UEC1602 Wireless Communications

Prabagarane.N
[email protected]
 Session Meta Data

Author Prabagarane N

Reviewer

Version Number 1

Release Date 20 Jan 2021

2 v1
 Revision History

Revision Date Details Version

no.

3 v1
 Session Objectives

• The objectives of this session are

• To gain knowledge about Multipath Propagation

• To understand the concepts Large and small scale
fading
• To gain knowledge about ‘Free space and Two ray
ground reflection’ path loss models

4 v1
 Session Outcomes

At the end of the session, the student will be able to:

• Analyze various fading and pathloss models as applied to cellular

wireless networks.

5 v1
 Multipath propagation

6 v1
 Small-scale fading

7 v1
 Large-scale fading

8 v1
 Typical example of fading.

The thin line is the (normalized) instantaneous field strength;

the thick line is the average over a 1-m distance.
9 v1
 Intersymbol interference

• Channel impulse response is delay-dispersive

10 v1
 Intersymbol interference

11 v1
 Consequences of fading

• Error probability is dominated by probability of being in a

fading dip
• Error probability decreases only linearly with increasing
SNR
• Fighting the effects of fading becomes essential for
wireless transceiver design
• Deterministic modeling of channel at each point very
difficult
• Statistical modeling of propagation and system behavior

12 v1
 Free Space Radio Wave Propagation

• There are two basic ways of transmitting an electro-

magnetic (EM) signal, through a guided medium or
through an unguided medium.

• Guided mediums such as coaxial cables and fiber optic

cables, are far less hostile toward the information
carrying EM signal than the wireless or the unguided
medium.

• It presents challenges and conditions which are unique

for this kind of transmissions.

13 v1
 Free Space Radio Wave Propagation
• A signal, as it travels through the wireless channel,
undergoes many kinds of propagation effects such as
• Reflection,
• Diffraction and
• Scattering,

due to the presence of buildings, mountains and other

such obstructions.

14 v1
 Propagation Mechanism
• Reflection occurs when the EM waves impinge on
objects which are much greater than the wavelength of
the traveling wave.

• Diffraction is a phenomena occurring when the wave

interacts with a surface having sharp irregularities.

• Scattering occurs when the medium through the wave is

traveling contains objects which are much smaller than
the wavelength of the EM wave.

• These varied phenomena’s lead to large scale and small

scale propagation losses.
15 v1
 Propagation Mechanism
• Due to the inherent randomness associated with such
channels they are best described with the help of
statistical models.

• Models which predict the mean signal strength for

arbitrary transmitter receiver distances are termed as
large scale propagation models.

• These are termed so because they predict the average

signal strength for large Tx-Rx separations, typically for
hundreds of kilometers.

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 Free Space Propagation Model

Free space propagation model,

showing the near and far fields.

17 v1
 Free Space Propagation Model

• EM signals when travelling through wireless channels

experience fading effects due to various reasons.

• But in some cases the transmission is with a direct line

of sight such as in satellite communication.

• Free space model predicts that the received power

decays as negative square root of the distance.

• Friis free space equation is given by

18 v1
 Free Space Propagation Model
• Pt is the transmitted power,
• Pr(d) is the received power,
• Gt is the transmitter antenna gain,
• Gr is the receiver antenna gain,
• d is the Tx-Rx separation and
• L is the system loss factor depended upon line
attenuation, filter losses and antenna losses and not
related to propagation.

• The gain of the antenna is related to the effective

aperture of the antenna which in turn is dependent upon
the physical size of the antenna as given below

19 v1
 Propagation Mechanism
• The path loss, representing the attenuation suffered by
the signal as it travels through the wireless channel is
given by the difference of the transmitted and received
power in dB

• The fields of an antenna can broadly be classified in two

regions, the far field and the near field.

• It is in the far field the propagating waves act as plane

waves and the power decays inversely with distance.

