Module-1

Mobile Radio Propagation –

Large Scale Path Loss - Free Space Propagation Model, Relating Power to Electric Field,
Three Basic Propagation Mechanisms – Reflection (Ground Reflection) , Diffraction,
Scattering, Practical Link Budget, ( Text 1 - 2.2 and Ref1 - Chapter 4).

Fading and Multipath – Broadband wireless channel, Delay Spread and Coherence
Bandwidth, Doppler Spread and Coherence Time, Angular spread and Coherence Distance (Text 1
– 2.4) ,
Statistical Channel Model of a Broadband Fading Channel
(Text 1 – 2.5.1)
The Cellular Concept – Cellular Concept, Analysis of Cellular Systems, Sectoring
(Text 1- 2.3)

1. Mobile Radio Propagation – The Cellular Concept, Fading and Multipath

1.1. Large Scale Path Loss
Introduction to Radio wave propagation
The mechanisms behind electromagnetic wave propagation are diverse, but can generally be
attributed to reflection, diffraction, and scattering.
Most cellular radio systems operate in urban areas where there is no direct line-of-sight
path between the transmitter and the receiver, and where the presence of high-rise
buildings causes severe diffraction loss.
Due to multiple reflections from various objects, the electromagnetic waves travel along
different paths or varying lengths.
The interaction between these waves causes multipath fading at a specific location, and
the strengths of the wave decrease as the distance between the transmitter and receiver
increase.
Propagation models that predict the mean signal strength for an arbitrary
transmitterreceiver (T-R) separation distance are useful in estimating the radio coverage
area of a transmitter and are called large-scale propagation models
On the other hand, propagation models that characterize the rapid fluctuations of the
received signal strength over very short travel distances (a few wavelengths) to short time
durations (on the order of seconds) are called small-scale or fading models
Figure 1.1 illustrates small- scale fading and the more gradual large-scale variations for an
indoor radio communication system.
Notice in the figure that the signal fades rapidly (small scale fading) as the receiver moves, but
the local average signal changes much more gradually with distance

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 Fig. 1.1 Small-scale and large-scale fading

1.2. Free Space Propagation Model,

The free space propagation model is used to predict received signal strength when the
transmitter and receiver have a clear, unobstructed line of sight path between them.
The free space power received by a receiver antenna which is separated from a radiating
transmitter antenna by a distance d, is given by the Friis free space equation,

……(1.1)

where Pt, is the transmitted power,

Pr(d) is the received power which is a function of the T-R separation,
Gt, is the transmitter antenna gain, Gr, is
the receiver antenna gain, d is the T-R
separation distance in meters,

L is the system loss factor not related to propagation (L>= 1), and

is the wavelength in meters. The gain of an antenna is related to its effective aperture, Ae, by

………(1.2)
The effective aperture Ae, is related to the physical size of the antenna, and is related to the
carrier frequency f by

…………….(1.3)
Where f is the carrier frequency in Hertz, , is the carrier frequency in radians per
second, and

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c is the speed of light given in meters/s. The values for Pt and Pr must be expressed in the same
units, and Gt and Gr are dimensionless quantities.
The miscellaneous losses L (L>= 1) are usually due to transmission line attenuation, filter losses,
and antenna losses in the communication system.
A value of L = 1, indicates no loss in the system hardware.

The Friis free space equation of (1.1) shows that the received power falls off as the square
the separation distance. This implies that the received power decays with distance at a rate
of 20 dB/decade.
An isotropic radiator is an ideal antenna which radiates power with unit gain uniformly in
all directions, and is often used to reference antenna gains in wireless systems. The
effective Isotropic radiated power (EIRP) is defined as

When antenna gains are excluded, the antennas are assumed to have unity gain, and path loss
is given by

The Fraunhofer distance is given by

where D is the largest physical linear dimension of the antenna. Additionally, to be in the far
field region, , must satisfy

and

Received power in free space at a distance greater than is given by

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If is in units of dBm the received power is given by

is in units of watts.
Example 1.1 Find the far field distance for an antenna with maximum dimension of 1 m
M and operating frequency of 900 mhz. MHz.
Solution
given data the largest dimension of antenna D
=1m
operating frequency f is equal to 900 MHz
=1/3m = 0.3333m

using equation (1.7a) far field distance is obtained as

df = 2D^2/LAMDA

Example2: The transmitter produces 50 W of power, express the transmit power in

units of a) dBm and b) dBW. If 50 volt is applied to unity and antenna with the 900
MHz carrier frequency find the received power in dBm at free space distance of 100
m from the antenna what is km Assume unity gain for the receiver antenna.

Solution
given
transmitter power =50W
carrier frequency of 900 MHz

using equation 1.9

the transmitter power

= 47.0dBm

transmitter power
= 17.0dBW

the receiver power can be obtained using the equation 1.1

the received power at 10 km can be expressed in terms of this dBm using equation 1.9
where 100 M and =10 km

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1.3. Relating Power to Electric Field,
The free space path loss model can be proven that any radiating structure produces
electric and magnetic fields. Consider a small linear radiator of length L that is placed
coincident with the z-axis and has its center at the origin, as shown in figure 1.2.
Current flows through such an antenna it launches electric and magnetic field that can be
expressed as

Figure 1.2. Illustration of a linear radiator of length L(L« λ), carrying a current of amplitude and
making an angle with a point, at distance d.
with In the bove equations, all 1/d terms represents the radiations field
component, all 1/d terms represent the induction field component, and all 1/d3 terms
2
1 2
represents electrostatic field component. As seen from Equations (1.10) to (1.12), the
electrostatic Inductive fields decay much faster with distance than the radiation field. At
regions far away from the transmitter (far-field region), the electrostatic and inductive fields
become negligible and only the radiated field components of and , need be considered.

