2.1 Wireless Channel Models and Signal Propagations Small Scale Fading and Multipath By : Amare Kassaw 1 Objective of the Chapter In cellular system, calls are occasionally disconnected Possible cause: Rapid fluctuation of radio signals 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. 2 Lecture Outlines Introduction Parameters of the Mobile Radio Channel Impulse Response Model of the Wireless Channel Categorization of the Fading Channel Summery Summery 3 Introduction to Wireless Channels Electromagnetic (EM) signal can transmit through: A guided medium or An unguided medium. Guided mediums such as coaxial cables and fiber optic cables are far less hostile for the information carrying EM signal than the 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. 4 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. Reflection: occurs when the EM waves impinge on objects which has very large dimension as compared to the wavelength of the 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. 5 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 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. 6 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 kilometres. Time constants associated with variations are very long as the 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. 7 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) The received power may very 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 8 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 decays much more slowly with distance (smoothed line) Depends on terrain and obstructions 9 Small Scale Fading and Multipath Small scale fading (simply fading) describes rapid fluctuation of amplitudes, phases, or multipath delays of a radio signal over: Short period of time or 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 Fading is caused by multipath (self) interference b/n two or more version of the transmit signal which arrives 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 distractively that causes signal fluctuation 10 Representation of multipath wireless propagation 11 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 Time Dispersion: Echo's caused by multipath propagation delays Frequency Dispersion: Random frequency modulation due to varying Doppler shifts on different multipath signals This Doppler shift is caused by the mobility of mobile which cause an apparent shift in frequency 12 Factors that influence small scale fading : 1. Multipath Propagation: due to the presence of reflecting objects and scaterers Multiple version of the signal arrives at the receiver with different amplitude and time delays Relevant terms: Delay spread and coherence bandwidth Relevant terms: Delay spread and coherence bandwidth 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 13 A receiver moving at high speed can pass through several fades in small period of time 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 The term coherence time determines how static the channel is and depends on the Doppler shift, e.g., room environment ,outdoor, urban, 14 3. The bandwidth of the signal: causes frequency selectivity. The channel bandwidth can be quantified by the term coherence bandwidth, B c 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) If the transmitted signal has a narrow bandwidth as compared to the channel, signal will not be distorted in frequency 15 Parameters of the Mobile Radio Channel Wireless propagation are mostly governed by a number of unpredictable factors . So, it is preferred to characterise the wireless channel from a statistical point of view using some fundamental parameters. Here, we will see these fundamental parameters and their impacts Here, we will see these fundamental parameters and their impacts on wireless communication 16 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 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 17 The apparent change in frequency This is Doppler spreading Which increase or decrease Remote Source Which increase or decrease the signal frequency at R x Note that if: = 0 then f D is positive Apparent received frequency: f a = f s + f D = then f D is negative Apparent received frequency: f a = f s - f D 18 = Spatial angle b/n the direction of motion of the mobile and direction of arrival = /2 , then f D is zero Apparent received frequency: f a = f s 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. 19 Example : See Handout 2. Time Dispersive Parameters The wireless channel is fully described by its impulse response model as Where: Where: = the time-varying attenuation or power delay profile = phase shift of the channel = propagation delay of the l th path N p = number of multipath of the wireless propagation 20 2.1 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 with each multipath component is provided along with the corresponding delay 21 In particular the average power of the l th path is given by Summing all quantities provides the total average received power P R . 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 characterise the time dispersive channel such as : mean excess delay, RMS delay spread, maximum excess delay and coherence BW. 22 The Mean Excess Delay( ): 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. power units and is the relative delay in seconds. The RMS Delay Spread(
): is the square root of the second
central moment of the power delay profile and is given by 23 Where : These delays are measured relative to the first detectable signal arriving at the receiver at 0 =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 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. 24 The maximum excess delay (XdB): the time delay during which multipath energy falls to XdB below the maximum
x - 0 where 0 is the first arrival signal and x is the maximum signal point at which the multipath component is XdB of the strongest arrival signal. The value of is sometimes called the excess delay spread of a The value of X 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. 25 Coherence Bandwidth(B c ): 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, 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. 26 Two sinusoids with frequency separation greater than B C 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 If the coherence bandwidth is defined as the bandwidth over which the frequency correlation function is 0.5 27 The Coherence Time( T c ): 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 Doppler spread and coherence time are parameters which describe the time varying nature of the channel in a small-scale region Doppler spread B D 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 spectrumis essentially nonzero 28 Coherence time is the time domain dual of Doppler spread and is used to characterize the time varying nature of the frequency dispersiveness of the channel in the time domain The Doppler spread and coherence time are inversely proportional to one another as T c =1/ f m. Coherence time is the time duration over which two received 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 29 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 modem digital communications is to define the coherence time as the geometric mean of the above two 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 T c are affected differently by the channel 30 Example : See Handout 31 32 33 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 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 34 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 35 Thus the low pass equivalent impulse response of the wireless channel is given by the LTV equation In this LTV model h(,t): t represents the time variations due to motion represents the channel multipath delay for a fixed value of t 36 Impulse response of a LTV filter h(,t) is the channel output at t when the channel input is an impulse applied at t- . h(,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) 37 Example : 38 Multipath component characteristics 39 40 41 Categorization of Small Scale Fading Channels Based on the parameters that we have seen before small scale fading channels can be classified as 42 Now the above diagram can described as 43 Flat and Time Invariant Channels Here the channel could be regarded as invariant over many signalling intervals. So the channel impulse response becomes independent of time as The corresponding channel frequency response is 44 With very small path delays, This shows that H(f) is practically constant over the whole signal bandwidth and therefore the channel is flat. 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, is uniformly distributed over [-,] and follows a Rayleigh distribution with PDF 45 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. delay spread. 46 A time dispersive (frequency-selective) channel and its effect on narrow and broad band signals Because of the different propagation delays, the channel impulse response is superposition of delayed delta functions: Since the multipath delays, { m } are distinct, the frequency response of H(f) = {h(t)} will exhibit amplitude fluctuation. Such fluctuation in the frequency domain will distort the waveform 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: 47 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. 48 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 Broadening signal spectrum The wireless channel is time selective( flat fading ) or frequency dispersive iff T C T s, where as the channel is time invariant ( slow fading) iff T C T s. 49 Here the system results a SNR degradation : (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 50 A frequency dispersive (time-selective) channel and its effect on short and long symbols Summery 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) 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. 51 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 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. 52