Radio Propagation

CSCI 694 24 September 1999 Lewis Girod

Outline
Introduction and terminology Propagation mechanisms Propagation models

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

What is Radio?
Radio Xmitter induces E&M fields
Electrostatic field components w1/d3 Induction field components w1/d2 Radiation field components w1/d

Radiation field has E and B component

Field strength at distance d = EvB w1/d2 Surface area of sphere centered at transmitter
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 3

General Intuition
Two main factors affecting signal at receiver
Distance (or delay) Path attenuation Multipath Phase differences

Green signal travels 1/2P farther than Yellow to reach receiver, who sees Red. For 2.4 GHz, P (wavelength) =12.5cm.
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 4

Objective
Invent models to predict what the field looks like at the receiver.
Attenuation, absorption, reflection, diffraction... Motion of receiver and environment Natural and man-made radio interference... What does the field look like at the receiver?

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

Models are Specialized

Different scales
Large scale (averaged over meters) Small scale (order of wavelength)

Different environmental characteristics

Outdoor, indoor, land, sea, space, etc.

Different application areas

macrocell (2km), microcell(500m), picocell
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 6

Outline
Introduction and some terminology Propagation Mechanisms Propagation models

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

Radio Propagation Mechanisms

Free Space propagation Refraction
Conductors & Dielectric materials (refraction)

Diffraction
Fresnel zones

Scattering
Clutter is small relative to wavelength
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 8

Free Space
Assumes far-field (Fraunhofer region)
d >> D and d >> P , where
D is the largest linear dimension of antenna P is the carrier wavelength

No interference, no obstructions

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

Free Space Propagation Model

Received power at distance d is
Pt Pr (d ) ! K 2 Watts d

where Pt is the transmitter power in Watts a constant factor K depends on antenna gain, a system loss factor, and the carrier wavelength
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 10

Refraction
Perfect conductors reflect with no attenuation Dielectrics reflect a fraction of incident energy
Grazing angles reflect max* Steep angles transmit max*

Ur Ut

Reflection induces 180r phase shift

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 11

*The exact fraction depends on the materials and frequencies involved

Diffraction
Diffraction occurs when waves hit the edge of an obstacle
Secondary waves propagated into the shadowed region Excess path length results in T a phase shift Fresnel zones relate phase shifts 1st Fresnel zone to the positions of obstacles
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation

Obstruction 12

Fresnel Zones
Bounded by elliptical loci of constant delay Alternate zones differ in phase by 180r
Line of sight (LOS) corresponds to 1st zone If LOS is partially blocked, 2nd zone can destructively interfere (diffraction loss)
Path 1 Path 2

Fresnel zones are ellipses with the T&R at the foci; L1 = L2+P
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 13

Power Propagated into Shadow

How much power is propagated this way?
1st FZ: 5 to 25 dB below free space prop.
LOS

0 -10 -20 dB -30 -40 -50 -60

17 March 1999

0o 90 180o

Obstruction

Tip of Shadow

Rappaport, pp. 97

1st

2nd
14

Obstruction of Fresnel Zones

Radio Propagation

Scattering
Rough surfaces
critical height for bumps is f(P,incident angle) scattering loss factor modeled with Gaussian distribution.

Nearby metal objects (street signs, etc.)

Usually modelled statistically

Large distant objects

Analytical model: Radar Cross Section (RCS)
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 15

Outline
Introduction and some terminology Propagation Mechanisms Propagation models
Large scale propagation models Small scale propagation (fading) models

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

16

Propagation Models: Large

Large scale models predict behavior averaged over distances >> P
Function of distance & significant environmental features, roughly frequency independent Breaks down as distance decreases Useful for modeling the range of a radio system and rough capacity planning

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

17

Propagation Models: Small

Small scale (fading) models describe signal variability on a scale of P
Multipath effects (phase cancellation) dominate, path attenuation considered constant Frequency and bandwidth dependent Focus is on modeling Fading: rapid change in signal over a short distance or length of time.

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

18

Large Scale Models

Path loss models Outdoor models Indoor models

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

19

Free Space Path Loss

Path Loss is a measure of attenuation based only on the distance to the transmitter Free space model only valid in far-field;
Path loss models typically define a close-in point d0 and reference other points from there:
d0 Pr (d ) !Pr (d 0 ) d
2

PL(d ) ! [ Pr (d )] dB

d ! PL(d 0 )  2 d 0 dB
What is dB?

