Coverage prediction for digital

mobile systems
Part ]-Propagation analysis to predict and to combat impainnents to digital radio
system signals relies on different types of models. Software tools allow system
designers to evaluate configurations without expensive field measurements.
signals en route from the transmitter to
the receiver. Obviously the s ignal ge ts
weaker, and everyone has experienced
other signa l impairments such as
multipath fading. In large part, the design
of modulation techniques and radio system hardware, including antennas, is directed toward combating the signal impairments that happen during propagation.
The traditional approaches to propagation modeling, which have been developed for analog systems, were intended
only to predict signal attenuation, or path
loss, as the signal traveled from the transmitter to the receiver. While these approaches have been adeq uate for most
analog systems, digital systems need new
techniques to produce other information
in addition to path loss. This infomrntion
may acrually be the controlling factor on
system performance or coverage. even
when the signal-to-noise ratio is well
above the value otherwise necessary to
achieve perfect reception.
Jn the following sections of this article, various approaches to propagatio n
modeling will be discussed with a view
toward their stre ngths and weaknesses
when used with digital systems. The
most incisive app roach based on raytracing techniques will be used to explore some of the propagation factors
which specifically affect digital system

by Harry R. Anderson, Ph.D., P.E.

The rapid growt h in mobile communications systems over the past several
years has lead to increasing use of digital modulation techniques to transmit information. Whether it' s cellular, PCS,
paging, two-way mobile or SMR
trunking, essentially every aspect of
mobile communication has been affected
by the "digital revolution." Digital techniques allow much greater flexibi lity for
encoding and processing information,
which makes possible more efficient and
robust transmiss ion than p reviously
achieved with analog systems.
In designing any radio system, a fundamental task is to predict the coverage of
a proposed system and to determine
whether the intended service objectives
arc met. Over the years a wide variety of
approaches have been developed to predict coverage using what arc known as
propagation models. Propagation in this
context simply means the transfer or
transmission of signals from the transmitter to the receiver. Propagation mode ling
is an effort to predict whai happens to

Anderson is president and chi ef executive officer of EDX Engineering. Eugene, OR.

700 TRANSMITTER
-------------- ---- ----------- -- -- - -- --------

10

15

20

25

performance and coverage.

Emplrlcul vs. phys ica l models
The most common approaches to
propagation modeling are:
empirical models that use measurement data to define a model path loss
equation.
physical models of path loss that use
physical radio wave principles such as
free space transmission, reflection or diffraction.
~ Empirical Models In the VHF/
UHF frequency bands, examples of empirical propagation models are the FCC
and lTU-R models (sec References). The
FCC uses propagation curves that were
fitted to a set of signal strength measurements done at several locations in the
United States. The propagation model as
represented by a set of curves for different frequency bands shows field strength
vs. distance for a range of transmit antenna height above average terrain
(HAA T) values. The lTU-R has similar
curves based on HAAT as set forth in Rec.
370-6. The lTU-R method also provides
for corrections to take into account " terrain roughness" or tlh, the 10% to 90%
inter-decile terrain variation over the path.
These models make use of measurement
data instead of electromagnetic wave
principles to define the prediction. As

100 ri - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --,.._ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - TRANSMITTER

30

DISTANCE (km)

Flguro 1. Llneof-slght radio path ovor a terrain profile.

38

Mobile Radio Teclr11ology

Jnnuruy 1997

Figure 2. Obstructed radio path over a terrain profile.

such, the FCC and ITU-R models arc classic examples of purely empirical models.
Another model commonly used in mobile radio and cellular work is the Hata
model, which is a set of equations based
on measurements and graphs developed
by Okumura. This is also an excellent example of an empirical model.
Empirical models use what arc known
as ''predictors" or "specifiers" in general
statistical modeling theory. Predictors are
parameters which have been found
through statistical analysis to bear a relationship to (are correlated with) the quantity which is to be predicted. In econometric models, the objective may be to
predict gross national product (GNP). In
doing so, the model may use values such
as unemployment. disposable income or
balance of trade as predictors. All of these
factors may have been found to be correlated with GNP, but none of them directly
causes GNP to go up or down. Similarly,
in the field of psychology, one may find
a correlation between a child's IQ and the
family annual income, but higher family
income does not cause the child's IQ to
be higher. There are other mechanisms al
work. In medicine, misinterpretation of the
significance of empirical studies have lead

