E225C Lecture 16

OFDM Introduction
EE225C

Introduction to OFDM
l

Basic idea
Using a large number of parallel narrow-band subcarriers instead of a single wide-band carrier to
transport information

Advantages
Very easy and efficient in dealing with multi-path
Robust again narrow-band interference

Disadvantages
Sensitive to frequency offset and phase noise
Peak-to-average problem reduces the power
efficiency of RF amplifier at the transmitter

Adopted for various standards

DSL, 802.11a, DAB, DVB

Multipath can be described in two domains:

time and frequency
Time domain: Impulse response

time

time

time
Impulse response

Frequency domain: Frequency response

time

time

time
Sinusoidal signal as input

time

Frequency response

Sinusoidal signal as output

Modulation techniques:
monocarrier vs. multicarrier
Channel
N carriers

Channelization

Similar to
FDM technique

Guard bands

B
Pulse length ~1/B
Data are transmited over only one carrier

Drawbacks

B
Pulse length ~ N/B
Data are shared among several carriers
and simultaneously transmitted
Advantages

Selective Fading

Furthermore
Flat Fading per carrier

Very short pulses

N long pulses

ISI is compartively long

ISI is comparatively short

EQs are then very long

N short EQs needed

Poor spectral efficiency

because of band guards

Poor spectral efficiency

because of band guards

It is easy to exploit
Frequency diversity
It allows to deploy
2D coding techniques
Dynamic signalling

To improve the spectral efficiency:

Eliminate band guards between carriers
To use orthogonal carriers (allowing overlapping)

Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulation

N carriers
Symbol: 2 periods of f0

Transmit

Symbol: 4 periods of f0

f
B
Symbol: 8 periods of f0

Channel frequency
response

Data coded in frequency domain Transformation to time domain:

each frequency is a sine wave
in time, all added up.

Decode each frequency

bin separately
Receive
time

f
B

Time-domain signal

Frequency-domain signal

OFDM uses multiple carriers

to modulate the data
N carriers

Frequency

Time-frequency grid

Data

Carrier

f0

B
Features
No intercarrier guard bands
Controlled overlapping of bands
Maximum spectral efficiency (Nyquist rate)
Easy implementation using IFFTs
Very sensitive to freq. synchronization

T=1/f0

One OFDM symbol

Time

Intercarrier Separation =
1/(symbol duration)

Modulation technique
A user utilizes all carriers to transmit its data as coded quantity at each
frequency carrier, which can be quadrature-amplitude modulated (QAM).

OFDM Modulation and Demodulation

using FFTs
d0
b0
d1
P/S
IFFT
b1
d2
d0, d1, d2, ., dN-1
b2
Inverse fast
d3
Parallel
to
.
Fourier transform
.
serial converter
.
Transmit time-domain
.
f .
samples of one symbol
.
.
.
time
bN-1
dN-1
Data coded in
Data in time domain:
frequency domain:
one symbol at a time
one symbol at a time

d0
d1
d2
.
.
.
.
dN-1

S/P

d0, d1, ., dN-1

Receive time-domain
samples of one symbol

Serial to
parallel converter

time

Decode each
b0
frequency bin
b1
independently
b2
.
.
f .
.
bN-1

FFT
Fast Fourier
transform

Loss of orthogonality (by frequency offset)

k (t) = exp( jk 2 t / T ) y k +m ( t) = exp ( j2 (k + m )t / T )

Transmission pulses

k+ m (t) = exp ( j2 (k + m + ) / T ) con 1 / 2

Reception pulse with offset

Interference between
channels k and k+m

I m () =

Summing up
m

m+

I
m

N 1

2
m

( ) (T)2
m =1

1
23
(T )2
14
m2

-10

m=1

-20

m=3
m=5
m=7

-50

Asymetric

-70
-0.4

-0.3

-0.2

-0.1
0.1
Frequency offset:

j 2(m + )

N >> 1 (N > 5

Is enough )