• The far field region is also termed as Fraunhofer region

and the Friis equation holds in this region.
20 v1
 Free Space Propagation Model
• Hence, the Friis equation is used only beyond the far
field distance, df , which is dependent upon the largest
dimension of the antenna as

• Also we can see that the Friis equation is not defined for
d=0.
• For this reason, we use a close in distance, do, as a
reference point.
• The power received, Pr(d), is then given by:

21 v1
 Example
• Find the far field distance for a circular antenna with
maximum dimension of 1 m and operating frequency of
900 MHz.
• Since the operating frequency f = 900 MHz, the
wavelength

• Thus, with the largest dimension of the antenna, D=1m,

the far field distance is

22 v1
 Example
• A unit gain antenna with a maximum dimension of 1 m
produces 50W power at 900 MHz. Find (i) the transmit
power in dBm and dB, (ii) the received power at a free
space distance of 5 m and 100 m.

• Thus the received power at 5m cannot be calculated

using free space distance formula.

23 v1
 Basic Methods of Propagation

• Reflection, diffraction and scattering are the three

fundamental phenomena that cause signal propagation
in a mobile communication system, apart from LoS
communication.

• The most important parameter, predicted by propagation

models based on above three phenomena, is the
received power.

• The physics of the above phenomena may also be used

to describe small scale fading and multipath propagation.

24 v1
 Basic Methods of Propagation

• If the medium is a perfect conductor, all energy is

reflected back to the first medium.
• The amount of energy that is reflected back depends on
the polarization of the e.m. wave.
• Another particular case of interest arises in parallel
polarization, when no reflection occurs in the medium of
origin.
• This would occur, when the incident angle would be such
that the reflection coefficient is equal to zero.
• This angle is the Brewster’s angle.

25 v1
 Basic Methods of Propagation

• By applying laws of electro-magnetics, it is found to be

• Further, considering perfect conductors, the electric field

inside the conductor is always zero.
• Hence all energy is reflected back.
• Boundary conditions require that
and
for vertical polarization, and

for horizontal polarization.

26 v1
 Diffraction

• Diffraction is the phenomenon due to which an EM wave

can propagate beyond the horizon, around the curved
earth’s surface and obstructions like tall buildings.
• As the user moves deeper into the shadowed region, the
received field strength decreases.
• But the diffraction field still exists an it has enough
strength to yield a good signal.
• This phenomenon can be explained by the Huygen’s
principle, according to which, every point on a wavefront
acts as point sources for the production of secondary
wavelets, and they combine to produce a new wavefront
in the direction of propagation.

27 v1
 Cont..
• The propagation of secondary wavelets in the shadowed
region results in diffraction.
• The field in the shadowed region is the vector sum of the
electric field components of all the secondary wavelets
that are received by the receiver.

Scattering
• The actual received power at the receiver is somewhat
stronger than claimed by the models of reflection and
diffraction.
• The cause is that the trees, buildings and lampposts
scatter energy in all directions.
28 v1
 Two Ray Reflection Model

• Interaction of EM waves with materials having different

electrical properties than the material through which the
wave is travelling.

• Leads to transmitting of energy through the medium and

reflection of energy back in the medium of propagation.

• The amount of energy reflected to the amount of energy

incidented is represented by Fresnel reflection coefficient
Γ.
• Γ depends upon the wave polarization, angle of
incidence and frequency of the wave.

29 v1
 Two Ray Reflection Model

• For example, as the EM waves cannot pass through

conductors, all the energy is reflected back with angle of
incidence equal to the angle of reflection and reflection
coefficient Γ = −1.

• In general, for parallel and perpendicular polarizations, Γ

is given by:

30 v1
 Two Ray Reflection Model

• Seldom in communication systems we encounter

channels with only LOS paths and hence the Friis
formula is not a very accurate description of the
communication link.

• A two-ray model, which consists of two overlapping

waves at the receiver, one direct path and one reflected
wave from the ground gives a more accurate description
as shown in Figure Next Slide.

31 v1
 Two Ray Reflection Model

32 v1
 Two Ray Reflection Model

• A simple addition of a single reflected wave shows that

power varies inversely with the forth power of the
distance between the Tx and the Rx.

