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FadingWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Fading
FromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Inwirelesscommunications,fadingisdeviationofthe
attenuationaffectingasignalovercertainpropagationmedia.
Thefadingmayvarywithtime,geographicalpositionorradio
frequency,andisoftenmodeledasarandomprocess.Afading
channelisacommunicationchannelthatexperiencesfading.
Inwirelesssystems,fadingmayeitherbeduetomultipath
propagation,referredtoasmultipathinducedfading,ordue
toshadowingfromobstaclesaffectingthewavepropagation,
sometimesreferredtoasshadowfading.

Contents
1 Keyconcepts
2 Slowversusfastfading
3 Blockfading
4 Selectivefading
5 Fadingmodels
6 Mitigation
7 Seealso
8 References
9 Literature
10 Externallinks

Frequencyselectivetimevaryingfadingcausesa
cloudypatterntoappearonaspectrogram.Timeis
shownonthehorizontalaxis,frequencyonthe
verticalaxisandsignalstrengthasgreyscale
intensity.

Keyconcepts
Thepresenceofreflectorsintheenvironmentsurroundingatransmitterandreceivercreatemultiplepathsthata
transmittedsignalcantraverse.Asaresult,thereceiverseesthesuperpositionofmultiplecopiesofthetransmitted
signal,eachtraversingadifferentpath.Eachsignalcopywillexperiencedifferencesinattenuation,delayand
phaseshiftwhiletravellingfromthesourcetothereceiver.Thiscanresultineitherconstructiveordestructive
interference,amplifyingorattenuatingthesignalpowerseenatthereceiver.Strongdestructiveinterferenceis
frequentlyreferredtoasadeepfadeandmayresultintemporaryfailureofcommunicationduetoaseveredropin
thechannelsignaltonoiseratio.
AcommonexampleofdeepfadeistheexperienceofstoppingatatrafficlightandhearinganFMbroadcast
degenerateintostatic,whilethesignalisreacquiredifthevehiclemovesonlyafractionofameter.Thelossofthe
broadcastiscausedbythevehiclestoppingatapointwherethesignalexperiencedseveredestructiveinterference.
Cellularphonescanalsoexhibitsimilarmomentaryfades.
Fadingchannelmodelsareoftenusedtomodeltheeffectsofelectromagnetictransmissionofinformationoverthe
airincellularnetworksandbroadcastcommunication.Fadingchannelmodelsarealsousedinunderwateracoustic
communicationstomodelthedistortioncausedbythewater.

Slowversusfastfading
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FadingWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

Thetermsslowandfastfadingrefertotherateatwhichthemagnitudeandphasechangeimposedbythechannel
onthesignalchanges.Thecoherencetimeisameasureoftheminimumtimerequiredforthemagnitudechangeor
phasechangeofthechanneltobecomeuncorrelatedfromitspreviousvalue.
Slowfadingariseswhenthecoherencetimeofthechannelislargerelativetothedelayrequirementofthe
application.[1]Inthisregime,theamplitudeandphasechangeimposedbythechannelcanbeconsidered
roughlyconstantovertheperiodofuse.Slowfadingcanbecausedbyeventssuchasshadowing,wherea
largeobstructionsuchasahillorlargebuildingobscuresthemainsignalpathbetweenthetransmitterand
thereceiver.Thereceivedpowerchangecausedbyshadowingisoftenmodeledusingalognormal
distributionwithastandarddeviationaccordingtothelogdistancepathlossmodel.
Fastfadingoccurswhenthecoherencetimeofthechannelissmallrelativetothedelayrequirementofthe
application.Inthiscase,theamplitudeandphasechangeimposedbythechannelvariesconsiderablyover
theperiodofuse.
Inafastfadingchannel,thetransmittermaytakeadvantageofthevariationsinthechannelconditionsusingtime
diversitytohelpincreaserobustnessofthecommunicationtoatemporarydeepfade.Althoughadeepfademay
temporarilyerasesomeoftheinformationtransmitted,useofanerrorcorrectingcodecoupledwithsuccessfully
transmittedbitsduringothertimeinstances(interleaving)canallowfortheerasedbitstoberecovered.Inaslow
fadingchannel,itisnotpossibletousetimediversitybecausethetransmitterseesonlyasinglerealizationofthe
channelwithinitsdelayconstraint.Adeepfadethereforelaststheentiredurationoftransmissionandcannotbe
mitigatedusingcoding.
ThecoherencetimeofthechannelisrelatedtoaquantityknownastheDopplerspreadofthechannel.Whena
user(orreflectorsinitsenvironment)ismoving,theuser'svelocitycausesashiftinthefrequencyofthesignal
transmittedalongeachsignalpath.ThisphenomenonisknownastheDopplershift.Signalstravelingalong
differentpathscanhavedifferentDopplershifts,correspondingtodifferentratesofchangeinphase.The
differenceinDopplershiftsbetweendifferentsignalcomponentscontributingtoasignalfadingchanneltapis
knownastheDopplerspread.ChannelswithalargeDopplerspreadhavesignalcomponentsthatareeach
changingindependentlyinphaseovertime.Sincefadingdependsonwhethersignalcomponentsadd
constructivelyordestructively,suchchannelshaveaveryshortcoherencetime.
Ingeneral,coherencetimeisinverselyrelatedtoDopplerspread,typicallyexpressedas

where isthecoherencetime,
seeCoherencetime.

istheDopplerspread.Thisequationisjustanapproximation,[2]tobeexact,

Blockfading
Blockfadingiswherethefadingprocessisapproximatelyconstantforanumberofsymbolintervals.[3]Achannel
canbe'doublyblockfading'whenitisblockfadinginboththetimeandfrequencydomains.[4]

Selectivefading
Selectivefadingorfrequencyselectivefadingisaradiopropagationanomalycausedbypartialcancellationofa
radiosignalbyitselfthesignalarrivesatthereceiverbytwodifferentpaths,andatleastoneofthepathsis
changing(lengtheningorshortening).Thistypicallyhappensintheearlyeveningorearlymorningasthevarious
layersintheionospheremove,separate,andcombine.Thetwopathscanbothbeskywaveoronebegroundwave.
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