PHY Layer of WiMAX

CHAPTER

8

PHY Layer of WiMAX

T

he physical (PHY) layer of WiMAX is based on the IEEE 802.16-2004 and IEEE 802.16e-2005 standards and was designed with much influence from Wi-Fi, especially IEEE802.11a. Although many aspects of the two technologies are different due to the inherent differ-ence in their purpose and applications, some of their basic constructs are very similar. Like Wi-Fi, WiMAX is based on the principles of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)as previously introduced in Chapter 4, which is a suitable modulation/access technique for non–line-of-sight (LOS) conditions with high data rates. In WiMAX, however, the various parame-ters pertaining to the physical layer, such as number of subcarriers, pilots, guard band and so on,are quite different from Wi-Fi, since the two technologies are expected to function in very differ-ent environments.The IEEE 802.16 suite of standards (IEEE 802.16-2004/IEEE 802-16e-2005) [3, 4] defineswithin its scope four PHY layers, any of which can be used with the media access control (MAC)layer to develop a broadband wireless system. The PHY layers defined in IEEE 802.16 are



WirelessMAN SC

, a single-carrier PHY layer intended for frequencies beyond 11GHzrequiring a LOS condition. This PHY layer is part of the original 802.16 specifications.

•

WirelessMAN SCa

, a single-carrier PHY for frequencies between 2GHz and 11GHz forpoint-to-multipoint operations.

•

WirelessMAN OFDM

, a 256-point FFT-based OFDM PHY layer for point-to-multipointoperations in non-LOS conditions at frequencies between 2GHz and 11GHz. This PHYlayer, finalized in the IEEE 802.16-2004 specifications, has been accepted by WiMAX forfixed operations and is often referred to as

fixed WiMAX

.

•

WirelessMAN OFDMA,

a 2,048-point FFT-based OFDMA PHY for point-to-multipointoperations in NLOS conditions at frequencies between 2GHz and 11GHz. In the IEEE

Reproduced from the book

Understanding the Fundamentals of WiMax: Understanding Broadband Wireless Networking

.

Copyright

©

2006, Prentice Hall

. Reproduced by permission of Pearson Education,Inc., 800 East 96th Street, Indianapolis, IN 46240. Written permission from Pearson Education, Inc. isrequired for all other uses.

272Chapter8  PHY Layer of WiMAX

802.16e-2005 specifications, this PHY layer has been modified to SOFDMA (scalableOFDMA), where the FFT size is variable and can take any one of the following values:128, 512, 1,024, and 2,048. The variable FFT size allows for optimum operation/imple-mentation of the system over a wide range of channel bandwidths and radio conditions.This PHY layer has been accepted by WiMAX for mobile and portable operations and isalso referred to as

mobile WiMAX

.Figure8.1 shows the various functional stages of a WiMAX PHY layer. The first set of functional stages is related to forward error correction (FEC), and includes channel encoding,rate matching (puncturing or repeating), interleaving, and symbol mapping. The next set of func-tional stages is related to the construction of the OFDM symbol in the frequency domain. Duringthis stage, data is mapped onto the appropriate subchannels and subcarriers. Pilot symbols areinserted into the pilot subcarriers, which allows the receiver to estimate and track the channelstate information (CSI). This stage is also responsible for any space/time encoding for transmitdiversity or MIMO, if implemented. The final set of functions is related to the conversion of theOFDM symbol from the frequency domain to the time domain and eventually to an analog sig-nal that can be transmitted over the air. Although Figure8.1 shows only the logical componentsof a transmitter, similar components also exist at the receiver, in reverse order, to reconstruct thetransmitted information sequence. Like all other standards, only the components of the transmit-ter are specified; the components of the receiver are left up to the equipment manufacturer toimplement.In the first section of this chapter, we describe the various components of the channel encod-ing and symbol-mapping stages as defined in the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard. The various man-datory and optional channel coding and modulation schemes are discussed. Next, we describe theconstruction of the OFDM symbol in the frequency domain. This stage is very critical and uniqueto IEEE 802.16e-2005, since various subcarrier permutations and mappings are allowed withinthe standard, allowing adaptation based on environmental, network, and spectrum related param-eters. We then discuss the optional multiantenna features of IEEE 802.16e-2005 for variousmodes, such as transmit diversity and spatial multiplexing. Finally, we describe the various phys-ical-layer control mechanisms, such as power control and measurement reporting.

8.1Channel Coding

In IEEE 802.16e-2005, the channel coding stage consists of the following steps: (1) data ran-domization, (2) channel coding, (3) rate matching, (4) HARQ, if used, (5) and interleaving. Datarandomization is performed in the uplink and the downlink, using the output of a maximum-length shift-register sequence that is initialized at the beginning of every FEC block. This shift-register sequence is modulo 2, added with the data sequence to create the randomized data. Thepurpose of the randomization stage is to provide layer 1 encryption and to prevent a roguereceiver from decoding the data. When HARQ is used, the initial seed of the shift-register

8.1 Channel Coding273

sequence for each HARQ transmission is kept constant in order to enable joint decoding of thesame FEC block over multiple transmissions.Channel coding is performed on each FEC block, which consists of an integer number of

subchannels

. A subchannel is the basic unit of resource allocation in the PHY layer and com-prises several data and pilot subcarriers. The exact number of data and pilot subcarriers in a sub-channel depends on the

subcarrier permutation

scheme, which is explained in more detail later.The maximum number of subchannels in an FEC block is dependent on the channel codingscheme and the modulation constellation. If the number of subchannels required for the FECblock is larger than this maximum limit, the block is first segmented into multiple FEC sub-blocks. These subblocks are encoded and rate matched separately and then concatenated sequen-tially, as shown in Figure8.2, to form a single coded data block. Code block segmentation isperformed for larger FEC blocks in order to prevent excessive complexity and memory require-ment of the decoding algorithm at the receiver.

8.1.1Convolutional Coding

The mandatory channel coding scheme in IEEE 802.16e-2005 is based on binary nonrecursiveconvolutional coding (CC). The convolutional encoder uses a constituent encoder with a con-straint length 7 and a native code rate 1/2, as shown in Figure8.3. The output of the data random-izer is encoded using this constituent encoder. In order to initialize the encoder to the 0 state, eachFEC block is padded with a byte of 0x00 at the end in the OFDM mode. In the OFDMA mode,tailbiting is used to initialize the encoder, as shown in Figure8.3. The 6 bits from the end of thedata block are appended to the beginning, to be used as flush bits. These appended bits flush outthe bits left in the encoder by the previous FEC block. The first 12 parity bits that are generated bythe convolutional encoder which depend on the 6 bits left in the encoder by the previous FECblock are discarded. Tailbiting is slightly more bandwidth efficient than using flush bits since theFEC blocks are not padded unneccessarily. However, tailbiting requires a more complex decoding

Figure 8.1

Functional stages of WiMAX PHY

ChannelEncoder +RateMatchingInterleaverSymbolMapperSpace/ TimeEncoderSubcarrierAllocation+ PilotInsertionSubcarrierAllocation+ PilotInsertionD/AD/AAntenna 1Antenna 2

AnalogDomainDigitalDomainTimeDomainFrequencyDomain

IFFTIFFT