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EEL 6509: Wireless Communications

Midterm Exam Assigned on March 1, 2013, Friday Due: 4pm, March 15, 2013, Friday

This midterm exam will not be graded. It is up to you to decide whether you want to solve the midterm exam problems or not. The purpose of this exam is for your own benet, i.e., testing how much you have learned from the course. After the submission deadline, I will give you my solution and you can compare your solution with mine. You can submit your solution through E-Learning web site https://lss.at.u.edu; you can upload a scanned version of your handwritten solution.

1 (50 points) Try to be brief, it does not help to write long paragraphs. (1) (5 points) What is softer handoff? Solution: Softer handoff is a handoff between two sectors of a (sectored) cell. (2) (5 points) What causes co-channel interference in a cellular network? Among TDMA, CDMA, FDMA, which one has the most severe co-channel interference? Why? Solution: Co-channel interference is due to frequency reuse, i.e., different transmitters use the same frequency band at the same time. CDMA has the most severe co-channel interference since CDMA users in a cell use the same frequency band at the same time. (3) In wireless channel modeling, ISI channels and small-scale fading channels are two important channel types. What causes ISI in a wireless channel? What causes small-scale fading in a wireless channel? (Hints: resolvable/unresolvable multipaths.) Solution: Multiple resolvable multipaths cause ISI. Unresolvable multipath components cause small-scale fading. (4) (5 points) What is the relation between a large scale path loss model and a shadowing model? Solution: A large scale path loss model describes the mean signal attenuation vs. distance, e.g., n-th power law, while a shadowing model describe the statistical variation about the mean, e.g., log-normal distribution. Hence, shadowing is a random variation with respect to large scale path loss. (5) (5 points) In wireless communication, do you prefer to have slow fading or fast fading? Explain why. Solution: Fast fading is preferred since fast fading gives higher degree of time diversity, which can improve BER performance. (6) (5 points) Given the coherence time equal to 5 ms, what is the relation between two signals that are 10 ms apart? Why? (Hints: refer to the denition of coherence time.) Solution: The two signals that are 10 ms apart can be regarded as uncorrelated. This is because coherence time is the time duration over which two signals of different epochs are considered to be correlated. Since the time between the two signals are larger than the coherence time, the two signals are considered to be uncorrelated. (7) (5 points) For the same wireless communication system, which of the following channels gives better BER performance? Explain why. 1. Rayleigh fading with = 3, 2. Rician fading with = 3 and A = 2.

Solution: Rician fading with = 3 and A = 2 gives better BER performance since there is a line-of-sight signal component, which can improve the BER performance. (8) (5 points) Describe how to measure power delay prole (PDP). Specify what equipment to be used in the measurement. Solution: First, use a channel sounder to measure the impulse response of a wireless channel, which is denoted by hb (t; ); take many snapshots of |hb (t; )|2 . Second, average over a local area (i.e., average over t); then we have PDP as below: P ( ) = |hb (t; )|2 where the bar represents the average over the local area (i.e., time t). (9) (5 points) In the link budget for cellular network design, the required Eb /N0 for speech is 17 dB for 1G systems, 7 dB for 2G systems, and 5 dB for 3G systems. Explain why the required Eb /N0 for speech decreases from 1G to 3G. Solution: As the technology advances, cellular networks evolve from 1G to 3G. The reduction in the required Eb /N0 for speech represents the advance of the communication technology. The lower the required Eb /N0 for speech is, the more users the system can support. Reducing the required Eb /N0 is not an easy job. It is the design goal for a communication engineer. (10) (5 points) Given the same average SNR, do you prefer to have a Rayleigh fading channel or an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel for wireless communication? Explain why. (Hint: BER performance.) Solution: An AWGN channel is preferred since it gives better BER performance for a communication system. For example, for M-QAM modulation, the BER performance under an AWGN channel is much better than that under a Rayleigh fading channel. (1)

2 (20 points) The time-variant transfer function (Fourier transform of impulse response h(, t)) of a small-scale fading channel is given by H (f, t) = (t) ej(t) (a) (5 points) Does the channel exhibit frequency-selective fading or at fading? Explain. Solution: H (f, t) is a function of t, but not a function of f . As a result, the effect of the channel on a transmitted signal is independent of the frequencies of the transmitted signal. That is, the channel exhibits at fading. (b) (5 points) Derive the channel impulse response h(, t). (Hint: use inverse Fourier transform; the inverse Fourier transform of a constant K is K ( ), where ( ) is a dirac delta function.) Solution:
1 h(, t) = Ff [H (f, t)] 1 = Ff [(t) ej(t) ] 1 = (t) ej(t) Ff [1]

(2)

= (t) ej(t) ( ) (c) (10 points) Given that the transmitted signal is x(t), derive the received signal r(t) in the absence of background noise. From the relation between x(t) and r(t), nd the mean excess delay and the root-mean-square (rms) delay spread of the channel. (Hint: For the rst problem, the received signal is a convolution of the transmitted signal and the channel impulse response. For the second problem, if you are not able to obtain the relation between x(t) and r(t), try to use the results obtained in (a) to derive the mean excess delay and rms delay spread of the channel.) Solution:

r(t) = =

h(, t)x(t )d (t) ej(t) ( )x(t )d

= (t) ej(t)

( )x(t )d

= [(t) ej(t) ]x(t) The effect of the channel is completely described by the time-variant channel gain (t) ej(t) . There is no time dispersion introduced by the channel. From the relation between x(t) and r(t), the channel has zero mean excess delay and zero rms delay spread.

3 (10 points) In an AMPS system, the system bandwidth is 12.48 MHz, the channel spacing is 30 kHz. The number of channels allocated for control signaling is 21. Find (a) the number of channels available for speech message transmission, and (b) the efciency of the AMPS system. (Hint: the efciency is dened as the ratio of the number of channels available for speech message transmission to the total number of channels.) Solution: We have Bs = 12.5 MHz and Bc = 30 kHz. Therefore, (a) the number of channels available for speech message transmission is Ns = 12.48 1000 Bs 21 = 21 = 395 channels Bc 30

(b) the efciency of the AMPS system is = 395 0.95. 12.48 1000/30

4 (15 points) Consider a cellular system with a total of 490 trafc channels and a 7-cell frequency reuse. Suppose the probability of call blocking is to be no more than 0.5%. Assume that every subscriber makes 1 call per hour and each call lasts 3 minutes, on average. (a) (10 points) For omnidirectional antennas, determine the trafc load in Erlangs per cell and the number of calls per cell per hour. Solution: The number of trafc channels per cell is 490/7=70. From Table 3.4 on page 79 in Rappaports book, the trafc load is 53.7 Erlangs/cell. The number of calls per cell per hour is
53.7 3/60

= 1074.

(b) (5 points) For a 120-degree sectoring, determine the number of trafc channels per sector. Solution: The number of trafc channels per sector is
490 73 =23.3.

5 (5 points) Consider a carrier frequency of 1.9 GHz. For a vehicle moving at 72 km per hour, determine the maximum Doppler rate. Solution: The wavelength is = c/fc = 20 m/s. The maximum Doppler rate is
3108 0.158 m. The 1.9109 v fd = = 0.20 158 127 Hz. 72103 3600

vehicle velocity is v =