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Wireless and Mobile Communication

Lecture 1
Wireless Fundamentals

Shibli Nisar
NU-FAST

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Course Division
1. Fundamentals
 History & Evolution of wireless systems, various impairments in wireless channels. Multi-path
signal propagation, Fading and its types, Doppler Effect, Error compensation mechanisms in
wireless channels
 FDMA-TDD/FDD, TDMA-FDD/TDD and CDMA-FDD/TDD Systems.
 Equalization
2. Wireless Data Networks
 Data networks, IEEE 802.11 WLANS their design and operation, Random Access Methods.
 Mobile IP.
 WLLs: MMDS/LMDS, Wi-MAX
 Bluetooth
3. Cellular System
 Cellular Fundamentals: Cellular systems, cellular operations, Handoffs & Cluster size
Relationship between C/I and Cluster Size, Derivation of expressions to link the Re-Use ratio
(D/R) to the Cluster Size (N) , Power control, cellular hierarchy, AMPS and AMPS architecture,
Call establishment and control
 Frequency planning & re-use, Radio Propagation effects, Adjecent Interference, Cell splitting
 Tele traffic engineering
 GSM: architecture, entities, channels, signal processing, handoff, call control, roaming, security
 CDMA
 GPRS
4. Overview of Cutting-edge Technologies: 3G and Beyond
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Recommended Books
 David Parsons, The Mobile Radio Propagation
Channel, 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons; ISBN:
047198857

 T. S. Rappaport, Wireless Communications, 2nd


Edition, 2002, Pearson Education; ISBN: 81-7808-648-
4

 Simon Haykin, Communication Systems, 4th


edition, May 2000, John Wiley & Sons; ISBN:
0471178691

 Lecture Notes

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Tentative Grading

 Assignments = 5%
 Quizzes = 10%
 Mids = 30% (15% each)
 Final Exam = 55%

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Wireless communication
 What is wireless communication:
 Any form of communication that does not require a
transmitter and receiver to be in physical contact
 Electromagnetic waves propagate through free
space
 Radar, RF, Microwave, IR, Optical

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Types of Communication

 Simplex
 one-way communication
 radio, TV, etc
 Half-duplex:
 two-way communication but not simultaneous
 push-to-talk radios, etc
 Full-duplex:
 two-way communication
 cellular phones

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Forms of Communication
 Analogue & Digital
 Which one is Better?
Digital?
Why?

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 Good processing techniques are available
for digital signals, such as

 Data compression (or source coding)

 Error Correction (or channel coding)

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Types of Media/Environments used
for Communication
 Wireless & Wired
 Why Wireless is better than Wired ?

 Reduced Cost (cheap infrastructure)


 Cabling very critical
 Developing nations utilize cellular telephony rather than
laying twisted-pair wires to each home
 Flexibility-Time
 Can easily set-up temporary LANs
 Disaster situations
 Only use resources when sending or receiving a
signal

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 User Mobility

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Wireless vs. Wired Communication

Wired Wireless
Each cable is a different channel One media (cable) shared by all
Signal attenuation is low High signal attenuation

No interference High interference


noise; co-channel interference; adjacent
channel interference

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Wireless vs. Wired Communication

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Wireless vs. Wired Communication
 Noisy, time-varying channel
 Environmental conditions affect transmission
 Shared medium
 Other users create interference
 Must develop ways to share the channel
 Bandwidth is limited
 spectrum allocated by state rules

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Classification of Wireless Systems
 Mobile Wireless Systems
 GSM, CDMA
 Ad-hoc
 Fixed Wireless Systems
 WiMax(IEEE 802.16a)
 MMDS, LMDS
 Infrastructure Dependent Wireless Systems
 Cellular
 WLL, WiMAX, Satellite
 Ad Hoc Wireless Systems

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Wireless Networks - Infrastructure
 Satellite – Wide coverage and high mobility
 Cellular networks – High mobility
 Wireless LANs etc – Low/None mobility

