Wireless Communication Medium

Chapter 3 & 4
Wireless Communications principle and practice By- Theodore

S Rappaport

Lesson-2 & 3:
Topic
Wireless communication medium,

Lesson Learning Outcomes

To know the basics of radio wave propagation To understand the various propagation model To familiarize with scientific theories behind radio wave propagation. To know about different types of channel fading

Teaching-Learning Assessment Method Methodology

Class Lecture Question and answer Test, exams, quiz, etc

Communication mediums
The physical medium on which the communication takes place Also Known as communication channel Types
Wired Medium
Metal cables
Self study

Optical fiber
Will be discussed later

Wireless medium
Topic of this lecture
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Wireless Channel
Radio Wave Propagation
The mechanisms behind electromagnetic wave propagation are diverse,
Reflection, diffraction, and scattering.

Most cellular radio systems operate in urban areas,

No direct line-of-sight path between the transmitter and the receiver. Propagation models
Predicting the average received signal strength at a given distance from the transmitter, The variability of the signal strength in close spatial proximity to a particular location.
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Wireless Channel
Wave Propagation Models
Large-scale propagation models Predict the mean signal strength for an arbitrary transmitter-receiver (T-R) separation distance Characterize signal strength over large T-R separation distances (several hundreds or thousands of meters). On the other hand, propagation models Small-scale or fading models Characterize the rapid fluctuations of the received signal strength over very short travel distances (a few wavelengths) or short time durations (on the order of seconds).
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Wireless Channel
Small-scale and large-scale model

Propagation Model
Free Space Propagation Model
Predict received signal strength when the transmitter and receiver have a clear, unobstructed line-of-sight path between them.
Example, Satellite communication systems and microwave line-of-sight radio links.

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,
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Propagation Model
Free Space Propagation Model
Large-scale propagation models use a close-in distance, d0, as a known received power reference point. The received power at any distance d > d0 may be related to

Propagation Characteristics
Reflection
When a radio wave propagating in one medium impinges upon another medium,
The wave is partially reflected and partially transmitted.

In a perfect dielectric,
A part of the energy is transmitted into the second medium A part of the energy is reflected back into the first medium, there is no loss of energy in absorption.

In a perfect conductor
All incident energy is reflected back into the first medium without loss of energy.
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Propagation Characteristics
Ground Reflection (2-ray) Model
This model has been found to be reasonably accurate for predicting the large-scale signal strength over distances of several kilometers for mobile radio systems with tall tower

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Propagation Characteristics
Ground Reflection (2-ray) Model
The received power at a distance d from the transmitter can be expressed as

The path loss for the 2-ray model (with antenna gains) can be expressed in dB as

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Propagation Characteristics
Diffraction
The phenomenon of diffraction can be explained by Huygen's principle,
All points on a wavefront can be considered as point sources for the production of secondary wavelets, and that these wavelets combine 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 a diffracted wave in the shadowed region is the vector sum of the electric field components of all the secondary wavelets in the space around the obstacle.
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Propagation Characteristics
Diffraction

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Propagation Characteristics
Diffraction
Diffraction allows radio signals to propagate
Around the curved surface of the earth, Beyond the horizon, and Behind obstructions.

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

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Path Loss Model

Log-distance Path Loss Model
Both theoretical and measurement-based propagation models indicate that
Average received signal power decreases logarithmically with distance in outdoor or indoor radio channels.

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
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Path Loss Model

Path-loss exponents for different environment

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Shadowing
Log-normal Shadowing
The surrounding environmental clutter may be vastly different at two different locations having the same T-R separation. Measurements have shown that at any value of d, the path loss at a particular location is random and distributed lognormally (normal in dB) about the mean distance dependent
X is zero-mean Gaussian distributed random variable with standard deviation . The long-distance model did not consider this fact

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Fading
Small-scale fading, or simply fading,
Describe the rapid fluctuation of the amplitude of a radio signal over a short period of time or travel distance, so that large-scale path loss effects may be ignored. Fading is caused by interference between two or more versions of the transmitted signal which arrive at the receiver at slightly different times.
These waves, called multipath waves, Combine signal at the receiver antenna can vary widely in amplitude and phase.
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Fading
Multipath Propagation

Multipath creates small-scale fading effects. The three most important effects are:
Rapid changes in signal strength over a small travel distance or time interval Random frequency modulation due to varying Doppler shifts on different multi path signals Time dispersion (echoes) caused by multipath propagation delays.
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Fading
Factors Influencing Small-Scale Fading
Many physical factors in the radio propagation channel influence small scale fading. These include the following:
Multipath propagation Speed of the mobile Speed of surrounding objects Transmission band width

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Fading
Types of Fading

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Fading
Types of Fading

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Fading
Statistical fading models
Rayleigh fading
There is no line-of-sight(LoS) path.

Ricean Fading
One strong LoS path

Nakagami Fading
Generalization of others

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