to such absurd headlines as "Coffee causes

cancer." The textbook axiom is "Correlation does not prove causality. "
ln the case of the FCC model, through
statistical analysis, a correlation was
found between antenna HAA T and signal
strength. But this was only correlation,
not a causal relationship. Indeed, o ne
could not conceive of a radio propagation
mechanism where the simple average elevation value directly changes the magnitude of an electric or magnetic field at the
recei ver. The consequence of this approach is easily illustrated in Figures 1
and 2 on page 38, which show two terrain
profiles along a 2Skm path separating the
transmitter and receiver. The 3km-16 km
HAAT values (as specified in the FCC
Rules) for the transmit and receive antennas are the same for both terrain profiles
in Figures 1 and 2, but the field strength
at the receiver will be much lower in Figure 2 due to the obstruction of the nearby
hill. A similar example could be constructed for tlh in which a valley and a
mountain along two paths both have the
same inter-decile elevation variation, yet
the field strength at the receiver on the
path with the mountain will be much lower
than on the path with the valley. The in-

ability to explicitly account for particular

features of the propagation environment is
perhaps the greatest limitation of empirical, measurement-based models.
The accuracy and usefulness of such
empirical models also depends on the
environment where the original data for
the model was taken and how universally
applicable that environment is. A common problem is trying to use empirical
models in areas where the propagation
environment is widely different from the
environment where the data was gathered.
In the Hata model based on the work of
Okumura, propagation path loss is defined
for "urban," "suburban" and "open" environments. These correction factors in
Okumurn's work are an effort to refine
the predictions, but unless the characteristics of "urban," "suburban," and "open"
for your study area are reasonably similar
to those in Japan, where the measurement
data was taken, these finer-grained classifications may not be of much use.
In spite of their limitations, empirical
models such as the FCC, ITU-R, and Hata
models are still widely used because they
are simple and allow rapid computer
calculation. They also have a certain
"comfort" factor in that people using them

in certain circumstances over time have

come to know what to expect and to make
their own ad-hoc "corrections" to the prediction values provided by the model.
When the propagation environment is
fairly homogeneous and similar to the environment where the model measurements
were taken, an empirical model can
achieve reasonably good prediction results.
With the recent advent of automated
field strength measurement systems with
GPS position logging, ii is now relatively
easy to acquire vast amounts of measurement data. This has lead to the use of
custom empi.rical propagation models that
are path -loss equations or formu las
"tuned" for a given system, or even for a
given transmitter or cell base station
within a system. With such extensive use
of measurement results, however, it is appropriate 10 question whether these
models are really prediction methods at
all, when in essence the answers are used
to "predict" the answers. In spite of their
heavy reliance on measurement data, such
customized models will still fail to adequately account for propagation environment features such as the hill in Figure 2.
Digital communication systems require
a wider variety of information from

Flgure 3. Received power prediction using a single path model.

propagation models than just signal

strength to predict coverage 1111d performance. With empirical models, each new

category of in forma tion represents

another set of measurements that has to
be taken. As an example, RMS delay

rom
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Figure 4. Bit-error-rate prediction.

spread (defined later) has rccenLly become

a routinely used factor in predicting Lhe
performance of wideband digita l commu-

nication systems. For an empirical model

to be useful for such systems, another set
of meas urement data us ing a channe l

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42

Mobile Rmiio Ttthno/qgy

January 1997

sounder would have to be acquired and

appropria te statistical analysis would
have to be done to determine statistically
s ignificant predictors of RMS delay
spread. All the same limitations of em
pirical modeling pointed out above would
still apply, but when signal strength and
RMS delay spread predictions are both
considered as separate dimensions in the
prediction problem, the difficulties of the
empirical approach multiply. This problem is aggravated as other information
types such as signal fading statistics arc
added. As the amoun t of data increases,
the attraction of the empirical modeling
approach diminishes .
..,. Physical Models - Unlike empiri
cal propagation models, physical models
don't use measurement data for predictions but instead rely on physical laws
governing the interaction of electromagnetic waves with the physical elements of
the propagation environment. Fundamentall y, au of these interactions can be derived from Maxwell' s equations (sec
Balanis, References).
To be effective, physical models require detailed descriptions of the e)ements
of propagation environment for their predictions. For this reason, the weakness of

