COSC 393: Lecture 2

Radio Fundamentals
Radio Communication
• Radio signals
• Spectrum
• Transmitter
• Signal propagation
• Modulation
 Radio Wave
s(t) = At sin(2  ft t + t)
 Frequency and Wave length
• Relationship:
 = c/f
• wave length ,
• speed of light c  3x108m/s,
• frequency f
Radio Spectrum
twisted coax cable optical transmission
pair

1 Mm 10 km 100 m 1m 10 mm 100 m 1 m
300 Hz 30 kHz 3 MHz 300 MHz 30 GHz 3 THz 300 THz

VLF LF MF HF VHF UHF SHF EHF infrared visible light UV

• VLF = Very Low Frequency

• LF = Low Frequency
• MF = Medium Frequency
• HF = High Frequency
• VHF = Very High Frequency
• UHF = Ultra High Frequency
• SHF = Super High Frequency
• EHF = Extra High Frequency
• UV = Ultraviolet Light
 Antennas

• Isotropic radiator: Equal radiation in all

directions (3D) - theoretical antenna
• Real antennas always have directive effects
(vertically and/or horizontally)
• Different antennas have different radiation
pattern.
• Dipoles with lengths /4 or Hertzian dipole with length /2 (length
proportional to wavelength)

/4 /2
• Example: Radiation pattern of a simple Hertzian dipole

• Gain:ymaximum power iny the direction of the z

main lobe compared
to the power of an isotropic radiator (with the same average simple
power)
x z x dipole
side view (xy-plane) side view (yz-plane) top view (xz-plane)
• Often used for base stations in a cellular
system (e.g., covering a valley)

y y z

directed
x z x antenna

side view (xy-plane) side view (yz-plane) top view (xz-plane)

z
z

x
sectorized
x antenna

top view, 3 sector top view, 6 sector

 Effect of a transmission
• Transmission range
– communication possible
– low error rate
• Detection range
– detection of the signal sender
possible
– no communication transmission
possible distance
• Interference range detection

– signal may not be interference

detected
No effect
– signal adds to the
background noise
 Signal propagation property
• Radio signal behaves like light in free space
(straight line)
• Receiving power proportional to 1/d²
(d = distance between sender and receiver)
• So ideally, the transmitter and a receiver
must see each other!

Really?
 Three means of propagation
• Ground wave
• Tropospheric wave
• Ionospheric or sky wave
 Ground Wave
• travels in contact with earth’s surface
• reflection, refraction and scattering by objects on
the ground
• transmitter and receiver need NOT see each other
• affects all frequencies
• at VHF or higher, provides more reliable
propagation means
• signal dies off rapidly as distance increases
 Tropospheric Wave
• bending(refraction) of wave in the lower
atmosphere
• VHF communication possible over a long
distance
• bending increases with frequency – so higher
frequency more chance of propagation
• More of an annoyance for VHF or UHF
(cellular)
 Ionospheric or Sky Wave
• Reflected back to earth by ionospheric layer
of the earth atmosphere
• By repeated reflection, communication can
be established over 1000s of miles
• Mainly at frequencies below 30MHz
• More effective at times of high sunspot
activity
 4 possible events
Radio wave Radio wave

shadowing scattering

Radio wave

reflection diffraction
 Multipath Characteristics
• A signal may arrive at a receiver
- many different times
- many different directions
- due to vector addition
. Reinforce
. Cancel
- signal strength differs from place to place
 Mobile System
• Usually Base Station is not mobile
• Receiver could be moving (65mph!)
• Whenever relative motion exists
- Doppler shift
- Fading
• Even the motion of scatterers cause fading
 Free Space Propagation
• Suppose we have unobstructed line-of-sight

Pr(d) = (Pt Gt Gr ^2)/(4)^2 d^2 L)

-Pt transmitted power
-Gt, Gr Antenna gain
-wavelength in meters
- d distance in meters
- L (>= 1) system loss factor (not related to
propagation.
 Propagation Losses
• Two major components
- Long term fading m(t)
- Short term fading r(t)

Received signal s(t)

s(t) = m(t) r(t)

 dB - decibel
• Decibel, a logarithmic unit of intensity used to
indicated power lost or gained between two
signals. Named after Alexander Graham Bell.

