Ajou University

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

ECE432 – Mobile Communications

Solutions for final exam

a) ¨ Channel capacity is the theoretical lower limit on how many bits/s can
pass through a link.
Answer) Channel capacity is the theoretical upper limit on the error-free rate.

b) ¨ Shannon’s theorem for channel capacity assumes a noiseless channel.

Answer) Shannon's theorem assume some types of noise.

c) ¨ A channel can have infinitely large channel capacity (i.e., 𝐶 → ∞) for

a fixed signal power by increasing the system bandwidth.
% % %
Answer) lim 𝐶(𝑊) = lim 𝑊log $ +1 + & . ≈ 𝑊& log $ 𝑒 = & log $ 𝑒 ≠ ∞
!→# !→# !! !! !

d) ¨ In Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) system, the binary symbols 1 and
!
0 are represented by carrier with phase shift of "

Answer) BPSK symbols are represented by carrier with phase shift of π, not π/2

e) ¨ BPSK system modulates at the rate of 2 bits/symbol.

Answer) BPSK system modulates at the rate of 1 bit/symbol; rate of QPSK is 2.

f) ¨ The bandwidth of BFSK is the same as BPSK.

Answer) BFSK provides a double bandwidth compared to BPSK
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 $!
g) ¨ Energy per symbol 𝐸# is given as 𝐸# = for 𝑀-ary PSK, where
%&'" (

𝐸) is energy per bit.

Answer) 𝐸' = 𝐸( ⋅ log $ 𝑀 for 𝑀-ary PSK

h) ¨ Suppose Tx sends (−1 + 0𝑖) and Rx receives −(0.95 + 0.01𝑖). Then,

SNR is 2.585 dB.
|'|" |+,-./ |"
Answer)SNR = |*+'|" = |(+,-./)-(..34-...,/)|" thus SNR 56 = 10 log,. SNR = 25.85 dB

i) ¨ MIMO technology can be implemented at receiver only.

Answer) MIMO can be applied at both Tx and Rx.

j) ¨ Spatial multiplexing gain of MIMO system is max(𝑁* , 𝑁+ ) where 𝑁*

and 𝑁+ are the numbers of antennas at transmitter and receiver,
respectively.
Answer) Spatial multiplexing gain is limited by min(𝑁7 , 𝑁8 ).
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 [Problem 2] Consider a flat fading channel where i.i.d. channel gain 7ℎ[𝑖],

which can take on three possible values: 7ℎ, = 0.05 with probability 𝑝, = 0.1,

7ℎ" = 0.5 with probability 𝑝" = 0.4, 7ℎ- = 1 with probability 𝑝- = 0.5. The
transmit power is 10 mW, the noise power spectral density (PSD) 𝑁. /2 has 𝑁. =
10/0 W/Hz, and the channel bandwidth is 30 kHz [30 pt].

0.1 ℎ! = 0.05

0.4
ℎ" = 0.5

Tx 0.5 ℎ# =1
Rx

a) Assume the receiver has knowledge of the instantaneous value of ℎ[𝑖], but the
transmitter does NOT. Find the ergodic capacity of this channel [10 pt].

Answer) Note that there are three possible received SNRs:

%9# (...4)"
𝛾, = & = 0.01 ∙ ,.%& ∙;.... = 0.8333
$!

%9" (..4)"
𝛾$ = & = 0.01 ∙ ,.%& ∙;.... = 83.333
$!

%9' ,"
𝛾; = & = 0.01 ∙ ,.%& ∙;.... = 333.33
$!

𝐶 = 30000 × (0.1 ∙ log $ (1 + 0.8333) + 0.4 ∙ log $ (1 + 83.333) + 0.5 ∙ log $ (1 + 333.33)
= 205.18 kbps
Thus, the ergodic capacity of this channel is 205.18 kbps
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 b) Find the ergodic capacity of this channel assuming that both the transmitter
and receiver have channel state information (CSI) [10 pt].