MOTOROLA

physical models is that they require extensive databases of information (such as

terrain elevations, building wall locations
or surface material characteristics) that in
turn require significant computer resources to take all this information into
account to perform the required propagation calculations. To reduce this problem,
simplified descriptions of the propagation
environment are usually employed. A
typical example is representing an ob-

slrUcting mountain ridge like that shown

in Figure 2 as a single isolated "knifeedge." The effect of a single knife-edge
on the signal is readily found from classic
diffraction theory to provide a field
strength prediction at the receiver. The
problem is whether a real mountain ridge
can be accurately modeled as a knifeedge. Clearly, no mountain ridge is really
a knife-edge. Other methods to more accurately represent the mountain ridge

l8

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Clrclo (52) on Fast Fact Card

44

Mobile Radio Tech11ology

January 19<)7

have been used. In each case where a new

model of the obstacle was employed, the
physical principles governing the effect
of the "model" obstacle on the radi o
waves were known.
The important aspect of physical propa
gation models. and their primary distinction from empirical models, is that they
attempt to predict the field strength at a
precise point in space by considering the
specific propagation environment circumstances involved. For this reason, they can
be regarded as site-specific models.
Given a particular transmitter and receiver
location, and the propagation environ
ment, a site-specific physical model will
provide a tailor-made prediction of the
field strength at that point and. as will be
shown, other channel response characteristics. Site-specific physical propagation
modeling is the approach used here to
explore coverage prediction for digital
mobile radio systems.
Traditional single path models
Commonly used propagation models
attempt to predict the signal strength at
tl1e receiver by calculating the path loss
for a single radio propagation path from
the transmitter via a great circle route to
the receiver. Models such as T IREM and
Longley-Rice are examples of physical
models that predict signal strength using
a single propagation path. 1 Even using the
assumption that signal energy arrives at
the receiver via a single path only, useful
results can still be obtained. Figure 3 on
page 41 shows a map of predicted received power levels for a five-transmitter
system using the TIREM model. With
receiver signal power predi cted, and
knowing the system noise, digital modulation type and data rate, it is straightforward to display maps of bit error rate
(BER) as shown in Figure 4 on page 42.
By taking into account relative propagation path length delays from various transmitters, and their relative signal strengths,
maps of simulcast delay spread can also
be readily created as shown in Figure 5 on
page 46. Such maps are especially useful
for digital paging systems where time
delay and frequency offsets can be ti ssigned to each transmitter to re-locate and
control the interference areas. Prediction
tools, such as EDX SignalPro software.
that provide this capability, allow the system designer to quickly evaluate many
different offset configurations from a
notebook or desktop ~omputer without
speaking. TlREM and Longley-Rice
pure physical models. since measurement results have been used to establ ish certain
parameters in each model.
1Srrictly

arc not

making time-consuming and expensive

field measurements to interactively assess
and adjust these parameters.
Although single path prediction methods are a useful starting point, for modern
digital systems the answers can sometimes be inadequate or even misleading
as will be shown in the concluding part of
this article series.
References
Anderson, H.R. "A Ray-tracing Propagation
Model for Digital Broadcast Systems in Ur
ban Areas," IEEE Transac1ions on Broadcas1ing, Sept. 1993.
Anderson, H.R. "Site-specific BER Analysis in
Frequency-selective Channels Using a Raytrncing Propagation Model." Proceedings of

1he 1994 G/obecom Co11/ere11ce, Sa11 Francisco, Dec. 1994.

Balanis, C.A. Advanced Enginttri11g Electromagnerics. John Wiley, New York. NY, 1989.
Code of Federal Reg11la1ions Tille 47, FCC
Rules, Part 73.313. U.S. Government Print
ing Office.
Hata, M. "Empirical Fonnula for Propagation Loss
in Land Mobile Radio Services", IEEE Trans
ac1ions 011 Vehic11Jar Technology. Sept. 1981.
fakes, W.C. Microwave Mobile Comm11nica
tions. IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ, 1994 (re
published).
Okumura, Y. et al. "Field Strength and its Vari-

OUll

Tfl-f 67

Figure 5. Slmuleaat delay apread prediction.

ability in VHF and UHF Land-mobile Radio

service," Rev. Elec. Comn111n. Lab., Sept.Oct. 1968.
VHF and UHF propagation curves for the fre

q11eney range 30 MHz and 1000 MHz. ITUR.