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 In free space, the power flux density (expressed in W/m2) is given by
4

where , is the intrinsic impedance of free space given by = 120 (377 ). Thus,
5
the power flux density is
The power received at distance d, , is given by the power flux density times the effective
aperture of the receiver antenna,
6

which is half of the open circuit voltage at the antenna. Thus, if V is the rms voltage at the
input of a receiver (measured by a high impedance voltmeter), and : is the resistance of
the matched receiver, the received power is given by

Figure 1.3 (a) Power flux density at a distance d from a point source; (b) model for voltage applied
to the input of a receiver

Example 1.3
Assume a receiver is located 10 km from a 50 W transmitter. The carrier frequency is
900 MHz, free space propagation is assumed, = 1, and =2, find (a) the power at
the receiver, (b) the magnitude of the E-field at the receiver antenna, (c) the rms
voltage applied to the receiver input assuming that the receiver antenna has a purely
real impedance of 50 and is matched to the receiver.
Solution

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1.4. Three Basic Propagation Mechanisms
Reflection, diffraction, and scattering are the three basic propagation mechanisms which impact
propagation in a mobile communication system.
Received power (or its reciprocal, path loss) is generally the most important parameter
predicted by large-scale propagation models based on the physics of reflection, scattering, and
diffraction.
Reflection occurs when a propagating electromagnetic wave impinges upon an object which has
very large dimensions when compared to the wavelength of the propagating wave.
Reflections occur from the surface of the earth and from buildings and walls.
Diffraction occurs when the radio path between the transmitter and receiver is obstructed a
surface that has sharp irregularities (edges). The secondary waves resulting from the
obstructing surface are present throughout the space and even behind the obstacle, giving rise
to a bending of waves around the obstacle, even when a line-of-sight path does not exist
between the Transmitter and receiver.

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At high frequencies, diffraction, like reflection, depends on the geometry of the object, as well as
the amplitude, phase, and polarization of the incident wave at the point of diffraction Scattering
occurs when the medium through which the wave travel concepts of object with dimension that is
small compared to the wavelength and where the number of obstacles per unit volume is large.
Scattered waves are produced by rough surfaces small objects or by other irregularities in the
channel in practice or foliage, Street signs and lamp post induce scattering in a mobile
communication system

1.5. Reflection
When a radio wave propagating in one medium impinges upon another medium having different
electrical properties, the wave is partially reflected and partially transmitted.
If the plane wave is incident on a perfect dielectric, part of the energy is transmitted into the
second medium and part of the energy is reflected back into the first medium, and there is no
loss of energy in absorption.
If the second medium is a perfect conductor, then all incident energy is reflected back into the first
medium without loss of energy.
The electric field intensity of the reflected and transmitted waves may be related to the incident
wave in the medium of origin through the Fresnel reflection coefficient (T).
The reflection coefficient is a function of the material properties, and generally depends on the
wave polarization, angle of incidence, and the frequency of the propagating wave.
In general, electromagnetic waves are polarized, meaning they have instantaneous electric
field components in orthogonal directions in space. A polarized wave may be mathematically
represented as the sum of two spatially orthogonal components, such as vertical and
horizontal or left-hand or right-hand circularly polarized components. For an arbitrary
polarization, superposition may be used to compute the reflected fields from a reflecting
surface.

Figure 1.4 a) E-field in the plane of incidence

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 Figure 1.4 b) E-field normal to the plane of incidence
Figure 1.4 Geometry for calculating the reflection coefficients between two dielectrics

In figure i, r, and t refer to Incident, reflected and transmitted fields.

are called as permittivity, permeability and conductance of the media.
The dielectric constant of a perfect dielectric is related to relative value of permittivity, such
that x Farad/meter.
1.5.1 Reflections from dielectrics
If a material is lossy, it will absorb power and may be described by a complex dielectric constant
given by

where

is the conductivity of the material measured in Siemens/meter

is the intrinsic impedance of the ith medium (i=1,2)

The velocity of an electromagnetic wave is given by 1/ and the boundary
conditions at the surface of incidence obey Snell’s Law which is given below

The boundary conditions from Maxwell’s equations are

used to derive equations below

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 is either || or , depending on weather the E-field is in vertical or normal to the plane
of incidence.

Figure 1.5 Axes for orthogonally polarized components. Parallel and perpendicular
components are related to the horizontal and vertical spatial coordinates.

The vertical and horizontal field components at a dielectric boundary may be related by

Are the depolarized field components in the horizontal and vertical directions

Are the horizontal and vertical polarized components of the incident wave
These are the time varying components of the E-field may be represented by phasors.
R is the Transformation matrix which maps vertical and horizontal polarized components to
the components which are perpendicular and parallel to the plane of incidence.

Where is the angle between the two sets of axes.

The depolarization Matrix is given by

for the case of reflection and for the case of transmission.

Example 1.4

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Page 11
Figure 1.6 Magnitude of reflection coefficients as a function of angle of incidence for
4 = 12, using geometry in Fig. 1. 4

1.5.3 Reflection from perfect conductor

Electromagnetic energy cannot pass through a perfect conductor a plane wave incident on
a conductor has all of its energy reflected.
As the electric field at the surface of the conductor must be equal to zero or at all times in
order to be Maxwell's equation, the reflected wave must be equal in magnitude to the
incident wave.
For the case when E-field polarization is in the plane of incidence, the boundary
conditions required that

and (E-filed in plane of incidence

Similarly for the case when the E-field is horizontally polarized, the boundary condition
require that

(E-filed normal to the plane of incidence)

1.6. Ground Reflection (two Ray model)
In a mobile radio channel, a single direct path between the base station and a mobile is seldom
the only physical means for propagation, and hence the free space propagation model of
equation (1.5) is in most cases inaccurate when used shown alone.

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The two-ray ground reflection model shown in Figure 1.7 is a useful propagation model that
is based on geometric optics and considers both the direct path and ground reflected
propagation path between transmitter and receiver.
This model has been found to be reasonably accurate for predicting the large-scale –signal
strength over distances of several kilometres for mobile radio systems that use tall towers
(heights which exceed 50 m), as well as for line-of-sight microcell channels in urban
environments).
In most mobile communication systems, the maximum T-R separation distance is at most
only a tens of kilometres, and the earth may be assumed to be flat. The total receiver E- field.
(ETOT) is then a result of the direct line-of-sight component, ELOS and the ground reflected
component Eg.

Figure 1.7 Two ray ground ray reflection model.