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

20

Log-Distance Path Loss Model

Log-distance generalizes path loss to account for other environmental factors
d PL(d ) ! PL(d 0 )  F d 0 dB
Choose a d0 in the far field. Measure PL(d0) or calculate Free Space Path Loss. Take measurements and derive F empirically.

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

21

Log-Distance 2
Value of F characterizes different environments

Environment Free Space Urban area Shadowed urban area Indoor LOS Indoor no LOS
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation

Exponent F 2 2.7-3.5 3-5 1.6-1.8 4-6

Rappaport, Table 3.2, pp. 104
22

Log-Normal Shadowing Model

Shadowing occurs when objects block LOS between transmitter and receiver A simple statistical model can account for unpredictable shadowing
Add a 0-mean Gaussian RV to Log-Distance PL Markov model can be used for spatial correlation
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 23

Outdoor Models
2-Ray Ground Reflection model Diffraction model for hilly terrain

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

24

2-Ray Ground Reflection

For d >> hrht,
low angle of incidence allows the earth to act as a reflector the reflected signal is 180r out of phase Pr w 1/d4 (F=4)
T ht
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation Phase shift!

R hr
25

Ground Reflection 2
Intuition: ground blocks 1st Fresnel zone
Reflection causes an instantaneous 180r phase shift Additional phase offset due to excess path length If the resulting phase is still close to 180r, the gound ray will destructively interfere with the LOS ray.
180r

T ht
17 March 1999

p0 p1 Radio Propagation

R hr
26

Hilly Terrain
Propagation can be LOS or result of diffraction over one or more ridges LOS propagation modelled with ground reflection: diffraction loss But if there is no LOS, diffraction can actually help!

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

27

Indoor Path Loss Models

Indoor models are less generalized
Environment comparatively more dynamic
Significant features are physically smaller

Shorter distances are closer to near-field More clutter, scattering, less LOS

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

28

Indoor Modeling Techniques

Modeling techniques and approaches:
Log-Normal, F<2 for LOS down corridor Log-Normal shadowing model if no LOS Partition and floor attenuation factors Computationally intensive ray-tracing based on 3-D model of building and attenuation factors for materials

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

29

Outline
Introduction and some terminology Propagation Mechanisms Propagation models
Large scale propagation models Small scale propagation (fading) models

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

30

Recall: Fading Models

Small scale (fading) models describe signal variability on a scale of P
Multipath effects (phase cancellation) dominate, path attenuation considered constant Frequency and bandwidth dependent Focus is on modeling Fading: rapid change in signal over a short distance or length of time.

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

31

Factors Influencing Fading

Motion of the receiver: Doppler shift Transmission bandwidth of signal
Compare to BW of channel

Multipath propagation
Receiver sees multiple instances of signal when waves follow different paths Very sensitive to configuration of environment
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 32

Effects of Multipath Signals

Rapid change in signal strength due to phase cancellation Frequency modulation due to Doppler shifts from movement of receiver/environment Echoes caused by multipath propagation delay

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

33

The Multipath Channel

One approach to small-scale models is to model the Multipath Channel
Linear time-varying function h(t,X)

Basic idea: define a filter that encapsulates the effects of multipath interference
Measure or calculate the channel impulse response (response to a short pulse at fc):
t
17 March 1999

h(t,X)
Radio Propagation

X
34

SKIP

Channel Sounding
Channel sounding is a way to measure the channel response
transmit impulse, and measure the response to find h(X). h(X) can then be used to model the channel response to an arbitrary signal: y(t) = x(t)h(X). Problem: models the channel at single point in time; cant account for mobility or environmental changes h(t,X)
Radio Propagation

X
17 March 1999

X
35

Characterizing

* Fading

*Adapted from EE535 Slides, Chugg 99

From the impulse response we can characterize the channel: Characterizing distortion
Delay spread (Xd): how long does the channel ring from an impulse? Coherence bandwidth (Bc): over what frequency range is the channel gain flat? Xdw1/Bc In time domain, roughly corresponds to the fidelity
of the response; sharper pulse requires wider band
Radio Propagation 17 March 1999 36

