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International Journal of Modeling, Simulation,

and Scientic Computing
Vol. 1, No. 3 (2010) 369404
c World Scientic Publishing Company


DOI: 10.1142/S1793962310000250

SIMULINK MODEL AND FPGA-BASED OFDM

COMMUNICATION SYSTEM: A SIMULATION
AND HARDWARE INTEGRATED PLATFORM

LE KHOA DANG, , HUU PHUONG NGUYEN ,

LE NGUYEN BINH, and DUC NHAN NGUYEN
Faculty

of Electronics and Telecommunications

University of Sciences, 227 Nguyen Van Cu St.
District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Department

of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering

Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia
dlkhoa@fetel.hcmuns.edu.vn
Le.nguyen.binh@eng.monash.edu.au
Received 26 April 2010
Accepted 13 June 2010

Ultra-broadband networks are currently attracting signicant interests in employing

wireless access and optical ber access to the home and to the building at symbol rate
reaching Gb/s. OFDM is a multicarrier modulation technique and considered to oer
signicant reduction of the data symbol to be carried per carrier channel, especially in
ultra-high speed optical communications with bit rate reaching 100 Gb/s or even higher.
This paper thus presents a novel and generic OFDM system employing both MATLAB
Simulink and FPGA-based development software platform for simulation as well as hardware implementation for the generation and detection of OFDM signals for wireless and
optical communications transmission media. Although the transmission medium is modeled with delay distortion lter in the baseband, this model would be valid for passband
signals as the amplitude is represented by complex amplitude whose phase would be the
phase of the carrier. The Simulink and hardware models presented hereunder are scalable to much higher speed allowing possible implementation in multi-Giga samples per
second electronic processors. The sub-systems of the OFDM transmitter and receiver are
presented to demonstrate the feasibility of such models for ultra-wideband communication systems such as wireless access and long haul optical ber communication backbone
networks.
Keywords: OFDM; FPGA; Viterbi codes and decoding; wireless communications; optical
communications.

1. Introduction
The advantages of OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) have been
well known; they are exploited to combat impairments in wireless and optical communication systems. The principal mechanism of OFDM is to generate parallel
369

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orthogonal channels in the frequency domain, so each subcarrier carries a lower

symbol rate, thus providing ecient use of the spectrum and brick-wall-like property. Another superior feature of OFDM is to minimize the intersymbol interference
(ISI) and interchannel interference (ICI). Wireless access rates reaching over 1 Gb/s
per channel and more than 10 Gb/s per ber channel are expected in the future.
Ultra-broadband networks are currently attracting signicant interests; wireless access and optical ber access are provided to the home and to the building.
There is a need for structures which can oer high speed and ecient generation and
detection schemes for hardware implementation of OFDM signals. FPGA oers possibility of parallel structures and exibility in this line of development.13 In recent
years, the fast development of electronic processors reaching several Giga-samples/s
has allowed the exploration of hardware implementation operating in multi-Gb/s
transmission systems. Therefore, there is a need for a software platform and the
corresponding hardware system which can be scalable to ultra-high speed OFDM
communication systems.
This paper reports the implementation of OFDM transmitter and receiving
systems based on the Stratix Development kit EP1S25 and the associate software
package DSP Builder of Alterra. The aim is to prove in principle the fast processing
speed which is scalable to ultra-broadband level for networking. MATLAB Simulink
is also used as a modeling platform for simulation of the hardware implementation.
The models and prototype system presented here are applicable to both wireless and
optical communications. For optical communications systems, an optical modulator,
the I-Q modulator, is used and fed by the signals generating the constellation from
the electronic model/hardware system. Likewise these signals are fed to a power
amplier and then antenna for wireless media.
EP1S254 is a high-speed device, it is suitable for system integration and applications in telecommunications. It allows parallel processing, desired for implementation in the physical layer that requires short delay/propagation time.
Implementation sub-systems for OFDM such as coding, FFT/IFFT, cyclic prex
adder/remover, equalizer in the frequency domain, especially convolutional coder
and Viterbi decoder, can be carried out without much diculty and with eciency.
The noise generators and bit error rate counters are also implemented.
In our OFDM system, the parameters implemented are as follows: 256 subcarriers, convolutional code 12 , modulation scheme either QPSK or 16 QAM, and the
length of prex 14 .
This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 gives a brief overview of the essential
features of OFDM techniques so as to bridge the MATLAB Simulink and hardware
implementation based on FPGA described in Secs. 4 and 5. Section 3 briey outlines the wireless and optical guided transmission media for the OFDM systems.
Section 6 describes the integration of the software and hardware for the experimental platforms. Section 7 then describes the hardware system and the results
obtained by simulation and FPGA based hardware implementation. Finally, Sec. 9
gives some conclusions and provides directions for future research.

