Milcom 2015 Track 1 - Waveforms and Signal Processing
A CRITIQUE OF HF NVIS CHANNEL MODELS
Marcus Urie, Gautam Thatte, Ryan McCourt, Parker Martin, Xiaochen Li, Cenk Köse, Michael Fitz,
Scott Enserink
TrellisWare Technologies, Inc.
16516 Via Esprillo, Suite 300
San Diego, CA 92127–1708
{murie, gthatte, rmccourt, pmartin, xli, ckose, mfitz,
senserink}@trellisware.com
ABSTRACT
A wideband HF NVIS measurement campaign in
Southern California collected 7 terabytes of channel
sounding across 2-12 MHz from 72 days of data col-
lection between October 2014 and February 2015. This
massive dataset demonstrates that the traditional HF
NVIS channel models are ill-suited to describe the ob-
served HF NVIS propagation phenomena. In particu-
lar, it is observed that the HF NVIS channel is often
non-stationary over a few minutes; with taps rapidly
shifting in delay, exhibiting abrupt changes in phase
characteristics, and periodic variations in magnitude—
all having significant implications on modem design,
e.g. block length, preamble length and repetition rate,
interleaving size, and modulation type. To this end, this
study summarizes the empirical findings of the delay and
Doppler characteristics, as well as the non-traditional
fading modes, of wideband HF NVIS channels.
I. INTRODUCTION
There has been a great deal of work modeling the
doubly spread high frequency (HF) channel [1, 2]. Tra-
ditionally HF channels are modeled as Rayleigh Wide
Sense Stationary with Uncorrleated Scattering (WSSUS)
[3–5]. HF has been postulated as a richly scattering chan-
nel for which Rayleigh fading is usually a good model.
For a doubly spread channel like HF, Rayleigh fading
also implies that the channel taps are well-modeled
with a zero mean complex Gaussian random process.
Although the HF channel has large-scale variations with
time of day (ToD), it is traditionally modeled to be
stationary in the short term, meaning that the statistics
of the channel do not vary with time over the length
of a single transmission. Finally, uncorrelated scattering
This work was supported in part by the Office of Naval Research
under contract N00014-13-C-0303.
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implies that the channel response at the different delays
in the HF channel are essentially independent. Rayleigh
and WSSUS has been a mature model for HF channels.
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has funded
TrellisWare to execute an extensive HF channel mea-
surement campaign for near vertical incident skywave
(NVIS) propagation. This measurement campaign is
limited to a mid-latitude region (Southern California)
but characterizes the regional HF NVIS coverage by
looking at both a short range (but topologically blocked)
and a long range (120 miles) link. The goal in this
work was to put significant statistical rigor into the HF
channel characterization. The best known validation of
the Rayleigh fading WSSUS model for HF appears in [4]
and relies on minutes worth of data to draw conclusions.
ONR’s challenge was build a system to collect months
of measurements and see what this large data set implied
about wideband NVIS channel models.
The contribution of this paper is an empirical critique
of the traditional channel models for wider band trans-
missions (e.g., 24 kHz) given a partial analysis of large
volume of measured NVIS HF channels. Consequently,
this paper will not overwhelm the reader with multiple
graphs to characterize the statistics of the channel but
instead will examine some frequently observed channel
characteristics that represent behavior that cannot be
well-modeled by Rayleigh WSSUS fading.
Other researchers in [6] have also provided an empir-
ical critique of the traditional channel models for NVIS
propagation, but from a different perspective. They mea-
sured the signal-to-noise (SNR) variation over periods
of 2 to 3 days and adapted the traditional Rayleigh
model with fixed-delay taps to have a log-normally
distributed SNR with the same time correlations as their
SNR measurements. This paper deals with the channel
impulse response (CIR) of NVIS channels and the time-
variability and empirical distributions of its tap values
 Milcom 2015 Track 1 - Waveforms and Signal Processing

in terms of magnitude, delay, delay spread, Doppler and

Doppler spread—important characteristics not studied in
that previous work.
The remainder of the paper overviews the measure-
ment setup, the measurement procedure, and our critique
of the traditional channel models based on the measure-
ments. We also take a preliminary look at the correlation
between channel behavior at two remote receive sites to
a common probe signal.