Referring to Figure 1.7, is the height of the transmitter and , is the height of the receiver.
If E is the free space E-field (in units of V/m) at a reference distance from the transmitter,
then for d> , the free space propagating E-field is given by

where E represents the envelope of the E-field at d meters from the transmitter.
Two propagating waves arrive at the receiver: the direct wave that travels a distance ; and
the reflected wave that travels a distance d". The E-field due to the line-of-sight component at
the receiver can be expressed as

and the E-field for the ground reflected wave, which has a propagation distance of d, can be
expressed as

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 ………..(1.35)

According to laws of reflection in dielectrics given in

Section 1.5.1

where is the reflection coefficient for ground. For small values of , (i.e., grazing incidence),
the reflected equal in magnitude and 180° out of phase with the incident wave, as shown in
Example 1.4. The resultant E-field, assuming perfect horizontal polarization ground reflection
(i.e., =- l and = 0), is the vector sum of ELOS and Eg and the resultant total Efield
envelope is given by

The electric field (d, t) can be expressed as the sum of Equations (1.34) and (1.35)

Using the method of images, which is demonstrated by the geometry of Figure 1.8, the path
difference, , between the line-of-sight and the ground reflected paths can be expressed as
……………(1.40)

When the T-R separation distance d is very large compared to + , Equation (1.40) can be
simplified using a Taylor series approximation

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Figure 1.8 The method of images is used to find the path difference between the line of sight
and the ground reflected paths

Once the path difference is known, the phase difference between the two E-field
components and the time delay between the arrival of the two components can be easily
computed using the following relations

It should be noted that as d becomes large, the difference between the distances d' and d"
becomes very small, and the amplitudes of and , are virtually identical and differ
only in phase. That is

If the received E-field is evaluated at some time, say at t = d"/c, Equation (1.39) can be
expressed as a phasor sum

Where d is the distance over a flat earth between the bases of the transmitter and receiver
antennas. Referring to the phasor diagram of Figure 1.9 which shows how the direct and
ground reflected rays combine, the electric field (at the receiver) at a distance “d” from the
transmitter can be written as

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Figure 1.9. Phasor diagram showing the electric field components of the line of sight, ground
reflected, and total received E-fields, derived from equations (1.45)

Note that if the E-field is assumed to be in the plane of incidence (i.e., vertical polarization
then = 1 and it Equation (1.47) would have a "+" instead of a "-".
Using trigonometric identities, Equation (1.47) can be expressed as

Equation (1.48) is an important expression, as it provides the exact received E-field for the
two-ray ground reflection model.
One notes that for increasing distance from the transmitter, (d) decays in an oscillatory
fashion, with local maxima being 6 dB greater than the free space value and the local minima
plummeting to- dB (the received E-field cancels out to zero volts at certain values of d,
although in reality this never happens).
Once the distance d is sufficiently large, becomes and the received E-field, (d)
then falls off asymptotically with increasing distance. Note that Equation (1.48) may be
simplified whenever sin ( . This occurs when is less than 0.3 radian. Using Equations
(1.41) and (1.42)

which implies that Equation (1.48) may be simplified whenever

Thus, as long as d satisfies (1.50), the received E-field can be approximated as

where k is a constant related to , the antenna heights, and the wavelength. This asympo
behavior is identical for both the E-field in the plane of incidence or normal to the plane of
incidence.

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The free space power received at “d” is related to the square of the electric field through
Equation (1.15). Combining Equations (1.2), (1.15), and (1.51), the received power at a
distance “d” from the transmitter for the two-ray ground bounce model can be expressed as

As seen from Equation (1.52) at large distances (d» ,). the received power falls off with
distance raised to the fourth power, or at a rate of 40 dB/decade. This is a much more rapid
path loss than is experienced in free space. Note also that at large values of d, the received
power path loss becomes independent of frequency.

The path loss for the two-ray model (with antenna gain can be given by

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Example 1.6
A mobile is located 5 km away from a base station and uses a vertical λ/4monopole antenna
With a gain of 2.55 dB to receive cellular radio signals. The E-field at 1 km from the
transmitter is measured to be 10 v/m. The carrier frequency used for this system is 900 MHz.
(a)Find the length and the effective aperture of the receiving antenna.
(b)Find the received power at the mobile using the two-ray ground reflection model
assuming the height of the transmitting antenna is 50 m and the receiving antenna is 1.5 m
above ground. Solution Given:
T-R separation distance = 5 km
E-field at a distance of 1 km = 10 V/m
Frequency of operation, f= 900 MHz

A Length of the antenna, L = /4 = 0.333/4 0.0833 m = 8.33 cm.

Effective aperture of λ/4 monopole antenna can be obtained using Equation
(1.2).
Effective aperture of antenna = 0.016 m2.
(Since d» , the electric field is given by

=113.1x
The received power at a distance d can be obtained
using Equation (1.15)
or -92.68
dBm

1.7. Diffraction,
Diffraction of radio signal to propagate and on the curved surfaces of the earth beyond the
horizon, and to propagate behind obstructions.

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The receive field strength decreases rapidly as a receiver moves deeper into the obstructed
(shadowed) region, diffraction field still exists and often has the sufficient strength to produce
a useful signal.

The phenomenon of diffraction can be explained by Huygen’s principle it states that all points
on a wavefront can be considered as a point sources for the production of secondary wavelets
and that these wavelets combined to produce a new wavefront in the direction of propagation.
Diffraction is caused by the propagation of secondary wavelets into a shadowed region.
The field strength of the diffracted wave in the shadow region is the vector sum of the
electric field components of all the secondary wavelets space around the obstacles

1.7.1 Fresnel Zone Geometry

Consider a transmitter and receiver separated in free space as shown in Figure 1. 10a. Let an
Obstructing screen of effective height h with infinite width be placed between them at a
distance d1 from the transmitter and d2 from the receiver. It is apparent that the wave
propagating from the transmitter to the receiver via the top of the screen travels a longer
distance than if a direct line-of-sight path (through the screen) existed. Assuming h «d1, d2
and h » λ, then the difference between the direct path and the diffracted path, called the excess
path length (A), can be obtained from the geometry of Figure 1.10b as

The corresponding phase difference is given by

And when tan x=x, then =

Above equation(1.55) is often normalized using the dimensionless Fresnel-Kirchoff

diffraction parameter v and is given by

Where α has units of radians and is shown in figure 1.10b and 1.10c. The parameter υ is
convenient because it allows to be expressed in a convenient form.

From the above equations it is clear that the phase difference between a direct line-ofsight
path and diffracted path is a function of height and position of the obstruction, as well as
the transmitter and receiver location.
In practical diffraction problems, it is advantageous to reduce all heights by a constant, so
that the geometry is simplified without changing the values of the angles. This procedure
is shown in Figure 1.10c.