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Wireless Networks - Ad Hoc

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Adhoc Network

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Cellular Networks
First Generation
 Analog Systems with Voice Traffic
 Analog Modulation, mostly FM
 FDMA/FDD multiple access

Second Generation (2G)


 Digital Systems
 Digital Modulation
 Voice Traffic
 TDMA/FDD and CDMA/FDD multiple access

2.5G
 Digital Systems
 Voice + Low-data rate

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Third Generation
 Digital
 Voice + High-data rate
 Multimedia Transmission

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Evolution Path

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Gain

 An increase in an RF signal's amplitude


 Usually an active process; an external power source,
such as an RF amplifier, is used to amplify the signal or
a high-gain antenna is used to focus the beamwidth of a
signal to increase its signal amplitude
 Increasing the RF signal's strength may have a positive
or a negative result
 Typically, more power is better, but when a transmitter
is radiating power very close to the legal power output
limit, where added power would be a serious problem

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Gain

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Loss

 Loss describes a decrease in signal strength


 Reasons
 Resistance of cables and connectors causes loss due
to the converting of the AC signal to heat
 Impedance mismatches in the cables and connectors
can cause power to be reflected back toward the
source, which can cause signal degradation
 Objects directly in the propagated wave's
transmission path can absorb, reflect, or destroy RF
signals

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Loss

 Measurement and compensation for loss in RF


connection or circuit is important because radios have
a receive sensitivity threshold
 A sensitivity threshold is defined as the point at which a
radio can clearly distinguish a signal from background noise
 If losses occur between the transmitter and
receiver, the problem must be corrected either
by removing the objects causing loss or by
increasing the transmission power

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Loss

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Radio Propagation Mechanisms

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Multi-path Propagation
Received signal is made up of several paths which can be classified as:
1. Direct Path
2. Reflected Path
3. Scattered Path
4. Diffracted Path

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Line Of Sight (LOS) Non Line Of Sight (NLOS)

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Multipath Propagation

 Reflection
 Occurs when signal encounters a surface that is
large relative to the wavelength of the signal
 Diffraction
 Occurs at the edge of an impenetrable body that is
large compared to wavelength of radio wave
 Scattering
 Occurs when incoming signal hits an object whose
size in the order of the wavelength of the signal or
less
Other Basic Propagation
Mechanisms
 Reflection: It occurs when a propagating electromagnetic wave
intrudes upon an object which has very large dimensions when
compared to the wavelength of the propagating wave. Reflection occurs
from the surface of the earth and from buildings and walls.

 Diffraction: It occurs when the radio path between the transmitter


and receiver is obstructed by a surface that has sharp irregularities
(edges). The secondary waves resulting from the obstructing surface are
present throughout the space and even behind the obstacle, giving rise
to a bending of waves around the obstacle, even if the line of sight path
does not exist between the transmitter and the receiver.

 Scattering: It occurs when the medium through which the wave


travels consists of objects with dimensions that are small compared to
the wavelength, and where the number of obstacles per unit volume is
large. Scattered waves are produced by rough surfaces, small objects, or
by other irregularities in the channel.

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LOS & NLOS Scenarios
 LOS (Line of Sight): Since, the received signal is directly received
at the receiver the effects such as reflection, diffraction and scattering
doesn’t affect the signal reception that much.

 NLOS (Non Line of Sight): When the direct LOS between


transmitter and receiver is lost the effects such as reflection, diffraction
and scattering become very important as in the absence of direct path
they become the main contributors to the received signal at the receiver.

