Fading in the mobile situation is quite different from the static line-of-sight (LOS)
microwave situation discussed in Section 9.2.4. In this case radio paths are not opti-
mized as in the LOS environment. The mobile terminal may be fixed throughout a
telephone or data call, but is more apt to be in motion. Even the hand-held terminal
may well have micromotion. When a terminal is in motion, the path characteristics are
constantly changing.
Multipath propagation is the rule. Consider the simplified pictorial model in Figure
16.4. Commonly, multiple rays reach the receive antenna, each with its own delay. The
constructive and destructive fading can become quite complex. We must deal with both
reflection and diffraction.
3 Energy will arrive at the receive antenna reflected off sides
of buildings, towers, streets, and so on. Energy will also arrive diffracted from knife
edges (e.g., building corners) and rounded obstacles (e.g., water tanks, hill tops).
Because the same signal arrives over several paths, each with a different electrical
length, the phases of each path will be different, resulting in constructive and destructive
amplitude fading. Fades of 20 dB are common, and even 30-dB fades can be expected.
On digital systems, the deleterious effects of multipath fading can be even more
severe. Consider a digital bit stream to a mobile terminal with a transmission rate of
1000 bps. Assuming NRZ coding, the bit period would be 1 ms (bit period c 1/bit
rate). We find the typical multipath delay spread may be on the order of 10 ms. Thus