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 The concept of diffraction loss as a function of the path difference around an obstruction
is explained by Fresnel zones.
Fresnel zones represent successive regions where secondary waves have a path length
from the transmitter to receiver which are nλ/2 greater than the total path length of a
lineof-sight path.
Figure 1.11 demonstrates a transparent plane located between a transmitter and receiver.
The concentric circles on the plane represent the loci of the origins of secondary wavelets
which propagate to the receiver such that the total path length increases by λ /2 for
successive circles. These circles are called Fresnel zones. The successive Fresnel zones
have the effect of alternately providing constructive and destructive interference to the
total received signal.

The radius of the nth Fresnel zone circle is denoted by and can be expressed in terms of
n, λ, , and by

This approximation is valid for »

The excess total path length traversed by a ray passing through each circle is nλ/2, where
n is an integer. Thus, the path traveling through the smallest circle corresponding to n=1
in Figure 1.1l will have an excess path length of λ/2 as compared to a line-of-sight path,
and circles corresponding to n = 2,3, etc. will have an excess path length of λ, 3λ/2, etc.

The radii of the concentric circles depend on the location of the plane. The Fresnel zones
of Figure 1.11 will have maximum radii if the plane is midway between the transmitter
and receiver, and the radii become smaller when the plane is moved toward either the
transmitter or the receiver.

This effect illustrates how shadowing is sensitive to the frequency as well as the location
of obstructions with relation to the transmitter or receiver. In mobile communication
systems, diffraction loss occurs from the blockage of secondary waves such that only a
portion of the energy is diffracted around an obstacle.

That is, an obstruction causes blockage of energy from some of the Fresnel zones, thus
allowing only some of the transmitted- energy to reach the receiver.
Depending on the geometry of the obstruction, the received energy will be a vector sum
of the energy contributions from all unobstructed Fresnel zones.

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Figure 1.10. a) Knife-edge diffraction geometry. The point T denotes the transmitter and R
denotes the receiver, with an infinite knife-edge obstruction blocking the line-of-sight
path.

Figure 1.10 b) Knife-edge diffraction geometry that when the transmitter and receiver are
not at the same height. Note that if are small and h<«d1 and d2,then h and h'
are virtually identical and the geometry may be redrawn as shown in Figure 1.10c.

Figure 1.10c) Equivalent knife-edge geometry with the smallest height in this case hr is
refracted from all other height
Figure 1.10 Diagrams of knife-edge geometry

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 Figure 1.11 Concentric circles which define the boundaries of successive Fresnel zones.

As shown in Figure 1.12, an obstacle may block the transmission path, and a family of
ellipsoids can be constructed between a transmitter and receiver by joining all the points for
which the excess path delay is an integer multiple of half wavelengths. The ellipsoids
represent Fresnel zones.
Note that the Fresnel zones are elliptical in shape with the transmitter and receiver antenna at
their foci. In Figure1.12, different knife edge diffraction scenarios are shown. In general, if an
obstruction does not block the volume contained within the first Fresnel zone, then the
diffraction loss will be minimal, and diffraction effects may be neglected.

In fact, a rule of thumb used for design of line of-sight microwave links is that as long as 55%
of the first Fresnel zone is kept clear, then further Fresnel zone clearance does not
significantly alter the diffraction loss.

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 Figure 1.12 lustration of Fresnel zones for different knife-edge diffraction scenarios

1.7.2 Knife-edge Diffraction Model

Estimating the signal attenuation caused by diffraction of radio waves over hills and buildings
is essential in predicting the field strength in a given service area.
Generally, it is impossible to make very precise estimates of the diffraction losses, and in
practice prediction is a process of theoretical approximation modified by necessary empirical
corrections.
Though the calculation of diffraction losses over complex and irregular terrain is a
mathematically difficult problem, expressions for Diffraction losses for many simple cases
have been derived.
As a starting point, the limiting case of propagation over a knife-edge gives good insight into
the order of magnitude of diffraction loss.
When shadowing is caused by a single object such as a hill or mountain, the attenuation
caused by diffraction can be estimated by treating the obstruction as a diffracting knife edge.
This is the simplest of diffraction models, and the diffraction loss in this case can be readily
estimated using the classical Fresnel solution for the field behind a knife edge (also called a
half plane). Figure 1.13 illustrates this approach.

Figure 1.13 lustration of knife-edge diffraction geometry. The receiver R is located in the
shadow region.

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Consider a receiver at point R, located in the shadowed region (also called the diffraction
zone). The field strength at point R in Figure1.13 is a vector sum of the fields due to all of the
secondary Huygen's sources in the plane above the knife edge. The electric field strength,
of a knife-edge diffracted wave is given by

where is the free space field strength in the absence of both the ground and the knife edge
and F(v) is the complex Fresnel integral. The Fresnel integral, F(v), is a function of the
Fresnel-Kirchhoff diffraction parameter v, defined in Equation (1.56), and is commonly
evaluated using tables or graphs for given values of v. The diffraction gain due to the
presence of a knife edge, as compared to the free space E-field, is given by

In practice, graphical or numerical solutions are relied upon to compute diffraction gain. A
graphical representation of as a function of v is given in Figure 1.14. An approximate
solution for Equation (1.60) provided by
……………(1.61a)

……………(1.61c)

knife edge diffraction geometry

Fig. 1.14 Fresnel diffraction parameter v versus knife edge diffraction gain (Gd, dB)

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 1.7.3 Multiple Knife-edge Diffraction
In many practical situations, especially in hilly terrain, the propagation path consist of more
than one obstruction, than one obstruction, in which case the total diffraction loss due to all or
to all of the obstacles must be computed.
Bullington [Bul47] suggested that the series of obstacles be replaced by a single equivalent
obstacle so that the path loss can be obtained using single knife edge diffraction models.
Figure 1.15 oversimplifies the calculations an often provides very optimistic estimates of the
received signal strength

Figure 1.15 Bullington's construction of an equivalent knife edge [from [Bul47]IEEE]

1.8. Scattering,
Actual received signal in a mobile radio environment is often stronger than what is
predicted by reflection and diffraction models alone.
This is because when a radio wave impinges on a rough surface, the reflected energy is
spread out (diffused) in all directions due to scattering. Figure 1.16 shows the scattering.
Objects such as lamp posts and trees tend to scatter energy in all directions, thereby
providing additional radio energy at a receiver.

