Lecture Notes Communications III

November 28, 2013

Mobile Wireless Communications
WS 2013/14
University of Stuttgart
Institute of Telecommunications (Nachrichtenbertragung)
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stephan ten Brink
www.inue.uni-stuttgart.de
1
Contents
1 Overview 4
1.1 The capacity crunch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Wireless network structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 Data rates and spectral landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4 A simple wireless communication link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.5 Technical milestones and future trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2 Wireless communication channel 12
2.1 Path loss: Describing long-term channel variations . . . . . . . . 13
2.1.1 Free-space path loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.1.2 Breakpoint path loss model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.1.3 Okumura-Hata model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.1.4 Motley-Keenan indoor path loss model . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.2 Statistical characterization of channel variations . . . . . . . . . 24
2.2.1 Large-scale channel variations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2.2 Small-scale channel variations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.2.3 Combined fading margin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.3 Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.4 Receiver sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.5 Link budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.6 Stochastic Channel models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.6.1 Frequency-selective fading: Delay spread and coherence
bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.6.2 Time-selective fading: Doppler spread and coherence time 47
2.6.3 Putting both together: General channels . . . . . . . . . 53
2.7 Ergodic and outage capacity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3 Single carrier-based wireless systems 56
3.1 Transmitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.1.1 QAM/PAM constellation mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.1.2 Training insertion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.1.3 Transmit lter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.1.4 Digital-to-analog conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.1.5 Power amplier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.2 Multipath Channel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.3 Receiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.4 Performance measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.4.1 Error-Vector Magnitude (EVM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
2
3.4.2 Bit-error-rate (BER) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.4.3 Mutual information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.5 Coherent detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.6 Channel estimation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.7 Mitigating multipath propagation by equalization . . . . . . . . . 57
3.8 Hard versus Soft QAM-demapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.9 Synchronization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.10 Frequency offset estimation and compensation . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.11 Importance of diversity in wireless communications . . . . . . . 58
4 Multi-carrier-based wireless systems 58
4.1 OFDM, brief recap /, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.2 Example: Wireless LAN (802.11a/g/n) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2.1 Transmitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2.2 Receiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2.3 Time domain processing (inner receiver) . . . . . . . . . 59
4.2.4 Frequency domain processing (outer receiver) . . . . . . 59
5 Wireless Cellular systems 59
5.1 Cellular concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.1.1 Wireless access and backhaul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.1.2 Characteristics of Uplink and Downlink Communications 60
5.2 CDMA for wireless access, example: UMTS . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.3 OFDM for wireless access, example: LTE . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
6 Future topics 60
6.1 Ultra-wideband communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
6.2 Channel coding for wireless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
6.3 Wireless MIMO systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
A Appendix 62
A.1 Interference in unlicensed ISM band . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
A.2 Symbol and bit-error probabilities of some modulation schemes . 63
B References 65
C Notes 66
3
1 Overview
The rst section provides a mostly qualitative overview of the concepts and
terms used in wireless communication systems. The further modeling and
mathematical description of transmitter, channel and receiver follows in de-
tail in the subsequent sections
1.1 The capacity crunch
Why do we need higher data rates/more wireless capacity in the future?
high-rate services
virtual reality
high-denition video conferencing
media (music, photos, video), and application downloading (!)
simply: more users (or: generally speaking, more nodes) in the
network
smartphones, tablets...
in particular: Internet of Things with millions of additional
devices/sensors, with most of those being wirelessly con-
nected to the network
the mobile cloud (cloud storage for applications, music, photos,
up/downloaded from/to mobile device)
issue in wireless: there is only one wireless spectrum
we cannot just dig trenches and lay out more cables
but: we can spatially reuse spectrum: cellular concept
4
10
0
10
1
10
2
10
3
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
I
P

T
r
a
f
f
i
c

i
n

T
b
/
s
year
Total
Fixed Internet
Managed IP
Mobile data
m
o
b
ile
d
a
ta
: s
lo
p
e
!
Figure 1: Prediction of IP-based trafc growth [1]
IP-based trafc, about 25% average annual growth rate, with mobile
(wireless) communications growing at a rate of 66% per year
in 2012: trafc volume is 43.6 Exabytes/month (135Tb/s)
in 2017: triples, to 120.6 Exabytes/month (372Tb/s)
1 Exabytes (EB) = 1e18 Bytes
1 Petabyte (PB) = 1e15 Bytes
5
1.2 Wireless network structure
base station
base station
base station
Figure 2: Concept of wireless cellular network structure
broadcast (unidirectional, down-link only)
telephony (bi-directional, up-link, down-link)
wireless access network (low data rates, way below 100Mb/s)
wireless/wired backhaul, data rates of up to a few Gb/s
wired (optical) core network (trafc concentration, very high data rates,
Tb/s)
wireless; shared medium; lots of potential issues with interference (power
control), medium access, etc...
single user, multi user
1.3 Data rates and spectral landscape
We can distinguish
licensed bands
6
e.g., cellular telephony, satellites; provider has to pay for band-
width to government: expensive
little inexpected interference sources; bandwidth, power levels
regulated by FCC in US, OFCOM in UK, Bundesnetzagentur in
Germany etc...
unlicensed bands
free! (e.g., WiFi/WLAN 802.11)
hardly regulated (only within specic communication standard)
lots of unregulated, unexpected interference sources (microwave
ovens, consumer electronic equipment, ...)
not a surprise: signal processing, RF engineering to some extend
more difcult for unlicensed bands
e.g., inband interference, see A.1
narrowband, wideband
indoor, outdoor
microwave directional links
satellite links
7
1Gb/s
10Gb/s
100Mb/s
10Mb/s
1Mb/s
100kb/s
10kb/s
1m 10m 100m 1km 10km 100km
cellular telephony
Wireless local area networks
WLAN 802.11a/g/n/ac
GSM (2nd gen.)
UMTS (3rd gen.)
LTE (4th gen.)
P2P directional links
satellite
phones
range
d
a
t
a

r
a
t
e
Figure 3: Data rate versus range of wireless systems
8
10kW
100kW
1kW
100W
10W
1W
100mW
1MHz 10MHz 100MHz 1GHz 10GHz 100GHz
frequency
t
r
a
n
s
m
i
t