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2. Overview of OFDM Techniques

2.1. Principles and generation of OFDM system signals
OFDM is a block transmission technique. The baseband sequence signals can be
coded and modulated to the points of the constellation, for example binary phase
shift keying (BPSK), quadrature PSK (QPSK), quadrature amplitude modulation
(QAM). Thus complex symbols are generated and assembled into blocks and modulated to a group of subcarriers which are placed closely in the frequency spectrum.
These subcarrier channels form an OFDM symbol. The data sequence can be controlled to occupy one or several carriers or all subcarrier channels of the OFDM
symbol. Thus the OFDM symbols are transmitted as a superposition of all these
subcarrier channels.
Figure 1 depicts the sequences for construction of an OFDM symbol. The input
data sequence {dl } is partitioned into N parallel data lines whose rate is thus
reduced by N times via the serial to parallel converter (SPC). N is also equivalent
to and assigned as the number of subcarriers. The bit sequence {di,k } is modulated
to form {am,k } signals where k is the index of the subcarrier, i is the index of the
time slot corresponding to the N bits parallel after going through the SPC, and m is
the time slot index corresponding to the N complex signals. The signals {am,k } are
then shaped to an appropriate form so as to limit the spectral width to the allowable width of each subcarrier channel. They are then inserted with an appropriate
subcarrier k (t) which is orthogonal to one another and can be expressed as
k (t) = ej2fk t ,

(1)

where fk is the corresponding frequency with respect to the kth subcarrier within
the OFDM symbol.
The OFDM signals of N subcarriers can thus be represented as:
N 1


1

am,k k (t),
Sm (t) =
N k=0

di , N

am, k

am, N

Baseband
signals

1
Baseband
signals

Sm (t )

Sm (t )

DAC

Baseband modulation

S-P-Conversion

{dl }

di,k

(2)

Guard band insertion

a m ,1

d i ,1

0 < t < N T,

Baseband
signals

N
Fig. 1. Principles of construction of OFDM signals. DAC: digital to analog conversion. S-P: serial
to parallel.

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where am,k is the kth complex symbol, NT is the length of OFDM symbol containing
N subcarriers, and T is the sampling interval. The subcarriers are equally spaced
by f = N1T , fk is estimated by
fk =

k
.
NT

(3)

These fk values can then be mixed with the passband carrier, e.g. microwave or


lightwave, to generate a set of orthogonal passband subcarriers. Each signal Sm (t)
is equivalent to a point in the Euclidean N -dimensional space which is called the
signal space. Each point is thus represented by a set of values (am,1 , am,2 , . . . , am,N ).
In the case of continuous transmission, m is an integer and dependent on the
length of the input data. All multiplied signals are then added and the nal signal is the passband time-dependent modulated signal waves which can then be
transmitted over the transmission medium. Due to the fact that fk is modulated
at the carrier frequency fk = kf Hz, the OFDM technique is commonly known
to be composed of N subcarriers, each carrying much lower speed data symbols
ROFDM = RS /N with Rs as the original sampling rate or the bit rate of the input
digital sequence. Thus for OFDM the bit rate of each subcarrier channel is the
transmission bit rate of the OFDM frame.
2.2. Implementation of OFDM system using IFFT/FFT
The multiplexing of subcarriers is not a major issue but the ltering of each subcarrier channel is the principal task. Originally they were ltered by several bandpass
lters and thus their design and performance characteristics, especially the very
sharp roll-o, cannot be easily satised. This deters the uses of OFDM in the initial development phase till the proposal of using inverse discrete Fourier transform
(IDFT)6 of the sequence ak , written as
N 1


1

nk
Sm (nT ) =
am,k ej2 N
N k=0

0 n N 1.