Answer) With CSIT, the ergodic capacity can be further improved by adaptive power
allocation, so-called water-filling. To do so, we need to first find the cutoff SNR 𝛾. such that
, ,
∑<( =<! + − . 𝑝/ = 1. Recall that 𝛾, = 0.8333, 𝛾$ = 83.333, and 𝛾; =333.33.
< <
! (

Case 1) All channel states are used (𝛾. ≤ min 𝛾/ )

/
>( > ,
∑;/?, − ∑;/?, <( = 1 𝛾. = ) = 0.8879 ≰ 𝛾, (Contradiction!)
<! ( ,- ∑'(+# (
*(

Case 2) The weakest channel is NOT used (𝛾, < 𝛾. ≤ min {γ$ , γ; })
> > ∑'(+" >(
∑;/?$ < ( − ∑;/?$ <( = 1 𝛾. = ) = 0.8944
! ( ,- ∑'(+# (
*(

Thus, the ergodic capacity is determined as

83.333 333.33
𝐶 = 30000 × (0.4 ∙ log $ X Y + 0.5 ∙ log $ ( ) = 206.63 kbps
0.8944 0.8944

c) Find a zero-outage capacity using channel inversion [10 pt]

Answer) This approach ensures that the receiver signal power is constant as 𝑃.
%
∑/ 𝑝/ 𝑃/ =∑/ 𝑝/ +|9 |". = 0.01 W 𝑃 = 2.3753 × 10+A W
(

2.3753 × 10+A
𝐶 = 30000 × log $ ]1 + ^ = 94.7 kbps
30000 × 10+3
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 [Problem 3] Solve the following problems on OFDM [20 pt].
a) What is the motivation for using OFDM as modulation techniques for
time-dispersive channels (frequency-selective fading)? [5 pt]
Answer) OFDM uses symbols (consisting of several mutually orthogonal
complex exponentials) that are long compared to the ISI. Consequently,
the impact of ISI is reduced compared to a single-carrier system.

b) What are the advantages and what are the drawbacks of using cyclic prefix?
[5 pt]
Answer) Advantage (motivation): the cyclic prefix avoids both ISI and
ICI in time-dispersive channels; Drawback: the cyclic prefix is redundant
and thus reduces the data rate.

c) Why is it beneficial to use the DFT/IDFT transform-pair in combination

with a long-enough cyclic extension (cyclic-prefix extension after the
IDFT and cyclic-prefix removal before DFT) compared to other
transforms? [5 pt]
Answer) The DFT/IDFT in combination with a long-enough cyclic
extension partitions any channel, i.e., parallel channels. So, it does not
require any sophisticated equalizers at the receiver; however, OFDM uses
a simple one-tap equalizer thanks to DFT/IDFT with a long-enough CP.

d) What is the relation between coherence time and delay spread? [5 pt]
Answer) There is none.
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 [Problem 4] The Alamouti scheme is applied in a 2 × 1 MIMO system. The
transmitter sends symbols 𝑠, and 𝑠" over time 𝑡 and 𝑡 + 𝑇 in a different manner
as shown in the table below where 𝑇 is the symbol duration. The channel
coefficients are ℎ, and ℎ" , which are constant over two time slots. A noise term
is denoted by 𝑛(𝑡) and 𝑛(𝑡 + 𝑇). [30 pt].

𝑠̃1 !
𝑠̃2 !

a) Write expressions for the received signals at the receiver at time 𝑡 and 𝑡 +
𝑇. Ignore the effect of noise [5 pt].

Answer) The received signals can be expressed as

𝑟. ≜ 𝑦(𝑡) = ℎ, 𝑠, + ℎ$ 𝑠$ + 𝑛,

𝑟, ≜ 𝑦(𝑡 + 𝑇) = −ℎ, 𝑠$∗ + ℎ$ 𝑠,∗ + 𝑛$

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 b) Write expressions for operation of combiner (in terms of 𝑟, and 𝑟" ) at the
receiver to recover symbols 𝑠, and 𝑠" . Ignore the effect of noise [5 pt].