p
o
w
e
r
(30dBm)
(20dBm)
Figure 4: Spectral map of wireless communication systems
9
1.4 A simple wireless communication link
In this lecture:
physical (bit transport) layer (coding, modulation, channel, detection,
estimation, tracking, decoding)
no higher layers (protocols, applications...)
digital
information
source
source
encoding
channel
encoding
constellation
mapping
TX filter
(pulse shaping)
D/A conversion
analog
waveform
channel
digital
information
sink
source
decoding
channel
decoding
demapping
A/D conversion
RX filter
analog TX
filter, amplifier
channel interface
analog RX
filter, amplifier
channel interface
Figure 5: Block diagram of a (generic) communication link
1.5 Technical milestones and future trends
Some noteworthy milestones in the evolution of wireless communications
channel coding (error-correcting coding)
an essential must in digital wireless communications
does not work at all without channel coding
as opposed to optical communications:
rst optical systems until end of 1990s had no channel coding
at all, but, still, could reach a bit error rate (BER) of 10
9
for
acceptable distances (100km)
note that uncoded BER for wireless transmission can easily be
above 20%
10
typical: code rates R
c
= K/N = 0.2...0.75 (80% to 25% redundant
bits being added, depending on noise/interference on channel)
cellular concept, spatial reuse of spectrum
handover between cells
spectrally efcient modulation: spectrum is expensive
low-noise ampliers at the receivers (low noise gures 2..4dB)
large scale integration (mobile handsets) to enable sophisticated signal
processing
to compensate for fading effects (and mitigate other interference
sources) on wireless channel
to allow strong error-correcting coding
form-factor, power consumption important for mobile devices
Future trends, active areas of research
modular/distributed base stations, remote radio heads
increase spatial density, i.e., reuse spectrum more often by using smaller
and smaller cells at lower transmit powers
hierachical cell layering macro/metro/micro/pico (femto/atto...)
cells, from several kilometers diameter down to a few meters
challenge for backhaul, more wires needed, or more wireless back-
haul?
massive MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output; 100..1000 antennas;
distributed in building facade/windows)
higher frequencies (60GHz and above)
from point-to-point to coordinated multipoint transmission/reception
signal processing not done at base station locations, but in special
central nodes in network
non-orthogonal modulation for cellular systems
more elaborated multiuser signal processing rather than orthogonal
time/frequency/code division TDMA, FDMA, CDMA, as such
schemes need inter-cell coordination
11
2 Wireless communication channel
As opposed to cable-based communications like electrical wires or optical
bers, the wireless medium is mainly characterized by its atmospheric absorp-
tion, as shown in Fig. 6; no further material constants are needed.
Figure 6: Atmospheric absorption (A: with rain, B: without rain)
As we will see, the free space path loss is the dominant cause of signal at-
tenuation for frequencies below 20GHz, and we can safely neglect the atmo-
spheric absorption for most communication systems of practical relevance
today. Note that the atmospheric absorption (in dB/km) comes on top of (in
addition to) the path loss.
In the following, we introduce simplied path loss models to abstract complex
physical phenonema, to enable simple design of new systems in the subse-
quent sections. In particular, we will distinguish classes like
line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of sight (NLOS)
indoor, outdoor channels
12
scenarios such as urban, suburban, rural (and rened scenarios such as
Manhattan, hilly terrain...)
There are three main components to modeling the wireless channel:
path loss
large-scale fading
and small-scale fading, with the latter two resulting in power variations
(i.e., fading) at the receiver
1) path loss
free-space path loss
or empirical model
deterministic
2) large-scale fading
shadowing by large objects statistically modelled by
log-normal distributions;
spatial variations within hundreds of wavelengths
around a local average
3) small-scale fading
interference between different multipath components
statistically modelled as Rayleigh distributions;
spatial variations within a few wavelengths around
a local average
Transmitter Receiver
Figure 7: Three main components for modeling signal attenuation
2.1 Path loss: Describing long-term channel variations
We start with considering the path loss between transmitter and receiver as
a function of distance. The path loss can be assumed to be constant if the
received power is averaged over a sufciently long oberservation interval.
Path loss studies are used to compute the transmit power required (or
to nd the best transmitter location) to cover a certain area with, e.g.,
broadcast or wireless cellular telephony services.
The path loss in combination with a transmit power also provides a
quick estimate of the data rates that can be expected over the wireless
link.
However, the path loss is not a sufciently detailed model to be useful
for digital Modulator/Demodulator (MODEM) design; for this, the time-
13
and frequency-selective nature of the channel needs to be considered, as
it is done in stochastic channel models for algorithm design of the digi-
tal modem (modulation, demodulation, estimation, tracking, detection).
Web-Demo Path Loss Models, see IN-Homepage
http://www.inue.uni-stuttgart.de/lehre/demo.html
2.1.1 Free-space path loss
For narrow-band (single sine-wave, unmodulated) carriers, the free-space path
loss writes as
PL
free
(, d)[
dB
= 10log
10
_

4d
_
2
(1)
with = c/ f
c
, c = 3 10
8 m
s
, and carrier frequency f
c
.
Note that PL
free
(, d)[
dB
is dened such that loss corresponds to negative
values in dB.
A simple link budget consideration, which is referred to as Friis law, is given
as
P
RX
= P
TX
G
TX
G
RX
PL
free
(2)
with transmit power P
TX
, and G
TX
,G
RX
being the transmit and receive an-
tenna gains, respectively.
Expressing Friis law in logarithmic quantities yields
P
RX
[
dBm
= P
TX
[
dBm
+ G
TX
[
dB
+ G
RX
[
dB
+ PL
free
[
dB
(3)
Note that the path loss PL
free
(, d) is proportional to 1/d
2
.
14
-120
-110
-100
-90
-80
-70
-60
-50
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
p
a
t
h

l
o
s
s

i
n

d
B
distance in m
path loss
Figure 8: Free-space path loss
2.1.2 Breakpoint path loss model
It has been observed in real-world measurement campaigns, that often, the
absolute value of the path loss (in dB) grows with exponents larger than 2,
e.g., 1/d
4
. A simple 2-path model helps to understand this effect.
15
Transmitter Receiver
direct path
reflected path
Figure 9: Two-path model, leading to the Breakpoint model
The geometric set-up of Fig. 9 shows a direct path and a ground-reected
path.
For d h
TX
, h
RX
, and assuming perfect reection of the ground-wave at
the surface of the earth, the two paths arrive at the receiver with almost
the same eld strength [E
d
[ =[E
direct
[ [E
re
[
the attenuation due to reection and (slightly) longer path length
can be neglected
Through reection, the ground wave is phase-shifted by , and the
longer path length induces a phase difference between the two paths
so that coherent superposition at the receiver gives rise to
E =E
d
-E
d
exp(j) =E
d
[1exp(j)] =E
d
[1cos() + j sin()]
(4)
The phase difference is given as
=
2

d (5)
with d being the path length difference, which, from straightforward
geometric considerations, follows as
d = d
re
d
direct
=
_
d
2
+(h
TX
+h
RX
)
2

_
d
2
+(h
TX
h
RX
)
2
(6)
16
For d h
TX
, h
RX
, eq. (6) can be approximated as
d
2h
TX
h
RX
d
(7)
(note: non-trivial, follows from Taylor series expansion)
For the squared magnitude of (4), proportional to the received power,
we nd
[E[
2
= 4[E
d
[
2
sin
2
_

2
_
(8)
With (1), (8), (5), and (7), the path loss of the Breakpoint Model can be
computed to
PL
BP
=
_

4d
_
2
4sin
2
_
2h
TX
h
RX
d
_
(9)
For a distance d beyond a breakpoint, d > d
break
, with
d
break
4h
TX
h
RX
/ (10)
we can further assume sin() in (9), and nd even simpler
PL
BP