Figure 1.16 Scattering

• Flat surfaces that have much larger dimension than a wavelength may be modeled as
reflective surfaces.

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 • However, the roughness of such surfaces often induces propagation effects different
from the specular reflection described
• Surface roughness is often tested using the Rayleigh criterion which defines a critical
height ( ) of surface protuberances for a given angle of incidence , given by

• A surface is considered smooth if its minimum to maximum protuberance h is less

than and is considered rough if the protuberance is greater than .
• For rough surfaces, the flat surface reflection coefficient needs to be multiplied by a
scattering loss factor, . to account for the diminished reflected field. Ament [the
author]assumed that the surface height h is a Gaussian distributed random variable
with a local mean and found to be given by

• where , is the standard deviation of the surface height about the mean surface
height . The scattering loss factor derived by Ament was modified by Boithias to give
better agreements with measured results, and is given in

Where is the Bessel functions of the first kind and zero order
• The reflected E-fields for h > can be solved for rough surfaces using a modified
reflection coefficient given as

• 1.8.1 Radar Cross Section Model

• In radio channels where large, distant o scattering, knowledge of the physical location
of such objects can be used to accurately predict scattered signal strength.
• The radar cross section (RCS) of a scattering object is defined as the ratio of the
power density of the signal scattered in the direction of the receiver to the power
density of the radio wave incident upon the
• Scattering object, and has units of square meters. Analysis based on the geometric
theory of diffraction and physical optics may be used to determine the scattered field
strength.
• The bi-static radar equation describes the propagation of a wave traveling in free
space which impinges on a distant sea scattering object, and is then reradiated in the
direction of the receiver, given by

Where and are the distance from the scattering object to the transmitter and receiver
respectively.

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In Equation (1.66), the scattering object is assumed to be in the far field (Fraunhofer region)
of both the transmitter and receiver. The variable RCS is given in units of dB can be
approximated by the surface area (in square meters) of the scattering measured in dB with
respect to a one square meter reference.

1.9. Practical Link Budget

Radio propagation models are derived using a combination of analytical and empirical
methods.
The empirical approach is based on fitting curves or analytical expressions that recreate a
set of measured data.
Propagation models are now used to predict large-scale coverage for mobile
communication systems design.
1.9.1 Long Distance Path loss Model
The average large-scale path loss for an arbitrary T-R separation is expressed as a
function of distance by using a path loss exponent, n

OR
n is the Path loss exponent which indicates the rate at which the path loss increases with
distance is the close in reference distance which is determined from measurements
close to the
transmitter, and d is the T-R separation distance.
The bar indicates the ensemble average of all possible path loss values for a given value
of d.

1.9.2 Log-normal Shadowing

Measurements have shown that at any value of d, the path loss PL(d) at a particular
location is random and distributed log-normally (normal in dB) about the mean
distancedependent value, that is

and

Where is a zero-mean Gaussian distributed random variable (in dB) with standard
deviation σ (also in dB).
The log-normal distribution describes the random shadowing effects which occur over a
large number of measurement locations which have the same T-R separation, but have
different levels of clutter on the propagation path.
This phenomenon is referred to as log-normal shadowing.

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 Log-normal shadowing implies that measured signal levels at a specific T-R Separation is
Gaussian (normal) distribution about the distance-dependent mean of (1.68), where the
measured signal levels have values in dB units.
The standard deviation of the Gaussian distribution that describes the shadowing.
The close-in reference distance , the path loss exponent n, and the standard deviation
statistically describe the path loss model for an arbitrary location having a specific T-R
separation, and this model may be used in computer simulation to provide received power
levels for random locations in communication system design and analysis.
In practice, the values of n and σ are computed from measured data, using linear
regression such that the difference between the measured and estimated path losses is
minimized in a mean square error sense over a wide range of measurement locations and
T-R separations.
The value of PL(d) in (1.69a) is based on either close-in measurements or on a free space
assumption from the transmitter to . An example of how the path loss exponent is
determined from measured data follows.
Figure 1.17 shows the actual measured data in several cellular radio systems and
demonstrate the random variations about the mean path loss (in dB) due to shadowing at
specific T-R separations.
Since PL(d) is a random variable with a normal distribution in dB about the distance
dependent mean, so is Pr(d), and the Q-function or error function (erf) may be used to
determine the probability that the received signal level will exceed (or fall below) a
particular level. The Q-function is defined as

Where

The probability that the received signal level (in dB power units) will exceed certain value
can be calculated from the cumulative density function as

Similarly, the probability that the received signal level will be below y is given by

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 Figure 1.17 Scatter plot of measured data and corresponding MMSE path loss model for
many Cities in Germany. For this data, n = 2.7 and o = 11.8 dB [from [Sei91]© IEEE].

1.9.3. Determination of Percentage of Coverage Area

It is clear that due to random effects of shadowing, some locations within a coverage area will
below a particular desired received signal threshold.
It is often useful to compute how the boundary coverage relates to the percent of area covered
within the boundary.
For a circular coverage area having radius R from a base station, let there be some desired
received signal threshold .

We find u( the percentage of useful service area (i.e. the percentage of area with a received
signal that is equal or greater than y), given a known likelihood of coverage at the Cell
boundary.
Letting d = r represent the radial distance from the transmitter, it can be shown that if
[ (r) > is the probability that the random received signal at d = r exceeds the threshold
within an incremental area dA. then U( ) can be found by

…………..(1.73)

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1.10. Broadband wireless channel: Path loss and Shadowing
The main goal is to understand the fundamental factors affecting the received signals in a
wireless system. We model the channel
Table 1.1Key Wireless Channel Parameters
Symbol Parameter
Path loss exponent
v Number of ISI taps in channel (v+1 is total number of taps
Log normal shadowing standard deviation

Doppler spread (maximum Doppler frequency), fD=

c Speed of light
Relative speed between transmitter and receiver
Carrier frequency
Carrier wavelength, fcλ =c
Channel coherence time, Te jD
Channel delay spread (maximum)

Channel delay spread (Root Mean Square)

Channel coherence bandwidth, B
Angular spread (Root Mean Square)

The overall model we will use for describing the channel in discrete time is a simple tap-
delay line (TDL):

Assuming that the channel is static over a period of (v +1) T seconds, the output of the
channel can then be described as

where x[k] is an input sequence of data symbols with rate 1/T, and * denotes convolution. In
simpler notation, the channel can be represented as a time varying ( column vector.

