ELE 492 Fundamentals of Wireless Communications

Place: E6
Time: Tue. 09:00-12:00

Textbooks:
1. Molisch, Wireless Communications, 2nd Ed., Wiley
2. Sklar, Digital Communications: Fundamentals and Applications, 2nd Ed., Prentice Hall

Assessment:
Attendance (5 %)
1 Midterm Exam (30 %)
5-6 Popup quiz (25 %)
1 Final Exam (40 %)

Spring 2017 ELE 492 FUNDAMENTALS OF WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS 1

Outline
- Link Budget Analysis
- Radio Propagation
- Statistical Description of the Channel
- Wideband Channel Characterisation
- Channel Models
- Demodulation
- Diversity
- Multiple Access
- GSM Air Interface
- Wi-Fi Air Interface

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Prerequisites
Currently there is no official prerequisite of the course, but technically ELE 425 is a prerequisite.
If you havent taken or passed ELE 425, I strongly do NOT recommend the course for you.

Furthermore, you should have a very good understanding of

- Probability,
- Wave Propagation,
- Communication Theory,
- Systems Theory

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 Communications
Link Analysis

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dB in General

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Power (dBW and dBm)

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 Power
Sensitivity level of GSM receiver: 6.3x10-14 W = -132 dBW or -102 dBm

Bluetooth transmitter: 10 mW = -20dBW or 10dBm

GSM mobile transmitter: 1 W = 0 dBW or 30 dBm

GSM base station transmitter: 40 W = 16 dBW or 46 dBm

Vacuum cleaner: 1600 W = 32 dBW or 62 dBm

ERP: effective radiated power
TV transmitter: 1000 kW ERP = 60 dBW or 90 dBm ERP

Nuclear powerplant: 1200 MW = 91 dBW or 121 dBm

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Amplification and Attenuation

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Amplification and Attenuation

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Noise Sources

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Noise Sources

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Communications Link
The link contains/covers the entire communications path
From the information source to the information sink
Contains modulator/demodulator, encoder/decoder, pulse/matched filter, analog front end (amplifiers,
filters, etc), channel, etc.

* Sklar, Digital Communications, pg.242

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Link Budget Analysis
Consists of the calculations and tabulation of the useful signal power and the interfering noise
power present at the receiver.
It is a balance sheet of gains and losses on the link
Available power at the transmitter
Tx + Rx antenna gains
Propagation/channel losses
Performance loss due to noise and natural/man-made interference

Ultimately gives us the system requirements for a desirable performance of the link.

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The Channel
Channel is the propagating medium of electromagnetic path connecting the transmitter and the
receiver.
Physically a channel can be
For wired communications: Wire, coaxial cable, fiber optic cable,
For wireless (RF) communications: empty space, waveguide, the atmosphere, earths surface, medium
containing buildings, trees, vehicles, etc

Free space: A channel free of all impairments to RF

propagation
Absorption, reflection, refraction, diffraction
Energy arriving at the receiver is only a function of
the distance from the transmitter.

We will consider the free space as the ideal channel!.

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Error-Performance Degradation
Main causes:
1. Noise: thermal noise, impulsive noise, galactic noise, etc.
2. Interference: Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI), Multi-User Interference (MUI), Other comm. signals, Man-made
interference
(Consider noise only for the time being.)

Error performance depends on the received Signal-to-Noise Ratio per bit (SNR/bit), , defined as

Average signal Bandwidth

power
Bit energy

Noise PSD
Rate
Average noise
power SNR
LOSS HAPPENS HERE ! (HOW ?)
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Sources of Signal Loss and Noise
1. Bandlimiting Loss
2. Intersymbol Interference
(ISI)
3. Local Oscillator Phase
Noise
4. AM/PM Conversion
(Amplitude variations)
5. Limiter Loss or
Enhancement
Spring 2017
6. Multiple-carrier 12. Atmospheric Loss and 17. Galactic or Cosmic, Star
Intermodulation Products Noise and Terrestrial Noise
(non-linear devices)
13. Space Loss 18. Feeder Line Loss
7. Modulation Loss (message
content power) 14. Adjacent Channel 19. Receiver Noise
Interference
8. Antenna Efficiency 20. Implementation Loss
15. Co-channel Interference
9. Radome Loss and Noise 21. Imperfect
16. Intermodulation Noise Synchronization
10. Pointing Loss
11. Polarization Loss
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Sources of Signal Loss and Noise

See Sklar, Figure 5.1, p. 246.