Total ICI due to loss of orthogonality

-40

-60

for

T (1 exp( j2 ))

-10
-15
=0.05
-20
-25
=0.02
-30
=0.01
-35
=0.005
-40
Practical
-45
=0.002
assumed
r.v.
-50
=0.001
Gaussian
=
-55
-60
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Carrier position within the band (N=16)
ICI in dB

Interference: Im(? )/T en dB

Loss for 8 carriers

-30

T sin

I m ( ) = exp( jk2t / T ) exp( j(k + m + )2t / T )dt =

0.2

0.3

0.4

limit

Loss of orthogonality (time)

Let us assume
a misadjustment

Then
if m=k-l

Xi = c 0

T /2+
T /2

k (t ) l (t )dt + c 1
*

senm
2 T
T , c c
0
1
Xi =
m

0,
c0 = c1

In average, the interfering

power in any carrier is

X 2
E i2
T

T/ 2

independent
on m

2 , << T

T
Per carrier

ICI 20log

2
2

1
1

= 4 T 2 + 0 2 = 2 T

ICI due to loss of orthogonaliy

45

Doubling N means 3 dB more ICI

40

m=1

35
ICI in dB

Interference en dB

Xi 2m T

=2
T
T
m

Or approximately,
when <<T

Loss for 16 carriers

0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-50
0

2 consecutive
symbols

k (t ) l (t )dt
*

T / 2+

m=5
m=10

assumed an Uniform r.v.

30
25

Max. practical limit

N=8

20
15

0.1

0.2

Zone of interest

0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7

Relative misadjustment

0.8

0.9

10
0

N=64

0.01

0.02

0.03

0.04

0.05

0.06

0.07

0.08

Typical deviation for the relative misadjustment

Including a cyclic prefix

To combat the time dispersion: including special time guards in the symbol transitions
co p y

Furthemore it converts Linear conv. = Cyclic conv.

CP

(Method: overlap-save)

T
Tc

Without the Cyclic Prefix

Including the Cyclic Prefix

Symbol: 8 periods of fi

Initial transient

Channel:h(n )=(1 ) n / n

n =0 , ,2 3

i(t)

Loss of orthogonality

Decaying transient

Symbol: 8 periods of fi

Passing the channel h(n)

Passing the channel h(n)

CP
i(t)

i(t)

Initial transient
remains within
the CP

The inclusion of a CP
maintains the orthogonality

j (t)

j(t)

Symbol: 4 periods of fi

Final transient
remains within
the CP

Symbol: 4 periods of fi

CP functions:
It acomodates the decaying transient of the previous symbol
It avoids the initial transient reachs the current symbol

Cyclic Prefix

Tg

Multi-path components

max
Tx

Sampling start

802.11a System Specification

t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6 t7 t8 t9 t10

GI2

Short training sequence:

AGC and frequency offset
l
l
l
l
l

T1

T2

GI

OFDM Symbol

GI

OFDM Symbol

Long training sequence:

Channel estimation

Sampling (chip) rate: 20MHz

Chip duration: 50ns
Number of FFT points: 64
FFT symbol period: 3.2s
Cyclic prefix period: 16 chips or 0.8s
Typical maximum indoor delay spread < 400ns
OFDM frame length: 80 chips or 4s
FFT symbol length / OFDM frame length = 4/5

Modulation scheme
QPSK: 2bits/sample
16QAM: 4bits/sample
64QAM: 6bits/sample

Coding: rate convolutional code with constraint length 7

Frequency diversity using coding

Random errors: primarily introduced by thermal and circuit noise.
Channel-selected errors: introduced by magnitude distortion in
channel frequency response.
Data bits

Frequency

Time-frequency grid

Bad carriers

f0

f
Frequency response

T=1/f0

Time

Errors are no longer random. Interleaving is often used to scramble

the data bits so that standard error correcting codes can be applied.