Recommendation 37~. 1994 PN Series Volume, Propagation in Non-Ionizing Medin, 1994.

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Mobik Radio Technology

Janunry 1997

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Coverage prediction for digital

mobile systems
Part 2-Physical modeling, such as ray-tracing, offers the best way for predicting
coverage and error rate peiformance in current and future digital systems.

by Harry R. Anderson, Ph.D., P.E.

Part I of this article contrasted empirical and physical models for propagation
modeling (Ja1111ary 1997). This month.
the propagation mechanism and the prediction of digital errors arc examined.
Propagation ns a channel fil ter
An instructive and useful way to look
at the propagation mechanism is to consider ii as a filter. and the propagation
path itself as a channel containing this
filter, as illustrated in Figure I below left.
The notations lr(t) and H(/) shown in Fig
ure I arc standard engineering tenns for
the trn11sfer f1111c1io11 of the filter. The
transfer function is simply a way of describing what happens to the signal as it
passes through the filter.
The propagation channel filter transfer
function certainly has attenuation (the
familiar path loss), but it also has other
characteristics that can have important effects on the signal that is detected at the
receiver.
How do we lind the other characteristics of this filter? One approach is to find
Anderson is president and chief executive officer of EDX Engineering, Eugene. OR.

all the ways the signal can travel from the

transmiuer to the receiver, rather than just
assuming it gets there via a single path as
discussed in Part I of this article. If we
take into account all the ways the signal
arrives at the receiver, we have completely described the filter transfer function. An approach to the problem is the
multiray or ''ray-tracing" method.' The
multiray concept is illustrated in Figure 2
below right. Signals leaving the transmitter encounter a wide variety of objects in
the propagation environment including
buildings, mountains, the ground and vehicles. The signals can "bounce" (reflect
and diffract) off these objects and get to
the receiver via many paths. This is multipath propagation, and it causes the fa.
miliar signal fading at the receiver which
every mobile radio engineer has observed.
Using some mathematics, we can develop a way to use these rays to find the
transfer function, lt(t), or the channel fil.
ter. First, let's look at the case for the
single path to the receiver. In this situation we have only puth loss so we cnn
write a simple equation for the signnl
' Ray-tracing is the most common approach here,
but other electromagnetic field calculntion meth
ods, such as FDTD or mcthodof-morncnts, thlll
a11ernp1 to provide a complete description of the
signal at the receiver. could potentially be used.

strength at the receiver. Under these circumstances, the signal at the receive antenna terminals, Er, would be the same as
the signal at the transmitter, except
weaker. This can be written as shown in
Equation I [See sidebar on page 42.],
where Er is the (complex) electric field
voltage or magnetic field current at the
receive antenna, Er is the magnitude of
the transmitted signal (voltage or current),
w is the carrier frequency in radians, and
1 is time. The multiplicative factor, A. is
the propagation loss, while 0 is some
phase delay or phase shift introduced by
the channel. The expression
exp(-jwt+0)
is just a convenient way to describe the
transmiued carrier wave in this case. For
simplicity only the electric field will be
represented in the following equations
with the understanding that there is an associated magnetic field.
If the channel is now considered as a
filter with some Jowpass impulse response, that impulse response would be
given by Equation 2, where the "o(t-7)"
means there is impulse in the channel
response at time t=7. A sinewave signal
at frequency w leaving the transmit antenna would arrive at the receiver reduced
in amplitude by factor A, shifted in phase
by 0 and delayed by 7 seconds where the

0-

CHANNEL

h(t), H(f)

~G

Figure 1. Propagation channel model.

