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Diversity Techniques

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Diversity Techniques

• Diversity is a powerful communication receiver technique that

provides wireless link improvement at relatively low cost

• Diversity exploits the random nature of radio propagation by finding

independent (or at least highly uncorrelated) signal paths for
communication

• By receiving more than one copy of the transmitted received signal

and then selecting one (or multiple) of them intelligently, both the
instantaneous and average SNRs at the receiver may be improved,
often by as much as 20 dB to 30 dB

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Microscopic Diversity Techniques

• These techniques exploit small-scale fading characterized by deep

and rapid amplitude fluctuations as mobile moves over distances of
just a few wavelength

• Example:
– In case of small-scale fading, if two antennas are separated by a
fraction of meter, one may receive a weak signal while other may
receive a strong signal
– By selecting the best signal at all times, a receiver can mitigate
small-scale fading effects
∗ This is called antenna diversity or space diversity

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Microscopic Diversity
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Macroscopic Diversity Techniques

• These techniques exploit large-scale fading caused by shadowing due

to variations in both the terrain profile and the nature of the
surroundings

• Example:
– By selecting a base station which is not shadowed when others
are, the mobile can improve substantially the average SNR on the
forward link
– Macroscopic diversity is also useful at the base station receiver

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Macroscopic Diversity

Base station 1 Base station 2

Combiner Output

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Assumptions

• There are M independent diversity branches carrying the same

information bearing signal

• The received signal envelope on each branch is identically Rayleigh

distributed

• The noise on each branch is additive, independent, and identically

distributed
– It is also independent of the signal

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Selection Diversity

1/2
Antenna 1 α1 Eb b + n 1
Signal
Processing

Output
1/2
Antenna M Signal αM Eb b + n M
Processing
Control

Select the branch with the

highest instantaneous SNR
b = Transmitted bit
Eb = Bit energy
α i = Fading complex envelop on the i-th branch
n i = Additive white Gaussian noise on the i-th branch

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Selection Diversity

• Principle: Select the diversity branch with the highest instantaneous

SNR
• Let
Eb 2 Eb
– the instantaneous SNR on each branch i be γi = σ 2 αi , where σ2
is the SNR without fading
– the average SNR on each branch is
Eb
Γ = 2 E[αi2 ]
σ
– Note: when α is Rayleigh distributed, α2 is exponentially
distributed =⇒ γi is exponentially distributed with pdf
1 −γi
p(γi ) = e Γ γi ≥ 0
Γ

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Single-Branch Reception

• The probability that a single branch has SNR less than some
threshold γT is

P r[γi ≤ γT ] = 1 − e−γT /Γ

¡1¢
since γi ∼ E Γ

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Selection Diversity (continued)

• Recall that selection diversity selects the branch with maximum

instantaneous SNR

• The probability that all M independent diversity branches receive

signals which are simultaneously less than some specific SNR
threshold γT is
h i
PM (γT ) = P r[γSEL ≤ γT ] = P r max {γi } ≤ γT
i
= P r[γ1 ≤ γT , γ2 ≤ γT , . . . , γM ≤ γT ]
= P r[γ1 ≤ γT ] · P r[γ2 ≤ γT ] · . . . · P r[γM ≤ γT ]
³ ´M
−γT /Γ
= 1−e

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Example

• Given:
– Number of diversity branches = 4
– Each branch receives an independent Rayleigh fading signal
– Average SNR = 20 dB

• Determine the probability that the SNR will drop below 10 dB

• Compare this with the case of a single receiver without diversity

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Solution

• Here, γT = 10 dB, Γ = 20 dB and M = 4

¡ ¢
−γT /Γ M
• Using PM (γT ) = 1 − e , we find
¡ ¢
−0.1 4
P4 (10 dB) = 1 − e = 0.000082

• Without diversity, M = 1 and thus

¡ ¢
−0.1 1
P1 (10 dB) = 1 − e = 0.095

• Note: Without diversity the SNR drops below the specified threshold
with a probability that is three orders of magnitude greater than if
four branch diversity is used

