A Frequency Domain Variable Data Rate Frequency Hopping Channel Model for the

Mobile Radio Channel

Uwe Lambrette, Stefan Fechtel and Heinrich Meyr
Lehrstuhl für Integrierte Systeme der Signalverarbeitung
RWTH Aachen, D-52056 Aachen
Tel. +49 241 807886, FAX +49 241 8888-195

Abstract— Modeling of the mobile radio channel is considered. Starting The asterisk  denotes complex conjugate. The operator E t de-
from a physical model, a frequency domain description of the channel is ob- notes expectation
R ( )
with respect to t and  x ? x0 is the dirac func-
tained. It is then shown that the effect of fading and dispersion can be entirely
modeled using frequency transform techniques. Due to the bandlimitation of ( ) =
tion where a x ? x0 dx a. X ; Y ; P are sets of integers.
the simulated stochastic processes, the channel impulse response (CIR) model
works on discrete time samples in both time and delay direction. Besides its III. T HE P HYSICAL R ADIO C HANNEL M ODEL
computational efficiency an advantage of the technique is that the channel cen-
ter frequency and the normalization unit (ie. the sample duration Ts ) for the
We consider the transmission of digital data over a linear, time–
physical delay spread remain as generic parameters. The generic property of variant channel at a radio frequency ! !B = +

p ! . The base-
the model is its major advantage especially in the evaluation of new, unspecified
scenarios. Due to the block–oriented processing, the fading-bandwidth–delay-
band channel model is described by its impulse response c ; t ( )
that also may be seen as G REEN’s function of the corresponding
spread product is limited for this modeling technique. Applications to typical
mobile radio data transmission scenarios conclude the paper. linear time–variant differential equation. The output of the chan-
Keywords—Fading Channels, Simulation, Radio Communication nel (ie. the solution to the inhomogeneous differential equation) is
given by Z

I. I NTRODUCTION
( ) = c(; t)s(t ?  )d
r t (3)

C


HARACTERIZATION of the mobile radio channel is an old For any continous–time c(; t) we can define a time–varying spec-
topic in communications and many approaches to model the trum by
complex behavior of the mobile radio channel have been taken in
the past starting with [1] over [2] and [3], [4]. Each of these models
( + p
!; t) = F c(; t); ? Ts < !B < Ts
C !B

was either dedicated to the classification of mobile radio channels p = [?1 : : : ; ?1; 0; 1; : : : ; 1] (4)
or to the providing of a suitable simulation method. For many pre-
where the limitation on !B will be used throughout the paper. For
viously specified scenarios these models are nicely suited as all pa-
frequency hopping in the pth frequency slot, another (nonzero)
rameters important for the modeling process, especially the symbol
center frequency is selected by choice of p. The channels are regu-
rate, have been previously specified. In our paper, however, we fo-


larly spaced with a separation of ! and the baseband equivalent
cus on a mobile radio fading channel simulator allowing to specify
channel frequency response equals C p !B ; t ( )= ( +
)
C !B p !; t
the symbol rate as a parameter easily allowing to use one model
setup for different symbol rate simulations and hence for an ex-
+

