2

Performance in Fading Channel

 Introduction 2

Digital Modulation: Overview

Performance in AWGN Channel
Performance in Flat Fading Channel
 Digital Modulation: Overview 3

Most important requirement

Bandwidth efficiency (bits/s/Hz)
Commonly used Modulation Techniques
QPSK, OQPSK, /4 DQPSK
2G Systems
GMSK ~ 1.25-1.5 bits/s/Hz
8 PSK  EDGE (~ up to 3 bits/s/Hz)
BPSK, QPSK, 16 QAM and 64 QAM  4G system
(~ up to 6 bits/s/Hz)
Adaptive modulation

Linear Modulation Techniques (particularly M-QAM)

 BER in AWGN Channel 4

BPSK/BASK modulation

Modulated signal
s1 (t )  Ac cos( 2f c t ) 0  t  Tb for '1'
s2 (t )   Ac cos( 2f c t ) 0  t  Tb for '0'
2 Eb
where Ac 
Tb
And the basis function is
2
 (t)  cos( 2f c t )
Tb
 The modulated signal can be represente d as a point
in 1 - D Euclidean space
 BER in AWGN Channel (contd.) 5

si  component of ith wavefor m along  (t) direction

 otained by projecting ith wavefor m on to  (t)
Tb

  si (t )  (t) dt i  1,2
0

s1  E b and s2  - E b
 BER in AWGN Channel (contd.) 6

The received signal is

r (t )  si (t )  n(t ) 0  t  Tb
where n(t ) is zero mean gaussian noise with vari ance  n2

Probabilit y of bit error

 Eb Eb
DB = 0
d12
P  Q( )
2No d12  2 Eb

 Q( 2 b )
where  b  Eb N o , average SNR/bit
and the average probabilit y of bit error (BER)
Pb  Q( 2 b )
 BER in AWGN Channel (contd.) 7

Let the received signal be

r (t )  a s(t )  n(t ) 0  t  Tb
wher a is a known constant and will not change
the decision boundary but  E b will become  a E b
and hence the average probabilit y of bit error (BER) is
Pb  Q( 2a 2 b )
 BER in Flat Fading Channel 8

In a flat fading channel (or narrowband system), the CIR

reduces to a single impulse scaled by a time-varying complex
coefficient
N (t )  j n ( t )

c(t )    n (t ) e  ( )
n 1

Define the complex channel gain

N (t )  j n ( t )

h(t )    n (t ) e
n 1

 h(t ) e j (t )
where
h(t )  Enveople (Rayleigh, Ricean of Nakgami distribute d)
 (t )  Pahse (uniformly distribute d)
 BER in Flat Fading Channel (contd.) 9

The received signal is

r (t )  h(t ) si (t )  n(t ) 0  t  Tb
 h(t ) e j (t ) si (t )  n(t )

Assume that the phase changes “slowly” and can be

perfectly tracked => important for coherent detection

 The time-variant channel coefficient changes slowly (=> constant during

a symbol interval)
 Practically true as h(t) changes at rate of fD whereas s(t) changes at
the rate of Rs
 Slow Fading
 BER in Flat Fading Channel (contd.) 10

Coherent detection of BPSK signal

The received signal is
r (t )  h si (t )  n(t ) 0  t  Tb
For detection, value of h is required
(obtained by channel estimation )
Instantane ous SNR   h Eb / N o
2

Therefore, probabilit y of bit error at a given h (or  ) is

P( )  Q( 2 h Eb / N o )  Q( 2 )
2
 BER in Flat Fading Channel (contd.) 11

The averaged probability of error is computed by averaging

over fading distribution of SNR 
 Important formula
P   P( ) p( )d for obtaining
statistical average
0

where p( )  pdf of the instantane ous SNR 

 BER in Flat Fading Channel (contd.) 12

Rayleigh fading envelope h

pdf of h  z is
z2
z  2 2
p( z )  e 2
z0 Determine the pdf of z
2 Instantaneous
since   z 2 Eb / N o SNR

d  2 z Eb / N o dz
Using the transform ation
p ( )d  p( z )dz and E{z 2 }  2 2 average envelope power