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Line Of Sight (LOS) Non Line Of Sight (NLOS)

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Multipath
 Multipath is defined as the composition of a primary
signal plus duplicate or echoed wave fronts caused by
reflections of waves off objects between the
transmitter and receiver
 The delay between the instant that the first main
signal arrives and the instant that the last reflected
signal arrives is known as delay spread

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Effects of Multipath
 Multipath can cause several different
conditions, all of which can affect the
transmission of the RF signal differently
 These conditions include:
 Decreased Signal Amplitude (downfade)
 Corruption
 Nulling
 Increased Signal Amplitude (upfade)

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Decreased Signal Amplitude

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Corruption

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Nulling

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Increased Signal Amplitude

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Antenna Diversity

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Characteristics of the Wireless Channels (Impairments)

 Susceptible to a variety of transmission impediments/hindrance


 Attenuation and attenuation distortion
 Path Loss or Free space loss
 Noise
 Atmospheric absorption
 Multipath
 Refraction
 Thermal noise
 These factors restricts the range, data rate, and reliability of the
wireless channel
 Effects depends upon the environmental conditions and the mobility of
the transmission and receiver
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Attenuation

 Strength of signal falls off with distance over transmission


medium
 Guided media
 Attenuation is generally logarithmic and typically expresses as a
constant number of decibels per unit distance
 Unguided media
 Attenuation is a more complex function of distance makeup of
atmosphere
 Attenuation factors for unguided media:
 Received signal must have sufficient strength so that circuitry in
the receiver can interpret the signal
 Signal must maintain a level sufficiently higher than noise to be
received without error
 Attenuation is greater at higher frequencies, causing distortion
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Path Loss Or Free Space Loss

 For any type of wireless communication the signal disperses


with distance
 This form of attenuation is also expressed as Free space loss
 Important for designing and deploying the wireless
communication networks
 Dependent of
 Radio frequency used
 Nature of the Territory
 Distance
 Different estimation (model) for different environment

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Noise

 For any data transmission event, the received signal will


consists of
 Transmitted signal, modified by the various distortions imposed
by the transmission systems
 Additional unwanted signals that are inserted somewhere
between transmission and reception
 These unwanted signals are referred as noise
 Thermal Noise
 Intermodulation noise
 Crosstalk
 Impulse Noise
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Thermal Noise

 Thermal noise due to agitation of electrons


 Present in all electronic devices and transmission
media
 Cannot be eliminated
 Function of temperature
 Particularly significant for satellite communication

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Noise

 Intermodulation noise – occurs if signals with different


frequencies share the same medium
 Interference caused by a signal produced at a frequency that is the
sum or difference of two original frequencies or multiple of those
frequencies
 Crosstalk – unwanted coupling between signal paths, can
also occur when unwanted signals are picked up by
microwave antennas
 Often dominates in ISM bands
 Impulse noise – irregular pulses or noise spikes
 Caused by external electromagnetic disturbances, or faults and flaws
in the communications system

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Other Impairments
 Atmospheric absorption – water vapor and
oxygen contribute to attenuation
 Multipath propagation – obstacles reflect
signals so that multiple copies with varying
delays are received

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Multipath Propagation

 Reflection
 Occurs when signal encounters a surface that is
large relative to the wavelength of the signal
 Diffraction
 Occurs at the edge of an impenetrable body that is
large compared to wavelength of radio wave
 Scattering
 Occurs when incoming signal hits an object whose
size in the order of the wavelength of the signal or
less
Multipath Propagation
Effects of Multipath Propagation

 Multiple copies of a signal


may arrive at different
phases
 If phases add destructively,
the signal level relative to
noise declines, making
detection more difficult
 Inter-symbol interference
(ISI)
 One or more delayed
copies of a pulse may
arrive at the same time as
the primary pulse for a
subsequent bit
Fading

 Fluctuation in signal strength when received at the receiver


 Four types
 Fast fading Or small-scale fading
 Slow fading Or large-scale fading
 Flat fading
 Selective fading
 Fixed environment
 Affected by changes in environmental conditions, such as rainfall or
electric noise
 Mobile environment
 Effect of fading is more complex - mobility
 Effects
 Add signals constructively or destructively at the receiver, causing a
variation in the power level of the received signal
 Introduce bit error rate and packet error rate
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Fast Fading