with the new center frequency !B p ! . For the evaluation of
realistic scenarios, however, only a limited number of frequency
ploration of the communications system design space, where the
symbol duration T , the symbol space order (M –QAM, M –PSK)
slots P =[ 101 ]
?P : : : ? ; ; : : : P is of interest. Figure 1 depicts
the selection of different frequency slots p during the course of
and the FEC code rate have to be properly chosen.
data transmission. As any realistic transmission system is either
Our paper is organized as follows: In section III, we describe the strictly band–limited(BL) or at least the overwhelming part of the
physical radio channel model our approach is based on. We com- signal energy is concentrated in a finite bandwidth interval (CPM
ment on some statistical parameters and their restrictions for our systems[5]), we may sample the signal (and hence the channel c)
model in section IV. Section V is devoted to the frequency domain
representation of the channel model and section VI describes the
1
at a suitable rate =Ts without significant (for BL systems: without
any) error and we obtain
FFT–based implementation of the model. Section VII discusses 1
X
the application of the model and section VIII concludes the paper.
( )=
r kTs ( )(
c lTs ; kTs s kTs ? lTs): (5)
?1
l=
II. N OTATION
(Sampling the bandlimited signal may be interpreted as the deter-
Some notation needs to be introduced first, so let Fx be the mination of the coefficients of the orthogonal base function set
fourier transform of a function with respect ot the argument x and ( )
si t=Ts ? k .) For any practical system, only a finite number of
F!?1 the respective inverse fourier transform with respect to !. taps l must be considered. Also we might or might not want to
include the effect of the transmit filter in the channel model. Now
Z 1
Fx f (x) = ( )e real the channel impulse response is defined correctly for a bandwidth
?1
f x |!x dx x (1) 1 =Ts . It is the goal of this paper to describe an efficient way of
1
X
( )
computing a finite–length cp lTs ; kTs providing a means to apply
Fx f (x) = ( )e
f x |!x
x discrete (2) frequency hopping (ie. variation of p) and variable symbol rates
x= ?1 (ie. variation of Ts ).
 IV. S OME S TATISTICAL PARAMETERS OF R ADIO C HANNELS spaced-time-
The channel impulse reponse ( )
cp t; 
may best be characterized
spaced-frequency
correlation function
by its correlation functions which come in four different well–
RC(∆ω; ∆t )
known [1], [6], [7] flavours interdependent via fourier transforms.
 spaced-time–spaced–frequency correlation function delay- spaced-
RC (
!;
t) = E t fC (!; t)
C  (! +
!; t +
t)g SC(∆ω ;ψ ) frequency-
spaced-time
(6) Rc ( τ ; ∆t)
correlation Doppler
 the spaced-time–delay correlation function function spectrum

Rc ; (
t) = E tfc(; t)
c(; t +
t)g (7) Sc ( τ; ψ )

delay-Doppler spectrum;
 spaced-frequency–Doppler power spectrum scattering function

SC (
!; ) = F
tRC (8) Fig. 2. Relations between the major statistical measures of the mobile radio
channel. Reprinted from [7].
 the delay–Doppler power spectrum (scattering function)
( ) = F
tRc(;
t)
Sc ; (9) We assume that the amplitude distribution of any multipath con-
tribution to the CIR is gaussian (including a zero–variance degen-
where =2  is the angular frequency of the Doppler spectra. eration for the direct path). When considering frequency hopping,
See figure 2 for the relations of the functions introduced. Another we assume that the contribution of any scatterer is independent of
important measure for the impulse response is the delay spread the actual transmission frequency slot p. The only difference is that
Z 1 now the channel spectrum is evaluated at another center frequency.
2 = Et ( ) ?
 2 c ; t d
= ?1 V. C ONTINUOUS –T IME F REQUENCY D OMAIN M ODEL OF THE
Z 1 2 R ADIO C HANNEL
?E t ( )
 c ; t d : (10)
=?1 A. Channel model without transmit filter

R is given by the interval  contain-

The length of the delay profile
In order to derive our model, we partition the scattering function.
( )
ing all  where the integral Sc ; d is nonzero.
We assume that the scattering function may be separated in the 
and –direction and is independent of the transmission frequency
For a line–of–sight ”scatterer”, the scattering function reads
slot p actually used. Hence
Sc ( ) = ( ? 0 ): (11) X
( )=
Sc ; i
ScI ( )
qi( ) (13)
Typically, the Doppler spectra of scatterers obey the Jakes spec- 2X
i

( ) = 20
r 1 2
trum[8]
i and S j
We assume further that the scatterers i; j belonging to ScI
Sc (12) cI

1 ? ?0 0
are mutually uncorrelated and thus any correlation between differ-
ent delays  in Sc is expressed by means of q i  . ()
where 0 = 2fD is the angular Doppler frequency. The spaced–frequency Doppler spectrum function now reads as
follows X
SC !; ( )= i
ScI ( )

Qi ! () (14)
Frequency Hopping i

continous channel C p of interest for where Q(! ) = F q ( ). We only want to model the CIR within
spectrum C(ω,t) simulation (?P ? 0:5)
!  !  (P + 0:5)
!. Hence any SC (!; ) can
t be written as a product of a rectangular window

(!) = 10 (elsewhere
?P ? 0:5)
!  !  (P + 0:5)
!

