Small-Scale Fading Characteristics in Cellular Networks in Ghana

Fading is the most observed and frustrating problem in transmitting and receiving radio signals. A Study in correlation properties of fading helps to design proper communication systems that are robust to it. In this work, received power signal was obtained by drive-test technique. The analysis was determined using distribution fitting tool in Matlab software 7.5.0 (R2007b). The following fading distributions were used, Rayleigh, Rician, Nakagami-m, Lognormal and Weibull. Weibull fading distribution was found to give the best description of fading experienced in Ghana. On the other hand, Rician distribution, Nakagami-m distribution and lognormal distribution have less agreement with the measured data while Rayleigh fading distribution has much less agreement with measured data. The obtained mean scale parameter and the mean shape parameter in the Weibull distribution for the environment considered were 133.76 and 15.93, respectively. Furthermore, the path loss exponents in the near and far fields were also calculated; and the standard deviation of shadowing fell in the range of 4.368dB to 6.180dB.