Characterizing Shadowing and Fading in Emerging Wireless Communication Systems via the Shadowed Beaulieu-Xie Model

Abstract The drive for wireless communications at higher frequencies has led to growing interest for systems in the millimetre-wave and terahertz bands. However, the performance of such systems has been greatly hampered to date by shadowing and fading, leaving emerging sixth-generation and land mobile satellite systems awaiting solutions. As such, we analyze and characterize the effects of shadowing and fading seen in these systems. We do so by introducing the second-order statistics of the shadowed Beaulieu-Xie model, and then apply the probability density and characteristic function methods to acquire expressions and results for the level crossing rate and average fade duration in these emerging systems. We then fit our modeled results to measured data obtained by the Communication Research Centre in Ottawa, Canada, in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States of America. Our shadowed Beaulieu-Xie model shows an excellent fit to the strong shadowing and fading in the measured data, suggesting that the model has great potential in characterizing emerging communication environments and systems.