II. MEASUREMENT SETUP

A. Hardware Configuration
Channel measurements were taken using a software
defined radio (SDR) platform developed under the ONR
contract. The basic structure of the SDR platform is
shown in Fig. 1. The transmitting node was configured
to provide a 40 W signal, and used a terminated folded
dipole antenna. The receiving nodes were configured to
use small (1 m) untuned loop antennas. In both cases, the
antennas were selected to provide a broadband response
—at the expense of efficiency—to eliminate the overhead
required to switch frequencies with a tuned antenna.
The loss of efficiency in the transmit antenna can be
overcome by appropriate design of channel probe and
receiver processing so that high measurement signal-to-
noise ratio (SNR) is still achieved.
The measurement campaign was conducted in South-
ern California. The transmitter was located at TrellisWare
Technologies’ facility in the Rancho Bernardo section
of San Diego. Two receivers were deployed; one was
located in Encinitas about 7 miles removed from the
transmitter (best characterized as suburban), and one was
located in Los Angeles about 120 miles removed from
the transmitter (best characterized as urban). Although
the Encinitas site has hills in between the transmitter and
receiver, frequently a small ground wave was observed
in the measured data due to the short range. Since the
measurement campaign focused on the NVIS channel,
this ground wave was “removed” from the measurements
in the characterizations presented in this paper. The
hardware configuration enabled the measurements taken
at the two remote receive sites to be synchronized,
making it possible to compare characteristics such as
delay spread of the two links at the same point in time
as discussed in section IV.
B. Sounding Waveforms and Processing
The measurement campaign used two separate probe
sequences. Both configurations used a repeated base
Figure 1. Hardware configuration for HF channel measurement.
sequence, selected to provide good autocorrelation prop-
erties and a flat spectral response. The sequences were
generated at 20 kSamples/s, and then upsampled and
filtered with a root-raised cosine filter for spectral con-
tainment, to occupy a 24 kHz channel. The short dwell
sequence used a 12.6 ms base sequence, repeated 32
times, followed by approximately 400 ms of silence.
This sequence was designed to provide a large degree of
processing gain for calculating SNR and delay spread,
while occupying minimal time on the channel. The long
dwell sequence used pairs of a 25.5 ms base sequence,
repeated at 8 Hz for 105 seconds. This sequence was
designed to allow longer-term measurement of the chan-
nel for Doppler spread characterization. Measurements
occurred on 200 frequencies across the 2 MHz-12 MHz
band, and frequencies were selected to provide repre-
sentative sampling within the constraints of TrellisWares
experimental FCC license. Measurements were taken on
an approximately 45 minute cycle. During each cycle,
short dwell sequences were transmitted on each of the
200 frequencies, followed by long dwell sequences on a
subset of 20 frequencies. The subset of frequencies used
for the long dwell measurements was changed daily.
Receive processing is based on correlation with the

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base sequence. Owing to the good autocorrelation prop-