1.10.1. Path Loss

The first obvious difference between wired and wireless channels is the amount of
transmitted power that actually reaches the receiver.
Assuming an isotropic antenna is used as shown in figure 1.18, the propagated signal
energy expands over a spherical wavefront, so the energy received at an antenna a
distance d away is inversely proportional to the sphere surface area, ( .
The free-space path loss formula, or Friis formula, is given

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 Figure 1.18 Free space propagation.
• However, because a reflected wave often experiences a 180-degree phase shift, at
relatively large distances (usually over a kilometer) the reflection serves to create
destructive interference, and the common 2-ray approximation for path loss is:

In order to more accurately describe different propagation models environments,

empirical are often developed using experimental data. One of the simplest and most
common is the empirical path loss formula:

Pr/Pt is the average value of the channel gain; that is, Pr/Pt = where E[.] denotes the expected value,
or mathematical mean.
Example 1.7
Consider a user in the downlink of a cellular system, where the desired base station is
at a distance of 500 meters (0.5 km), and there are numerous nearby interfering base
stations transmitting at the same power level. If there are three interfering base
stations at a distance of 1 km, three at a distance of 2 km, and ten at a distance of 4
km, use the empirical path loss formula to find the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR,
i.e., the noise is neglected) when α = 3, and then when α = 5.

For α =3 and do in units of kilometers, the

desired received power is

and the interference power is

The SIR expressions compute to

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1.10.2 Shadowing
• Path loss models attempt to account for the distance dependent relationship between
transmitted and received power.
• However, many factors other than distance can have a large effect on the total
received power
• Figure 1.19, obstacles such as trees and buildings may be located between the
transmitter and receiver, and cause temporary degradation in received signal strength,
while on the other hand a temporary line-of-sight transmission path would result
inabnormally high received power.
• The standard method of accounting for these variations in signal strength is to
introduce a random effect called shadowing. With shadowing, the empirical path loss
formula becomes

where x is a sample of the shadowing random process. Hence, the received power is now also
modelled as a random process. In effect, the distance-trend in the path loss can be thought of
as the mean (or expected) received power, while the x shadowing values causes a perturbation
from that expected value.

Figure 1.19 Shadowing can cause large deviations from path loss predictions

The shadowing value x is typically modeled as a lognormal random variable, that

)…………………………….(1.84)

where is a Gaussian (normal) distribution with mean 0 and variance . With

this formulation, the standard deviation is expressed in dB. figure 1.20 shows the
effect of shadowing, where respectively.

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Figure 1.20 Shadowing causes large random fluctuations about the path loss model. {courtesy
of IEEE.}
1.11. Broadband wireless channel- Fading

• Path loss and shadowing attenuation effects due to distance or obstacles.

• Fading is severe attenuation phenomenon in wireless channels likely for short distance
caused by the reception of multiple versions of the same signal.
• The multiple received versions are caused by reflections that are referred to as
multipath.
• The reflections may arrive at very close to the same time. for example if there is local
scattering around the receiver or the reflections may arrive at relatively longer
intervals-for example , due to different multipath between the transmitter and receiver.
• A visualization of this is shown in figure 1.21

Figure 1.21 : The channel may have a few major paths with quite different lengths, and then
the receiver may see a number of locally scattered versions of those paths.

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 • Fading effect: When some of the reflections arrive at nearly the same time, the
combined effect of those reflections. can be seen in figure 1.22.
• Depending on the phase difference between the arriving signals, the interference can
be either constructive or destructive, which causes a very large observed difference in
the amplitude of the received signal even over very short distances.

Figure 1.22.: The difference between constructive interference (top) and destructive
interference (bottom) at fc = 2.5GHz is less than 0.1 nanoseconds in phase, which
corresponds to about 3 cm.

• The moving the transmitter or receiver even a very short distance can have a dramatic
effect on the received amplitude, even though the path loss and shadowing effects may
not have changed at all.
• Time-varying tapped-delay line channel model of fading:
• Either the transmitter or receiver move relative to each other, the channel response h(t)
will change.
• This channel response can be thought of as having two dimensions: – Delay
dimension( ) – Time-dimension( ).

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 Figure 1.23: The delay corresponds to how long the channel impulse response lasts.
The channel is time varying, so the channel impulse response is also a function of time. i.e.,
h( , t)and can be quite different at time t+ t than it was at time t.
• The channel is time varying, so the channel impulse response is also a function of time,
i.e., h ( , t), and can be quite different at time ( + ∆ ) than it was at time t.
• The fundamental function used to statistically describe broadband fading channels is
the two-dimensional autocorrelation function, A(∆ , ∆ ). The autocorrelation function
is defined as

The impulse response and its delayed samples are shown in figure 1.23.
Table 1.2 Summary of Broadband Fading Parameter

Wireless channel Parameters

• The key parameters to evaluate the wireless channels are

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 •Delay Spread and Coherence Bandwidth • Doppler Spread and
Coherence Time
• Angular Spread and Coherence Distance
1.11.1. Delay Spread and Coherence Bandwidth, Delay
Spread:

The delay spread is mostly used in the characterization of wireless channels.

It is a measure of the multipath richness of a communications channel.
It specifies the duration of the channel impulse response h ( , t).

The delay spread is the amount of time that elapses between the first arriving path (typically
the line of sight component) and the last arriving (non-negligible) path.

The delay spread can be found by inspecting A (∆ , 0) by setting ∆ =0 in the channel

autocorrelation function. It is often referred to as the Multipath Intensity Profile, or power
delay profile.
The maximum delay spread is , Characterized wireless channel with number of delay taps
v will be needed in the discrete representation of the channel impulse response, since

Where is the sampling time

Delay spread can be quantified through different metrics, although the most common one is
the root mean square (rms) delay spread.

The formula above is also known as the root of the second central moment of the
normalized delay power density spectrum.
The importance of delay spread is how it affects the Inter Symbol Interference (ISI).
gives a measure of the "width" or "spread" of the channel response in time.

A general rule of thumb is that ≈5

Coherence Bandwidth ( Bc)

• It is a statistical measurement of the range of frequencies over which the channel can
be considered "flat"
• The Bc is the frequency domain dual of the channel delay spread ( ).

