High Order S-MRTD Time-Domain Modeling of Fading

Characteristics of Wireless Channels

Abbas Alighanbari and Costas D. Sarris
The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G4 Canada

Introduction

Large-scale wireless channels are traditionally modeled by measurement-based sta-

tistical or simplified propagation models [1]. Reference figures, tables and charts
are provided by wireless researchers, based on which fading characteristics are pre-
dicted and used for system design. However, fading characteristics highly depend
on site-specific channel features and the material type of the boundaries and objects
within the channel. This dependence is more severe for indoor channels, as signal
strength may rapidly change in a short distance, due to the multi-path propagation
effects [1-3].

On the other hand, high order time-domain techniques, stemming from the scal-
ing function-based Multiresolution Time-Domain (S-MRTD) method [4], can pro-
vide accurate and efficient models with a moderate computational cost, as recently
demonstrated by the authors [5].

Earlier application of a time-domain technique to the problem of indoor wireless

channel modeling has been reported by [6], where the Finite Difference Time-Domain
(FDTD) has been applied to study the dependence of several channel parameters on
building construction materials. Although FDTD is a robust and versatile modeling
technique, it suffers from large numerical dispersion. As a result, dense spatial
discretization is employed, increasing the computational costs (in terms of memory
and CPU-time) of the FDTD simulation of realistic scenarios.

In [5], the highly linear dispersion characteristics of an S-MRTD scheme, using

the Deslariers-Dubuc biorthogonal basis functions, allowed for the achievement of a
dense-mesh FDTD accuracy by a coarse-mesh S-MRTD and a significant economy
in execution time and memory. This paper applies the former technique to char-
acterize signal fading in an indoor environment, including large-scale fading curves,
attenuation factors (AF) and path loss exponents (PLE). Further comparisons and
evaluations with respect to alternative methods, including dense-mesh FDTD and
simplistic AF models are also provided.

1 Fading Characteristics: Path Loss or Attenuation Factor

In a wireless channel, as a receiver moves over a short distance, the signal strength
may vary rapidly, due to the multi-path propagation effects. This feature is called
small-scale fading. As the receiver moves away from transmitter over a larger dis-
tance, the local average signal strength gradually decreases. This is called large-scale
This work has been supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada through a Collab-
orative Research Grant and the Bell Canada University Laboratories.
fading and usually is formulated by the following simplified propagation model:

µ ¶ µ ¶
p0 d
10log = 10nlog (1)
p d0
where p0 and p are local average signal strengths at distances d0 and d from the
transmitter, respectively. Also, d0 is normally chosen to be at a short distance from
the transmitter and n is called the path loss exponent, hereby referred to as PLE.

The right-hand side of (1) is referred to as fading, path loss (PL) or attenuation
factor (AF). To compute the small-scale fading, p and p0 is computed at a point
of interest without any local averaging. However, for large-scale fading, a local
averaging, normally over a square, centered at the point of interest with side length
of a few wavelengths is performed.

In the next section, two dimensional (2D) small-scale fading (hereby referred to
as fading profile) is computed for different values of wall conductivity. Large-scale
fading is used to compare the results of S-MRTD and FDTD at different grid sizes.
Moreover, attenuation factors and PLE are computed for LOS and NLOS points,
at different wall conductivities.

2 Application to Fading Models - Numerical Results

The sinusoidal steady state response of the channel, excited by a carrier signal
of 900M Hz, exciting the channel at the transmitter point Tx (Fig. 1), is used
to derive the 2D fading profiles, for two cases of wall conductivity σw = 0.002
and 0.05S/m, shown in Fig. 2. Average signal fading for each room or section
of the floor is also indicated. The average attenuation factor of each area of the
indoor channel is higher for larger σw , indicating the dependence on the electrical
properties of the construction materials. The computations are performed by S-
MRTD at dx = dz = λmin /5, (henceforth referred to as S-MRTD-5), however they
compare well with FDTD at dx = dz = λmin /10, (referred to as FDTD-10), which
uses four times larger memory and CPU-time [5]. Large-scale fading [1] for the
path STPQ , is shown in Fig. 1, for σw = 0.002S/m. The curves, derived with S-
MRTD-5, S-MRTD-10 (S-MRTD at ∆x = ∆z = λmin /10) and FDTD-10, compare
well to each other. The large-scale fading at any point is computed by averaging
the attenuation factor over a square of 2λ × 2λ, centered at that point. Repeating
the experiments for FDTD and S-MRTD, the coarsest practical grids for the two
methods were observed to be close to 10 and 5 cells/λ, respectively. Similar to our
previous report [5], comparing S-MRTD-5 with FDTD-10, a saving of about 75%
both for memory and CPU-time is achieved.

