1

Essentials of Radio Wave

Propagation
Javier Leonardo Araque Quijano
Associate Professor
Electric and Electronics Engineering Department
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
jlaraqueq@unal.edu.co
Edif. 453 Of.204
Ext 14083
2
(Jery Short) History of Wireless
Communications
A. Antoniou, 'On the Roots oI Wireless Communications, IEEE
Circuits and Systems Magazine, 1
st
Quarter 2011, pp.14-25.

Michael Faraday (1831)

Lord Kelvin (1845)

James Clerk Maxwell

(1862)

Heinrich RudolI Hertz

(1887)

Nikola Tesla (1897)

Guglielmo Marconi (1896)

3
Review of Electromagnetic Waves

Maxwell's equations

Time-domain Vs.
Frequency domain

Wave types

Wave properties:

Polarization

Velocity

Wavelength

Power transmission and

loss
4
Ceneration of EM Waves: Radiation

Accelerated charges cause radiation

5
1he Communications Link

Antennas perIorm the key step oI transIorming

voltage/current into a Iree-space wave and viceversa

From the Tx/Rx viewpoint antennas make part oI

channel!

Thus the need to account Ior their behavior when

analyzing communication links
08/12/11 6
Antenna Pattern types

Isotropic: not physically realizable

Omnidirectional: non-directional in one plane

and directional in any perpendicular plane.

pencil beam: considerable radiation only in a

small neighborhood oI a unique direction.

contoured beam: considerable radiation only in

a shaped portion oI solid angle.


08/12/11 7
Field regions
Reactive near-field:
R
Fields are mostly reactive.
Radiating near-field
R
Fields are mostly radiating but
angular distribution depends on
distance.
Far field (Fraunhofer)
R~
Angular distribution is essentially
independent on distance, Iields are
transverse.
08/12/11 8
Far Field
In the Iar Iield, dependence on r and spherical angles
theta, phi are separable, the waveIront is spherical and
Iields are transverse:
Universal
spherical wave,
complex scalar
Antenna-specific
pattern, vector with
negligible radial
component
n Far Field, E and H are
transverse and are
related by the usual
impedance relations. P is
a unit vector along the
observation direction.


9
Antenna Parameters (1x - Rx)

Gain (Tx): ratio between the antenna's

radiation intensity and that due to an
isotropic lossless radiator with the same
input power in a given direction:

EIIective area (Rx): Ratio between

power available at antenna terminals
and the incident power density (depends
on the incidence direction):

Those parameters are linearly related Ior

any antenna:
P
l
a
n
e

w
a
v
e
RX Antenna:
aperture
collecting power
from impinging
waves
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Propagation in Free-Space
Friis equation


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Example
A GSM circular cell with a maximum diameter oI
17km is covered by three identical antennas working
at 1850MHz. These antennas cover 120 non-
overlapping portions oI the horizon and have an input
power oI 15W each. The transversal dimensions oI
each antenna are 25cm x 1m, consider an aperture
eIIiciency oI 0.7.
Considering as receiver a handset equipped with an
antenna having G-1dB and maximum polarization
mismatch oI -3dB, compute the power received in the
worst case.
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Wave Interaction with Matter
ReIlection/transmission: occurs in presence oI
large material discontinuities.

For plane waves/interIaces,

the Fresnel relate Et, Er with
Ei.

According to interIace
roughness, reIlection may be
specular or diIIuse.


13
Reflection/1ransmission (Smooth Interface)

ReIlected wave amplitude depends on:

Incidence angle

Media impedance

Separate cases Ior analysis: TE (perpendicular)

and TM (parallel)
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Example

ReIlection Irom a lossy brick wall (epsr4-j0.1)

with 30cm thickness
See ref [2], sec. 3.3 for the computation details


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Example

A TE wave with amplitude 1V/m going through Iree-

space impinges on a dielectric interIace with thetai
20. The dielectric halI space has epsilonr 3- j0.2.
Compute the amplitude oI the wave transmitted into
the medium and the propagation constant therein.
sr
ki
kt
kr
z
y
i
i
t
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Solution

Using Snell's law:

sin(thetat) 0.1971 0.0066i
why is this complex? In medium 2,
phase increase and attenuation must
occur in diIIerent directions in order to
satisIy the boundary conditions, see k
later.