10 log (P1/P2)
 Radio Signal Fading
Short term fading
Signal strength (dB)

Long term fading

T

Time
 Short term fading
• Also known as fast fading – caused by local multi
paths.
• Observed over distance = ½ wave length
• 30mph will experience several fast fades in a sec.
• Given by Rayleigh Distribution
• This is nothing but the square root of sum of the
square of two Gaussian functions.
r = square root ( Ac * Ac + As * As)
Ac and As are two amplitude components of the field
intensity of the signal
 Long term fading
• Long term variation in mean signal level is
also known as slow fading
• Caused by movement over large distances.
• The probability density function is given by
a log-normal distribution
- normal distribution on a log scale

P(m) = (1/m (m) 2) e^[-(log m – E(m))^2/(2 (m)^2)]

 Delay Spread
• Signal follows different paths to reach same
destination.
• So same signal may arrive many times at
different time intervals.


 Delay Spread
• In digital system, delay spread causes
intersymbol interference.
• Therefore, there is a limit on the maximum
symbol rate of a digital multipath channel.
• Obviously, delay spreads are different in
different environment.
• (roughly between 0.2 to 3 microseconds)
 Capacity of Channel
• What is the maximum transmission rate so
that the channel has very high reliability?
- error free capacity of a channel
• C.E. Shannon’s work suggest that signaling
scheme exists for error-free transmission if
the rate of transmission is lower than the
channel capacity.
 Shannon’s work
• C - channel capacity (bits/s)
• B – transmission bandwidth (Hz)
• E – energy per bit of received signal (Joule)
• R – information rate (bits/s)
• S = E R – signal power
• N – single-sided noise power spectral density (W/Hz)
(C/B) = log [1+(S/(NB))] = log [1+(E/N)(R/B)]
Suppose R = C we have
(C/B) = log [1+(E/N)(C/B)]
 Shannon’s work - continued
• Solving for (E/N) (aka. signal to noise ratio)
(E/N) = (2^a –1)/a
where a = (C/B).
So given C= 19.2kb/s and bandwidth = 30kHz
What is E/N required for error-free transmission?
R/B = 19.2/30 = 0.64
Substituting we get E/N = 0.8724 = -0.593dB
So control transmission power to obtain this E/N.
 Propagation models in built-up
areas
• Propagation is strongly influenced by the
environment
- building characteristics
- vegetation density
- terrain variation
• Perfect conductors reflect the wave where
as nonconductors absorb some energy!
 Empirical models to predict
propagation losses
• Okumura’s model
- based on free space path loss + correction
factors for suburban and rural areas, irregular
terrain, street orientations
• Sakagmi and Kuboi model
- extend Okumura’s model using regression
analysis of data.
• Hata’s model
- empirical formula to describe Okumura’s
data
 More models
• Ibrahim and Parsons model
- equations developed to best fit data
observed at London. (freq. 168-900 MHz)
• Lee’s model
– Use at 900MHZ
– 3 parameters (median trasmission loss, slope of
the path loss curve and adjustment factor)
 Freq. for mobile communication
• VHF-/UHF-ranges for mobile radio
– simple, small antenna
• SHF and higher for directed radio links,
satellite communication
– small antenna, focusing
– large bandwidth available
• Wireless LANs use frequencies in UHF to
SHF spectrum
– limitations due to absorption by water and oxygen
• weather dependent fading, signal loss due to by2.2.1
heavy
rainfall etc.
 Modulation
• Digital modulation
– digital data is translated into an analog signal
– ASK, FSK, PSK (… Shift Keying)
– differences in spectral efficiency, power efficiency,
robustness
• Analog modulation
– shifts center frequency of baseband signal up to the
radio carrier
• Motivation
– smaller antennas (e.g., /4)
 Types of Modulation
• Amplitude modulation
• Frequency modulation
• Phase modulation
• Combination modulation
 analog
baseband
digital
signal
data digital analog
101101001 modulation modulation radio transmitter

radio
carrier

analog
baseband
digital
signal
analog synchronization data
demodulation decision 101101001 radio receiver

radio
carrier
Amplitude Modulation
Frequency Modulation
Phase Modulation
 Digital modulation
1 0 1
• Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK):
– simple
– low bandwidth t
– susceptible to interference
1 0 1
• Frequency Shift Keying (FSK):
– somewhat larger bandwidth
t

1 0 1
• Phase Shift Keying (PSK):
– more complex (both ends)
– robust against interference t