics

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 Categorization of Small Scale Fading Channels
Based on the parameters that we have seen before small scale fading channels can be
classified as

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Now the above diagram can described as

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 Flat and Time Invariant Channels

 Here the channel could be regarded as invariant over many signaling intervals. So the
channel impulse response

becomes independent of time as

The corresponding channel frequency response is

With very small path delays,

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 This shows that H(f) is practically constant over the whole signal bandwidth and therefore the channel is
flat.
 Thus the complex envelope of the received signal takes the form

which is attenuated and phase rotated version of s(t).

 With no LOS component, the phase term, φ is uniformly distributed over [-π,π] and ρ follows a Rayleigh
distribution with PDF

 Flat fading channels are also known as amplitude varying channels and sometimes referred to as
narrowband channels, since the bandwidth of the applied signal is narrow as compared to the channel flat
fading bandwidth.

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 Frequency Selective (Time Dispersive) Channel

 Here the arrival time of scattered multipath signals are inevitably distinct.
 Whether these delays smear the transmitted signal depends on the product of the signal bandwidth
and the maximum differential delay spread.

A time dispersive (frequency-selective) channel and its effect on narrow and broad band signals.

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  Because of the different propagation delays, the channel impulse response is superposition of
delayed delta functions:

 Since the multipath delays, {τm} are distinct, the frequency response of H(f) = Ƒ{h(t)} will exhibit amplitude
fluctuation.
 Such fluctuation in the frequency domain will distort the waveform of a broadband signal.
 More specifically in digital communication, a channel is considered frequency-selective if the multipath
delays are distinguishable relative to the symbol period Tsymbol:

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 On the other hand, if the signal bandwidth is sufficiently narrow, the channel frequency response within
the signal bandwidth can be approximated as constant.
 A wireless channel is considered flat if the multipath delays are indistinguishable relative to the
symbol period:

 The most important problem of frequency selective fading is ISI and can be mitigated by channel
equalizer and adaptive modulation.

 Frequency selective fading channels are also known as wideband channels since the bandwidth of the signal
s(t) is wider than the bandwidth of the channel impulse response.
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 Fading effects due to Doppler spread
Fast Fading
Depending on how rapidly the transmitted baseband signal changes as compared to the rate of
change of the channel, a channel may be classified either as a fast fading or slow fading channel.
o In fast fading channel, the channel impulse response changes rapidly within the symbol
duration.
o Coherence time of the channel is smaller than the symbol period of the transmitted signal
o Causes frequency dispersion (time selective fading) due to Doppler spreading, which leads to
signal distortion
o The signal undergoes fast fading if
Ts > Tc and
Slow Fading
Bs < Bd
In Slow Fading channel, the channel impulse response changes at a rate much slower than the
transmitted baseband signal s(t)
o Doppler spread of the channel is much less than the bandwidth of the baseband signal
o A signal undergoes slow fading if
Ts << TC and
Bs >> Bd
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 Frequency Dispersive (Time Selective) Fading Channel
Caused by Doppler effects which causes the channel impulse linear but time invariant.
It causes two effects on the received signal:
 Signal variation over time
 Broadening signal spectrum
The wireless channel is time selective ( fast fading ) or frequency dispersive if TC ≤ Ts, whereas the

channel is time invariant (slow fading) if TC ≥ Ts.

Here the system results a SNR degradation: ρ(t) may be drop to very low values (deep fades) which
leads to poor SNR that vulnerable to AWGN.
Which can be mitigated by
 Channel Coding
 Interleaving
 Diversity techniques
A frequency dispersive (time-selective) channel and its effect on short and long39symbols.
 Summary
 Small-scale fading composed of multipath & Doppler spread
 Multipath delay spread leads to time dispersion and frequency selective fading.
 Doppler spread leads to frequency dispersion and time selective fading (the channel becomes time varying)
Envelope Fading: affects the signal strength and therefore fading margin in link budget calculation of the
wireless system.
Power control and spatial diversity techniques are among the most effective means to cope with envelope fading.
Frequency Selective Fading: alters the signal waveform and therefore the detection performance.
Channel equalization is utilized to compensate the effect.
By transferring a broadband signal into parallel narrowband streams (Multicarrier systems).
Time Selective Fading: smears the signal spectrum and introduces variation too fast for power control.
Time interleaving and diversity techniques are most effective means of coping with time-selective fading.

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