erties of the base sequence, the output of the correlator is
essentially the effective channel impulse response (CIR)
plus measurement noise. Since the measurement noise
can be calibrated accurately during the silent periods,
channel taps are identified by comparing the correlator
output to a threshold based on the measurement noise
level. In the long dwell tests, the identified channel taps
are parameterized by delay and the complex values of
each tap are collected and stored for later processing. A
majority of the channel characterization data presented
in this paper resulted from post processing data from the
long dwell portion of the test cycle.
The HF channel is well known to be doubly spread Figure 2. An example channel with frequency selectivity over 24
kHz bandwidth.
(delay and Doppler ) so the measured CIRs also exhibit
time variability [4]. The time variability of the NVIS
channels is captured by computing the Doppler spread,
defined as the square-root of the second central moment night while higher frequencies above 4 MHz support
of the Doppler profile. The delay dispersion is summa- NVIS propagation during the daytime. Fig. 3 also illus-
rized by the maximum excess delay spread [7, p. 199], trates that the NVIS channel propagation delays exhibit
defined as the time delay during which the multipath great variability in delay spread and usable frequency as
energy falls to 30 dB below the maximum of the power- a function of the ToD. For example, at a frequency of
delay profile. 4 MHz the delay spread is less than 1 ms at 10:00, but
grows to 5 ms by 18:00; and the usable frequency range
at 6:36 is about 2 to 5 MHz, but is about 3 to 11 MHz
C. Preliminary Results at 10:00.
Not surprisingly, wider band HF signals will expe-
rience more frequency selectivity than the traditional
3 kHz HF signals. Fig. 2 shows an example of the
amplitude of a wideband HF CIR and the corresponding
channel frequency response (CFR) for measurements at
19:19 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) (all times will be
reported as PDT in 24-hour notation) on 11 Oct. 2014 at
8640 kHz between Rancho Bernardo to Encinitas. The
example CIR contains two narrowly spaced paths that
would not be easily resolvable using a 3 kHz bandwidth
signal. The CFR is frequency-selective over the 24 kHz
bandwidth of the sounding signal.
In agreement with the findings of the HF channel
literature [2], measured CIRs exhibit significant delay
spread variations over time. Fig. 3 shows the distribution
of delay spread across the NVIS frequencies at different Figure 3. Path delay measurements across NVIS HF frequencies
times of the day based on the aggregate measurements based on 19 days of measurements.
from 19 days within Oct. 12, 2014 to Dec. 2, 2014
between Rancho Bernardo and Encinitas.1 The colormap
Fig. 4 displays the complementary cumulative distri-
in Fig. 3 represents the 19-sample average power delay
bution functions (CCDFs) of Doppler spreads for two
profile (in dB) at each frequency. This figure shows that
sets of frequencies and ToDs. The Doppler spreads
frequencies below 4 MHz support NVIS propagation at
are measured for each channel tap. The results are in
1
The measurement system was not continuously operated because agreement with sub-Hz Doppler spreads experienced in
of demonstrations and upgrades during this time mid-latitudes [8].

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Figure 4. CCDF of the Doppler spread for different frequency groups
and ToDs.
III. CHANNEL MODEL CRITIQUE
Although HF channels are traditionally modeled as
Rayleigh WSSUS over the time periods of a packet
transmission, over 90% of these wideband measurements
are inconsistent with that model. The analysis of the
measured data led to the following observations:
The measured characteristics of a channel tap can
change abruptly: For example, Fig. 5 is a plot of the
phase of the main channel tap for a measured 7040
kHz channel between Rancho Bernardo and Encinitas
at 07:18 on 11 Oct. 2014 after the average Doppler
frequency calculated over the second half of the mea-
surement interval was removed. This channel tap has an
abrupt change in Doppler frequency during the measure-
ment period. This sample path would not be possible in
the standard Rayleigh WSSUS models.
Figure 5. The normalized phase of a measured main channel tap.
The measured delay of a channel tap can change
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rapidly with time: Fig.6 displays how the measured
power per delay varies over the course of 105 seconds
at 3.92 MHz between Rancho Bernardo and Encinitas at
20:08 on 14 Oct. 2014. During the first minute of the
measurement, the delay of the main CIR tap changes
by approximately half a millisecond. This measurement
makes it clear that the ionosphere is rapidly chang-
ing during this time frame. After this delay change,
the tap no longer has significant energy; a behavior
best explained by the disappearance of the ionospheric
reflection that originally produced this path. As such,
stationary channel models are inadequate to capture the
behavior in Fig. 6. Moreover, due to the predictable fash-
ion with which the measured power can vary with delay,
the uncorrelated scattering assumption of traditional HF
modeling is also called into question.
Figure 6. Measured time-varying channel tap power by delay.
The measured channel taps often appear to be com-
prised of one or more constant amplitude complex
sinusoids: Two observations support this claim: First,
taps with constant amplitude were frequently observed;
Second, the amplitude of a tap was often periodic.
The first observation was that taps often had nearly
constant amplitude over the 105 second observation
window. For example Fig. 7 displays the amplitude of
the main tap of a CIR at 5.9 MHz at 7:14 on 11 Oct.
2014, between Rancho Bernardo and Encinitas versus
time. Taps like that observed in Fig. 7 imply that the
ionospheric reflections are often quite stable (have very
low Doppler spread). The lack of significant variability
during the window of observation (as in Fig. 7) makes it
difficult to determine the underlying statistical model of
the fading. For example, is the fading possibly Rician
with K > 0 or is the fading Rayleigh (i.e. Rician
 Milcom 2015 Track 1 - Waveforms and Signal Processing

