Microwave transmission
1
2 Fading
–Rain fading.
–Multipath fading from the atmosphere.
–Multipath fading from ground reflections.
3 What is Fading?
TX power + antenna gain – free space loss – atmospheric loss
Received Signal
Strength
Nominal received signal strength
Receiver threshold
Time
The received signal strength in normal conditions will depend on the
equipment properties transmitter power and antenna gain and the static
conditions basic free space loss and atmospheric loss.
This will result in the nominal received signal strength which lasts as
long as the conditions stay normal. This is called fading free conditions.
4 Rain Fading in Short
Received Signal
Strength
Nominal received signal strength Rain fading
Receiver threshold
Time
Fading occurs when the properties of the radio path change.
Typically this is related to weather changes or changes in the
atmosphere. For example rain fall over the radio path.
5 Multipath Fading in Short
Another reason for temporary signal degradation is when the receiver
is reached by signals which have travelled over different paths.
This is typically from reflections caused by atmospheric layers or at the
surface of the earth.
6 Multipath Fading in Short
This fading type is called multipath fading. The reflected signal or
signals have travelled a longer path compared the direct signal and
will therefore reach the receiver in a different phase compared to the
direct signal. At the receiver, all signals are added. Under favorable
conditions, the result is an increased signal strength, but more
commonly multipath fading will result in a degraded signal.
Generally rain fading is causing degradation for the whole time of the
rain fall. Multipath fading typically causes shorter but repeated
degradations while the multipath conditions last.
Typically it is the fading conditions, possibly together with interference,
that will set what path distance and transmission quality and
availability that can be reached.
7 Frequency Dependency
”Cross-over”
Rain fading
Multipath fading
Frequency
4 6L 7 8 10 13 15 18 23 26 28 32 38 42 70 80 GHz
5 6U 11 24
At higher frequencies rain fading dominates while at lower frequencies
multipath fading does. The region between approximately 13 and 18
gigahertz is generally considered as a cross over region where depending
on local conditions any of the two fading types can be the dominating one.
8 Rain fading (Rain Intensity)
Maximum rain intensity, R0,01 [mm/h] Approx. rain loss
[dB/km]
Red: Horizontal polarization
Blue: Vertical polarization
35
95mm/h
30
25
60mm/h
20
15
Scattering 22mm/h
10
Absorption 5 8mm/h
Shape of a
falling raindrop Frequency band
0
[GHz]
4 10 50 80
It is expressed as millimeters of rain per hour. Such data is available
from meteorological institutes and compiled from the ITU-R.
Besides rain intensity also polarization matters for what degradation the
rainfall will cause. This is because of the raindrop shape where the
electrical field is more absorbed at horizontal polarization.
9 Rain fading (Rain Cell)
TX power + antenna gain – free space loss – atmospheric loss
d eff
d
Received Signal
d: Actual path length Strength
d
eff
= d .r
r: Distance reduction factor
1
r= where d 0= 35 . e-0,015 x R0.01
Frequency
1+ d f0
d0
Channel band width
The effective rain cell size is calculated by a distance reduction factor.
The factor is calculated from the presented formula. Without going into
details, the more intensive the rainfall is, represented by the factor R
0.01, the smaller the distance reduction factor becomes, and thereby the
rain cell gets smaller.
10 Fading from atmospheric multipath propagation
1. Elevated Morning Duct.
2. Fading-Free at Mid Day.
3. Evening Ground Duct.
Water: High reflection coefficient
(1) (2) (3)
11 The Direct Signal
TX power + antenna gain – free space loss – atmospheric loss
ƬD
Received Signal
Strength
Direct signal
Time Frequency
f0
ƬD Channel band width
The direct signal reaches the receiver resulting in a certain signal
strength over the channel bandwidth.
12 Flat Multipath Fading
ƬMP
ƬD
Received Signal
Strength
Multipath signal Flat multipath fading
Direct signal
Time Frequency
f0
“Short” delay
Channel band width
ƬMP ƬD
A reflected signal will reach the receiver later than the direct signal.