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 • The coherence bandwidth gives a rough measure for the maximum separation between
a frequency f1 and a frequency f2 where the channel frequency response is correlated.
That is

1.11.2. Doppler Spread and Coherence Time,

• is a value describing the channel duration, Bc is a value describing the range of

frequencies over which the channel stays constant.
• Given the channel delay spread, it can be shown that

• The important and prevailing feature is that Bc and are inversely related.

Doppler Spread(BD):

Doppler spread is a measure of the spectral broadening caused by the time rate of change of
the mobile radio channel and is defined as the range of frequencies over which the received
Doppler spectrum is essentially non-zero.
The Doppler power spectrum gives the statistical power distribution of the channel versus
frequency for a signal transmitted at just one exact frequency.
Whereas the power delay profile was caused by multipath between the transmitter and
receiver, the Doppler power spectrum is caused by motion between the transmitter and
receiver.
The Doppler power spectrum is the Fourier transform of (∆ ) is given by

When a pure sinusoidal tone of frequency fc is transmitted, the received signal spectrum,
called the Doppler spectrum.
The spectrum components in the range fc – fd to fc + fd, where fd is the Doppler shift.
The amount of spectral broadening depends on fd which is a function of the relative velocity
of the mobile, and the angle θ between the direction of motion of the mobile and direction of
arrival of the scattered waves.
Unlike the power delay profile, the Doppler power spectrum is non-zero strictly for

where is maximum Doppler spread or Doppler spread.

The Doppler spread is given by

……………………(1.91)

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 Where = maximum speed between the transmitter and receiver, fc=
the carrier frequency, c = the speed of light.
As long as the communication bandwidth B << fc, the Doppler power spectrum can be treated
as approximately constant.

Coherence Time (TC):

Coherence time Tc is used to characterize the time varying nature of the frequency
depressiveness of the channel in the time domain
Coherence time is actually a statistical measure of the time duration over which the channel
impulse response is essentially invariant,
In other words, coherence time is the time duration over which two received signals have a
strong potential for amplitude correlation.
Mathematically

The coherence time and Doppler spread are also inversely related

Values for the Doppler spread and the associated channel coherence time for LTE at
Pedestrian, Vehicular, and Maximum Speeds are given in Table below for two possible LTE
frequency bands
Table : Doppler Spreads and Approximate Coherence Times for LTE at Pedestrian Vehicular
and Maximum Speeds

Table 1.3 Doppler’s spreads and approximate coherence times for LTE at Pedestrian,
vehicular and maximum speeds.

1.11.3. Angular spread and Coherence Distance Angular

Spread ( ):

It refers to the statistical distribution of the angle of the arriving energy.

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A large implies that channel energy is coming in from many directions, whereas a small
implies that the received channel energy is more focused.
A large angular spread generally occurs when there is a lot of local scattering, and this results
in more statistical diversity in the channel.

Coherence Distance (DC):

The coherence distance is the spatial distance over which the channel does not change
appreciably. The dual of angular spread is coherence distance.
As the angular spread increases, the coherence distance decreases, and vice versa. An
approximate rule of thumb between angular spread and coherence distance is

For the case of Rayleigh fading, which assumes a uniform angular spread, the well-known
relation is

Angular spread and coherence distance are particularly important in multiple antenna (MIMO)
systems.
The coherence distance gives a rule of thumb for how far antennas should be spaced apart, in
order to be statistically independent.
If the coherence distance is very small, antenna arrays can be effectively employed to provide
rich diversity.

Ideally, modeling a channel is calculating all the physical processing effecting a signal from
the transmitter to the receiver.
The two major classes of models are
Statistical models: These models are simpler, and are useful for analysis and simulations.
Empirical models: These are more complicated but usually represent a specific type of
channel more accurately

These models are used to characterize the amplitude and power of a received signal r(t) when
all the reflections arrive at about the same time.
This is only true when symbol time is much greater than the delay spread, i.e., T >> so
these models are often said to be valid for “arrowband fading channels”. Some of the popular
statistical models are:
– Rayleigh Fading
– Ricean Distribution
– Nakagami-m fading
Rayleigh Fading
Rayleigh fading is a reasonable model when there are many objects in the environment that
scatter the radio signal before it arrives at the receiver.

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The central limit theorem holds that, if there is sufficiently much scatter, the channel Impulse
Response will be well-modelled as a Gaussian Process irrespective of the distribution of the
individual components.
The envelope of the channel response will therefore be Rayleigh distributed.

Consider a snapshot value of received signal r(t) at time t = 0, and r(0) = (0)+ (0)
– Where (0)is in-phase component and
– (0) is quadrature components of Gaussian random variables.

The distribution of the envelope amplitude is Rayleigh, and the received

power is exponentially distributed

Where Pr is the average received power due to shadowing and path loss
The path loss and shadowing determine the mean received power and the total received power
fluctuates around this mean due to the fading.
The total received power fluctuates around this mean due to fading. It is shown in figure 1.24.
The Gaussian random variables each have zero mean and varience
The phase of r(t) uniformly distributed from 0 to 2π is defined as

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Figure 1.24: The three major channel attenuation factors are shown in terms of their relative
spatial (and hence temporal) scales.

The Line of Sight channels - Ricean Distribution

An important assumption in the Rayleigh fading model is that all the arriving reflections have
a mean of zero.
In Ricean fading a strong dominant component is present for example, a line-of-sight (LOS)
path between the transmitter and receiver.
For a LOS signal, the received envelope distribution is more accurately modelled by a Ricean
distribution, which is given by

Where 2
the power of the LOS component and I0 is the 0th order

Ricean distribution reduces to the Rayleigh distribution in the absence of a LOS component.
Since the Ricean distribution depends on the LOS component's power 2, a common way to
characterize the channel is by the relative strengths of the LOS and scattered paths.

here
This factor K is quantified as

………………(1.99)

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 • The above equation describes how strong the LOS component is relative to the
nonLOS (NLOS) components.
• For K = 0, again the Ricean distribution reduces to Rayleigh, and as K=∞, the
physical meaning is that there is only a single LOS path and no other scattering.
• The average received power under Ricean fading is just the combination of the
scattering power and the LOS power.
• The Ricean distribution is usually a more accurate depiction of wireless broadband
systems, which typically have one or more dominant components.
Nakagami-m fading

• It is a general model for wireless channel. The probability density function (PDF) of
Nakagami fading is parameterized by m and given as

…………(1.100)
• The Nakagami distribution can in many cases be used in tractable analysis of fading
channel performance. The power distribution for Nakagami fading is here

• The Nakagami distribution can in many cases be used in tractable analysis of fading
channel performance. The power distribution for Nakagami fading is

…………….(1.101)
Comparison of the most popular fading distributions with probability distributions f|r|(x) for
Rayleigh, Ricean w/K = 1, and Nakagami with m =2. All have average received power Pr =1.
The comparison of most popular fading distributions are shown in figure 1.25.

