Chapter 3

Mobile Radio Propagation

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

Outline

Speed, Wavelength, Frequency

Types of Waves
Radio Frequency Bands
Propagation Mechanisms
Radio Propagation Effects
Free-Space Propagation
Land Propagation
Path Loss
Fading: Slow Fading / Fast Fading
Delay Spread
Doppler Shift
Co-Channel Interference
The Near-Far Problem
Digital Wireless Communication System
Analog and Digital Signals
Modulation Techniques

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

Speed, Wavelength, Frequency

Light speed = Wavelength x Frequency
= 3 x 108 m/s = 300,000 km/s
System
AC current

Frequency
60 Hz

Wavelength
5,000 km

FM radio

100 MHz

3m

Cellular

800 MHz

37.5 cm

Ka band satellite

20 GHz

15 mm

Ultraviolet light

1015 Hz

10-7 m

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

Types of Waves

Ionosphere
(80 - 720 km)
Sky wave
Mesosphere
(50 - 80 km)
Space wave
Ground wave
Earth
Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

Stratosphere
(12 - 50 km)

Troposphere
(0 - 12 km)
4

Radio Frequency Bands

Classification Band Initials

Frequency Range

Extremely low

ELF

< 300 Hz

Infra low

ILF

300 Hz - 3 kHz

Very low

VLF

3 kHz - 30 kHz

Low

LF

30 kHz - 300 kHz

Medium

MF

300 kHz - 3 MHz

Ground/Sky wave

High

HF

3 MHz - 30 MHz

Sky wave

Very high

VHF

30 MHz - 300 MHz

Ultra high

UHF

300 MHz - 3 GHz

Super high

SHF

3 GHz - 30 GHz

Extremely high

EHF

30 GHz - 300 GHz

Tremendously high THF

Characteristics
Ground wave

Space wave

300 GHz - 3000 GHz

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

Propagation Mechanisms

Reflection

Propagation wave impinges on an object which is large as

compared to wavelength
- e.g., the surface of the Earth, buildings, walls, etc.

Diffraction

Radio path between transmitter and receiver

obstructed by surface with sharp irregular edges
Waves bend around the obstacle, even when LOS (line of sight)
does not exist

Scattering

Objects smaller than the wavelength of the

propagation wave
- e.g. foliage, street signs, lamp posts

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

Radio Propagation Effects

Building

Direct Signal

Reflected Signal

hb
Diffracted
Signal

Transmitter

hm

Receiver

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

Free-space Propagation

hb
hm
Transmitter

Distance d

Receiver

The received signal power at distance d:

Pr

AeGtPt
4d 2

where Pt is transmitting power, Ae is effective area, and Gt is the

transmitting antenna gain. Assuming that the radiated power is uniformly
distributed over the surface of the sphere.
Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

Antenna Gain

For a circular reflector antenna

Gain G = ( D / )2
= net efficiency (depends on the electric field distribution over the
antenna aperture, losses, ohmic heating , typically 0.55)
D = diameter
thus, G = ( D f /c )2, c = f (c is speed of light)

Example:

Antenna with diameter = 2 m, frequency = 6 GHz, wavelength = 0.05 m

G = 39.4 dB

Frequency = 14 GHz, same diameter, wavelength = 0.021 m

G = 46.9 dB
* Higher the frequency, higher the gain for the same size antenna

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

Land Propagation

The received signal power:

Gt Gr Pt
Pr
L
where Gr is the receiver antenna gain,
L is the propagation loss in the channel, i.e.,

L = L P LS LF
Fast fading
Slow fading
Path loss
Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

10

Path Loss (Free-space)

Definition of path loss LP :

Pt
LP ,
Pr
Path Loss in Free-space:

LPF (dB) 32 .45 20 log10 f c ( MHz ) 20 log10 d (km),

where fc is the carrier frequency.
This shows greater the fc , more is the loss.

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

11

Path Loss (Land Propagation)

Simplest Formula:

Lp = A d-
where
A and : propagation constants
d : distance between transmitter and receiver
: value of 3 ~ 4 in typical urban area

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

12

Example of Path Loss (Free-space)

Path Loss in Free-space

Path Loss Lf (dB)

130
fc=150MHz

120

fc=200MHz

110

fc=400MHz

100

fc=800MHz

90

fc=1000MHz

80

fc=1500MHz

70
0

10

15

20

25

30

Distance d (km)

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

13

Path Loss (Urban, Suburban and Open areas)

Urban area:

LPU (dB) 69.55 26.16 log10 f c (MHz) 13.82 log10 hb (m) hm (m)
44.9 6.55 log10 hb (m)log10 d (km)

where

1.1log10 f c ( MHz) 0.7hm (m) 1.56 log10 f c ( MHz) 0.8, for l arg e city

hm (m) 8.29log10 1.54hm (m)2 1.1, for f c 200MHz

, for small & medium city

3.2log10 11.75hm (m) 4.97, for f c 400MHz

Suburban area:

f ( MHz)

LPS (dB) LPU (dB) 2log10 c

5.4

28

Open area:

LPO (dB) LPU (dB) 4.78log10 fc (MHz) 18.33log10 fc (MHz) 40.94

2

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

14

Path Loss

Path loss in decreasing order:

Urban area (large city)

Urban area (medium and small city)
Suburban area
Open area

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

15

Example of Path Loss (Urban Area: Large City)

Path Loss in Urban Area in Large City

Path Loss Lpu (dB)