_

4d
_
2
4
_
2h
TX
h
RX
d
_
2
=
_
h
TX
h
RX
d
2
_
2
Thus, a new Friis law can be written as
P
RX
P
TX
G
TX
G
RX

_
h
TX
h
RX
d
2
_
2
(11)
providing an analytical conrmation of the observed 1/d
4
-behavior.
Note that (11) is no longer dependent on the frequency.
This model is sometimes also referred to as plane earth model, as
there is variant considering the Earths curvature (improves prediction
quality for d 40km).
we can simply use (11) to replace the classic Friis law of (2)
required: height of transmit antenna h
TX
and height of receive antenna
h
RX
must be much smaller than d
break
, which usually is the case
17
Again, we use a logarithmic formulation for convenient link-budget compu-
tations. Rather than sticking to a path loss exponent of n = 4, measurements
suggest that we may allow general values of n after the breakpoint, to obtain
an even better coincidence with the measured data.
P
RX
[
dBm
P
TX
[
dBm
+ G
TX
[
dB
+ G
RX
[
dB
+ 2 10log
10
_
h
TX
h
RX
1m
2
_

dB
-n 10log
10
_
d
1m
_

dB
(12)
It turns out that reasonable path loss exponents for line-of-sight (LOS) sce-
narios are n = 1.5, ..., 2.5, and n = 3, ..., 4.5 for non-line-of-sight scenarios
(NLOS). A famous path loss exponent is n =3.4 (urban); it has been used
in many studies of wireless telephony coverage. Even simpler models use a
suitably chosen (according to the scenario) path loss exponent direcly in
Friis law, i.e., in (1), (2).
-140
-120
-100
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
10
2
10
3
10
4
p
a
t
h

l
o
s
s

i
n

d
B
distance in m
d
-4
reference
free-space
Breakpoint model
Figure 10: Illustration of d
4
- (or breakpoint-) path loss model for
h
TX
= 10m, h
RX
= 1.5m at f
c
= 900MHz; with (10), d
break
computes to 180m
18
-140
-120
-100
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
10
2
10
3
10
4
p
a
t
h

l
o
s
s

i
n

d
B
distance in m
d
-4
reference
free-space
Breakpoint model
Figure 11: Breakpoint path loss model for h
TX
= 30m, d
break
= 540m
2.1.3 Okumura-Hata model
one of the oldest, yet most popular classic empirical models
measurements made in the Tokyo area, Japan, in 1968
has been essential for the initial phase of GSM network planning in the
1990s
notation, h
TX
= h
base
, h
RX
= h
mobile
, corresponding to a base station
transmitter, and a mobile terminal receiver
The model applies mostly to large (macro-)cells as used in GSM, in dB
PL
OkumuraHata
(d) = A+Blog
10
(d/km) +C (13)
Valid for d > 1km. The parameters A, B and C are obtained from mea-
surement campaigns and regression (curve tting); they depend on the
frequency and the antenna heights.
A = 69.55+26.16log
10
( f
c
/MHz) 13.82log
10
(h
base
/m) a(h
mobile
/m)
B = 44.96.55log
10
(h
base
/m) (14)
19
with the carrier frequency f
c
given in MHz, and the distance d given in
km.
The function a(h
mobile
) and the factor C depend on the environment.
For small to medium-sized cities it was found
a(h
mobile
) = (1.1log
10
( f
c
/MHz) 0.7)h
mobile
/m(1.56log
10
( f
c
/MHz) 0.8)
(15)
C = 0
For metropolitan areas
a(h
mobile
) =
_
8.29(log
10
(1.54h
mobile
/m))
2
1.1 for f
c
< 300MHz
3.2(log
10
(11.76h
mobile
/m))
2
4.97 for f
c
300MHz
C = 0
For suburban environments
a(h
mobile
) as dened in (15)
C =2
_
log
10
_
1
28
f
c
/m
__
2
5.4
For rural areas
a(h
mobile
) as dened in (15)
C =4.78(log
10
( f
c
/MHz))
2
+18.33log
10
( f
c
/MHz) 40.94
The model is valid for carrier frequencies f
c
= 150...1500MHz, effective
base station antenna heights of h
base
= 30..200m, effective mobile ter-
minal antenna heights of h
mobile
= 1..10m, and distances d = 1...20km
(important: not valid for d < 1km).
20
-180
-160
-140
-120
-100
-80
1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000
p
a
t
h

l
o
s
s

i
n

d
B
distance in m
free-space
rural
suburban
metropolitan
small/medium-sized cities
Figure 12: Path loss model, Okumura-Hata, for h
base
= 30m, h
mobile
= 1m at
f
c
= 900MHz
The model was extended in 1999 to include frequencies of f
c
=1500...2000MHz
(relevant for 2nd and 3rd generation cellular systems, like GSM/EDGE
and UMTS) by the COST 231-Hata model [2] through redening A to
A = 46.3+33.9log
10
( f
c
/MHz) 13.82log
10
(h
base
/m) a(h
mobile
/m)
B stays unchanged as in (14), and
a(h
mobile
) as dened in (15)
C = 0 for small and medium-sized cities,
and C = 3 in metropolitan areas
2.1.4 Motley-Keenan indoor path loss model
The Motley-Keenan path loss model writes as
PL
MotleyKeenan
( f
c
, , d) = PL
free
( f
c
, d)[
dB
d (16)
with linear path loss coefcient . A typical value for indoor environments is
= 0.44dB/m.
21
e.g. used in wireless local area networks (WLAN).
-140
-120
-100
-80
-60
-40
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
p
a
t
h