Figure 1.25 Probability distributions f (x) for Rayleigh, Ricean w/K = 1, and Nakagami with
m=2. All have average received power = 1.

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1.12. Cellular Systems
Explain the cellular concept briefly. Discuss how interference can be reduced in cellular
communication.

The Cellular Concept

• AT&T proposed a core idea of cellular system in 1971.

• In cellular systems, the service area is subdivided into smaller geographic areas called
cells. Each cell served by their own lower-power Base Station (BS).
• Neighboring cells do not use same set of frequencies to prevent interference.
• In order to minimize interference between cells, the transmit power level of each base
station is regulated to be just enough to provide the required signal strength at the cell
boundaries.
• In cellular systems, the service area is subdivided into smaller geographic areas called
cells that are each served by their own base station.
• In order to minimize interference between cells, the transmit power level of each base
station is regulated to be just enough to provide the required signal strength at the cell
boundaries. Then, also we have seen, propagation path loss allows for spatial isolation of
different cells operating of the same frequency channels at the same time.
• Therefore, the sine frequency channels can be reassigned to different cells, long as those
cells are spatially isolated.
• The reuse of the site frequency channels should be intelligently planned in order to
maximize the geographic distance between the co-channel base stations.
• Figure 1.26 shows an example of hexagonal cellular system model with frequency reuse
factor j=1/7, where cells labelled with the same letter use the same frequency channels.
• In this model, one cluster is outlined in bold and consists of seven cells with different
frequency channels.

Core cellular Principles: Small cells tessellate overall coverage area. User’s “handoff” as
they move from one cell to another.
The same frequency channels can be reassigned to different cells, as long as those cells are
spatially isolated called “frequency reuse” concept. It increases the cellular system
capacity.

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 Figure 1.26 : Standard figure of a hexagonal cellular system with f=1/7

Frequency planning
• It is required to determine a proper frequency reuse factor and a geographic reuse
pattern.
• Frequencies can be reused should be determined such that the interference between
base stations is kept to an acceptable level.
• The frequency reuse factor f is defined as f ≤ 1, where f = 1 means that all cells reuse
all the frequencies.
• Accordingly, f = 1/3 implies that a given frequency band is used by only 1 out of
every 3 cells.
Co-cells and cluster
• Co-cells are cells in cellular system which uses the same frequency channel set.
• The reuse of the same frequency channels should be intelligently planned in order to
maximize the geographic distance between the co-channel base stations.
• The group of cells which are using entire frequency channels set are called “clusters”.
1.13.2. Analysis of Cellular Systems :
The performance of wireless cellular systems is significantly limited by co-channel
interference (CCI), which comes from other users in the slime cell or from other cells. In
cellular systems, other cell interference (OCI) is a decreasing function of the radius of the
cell (R) and the distance to the canter of the neighbouring co-channel cell and an increasing
function of transmit power. However, what determines performance (capacity, reliability) is
the SIR, i.e, the amount of desired power to the amount of transmitted power.
Therefore, if all users (or base stations) increased or decreased their power at once, the SIR
and hence the performance is typically unchanged—which is known as interference-limited
system.

Page 44
The spatial isolation between co-channel cells can be measured by defining the parameter Z,
called co-channel reuse ratio, is the ratio of the distance to the centre of the nearest cochannel
cell (D) to the radius of the cell. In a hexagonal cell structure, the cochannel reuse ratio is
given by

where 1/f is the size of a cluster and the inverse of the frequency reuse factor. Since the
background noise power is negligible compared to the interference power in interference
limited environment, the received signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) can be used instead of
SINR. If the number of interfering cells is , the SIR for mobile station can be given by

Where S is the received power of the desired signal and is the interferecnce power from the
ith co-channel base station.
The received SIR for the worst case given in figure 1.27 is expressed as

Where denotes the shadowing from the ith base station.

If the mean and standard deviation of the lognormal distribution are in dB, the
outage probability is derived in the form of Q function.

Where is the threshold SIR level in dB.

Figure 1.27: Forward link interference in a hexagonal cellular system (worse case)

Page 45
Figure 1.28 The received SIR in a cell with path-loss exponent = 3.5. The scale on the right
indicates the SIR bins, i.e., darker indicates lower SIR.

1.13.3. Sectoring
• Since the SIR is so bad in most of the cell, it is desirable to find techniques to improve
it without sacrificing so much bandwidth, as frequency reuse does.
• A popular technique is to sectorize the cells, which is effective if frequencies are
reused in each cell. By using directional antennas instead of Omni-directional
antennas at the base station, the co-channel interference can be significantly reduced.
• Referring again to Figure 1.29, if each sector 1 points the same direction in each cell,
then the Interference caused by neighboring cells will be dramatically reduced.
• An alternative way to Use sectors that is not shown in Figure 1.29 is to reuse
frequencies in each sector. In this case, all of the time/code/frequency slots can be
reused in each sector, but there is no reduction in the experienced interference

Figure 1.29: 3-sector (120-degree) and sector (60-degree) cells.

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Figure 1.30 shows the regions of a 3-sector cell in various SIR bins of the systems with
universal frequency reuse and 1/3 frequency reuse. All the configurations are the same as
Dhose of Figure 1.28 except sectoring is added. Compared to Figure 1.28, sectoring improves
SIR especially at the cell boundaries even when universal frequency reuse is adopted. If
sectoring is adopted with frequency reuse, the received SIR can be significantly improved as
shown in Figure 1.30b where both f = 1/3 frequency reuse and 120-degree sectoring are used.

Figure 1.30.The received SIR in a sectorized cell (three sectors). The path-loss exponent =
3.5
.

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