CS6895 Assignments Wireless Networking and Mobile Communications
Assignment 1
1. What are the differences between the following types of wireless channel impairments: path
loss, multipath effect, interference from other sources?
2. As a mobile node gets farther and farther away from a base station, what are two actions
that a base station could take to ensure the bit error rate of transmitted data does not
increase?
3. Assume that the magnitude a signal transmitted over a wireless channel follows a Rayleigh
distribution, whose probability density function is given by p(r) =
r
σ2
exp(
−r2
2σ2
). Suppose
that the bit error rate (BER) becomes intolerable if the signal is 10 dB or more below the
root mean square (RMS) value
√
2σ. Find the percentage of time that BER is too high to
be acceptable. (Hint: first find the cumulative probability distribution function of the signal
magnitude.)
4. Given a stationary transmitter is sending at a center frequency of 900 MHz, the receiver is
travelling at speeds of (a) 1 km/hr; (b) 10 km/hr; (c) 100 km/hr; or (d) 500 km/hr. Draw
a graph of four curves that show deviation of spectral frequencies from the center frequency
for the above four scenarios. Use a legend properly to distinguish different scenarios.
5. Suppose that a mobile node is moving at a speed of 150 km/hr in a typical urban environment
(e.g., highway). It transmits a signal to the base station at a center frequency of fc = 1 GHz
using a binary modulation at a data rate R. It is known that the typical RMS delay spread
στ of multipath propagation in this scenario is around 5 µs. For each of the following cases,
decide if the received signal is best described as undergoing fast/slow fading, frequency
selective fading or flat fading.
(a) The mobile node is sending at a data rate of R = 1 Mbps.
(b) The mobile node is sending at a data rate of R = 500 kbps.
(c) The mobile node is sending at a data rate of R = 50 kbps.
Updated on January 16, 2013 1