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Selection Diversity (continued)

• The probability that SNR > γT for one or more branches is given by
h i
P r[γSEL ≥ γT ] = P r max {γi } > γT
i
= 1 − PM (γT )
³ ´M
= 1 − 1 − e−γT /Γ

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Average Received SNR

• The average SNR of the received signal when diversity is used is

given by

γ̄SEL = E[max(γi )]
i
Z ∞
= (1 − PM (γ)) dγ
0
Z ∞½ ³ ´M ¾
= 1 − 1 − e−γ/Γ dγ
0
    
Z ∞ XM 
M γ
= 1 −  (−1)  i  e Γ  dγ
−i
0  i 
i=0
 
XM Z ∞
M γ
= (−1)i−1   e−i Γ dγ
i=1 i 0

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Average Received SNR

• From the previous slide, we have

M
X · ¸ XM
M! 1 1
γ̄SEL = E[max(γi )] = Γ (−1)i−1 =Γ
i
i=1
i!(M − i)! i i=1
i

– The proof of the above expression can be shown by induction

• The above equation yields the average SNR improvement offered by

selection diversity as
XM
γ̄SEL 1
=
Γ i=1
i

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Diversity Gain

• Remarks: From the equation of average SNR improvement offered

by selection diversity, it is easily visible that
– the average SNR always increases with an increase in the number
of branches, M
– the largest diversity gain is obtained by using a 2-branch diversity
– from M = 1 to M = 2, there is 1.8 dB improvement and from
M = 2 to M = 3, the improvement is only 0.9 dB
– thus, as the number of branches increases, diversity gain suffers
from diminishing returns

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Selection Diversity (continued)

• Selection diversity offers an average improvement in the link margin

without requiring additional transmitter power or sophisticated
receiver circuitry

• It is easy to implement, however, it required the signals to be

monitored at a faster rate than the fading process

• It is not an optimal diversity technique because it does not use all of

the M possible branches simultaneously

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Another View of Selection Diversity

1/2
Antenna 1 α1 Eb b + n 1
Signal
Processing

G1
Σ Output
1/2
Antenna M Signal αM Eb b + n M
Processing

GM

b = Transmitted bit Selection: G i (0,1)

Eb = Bit energy
Optimum: G i = ?
α i = Fading complex envelop on the i-th branch
n i = Additive white Gaussian noise on the i-th branch
Gi = Gain at the i-th branch

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Maximal Ratio Combining

• In maximal ratio combining (MRC):

– The voltage signals from each of the M diversity branches are
co-phased to provide coherent voltage addition
– The signal voltage on the ith branch becomes
p
ri = αi Eb b + ni i = 1, . . . , M ,

where αi is the channel amplitude and ni is the real part of the

complex Gaussian noise at the ith branch
• If each branch has gain Gi , then the resulting signal envelope applied
to the detector is
M
X M
X p M
X
RM = Gi ri = Gi αi Eb b + Gi ni
i=1 i=1 i=1

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SNR in MRC

• Assuming each branch has the same average noise power σ 2 (i.e.
E[n2i ] = σ 2 ), the total noise power NT at the detector can be written
as
M
X
NT = σ 2 G2i
i=1

• The SNR at the detector, γM , is given by

³P ´2 ³P ´2
M M
Eb i=1 Gi αi Eb i=1 Gi αi
γM = = PM
NT σ 2 2
i=1 Gi

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SNR in MRC (continued)

• The SNR equation in the previous slide can be written in the vector
form as
¡ > ¢2
Eb G α Eb ||G||2 ||α||2
γM = 2 >
≤
σ (G G) σ 2 ||G||2
• According to Cauchy-Schwartz inequality, in the above expression,
equality holds when G = α (i.e., Gi = αi ) =⇒ which is MRC

• Thus the SNR of MRC is given by

M
X α2 Eb X M
Eb ||α||2 i
γMRC = 2
= 2
= γi
σ i=1
σ i=1

• Note: The SNR out of the diversity combiner is simply the sum of
the SNRs in each branch
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MRC (continued)

• The SNR at each branch i is given by γi , where γi is exponentially

distributed with mean Γ1
PM
– hence, γ = i=1 γi is Erlang distributed with pdf

γ M −1 e−γ/Γ
p(γ) = M γ≥0
Γ (M − 1)!