l
o
s
s

i
n

d
B
distance in m
free-space
Motley-Keenan model
Figure 13: Example, path loss according to Motley-Keenan for = 0.44dB/m.
wall material frequency [MHz] thickness [cm] penetration loss [dB]
concrete 900 20 30
brick stone 900 27 7
pressed wood panels 900 3.2 1.5
glass 900 2 3
metal 815 - 26
Table 1: Penetration loss of different wall building materials
All of these path loss models can be extended by including an addional (pen-
etration) loss of known objects in between both ends of the communication
link. Some penetration loss numbers for various building materias are given in
Tab. 1.
In summary:
Plenty of other path loss models are available in the literature, with spe-
cic focus on certain frequency ranges, terrains, applications etc., e.g.,
Walsh-Ikegami model, Epstein-Peterson model, ...
22
Path loss models as outlined above are not exact science, but rather sim-
plistic models to obtain rst estimates of the involved power levels
More accurate modelling, including solving Maxwell equations for spe-
cic topologies are much more complex
Today, for cellular network planning (where to put how many base
stations at what power levels?), ray-tracing tools have become state-of-
the-art
can consider exact position of buildings, reection/diffraction prop-
erties of structures/terrain features etc. to obtain a location specic
prediction of mean received power levels
Still, simplistic path loss models as outlined are used in standardization
for rst link budget considerations of new systems
23
2.2 Statistical characterization of channel variations
Even if the positions of transmitter and receiver are xed, the eld
strength (or, in our case, the receive power) is varying. This is referred
to as fading.
In fact, the power computed by the path loss models of the previous
section is only a mean value, and, due to spatial/temporal variations,
that threshold value for the received power (as provided by the path loss
model) is only exceeded at 50% of the locations and during 50% of
the time, which would mean a very bad coverage
to increase the coverage from 50% to 90%, or, to reduce the out-
age probability P
out
from 50% to 10%, one has to include fading
margins
how to compute fading margins for small-scale and large-scale
fading phenomena is subject of this section
The fading happens on different spatial scales (and, in consequence, for
moving TX/RX nodes, at different variation speeds), as already outlined
in Fig. 7:
small-scale fading of RX power around a local mean: caused by
interfering multipath components with constructive/destructive su-
perposition; on a spatial scale of a few wavelengths; magnitude
variations can be modelled statistically by Rayleigh distribution
(non-line of sight, NLOS) or Rice distribution (with line-of-sight
component, LOS); typically fast variations (in particular when RX
moves); with moving nodes, can be referred to as fast fading, or
short-term fading
large-scale fading (shadow fading) of RX power around a lo-
cal mean: caused by geometric features of the surroundings, like
buildings structures, or terrain features (hills, valleys/mountains),
within many wavelengths (meters), can be statistically modelled by
log-normal distributions; typically much slower variations, slow
fading
On top of all of this: path loss, as discussed before; modelled deterministi-
cally
path loss models are most useful for computing fading margins and out-
age probabilities (main application)
24
they are less useful for the design of RX algorithms like estimation,
tracking; for this, a more detailed modelling of the channel is needed
(see next section)
2.2.1 Large-scale channel variations
We can extend (3) to include the large-scale (shadow) fading effects
P
RX
[
dBm
= P
TX
[
dBm
+ G
TX
[
dB
+ G
RX
[
dB
+ PL
free
[
dB
+ S[
dB
(17)
-120
-110
-100
-90
-80
-70
-60
-50
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
p
a
t
h

l
o
s
s

i
n

d
B
distance in m
path loss
superimposed
shadow fading
fading margin
receiver position
Figure 14: Illustration of path loss PL
free
[
dB
with overlaid shadow fading S[
dB
From measurements:
measurements of S are performed using Small Scale Average (SSA)
values, to get rid of any small-scale fading effects: measurements are
averaged around same distance from transmitter across several meters in
spatial scale
25
As it turns out: the large-scale fading S can be approximated if ex-
pressed in dB by a Gaussian-distributed random variable
with mean value
S,dB
= P
RX

dBm
and standard deviation
S
ranging from 4..10dB depending on sur-
rounding terrain/structural features
a typical value for urban scenarios is
S
= 6dB
why Gaussian distributed in dB? rstly, it is an empirical observation;
but secondly, there is a plausible explanation
the received path at each location has been reected off walls/ground
etc. several times, and the overall attenuation is a product of the
individual attenuations of each reection at those geometric ob-
jects/structural features
in the log-domain, the product turns into a sum; we can assume
the attenuation at each reection to be a random variable, and
thus, the sum of many of such attenuation random variables (in
dB) turns into an overall Gaussian distribution of the cumulative
attenation, which is measured by S
Note: As the average value is already modelled by the path loss, we
can safely set
S,dB
= 0 in the following, and S just models the large-
scale variations on top of the path loss according to (17)
The probability density function (PDF) of the random variable (RV) S is
of the well-known Gaussian shape
p
S
(x) =
1

2
exp
_

(x
S,dB
)
2
2
2
S
_
(18)
with standard deviation
S
=
_
E [S
2
-
S,dB
], and mean value
S,dB
=
E [S] (all in dB).
As per our convention:
S,dB
= E [S] = 0,
S
=
_
E [S
2
]
Note: The received power in linear (i.e., non-dB) scale is log-normally
distributed, with PDF
p
S,lin
(x) =
10/ln(10)

2x
exp
_

(10log
10
(x)
S,dB
)
2
2
2
S
_
; x 0 (19)
26
That is why shadow fading is also referred to as log-normal fading.
The cumulative distribution function (CDF) of (18) describes the probability
of S being smaller than a value x, and is given as
P(S < x) = c
S
(x) =
x

p
S
(s)ds =
_
x
S,dB

S
_
(20)
with (x) being the CDF of the standard Gaussian distribution, which can
also be written as
(x) = 1Q(x) = Q(-x) (21)
where Q(x) is the probability of S being bigger than a value x, given as
P(S > x) = Q
_
x
S,,dB

S
_
and
Q(x) =
1
2
erfc
_
x

2
_
=
1
2
_
1erf
_
x

2
__
The inverse function is
Q
1
(x) =

2erf
1
(12x)
27
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
-4 -2 0 2 4
Q
(
x
)
x
10
-7
10
-6
10
-5
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
-4 -2 0 2 4
Q
(
x
)
x
Figure 15: The Q()-function in linear (left) and log-scale (right)
Large-scale fading margin
as pointed out above, without a fading margin, the path loss models
provide mean power levels which, due to the fading, are only exceeded
at 50% of the locations and during 50% of the time
to reduce the outage probability P
out
from 50% to 10%, or lower, (or,
to increase coverage from 50% to 90%) one has to include a fading
margin, i.e., the received power should be higher by a specic amount
given by the fading margin M
S,dB
for a given fading margin, the outage probability can be computed as
follows
P
out
= P(S <M
S,dB
) = c
S
(M
S,dB
) = Q
_
M
S,dB

S
_
(22)
Example: for
S
= 6dB, M
S,dB
= 9.9dB, the outage probability (of the
large-scale fading only) computes to P
out
= 0.05
28
or, for a desired outage probability P
out
, the required shadow fading
margin can be calculated as
M
S,dB
=
S
Q
1
(P
out
) (23)
Example: To reduce the outage probability from 50% (as provided by
path loss model) down to P
out
= 0.1 for
S
= 6dB, a fading margin of
M
S,dB
= 7.7dB has to be accounted for.
0
5
10
15
20
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Figure 16: Large-scale fading margin versus desired outage probability
2.2.2 Small-scale channel variations
We can further extend (3) to also include small-scale fading effects
P
RX
[
dBm
= P
TX
[
dBm
+ G
TX
[
dB
+ G
RX
[
dB
+ PL
free
[
dB
+ S[
dB
+ R
2

dB
(24)
As it turns out from measurements in non-line of sight environments
(NLOS)
29
NLOS: no strong direct path, e.g., macro-cellular (large cell sizes,
1km and bigger)
in-phase and quadrature component of the received baseband sig-
nals are zero-mean Gaussian distributed (constructive/destructive
superposition of many multipath components, reections)
thus: the absolute value (magnitude) as described by a random
variable R can be shown to be Rayleigh distributed (in linear scale),
with probability density function (PDF)
p
R
(x) =
x

2
R
exp
_

x
2
2
2
R
_
; x 0 (25)
with mean value E [R] =
R
_

2
and variance (average power) E
_
R
2

= 2
2
R
in order to have 0dB gain (no inuence on link budget), we have
to set
E
_
R
2

= 2
2
R
!
= 1
i.e.