∆f and the right hand side of eqn. (14). Hence, Q(! ) is bandlimited.
As we are interested in the representation of a single link only, we
may further restrict the bandwidth of  to one frequency slot p

-π/Ts π/T s
Validity
of one
hopping
ωB+p∆ω p (!) = 10 ?elsewhere
=Ts  ! ? p
!  =Ts

frequency

Fig. 1. Frequency hopping model. We have excluded the transmit filter from Let us now distinguish between different cases constituted by dif-
C and included it in C p . ferent q .
1. The q i consist of few dirac pulses at locations j where j 2 Y, N
2 -2(L-1) L-1
input data
only: Hence stream

XX
Sc ; ( )= i
ScI ( )
qi;j ( ? j ) (15)
FFT
prepared for block
processing
j i
multiplication with F (0...2N-1)
IFFT
and XX
block processed

SC !;( )= i
ScI ( )
qi;j e |!j
(16)
filter output

j i output data
stream
Note that due to the band limitation of Q in (15)   ? j may be ( )
replaced by a si function with double sided bandwidth =Ts since 2 Fig. 3. Frequency domain block processing. F is the sampled spectrum of
2
the FIR impulse response with length ldN and L is the length of the
at any time instant, the CIR need only be known at a bandwidth of
1 =Ts although the channel model altogether shall be valid for a
filter’s impulse response.

larger bandwidth.
2. The q i contain many dirac pulses or even continuous nonzero VI. T HE DISCRETE – TIME CHANNEL MODEL
intervals. We may now exploit the band limitation of Q and hence
sample q in the  direction with sampling time We describe the implementation of the channel model. All ran-
dom processes involved may be sampled as we only deal with
s = Ts (17) finite–bandwidth stochastic processes. The channel model is con-
structed by generating the respective discrete time stochastic pro-
Unfortunately, in the time domain, the result of the sampling pro- cesses:
cess heavily depends on p. In the frequency domain, however, the (
1. Generate stochastic processes  i kLW Ts with the respective )
bandlimiting condition is expressed by multiplication with p ! . ( ) i
scattering function ScI ( )
.
In this case, the spaced–frequency Doppler spectrum function of 2. Compute their (correlated) sum  ?. =
interest reduces to 3. Delay the resulting correlated processes  j kLW Ts by j and ( )
XX
( )= ( )
qi;j e|j!s p (!)
i
sum them up in order to obtain the complete CIR. In case that the
SC !; ScI (18) effect of the transmit filterpshall be taken into
p account convolution
j 2Y i ( )
(multiplication) with F!?B1 H !B (with H !B ) needs to be ( )
Obviously we will limit Y to be much smaller than the full infinite
computed, too.
4. Filter the transmitted digital data with the resulting CIR.
set of integers and take some approximation error into account.
()
In both cases, Qi ! is identical to a (infinite) sum of complex
A. Generation of stochastic processes  i kLw Ts ( )
exponentials which can be truncated to a finite series. Letting j =
js for the second case and constraining our attention to !B , The complex processes are generated from a gaussian source
X X with variance i2 . The resulting complex gaussian process is then
(
SC !B ; )= i
ScI ( ) qi;j e?|(!B +p
!)j (19) lowpass filtered in order to obtain a process with the power spectral
i 2X j 2Y i
density ScI ( ) . Any ScIi from (11) and (12) is bandlimited, hence