40

Mobilt Radio Tec/i110/ogy

February 1997

LINE-OF-SIGHT,
REFLECTED,
DIFFRACTED
~~~~~-====~
A NO
SCATTERED
SIGNALS
RECEIVER

_. T

Figure 2. Channel model ol multipath slgnals arriving at the receiver.

111

Er ,..,. AE, e.x,p(-jw t + 0)

121

h(t) = AB(t - 'I')exg(-1e)

(8)

" =

caJ h(t) = A18 (t -1" 1)exp(-}0 1 ) + A2 8(t (4)

T 2) exp~-j0

2)

(9)

[t,(7, -7)v{<. )]'

N

; =

L ('in)P('I',.)
n I

h(t) = L An 8 (r ,.__ T "') exp(-J0 ,, )

11=1

11=1

r. A11~P1. P2~"~

N(p1 .p2)

[6]

h(t,,p,l, P2) =

- 'l',,(P1>P2 )}e-~p(-jen{R1'> P2) ifi" ie11(P1> pg))

n= I

N(p1 .n)

[7]

h{t,pi. P2. w) .;:::

L tln(Pi. 'P2 w~.~t - -r.11(14!.~2~) exp(-Jen(Jli, f!i, ro')

,,..1

delay is a direct function of the path

length from the transmitter to tl1e receiver.
Such a model of the transmission channel

is applicable for free-space propagation

conditions where tlle signal energy arrives
at the receiver directly (via one path) from

the transmitter.
If the channel consisted of two transmission paths for the transmit energy to

arrive at the receiver (for example, with

the addition of a single ground reflection),
the channel impulse response would be
the sum of the effect of the two paths as
shown in Equation 3.
This is the impulse response of the socalled "two-ray" channel model. If we
have N possible transmjssion paths, /i(t)
transforms as shown in Equation 4. This
is the channel impulst: response to the receiver at a panicular coordinate point in
space, p2(X2,)'2,z2), from the transmitter located at some other coordinate point,
p1(x1,y1,z1). The more general impulse
response as a function of this geometry
can thus be written as shown in Equation
5, where the number, amplitude, phase
and time delay of the components of the
summation arc a function of the location
of the transmit and receive antenna points
in the propagation space.
The channel impulse response given by
Equation 5 is for a single static point in
space. For mobile communication, the
receiver is often moving, and that motion
can affect the phase relationship of the
components of Equation 5 in a way that
may be important to digital data being
transmitted over the channel. This motion

D
Figure 3. Ray-tracing study In an urban areo.

will result in a frequency or Doppler shift

of the received signal that will be a function of speed and direction of motion, and
the angle of arrival of the signal energy.
Equation 5 can be modified to include
Doppler shift and thus account for this
motion as shown in Equation 6, where

rom
Accept

~en

is a phase displacement due to the

motion.
It should be kept in mind that this is
motion of either the transmitter or receiver relative to every other element in
the propagation enviro11me111. The transmitter or receiver may be fixed, but a

s .. bstit..te

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HELIAX coaxial cable optimizes electrical and
mechanical performance, protecting against EMl-RMI
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signal from a moving reflection source

(such as a moving bus) may result in a
nonzero 66n for a particular component
of Equation 6. For a mobile receiver,
Ae.

=( :w )cos(<i>n -<i>. )
2

where <fn is the arrival angle of the n'h ray

component, v is the speed of motion, <i> is
the direction of motion, and >. is the
wavelength.2
In general, the amplitudes, An, and
phase shifts, 6n, will be functions of the
carrier frequency, w, because they are
controlled by the interaction of the transmilled energy with the features of the
propagation environment. rnserting the
frequency dependence into Equation 5
produces Equation 7.
We can now apply this approach to a
practical situation. Figure 3 on page 43
shows an overhead drawing of a downtown
area with se\'eral buildings. The multiple
rays from the transmitter to the receiver
are shown reflecting and diffracting off the
buildings. (The author's article describing
the methods involved in such "ray-tracing"'
is listed in the references.) lf we were to
plot the channel filter impulse response for
this case, as given by Equation 7, we would
have the graph shown in Figure 4 at the
right. This comprehensive description of
the propagation channel filter (often called
a power delay profile) includes not only
path loss information but several other
characteristics of the propagation channel.
Now that we have the filter response. how
2The ray angle of arrival and 1hc direction of
mobile motion can bo1h be interpreted here as

azimuth angles relative to true north.

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- 110

-115
I

E
m -120
~

w - 125
;:;:
0 -130
er
Q. - 135
>

..J

..J

-140

c - 145

11

er
w -150

:=0

Q.

-155
-160
0

I.I
500