2
R
=
1
2
in the following
note: the received signal (envelope, i.e., magnitude) is only Rayleigh
distributed if it is normalized to the local mean signal level, i.e.,
normalized as above
the power (squared magnitude R
2
) is exponentially distributed
30
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
y
x
Figure 17: Rayleigh probability density function for normalization
2
R
= 1/2
the CDF of R, with P(R < x) = c
R
(x), is
c
R
(x) =
x

p
R
(r)dr = 1exp
_

x
2
2
2
R
_
= 1exp
_
x
2
_
; x 0 (26)
For scenarios with strong direct line-of-sight (LOS) path (e.g. micro-
cellular, small cells), it was observed that the magnitude can be better
described by a Ricean distribution, rather than Rayleigh; not further
considered here.
Small-scale fading margin
In the same spirit as discussed before, we can also dene a small-scale
fading margin M
R,dB
again, the received power should be higher by a specic amount given
31
by the small-scale fading margin
M
R,dB
= 10log
10
M
R
with (26) we nd the outage probability (of the small-scale fading only)
to
P
out
=P
_
R
2

dB
<M
R,dB
_
=P
_
R <
1

M
R
_
=c
R
_
1

M
R
_
=1exp
_

1
M
R
_
(27)
Similarly, for a given P
out
, we can compute
M
R
=1/ln(1P
out
)
or, in dB,
M
R,dB
=10log
10
(ln(1P
out
)) (28)
Example: To reduce the outage probability down to P
out
= 0.1 (or 10%)
for the Rayleigh fading only, we need to add a fading margin of M
R,dB
=
9.77dB.
0
5
10
15
20
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Figure 18: Small-scale fading margin for a desired outage probability
32
From Fig. 18 we can see that for M
R,dB
= 0 the outage is higher than 50%;
from (27) it follows P
out
63%; this is due to our power normalization, E
_
R
2

!
=
1 ; to get 50% outage, we would need an offset of M
R,dB
=10log
10
(ln(10.5))
1.6dB.
Note:
fast fading is less of an issue for digital communications
typically, a digital receiver processes an entire received message se-
quence (packet) at once
the transmission format is designed such that the receiver sees
many fading instances during that packet, and so, the receiver gen-
erally can track the changes
the outages due to small-scale fading are taken care of by chan-
nel coding, and they are less dramatic in most cases (i.e., no out-
age at all)
this is different for the large-scale fading: the signal energy stays below
a threshold over a long period of time compared to the packet duration,
and, thus, generates true outages
33
2.2.3 Combined fading margin
-160
-140
-120
-100
-80
-60
-40
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
4
p
a
t
h

l
o
s
s

i
n

d
B
distance in m
Shadow fading
Rayleigh fading
path loss
Figure 19: Free-space path loss with overlaid shadow- and (shadow plus
Rayleigh)-fading statistics for
S
= 6dB
To compute the joint large/small-scale fading margin, one had to con-
sider the distribution of a new random variable
Z[
dB
= S[
dB
+ R
2

dB
and compute the joint probability density function p
Z
(x).
however, evaluation by numerical integration is tedious
it turns out that adding up the separate margins provides more conserva-
tive results, and thus appears to be sufcient in practice
M
tot,dB
= M
S,dB
+M
R,dB
> M
Z,dB
34
2.3 Noise
Thermal noise oor depends on the environment temperature T
e
at the
receive antenna
reference temperature typically assumed: isotropically T
e
= T
0
= 290K
(i.e., noise oor at temperature of 17

C)
compare to cold sky 4K
Noise power spectral density N
0
= k
B
T
0
Boltzmann constant k
B
= 1.38 10
23
J/K
noise power within receiver bandwidth B (in Hz) is P
n
= N
0
B.
for B = 1Hz, resulting in
N
0
[
dBm/Hz
= 10log
10
k
B
T
0
1mW 1Hz
174dBm/Hz
(noise power in a 1Hz bandwidth)
the absolute noise power within a bandwidth B at the RX antenna is
P
n
[
dBm
174dBm+ 10log
10
(B/Hz)[
dB
(29)
35
man-made noise
(urban)
man-made noise
(suburban)
thermal noise floor
n
o
i
s
e

t
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e

a
t

a
n
t
e
n
n
a
Figure 20: Noise temperature of various noise sources versus frequency (from
Standard [3])
in most cases: the thermal noise can be assumed to be dominant
man-made noise urban; signicant contribution up to 5GHz
man-made noise suburban: signicant contribution up to 1GHz
when considering the noise gure of the RX on top of thermal
noise, then man-made noise becomes even less relevant
receiver noise gure N
F
SNR
in
at input of RX divided by SNR
out
at output of RX,
N
F
=
SNR
in
SNR
out
if SNR
in
= SNR
out
then RX noise gure (analog part, predom-
inadly) is 0dB
36
however, typical: N
F
= 2..8dB
typically, all noise effects combined in a single noise source, modelled
as AWGN: circular symmetric complex Gaussian random variable with
noise power spectral density N
0
, or N
0
/2 per real component (for com-
plex baseband signals)
independent real, imaginary part; if sampled at some rate, gener-
ates i.i.d. (independent identically distributed) random variables
dominant noise source is at receiver
With denitions above, and understanding of link margins, fading margins,
noise oors, we are now ready to compute an overall link budget for a wire-
less system, see next sections.
2.4 Receiver sensitivity
the receiver sensitivity P
RX,req
is the absolute receive power (in dBm)
that is required to obtain (for a given transmission rate) a target bit error
rate (BER) of, e.g., 10
3
(or, a target frame error rate, FER)
for example, with an assumed 16-QAM modulation, the required
signal-to-noise ratio (from simulations, or analytically) is about
SNR
req
= E
s
/N
0
[
req
11.5dB, see Appendix A.2
for a symbol rate of R
s
= 10MBd, corresponding to an occupied
passband bandwidth (for perfect pulse-shaping lter with = 0) of
B = 10MHz, we obtain a thermal noise power at the antenna input
according to (29) of
P
n
[
dBm
174dBm+ 10log
10
(B/Hz)[
dB
=104dBm
note: recap connection symbol rate, occupied bandwidth through
pulse-shaping, Web-Demo Pulse Shaping at
http://www.inue.uni-stuttgart.de/lehre/demo.html
the receiver sensitivity is then
P
RX,req

dBm
= P
n
[
dBm
+SNR
req
+N
F
+M
Imp
with noise gure N
F
of the analog receive chain (in dB, typ. 3dB),
and an implementation margin of, e.g., M
Imp
= 5dB to account for
various losses in the hardware implementation
37
with above numbers we obtain a receiver sensitivity of
P
RX,req