can be used for both forms of q . We may gather the correlations

1
we may use a sampled input process (rate =M i LW Ts ) without in-
troducing errors. pThe transfer function of the filter has to approx-
qi;j in a positive semidefinite, factorizeable[9] matrix imate T i( )= i
ScI ( )
as the spectrum of the input gaussian
Q=? ? = (qi;j ) :
T process is flat. Many FIR filter functions produce a given power
(20) spectrum from given white input noise of which we select the real
symmetric FIR filter. Let the length
p of the symmetric FIR filter
B. Transmit Filter
p corresponding to the spectrum ScI i ( )
be truncated to Li . The
In order to take into account the transmit filter H !B , equa- ( ) periodic spectrum (period =M i LW Ts ) is sampled with N sam-
( )
tion (19) is multiplied with H !B . and the spaced–frequency ples
Doppler spectrum now reads as follows
X X
l = M iL2WlTsN ; l = 0 : : : N ? 1 (22)
(
SC !B ; ) = H (!B )
i
ScI ( ) qi;j e?|(!B +p
!)j (21)
i j For a block–processing approach, for any input sample to be fil-
1
tered correctly the past Li ? FIR input samples must be present.
For consideration of CPM modulation, the transmit filter will be 1
Hence, the first Li ? samples in each block have to be thrown
omitted. For P =0
, we also may include the TX filter in the away [10], [11], and, prior to the FIR block processing, samples
()
computation of the correlation q i  which in this case has to be have to be repeated. Figure 3 exhibits the basic structure of the
convolved with the TX filter’s autocorrelation function. overlap–and–save block processing. For very narrow bandwidths,
The approach of choosing a discretization (by means of orthogo- the FIR output signal is interpolated by a rate M i > using linear 1
nalization) was first proposed in [3], but, root–raised cosine pulses or si–interpolation (M i is an integer). Figure 4 displays the ap-
were choosen as base functions which did not permit the easy intro- proximation of the Doppler spectrum produced by the frequency
duction of variable normalized tap delays and frequency hopping. domain block processing filter.
 data samples s(kTs)

N CIR -DFT
Frequency Domain exp j(ω +p∆ω)
τj n
B Ts NCIR
Dispersive Channel Model
(hold)
H(f)
path 1

white

N CIR -DFT
gaussian ± ψi /LW M Ts
0 i
τj n
noise σ12 Mi exp j(ω +p∆ω)
FFT-Length: Nτ B Ts NCIR t
Γ (hold)
f

or frequency
d1 Interpolation

realization
exp(jψ10LW )

domain
in time
direct path

path M

white

N CIR -DFT
gaussian
± ψi /LW M Ts
0 i
noise σM Mi τj n
2
FFT-Length: N τ
exp j(ω +p∆ω)
B Ts NCIR

dM (hold)

direct path
exp(jψM0LW0 )

hopping pattern p
filtered
data samples s(kTs)
delay frequency domain (ωB) frequency domain (ψ)

Fig. 5. Representation of the channel model. The rightmost block serving to convolve the data samples with the CIR may be realized using either the FFT
or in the time domain.

Delaying the  j is accomplished rather easily in the fre-

quency domain: The spectrum (!B –direction) of the undelayed
( )
 j ; kLW Ts is flat and thus
? j
F  j ( ? j ; kLW Ts ) = F (0; kLW Ts)
( ? j )


= j (0; kLW Ts)e|(!B +p
!)j (24)
and the continuous–frequency spectrum of the channel is given by
p X
(
C !B ; kLW Ts )= H !B ( )
j (0; kLW Ts)e|(!B +p
!)j
j
(25)
For further processing using the FFT, the spectrum (25) itself is
represented by NCIR =MC samples

Fig. 4. Doppler spectra SC

i ( )
of tap fading processes, varying NCIR and !B;n = N2nM C
; n = 0 : : : NCIR=MC ? 1 (26)
=1
N , M i , LCIR=64 . Reference calculation according to eqn. (12). CIR Ts

[0 2 )
in the interval ;  . For MC > (MC is always an integer) 1
B. Computation of F  j  ( ? j ; kLW Ts) interpolation (linear interpolation, for example) is used to increase
the frequency sample rate by a factor MC . As the channel–impulse
It is easy to compute the processes  j kLW Ts from ( ) response is not strictly time–limited (but this is introduced by the
(
 i kLW Ts )
as this can be done by the matrix multiplication model) even ideal interpolation will introduce additional errors.

