International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 27-30, 1997 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper describes the two main causes of fading encountered at test ranges. The first cause of fading results from nulls in the transmit antenna gain pattern. Variations in the received signal level are a result of changes in the gain pattern as the spatial relationship between transmitter and receiver change. The second cause of fading is due to multipath interference. This occurs when multiple copies of the transmitted signal with different delays arrive at the receiver and are phased relative to each other so that destructive interference occurs.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 30-November 02, 1995 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper will discuss the performance of pulse code modulation (PCM)/frequency modulation (FM) during frequency selective fading. Frequency selective fading occurs when the attenuation in part of the frequency band of interest is much greater than in the rest of the band of interest. The frequency selective fading model used in this paper assumes that two paths with different delays exist between the transmitter and receiver (multipath). The two-path model was simulated in the laboratory and the effects of frequency selective fading on the radio frequency (RF) spectrum and on the waveforms at the output of the FM demodulator were measured. A mathematical model was also used to predict the effects of frequency selective fading. The predicted waveshapes are compared with the laboratory data. A simple demodulator which alleviates the effects of frequency selective fading on PCM/FM at moderate signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) will be described. This demodulator is created by detuning the telemetry receiver by a frequency equal to approximately one-half of the intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidth and using the receiver’s amplitude modulation (AM) detector output rather than the FM detector output. The performance of this offset AM demodulator will be compared with the performance of an FM demodulator. Frequency selective fades measured in real-world environments will be also presented.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 21, 2002 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / A series of RF channel flight characterization tests were recently run to benchmark multi-path performance of high-speed quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) over the ocean surface. The modulation format was differential-phase/absolute-amplitude two level polar 16 QAM. The bit rate was 100 Megabits per second with a symbol period of 40nS. An aircraft radiated the test signal at 5 different altitudes. It made two inward flights, on two different days, at each altitude with vertical and horizontal polarization, respectively. Receivers, using circular antenna polarization, were in two different locations. Analysis of the resulting data shows flat fading and frequency selective fading effects.

In recent years, millions of customers all over the world have been subscribing to mobile telephony services which are based on modern digital transmission. At the high transmission bit rates that these systems use, the mobile radio channel exhibits frequency-selective fading characteristics. Under such conditions, the received signal could experience significant intersymbol interference (ISI) from severe distortion to the waveform of the received baseband signal. Therefore, such techniques as adaptive waveform equalisation or adaptive maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) are used in modern digital mobile radio telephone systems to combat this undesirable ISI. These adaptive schemes have almost always been used in conjunction with coherent demodulation in the receivers.This study examines the application of noncoherent demodulation, in the form of frequency discriminator detection, as an alternative to coherent demodulation. The GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) standard has been used as the basis for this investigation. It has been shown analytically that in the presence of frequency-selective fading, a propagation environment common to the GSM system, the use of frequency discriminator detection gives rise to nonlinear ISI in the demodulated signal. It has also been shown that frequency-selective fading could cause large unwanted "spikes" to appear in the demodulated signal, thus leading to a severe degradation in the bit-error-rate (BER) performance. Consequently, several waveform distortion cancellation schemes for combatting the nonlinear ISI have been formulated. The BER performances of these proposed schemes, under various propagation conditions, have been studied by computer simulation.Furthermore, it has been observed that the undesirable "spikes", that occur in the demodulated signal due to frequency-selective fading, could be ++ / suppressed by the use of inverse-limiting in conjunction with frequency discriminator detection. As a result, an effective adaptive detection scheme has been formulated, based on modelling the combination of the GMSK modulator, the mobile channel, the frequency discriminator, and any transmit and receive fitters, as a finite-state machine. The transmitted data is then detected using an MLSE. The BER performance of this proposed adaptive detection scheme has been extensively investigated by computer simulation. This has been carried out assuming various propagation conditions, including the two-ray fading channel model with equal path powers and relative delays of up to four bit periods, the maximum relative delay considered in the GSM system. Also, the effectiveness of the proposed adaptive detection scheme in combatting IS] has been investigated by computer simulation based on the six-ray GSM empirical propagation models for typical urban (TU), hilly terrain (HT) and rural area (RA) environments. The computer simulated results confirm that the voice grade performance required for the GSM system could be achieved by the proposed adaptive detection scheme in all the recommended GSM propagation models considered. Furthermore, the BER performance of the receiver remains unaffected by a carrier frequency offset of up to 2 kHz.