dBm
=104dBm+11.5dB+3dB+5dB =84.5dBm
to operate with 16-QAM at symbol rate R
s
= 10MBd with BER of
10
3
one 16-QAM symbol conveys 4 bits, and thus, the uncoded
data rate is R
D
= 4 R
s
= 40Mb/s
next: we check what TX power P
TX
ist required to achieve a cer-
tain distance at a specic outage probability P
out
2.5 Link budget
The link budget is an important design tool for wireless communication sys-
tems, and has been the starting point of many successful system designs in
operation today. It links the desired data rate and coverage (range, outage)
with the receiver sensitivity and required minimal transmit power. It can be
used to study the inuence of the various system parameters. Typical objec-
tives are
to compute the minimal required transmit power given a desired data
rate, bandwidth and coverage (range, outage)
or (the other way round) to compute the minimal supported receiver
sensitivity (and thus to infer on, e.g., the required bandwidth, or maxi-
mal possible data rate) for a given maximal transmit power and range
or, to compute the maximal range for a given transmit power and re-
ceiver sensitivity, etc...
38
Figure 21: Link budget, parameter overview
Fig. 21 provides an overview of the most relevant parameters for link budget
considerations.
39
Parameter GSM (DL) WLAN
given: desired (uncoded) data rate R
D
384kb/s 72Mb/s
given: desired channel bandwidth B 200kHz 20MHz
P
n
[
dBm
174dBm+ 10log
10
(B/Hz)[
dB
-121dBm -101dBm
number of bits per symbol M
b
,R
D
/B| 2 bits/symbol 6 bits/symbol
SNR
req
(simulation/analytical, see A.2) at 10% BER -1dB; NEW 2dB 8.5dB; NEW 13.5dB
RX noise gure N
F
4dB 5dB
RX implementation margin M
Imp
5dB 8dB
sensitivity P
RX,req

dBm
= P
n
[
dBm
+SNR
req
+N
F
+M
Imp
-113dBm; NEW -110dBm -79.5dBm; NEW -74.5dBm
RX antenna gain G
RX
(minus) 0dB 0dB
R
2
and S-fading margin for P
out
= 0.1 (plus) 7.7dB+9.7dB N/A, 9.7dB
absolute value of path loss PL at desired range (plus)
TX antenna gain G
TX
(minus) 5dB 0dB
radio frequency (RF) cable losses L
cable
(plus) 6dB 2dB
minimal required TX power P
TX
(at output of power amplier) NEW: add 3dB to old value NEW: add 5dB to old value
Table 2: Link budget for computing the required minimal TX power P
TX
Note: in mobile cellular systems, up-link (from mobile terminal to base sta-
tion) and down-link (from base station to mobile terminal) different
base station: large TX power possible, low RX noise gure, big TX/RX
antenna gains possible
mobile terminal: small TX power (battery), worse noise gure (cheap,
mass production), small antenna gain (also, low antenna height)
40
2.6 Stochastic Channel models
2.6.1 Frequency-selective fading: Delay spread and coherence
bandwidth
First, some brief recap of the statistics of small-scale (multipath) fading (large-
scale fading disregarded here, i.e., averaged out); what we have learnt thus far
complex phasor: linear superposition of many signal paths (reections)
E
tot
=

i
E
i
e
ji
E
tot
could be the resulting eld strength, or the complex envelope of the
corresponding baseband signal
as the number of signal paths goes to innity, the real and imaginary
part of E become Gaussian distributed with mean zero, and, in turn, the
magnitude R =[E
tot
[ is Rayleigh-distributed
obviously, we have E [E
tot
] = 0, and, by proper normalization (removal
of the path loss and shadow fading average), the average power is E
_
[E
tot
[
2
_
=
1
for now, TX and RX shall not be moving, and, on a larger scale, we
can assume the channel to be time-invariant (LTI-system), with a time-
domain impulse response
h(t) =
N

n=1
a
n
(t
n
)
With the time-shifting property of the Fourier-transform, the frequency
response (transfer function) writes as
H( f ) =
N

n=1
a
n
e
j2 f n
with a
n
being the (constant) complex channel weight of the nth signal
reection at delay
n
incident to the receiver
note that the magnitude [a
n
[ is Rayleigh distributed, and we shall
normalize such that E
_
[a
n
[
2
_
= 1 is fullled (zero channel gain)
41
Figure 22: Tapped-delay line model of frequency-selective channel with time-
invariant multipath propagation
Example: two paths arriving at equal stength and same with carrier fre-
quency (no Doppler shift, see later), but at different delays
1
,
2
(for
convenience, we set
1
= 0)
h(t) =
1

2
( (t) +a
2
(t
2
)), [a
2
[ = 1
with frequency response
H( f ) =
1

_
1+a
2
e
j2 f
2
_
for a
2
= 1 we obtain the squared magnitude as
[H( f )[
2
=[H
1
( f )[
2
=
1
2
[1+cos(2 f
2
) j sin(2 f
2
)[
2
=1+cos(2 f
2
)
from Fig. 23 it can be seen that the channel is frequency-selective (but
time-invariant, or time-at)
42
for illustration, two further frequency responses are given,
[H
2
( f )[
2
=
1
1.25

1 j 0.5e
j2 f 0.7
2

2
and, as a superposition of three paths,
[H
3
( f )[
2
=
1
1.93

1 j 0.5e
j2 f 0.7
2
+(0.2 j0.8) e
j2 f 1.6
2

2
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
-1 -0.5 0 0.5 1
in dB
Figure 23: Frequency transfer function for a two- and three-path channel with
different complex path-weights
obviously, the frequency-selectivity of the channel is determined by its
multipath delay spread T
d
, which is the time difference between the
shortest and longest delay of those paths with signicant signal contri-
butions
the coherence bandwidth is then dened as that frequency separation
f = B
c
at which the attenuation of any two frequency domain samples
43
becomes decorrelated (not signicantly inuenced by each other)
B
c

