A Unification of LoS, Non-LoS, and Quasi-LoS Signal Propagation in Wireless Channels

Abstract

The modeling of wireless communication channels is often broken down into two distinct states, defined according to the optical viewpoints of the transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) antennas, namely, line-of-sight (LoS) and non-LoS (NLoS). Movement of the TX, RX, both and/or objects in the surrounding environment means that channel conditions may transition between LoS and NLoS leading to a third state of signal propagation, namely, quasi-LoS (QLoS). Unfortunately, this state is largely ignored in the analysis of signal propagation in wireless channels. We, therefore, propose a new statistical framework that unifies signal propagation for LoS, NLoS, and QLoS channel conditions, leading to the creation of the three-state model (TSM). The TSM has a strong physical motivation, whereby the signal propagation mechanisms underlying each state are considered to be similar to those responsible for Rician fading. However, in the TSM, the dominant signal component, if present, can be subject to shadowing. To support the use of the TSM, we develop novel formulations for the probability density functions of the in-phase and quadrature components of the complex received signal, the received signal envelope, and the received signal phase. In addition, we derive an expression for the complex autocorrelation function of the TSM, which will be of particular importance in understanding and simulating its time correlation properties. Finally, we show that the TSM provides a good fit to field measurements obtained for two different body-centric wireless channels operating at 2.45 GHz, which are known to be subject to the phenomena underlying the TSM.