Rician fading channel vs Rayleigh fading channel difference

This page compares Rician fading channel vs Rayleigh fading channel in wireless communication and mentions difference between Rician fading and Rayleigh fading along with matlab code for each.

Wireless system consists of transmitter, receiver and channel. The channel between transmitter and receiver can be time varying or fixed. Fading refers to variation in received signal strength with respect to time due to channel seen by the transmitted signal over the path of travel. Channel fading occurs due to various factors which include atmospheric (e.g. rain, lightening) and physical (e.g. movement of Transmitter and receiver, path loss etc.) parameters.

Refer article on types of fading and fading basics>>. Let us understand Rician distribution and Rayleigh distribution.

Rician Fading channel | Rician distribution

• In rician model, both Line of Sight (LOS) and non Line of Sight(NLOS) components are simulated between transmitter and receiver.
• MATLAB provides "ricianchan" function to simulate rician channel model.
• The figure-1 depicts rician fading channel distribution.

Rayleigh Fading channel | Rayleigh distribution

rayleigh fading channel impulse response

• In Rayleigh model, only Non Line of Sight(NLOS) components are simulated between transmitter and receiver. It is assumed that there is no LOS path exists between transmitter and receiver.
• MATLAB provides "rayleighchan" function to simulate rayleigh channel model.
• The power is exponentially distributed.
• The phase is uniformly distributed and independent from the amplitude. It is the most used types of Fading in wireless communication.
• The figure-2 depicts rayleigh fading channel distribution.

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