NUMBER OF RAYS: 62

1000
1500
2000
2500
RELATIVE DELAY (nSEC)
RMS DELAY SPREAD: 285 nSEC

Figure 4. Channel Impulse response for propagation channel In Figure 3.

do we use it to predict coverage or performance in a digital system?

DigitaJ errors due to multipath
Errors in a digital system occur when
the receiver mistakenly interprets a 0 for
a 1 or vice versa. The receiver needs to
make a decision about which value it has
received. If the only signal the receiver
has to work with is a perfect replica of the
transmitted signal, it could make thi s
decision flawlessly every time, and there
would be no errors. But it doesn't have a
perfect replica to work with. First, and
most common, there is noise introduced
by the receiver and, perhaps, external
sources. As we've determined from Equation 7 and Figure 3, there are also a lot of

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other signa.ls arriving at the receiver that

can confuse the detection process and
cause an error. The effect of noise on the
error rate performance is well-known and
exhaustively treated in communication engineering textbooks. We will thus focus on
the errors due to the multipath signals.
Let's say we want to transmit a series
of digital pulses or symbols over a propagation channel like that shown in Figure
4. We will assume our digital pulse has
been smoothed off with a filter at the
transmitter so it uses less bandwidth.
When it gets to the receiver it looks like
the first pulse waveform in Figure 5
above. There is a strong peak in the signal
that comes from the strongest ray arriving
at the receiver, but there are also other

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Circle (54) on Fast Fact Card

44

I~

..

Mobile Radio Tech11ology

February 1997

INTERFERING VOLTAGE
FROM SYMBOL 3

w 0.8

0.7
"<~ 0.6
0

>
w
>

0.5

j:;:

<
""a:w
500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5$00 6000 6500 7000
TIME (nSEC)

Figure S. Inter-symbol Interference in transmitted symbol 4 due to previously transmitted pulses.

peaks in the signal due 10 reflected signals arriving at some later time.
Now, what. happens when we send a
second pulse, and a third and a fourth? As
Figure 5 shows, when the receiver tries to
detect the fourth pulse, the decision is cormpted by reflected energy from pulses
transmitted earlier. This is known as inter-symbol interference (ISI). For a given
data rate and propagation channel re-

sponse, it can result in error rates that

make the signal totally unusable even if
the average signal power is more than
adequate to overcome errors due to receiver noise. You could raise your transmitter power by a factor of I00 and your
received data would still be full of errors!
Because increasing transmitter power
doesn't reduce these errors, the unfortunate misnomer describing them as "irre-

ducible errors" is sometimes used. If fact,

using various techniques in the receiver,
such as channel equalizers, many mulcipalhrelated effects can be reduced before the
signal reaches the decision-making process. A common example is Lhe European
digital cellular system called GSM, which
has a data rate of abom 270kbps and uses
an equalizer to improve performance in
multipalh conditions. Even more sophisticated are CDMA cellular systems, that
use so-called RAKE receivers where the
multipath energy is actually con st rnctively combined to improve overall fading
performance. On the other end of Lhe scale
is a European short-range telephone technology called DECT that has a data rate
of IMbps but uses no equa.Jizer. DECT systems are known for having performance
problems in multipath urban areas even
when the signal s1rcngth at the receiver is
well above the level needed for acceptable
error rates if only noise were present.
An approach to explicitly calculating
error rates for this type of inter-symbol interference requires detailed knowledge of
the multipath components. For this reason,
some simplified ways of describing the
degree of multipath in the cbannel have

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Circle (33) on Fast Fact Card

46

Mobile Radio Tech11ology

February 1997

Email [email protected]
Internet www.connectsystems.com

INCREASING
ERRORS
DUE TO
o
RANDOM :

:::>

t:

..J
0:

FM~:

::;

<
w

>

INCREASING
ERRORS
DUE TO
MULTIPATH
1

1s1

ERRORS :
DUE TO
NOISE

~
..J

w
re
TIME

TIME

DATA RATE

Figure 6. Response of a chann el with a high

error rate dominated by multipat h.

been devised. One of the most common is

RMS delay spread. The RMS delay

spread, CTT, is a statistical measure of the
amount of ti me dispersion, or spreading,
found in the multipath signal. Formally, it