Answer) The combiner builds the following two combined signals that are sent to the
maximum likelihood detector:
∗
𝑠̃, = ℎ,∗ 𝑟, + ℎ$ 𝑟$∗ = ℎ,∗ hℎ, 𝑠, + ℎ$ 𝑠$ + 𝑛, i + ℎ$ h−ℎ, 𝑠$∗ + ℎ$ 𝑠,∗ + 𝑛$ i
$ $ ∗
= (jℎ j + jℎ j )𝑠, + (ℎ 𝑛, + ℎ 𝑛$∗ )
, $ , $
∗
𝑠̃$ = ℎ$∗ 𝑟, − ℎ, 𝑟$∗ = ℎ$∗ hℎ, 𝑠, + ℎ$ 𝑠$ + 𝑛, i − ℎ, h−ℎ, 𝑠$∗ + ℎ$ 𝑠,∗ + 𝑛$ i .
$ $ ∗
= (jℎ j + jℎ j )𝑠$ + (ℎ 𝑛, − ℎ 𝑛$∗ )
, $ $ ,

c) What is diversity order from Alamouti scheme? Provide a reason [5 pt].

Answer) The resulting combined signals are equivalent to that obtained from two-
branch MRRC. The only difference is phase rotations on the noise components which
do not degrade the effective SNR. Therefore, the resulting diversity order from the new
two-branch transmit diversity scheme with one receiver is equal to that of two-branch
MRRC, which provide a diversity order of two.

d) To realize the diversity gain, are channel coefficients ℎ, and ℎ" required
to be known at the transmitter or the receiver or both? Please justify your
answer to receive full credit [5 pt].
Answer) CSI is required at the receiver side only. This is because the receiver
performs combining and MLD based on this channel knowledge.
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 e) Consider an 1 × 2 SIMO channel where noise signals at two antennas are
1 , 0
independent white Gaussian noise channels with 𝔼[𝐧𝐧1 ] = " J K
0 1
, ,
where 𝐧 = [𝑛, 𝑛" ]* . When the channel coefficients are ℎ, = + 𝑗
√" √"
, ,
and ℎ" = − 𝑗 , determine the average SNR after maximal ratio
√" √"

combining (MRC) output 𝑦. . Note that the average signal power is

assumed to be 𝑃, i.e., 𝔼[|𝑥. |𝟐 ] = 𝑃 [5 pt].

Answer) We studied the output SNR of MRC in the last class. With this, we can
determine SNR as follows:
𝔼[|𝐰 𝑯 𝐡𝒙𝟎 |𝟐 ] |𝐰 𝑯 𝐡|𝟐 𝑃 |𝐰 𝑯 𝐡|𝟐 𝑃
𝐒𝐍𝐑 = = =
𝔼[|𝐰 𝑯 𝐧|𝟐 ] 𝔼[𝐰 𝑯 𝐧𝐧𝑯 𝐰] 𝐰 𝑯 𝔼[𝐧𝐧𝑯 ]𝐰
|𝐰 𝑯 𝐡|𝟐 𝑃 ‖𝐰‖𝟐 ‖𝐡‖𝟐 𝑃
= ≤
1 1
𝐰 𝑯 +2 𝐈. 𝐰 ‖𝐰‖𝟐
2
= 2𝑃 × (|ℎ, |𝟐 + |ℎ$ |𝟐 )
1 1 1 1
= 2𝑃 X + + + Y = 4𝑃
2 2 2 2
, , , , , 7
where 𝐰 = x + 𝑗 − 𝑗z .
√$ √$ √$ √$ √$

f) As per Alamouti’s paper (Fig. 4), the simulated case (2-by-1 or 2-by-2
antennas) report 3 dB performance degradation from the equivalent MRC
(1-by-2 or 1-by-4 antennas). Where does this performance loss of
Alamouti scheme come from [5 pt]?
Answer:
This performance loss is due
to the fact only half of total
power is radiated from each
transmit antenna. It can also
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be seen as one receive

antenna can pick up only half
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the equivalent power

compared to the MRC cases.