A characterization of the frequency selective fading of the mobile radio channel

An experiment has been designed to determine the frequency selective behavior of a mobile radio channel for a medium bandwidth (maximum of 128 kHz). The measurement technique uses a multitone approach. The transmitted signal consists of several tones (five) with fixed phase and amplitude relationships. Coherent demodulation and separation of each tone is performed at the receiving end. Quantification of the mobile radio channel is conveniently described by its frequency correlation function. Measurements for several types of environments (rural, suburban, urban) were taken and analyzed. The results characterize the amplitude and phase behaviors of a signal for each type of environment. Finally, the computations of the probability of error for a differential phase shift keying (DPSK) modulation scheme in the presence of frequency selective fading show the dominance of this factor as the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) increases.