(4)

Naturally IDFT is commonly available in almost every digital signal processor. Likewise the demultiplexing of the subcarrier channel at the receiver can be
easily performed using DFT. This has facilitated the simplication for practical
implementation of OFDM. Figure 2 depicts the implementation of OFDM signals
using inverse Fourier transform IFFT and FFT which further simplify the generation of orthogonal channels. Therefore, a FPGA-based system can assist with this
implementation.
2.3. Cyclic prex
Communication systems employing OFDM would face two main problems. Firstly,
the channel separation between subcarrier channels is narrow and can easily
lead to intercarrier interference (ICI). Secondly, OFDM symbols are continually

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Fig. 2.

am, N

Sm (t )

DAC

Sm (t )

Guard band insertion

Parallel to serial conversion

di, N

Baseband modulation

Serial to parallel conversion

{dl }

am , k

IFFT

a m ,1

d i ,1

d i ,k

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Generic principles for the generation of OFDM using IFFT algorithm.

transmitted, so if the delay or distortion eects occur repeatedly, intersymbol interference (ISI) would happen. So if the guard band consists of all 0s, the processing
can minimize the ISI but not the ICI. Thus the prex is suggested by Peled and
Ruiz6 in 1980 by copying parts of the message signal and inserting it to the beginning of the message signal. Therefore the problems of ISI and ICI can be resolved.
The notation ts is dened as the symbol period, and Ts is the symbol period plus
protection interval G such that G t < 0. Thus the OFDM signals including
the prex can be expressed as:
N 1
1

am,k k (t),
Sm (t) =
N k=0

G < t < N T.

(5)

Usually the prex is selected such that it is longer than the transmission delay
time of the transmission medium and can be tuned to achieve the maximum transmission quality. Thus the protection interval plays an important part in the mitigation of the ISI and ICI. However by using the cyclic prex, some energy must be
paid to this extra part of the signals to be transmitted. Naturally the total energy
to be consumed by cyclic prex OFDM signals would be now evaluated for each
subcarrier channel as:

NT
.
(6)
|k (t)|2 dt =
N T G
Thus the SNR penalty per subcarrier channel at the receiver is given by
NT
.
N T + G
Hence the total SNR penalty at the receiver is given by:


G
SNR loss = 10 log10 1
.
NT
Eloss =

(7)

(8)

Therefore it is naturally expected that the longer the cyclic prex interval, the
higher the SNR penalty.
In summary, the structure of the OFDM symbol is arranged as shown in Fig. 3.

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Fig. 3.

Structure of an OFDM symbol, including all subcarriers.

2.4. OFDM signal demodulation

The OFDM receiver can be considered to be composed of several demodulators;
each one would be demodulated to passband signals carried by each subcarrier to
its baseband equivalence. Then by superimposing all these baseband signals of all
subcarrier channels, the original data sequence can be recovered. The schematic
diagram representing the principles of signal recovery of OFDM signals is shown in
Fig. 4. We can easily observe that if all the functions k (t) with k = 1, 2, . . . , N are
orthogonal in pair, then the original set (am,1 , am,2 , . . . , am,N ) can be recovered to
its original values.
From the mathematical point of view, a set of functions can be considered
orthogonal if

 a
k, p = q
p (t) q (t)dt =
(9)
0, p = q .
b
Here * denotes the complex conjugation. The orthogonality of the subcarriers can
be performed by the following: the pth carrier can be moved to the qth order by

d i ,1

S m (t )

Parallel to serial conversion

Separation of Guard band

ADC

S m (t )

1
am, k
demodulation

am, N
demodulation

Received analog signals

Fig. 4.