1  Exponential
p ( )  e 
 0 distribution

 BER in Flat Fading Channel (contd.) 13

Average probabilit y of bit error (BER)


P   P( ) p( )d
0


1 
P   Q( 2 ) e d
0

Using integratio n by part
P  ....
 BER in Flat Fading Channel (contd.) 14

1  
P  1   HW: Complete the derivation.
2 1  
At high average SNR  , using Taylor series expansion
 1
1-  higher oredr terms
1  2
1
P
4
 BER in Flat Fading Channel (contd.) 15

Coherent BPSK

AWGN Channel Flat Fading Channel


Pb  Q 2 b  e  
b
2

1 b  1
 Q(x )  e  Pb  1  
2
 x2
  2 1  b  4 b

DPSK
Differential detection

AWGN Channel Flat Fading Channel

1 1
Pb  exp   b 
1 Pb  
2 2  2 b 2 b
 BER in Flat Fading Channel (contd.) 16

Example
Compare the SNR requirements for Flat fading wireless channel and wired channel at BER
of 10-6 .

A Wired channel Wireless channel

BER = 10-6  SNR wired ~ 13 dB BER = 1/4SNR
For BER = 10-6  SNR wireless = 54 dB

 SNR wireless - SNR wired = 54-13 = 41 dB

or 10log (SNR wireless ) - 10log (SNR wired ) = 41 dB
or SNR wireless / SNR wired ~ 104
or SNR wireless = 104  SNR wired
or for the same noise power (same noisy environment)
Power P wireless = 104  P wired
Fading is a big killer !
Alternatively, for the SNR = 13 dB (20)
BER in wireless channel = 1/80 ~ 10-2
BER in Flat Fading Channel (contd.) 17
 BER in Flat Fading Channel (contd.) 18

What is the cause of very high BER?

Channel is in deep fade
Probability of deep fade

 1) or
2 Eb
P( h No

P( h  1 / NEbo ) or
2

 Nb
E

P( h  1 / )  1 e  1 / NEbo
2 Eb o
No
 Outage Probability 19

If the signal envelope is changing slowly (delay requirement <<

Tc), then a deep fade will affect many simultaneous symbols
Thus, fading may lead to large error bursts, which cannot be corrected
for with coding of reasonable complexity
Therefore, these error bursts can seriously degrade end-to-end
performance.
In this case acceptable performance cannot be guaranteed
over all time or, equivalently, throughout a cell, without
drastically increasing transmit power
Under these circumstances, an outage probability is specified so that the
channel is deemed unusable for some fraction of time or space
 Outage Probability (contd.) 20

The outage probability relative to 0 is defined as


Pout  p(   o )   o p( ) d
0

where 0 typically specifies the minimum SNR required for

acceptable performance
For example, if we consider digitized voice, Pb = 10−3 is an acceptable
error rate since it generally can’t be detected by the human ear
Thus, for a BPSK signal in Rayleigh fading, b < 7 dB would be declared
an outage, so we set 0 = 7 dB
In Rayleigh fading the outage probability becomes
 o
o 1  
Pout   e d  1  e
0 
 Outage Probability (contd.) 21

Or for a given outage probability, the required average SNR is

o
 
 ln( 1  Pout )
In dB this means that 10 log  must exceed the target 10 log o by Fd =
−10 log[−ln(1 − Pout)] to maintain acceptable performance more than 100
∗ (1−Pout) percent of the time.
The quantity Fd is typically called the dB fade margin

Example 6.4 [Goldsmith05]

 Main Points 22

For Rayleigh faded envelop 1  / 

Received SNR is exponentially distributed p( )  e  0

 / 
CDF of SNR = 1  e

1
Average probability of bit error P
4
The main cause is that the channel is in deep fade

Outage probability at a given SNR o = 1  e  o / 

 References 23

A. Goldsmith, Wireless Communications. Cambridge University

Press, 2005. [Chapter 6]
6.1 Performance in AWGN channel (revision)
6.3 Performance in fading channel (selected sections)
Video lectures 4 & 5 of the course ‘Advanced 3G/4G Wireless
Mobile Communication’.
[Online]. Available: http://nptel.ac.in/courses/117104099/