Rayleigh Fading

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The Rayleigh fading model uses a statistical approach to analyse the propagation, and can be used in a number of environments.

The Rayleigh fading model is ideally suited to situations where there are large numbers of signal paths and reflections.

Typical scenarios include cellular telecommunications where there are large number of reflections from buildings and the like and also HF ionospheric communications where the uneven nature of the ionosphere means that the overall signal can arrive having taken many different paths.

The Rayleigh fading model is also appropriate for for tropospheric radio propagation because, again there are many reflection points and the signal may follow a variety of different paths.

Rayleigh fading definition

The Rayleigh fading model may be defined in the following way:

Rayleigh radio signal fading basics

The Rayleigh fading model is particularly useful in scenarios where the signal may be considered to be scattered between the transmitter and receiver.

In this form of scenario there is no single signal path that dominates and a statistical approach is required to the analysis of the overall nature of the radio communications channel.

Rayleigh fading is a model that can be used to describe the form of fading that occurs when multipath propagation exists. In any terrestrial environment a radio signal will travel via a number of different paths from the transmitter to the receiver.

The most obvious path is the direct, or line of sight path. This is the shortest signal path between the transmitter and the receiver.

However there will be very many objects around the direct path. These objects may serve to reflect, refract, etc the signal.

As a result of this, there are many other paths by which the signal may reach the receiver.

When the signals reach the receiver, the overall signal is a combination of all the signals that have reached the receiver via the multitude of different paths that are available.

These signals will all sum together, the phase of the signal being important. Dependent upon the way in which these signals sum together, the signal will vary in strength.

If they were all in phase with each other they would all add together. However this is not normally the case, as some will be in phase and others out of phase, depending upon the various path lengths, and therefore some will tend to add to the overall signal, whereas others will subtract.

As there is often movement of the transmitter or the receiver this can cause the path lengths to change and accordingly the signal level will vary.

Additionally if any of the objects being used for reflection or refraction of any part of the signal moves, then this too will cause variation. This occurs because some of the path lengths will change and in turn this will mean their relative phases will change, giving rise to a change in the summation of all the received signals.

The Rayleigh fading model can be used to analyse radio signal propagation on a statistical basis. It operates best under conditions when there is no dominant signal (e.g. direct line of sight signal), and in many instances cellular telephones being used in a dense urban environment fall into this category.

Other examples where no dominant path generally exists are for ionospheric propagation where the signal reaches the receiver via a huge number of individual paths. Propagation using tropospheric ducting also exhibits the same patterns. Accordingly all these examples are ideal for the use of the Rayleigh fading or propagation model.

  Written by Ian Poole .
  Experienced electronics engineer and author.

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