Fundamentals of MIMO Wireless Communication

Prof. Suvra Sekhar Das

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Lecture – 08
Small Scale Propagation Multipath Model

Welcome to the lecture on Fundamentals of MIMO Wireless Communications. Currently we

are in the phase where we are understanding the wireless propagation channel. We have
briefly looked into the large scale propagation effects, currently we are going to start our
journey into this small scale propagation model and we will start with the multipath
propagation.

So, in small scale propagation model - that means, when we study multi path the reference
book again that we need to follow, of course there are many other books which are very
good, but the ones which we will closely be referring to in this particular section are
Principles of Mobile Communications by Gordon Stuber and Microwave Mobile
Communications by Jakes. Most of the things that we do can be found almost directly in
these two books, but again there are many other references which are very good whichever
you feel comfortable with feel free to follow those references they are all quite similar.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:25)

So, when we talk about propagation channels, especially the multipath propagation channel,
this is one of the most important parts of this particular subject. We need to understand the
propagation thoroughly. We need to understand the models because understanding of these
channels is very, very critical towards design of transmitter and receiver. If you see how
MIMO communications have evolved they have primarily become so useful namely because
the channel has been well understood and one of the most important things is the multipath
propagation channel. So, we need to understand it thoroughly so that we can design
transmitter signals, as has been said earlier as well as, so that we can cancel the effects of the
channel.

For this particular part will make some assumptions about the model that we considered, we
would take a look at that part where the signal strength variation over a few tens of
wavelengths that is the small scale propagation models. And the important assumption is that
the mobile is moving with velocity v along the X axis as can be seen in this particular figure.
So, we will be having the mobile moving along this X axis this is the X-Y plane and the
moved velocity is v is given by this the E-field is along the z axis. So, that is coming out of

the screen or out of the page on which we are writing and is the angle of incidence.

So, we can look at it in this way that there is a mobile and there is a transmitter. So, mobile
this is the Y and X axis and let us say this is the antennae. So, electric field is along this axis z

axis mobile is moving with velocity v along this direction and is the angle of incidence of
the plane wave arriving. So, plane waves are arriving from the transmitter to the receiver and
although in this particular figure we have the radiator almost in a straight line it could be
anywhere. So, we could have the receiver instead of this location, we could have a receiver

here. In that case this and then which this ray makes with this velocity is you can say. So,

this is in this particular case or if it is moving in this direction, if it is moving in this

direction then in that case this would be the angle of incidence.

So, there could be reflections. So, this ray could be getting reflected, it could be coming in
this direction in this case; this is the angle of incidence with the mobile. So, that is the basic
premise on which we are going to go ahead with the discussion, right. There is large
transmitter receiver separation distance, so if the separation distance is large then we can
make this 2D wave propagation assumption basically if this distance separation is large, as
the wave propagates we almost have like plane wave arriving and we can do a top view, so
we can have a top view of this whole plane this is the Y axis, this is the X axis as if we can do
2D model for wave propagation of this.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:53)

So, this is the typical picture we make it small and we assume that since the mobile is moving
in this particular direction with velocity v there is a Doppler which is introduced, now this is

from classical physics that we consider Doppler. So, if is the maximum frequency of

operation then that is the Doppler frequency from the path is equal to

maximum frequency and the , that is the component of that frequency in the

particular direction. So, where . Now this is pretty standard; that means the

maximum frequency of Doppler shift is where c is the speed of the electromagnetic

wave or speed of light is the carrier frequency.

So, what we can clearly see that as v velocity increases increases. So, if increases

for a given value of theta increases or the Doppler frequency increases and vice versa.
The max and min value being . All other values would be between or

Moving forward, we can now start taking a look at the transmitted signal we will consider the
band pass signal.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:52)

So, what we will do is we will write the transmitted band pass signal,

where is the complex envelope of the transmitted signal and this is the real part
of z. So, this is the basic model with which you will proceed in our calculations and we will
of course, assume that there is a transmitter there is a mobile station and the signal propagates
through multiple paths. This is one of the most important things that we will see. So, there are
more than one path through which the signal propagates and these paths could be because of
reflection from building, could be because of reflection of moving vehicles, could be from
lamp post or could be from trees, could be from houses, there could be blockage, severe
blockage into a building into something present in a line of sight. So, at the end of day we are
getting multiple signals arriving at the receiver and what we are going to study is what
happens to the signal when we add up these signals at this point of the receiver.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:07)

So, taking a careful look at the picture this particular figure roughly explains what is going to
happen in this picture and what is happening. So, from the transmitter as we have drawn there
could be a path from the vehicle, there could be a path from the building, this mobile could be
fixed or it itself could be moving. Now if the mobile is fixed and this reflector is moving still
we are going to experience a Doppler effect because of the relative motion between the
reflector and the mobile unit.
(Refer Slide Time: 10:52)

So, with this model we go ahead and say that the received signal, the noiseless received
signal. Typically in a communication system you may have come across an additive white
Gaussian noise channel where we have the transmitter, signal going through an ideal channel
nothing is happening and there is only addition of noise. So, this is additive noise, it could be
white, it could be Gaussian and then there is a receiver. Just to summarize we usually
consider this noise is being added because of analog components and of the receiver front end
typically and also due to conversion from the analog to the digital domain. Whereas, in the
current model that we are considering we are just trying to see what happens to the signal in
this point where it has almost not yet gone into the receiver you can say.

These noise effects can be studied separately. So, as of now we are interested only in the
channel effects where there is a channel between the transmitter and the receiver and we are
interested in the channel. We are basically trying to basically look at what happens to the
signal at this point or what happens if there is no noise present later on we can always
consider the effect of noise on top of these effects and we can study the combined cumulative
effect.

