Rayleigh fading

Rayleigh fading is a statistical model for the effect of a propagation environment on a radio signal, such as that used by wireless devices.

Rayleigh fading models assume that the magnitude of a signal that has passed through such a transmission medium (also called a communication channel) will vary randomly, or fade, according to a Rayleigh distribution — the radial component of the sum of two uncorrelated Gaussian random variables.

Rayleigh fading is viewed as a reasonable model for tropospheric and ionospheric signal propagation as well as the effect of heavily built-up urban environments on radio signals.^[1]^[2] Rayleigh fading is most applicable when there is no dominant propagation along a line of sight between the transmitter and receiver. If there is a dominant line of sight, Rician fading may be more applicable. Rayleigh fading is a special case of two-wave with diffuse power (TWDP) fading.

^ John G. Proakis (1995). Digital Communications (3rd ed.). Singapore: McGraw–Hill Book Co. pp. 767–768. ISBN 978-0-07-113814-7.
^ Bernard Sklar (July 1997). "Rayleigh Fading Channels in Mobile Digital Communication Systems Part I: Characterization". IEEE Communications Magazine. 35 (7): 90–100. doi:10.1109/35.601747.

[proakis-1] John G. Proakis (1995). Digital Communications (3rd ed.). Singapore: McGraw–Hill Book Co. pp. 767–768. ISBN 978-0-07-113814-7.

[2] Bernard Sklar (July 1997). "Rayleigh Fading Channels in Mobile Digital Communication Systems Part I: Characterization". IEEE Communications Magazine. 35 (7): 90–100. doi:10.1109/35.601747.

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