9.

Multi Carrier Modulation and OFDM

Transmission of Data Through Frequency Selective Time

Varying Channels
We have seen a wireless channel is characterized by time
spread and frequency spread.

Frequency Spread

S ( , F )

F
FDMAX

RMS
RMS
MEAN

Time Spread

Single Carrier Modulation in Flat Fading Channels

if symbol duration >> time spread then there is almost no Inter

Symbol Interference (ISI).
channel

TS

time

Problem with this: Low Data Rate!!!

1
0
phase still recognizable

 in the Frequency Domain

this corresponds to Flat Fading

channel
1 / TS

Frequency

Frequency
Flat Freq. Response

Frequency

Single Carrier Modulation in Frequency Selective Channels

if symbol duration ~ time spread then there is considerable
Inter Symbol Interference (ISI).
channel

time

? ?
phase not recognizable

One Solution: we need equalization

channel

equalizer

time

time

Channel and
Equalizer

Problems with equalization:

it might require training data (thus loss of bandwidth)

if blind, it can be expensive in terms computational effort
always a problem when the channel is time varying

The Multi Carrier Approach

let symbol duration >> time spread so there is almost no Inter
Symbol Interference (ISI);
send a block of data using a number of carriers (Multi Carrier)
symbol
1

symbol
0

time
0

time
1

time

channel

Compare Single Carrier and Multi Carrier Modulation

SC
Frequency

Frequency

One symbol

Frequency
0 1 0 1 1 1

Block of
symbols

Flat Fading Channel:

Easy Demod

channel

MC

subcarriers

0 1 0 1 1 1

Frequency
Each subcarrier sees
a Flat Fading
Channel: Easy
Demod

Structure of Multi Carrier Modulation

In MC modulation each MC symbol is defined on a time interval and it contains a
block of data
OFDM Symbol

data

data

data

data

time

TSymbol

data
Tg

Tb

guard interval

with

data interval

Tg MAX

MAX channel time spread

Guard Time
We leave a guard time
between blocks to allow
multipath

TX

Guard Time
Tg
Data Block

the guard time is long

enough, so the multipath in
one block does not affect the
next block

Data Block

Tb

RX

TSymbol
data+guard

RX

Tg

TX
NO Inter Block Interference!

MC Signal
Transmitted Signal:

s (t ) Re e

j 2FC t

x(t )

FC carrier frequency

Baseband Complex Signal:

x(t )

NF
2

c e

j 2kF t

k
k 0

NF
2

0 t TSymbol

kF subcarrier frequency offset

ck data

Orthogonal Subcarriers and OFDM

guard interval

Tg

Tb data interval

1
Choose: F
Tb

N F F

FC

F
F FC kF

k
Orthogonality
t 0 Tb
:
1
1
j 2Fk t j 2Ft
e
e
dt

Tb t0
Tb

t 0 Tb

t0

j 2 ( k ) Ft

1 if k
dt
0 if k

Orthogonality at the Receiver

Transmitted
subcarrier

Channel
(LTI)

j 2Fk t

t
0

Received
subcarrier

Tg Tb

x(t ) ck e j 2Fk t
k

0 t Tg Tb

h(t )
H ( F ) FT h(t )

Tg

Tg Tb

transient steady state

response response

y (t ) ck H ( Fk )e j 2 Fk t
k

Tg t Tg Tb

still orthogonal at the

receiver!!!
1 1
ck
H ( Fk ) Tb

Tg Tb

y(t )e

Tg

j 2Fk t

dt

OFDM symbols in discrete time

Let
FS

be the sampling frequency;

N NF

be the number of data samples in each symbol;

F 1 / N TS FS / N

the subcarriers spacing

Then:

1
x(nTS )
N

with

NF
2

c e

NF
2

j 2k FF ( n L )
s

NF
2

c e

Tg L TS the guard time.