Transform symbol to bit sequence

am ,1
demodulation

N
Principles of demodulation of OFDM signals.

di , k

di , N

{dl }

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Fig. 5.

am, k

am, N

d i ,1

di , k

di , N

Parallel to serial conversion

Conversion of symbol to bit sequence

{dl }

FFT

S m (t )

Serial to parallel conversion

S m (t )

Separation of guard band

sequence

A/D Converter

am ,1

375

Schematic of the generation of OFDM signals using FFT.

multiplying it with the complex function ejpS t in which wS = 2fS = 2 T1S is

the spectral distance between the pth and qth order subcarriers. If all subcarriers
are not desired and mixed to the frequency location given by a multiple number
of 1/TS , then the orthogonality ensures that they would result in a null number
after integration over a symbol period. Thus the subcarriers must be separated by
a multiple number of 1/TS so as to achieve orthogonality. Therefore similarly to
the operation given for the transmitting side can be used in the demodulation of
OFDM signals as depicted in Fig. 5.
3. Transmission Media: Wireless and Optical
3.1. Eects of transmission medium
Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) transmission medium is considered to
be the simplest representing a generic model of the transmission medium whose
noise characteristics follow a Gaussian prole which most media for communications
would follow, e.g. wireless and optical bers. Note that when the optical ber is
operating in the nonlinear region, the probability density function (pdf) is nonGaussian and dierent treatment may have to be considered. A Gaussian pdf can be
considered to oer zero average and a variance distributed about this null average.
In reality, wireless signals transmitted from the base station (BS) to the mobile
station (MS) would be aected by several factors of the transmission medium,
especially the fading eect due to diraction and reection of the electromagnetic
waves to the objects of the environment. If the mobile receiver is moving, then a
Doppler frequency shift would exist at
fD = fDmax cos()

with fDmax = v

fc
,
c

(10)

where v is the relative velocity of the MS to the BS. fc is the carrier frequency, c is
the velocity of light in vacuum, is the angle of the direction of movement of the
MS with respect to the BS.

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x (t )

0 (t )

1 (t )

k (t )

L (t)

y (t )

Fig. 6. Delay model for transmission of purely delay eects such as wireless transmission and
polarization mode dispersion in single mode optical bers.

A generic model of the transmission medium with multipath delays can be

depicted as shown in Fig. 6 in which x(t) represents the transmitted signals, y(t)
is the output of the transmission medium, k is the kth delay time, k (t) is the
attenuation factor of the kth delay path, and L is the number of delay paths. For the
case of single mode optical bers, the delay is contributed by dierent travel times
of the two polarized modes. This is the fundamental property of the weak guiding
of lightwaves in modern single mode ber whose refractive index dierence is very
small (3 104 ). Furthermore, the random imperfection of the cross section area
of the circular core enhances the uctuation of the dierence of the delay times
between the two polarized modes.
The dierence is the delay time and delay path is strongly dependent on the
medium. Thus we can dene a coherence bandwidth as the frequency interval generated by the maximum delay time given by the medium as
1
,
(11)
(f )C =
max
where max is the maximum delay time of the at fading or nonselective fading. On
the other hand, we would have frequency selective fading. When interference and
Doppler eect occurs, the shifting in the subcarrier can be related to a coherent
time dened as
1
,
(12)
(t)C =
(2fDmax )
where fDmax is the maximum Doppler frequency. If the coherent time is less than
one period of the original data, then the fading is fast fading. Otherwise it is slow
fading.
3.2. Equalization of OFDM signals
In an OFDM system, the data at the input must be transformed and coded to
N parallel sources. These OFDM symbols would then be transformed by IFFT
and then by FFT back to the time domain and the superimposition to obtain the
signal s(t). For simplication, we can bypass the generation of the OFDM signal
and assume that s(t) is the OFDM signal which is transmitted to a channel whose

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impulse response is h(t) and output is r(t). In the case of AWGN n(t), we have
r(t) = h(t) s(t) + n(t).

(13)

Correspondingly in the frequency domain we have

R(f ) = H(f ) S(f ) + N (f ),

(14)