Effect of Delay

* Spread

For a system with bw W and symbol time T... Does the channel distort the signal?
if W << Bc: Flat Fading
Amplitude and phase distortion only

if W > Bc: Frequency Selective Fading

If T < Xd, inter-symbol interference (ISI) occurs For narrowband systems (W } 1/T), FSF ISI. Not so for wideband systems (W >> 1/T)
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 37

Qualitative Delay Spread

RMS Delay spread (W)
Typical values for W : Indoor: 10-100 ns Outdoor: 0.1-10 Qs

Mean excess delay Power(dB)p Noise threshold

Delayp
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 38

Characterizing Fading

* 2

Characterizing Time-variation: How does the impulse response change with time?
Coherence time (tc): for what value of ( are responses at t and t+( uncorrelated? (How quickly is the channel changing) Doppler Spread (fd): How much will the spectrum of the input be spread in frequency? fdw1/tc
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 39

Effect of Coherence

* Time

For a system with bw W and symbol time T... Is the channel constant over many uses?
if T << tc: Slow fading
Slow adaptation required

if T > tc: Fast fading

Frequent adaptation required For typical systems, symbol rate is high compared to channel evolution
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 40

Statistical Fading Models

Fading models model the probability of a fade occurring at a particular location
Used to generate an impulse response In fixed receivers, channel is slowly time-varying; the fading model is reevaluated at a rate related to motion

Simplest models are based on the WSSUS principle

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 41

* WSSUS

Wide Sense Stationary (WSS)

Statistics are independent of small perturbations in time and position I.e. fixed statistical parameters for stationary nodes

Uncorrelated Scatter (US)

Separate paths are not correlated in phase or attenuation I.e. multipath components can be independent RVs

Statistics modeled as Gaussian RVs

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 42

Common Distributions
Rayleigh fading distribution
Models a flat fading signal Used for individual multipath components

Ricean fading distribution

Used when there is a dominant signal component, e.g. LOS + weaker multipaths parameter K (dB) defines strength of dominant component; for K=-g, equivalent to Rayleigh
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 43

Application of WSSUS
Multi-ray Rayleigh fading:
The Rayleigh distribution does not model multipath time delay (frequency selective) Multi-ray model is the sum of two or more independent time-delayed Rayleigh variables
s(t) R1 R2
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation

X 7 r(t)
Rappaport, Fig. 4.24, pp. 185.
44

Saleh & Valenzuela (1987)

Rappaport, pp. 188

Measured same-floor indoor characteristics

Found that, with a fixed receiver, indoor channel is very slowly time-varying RMS delay spread: mean 25ns, max 50ns With no LOS, path loss varied over 60dB range and obeyed log distance power law, 3 > n > 4

Model assumes a structure and models correlated multipath components.

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 45

Saleh & Valenzuela 2

Multipath model
Multipath components arrive in clusters, follow Poisson distribution. Clusters relate to building structures. Within cluster, individual components also follow Poisson distribution. Cluster components relate to reflecting objects near the TX or RX. Amplitudes of components are independent Rayleigh variables, decay exponentially with cluster delay and with intra-cluster delay
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 46

References
Wireless Communications: Principles and Practice, Chapters 3 and 4, T. Rappaport, Prentice Hall, 1996. Principles of Mobile Communication, Chapter 2, G. Stber, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996. Slides for EE535, K. Chugg, 1999. Spread Spectrum Systems, Chapter 7, R. Dixon, Wiley, 1985 (there is a newer edition). Wideband CDMA for Third Generation Mobile Communications, Chapter 4, T. Ojanpera, R. Prasad, Artech, House 1998. Propagation Measurements and Models for Wireless Communications Channels, Andersen, Rappaport, Yoshida, IEEE Communications, January 1995.
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 47

The End

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

48

Scattering 2
hc is the critical height of a protrusion to result in scattering. h !
c

8 sin( i )

RCS: ratio of power density scattered to receiver to power density incident on the scattering object
Wave radiated through free space to scatterer and reradiated:

PR (dBm)! PT (dBm)GT (dBi)  20 log( )  RCS [dB m 2 ]  30 log(4 )  20 log(dT )  20 log(d R )