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Average Received SNR in MRC

• The probability that γMRC is less than some SNR threshold γ is given
by
Z γT M −1 −x/Γ
x e
P r[γMRC ≤ γT ] = M (M − 1)!
dx
0 Γ
Z γT
1 M −1 −x/Γ
= M
x e dx
Γ (M − 1)! 0
XM
1 ³ γ ´i−1
= 1 − e−γT /Γ
T

i=1
(i − 1)! Γ

• Home-work: Do the previous example for MRC

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Average Received SNR in MRC (continued)

• The average received SNR is given by

M
X M
X M
X
γ̄MRC = E[γi ] = γ̄i = Γ = MΓ
i=1 i=1 i=1

• Notes:
– The average received SNR in MRC is simply the sum of the
individual average received SNR from each branch
– Comparing γ̄SEL and γ̄MRC , we can easily see that MRC is superior
to selection diversity

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General Diversity Combining

1/2
Antenna 1 α1 Eb b + n 1
Signal
Processing

G1
Σ Output
1/2
Antenna M Signal αM Eb b + n M
Processing

GM
MRC: G i = α i
b = Transmitted bit
Eb = Bit energy Selection: G i (0,1)
α i = Fading complex envelop on the i-th branch
Equal Gain: G i = 1
n i = Additive white Gaussian noise on the i-th branch
Gi = Gain at the i-th branch

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Equal Gain Combining (EGC)

• In certain cases, it is not convenient to provide for the variable

weighting capability required for true MRC
– In such cases, the branch weights are all set to unity but the
signals from each branch are co-phased to provide equal gain
combining diversity
– This allows the receiver to exploit signals that are simultaneously
received on each branch

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Average Received SNR in EGC

• The SNR out of the equal gain combiner is

³P ´2
M PM PM
Eb α
i=1 i Eb i=1 j=1 αi αj
γEGC = 2
=
σ M σ2 M

• The average received SNR is

PM PM
Eb i=1 j=1 E[αi αj ]
γ̄EGC =
σ2 M
 
X M XM XM
 2  Eb
= E[αi ] + E[αi ]E[αj ] 2
i=1 i=1
σ M
j6=i

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Average Received SNR in EGC (continued)

• Since p
E[αi ] = σ π/2 and E[αi2 ] = 2σ 2
Therefore ³π ´
2 π
(E[αi ]) = σ 2 = E[αi2 ]
2 4

• Thus, the average received SNR under EGC is given by

M · ¸
π X M −1 2
γ̄EGC = Γ + E[αi ]Eb
4 i=1 σ 2 M
π
= Γ + (M − 1) Γ
h 4 π i
= Γ 1 + (M − 1)
4

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MRC vs EGC

• The performance of EGC is superior to selection diversity, however,

marginally inferior to MRC, which can be seen from the following
equation:
π
γ̄MRC − γ̄EGC = M Γ − Γ − Γ (M − 1)
4
µ ¶
4−π
= (M − 1) Γ
4
= 0.2146 (M − 1) Γ

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Average SNR Comparison

20 20
Average SNR (dB)

Average SNR (dB)

M=2 M=3
15 15

10 10

5 5

0 0
0 5 10 15 0 5 10 15

30 30
Average SNR (dB)

Average SNR (dB)

M=4 M=5
20 20

10 10

0 0
0 5 10 15 0 5 10 15
Average SNR per branch (dB)
30
Average SNR (dB)

M=6
20
Selection
MRC
10 Equal Gain

0
0 5 10 15
Average SNR per branch (dB)

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