where S(f ) is the frequency domain representation of the OFDM signal. The recovery of S(f ) is thus mainly ltering of the noises contributed by N (f ).
Thus the equalization can be implemented after the FFT subsystem, and only
the multiplication or division operations are needed and not integration or dierentiation. This oers signicant advantages in signal processing in real time.
The eectiveness of OFDM technique depends on the shifting of the frequency
and phase of the subcarriers. If Doppler eects exist in the transmission medium,
then the phase lock loop at the receiver front may have to be used. If errors in
frequency and phase happen, then the rotation of the constellation of the received
signals would happen and the detection must be corrected. The third problem is
that the clock signals of the ADC and DAC at the front end of the transmitter and
receiver can be dierent, thus creating some extension of the OFDM symbol which
may be dierent from symbols to symbols. Thus there must be a synchronization
of the symbols. These problems aect the recovery of the transmitted signals and
must be dealt with.
The use of the cyclic prex can solve the problem of synchronization of the
symbols. Furthermore, if the delay time varies and is less than the cyclic prex time
interval, then one can use this interval to assist the synchronization of the OFDM
symbols. Then the FFT with N points from this location would signicantly reduce
the mismatch in the subcarrier phase. Once the synchronization is complete, the
eects of shift in the frequency and phase due to the Gaussian noises can be resolved
by increasing the spectral distance between the subcarriers. However, the technique
employed in this work is to insert pilot carriers at the known subcarrier location in
OFDM symbols. This technique is described in the next subsection.
3.3. Pilot signals
At the receiver end, the received and original values of the pilot allow the estimation of the eects of the transmission at the frequency location of these pilots
and thus one can deduce the eects of the transmission medium on all subcarrier
channels of the OFDM symbol. The original OFDM symbols can then be recovered
without much diculty. The pilots can be inserted into OFDM symbols as shown
in Fig. 7. The frequency spacing between pilots must follow the sampling rules in
the frequency and time domain.
As mentioned above, the change of frequency of the transmission medium is
dependent on the maximum delay time of the medium. Let rf be the sampling

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Fig. 7.

Representation of pilots in the time domain and frequency domain.

ratio in the frequency domain and f be the spacing between the subcarriers, then
the spacing between the pilots must satisfy:
rf =

1
1.
Df f max

(15)

Thus the minimum sampling ratio must be rf = 1. When rf < 1, the transmission
channel cannot be fully recovered via the pilots.
Similarly in the frequency domain, the spacing between the pilots must satisfy
rt =

1
1,
2fDmax Dt (TS + G )

(16)

where fDmax is the maximum frequency of the Doppler eects.

The estimation of the frequency response of the transmission medium H(f )
is useful especially when OFDM is used in the transmission system due to the
frequency operation of the OFDM signals. That means that one can operate on
R(f ) instead of r(t). This is quite easy with the implementation using digital signal
processors.
Now let Spilot (f ) be the frequency distribution of the known pilots in the OFDM
symbol. At the receiver end, when the received R(f ) is known, the pilot locations
can be derived by
Rpilot (f ) = Spilot (f ) Hpilot (f ) + N (f ).

(17)

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For the sake of simplicity, we can ignore the noises due to AWGN, then
Rpilot (f ) = Spilot (f )Hpilot (f ).

(18)

Hence the frequency response of the transmission medium evaluated at the locations
of the pilots is given as
Hpilot (f ) =

Rpilot (f )
.
Spilot (f )

(19)

From Hpilot (f ), the overall frequency response H(f ) of the transmission channel
can be derived by using available techniques such as WienerHop ltering or other
complex ltering methods.
There are several possibilities of inserting pilot carriers into the spectrum of
OFDM signals as proposed in Refs. 7 and 8. Each scheme oers its strong point
depending on the transmission characteristics of the transmission channel. Thus
there is possibility for further research in the allocation of the pilots, especially
when single mode optical bers and online optical ampliers are employed in the
systems in which the nonlinear phase noises and quadratic distortion characteristics
of the bers are combined with the random noises (ASE = amplied stimulated
emission) of in-line cascaded optical ampliers.
4. OFDM Systems Design
4.1. Structures of OFDM symbols
OFDM symbol is dened as a set of subcarrier channels whose number determines
the number of the FFT and IFFT to be used. First, the data carrier is employed
for transmission. Second, the pilot carriers would be used for synchronization and
estimation of the eects of the transmission medium. Finally, the null subcarrier for
protection band and DC carrier can be added. The usefulness of the protection band
ensures the sharp roll-o of the brick-wall-like passband of the OFDM symbol.
Depending on practical systems, the number of subcarriers of each portion of the
message symbol may vary. For example, the symbol structure of Standard 802.16
can be {28 zero, 100 data, zero, 100 data, 27 zero} where the data are imbedded with
pilot at special locations of 88, 63, 38, 13, 13, 38, 63, 88. Each complex data
sequence, when imbedded into the symbol, would be indexed from 128 to +127.
4.2. Estimation of the design parameters
In order to design OFDM symbols, we need to specify the following parameters:
BW: spectral width of OFDM symbol; Nused : number of subcarriers to be used in
an OFDM symbol; n: the sampling factor, together with BW and Nused the spectral width of the carrier can be specied based on the symbol time as dened in
Eq. (3); G: ratio between CP and the symbol time; NFFT : number of FFT points
which are selected to be in the order of 2N and greater with N being an integer.
NFFT is greater than Nused ; Fs : sampling frequency, Fs = f loor(nBW/8000)8000;

