Simulation of frequency selective fading channels

In wireless communications the received electromagnetic wave is distorted due to the presence of multiple replicas of the transmitted wave present at the receiver antenna and this effect is known as multipath fading. This effect has to be studied to develop communication techniques which can effectively mitigate the distortions introduced into the transmitted signal by the wireless channel. To study the effect of multipath fading in wireless communication systems, the more cost effective and exible way is to develop computer simulation models.

In this thesis, we model frequency-selective multipath channels, for different propagation environments specified by COST 207. To develop an efficient computer simulation model which approximates the various multipath propagation environments specified by COST 207 we used the deterministic simulation approach given in [1]. A computer simulation model is developed in MATLAB, which approximates the statistical characteristics of the reference model. The developed simulation model is useful for studying the effects of multipath fading channels and can be used to study the effectiveness of various communication techniques in multipath channels. The simulation model is developed as a MATLAB function which can be used in other simulation programs. The scattering function which gives valuable information about the channel is generated according to COST 207 specifications.