=?:
Hence, the vector
 (23) s  
In many cases ? can be chosen diagonal, especially, when the WS- (
C n; kLW Ts ) = H
2n
NCIR Ts
SUS model[12] is assumed and only few scatterers are modeled. In ?

X j
this case the power of the individual scatterers is given by the main
diagonal of ? T ? weigthed with the i2 . Although it is possible to

j (0; kLW Ts)e| NCIR Ts +p
!j (27)
j
exchange the order of interpolation by an integer rate M i and the
multiplication with ? , this is never feasible, as commonly ? will is finally used for representing the discrete–time channel impulse
have more columns than rows and hence such a step will always response, where depending on MC , at frequencies n 6 kMC in- =
increase the required computing power. terpolated values may be used instead. In case that the transmit
 TABLE I
B. Parameter Choice
Configuration for typical mobile radio channels, Li = 512; N = 212
We assume that a K -fold oversampling of the channel dynamics
channel mdl. DAB-HT1[13] GSM-HT[14] WLAN[15] is sufficient for reducing the approximation error caused by the
fDmax 150Hz 100Hz 3kHz sample–and–hold block processing to a negligible amount. The

 80s 20s 250ns maximum Doppler frequency is given by max fD =2
max . The
Ts 0.3s 1.84s 12.5ns
LCIR window for convolving the CIR with the transmitted data shall have
=

300 32 150
ldNCIR 10 8 9 a length of LCIR J
 =Ts . The length of the window with
LW 724 224 768
1=LW Ts 4604Hz 2426Hz 221kHz
fixed CIR is then given by Ts LW . Hence, the CIR length–Doppler
K 15.4 13.6 36.8 frequency product is limited by
J
= 2T 1L
1.125 2.9 7.5
max
KfD : (28)
s W
filter is not taken into consideration
?

For the slowly fading indoor channels with small delay spreads,
X 
(
C n; kLW Ts ) =  j
(0; kLW Ts)e | N j Ts +p
!j
CIR
higher accuracies can be achieved than for the outdoor, lower data
rate channels. Reducing J K commonly means a gain in efficiency
j
of the simulation.
is used with the interpolated values replacing C (
) depending on In table I the setup for the three channels using the model dis-
MC , again. cussed in here is described. An oversampling ratio of 2 with re-
spect to the symbol (for the OFDM system: the reciprocal of the
(
C. Filtering the transmitted samples with C !B ; kLW Ts ) subchannel spacing) duration is assumed. For the DAB system,
modeling is most crucial, but still, high oversampling ratios can be
The final step is filtering the transmitted data with the CIR. This achieved.
is also performed in the frequency domain using the technique de-
scribed in section VI-A and figure 3. The CIR is truncated to LCIR VIII. CONCLUSIONS
samples. Obviously, the channel impulse response is now time–
We have presented a new method for the simulation of digital
varying. Block processing cannot model the time–varying nature
data transmission over the mobile radio channel. Our method al-
of the CIR without error. The reason is that the CIR is held con-
stant for LW = NCIR ? LCIR +1
data samples. But, as long as
lows easy reconfiguration of the symbol duration and usage of fre-
1( )
the sampling rate of the CIR, ie. = LW TS , is much greater than
quency hopping patterns. Implementation of the model is compu-
tationally efficient as fast convolution operations are used to speed
= max , the resulting approximation error is small and tolerable.
up computing the result of FIR filter processes. Our model is lim-
At the price of increased computational effort, the final convolu-
ited to small products of fading bandwidth and maximum disper-
tion may be carried out in the time domain allowing a per–sample
sion.
adaptation of the CIR.
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