Ultra-wideband systems can be used in indoor wireless personal area network (WPAN) or short-range wireless local area network (WLAN) transmission. Yet owing to the effects of indoor dense multipath, it will cause more power consumption. We usually use Rake receiver to improve system performance. However, we should do some compromise between system performance and the design complexity. Thus, the concept of Selective Rake can be used to substitute for the conventional Rake receiver. Selective Rake receiver uses fewer but more powerful paths instead of using all the paths to raise system performance. Hence, we have to precisely detect the multipath components for best performance. Earlier we use CLEAN algorithm to estimate the multipath components. The CLEAN algorithm can be used in selecting the paths with relatively high energy. But as the impact of frequency selective fading makes the transmitted signal distorted, the CLEAN algorithm no longer applies to this situation. Thus, we use Multiscale CLEAN algorithm instead. Multiscale CLEAN algorithm calculate the value of cross-correlation between the received signal and a set of waveforms, and then choose the higher one as the waveform transmitted. Besides, we use Maximal Ratio Combining to weigh the different paths to get the signal with more power. We represent the signal affected by frequency selective fading by using the second derivatives of Gaussian waveform function with different effective widths of pulse. The waveforms corresponding different effective widths have different spectra which represent the different effects of fading. It is seen that that the multiscale CLEAN has better performance than the CLEAN algorithm with more precise estimation of multipath components. In simulation result, we can figure out path searching using Multiscale CLEAN algorithm is more accurate than using CLEAN algorithm. Even the path with smaller energy gain, using multiscale CLEAN algorithm can search successfully, while CLEAN algorithm cannot do.

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International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 22-25, 2001 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Design, performance Test and Evaluation (T&E) of a novel smart diversity receiver, based on Feher Diversity (FD) patents over multipath, fast dynamic frequency selective fading channels is presented. A hardware simulator for construction of a frequency selective fading channel has been implemented in laboratory to resemble a telemetry aeronautical channel model, namely the two-path channel model. As an illustrative example, the block error rate (BLER) of a 1 Mb/s rate IRIG 106-00 and CCSDS standardized Feher’s patented quadrature phase shift keying (FQPSK) [1][2] with and without diversity in multipath frequency selective fading channels has been tested and evaluated. The experimental results clearly indicate significant performance improvement with the proposed diversity technique even in cases of severely distorted channels.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / In this paper, we propose applying the spatio-temporal signal processing and OFDM techniques to a multiple-antenna system in order to achieve high data rate and high performance transmission capability. In order to perform real time processing for this system, we also propose a complexity reduced QR beamforming algorithm. The performance of the proposed system has been investigated for a two-ray frequency-selective fading model by extensive computer simulations. These results show that significant benefits can be realized in terms of lower bit error rate and higher data transmission rate.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 23-26, 2000 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / Three Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) mapped COFDM systems demonstrating a continuum of complexity levels are simulated over an evolving three ray model of the multipath fading channel with parameters interpolated from actual channel sounding experiments. The first COFDM system uses coherent QPSK and convolutional coding with interleaving in frequency, channel equalization and soft decision decoding; the second uses convolutional coding with interleaving in frequency, Differential Phase Shift Keying (DPSK) and soft decision decoding; the third system uses a quaternary BCH code with DPSK mapping and Error and Erasure Decoding (EED). All three systems are shown to be able to provide reliable data communication during frequency selective fade events. Simulations demonstrate QPSK mapped COFDM with reasonable complexity performs well in a multipath frequency selective fading environment under parameters typically encountered in aeronautical telemetry.

A fixed terrestrial wireless system such as the Microwave Multi-channel Distribution Service (MMDS) can be used as the ``last mile' to provide a high speed Internet connection from a base station to a home in a rural or suburban residential area. Such a broadband wireless system works very well under line-of-sight transmission. It works quite well even if the line-of-sight is obstructed with a large number of trees. However, when trees obstruct the line-of-sight, under conditions of wind, the user may experience loss of the RF signal from time to time. This is especially true under gusty conditions. As part of this research a high precision DSP-based measuring system is devised to accurately measure and characterize the distortions caused by tree foliage on the RF line-of-sight signal. The approach is to digitally generate a signal composed of several tones, up-convert the signal to 2.5 GHz and send it through tree foliage to a receiver where the signal is down-converted and sampled for a duration of five seconds. The samples collected are processed using Matlab to compute the temporal amplitude and phase variations of the tones. The measurement system provides estimates of the amplitude and phase of the receive tones with a time resolution of 3.2 ms. The standard deviation of the amplitude estimates is 0.3\% of the actual amplitude of the tones and the standard deviation of the phase estimates is 0.23 degree. This accuracy is obtained when the signal-to-noise ratio of the receive signal is greater than 20 dB. Measurement in the field with tree foliage in the line-of-sight shows that the swaying of the branches in the wind can cause rapid signal fading. This research determines the type of fade, the depth and duration of the fade, as well as the fading rate.