1
2T
d
note: the important observation is that the coherence bandwidth is in-
versely proportional to the delay spread, B
c
1/T
d
; the factor 1/2 can
be debated; a smaller factor, e.g., 1/8 may be more appropriate
some observations:
the fading is only in frequency direction; no change in time-direction,
that is, for any time t, the spectrum looks the same: static channel
if the symbol duration T
s
of the transmitted signal is much larger
than the delay spread, T
s
T
d
, or, equivalently, the bandwidth B
(symbol rate for binary transmission) of our signal is much smaller
than the coherence bandwidth, B B
c
, then the signal will expe-
rience a frequency at channel, that is, it will pass through the
channel without getting distorted (only weighted by, effectively, a
single complex coefcient as a whole)
conversely, if T
s
T
d
, or B B
c
, then the different spectral com-
ponents of the transmitted signal will undergo different complex
weightings, and, for single carrier transmission, an equalizer will
be needed at the receiver to compensate for this intersymbol inter-
ference induced by multipath propagationaverage
trick with multi-carrier transmission (like OFDM, orthogonal fre-
quency division multiplex)
rather than with symbol duration T
s
(like for single carrier
communications), transmit at N
sub
-times longer symbol du-
ration T
sub
= N
sub
T
s
(with N
sub
narrowband subcarriers in
parallel)
by choosing N
sub
sufciently large, we, again, can archieve
T
sub
T
d
, or, B
sub
B
c
, i.e., frequency-at fading per sub-
carrier (no equalization needed)
that is why most modern wireless communication systems use
multi-carrier modulation
WLAN, LTE, DVB, DAB, ...
44
Some notes on the WLAN802.11a-indoor channel model
[see web-demo]
tapped-delay line model with equally spaced taps
path-weight samples a
n
are taken from complex Gaussian distribution
such that E
_
[a
n
[
2
_
= 1
from measurements: exponential power delay prole
impose an exponentially decaying power delay prole, such that
the average power of the complex Gaussan random variable at
(discrete-time) path delay kT/
rms
is

2
k
=
2
0
exp(kT/
rms
)
again, the average power over all path delays is normalized such
that

2
k
= 1
45
Figure 24: Exponentially decaying power delay prole as used for indoor
WLAN performance evaluation
the power delay prole introduces frequency-selectivity (but the channel
stays constant, static, in time-direction)
it turns out that, due to
rms
100ns (i.e., B
c
5MHz) there are several
frequency notches (deep fades) in a 20MHz bandwidth, and multi-
carrier transmission has to be used to avoid the need for (complex)
equalization the RX
note that the transmission in WLAN 802.11 is organized in packets of
up to a few milliseconds in duration, conveying several thousand bits of
data per packet
the channel tap coefcients are assumed to stay constant during
the duration of a packet (only frequency-selective channel)
examples of delay spreads
rms
46
indoor residential environments 5..30ns
indoor ofce 10..100ns (depending on room size, building size)
factories, airport halls, 50..200ns
microcells, 100..500ns
2.6.2 Time-selective fading: Doppler spread and coherence time
(also referred to as frequency-at fading; we will see why later)
in previous section: superposition of rays arriving at receiver with dif-
ferent delays
now: superposition of rays with different frequency offset (i.e., Doppler
shift)
will become a linear time-varying system, LTV; channel impulse re-
sponse is time-varying due to moving TX or RX with speed v
need to nd an expression for (time-varying) complex envelope at RX
which is a superposition of N slightly Doppler-shifted signal
the rays come from arbitrary angles surrounding the receiver; let
us assume they arrive only from horizontal directions
each ray has a different Doppler-shift with respect to the velocity
vector of the receiver
the Doppler shift is given as
f
d
=f
0

v
c
cos

for a moving RX (or TX) with a velocity v, we obtain the maximal

Doppler shift for f
D
= f
D,max
=

f
0

v
c

( = 0), and, correspondingly,

a Doppler spread of D
s
= 2 f
D
the coherence time T
c
of a wireless channel is dened as that time in-
terval over which the fading coefcient changes signicantly (becomes
decorrelated); it can be shown that
T
c

1
D
s
47
again, the important fact is that the coherence time T
c
is inversely pro-
portional to the delay spread D
s
; the particular factor is subject of de-
bate, depending on denition of changing signicantly, becoming
decorrelated
e.g., T
c
= 1/4D
s
could be based on auto-correlation of time-domain signal
Example: two paths arriving at equal stength and same delay, but with
slightly different carrier frequencies f
1
, f
2
due to Doppler shift (for con-
venience, we set f
1
= f
c
, f
2
= f
c
+ f
d
)
in the baseband representation, we get the linear time-variant impulse
response (unnormalized)
h(t, ) =
_
1+e
j
e
j2 f
d
t
_
()
we say that the channel is time-selective, that is, due to the beat-
ing among the Doppler-shifted rays, at some times the channel looks
good for transmission, i.e. [h(t, )[ big, at other times it looks bad,
[h(t, )[ small
the beating of the complex envelope is with frequency f
d
Generation of multipath fading using the Jakes/Clarke model
see corresponding web-demo
for testing the functionality of digital modem algorithms, not only the
statistics, but also the progression in time of amplitude uctuations is of
importance
in the Jakes/Clarke model [4], [5], N
sc
scattered rays n = 1, ..., N
sc
are
superimposed, each with an individual Doppler shift
f
n
= f
D
cos
n
Dents model [6] uses the following uniformly distributed phase offsets
(over the N
sc
rays)

n
=
(n0.5)
2N
sc

n
=
n
N
sc
48
with the maximal Doppler shift f
D
, the model for the complex Rayleigh
fading phasor in the baseband is computed as

R
(t) =
_
2
N
sc

Nsc

n=1
(cos
n
+ j sin
n
)cos(2 f
D
cos(
n
) t) (30)
note that the power is normalized to get 0dB gain, that is
E
_
[
R
(t)[
2
_
= E [
R
(t)

R
(t)] = 1
the model is deterministic in that it does not contain any random pro-
cess
pseudo-randomness can be achieved by picking a random time-
offset t
of f
, such that
R,1
(t) =
R
_
t t
of f
_
generators
~
phase offsets
power normalization
such that gain is 0dB
~
~
~~
.
.
.
.
.
.
superposition of
rays
complex Rayleigh
fading coefficient
Figure 25: Block diagram of Rayleigh fading generation according to Clarke
and Jakes [4], [5]
in the subsequent sections, if we refer to Rayleigh fading, we indeed
mean the fading coefcient as computed according to (30)
49
it can be shown that the auto-correlation function of
R
(t) for a time
lag computes to
R() = E [
R
(t)

R
(t )] = J
0
(2 f
D
)
with J
0
() denoting the 0th-order Bessel-function of the 1st kind
power normalization such
that channel gain is 0dB
complex Rayleigh
fading coefficient
channel input
channel output
Figure 26: Single-path at Rayleigh fading channel
at fading: no variations in spectrum within signal bandwidth: signal
will experience one complex channel coefcient, that is, time-selective
fading does not require equalization
some instantiations of Rayleigh fading are shown below for the parame-
ters according to the digital audio broadcast (DAB) system
symbol duration T
s
= 1.246ms
carrier frequency f
c
= 200MHz
Jakes/Clarke model with N
sc
= 8 scatterers assumed (if not noted
otherwise)
vehicle speed v = 100km/h (if not noted otherwise)
in example: on time-axis, 2000 discrete-time samples at t = kT
s
,
k = 0, ..., 1999
50
-2
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
r
e
,

im
-
p
a
r
t

o
f

c
o
m
p
le
x

p
h
a
s
o
r
time in sec.
Speed v=100km/h; max. Doppler f
D
=18.519Hz
Figure 27: Time-domain signal
R
(t) of Rayleigh fading over about 2 seconds
for T
s
= 1.246ms at speed of v = 100km/h
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
s
q
u
a
r
e
d