 Rapid fluctuations in the amplitude, phase, or multipath


delays of the received signal
 Reasons
 Due to the interference between multiple version (copies) of the
same transmitted signal arriving at the receiver at slightly
different times
 Delayed Spread
 Time between the reception of the first version of the signal and
the last echoed signal is called delayed spread
 Reasons
 Occurs because of the three mechanism, reflection, diffraction,
and scattering
 Error control coding, interleaving, frequency hopping and
diversity is used to mitigate the effect of fading
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Fast Fading in Mobile terrestrial Channel

This can be attributed to the phasor addition of various multi-path


signals.100-200 times/sec, that’s why Fast Fading! 90o

180o 0o
200 o
300o

270o
4
1

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Fast Fading in Mobile terrestrial
Channel
 Constructive interference takes place
when two or more rays arrive in-phase
(or almost in-phase) with each other
 Destructive interference takes place
when two or more rays arrive anti-phase
(or almost out-of-phase) with each
other. This also means rays arriving 180o
apart from each other

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Rayleigh Fading

Non-line-of-sight case (k=0)


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Rician Fading

Line-of-sight case (k>1)


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K-Factor

 K-Factor is the ratio of power of a


dominant (LOS) path to the power of the
random components (/scatter)
 For cases where LOS component is week
(Rayleigh), the K-factor will be small.
However, if the line of sight dominates
(Rician), the K-factor will normally take
positive values between 5 and 10 dB.

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BER for Various Fading Conditions

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Slow Fading or Shadow Fading

 Cause the received signal power to vary, though the distance


between the transmitter and receiver remains the same
 Occurs when objects that partially absorb the transmission
lie between the transmitter and receiver
 It is called Slow Fading because the variations are much
slower as compare to other fading phenomena
 Also referred to as Shadow Fading since the objects that
cause the fade, (buildings or other structures), block the
direct transmission path from the transmitter to the receiver
 A fade margin is added as an additional signal power to
overcome the problem

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Slow Fading (Shadowing)
 Shadowing: It is the term given to the slow variations in received
signal power as the user moves through the environment, especially
behind large buildings or near by hills. These variations occur approx. 1
-2 times per second, that’s why Slow Fading!
 Reflected
 Scattered Path
 Diffracted Path

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Shadowing: Behavior Prediction and
Mathematical Modeling
 Behavior of the Constraint

P & 1/d4

 Equipment Developed

Receiver and transmit Antennas


Amplifier (at the transmitter to increase the power)

 Factors affecting this behavior

PT (Transmit power)
GT (Transmit Antenna Gain)
GR (Receiver Antenna Gain)
Effective Area of Antenna

Note: This effect can be mitigated by increasing the power using Amp.

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Slow Fading (Shadowing)

Non Line Of Sight (NLOS)


PR= PT GT GR (λ / 4 π) 2 x 1/d4

PT = Transmit power (Watts)


PR = Received Power (watts)
GT = Transmit Antenna Gain – relative to isotropic source (no unit)
GR = Receiver Antenna Gain – relative to isotropic source (no unit)
λ = Carrier’s Wavelength (λ = c / f) (meters)
d = Distance between transmitter and receiver (meters)

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Two More Types of Fading
 Flat Fading
 All frequency components of the received
signal fluctuate in the same proportions
simultaneously
 Selective Fading
 Affects unequally the different spectral
components of a radio signal

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Interference

 Adjacent channel interference


 Reason
 Signals in nearby frequencies have components
outside their allocated ranges, these components
may interferes with on-going transmissions in the
adjacent frequencies
 Avoidance
 Introduce guard bands between the allocated
frequency ranges

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Interference

 Co-channel interference/narrow band


interference
 Reason
 Due to other nearby systems using the same
transmission frequency
 Avoidance
 Can be minimized with the use of multiuser detection
mechanisms, directional antennas, and dynamic
channel allocation methods

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