NF
2

jk 2N ( n L )

n 0,.., L N 1

Summary OFDM Symbol

# samples
# subcarriers
guard

data

N NF

TIME:
0

Tg

Tb

Sampling Interval TS 1 / FS

Freq spacing F FS / N

FREQUENCY:

FS / 2

N F
F S
2 N

N F FS
2 N

FS / 2

OFDM Symbol and FFT

1
x[n L]
N

NF
2

c e

NF
2

NF
2

c e

N 1

k 1

jk 2N n

jk 2N n

X [k ]e

jk 2N n

k 0

c e

NF
2

j ( N k ) 2N n

IFFT X [k ]

Where:
X [ k ] ck ,

k 1,..., N F / 2

X [ N k ] ck ,

k 1,..., N F / 2

X [k ] 0,

otherwise

positive subcarriers
negative subcarriers
unused subcarriers

Guard Time with Cyclic Prefix (CP)

x[ L],..., x[ L N 1] IFFT X [k ], k 0,..., N 1

0

CP

L N 1

IFFT{ X }

CP from the periodicity

x[n] x[ N n]

x[0] x[ N ]
x[1] x[ N 1]
...
x[ L 1] x[ L N 1]

OFDM Demodulator
See each block:

y[n]
0

n
L N 1

L 1

No Inter Block Interference

y[n L] h[n]* x[ n L]
1
h[n]*
N
1

N 1

N 1

X [k ]e

2
kn
N

k 0

H [k ] X [k ]e
k 0

2
kn
N

IFFT H [k ] X [k ]

H [k ] X [k ] FFT y[ L],..., y[ L N 1]
with

H [k ] FFT h[0],..., h[ L 1], 0,..., 0

k 0,..., N 1

Overall Structure of OFDM Comms System

X [0]
X [1]

X [ N 1]

IFFT

H [0] X [0]
H [1] X [1]

+CP

P/S
NL

NL

h[n]
w[n]

H [ N 1] X [ N 1]

FFT
N

-CP
N

S/P
NL
NL

Simple One Gain Equalization

To recover the transmitted signal you need a very simple one
gain equalization:
received

transm.

noise

Y [k ] H [k ] X [k ] W [k ]
channel

Use simple Wiener Filter:

X [k ]

H *[k ]
2

H [k ]

2
W

Y [k ]

OFDM as Parallel Flat Fading Channels

Significance: a Freq. Selective Channel becomes N Flat Fading
Channels
h(t )

X m [0]

X m [ N 1]

x(t )

OFDM
Mod

w(t )

y (t )

Frequency
Selective
channel

Ym [0]
OFDM
Demod

N Flat
Fading
Channels

Wm [0]
X m [0]

H [0]

X m [ N 1]

H [ N 1]

Ym [0]

Wm [ N 1]

Ym [ N 1]

Ym [ N 1]

OFDM Parameters
Summarize basic OFDM Parameters:
FS

sampling rate in Hz

length of Data Field in number of samples

L length of Cyclic Prefix in number of samples

NF N

total number of Data Subcarriers

guard

data

data
t / TS

guard

guard

N
time

NF / N
frequency

F / FS

IEEE 802.11a:
Frequency Bands: 5.150-5.350 GHz and 5.725-5.825 GHz (12 channels)
Modulation OFDM
Range: 100m
IEEE 802.11g
Frequency Bands: 2.412-2.472GHz
Modulation: OFDM
Range: 300m

Channel Parameters: FCC

Example: the Unlicensed Band 5GHz U-NII (Unlicensed National
Information Infrastructure)
8 channels in the range 5.15-5.35GHz
30 MHz

20MHz

30 MHz

5150

5180

5200

5300

FC

4 channels in the range 5.725-5.825GHz

5320

5350

F (MHz )

Channel Parameters: Example IEEE802.11

In terms of a Transmitter Spectrum Mask (Sec. 17.3.9.2 in
IEEE Std 802.11a-1999)
0dB

Typical Signal
Spectrum

20dB
28dB
40dB

30

20

11 9

FC
Typical BW~16 MHz

9 11

20

30

F (MHz )

In either case:

FS 20 MHz

Sampling frequency

N 64

FFT size
Cyclic Prefix

L 16

CP
N 16

Tg 16 / 20 0.8 sec

DATA
N 64

Tb 64 / 20 3.2 sec

Sub-carriers: (48 data + 4 pilots) + (12 nulls) = 64

NULL

c1

63

63

c26
N F 52

0
1
26

NULL

c 26

c1
Frequency
Pilots at: -21, -7, 7, 21

38

IFFT

x0
N 64

x63
Time

Frequencies:
F 20 MHz / 64 312.5kHz

L
38

64 26

L
63 1

8.125

26

8.125

F ( MHz )

Subcarriers index

16.25MHz
DATA
F (MHz )
FCARRIER 10

FCARRIER
20 MHz 1 / Ts

FCARRIER 10

Time Block:

Ts TFFT / 64 50 10 9 sec

TG 0.8 sec

TFFT 3.2 sec

TFRAME 4.0 sec

time

Overall Implementation (IEEE 802.11a with 16QAM).

