A context-tree based model for quantized fading

Fading is modeled by applying context tree pruning (CTP) to the sequence of fading states that results from quantizing a sequence of real-valued fading measurements. There results a family of finite state Markov chains of increasing order that represent the channel with increasing fidelity. A fading state may be the union of chain states. A particular model may be chosen from that family according to an application-specific criterion. The resulting models facilitate analysis and simulation of wireless systems that exploit channel memory. An example criterion compares each model's fading state sojourn time statistics with those of the original sequence.