m
a
g
n
it
u
d
e

o
f

p
h
a
s
o
r

in

d
B
time in sec.
Speed v=100km/h; max. Doppler f
D
=18.519Hz
Figure 28: Time-domain signal of Rayleigh fading, squared magnitude, [
R
(t)[
2
in dB, for v = 100km/h
51
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
10
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
s
q
u
a
r
e
d

m
a
g
n
it
u
d
e

o
f

p
h
a
s
o
r

in

d
B
time in sec.
Speed v=20km/h; max. Doppler f
D
=3.7037Hz
Figure 29: Time-domain signal of Rayleigh fading, squared magnitude, [
R
(t)[
2
in dB for v = 20km/h
0
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.05
0.06
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
d
is
trib
u
tio
n
real and imag. part of complex baseband phasor
Speed v=100km/h; max. Doppler fD=18.519Hz
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
d
is
trib
u
tio
n
magnitude, and squared magnitude (power) of time-domain signal
Speed v=100km/h; max. Doppler fD=18.519Hz
squared magnitude
magnitude
Figure 30: Histograms (distribution) of time-domain signal
52
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
a
u
t
o
-
c
o
r
r
e
la
t
io
n
time lag in sec.
Speed v=100km/h; max. Doppler f
D
=18.519Hz
auto-corr. of t-domain signal
reference auto-corr. (Bessel)
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
a
u
t
o
-
c
o
r
r
e
la
t
io
n
time lag in sec.
Speed v=100km/h; max. Doppler f
D
=18.519Hz
auto-corr. of t-domain signal
reference auto-corr. (Bessel)
Figure 31: Auto-correlation R() of Rayleigh-fading signal
R
(t) for N
sc
= 8
(top) and N
sc
= 16 (bottom) scatterers, respectively
2.6.3 Putting both together: General channels
putting both effects together, we can dene a time-variant impulse re-
sponse h(t, ), with
h(t, ) =
N

i=1
c
i
(t) (
i
)
the c
i
(t) are zero-mean complex Gaussian random processes, e.g., as
dened by the Jakes/Clarke model, c
i
(t) =
R,i
(t)
the N Rayleigh fading processes
R,i
(t) are generated such that
they are uncorrelated, e.g., by using N (large) random time offsets
t
of f ,i
, as initially suggested by Jakes/Clarke [4], [5], or by modify-
ing the Jakes/Clarke model to output N independent, uncorrelated
fading processes using Walsh-Hadamard matrices; this is indeed
described in Dents extension of the original model [6]
53
A Appendix
A.1 Interference in unlicensed ISM band
-100
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
2.4 2.42 2.44 2.46 2.48 2.5
R
e
c
e
iv
e
d

p
o
w
e
r

in

d
B
m
/
1
M
H
z
Frequency in GHz
Microwave oven off
Microwave oven on
Figure 34: Interference generated by a microwave oven in the ISM band at a
distance of 2m from the receiver antenna
The spectrum plot in Fig. 34 illustrates the effect of microwave oven leak-
age radiation on the unlicensed ISM (Industrial, Scientic and Medical) band.
For the experiment, we used a Tektronix RSA3308A spectrum analyzer, and
a microwave oven from Clatronic MWG775H (RF output-power in cooking
chamber: 800W at 2.45GHz according to the data sheet). The antenna was
located 2m away from the oven (measurement performed Th. Handte, Oct.
2013).
Note: Receiver sensitivity is that receive power at which reliable communica-
tion at the specied data rate is possible (i.e. a certain BER achieved, e.g., BER
3%)
62
Figure 35: Receiver sensitivity table from WLAN IEEE 802.11n standard [8]
according to Tab. 35, the receiver sensitivity for WLAN is around P
RX
=
82dBm (for the lowest data rate) in the channel bandwidth of 20MHz,
or, expressed as power spectral density, P
RX
/20MHz =82dBm/20MHz
to plot this into Fig. 34, we need to compute
P
RX
1MHz
=
_
P
RX
20MHz
_

1
20
1
20
=
_
P
RX
[
dBm
13dB
20MHz
1
20
_
=95dBm/MHz
obviously, the microwave oven impacts the WLAN signal around the
specied sensitivities, thus: impacts range
A.2 Symbol and bit-error probabilities of some modula-
tion schemes
approximated symbol and bit error probabilities over an additive white
Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel; signal-to-noise ratio E
s
/N
0
Denition: Bit energy per transmitted information bit
E
b
=
E
s
R
c
M
b
63
with symbol energy E
s
(of constellation symbol) on the channel
and number of bits per constellation symbol M
b
= ldM, with M
being the number of signal points (amplitudes, phases. etc.) in the
constellation (e.g., 16-QAM, M = 16, M
b
= 4)
and R
c
being the code rate of the channel code, e.g., R
c
= 3/4
means that three information bit are encoded by the channel en-
coder into four coded bits
what we need for link budget is the signal-to-noise ratio on the channel,
which is
SNR =
E
s
N
0
modulation approx. symbol error rate P
s
(E
s
/N
0
) approx. bit error rate P
b
(E
b
/N
0
)
BPSK Q
_
_
2E
s
/N
0
_
(exact) Q
_
_
2E
b
/N
0
_
(exact)
QPSK 2Q
_
_
E
s
/N
0
_
(approx.) Q
_
_
2E
b
/N
0
_
(exact)
M-PSK (M phases) 2Q
_
_
2E
s
/N
0
sin(/M)
_
(approx.)
2
log
2
M
Q
_
_
2E
b
/N
0
log
2
M sin(/M)
_
(approx.)
M-QAM (M points) 4Q
_
_
3Es/N
0
M1
_
(approx.)
4
log
2
M
Q
_
_
3E
b
/N
0
log
2
M
M1
_
(approx.)
Table 3: Approximated symbol and bit error probabilities of some standard
modulation schemes over an AWGN channel
10
-5
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
B
E
R
in dB
64-QAM 16-QAM QPSK
target BER
e.g., target BER
Figure 36: Approximation of bit error probabilities of M-QAM over AWGN
channel (for no channel coding, i.e., R
c
= 1)
64
B References
References
[1] Cisco Systems Inc., Visual Networking Index: Forecast and Methodology,
2012-2017. San Jose, CA, USA: Cisco White Paper, 2013.
[2] Final report, 1999.
[3] Radio noise in radiowave propagation. ITU-R Std. P.372-10, 2009.
[4] W. Jakes, Microwave mobile communications. New York: Wiley and
Sons, Inc, 1975.
[5] R. H. Clarke, A statistical theory of mobile radio reception, Bell Systems
Techn. Journ., vol. 47, no. 6, pp. 9571000, July 1968.
[6] P. Dent, G. E. Bottomley, and T. Croft, Jakes fading model revisited,
EL, vol. 29, no. 13, pp. 11621163, June 1993.
[7] Channel models for digital land mobile radio communications: Final re-
port. Commision of the European Communities, 1989.
[8] Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY)
Specications. IEEE 802.11 rev. 2012, 2012.
65