So, the noiseless received band pass signal can be written as is equal to again the real
part of we have this and if we say that we are looking at this particular propagation we will
assume that each of the paths has a propagation delay. So, let these paths have a propagation
delay , this particular path can have propagation delay of and so on, and this

particular path in general has a propagation delay of . In that case the signal that is

received from the path would be the one which was the complex basement signal that

was transmitted units of time before the current time because this is the propagation
delay through which it has come.

This signal is scaled by which is the amplitude associated with the path; that
means, if the signal has started to propagate in this particular direction then because of
reflection at this point there is a certain change in amplitude depending upon the reflection
coefficient. If it has gone through this particular direction because there is an obstruction due
to a certain amount of attenuation through which the signal may have gone through, again
because of this particular surface the kind of reflection happening here would be different. If
there is diffraction or scattering there would be a coefficient corresponding to the radar cross
section and so many other things.

So, in this model we abstract the exact happenings at these points whatever is happening and
we just model that there is some change in amplitude that has happened because of the
different phenomena in the multiple paths. This is the abstraction that we make. Instead of
this, if we were doing deterministic model we would have specified exactly what kind of
surface is it on which this wave is infringing what is the frequency, what is the irregularity
and what is the exact coefficient of reflections that happens, if there is a diffraction we would
try to calculate what percentage of power comes in this direction, what is the phase, if there is
a diffraction accordingly we take everything into account and solve the equation in order to
get it.

So, here we will we will try to do an abstraction and put for the particular amplitude

associated with the path. Now with respect to the carrier what we have is is
what we had when we transmitted the signal. So, the transmitted signal was

. What we have seen at the receiver it should be

because the signal takes time to proceed, it takes time to proceed. So, at any
instant of time if I am seeing the signal and that signal has come by the path it must have

started at a time which is and it must have undergone a multiplicative gain which is

. So, that is what is reflected in this expression the signal in part must have started
how many units of time before in that particular signal and this gain contributes to the gain

associated with that path there is is the carrier frequency.

Now, the received signal is not only the carrier frequency, but also there is the Doppler due to

the path associated with that path. Now instead of having since the time it has

propagated through is we have . So, this is the expression

of the pass band received signal when it has come to the path again if we go back and
check this expression or check this situation we have just written the signal which has come

to the path. What we get over here is signals which have come to the first path, second
path, third path and so on for all possible paths. So, we modify this expression and we put a

to indicate the sum of n equals 1 to N indicating as if there are capital n number of

multiple paths through which the signal has come at the receiver.

At this point we have the complete expression

and we would like to explore this expression a little bit more in order to see what lies in
details. Now we would separate the carrier from the Doppler because whenever we are
studying communication systems we have indicated before that we would like to study
systems independent of the carrier frequency. So, we will just bring these terms separate so
that we can concentrate on the complex envelope of the signal which is our main interest.
So, if we try to compare the expression with which we started what we had here is

What we have here is some signal here some signal and

. So, if we have to study the complex baseband or if you have to study the base
band then we move this part and we can focus on this part of the signal and study what has

happened to that got transmitted from the base station for example, or at the transmitter
and has undergone multiple path reflection, reflection is scattering and there is arrived at the
receiver after this propagation effect.

Now, in order to write it in a better way we would define

. So, this is basically the phase associated with the

path and we have this term over here. So, if we look at this particular term what we

see is that there is a multiplication of along with . Now this is very very important

for us to see is the propagation delay of the path and is the carrier frequency.

So, if we say that let and we have a certain propagation delay. Now what
we are trying to consider is the situation that this mobile has moved a little bit or if we take
this path this vehicle has moved a little bit in that case the reflected path would be this second

one and we can call it .

So, what we would like to study is the impact of the change in path length on the phase of the

path. So, to do that if we say that let . In that case what we would find

is the change in is ; that means, it is undergoing full phase rotation

because of just 1 ns of change in path length. This is very very important to capture because a
tiny change in the path causes a huge change in the phase a huge change in the phase would
cause the signal strength to fluctuate significantly.

Now, when we have all these different paths coming to the receiver, slightest change in any
one of the paths is going to cause a huge change in the signal phase which is coming at the
receiver. We are adding up all of these signals. So, what we end up with is a great change in
the sum total effect of these signals coming from different paths.
So, if we see over here we should be able to write the received signal as

So, here we have captured the phases, the amplitudes, the phases and the expression looks a
little bit simpler compared to the above expression.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:43)

This further you could write as , where is the complex

baseband signal or the complex envelope of the received signal for . So, if is the

pass band signal is the complex envelope.

We had the same expression for . So, if we look at these two expressions they look very
very similar. This is the transmitted signal, this is the received complex signal. So, now, since
we have separated out the carrier we should be able to concentrate on what happens to the
complex signal that was transmitted at the receiver.

We would of course, will define

 .

We could also say that let ; that means, we are taking these two terms
the amplitude and the phase of a particular path is being assigned to the variable h which is a

function of time as well as which is the delay where this phase term contains the time
and the delay effects.

So, if we take this we could write

where are the filter coefficients or in other words what we have is when the signal
propagates through such a multi path as been shown in the figure here with at each of the

reflecting surface or where the wave hit's we have an amplitude and because of the

propagation we have a phase what we end up is as if there is some convolution with

some sequence given by along with the signal that comes to the particular paths.

We this what we see is that the multipath propagation where at each surface where the
incoming wave hit's there is a change in amplitude and there is a change in phase what we
can effectively write is that the received signal in the complex form is the same as the as the
transmitted signal in the complex form. However, it is convolved with some coefficient
which is capturing the effects of the channels.

In the next lecture we shall see some more details about what happens to signals and what is
the typical behavior of such phenomena when observed at the receiver for a particular
transmitted signal.

Thank you.