with K = 0)? 2 If such a channel tap can be modeled destructively with a period ∆t = ∆f1Dop determined by
with a Rayleigh amplitude distribution as posited by the the difference ∆fDop in the Doppler frequencies. This
Rayleigh WSSUS model then the random tap gains are sum of complex sinusoids characteristic can often cause
quasi-static as very little fading is observed. Often in deep and relatively flat fading in the channel.
the measurements we observed that the amplitude of
the complex sinusoid is constant over the observation
window but the Doppler frequency offset can change
significantly and abruptly. In fact, Fig. 5 represents such
a channel tap evolution.

Figure 8. Sinusoidal amplitude variation of the main tap of the CIR.

Figure 7. The amplitude over time of the main tap of a CIR and
the associated empirical PDF.

A second observation was that taps often had a very

periodic amplitude variation over the 105 second obser-
vation window. This type of behavior is very atypical of a
Rayleigh fading process. After a detailed examination of
several channel taps exhibiting this behavior, the postu-
lated reason for such a characteristic is that these taps are
associated with at least two stable reflections with dif-
ferent Doppler frequency offsets. These two reflections
can be associated with the two modes of propagation
(ordinary and extraordinary modes) [1] or can represent
two points of reflection in the ionosphere for one of
the modes of propagation that produce different Doppler
offsets (caused by time-varying refractive indices or
plasma motion)[9]. For example Fig. 8 displays channel
tap amplitude variations measured at 7.84 MHz at 11:47
on 11 Oct. between Rancho Bernardo and Encinitas. Figure 9. Measured single complex sinusoid and two complex
sinusoid channel tap trajectories.
The amplitude variation in Fig. 8 can be caused by
the two modes having the same delay, roughly constant
While the channel tap from a single complex sinusoid
amplitude, but different Doppler frequencies. As the rela-
and a channel tap from a sum of multiple complex
tive phase difference between the two complex sinusoids
sinusoids have much different fading characteristics, they
changes over time, the two signals add constructively and
both result from the ionospheric reflections being very
2
K is defined as the ratio of the power in the direct path to the stable over a long time interval. A plot that illustrates
power in the other, scattered, paths. both the differences in the fading and the constant

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response of the ionosphere is seen in Fig. 9, which shows