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f: spectral separation between subcarriers; Tb : useful symbol time period, Tb =

1/f ; Tg : guard time interval (GI), Tg = GTb ; Ts : time interval between OFDM
symbols Ts = Tb + Tg ; sampling time: Tb /NF F T = 1/Fs ; length of the cyclic
prex: G .
When designing the system using the OFDM technique, one need to implement
the following.
First, the cyclic prex (CP) must be selected as small as possible in order to
minimize the energy loss and ensure that the transmission speed is greater than
the delay time . Secondly, the length of the OFDM symbol must be much longer
than the response time of the transmission channel given by

= BW.
(20)
NT  N 
T
Thirdly, OFDM is very sensitive to ICI so the subcarrier spacing N1T should be
considered as the best when it is greater than the frequency shift due to Doppler
eect fD so that the subcarrier orthogonality would remain satised.
1
1
BW
 fD N
=
.
(21)
NT
T fD
fD
Thus,
BW N

BW
.
fD

(22)

This is the condition to be satised to determine the number N of subcarriers.

Further we can deduce that the channel delay time fD 1, meaning that the
smaller the delay of the transmission channel , the wider the frequency band with
no change in the passband and the greater the coherent time.
4.3. Simulation and FPGA-based models
This section outlines briey the transmission system employing the OFDM technique, including the software platform and the hardware demonstration. The
detailed description of the function of each block of the system and an introduction
to the DSP Builder and DSP development are given.
4.4. OFDM communication system models
The OFDM transmission system integrating both the hardware and FPGA-based
platform is shown in Fig. 8 which consists of a randomizer/derandomizer, channel
encoder/decoder, IQ mapper/IQ demapper, symbol OFDM, signal OFDM, channel
estimation, and an equalizer.
Data used for inspection of the system generating the randomizer are stored
in some allocated memory. SingalTap of Altera FPGA interfaced via the Standard
Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) is used for the inspection and control of the
operation of the whole system. Digital signals are converted to analog form via
the DAC and then monitored using the spectrum analyzer. The system processes

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Fig. 8.

381

Hard- and software experimental platform of the OFDM digital transmission systems.

signals at the baseband level; thus the signal spectrum is evaluated on the I- and
Q-components.
4.5. Functionalities of OFDM system blocks
The principal function of a communication system is to transport information with
an assurance of the bit error rate (BER) as pre-determined. Therefore the OFDM
system consists of the following blocks:
The randomizer blocks. At the randomizer the input data initially would be split
into groups of 1s and 0s with a distribution by using XOR and a random bit
pattern generation. The bit pattern generation block would be associated with the
pseudo-random bit sequence (PRBS) generator. The eects of the randomizer are
to avoid identical bit patterns so as to avoid the diculty in recovery of signals to
its original bit sequence. The derandomizer at the receiver performs reverse process
of the randomizer.
Channel encoder. This is the most important block and plays the major part in
the coding and assists in the recovery of the decoder block with redundancy bits. In
this work the convolutional coder employed is associated with the Viterbi algorithm
to ensure perfect corrections of error. Turbo algorithm can also be employed to
further improve the performance of the decoder.
IQ mapper block. This block converts the bits into a set of bit patterns corresponding to the states of the constellation of modulation scheme. In OFDM this is
called the mapper which can be formed to further increase the bit rates and hence
the spectral eciency by higher order or level of the constellation. QPSK or M-ary
QAM can be used. In the reverse process the demapper is used to transform the
constellation points back to the bit pattern.
OFDM symbol generator block. After conversion of the bit sequence into symbol, the serial bit sequence would be converted to parallel blocks and assembled

