Multipath fading

If the mobile antenna receives a large number, say N , reflected and scattered waves, the instantaneous received power becomes a random variable, dependent on the location of the antenna. Initially, we address the case of an unmodulated carrier, thus the transmitted signal has the form v ( t ) = cos ( c t + ) . Let the n th wave with amplitude cn and phase n arrive from an angle n relative to the direction of the motion of the antenna. n-th reflected wave

The Doppler shift f n of this wave is f n = - cos n ,

where v is the speed of the antenna. The received signal r ( t ) can be expressed as
N

r ( t) =

cn cos ( 2 fc t + + n + 2 fn t)
n=1

An inphase-quadrature representation of the form r ( t ) = I ( t ) cos c t Q ( t ) sin c t can be found with

N

I ( t) =

n=1

2 vfc t c n cos --------------c - cos n + + n

and
N

Q ( t) =

n=1

2 vf c t cn sin ---------------cos + + n n c

PDF of signal amplitude

In order to obtain the pdf of the signal amplitude we observe the random processes I ( t ) and Q ( t ) at one particular instant t o . If N and the terms in the summings are i.i.d., the central limit theorem says that I ( t o ) and Q ( t o ) are (zero-mean) Gaussian. The received signal r ( t ) = ( t ) cos ( 2 f c t + ( t ) ) has a Rayleigh amplitude ( t ) , with ( t) = is 2 - exp --------f ( ) = 22 where 2 is the variance of I ( t ) and Q ( t ) . I 2 ( t ) + Q 2 ( t ) and a uniform phase ( t ) with ( t ) ( 0, 2 ) . The pdf of ( t )

Exercise

Let z = x + jy with x and y i.i.d. Gaussian with zero mean and variance 2 . Show that = z is Rayleigh, with 'E = -- and 'E 2 = 2 2 . 2

Simulations have shown that the Rayleigh pdf appropriately describes the fading of the amplitude if N > 6 . Measurements over non-line-of-sight paths at UHF frequencies in urban environments confirmed the accuracy of the Rayleigh pdf.

1 2 - ,thus, averaged over one RF-cycle, has the The instantaneous power p , with p = -2 exponential pdf 1 p = ----- exp fp ( p) = f ( 2 ) d ----2 ----- 2 dp

where 2 = 'E p = p is the local-mean power. Find the cumulative distribution of . In a cellular voice channel, a signal - is less than outage occurs if the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio -----N z = 10 (10 dB). Find the required local-mean power to ensure an outage probability of less than 1%. Find the corresponding fade margin, defined as the excess power above the threshold zNp .

Exercise

If the set of reflected waves are dominated by one strong component with amplitude c o , Rician fading is a more appropriate model. Without lack of generality we take o = 0 , so the in-phase and quadrature component I and Q have jointly Gaussian pdf
2 2 ( I co ) Q 1 - exp ---------------------------------------fI, Q ( I, Q) = -----------. 2 2 2 2

The amplitude

Q I 2 + Q2 and the phase = arc tan -----------I + c - have the joint pdf
0 2 2 2 c o cos + c o - exp -----------------------------------------------f , ( , ) = ------------ 2 2 2 2

1 2 - c o the power of the dominant component. with 2 the local-mean scattered power and -2

The pdf of is found from the integral

f ( ) =

f, ( , ) d

2 2 + co co - exp ----------------- = ----- I -------2 2 2 o 2

where I o is the modified Bessel function of the first kind and zero order, defined as

1 x cos d I o ( x ) = -----2 e

Exercise

Show that the Rician pdf of p turns into a Rayleigh pdf for c o 0 and into a Gaussian pdf for co . Use the properties of I o ( ) Mathematical handbooks, e.g. by Abramowitz. as summarized in

1 2 - c o + 2 and the Rician K-factor Expressed in terms of the local-mean power p with p = -2
2 co with K = -------- , the pdf of the signal amplitude becomes 22

1 + K 2 2 K ( 1 + K) - exp - I o --------------------------- f ( ) = ( 1 + K ) e K - -----------2p p p

Exercise

Show that for a large local-mean signal-to-noise ratio p p n , the probability that the instantaneous power p drops below a noise threshold pn tends to p -. ( K + 1 ) e K ----pn

Experimental results showed that other pdfs can also accurately model the pdf of the received signal amplitude. An interesting property is that the incoherent (power) sum of m i.i.d. Rayleigh fading signals has a gamma distribution power p t ( p t = p 1 + p 2 + p n ) since fp ( pt)
t

i=1

pi 1 1 pt m p ---- exp - ------ exp ------------------- = - p p p p ( m) p

where denotes the convolution operation and G(m) is the gamma function, with 1 2 - then has the Nakagami mG(m+1)=m! The amplitude associated with p p = -2 pdf 2m 1 2 -----f ( ) = ------------------------------------exp m ( m) 2 m 1 p 2p

Note, however, that the incoherent sum of m signals is not a constant-envelope signal. The Nakagami pdf has been proposed as a good experimental approximation of the pdf of the amplitude of a single fading signal both for UHF mobil communication and for HF ionospheric communication. It can also approximate the Rician pdf and the log-normal pdf for small s , except in the extreme tails. Special cases occur for shape factors of 1 1 m = -- , a one-sided Gaussian pdf of the amplitude ( p > 0 ) is m = -, 1 and . For 2 2 obtained. For m = 1 , a Rayleigh pdf is recovered and for m , f ( ) 2 mp . This agrees with the fact that the incoherent sum of many independent signals behaves as a band-limited Gaussian signal. The power of such a signal (averaged over a time interval T which is substantially larger than the coherence time of the signal phases but shorter than the coherence time of any channel fading) is constant and equal to mp .

RF power spectrum
We assume that N and that the angle of arrival has the (continous) uniform pdf 1 v v . For frequencies in the band f c 1 -f ( ) = -----< f < f 1 + -- , the power density o c 2 c c spectrum of the received signal can be found from d S ( f o ) = p [ f ( ) GR ( ) + f ( ) G ( ) ] -----df f o

where p is the local-mean power received by an isotropic antenna and GR ( ) is the v antenna gain in direction . The relation between f o and is f o = fc 1 + -cos , so c vf c 1 d = --------------------------------------, where is the maximum Doppler shift . An electrical f = -----f D D -----c2 d f- f o ( f o fc ) 2 fD dipole antenna receives the electric field in vertical direction 'Ez with G ( ) = 1.5. So, if an unmodulated carrier is transmitted , the received spectrum is 3 p -----------------------------------SE ( f ) = -----2 f 2 ( f f ) 2 z
D c

Similiarly, one can derive the spectrum of a magnetic loop in the direction of v , receiving 3 - ( sin2 ) and Hy , or perpendicular to v , receiving Hx , with antenna gains G ( ) = -2 3 2 -- cos , respectively. 2

Exercise

Find an expression for the spectrum SE ( f ) for Rician fading with K = 10,
z

given the angle of arrival of the dominant wave o .