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Tutorial 2 – Wireless Channel

Question 1
Consider an indoor wireless LAN with fc = 900MHz, cells of radius 10m, and nondirectional antennas
with Gl = 1. Under the free-space path loss model, what transmit power is required at the access point
such that all terminals within the cell receive a minimum power of 10µW. How does this change if the
system frequency is 5GHz?
Solution
The key to solve this question is to find the transmit power such that the terminals at the cell boundary
receive the minimum required power. The required transmit power can be expressed as
µ ¶2
4πd
Pt = Pr √ . (1)
Gl λ
We note that Gl = 1 for nondirectional antennas. We further note that λ = fcc = 0.33m, d = 10m, and
Pr = 10µW. Substituting these parameters to (1), we obtain Pt = 1.45W = 1.61dBW. Here, it is recalled
that P Watts equals 10 log10 [P ]dBW, dB relative to one Watt, and 10 log10 [P/0.001]dBm, dB relative to
one milliwatt.
For fc = 5GHz, we update λ = 0.06m and then calculate Pt as Pt = 43.86W = 16.42dBW.

Question 2
Consider the set of empirical measurements of Pr /Pt given in the table below for an indoor system at
900MHz.
Distance from Transmitter M = Pr /Pt
10 m −70 dB
20 m −75 dB
50 m −90 dB
100 m −110 dB
300 m −125 dB
a) Find the path loss exponent n that minimizes the MSE between the simplified model given by Pr dBm =
Pt dBm + K dB − 10n log10 (d/d0 ) and the empirical dB power measurements. Assume that d0 = 1m
λ
and K is determined from the free space path gain formula at this d0 given by K dB = 20 log10 4πd 0
.
b) Find the received power at 150m for the simplified path loss model with this path loss exponent and
a transmit power of 1mW (0dBm).
Solution
a) We first set up the MMSE error equation for the dB power measurements as
5
X
F (n) = [Mms (di ) − Mmd (di )]2 , (2)
i=1

where Mms (di ) is the path loss measurement shown in the above table and Mmd (di ) is the path loss given
by K − 10n log10 (d). Using the free space path loss formula, we obtain K = 20 log10 0.33
4π
= −31.54 dB.
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Therefore, we obtain F (n) as

F (n) = [−70 − 31.54 + 10n]2 + [−75 − 31.54 + 13.01n]2 + [−90 − 31.54 + 16.99n]2
+ [−110 − 31.54 + 20n]2 + [−125 − 31.54 + 24.77n]2
=21676.3 − 11654.9n + 1571.47n2 . (3)
Differentiating F (n) relative to n and setting it to zero yields n = 3.71.
b) To find the received power at 150 m under the simplified path loss model with K = −31.54 dB,
n = 3.71, and Pt = 0 dBm, we have
Pr dBm =Pt dBm + K dB − 10n log10 (d/d0 )
=0 − 31.54 − 3.71 log10 (150) = −112.27 dBm. (4)
Reminder: This question is Example 2.3 in Goldsmith’s book. Please check Examples 2.4 and 2.5 for the
effects of shadowing and the calculation of outage probability.
Question 3
Consider a channel with Rayleigh fading and average received power Pr = 20 dBm. Find the outage
probability that the received power is below 10 dBm.
Solution
We first convert Pr = 20 dBm = 100 mW.
We then calculate the outage probability under the threshold 10 dBm = 10 mW as
Z 10
¡ 2 ¢ 1 −x
Pout Z ≤ 10 = e 100 dx = 0.095. (5)
0 100
Question 4
A mobile receiver is moving at a speed v and is receiving signals arriving along two reflected paths which
make angles θ1 and θ2 with the direction of motion. The transmitted signal is a sinusoid at frequency f .
a) Is the above information enough for estimating (i) the coherence time Tc ; (ii) the coherence bandwidth
Wc ? If so, express them in terms of the given parameters. If not, specify what additional information
would be needed.
b) Consider an environment in which there are reflectors and scatterers in all directions from the receiver
and an environment in which they are clustered within a small angular range. Using part a), explain how
the channel would differ in these two environments.
Solution
a) With the given information, we are able to compute the Doppler spread as
fv
Ds = |f1 − f2 | = |cos θ1 − cos θ2 | . (6)
c
Based on this, the coherence time is computed as
1 c
Tc = = . (7)
4Ds 4f v |cos θ1 − cos θ2 |
However, there is not enough information to compute the coherence bandwidth, since it depends on the
delay spread which is not given. We need to know the difference in path length to compute the delay
spread Td and use it to compute the coherence bandwidth Wc .
b) From part a) we see that a larger angular range results in larger delay spread and smaller coherence
time. As such, in the richly scattered environment, the channel would show a smaller coherence time than
in the environment where the reflectors are clustered in a small angular range.
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Home Work
Requirements
1. Write down your full name, student number, and signature.
2. Detail the steps of your analysis/calculations/solutions. A single answer without derivations or expla-
nations is not acceptable.
3. Hand in a hard copy in the following class.

Question 1
The following table lists a set of empirical path loss measurements.
Distance from Transmitter M = Pr /Pt
5m −60 dB
25 m −80 dB
65 m −105 dB
110 m −115 dB
400 m −135 dB
1000 m −150 dB
a) Find the parameters of a simplified path loss model plus log normal shadowing that best fit this data.
b) Find the path loss at 2 Km based on this model.
c) Find the outage probability at a distance d assuming the received power at d due to path loss alone is
10 dB above the required power for non-outage.

Question 2
Let us consider two Nakagami-m fading channels, both with average received power Pr = 30 dBm. The
Nakagami-m fading parameter of the first channel is 2, and the Nakagami-m fading parameter of the
second channel is 4. Calculate the outage probabilities that the received power is below 15 dBm in these
two channels. Compare the obtained outage probabilities and justify which channel represents a better
propagation environment for wireless communication.
Tips: The PDF of a Nakagami-m fading variable is given by
mm m−1 − mx
fx (x) = x e Pr , (8)
Prm Γ(m)
where Γ(m) = (m − 1)! is the gamma function.
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Question 3
Consider the propagation model as depicted in Fig. 1 where there is a reflected path from the ground
plane between the transmit antenna and the receive antenna. The ground distance between the transmit
antenna and the receive antenna is r.

Fig. 1. Illustration of a direct path and a reflected path off a ground plane.

a) Let r1 be the direct path length and r2 be the reflected path length (the path length from the transmit
antenna to the ground plane plus the path length from the ground plane to the receive antenna). Prove
that r2 − r1 is asymptotically equal to b/r and find the value of ¡√ the constant ¢b.
√ x
Tips: Recall that for x small, 1 + x ≈ 1 + 2 in the sense that 1 + x − 1 x → 1/2 as x → 0.
b) Assume that the received waveform at the receive antenna is given by
£ ¤ £ ¤
α cos 2π f t − f cr1 α cos 2π f t − f cr2
Er (f, t) = − .
r1 r2
Approximate the denominator r2 by r1 in the above equation and prove that Er ≈ β/r2 for r−1 much
smaller than c/f . Find the value of β.
c) Explain why this asymptotic expression remains valid without first approximating the denominator r2
by r1 in the above equation.