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Isotropic Antenna

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Dipole Antenna

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Dipole Antenna

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dBi

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Antenna Parameters
Antenna
(at the transmitter) is a transducer that converts electronic signals into electromagnetic fields.
(at the receiver) converts electromagnetic fields into electronic signals.

Hypothetical antenna: isotropic radiator

Omnidirectional RF source: radiates uniformly over 4 steradians,
Power density p(d) on the sphere of radius d is

W/m2 (4d2 = ?)

Receiver side: In the far field (d >> )

Ae: effective area of the antenna

Aet: transmit antenna

Aer: receive antenna

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Antenna Parameters
Relation between the effective area (Ae) and the physical area (Ap) of an antenna
efficiency parameter of an antenna

Dish antenna = 0.55, horn antenna = 0.75.

Directive gain
in a direction

Power radiated
by an isotropic
radiator

(If there is no loss or impedance mismatch, the antenna gain is equal to the directive
Gain, which is the assumption here.)

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Antenna Parameters
Effective Radiated Power wrt. an isotropic radiator (EIRP) (Pt: transmitted power,
Gt: gain of the transmit antenna)

Both meters read

the same power.

(Aer for isotropic antenna

is given in slide 27.)
For an isotropic For an antenna
radiator With gain Gt

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EIRP and the Link Budget
EIRP = Transmit power (fed to the antenna) + antenna gain

EIRP answers the questions:

How much transmit power would we need to feed an
isotropic antenna to obtain the same maximum on the
radiated power?

How strong is our radiation in the maximal direction of the

antenna?

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Antenna Parameters
(G was given in slide 23.)
Antenna gain: wavelength:

Increasing frequency Antenna gain increases

Higher antenna dim.s more directional antenna
narrower beamwidth.

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Path loss (Free-space Loss)
What is Ae for an isotropic receive antenna?

Gr=1

Received power Pr for an isotropic receive antenna (gain of the transmit antenna is Gt)
for the Tx antenna

Path loss: attenuation of the received power

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Received Signal Power (is frequency dependent)
Now, consider a receive antenna with gain Gr

Received signal power:

Ae is a design parameter (dim.s of the antenna).

For fixed antennas (Ae: fixed) Pr as
For fixed antennas (Ae: fixed) G as
directivity

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Path Loss (is frequency dependent)
Path loss (free-space loss):

Geometric attenuation Effective area

not freq. dependent freq. dependent

One may express the received power in the logarithmic scale:

?
It is sometimes useful to calculate Pr for d = 1 m and then scale d to find the actual Pr

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Thermal Noise Power
Originates from the random motion of electrons in a conductor.
PSD of this noise is hypothetically flat (constant) at all frequencies of interest.
The maximum thermal noise power N that could be coupled observed at the front end of an
amplifier is

: Boltzmanns constant (1.38x10-23 W/K-Hz=-228.6 dBW/K-Hz)

T: ambient temperature (o K)
W: bandwidth (Hz)

Max. single-sided noise PSD No available at the amplifier input is:

and the noise power contained in a bandwidth W is

No is dependent on the ambient noise (thermal noise) T. Similarly, the terminology effective noise temperature
can be use for noise with non-thermal origin (galactic, atmospheric, man-made noise, etc).

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 Eb/No
SNR at the receiver input : C/N (Carrier-to-noise ratio)
SNR at the predetection point: Pr/N (or S/N) this SNR term is used to calculate Eb/No
For suppressed carrier modulation

(What about a modulation scheme with carrier?)