is calculated as the second central moment of a power delay profile such as that
illustrated in Figure 3.
The RMS delay spread, <TT, is calculated as shown in Equations 8, 9 and 10.
A11 is lhe amplitude of ray n , ,.,, is the time
delay to ray n, and N is the total number
of rays.
Using a single num ber like RMS delay
spread to find error rates is ofte n mis lead-

Figure 7. Response of a channel with a lower

error rate controlled prlmarlly by noise.

ing, because the statistical averaging process glosses over important details about
whe n the multipath energy arri ves and
what its magnitude and phase are. These
facto rs cannot be addressed looking at
RMS delay spread alone. As an example,
Figures 6 and 7 abo ve show two simple
power delay profiles with two rays each.
One has a s trong echo delayed a short
period of time afte r the main signal; the
other has a much weaker multipath echo
delayed a much longer period of time.
Both channel responses could have e xactly the same RMS delay spread value,
but by us ing comprehensive analysis it

Figure 8. Error rate trends for digital mobile

systems with propagation channel multipath
and random FM effects.

can be shown that the channel in Figure 6

will produce a high error rate dominated
by mul tipath, and rhc chan nel in Figure 7
will have a much lower error rate controlled primarily by noise. For this reason,
convenient measures of channel time dispersion like RMS delay spread should be
used with caution and recognized for the
significant approximations they represent.
As mentioned above, the data rate is
important in dete rmining whether multipath will cause errors. Reviewing Figure
5, if we envis ioned a lo we r data rate

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48

'

Mobile Radio Tec/1110/ogy

February 1997

Circle (36) on Fast Fact Card

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Circle (38) on Fa st Fact Card

50

Mobile Radio Tech11ology

February 1997

(much greater pulse width), then all of the

multipath s ignals would have come and
gone before the decision time for the next
pulse, and no errors would occur due to
mu ltipath. Depending on the data rate and
the ti me delays for the multipath, there
may or may M l be errors du e to this effect. For refl ec tion s along city streets.
multipath delays on the order of several
hu ndred nan oseco nds may occur. With
longer range systems, reflec tio n paths
from mou ntains may result in path delays of several microseconds. I ndoor
wireless systems where multi path comes
from reflections off relative ly closely
spaced interior walls, delay times on the
order t o I 0 to I 00 nanoseco nd s are
found . Using RMS de lay spread (a quantity in time), a common rule-of- thumb
says that if the RMS delay spread is
greater th an 1/ 5 the time between the digital sy mbols or pulses, then errors due tO
multipath may be significant if no equalizer or other correction device is used in
the receiver.
Random FM and doppler shift errors
Again referring to Figure 5, if we envision even lower data rates where all multipath reflections have di ed out. you might
think that no errors would be introduced
in the system due to the propagation channel tilter. If the receiver is stationary (and
the propagation environ ment is unchanging), that 's tru e . Bui if the receiver is
moving, another kind of error can occur
that acrually gets worse as the data rate is

lowered .
Errors due to random FM arise in narrowbaud transmissions due to the phase
shi ft of the carrie r from one symbol to the
nex1. If the data transmission rate is high,
the amount of phase change 1hat is possible from one symbol to the next, even
wi th high mobile speeds. is s till very
small. so that errors due 10 random FM
are not importan t compared to errors From
amplitude fading in noise and errors due
to intersymbol interference. For coherent
detection, depending on the rece iver carrier reference recovery techniques. the
random phase changes can be tracked so
that errors due lo random FM are minimized or reduced to zero. Random FM
errors are there fore of primary concern
for mobile systems with relatively low
data rates that employ differential modulation and detection techniques.
The usual am1lysis of random FM errors assumes that the signal is arrivi ng
from a single directi on and th at the mobile is moving in a direction q> relati ve to
the arrival angle of the signal. Under these
conditions, the Doppler frequency f d (frequency shi ft) for a gi ven mobile speed is

f 0 = -COStD
>..
.
where v is the speed of the mobile in
meters per second. In determining error
rates, the traditional assumption is that
the worst case Doppler frequency,
v

la= -

occurs and leads to an error rate that will

