What is Rayleigh Fading?
Rayleigh fading occurs when there is No Line-of-Sight (NLoS). The receiver relies entirely on reflected and scattered waves. Because these waves arrive from different directions with different phases, they often cancel each other out—a phenomenon known as Destructive Interference.
Reference Carrier Wave (Pure Sine)
Rayleigh Passband (Distorted Signal)
IQ Plane (Random Phasors)
Signal Envelope |r(t)|
Deep Fades
In the simulator, look at the Signal Envelope. Occasionally, the signal strength drops nearly to zero. These are called "Deep Fades."
- The Cause: When all the multipath vectors point in opposite directions, they sum to zero.
- The Fix: Modern phones use Antenna Diversity (multiple antennas) so that if one is in a deep fade, the other might not be.