The results on the AF and PLE are shown in Fig. 3, for wall conductivity σw = 0.002
and 0.05S/m, respectively. The samples in each figure are divided into groups, de-
pending on the number of walls obstructing a given sample point from the trans-
mitter. As expected, due to the multi-path propagation effects, the samples of each
group can significantly deviate from its associated best-fit line. This is an indication
of the need for more accurate techniques beyond the available simplistic AF models.
 −2
x=p*∆x T S−MRTD−5

Large−scale Fading: 10Log (p/p ) [dB]

−4 S−MRTD−10
25
Q
. FDTD−10
−6

0
−8

10
20
−10
LOS Region
−12 P NLOS Region
[meters]
S
15
−14

−16
10
.P
.S .
T
*
−18
Tx
−20 Q
5 −22

−24
0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
0 5 10 15 20 25
[meters] z=q*∆z Path length from starting point S [m]

Figure 1: On the left: A 27m × 27m testing area of a larger floor, assumed to
be surrounded by absorbing layers. The location of the transmitter T x and the
mobile receiver path STPQ are marked. On the right: Large-scale fading curves
computed for the path STPQ, computed with S-MRTD at ∆x = ∆z = λmin /5 (S-
MRTD-5), ∆x = ∆z = λmin /10 (S-MRTD-10), and FDTD at ∆x = ∆z = λmin /10
(FDTD-10).

The PLE for none-line-of-sight (NLOS) points are roughly close to the range of 3-6
as mentioned in [1]. However, the line-of-sight (LOS) points have a much smaller
PLE due to the waveguiding effect of the hallway. The PLE for LOS points are
0.35 and 0.67 for wall conductivity σw = 0.002 and 0.05S/m, respectively, which is
smaller than the 1.6-1.8 range tabulated in [1].

3 Conclusion

High order time-domain S-MRTD schemes were applied to characterize fading ef-
fects in an indoor wireless channel. The fading characteristics were observed to
vary largely with the values of electrical properties of the construction materials.
Such detailed considerations are not taken into account by statistical models. On
the other hand, S-MRTD was observed to be effectively functional at coarser grids,
compared to the traditional FDTD, resulting in significant reduction of memory
and CPU-time. Such a deterministic approach provides a more accurate system
characterization, compared to the measurement-based AF models. Finally, the pro-
posed technique can characterize a channel at a resolution of centimeters, practically
impossible for a measurement campaign.

References

[1] T.S. Rappaport, “Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice.”, Prentice Hall,
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[2] R.J. Cramer, R.A. Scholtz, M.Z. Win, “Evaluation of an Ultra-Wide-Band Propagation
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[3] F. Wijk, Adriaan Kegel, Ramjee Prasad, “Assessment of a Pico-Cellular System Us-
Figure 2: 2D fading profile with average fading of each area indicated in dBs. Nar-
rowband computations are performed by S-MRTD-5 [5]. (left: σw = 0.002S/m,
right: σw = 0.05S/m)

30 60
Four walls: PLE=n4 Four walls: PLE=n4
Three walls:PLE=n3 Three walls:PLE=n3
Two walls: PLE=n2 Two walls: PLE=n2
n3= 4.0 50
25 One wall: PLE=n1 One wall: PLE=n1 n =3.1
n4= 4.0 4 n3=4.0
No walls: PLE=n No walls: PLE=n0
0

40
10Log (p /p)
10Log (p /p)

20
0
0

30
10
10

15
n2=3.4
20
10
n1=2.7
n0=0.35 10

5 n1= 1.7 n = 3.2 n0=0.67

2

6 8 10 12 14 16 18 0
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
10Log10(d/d0) 10Log (d/d )
10 0

Figure 3: Field samples, divided into four sets of NLOS points, obstructed from the
transmitter by 1-4 walls and a set of LOS points. The path loss exponent (PLE) of
each set is estimated as the slope of its associated best-fit line. (left: σw = 0.002S/m,
right: σw = 0.05S/m)

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[5] A. Alighanbari, C.D. Sarris, “Simulation of Wireless Channels via Biorthogonal In-
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Computational Electromagnetics Society, March 2006, submitted.

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