depend on the modulation type. In a complex e nvironment w ith energy arriving
from many different directions, as illustrated in Figure 3, th e rat e of phase
change. and hence frequency deviation,
can vary considerably. Jn fact, a phase
change of 180 can occur in deep fades
over an arbitrarily short di stance increment resultin g in a possibility of infinite
freq uency deviation.
Rathe r than make assumptions about
random FM deviation. the s ite-s pecific
physical ray-tracing channel model provides detailed information about the arri val angles of signals at the mobile unil.
The specific nature of the phase shift may
be estimated and used to find fd . To simplify the analysis, an average value of j(t
can be found and used in a way similar to
RMS delay spread to estimate when erro rs due 10 random FM become important. For this purpose the termfdTs is used,
where Ts is the duration of the transmitted
symbol. The term fdTs is an angle error
and has t11e units of cycles. For example,
an fdTs of O. l represents a phase error introduced by the channel of 36.
When considered together with the errors due lo intersy mbol interference, the
overall error rate picture looks somethi ng
the drawing in Figure 8 on page 48. For a
g iven signal-to-noise ratio, modulatio n
type, propagation channel and mo bi le
speed, as the data rate increases, t11e errors increase due to ISL As the data rate
decreases, the errors increase due to random FM. In between, the error rate is
largely a function of noise.
Con clusions
The con trast between e mpiric a l
measurement-based models, as discussed
in Part I of this article (January 1997),
and physical propagation models for predicting the coverage of digital mobile systems has been presented. Whlle empirical
models are simple, they do not explicitl y
take into account many important eleme nts of the propagation environment,
and they do not currently include information about channel delay spread or random
FM, which arc important in predicting error rates in many kinds of digital systems.
Physical propaga tion models in th e

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52

1Wobile Radio Teclmofogy

February 1997

form of ray-tracing offer a means of acquiring the necessary propagation information for predicting the performance of
digi tal systems in any given environment.
However, co make predictions, physical
models rely on detailed descriptions of
the environment and require relatively
intensive calculations . Ever-increasing
computer processor power and storage
space for data make the calculations required by physical models less burdensome. Physical modeling such as raytracing, therefore, offers the best way for
predic1ing coverage and error-rate performance in current and future digital systems. A software prediction tool, called
EDX SignalPro, developed by our company, offers physical modeling calculations for such digital system design.
The digital system performance results
presented here have generally assumed
that no techniques are used in the receiver
or system to combat the linear distortions
caused by the propagation channel. With
modern receiver design and the increasing economic feasibility of using sophistica1ed digital signal processing (DSP)
chips in handsets, long-known techniques
for countering channel impairments can
now be widely employed; nevertheless, it
will remain important to model the channel accurately to gain insight into the
magnitude of channel impairments, which
must be addressed by hardware and system designs, and to assess the overall
cfiicacy of those designs.
References
Anderson, H.R. "A Ray-tracing Propagation
Model for Dig\tal Broadcast Systems in Urban Areas,'' IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting, Sept. 1993.
Anderson, H.R. "Site-specific BER Analysis in
Frcc1uency-scleclive Channels Using a Raylnicing Propagation Model," Proceedings of
the 1994 Globecom Conference, Sa11 Francisco, Dec. 1994.
Balanis, C.A. Advanced Engineering Electro
magnetics. John Wiley, New York, NY, 1989.
Code of Federal Reg11lations Title 47, FCC
Rules, Pan 73.313. U.S. Government Printing Office.
Hatn, M. "Empirical Formu la for Propagation
Loss in Land Mobile Radio Services", JEE
Trtmsactions 011 Vehicular Technology. Sept.
1981.
Jakes, W.C. Microwal'e Mobile Comm1111ica
1io11s. IEEE Press, Piscataway, NJ. l994 (re
published).
Okumura. Y. et al. 'Field Strength and itS Vari
abili1y in VHF and UHF Land-mobile Radioservicc," Rei. E/ec. Commun. Lab.. Sept.Oct. 1968.
VHF and UHF propagation cunes for the /re
q11e11cy range 30 MHz and /000 MHz.
ITU-R. Recommendation 370-6, 1994 PN
Series Volume, Propagation in Non-Ionizing
Media. 1994.
~