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with pilots or DC symbol and protection symbol; these symbols form the OFDM
symbol. Each symbol represents a frequency spectrum so as to superimpose on the
subcarriers.
OFDM signal block. The OFDM symbol would then be IFFT-transformed to
generate OFDM signals. Thus OFDM signal is a combination of all the spectra
of the OFDM symbols. Afterwards the IFFT cyclic prex would be inserted at
the beginning to form the OFDM signal for transmission over the channel. These
signals are converted to the analog form via the DAC and then converted to the
wireless or optical domain depending on the transmission medium.
The transmission channel is simulated using delay and summation to represent
the delay paths of signals over a wireless medium. If optical ber is used, then the
Schr
odinger equation of the complex amplitude would be used in association with
the split step process to propagate the OFDM signals. The noises are modeled using
AWGN method.
Other blocks in the receiving ends would be formed with their operations in a
reverse order and in complement to those described for the transmitting end blocks.

4.6. DSP Builder and FPGA-based systems for OFDM

The software platform used in this work is the DSP Builder of Alterra for digital
signal processing applications. The Builder is operating in a MATLAB Simulink
environment. Available blocks in DSP Builder facilitate the development of the
communication system. Simulink blocks can also be integrated to analyze simulated
results and monitor signals at dierent sections and blocks of the model. Most
importantly, the DSP Builder can convert the design block systems into VHDL,
allowing the storage and copying of data and their integration to form the design
data for hardware implementation. Furthermore, the DSP Builder would also allow
us to conduct simulation of ltering and more complex functions by using MegaCore
Functions available in the builder.
MATLAB Simulink9 generates the model, integrating the blocks of DSP Builder
with those of the Simulink. The Register Transfer Level (RTL) expresses the simulation model and the DSP Builder supports the ModelSim by TCL scripts. Created
VDHL format model can be used by other software packages for simulation if
desired.
The les obtained from the DSP Builder Signal Compiler can be combined with
RTL. The DSP Builder supports TCL scripts for automatic integration with other
software packages such as Quartus II, Synplify, or LeonardoSpectrum. The design
platform in this work is written in the Quartus II software environment.
The DSP Development Stratix EP1S25 is used. These are the kits employed to
design applications of digital signal processing by DSP builder or HDL languages.
The kit comprises Stratix DSP Development Board, QuartusII software package,
DSP Builder, and IP core MATLAB/Simulink. Main devices are incorporated on

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the Stratix EP1S25 with the main device 25660 logic elements at the fastest speed,
packaged with FineLine BGA and a total memory of 1,944,576 bit RAM.
The development kit consists of (i) two ADC-12-bit, maximum sampling rate 125
Msamples/s, 2-complement data converter, frequency of input signals greater than
1 MHz, peak-to-peak input amplitude 2 V; (ii) two DAC-14-bit, operating speed
165 MHz, conversion to analog signals from digital form, peak-to-peak amplitude
of 1 V; 2 Mb SRAM with 7.5-ns synchronization, each SRAM with 18 address lines,
36 data bus and 1 MB 32 Mbit ash memory.
In general the library of the DSP Builder consists of a number of blocks
whose functionalities include4 : Library AltLab, Block SignalCompiler, Block
SignalTap II Analysis, Library Arithmetic, Library Board, Library Complex Type, Gate and Control, Library IO and Bus, Rate Change, Library
Storage, and Library MegaCore.
5. OFDM System Platform
This section gives the principal function of the design and associated blocks of
the OFDM system including I/O ports, randomizer, convolutional code block, and
structures of OFDM symbol. Employment of the cyclic prex is based on 802.16.
5.1. Random generation of data signals
5.1.1. Principles of generation
The logic diagram of the randomizer would consist of a shift register and two exclusive OR gates. The principles of operations of this block are briey described above.
5.1.2. Design of the pseudo-random generator
The MATLAB Simulink model of the generator is given in Fig. 9, it is integrated in
the DSP Builder. The pseudo-random binary sequence generator can be constructed
in this block using the sequence 1 + X14 + X15 . The pseudo-random sequence

Fig. 9.

Schematic diagram of the randomizer.