Using 4
th
eq in slide 13 (note that
cos`2sin`21 works also in the
complex Iield):
Et 0.7119 0.0159i
This has only x component (TE wave)
E x^ Et

Compute wave vector (complex):

k sqrts) - sin(t) cos(t))
k k0| - 0.34 (1.7 j5.9e-2)|
re phase / im attenuation


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Diffuse Reflection
Tx Rx


W
D
H
Occurs when:
Lambert model
Phong model:
R power
p ReIlection coeIIicient
rd DiIIusion ratio

i
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Wave Diffraction

Occurs when the radio path is obstructed by a

surIace with sharp irregularities. Shadow is not
perIect, some energy actually reaches the
region behind the obstruction.


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1he Canonical Obstruction Problem:
knife-edge diffraction

When h min(d1,d2), the diIIerence between the direct and

broken path lengths is approximately:
Tx
Rx

h
d1 d2
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Knife-edge Diffraction: solution

Canonical problem can be solved in terms oI

special Iunctions:


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Fresnel Ellipsoids

These are a Iamily oI surIaces giving constant

phase diIIerence between direct and broken
paths in multiples oI lambda/2:
n=0
n=3
n=2
n=1
For acceptable attenuation obstacles must remain out of
the first Fresnel obstacle.
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Example

For the situation in Iigure,

compute the total power at
the receiver.
Tx
Rx
h_o
h_Rx
h_Tx
d_Tx d_Rx
EIRP 100W, GRx 0dB,
I1.85GHz
HTx 30m, HRx 2m
Ho 50m
dTx 400m, dRx 200m


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Propagation in Atmosphere

Bending in troposphere

Ducting

Troposphere scattering

Ionospheric propagation
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Ray Bending for 1ropospheric Links

Troposphere extends to about 10km

above earth surIace and presents a
reIraction coeIIicient that decreases
with height EM waves bend
towards ground allowing LoS
communication beyond the horizon.

By applying an earth scaling

procedure and maintaining the path-
to-ground distance all over the link
one may consider rectilinear
propagation.

The maximum range attainable by

such a link considers a larger earth to
include this eIIect: (in average Re
8500km)
Dmax is given here in km, while h_tx
and h_rx are in m
Varyng atomosphere
eps_R with height
curved path
Enlarged earth
allows considering a
rectilinear path


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Ducting

When the gradient oI n is too small rays

bend considerably towards earth and
bounce back again and again, possibly
reaching long distances.

Generation oI an inversion layer

(exceptional atmospheric conditions
create a local maximum oI n at some
height above the ground) may trap rays
and allow long-range propagation.

These phenomena cannot are diIIicult the

predict, thus cannot be consistently
exploited. On the other hand, increased
range may result in harmIul interIerence.
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Ionospheric Propagation

Ionosphere is located in the range 50km -1000km

above earth surIace: solar and cosmic radiation
cause ionization wide availability oI Iree
electrons and atom nuclei (plasma state).

Depending on Irequency and angle oI incidence,

absorption, reIlection or transmission (with
polarization rotation- the Faraday eIIect) may
take place.
The allowed band for reflection is limited by
the LUF and the MUF, at which the plasma
becomes absorbing and transparent
respectively. These vary along the day and
from day to day.
f
r
e
q
Day hour
Transparent

Absorbing
Fc in MHz,
ne in electr /m^3


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Ionospheric Communication
Multi-hop Link

Ground/iononsphere
bouncing allows long-range
links (in Iigure, Florida
South PaciIic Islands,
extracted Irom |3|)
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Multi-Path Propagation
nterference between
approximately plane waves
arriving from different
directions creates a standing
wave pattern in space
strong amplitude variations at
the scale
Observed effects:
- Fast fading
- Doppler spread
- Slow fading
- Cross-polarization
coupling


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A Simple Situation

V(x) = A exp(-i x 2x/) B exp(i x cos() 2x/)

Relative Tx/Rx velocity
causes Doppler shiIt:
Af1 = -v/
Af2 = v cos/
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References
|1| Balanis, C. 'Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design 3
rd
Ed.
John Wiley, 2007.
|2| Bertoni, H. 'Radio Propagation Ior Modern Wireless
Systems, Prentice Hall, 2000.
|3| Siwiak, K. and Bahreini, Y. 'Radiowave Propagation and
Antennas Ior Personal Communications 3
rd
Ed. Artech House,
2007.
|4| Sizun, H. 'Radio Wave Propagation Ior Telecommunication
Applications. Springer, 2005.