This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
1.4 About This Book
This section presents an overview of the content in Space–Time Wireless Channels.
1.4.1 The Basic Disciplines
The primary purpose of this book is to provide a unique instruction or research reference for wireless researchers who require knowledge of the space–time wireless channel. The target reader is a researcher with limited exposure to the three basic disciplines of space–time channel modeling: random process theory (probability theory), electromagnetic propagation, and communications. Any reader with an undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in electrical engineering should have little diLculty understanding the mathematics and physics presented throughout the book.
All space–time channel concepts grow out of the three theoretical disciplines, listed in Figure 1.10. Communication theory, besides providing the general theory of information transmission, is the primary field of application in this text. All of the modulation, multiple access, coding, and signal processing algorithms of wireless communications depend, in part, on the space–time channel description.
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Figure 1.10 Wireless channel modeling theory is an amalgam of three
di2erent theoretical disciplines.
Some basic concepts in random process theory are also vital to the study of space–time wireless channels. Since the type of channels experienced by a real radio link are varied and unpredictable, only stochastic modeling with random processes provides the engineer with a bridge from analytical description to realistic performance. Basic electromagnetic theory, one of the most neglected areas in practice, is important for understanding the physical properties of a space–time wireless channel.
1.4.2 Contents
This book conveniently divides into three roughly equivalent parts. Chapters 2 to 4 are the basic principles of the three disciplines (communications, electromagnetics, and random process theory), presenting the basic framework of Space–Time Wireless Channels. Chapters 5 to 7 present the development of theory based on this basic framework. Chapters 8 to 10 present an overview of space–time applications, focusing on multiple antenna techniques for wireless communications. The following summarizes the contents of each chapter: Chapter 1: Introduction to the field of channel modeling.
Chapter 2: Theory of transmission through space, time, and frequency. Chapter 3: Random process theory for space, time, and frequency. Chapter 4: Electromagnetic description of space–time channels. Chapter 5: First-order statistics of fading channels.
Chapter 6: Angle spectrum concepts and applications. Chapter 7: Second-order statistics of fading channels. Chapter 8: Overview of diversity techniques.
Chapter 9: Overview of space–time signal processing.
Chapter 10: Design rules for antenna arrays in multipath channels. In addition to the main text, the following appendices are included: Appendix A: List of special functions used in the text.
Appendix B: Tables and examples of Fourier transforms.
Appendix C: Review of definitions and concepts in random process theory. Appendix D: Glossary of mathematical conventions and acronyms.
By the conclusion of the book, the reader should have an understanding of general information transmission through many types of space–time wireless channels.
1.4.3 Features of This Book
In matters of scholarship and presentation, this text attempts to be as practical and as readable as possible. Since communications, stochastic process theory, and electromagnetic wave theory are vast subjects in themselves, advanced topics are introduced with thorough background information. Extensive mathematical derivations have been removed from the main text and placed in appendices at the end of the chapters. Important theorems are proven with pragmatic methods that emphasize understanding instead of mathematical rigor. Examples are used to illustrate concepts wherever possible. Each subsequent chapter is concluded with a set of problems, many of which relate theory to practical issues in wireless link design.
This book is meant for more than just a treatment of various channel modeling issues in wireless communications. More broadly, the text is really a grass roots introduction to the principles of stereostochastics, the study of random processes as functions of both time and space. The principles of Space–Time Wireless Channels have numerous applications outside the field of commercial wireless engineering, including radar, optics, acoustics, quantum mechanics, and any other field of study involving dynamic wave interactions.