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 49

Free Space 2a
Free space power flux density (W/m2)
power radiated over surface area of sphere
Pt Gt Pd ! 4 d2

where Gt is transmitter antenna gain

By covering some of this area, receivers antenna catches some of this flux
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 50

Free Space 2b
Fraunhofer distance: d > 2D2/P Antenna gain and antenna aperture
Ae is the antenna aperture, intuitively the area of the antenna perpendicular to the flux
Gr is the antenna gain for a receiver. It is related to Ae. 4 Ae G 2 G! 2 Ae ! 4 Received power (Pr) = Power flux density (Pd) * Ae
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 51

Free Space 2c
1 Pt Gt Gr 2 Pr (d ) ! 2 Watts 2 d (4 ) L

where L is a system loss factor Pt is the transmitter power Gt and Gr are antenna gains P is the carrier wavelength
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 52

LNSM 2
PL(d)[dB] = PL(d0) +10nlog(d/d0)+ XW
where XW is a zero-mean Gaussian RV (dB)

W and n computed from measured data, based on linear regression

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

53

Ground Reflection 1.5

The power at the receiver in this model is
derivation calculates E field; Pr = |E|2Ae; Ae is ant. aperture
ht2 hr2 Pr ! Pt Gt Gr d4

The breakpoint at which the model changes from 1/d2 to 1/d4 is } 2Ththr/P
where hr and ht are the receiver and transmitter antenna heights
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 54

Convolution Integral
Convolution is defined by this integral:
y (t ) ! x(t ) h(t ) y (t ) ! x( )h(t  ) d
g g

Indexes relevant portion of impulse response Scales past input signal

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 55

Partition Losses
Partition losses: same floor
Walls, furniture, equipment Highly dependent on type of material, frequency

Hard partitions vs soft partitions

hard partitions are structural soft partitions do not reach ceiling
open plan buildings
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 56

Partition Losses 2
Partition losses: between floors
Depends on building construction, frequency Floor attenuation factor diminishes with successive floors typical values:
15 dB for 1st floor 6-10 dB per floor for floors 2-5 1-2 dB per floor beyond 5 floors
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 57

Materials
Attenuation values for different materials
Material Concrete block Plywood (3/4) Plywood (2 sheets) Plywood (2 sheets) Aluminum siding Sheetrock (3/4) Sheetrock (3/4) Turn corner in corridor
17 March 1999

Loss (dB) 13-20 2 4 6 20.4 2 5 10-15

Frequency 1.3 GHz 9.6 GHz 9.6 GHz 28.8 GHz 815 MHz 9.6 GHz 57.6 GHz 1.3 GHz
58

Radio Propagation

What does dB mean?

dB stands for deciBel or 1/10 of a Bel The Bel is a dimensionless unit for expressing ratios and gains on a log scale
P2 P2 ! 10 log 10 P P1 dB 1 ! 10(log( P2 )  log( P )) 1

Gains add rather than multiply Easier to handle large dynamic ranges
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 59

dB 2
Ex: Attenuation from transmitter to receiver.
PT=100, PR=10 attenuation is ratio of PT to PR [PT/PR]dB = 10 log(PT/PR) = 10 log(10) = 10 dB

Useful numbers:
[1/2]dB } -3 dB [1/1000]dB = -30 dB
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 60

dB 3
dB can express ratios, but what about absolute quantities? Similar units reference an absolute quantity against a defined reference.
[n mW]dBm = [n/mW]dB [n W]dBW = [n/W]dB

Ex: [1 mW]dBW = -30 dBW

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 61

Channel Sounding 2
Several Channel Sounding techniques can measure the channel response directly:
Direct RF pulse (we hinted at this approach) Sliding correlator Frequency domain sounding

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

62

Channel Sounding 3
Direct RF Pulse
Xmit pulse, scope displays response at receiver Can be done with off-the-shelf hardware Problems: hard to reject noise in the channel If no LOS
must trigger scope on weaker multipath component may fail to trigger lose delay and phase information
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 63

Channel Sounding 4
Sliding correlator
Xmit PseudoNoise sequence Rcvr correlates signal with its PN generator Rcvr clock slightly slower; PN sequences slide Delayed components cause delayed correlations Good resolution, good noise rejection

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

64

Channel Sounding 5
Frequency domain sounding
Sweep frequency range Compute inverse Fourier transform of response Problems
not instantaneous measurement Tradeoff between resolution (number of frequency steps) and real-time measurement (i.e. duration as short as possible)
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 65