the time evolution of the vector diagram of two channel
taps. The first is a channel tap that corresponds to a single
complex sinusoid and the second is a channel tap that
corresponds to a sum of two complex sinusoids. The
single complex sinusoid tap is from a measurement at
7.88 MHz taken at 10:05 on 12 Oct., 2014 on the Rancho
Bernardo to Encinitas link. The two complex sinusoid tap
is from the same signal used in Fig. 8. Both the constant
value of the amplitude of these sinusoids and the very
periodic behavior of the channel taps is evident in Fig.
9. This fading characteristic is not well modeled by a
Rayleigh fading process.
The measured channel taps often behave in a
manner consistent with a Rician fading process with
K > 0: A good example of this Rician behavior is seen Figure 10. The HF NVIS channel taps can exhibit Rician fading
with K > 0.
in Fig. 10. This channel tap was the main tap from a
measurement at 3.28 MHz at 23:19 on 30 Nov., 2014
on the Rancho Bernardo to Encinitas link. The channel
tap in Fig. 10 has a Doppler frequency offset but also a
time varying amplitude across the observation window.
The amplitude is fading but does not ever experience
a deep fade. We used a moment-matching technique to
determine the parameters of the best-matching Rician
distribution, which produced an estimate for K of 7.7,
after adjusting for the measurement noise. We compared
this Rician distribution to the empirical amplitude distri-
bution using the well-known two-sample Kolmogorov-
Smirnov (K-S) goodness of fit test [10, 11] and found a
high confidence fit to the Rician distribution ( P value =
0.88 ). This observed channel tap behaves in a way not
likely to be produced by the Rayleigh model typically
used for HF NVIS channels. Figure 11. The HF NVIS channel taps can exhibit Rayleigh fading.
The measured channel taps sometimes behave in a
manner consistent with a Rayleigh fading process: A
good example of this Rayleigh fading behavior is seen IV. C ROSS -L OCATION TAP C HARACTERIZATION
in Fig. 11. This channel tap was the second channel tap
from a measurement at 7.04MHz at 17:48 on 11 Oct., An interesting aspect of the channel measurement
2014 on the Rancho Bernardo to Encinitas link. The campaign was the ability to observe the channels pro-
channel tap in Fig. 11 has a time variation across the duced at two receivers with a large geographical separa-
observation window that is consistent with a Rayleigh tion (Encinitas and Los Angeles). For networking design
fading process. We did a statistical test on the amplitude it is useful to know how correlated the channel responses
distribution obtain from this measurement using the K- appear in a NVIS regional network when excited by a
S goodness of fit test and found a high confidence fit common transmitted signal. Fig. 12 shows a scatter plot
to the Rayleigh distribution. Consequently channel taps of the maximum excess delay spread when both channels
like Fig. 11 show that the Rayleigh model is sometimes have an SNR > 10 dB at the output of the base-sequence
accurate for taps in an HF NVIS channel. By running the correlator.
K-S goodness of fit test on our measurement corpus we We note several items to facilitate the correct interpre-
found that less than 4% of the channel taps we observed tation of Fig. 12: First, the two channels are not perfectly
behave like a Rayleigh fading process. correlated—if they were, then all points would be located

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on the diagonal. In fact, a detailed analysis shows that
only 33% of the data actually lie on the diagonal,
indicating that receivers that are geographically greatly
separated are likely to experience nearly independent
channels. This is probably expected as the portions of
the ionosphere that present the different reflection angles
to these geographically separate receivers are probably
not collocated. Secondly, the stratification of the scatter
plot in Fig. 12 is indicative of the HF channel tending to
have reflections from different layers of the ionosphere.
Finally, we note that the Los Angeles receive site had a
much greater noise power, especially at low frequencies.
Consequently, the times when a valid measurement (i.e.,
SNR > 10 dB) was obtained at both sites was predom-
inantly during daylight hours and at higher frequencies.
Figure 12. Distribution of channel delay spreads as measured in
Encinitas vs as measured in Los Angeles.
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper has presented a first overview of the ONR
sponsored HF NVIS channel characterization campaign.
Many aspects of these measurements have caused us
to question the traditional models for HF NVIS prop-
agation. In general the HF NVIS channel taps seem
to be produced by largely stable (in the time frame
of a transmission) ionospheric reflections. In looking at
two receive sites which both have NVIS propagation
from a common transmitter but are greatly separated on
the ground, we found little in the measurement data to
indicate much correlation in the channels. Finally, the
periodic amplitude variation evident in a large percentage
of our CIR measurements and not reported in the litera-
ture on HF long-haul channel measurements is evidence
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that there are cases where the extension of long-haul
channel models to the NVIS channel is not applicable.
In examining this data and our ability to draw defini-
tive conclusions there are three recommendations to be
made for further measurement campaigns: 1) extend
the hardware to enable dual-polarized data collection,
2) run the continuous observations for longer than 105
seconds, and 3) gather statistics at a greater number of
receive sites. The dual-polarized measurement campaign
will enable the resolution of the impact of the ordinary
and extraordinary propagation modes in the channel
characterization. The longer observation window would
allow a more definitive statement on the appropriate
statistical model to apply in simulation or emulation
of the HF channel. The greater number of received
sites will enable a better statistical characterization of
channel correlation with respect to distance receivers are
separated in a regional HF NVIS network.
VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge Dr. Jeffrey Allen’s stimulat-
ing discussions, support, and encouragement.
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