Spectrum Mask
Power Spectral Density

-20 dB
-28 dB

-40 dB

-30

-20

-11 -9

f carrier

9 11

20

30
Frequency (MHz)

Requires extremely linear power amplifier design.

Adjacent Channel and

Alternate Channel Rejection
Date
rate
6 Mbps

M inimum
Sensibility
-82 d B m

Adjacent Channel
Rejection
16 dB

Alternate
Channel rejection
32 dB

12Mbps

-79 d B m

13 dB

29 dB

24Mbps

-74 d B m

8 dB

24 dB

36Mbps

-70 d B m

4 dB

20 dB

54Mbps

-65 d B m

0 dB

15 dB

32 dB blocker

16 dB blocker

Signal

Frequency

Requires joint design of the anti-aliasing filter and ADC.

OFDM Receiver Design

Yun Chiu, Dejan Markovic, Haiyun Tang,
Ning Zhang
EE225C Final Project Report, 12 December
2000

OFDM System Block Diagram

Synchronization
l

Frame detection

Frame start

Tg

Frequency offset compensation

Sampling error
Usually less 100ppm and can be ignored
100ppm = off 1% of a sample every 100 samples

System Pilot Structure

IEEE 802.11a OFDM Txer

Short Preamble Gen.

Long Preamble Gen.

OFDM Data Path

10 x 0.8 = 8 uS
1 2

5 6

2 x 0.8 + 2 x 3.2 = 8 uS
8

9 10

GI2

T1

T2

Signal Detection, AGC,

Channel & Fine Freq.
Diversity Selection
Offset Estimation
Coarse Freq. Offset
Est.,Timing Sync.

0.8 + 3.2 = 8 uS 0.8 + 3.2 = 8 uS 0.8 + 3.2 = 8 uS

GI

Signal

Rate, Length

GI

Data

Data

GI

Data

Data

10

Short & Long Preambles

1+j

-24

-20
-12
-16

-1-j

Short Preamble
Period = 16 Chips

+1

-26

-24
-16

-12

-1

Long Preamble
Period = 64 Chips

Correlation of Short Preamble

Correlation
Fine Timing

AutoCorrelation
Coarse Timing

11

Synchronization
From AGC

16Td

Td

Td

*
Td

Td

*
Td

Td

... T
... *
*
d

...

Moving AutoCorr. Unit

Td
From AGC

Td

Moving SP
Corr. Unit

Td

Td

... T
... *
*
d

...
Short Preamble (LUT)

Impairments: Multi-Path Channel

Tc
0

2T
T

0
2T

2T

3T

4T

t
c

Ch. Impulse
Response

2T

3T

3T

4T

4T

5T

0
2T

3T

4T

2T

3T

5T

4T

t
5T

Auto-Correlation w/
Multi-Path Channel
Response.

12

Impairments: Frequency Offset

2T

2T

3T

3T

4T

4T

2T

3T

4T

Fine Frequency Offset Est.

Accumulator

Complex
Multiplier

Sync. Signal

13

Coarse-Fine Joint Estimation &

Decision Alignment Error Correction

3
4

8
6

Average over
64 chips

B A
C D

Average over
16 chips

Coarse

Fine

Folding Signal

Vin

Folding ADC

100ppm fc
@ 5.8GHz

Frequency Offset Compensation

Decision
Alignment

Channel

Joint CoarseFine Est.

Offset Corr.

14

Performance Summary
Parameters

Metrics

Number of sub-carriers

48 data +4 pilot

OFDM symbol freq.

4 s

Modulation Scheme

BPSK up to 64-QAM

Sampling clock freq.

20 MHz

Sync. Frame Start Accuracy

Freq. Offset Est. Range

8 chips (CP = 16
chips)
5 = 100ppm @ 5.8 GHz

Freq. Offset Est. Accuracy

1% (@ 15dB SNR)

Critical path delay

12.7 ns

Silicon area

397,080 m2

Total power consumption

3.4 mW @ 20 MHz

15