Digression: Convolutions
The impulse response box notation implies the convolution operator,
Convolution operates on a signal and an impulse response to produce a new signal. The new signal is the superposition of the response to past values of the signal. Commutative, associative

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

66

Convolutions 2
y(t) is the sum of scaled, time-delayed responses
x(t) h(t) Each component of the sum is scaled by the x(t)dt at that point; in this example, the response is scaled to 0 where x(t) = 0. y(t)
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 67

h(t)

y(t)

Convolutions 3
Graphical method: Flip & Slide
x(t)
Pairwise multiply x*h and integrate over X

h(t)

y(t)

x(X)

h(t-X) h(t-X) h(t-X)Slide: Slide: & Slide: h(t-X) h(t-X) h(t-X) FlipFlip & &Slide: h(t-X) Flip Slide: h(t-X) Flip & & h(t-X) h(t-X) Flip and Store y(t)
17 March 1999

y(t)
Radio Propagation 68

Frequency and Time Domains

The channel impulse response is f(time)
It describes the channel in the time domain

Functions of frequency are often very useful;

Space of such functions is frequency domain

Often a particular characteristic is easier to handle in one domain or the other.

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

69

Frequency Domain
Functions of frequency
usually capitalized and take the parameter f where f is the frequency in radians/sec and the value of the function is the amplitude of the component of frequency f.

Convolution in time domain translates into multiplication in the frequency domain:

y(t) = x(t)h(t) Y(f) = X(f)H(f)
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 70

Frequency Domain 2
Based on Fourier theorem:
any periodic signal can be decomposed into a sum of (possibly infinite number of) cosines

The Fourier Transform and inverse FT

Convert between time and frequency domains. The frequency and time representations of the same signal are duals
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 71

Flat Fading
T >> Xd and W << BC minimal ISI
s(t) h(t,X)
Delay spread t t

r(t)

Time domain
(convolve)

0 Ts

0X

Ts+X

Coherence BW

Freq domain
(filter)
17 March 1999

fc

fc
Radio Propagation

fc
72

Frequency Selective Fading

T << Xd and W >> BC ISI
s(t) h(t,X)
Delay spread t

r(t)

Time domain
(convolve)

0 Ts

0 Ts

Ts+X

Coherence BW

Freq domain
(filter)
17 March 1999

fc

fc
Radio Propagation

fc
73

Review
Object of radio propagation models:
predict signal quality at receiver

Radio propagation mechanisms

Free space (1/d2) Diffraction Refraction Scattering
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 74

Review 2
Factors influencing received signal
Path loss: distance, obstructions Multipath interference: phase cancellation due to excess path length and other sources of phase distortion Doppler shift Other radio interference

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

75

Review 3
Approaches to Modelling
Models valid for far-field, apply to a range of distances large scale models: concerned with gross behavior as a function of distance small scale (fading) models: concerned with behavior during perturbations around a particular distance
17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 76

Relevance to Micronets
Micronets may require different models than most of the work featured here
Smaller transmit range Likely to be near reflectors: on desk or floor.
On the other hand, at smaller scales things are less smooth: ground reflection may turn into scattering

Outdoors, throwing sensors on ground may not work. Deployable tripods?

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 77

Relevance 2
Consequences of Fading
You can be in a place that has no signal, but where a signal can be picked up a short distance away in any direction
Ability to move? Switch frequencies/antennas? Call for help moving or for more nodes to be added? If stuck, may not be worth transmitting at all

Reachability topology may be completely irrelevant to location relationships

17 March 1999 Radio Propagation 78

Relevance 3
Relevant modelling tools:
Statistical models (Rice/Rayleigh/Log Normal)
Statistical fading assumes particular dynamics, this depends on mobility of receivers and environment

CAD modelling of physical environment and ray tracing approaches.

For nodes in fixed positions this is only done once.

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

79

Relevance 4
An approach to modelling?
Characterize wireless system interactions with different materials, compare to published data Assess the effect of mobility in environment on fixed topologies, relate to statistical models Try to determine what environmental structures and parameters are most important:
Scattering vs. ground reflection? can a simple CAD model help?

17 March 1999

Radio Propagation

80