1. Map encoded data into blocks of 192 bits and 48 symbols:
data

Encode
Buffer
Interleave
(192 bits)
010011010101

Map to
16QAM

48

1110
0111
1000

1101

4
4x48=192 bits

al
+1+j3
-1+j
+3-j3

+1-j

48

Overall Implementation (IEEE 802.11a with 16QAM).

2. Map each block of 48 symbols into 64 samples
time domain
frequency domain
null
+1+j3

-3-j
+3-j3

+1-j

24 data

2 pilots

null

24 data

2 pilots

am [ l ]

26
27

27 64

26 64

X m [k ]

l 1: 48

1 64

IFFT

k 0 : 63

26

1 1

xm [1]

62
63

xm [62]
xm [63]

xm [ n ]
n 0 : 63

26

xm [0]

0
1
2

0
1

Channel Parameters: Physical

Frequency Spread

S ( , F )

F
FDMAX kHz

Time Spread

MAX 1 10 sec outdoor

MAX 10 50 n sec indoor
Constraints on OFDM Symbol Duration:

MAX Tg Tb 1/ FDMAX
10 6 sec

to minimize CP overhead

10 3 sec roughly!!!

for channel Time Invariant

Summary of OFDM and Channel Parameters

Channel:
1. Max Time Spread

MAX
sec

2. Doppler Spread

FHz
DMAX

3. Bandwidth

HzBW

4. Channel Spacing

FS

Hz

OFDM (design parameters):

1. Sampling Frequency

FS

2. Cyclic Prefix

L MAX FS

3. FFT size (power of 2)

4 L N FS / FDMAX

4. Number of Carriers

N F N BW / FS integer

integer

integer

Example: IEEE802.11a
Channel:
1. Max Time Spread

MAX 0.5 sec

2. Doppler Spread

FDMAX 50 Hz

3. Bandwidth

BW 16MHz

4. Channel Spacing

FS 20 MHz

OFDM (design parameters):

1. Sampling Frequency

FS 20 MHz

2. Cyclic Prefix

L 16 0.5 20 10

3. FFT size (power of 2)

N 64 20 106 / 50

4. Number of Carriers

N F 52 64 16 / 20 integer

integer

Applications: various Area Networks

According to the applications, we define three Area Networks:
Personal Area Network (PAN), for communications within a few meters. This is the
typical Bluetooth or Zigbee application between between personal devices such as your cell
phone, desktop, earpiece and so on;
Local Area Network (LAN), for communications up 300 meters. Access points at the
airport, coffee shops, wireless networking at home. Typical standard is IEEE802.11 (WiFi)
or HyperLan in Europe. It is implemented by access points, but it does not support mobility;
Wide Area Network (WAN), for cellular communications, implemented by towers.
Mobility is fully supported, so you can move from one cell to the next without interruption.
Currently it is implemented by Spread Spectrum Technology via CDMA, CDMA-2000, TDSCDMA, EDGE and so on. The current technology, 3G, supports voice and data on
separate networks. For (not so) future developments, 4G technology will be supporting both
data and voice on the same network and the standard IEEE802.16 (WiMax) seems to be
very likely

More Applications
1. WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) standards and WiFi. In particular:
IEEE 802.11a in Europe and North America
HiperLAN /2 (High Performance LAN type 2) in Europe and North America
MMAC (Mobile Multimedia Access Communication) in Japan
2. WMAN (Wireless Metropolitan Network) and WiMax
IEEE 802.16
3. Digital Broadcasting
Digital Audio and Video Broadcasting (DAB, DVB) in Europe
4. Ultra Wide Band (UWB) Modulation
a very large bandwidth for a very short time.
5. Proposed for IEEE 802.20 (to come) for high mobility communications (cars,
trains )