We have seen that , and , then for a digital receiver Pr/No is

Receiver figure-of-merit
(numerator: gains, denominator: losses).
Average received signal power Bandwidth
Bit energy

Noise PSD
Rate
Average noise power SNR

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Link Margin
Required SNR for a target BER is

to be on the safe side add a couple of dBs for the

received SNR

safety margin -> link margin

Remember that , then

or

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Link Margin
Read Sections 5.4.3 and 5.4.4 from Sklar (discussion about link margin, satellite coverage, link
availability).

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Noise Figure
Noise figure, F, relates the SNR at the input of a network to the SNR at the output of the network:

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 Noise Figure

An amplifier amplifies the input signal

* but also amplifies the input noise

and also introduces additional noise.

(Typical value of F: 1 10 dB)

Si: signal power at the amplifier input port

A reference for Ni is when T0 = 290 oK (reference temperature), i.e.
Ni: noise power at the amplifier input port
Na: noise power introduced at the amplifier
No = To = 1.38 x 10-23 x 290 = 4.00 x 10-21 W/Hz

Nai: amplifier noise referred to the input port No = - 204 dBW/Hz @ T0 = 290 oK

G: amplifier gain.

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Noise Temperature
(What percentage of Ni is Nai? [0,) )

T0 = 290 oK: reference temperature, TR: effective noise temperature of the receiver (network).

(Ni @ TR) (Ni @ T0)

For the output of an amplifier, we can write the output noise power as

Tg: temperature of the source.

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Line loss
An amplifier amplifies the input signal, but also amplifies the input noise and also introduces
additional noise.
A Lossy Line attenuates the input signal but does not introduce additional noise.

Power Loss:

Gain:

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Line Noise

Let all components be at temperature Tg.

There is thermal equilibrium -> no current flows due to noise.
Assume that the impedances of the input and output of the network is matched with the source and
the load.
The total output noise power Nout flowing from the network to the load:

Ngo: noise at the output due to the source

GNLi: noise at the output due to the lossy network (NLi: network noise relative to its input)
Due to thermal equilibrium, noise power of the load is also equal to TgW.

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Line Noise
NLi: network noise relative to its input:

Effective noise temperature of the line, TL, is

If the ambient temperature is Tg = T0 = 290 oK (above derivation assumes line temp. is at Tg)

Noise figure for a lossy line is

{
Then the output noise power is (see pg. 36)

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Line Loss
Example:
T0 = 290oK
Tg = 1450oK
Si = 100 pW
W = 1 GHz
L=2
Calculate (SNR)in,

(SNR)out and
TL.

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Composite Noise Figure
Connect two networks in series:

Noise figure of the composite network is:

Design goal: keep F1 as low as possible & keep G1 as high as possible (conflicting goals!).
First stage should be a low-noise-(pre)amplifier (LNA)!

Effective noise temperature of the composite network:

If there is a feed line prior to the amplifier: composite temperature

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System Effective Temperature
Apart from the transmission line and pre-amplifier, external noise sources are also present.
natural noise sources: lightning, atmospheric noise, cosmic noise, thermal radiation from the ground, etc.
man-made noise sources: automobile ignition, electrical machinery, other radio signals, etc.

They are represented by antenna temperature TA (TAW).

System temperature is

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 System Performance (w/o LNA)
Example: Receiver without a LNA preamplifier (no line loss)

From source From front-end

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 System Performance (w LNA)
Example: Receiver with a LNA preamplifier (no line loss)

From source From front-end

Lower noise figure
than F2 only.

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Sky Noise Temperature
When the antenna points towards the sky:
Up to 1 GHz, galactic noise is dominant.
After 10 GHz atmospheric noise is dominant.
There is an available window in between with low
natural noise.

(Observe variation wrt. elevation.)

(Study Example 5.7 and Sections 5.4.4 and 5.5.6.1 for satellite comm.s)

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Sample Link Analysis
Brackets: (<.>) loss
No brackets: gain
Box: subtotals
Double box: link margin.

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