180

fc=200MHz

170

fc=400MHz

160

fc=800MHz

150

fc=1000MHz

140

fc=1500MHz
fc=150MHz

130
120
110
100
0

10

20

30

Distance d (km)

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

16

Example of Path Loss

(Urban Area: Medium and Small Cities)

Path Loss in Urban Area for Small & Medium Cities

Path Loss Lpu (dB)

180
170

fc=150MHz

160

fc=200MHz

150

fc=400MHz

140

fc=800MHz

130

fc=1000MHz

120

fc=1500MHz

110
100
0

10

20

30

Distance d (km)
Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

17

Example of Path Loss (Suburban Area)

Path Loss in Suburban Area

Path Loss Lps (dB)

170
160

fc=150MHz

150

fc=200MHz

140

fc=400MHz

130

fc=800MHz

120

fc=1000MHz

110

fc=1500MHz

100
90
0

10

15

20

25

30

Distance d (km)
Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

18

Example of Path Loss (Open Area)

Path Loss in Open Area

Path Loss Lpo (dB)

150
140

fc=150MHz

130

fc=200MHz

120

fc=400MHz

110

fc=800MHz

100

fc=1000MHz
fc=1500MHz

90
80
0

10

15

20

25

30

Distance d (km)

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

19

Fading
Fast Fading
(Short-term fading)

Slow Fading
(Long-term fading)

Signal
Strength
(dB)

Path Loss
Distance

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

20

Slow Fading

The long-term variation in the mean level is known as slow fading

(shadowing or log-normal fading). This fading caused by shadowing.
Log-normal distribution:
- The pdf of the received signal level is given in decibels by

pM

1
e
2

M M

2 2

where M is the true received signal level m in decibels, i.e., 10log10m,

M is the area average signal level, i.e., the mean of M,
is the standard deviation in decibels

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

21

Log-normal Distribution

2
p(M)

M
The pdf of the received signal level
Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

22

Fast Fading

The signal from the transmitter may be reflected from

objects such as hills, buildings, or vehicles.

When MS far from BS, the envelope distribution of received signal is

Rayleigh distribution. The pdf is

pr

r2
2
2

, r 0

where is the standard deviation.

Middle value rm of envelope signal within sample range to be

satisfied by

P(r rm) 0.5.

We have rm = 1.777

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

23

Rayleigh Distribution
P(r)
1.0
0.8

=1
0.6

=2

0.4

=3

0.2

r
2

10

The pdf of the envelope variation

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

24

Fast Fading (Continued)

When MS far from BS, the envelope distribution of

received signal is Rician distribution. The pdf is

pr

r 2 2

2 2

r
I 0 , r 0

where
is the standard deviation,
I0(x) is the zero-order Bessel function of the first kind,
is the amplitude of the direct signal

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

25

Rician Distribution
= 0 (Rayleigh)
=1
=2
=3

0.6

Pdf p(r)

0.5
0.4

=1

0.3
0.2
0.1

00

4
r

The pdf of the envelope variation

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

26

Characteristics of Instantaneous Amplitude

Level Crossing Rate:

Fading Rate:

Number of times signal envelope crosses middle

value in positive going direction per unit time.

Depth of Fading:

Average number of times per second that the signal

envelope crosses the level in positive going direction.

Ratio of mean square value and minimum value of

fading signal.

Fading Duration:

Time for which signal is below given threshold.

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

27

Doppler Shift

Doppler Effect: When a wave source and a receiver are moving towards
each other, the frequency of the received signal will not be the same as the
source.

When they are moving toward each other, the frequency of the received signal
is higher than the source.
When they are opposing each other, the frequency decreases.

Thus, the frequency of the received signal is

f R fC f D

where fC is the frequency of source carrier,

fD is the Doppler frequency.
Doppler Shift in frequency:

fD

cos

where v is the moving speed,

is the wavelength of carrier.

Moving
speed v

MS

Signal

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

28

Delay Spread

When a signal propagates from a transmitter to a

receiver, signal suffers one or more reflections.
This forces signal to follow different paths.
Each path has different path length, so the time of
arrival for each path is different.
This effect which spreads out the signal is called
Delay Spread.

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

29

Moving Speed Effect

V2

V3

V4

Signal strength

V1

Time
Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

30

Delay Spread

Signal Strength

The signals from

close by reflectors

The signals from

intermediate reflectors
The signals from
far away reflectors

Delay
Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

31

Intersymbol Interference (ISI)

Caused by time delayed multipath signals

Has impact on burst error rate of channel
Second multipath is delayed and is received
during next symbol
For low bit-error-rate (BER)
1
R
2d
R (digital transmission rate) limited by delay
spread d.

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

32

Intersymbol Interference (ISI)

Transmission
signal

1
Time
0

Received signal
(short delay)
Time

Propagation time

Delayed signals

Received signal
(long delay)
Time

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

33

Coherence Bandwidth

Coherence bandwidth Bc:

Represents correlation between 2 fading signal

envelopes at frequencies f1 and f2.
Is a function of delay spread.
Two frequencies that are larger than coherence
bandwidth fade independently.
Concept useful in diversity reception

Multiple copies of same message are sent using

different frequencies.

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

34

Cochannel Interference

Cells having the same frequency interfere with each other.

rd is the desired signal
ru is the interfering undesired signal
is the protection ratio for which
rd ru (so that the signals interfere the least)
If P(rd ru ) is the probability that rd ru ,
Cochannel probability Pco = P(rd ru )

Copyright 2003, Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal and Dr. Qing-An Zeng. All rights reserved.

35