This example shows a multipath signal which has been reflected close to
the direct path and can therefore be considered to have a short delay.
The result will be what is called flat multipath fading; the entire channel
bandwidth is equally degraded.
13 Frequency-Selective Multipath Fading
ƬMP
MP
ƬD
Received Signal
Strength
Multipath signal Frequency selective multipath fading
Direct signal
Time Frequency
“Long” delay f0
Channel band width
ƬMP ƬD
If the multipath signal is reflected further away from the direct path the
delay will be longer. Depth and width of this depends on delay time
and signal strength of the multipath signal. The dip moves across the
frequency spectrum and influences all channels used by the system.
14 Multipath fading from ground reflections
dD
Reflection point
Reflection coefficient
Water: High reflection coefficient
Forest: Low reflection coefficient
A special form of multipath fading is reflections from the surface of the
earth, or for that sake from buildings or other constructions.
The influence of the reflection on the performance of the hop depends on
the reflection coefficient which describes how much incoming energy will
be reflected. The higher the coefficient, the more energy will be reflected.
15 Multipath fading from ground reflections
In practice, the distance-depending loss for the reflected signal is the
same as for the direct signal. The difference in path length between
direct and reflected signal is just a few wavelengths which means the
path length difference is a matter of centimeters over a distance of
several kilometers.
Water in liquid or frozen shape is the worst case where nearly all
energy is reflected.
For that reason planners try to design radio link paths so that reflection
points are located in areas with low reflection coefficient, forest for
example. If it can’t be avoided to have the reflection point in for example
a water surface the planner has some different means at hand to
minimize the influence from the reflection.
16 Reflection Coefficient
Sea, Lake
Snow field, Ice field
Damp field
Flat grassland, Desert
Plowed fields, Savanna
Rolling terrain, Forest
Undulated terrain, City
Reflection coefficient Rough mountain area
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
Reflection coefficient
[dB]
Same phase Up
+5
Direct signal fading
0
Reflected signal -5
-15
Reflection coefficient dependant Down
Opposite phase fading
-25
Direct signal
-35
Reflected signal
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
The diagram gives reflection coefficients for some different types of
ground surface. It spans from rough mountainous area with a
coefficient close to zero up to sea and lakes with a coefficient between
0.9 and 1. In the first case nearly no energy is reflected while in the
latter almost all energy is reflected.
17 Reflection Coefficient
If the reflected signal is delayed in such a way that it reaches the
receiver in exactly the same phase as the direct signal so the result
when adding the two signals will be what is called up-fading. The
resulting signal has actually benefitted from the reflected signal. If the
two signals are of equal strength, assuming a reflection coefficient of
1, the up-fading will reach up to 6 db. So the resulting received signal
strength is 6dB higher compared to what it would be without the
reflection. At first it can look tempting to design a path with a reflection
like this. But…
Assume now that the reflection point moves slightly, caused for
example by changing water level at the reflection point or changes to
the equivalent earth radius factor, the k factor. The path distance for
the reflected signal will by this change. In worst case it will change so
that the reflected signal will reach the receiver in exactly opposite
phase to the direct signal.
Reflection factor 1 means the two signals are of equal strength and
now in opposite phase to each other. This will cause a total outage of
the resulting signal. The impact is of course less at lower reflection
coefficients.
18 Summary
• Temporary degradation or even loss of received signal strength,
fading, is of two main kinds, rain fading and multipath fading.
• Which one is dominating depends on the frequency. Multipath
fading has a larger effect for low frequencies and rain fading for
high frequencies.
• How much the path performance will be degraded by reflections
from the ground depends mainly on the reflection coefficient of
the surface.
• Water is the worst case which shall, if possible, be avoided while
for example mountains, cities and forest with low reflection
coefficients generally are no problem.
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