• This is deduced via the following treatment.

• From Figure, the total transmitted and received electric

fields are

• Let E0 is the free space electric field (in V/m) at a

reference distance d0.
33 v1
 Two Ray Reflection Model

• Then

• The envelop of the electric field at d meters from the

transmitter at any time t is therefore

• This means the envelop is constant with respect to time.

34 v1
 Two Ray Reflection Model
• Two propagating waves arrive at the receiver, one LOS
wave which travels a distance of d’ and another ground
reflected wave, that travels d’’ .
• Mathematically, it can be expressed as:

35 v1
 Two Ray Reflection Model

• According to the law of reflection in a dielectric, θi = θ0

and Eg = ΓEi which means the total electric field,

• For small values of θi (grazing incidence), reflected wave

is equal in magnitude and 180o out of phase with respect
to incident wave.

36 v1
 Two Ray Reflection Model

• Assuming perfect horizontal electric field polarization,

and ground reflection, i.e.,

• The resultant electric field is the vector sum of ELOS and

Eg.

• This implies that,

37 v1
 Method of Images

38 v1
 It can be therefore written that

In such cases, the path difference is

However, when T-R separation

distance is very large compared
to (ht + hr), then

39
 Two Ray Reflection Model
Once the path difference is known, the phase difference is

and the time difference,

When d is very large, then Δ becomes very small and

therefore ELOS and Eg are virtually identical with only phase
difference,i.e.,

40
 Two Ray Reflection Model
Say, we want to evaluate the received E-field at any

Then

41
 Two Ray Reflection Model
Using phasor diagram concept for vector addition as shown
in Figures given below,

42
 Two Ray Reflection Model
We get

For

Using and , we can then approximate that

43
 Two Ray Reflection Model
This raises the wonderful concept of ‘cross-over distance’ dc,
defined as

The corresponding approximate received electric field is

Therefore, using d above in equation we get the received

power as

44
 Two Ray Reflection Model
The cross-over distance shows an approximation of the
distance after which the received power decays with its
fourth order.

The basic difference between free space and two ray is that
when d < dc, free space is sufficient to calculate the path
loss.

Since the two-ray model does not give a good result for a
short distance due to the oscillation caused by the
constructive and destructive combination of the two rays,

But whenever distance crosses the ‘cross-over distance’, the

power falls off rapidly as well as two-ray model
approximation gives better result than Friis equation.
45
 Observations on Equation

The important observations from this equation are:

1. This equation gives fair results when the T-R separation

distance crosses the cross-over distance.
2. In that case, the power decays as the fourth power of
distance

with K being a constant.

3. Path loss is independent of frequency (wavelength).
4. Received power is also proportional to

meaning, if height of any of the antennas is increased,

received power increases.
46
 Summary
We studied the following.

• Multipath Propagation
• Large and small scale fading
• Free space model
• Two ray ground reflection model

47 v1
 Self Assessment Questions
1. Does the carrier frequency of a system have an impact on (i) small-scale
fading, (ii) shadowing? When moving over a distance x, will variations in
the received signal power be greater for low frequencies or high
frequencies? Why?
2. Consider a scenario where there is a direct path from BS to MS, while
other multipath components are reflected from a nearby mountain range.
The distance between the BS and MS is 10 km, and the distance between
the BS and mountain range, as well as the MS and mountain range, is 14
km. The direct path and reflected components should arrive at the RX
within 0.1 times the symbol duration, to avoid heavy ISI. What is the
required symbol rate?
3. Why are low carrier frequencies problematic for satellite TV? What are the
problems at very high frequencies?
4. In what frequency ranges can cellphones be found? What are the
advantages and drawbacks?

48 v1
 Reference
• Andreas F. Molisch, Wireless Communications, John
Wiley India, Second Edition, 2013.
• Rappaport T.S, Wireless communications, Pearson
Education, Second Edition, 2014.

49 v1