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can be generated from the initial sequence set 100101010000000. The input is
XORed with the output of the pseudo-random binary sequence generator. The
signals ena and rst enable the reset and rest of the pseudo-random generator. The
derandomization at the receiver can be done by passing the signals again through
the randomnizer. In this work the input is in the form of binary sequence, thus
there is no need for the conversion from the decimal form to the binary form.
5.2. Channel encoding
The encoder is shown in Fig. 10 for generation of the convolutional code with
the determined speed of 12 . The length of the encoder is seven symbols and the
polynomial used is G1 = 171OCT and G2 = 133OCT . The encoder is formed by
using six tap delays and two XOR gates with ve inputs. In CC is the input of the
encoder and out CC1 and out CC2 are the two outputs corresponding to G1 and
G2 . The signals ena and rst are for enabling and resetting the encoder.
5.3. Decoding using Viterbi algorithm
The decoder is designed using Viterbi algorithm. The algorithm consists of four
main blocks: branch metric, add compare and select, survivor path metric, traceback
and output decoding block.
The branch metric is used to estimate the Hamming distance of the bits, e.g. 2
bit if the speed of codes is R = 12 with branches. The summation block conducts
selective addition and is responsible for estimating the total Hamming distance of
the branches in the current state and it keeps only the shortest distance branch.
This block selects and determines the optimum sequence. The traceback and output
decoding block is responsible for selection, rechecking the sequence at the optimum
state and determine the output sequence which is the decoding sequence of the
algorithm.
Figure 11 shows the decoding techniques model using MegaCore so as to construct the decoder using Viterbi algorithm. The Viterbi algorithm is based on the
best suitable sequence. Therefore the determination of the length of the sequence

Fig. 10.

Encoder for generation of convolutional code.

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Fig. 11.

385

Schematic of the decoder using Viterbi algorithm on MATLAB Simulink.

inuences the eectiveness of the decoder. If the length is too long, then there would
be more numerical operations, increasing the memory storage and the delay time.
On the other hand, if the length is too short, then it limits the error correction
potential of the algorithm.
5.4. Signal constellation
5.4.1. Constellation
Constellation is the modulation technique to transform the sequence of m bit into
a complex phasor in the form of a + jb. The number of bits m depends on the
number of states of the constellation. For example, a 16-QAM has four bits per
symbol, which has 16 points on the constellation. The mapper uses the method of
modulation but the modulation function rests at the IFFT and the DAC at the
output. There are a number of methods for constructing the mapper by using the
look-up table based on data stored in ROM memory. In this work, the mapper uses
the structure of look-up tables which are classied for the I- and Q-components.
The data used for forming the constellation are stored in the look-up table. The
output values vary from 1 to +1. The output of the DAC is represented by a 14-bit
word. Thus, this work normalizes the sequence into xed point arithmetic values.
Figure 12 shows the MATLAB Simulink model of the constellation generator.
5.4.2. Reconstruction from constellation
At the receiving end, the constellation points representing the states of the OFDM
symbols at the output of the transmission medium, are accumulated. Thus the constellation demodulator must set the decision levels so as to determine the constellation points of the receiver. The demapper is constructed using Verilog language.
The decision point is based on the shortest Euclidean distance to the received signals. When QPSK modulation is used, the demapper can simply determine by

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Fig. 12.

Fig. 13.

MATLAB Simulink model for QPSK modulation.

Schematic of the modulator using 16-QAM by MATLAB Simulink.

evaluating the most signicant bit of the bit sequence received which is the sign
bit of the received sequence. For the 16-QAM multilevel modulation scheme, the
demapper is designed based on the rule of IF-THEN. The output data are fed into
the FIFO and then into the decoder. In the OFDM symbol there are 192 data values to be transmitted. Thus the FIFO needs 192 memory pair shift registers so as
to store the I- and Q-component values. Figure 13 illustrates the Simulink model
of the demapper for the 16-QAM modulation.
5.5. OFDM symbols
An OFDM symbol consists of the data payload, the pilot, and the 0 patching up
values and the inserted symbol pilots. These pilots are used to estimate the eects
of the transmission medium at the receiving end.
5.5.1. Generation of pilot signals
In order to generate the pilot, we need to use the pseudo-random generator/
randomizer. The polynomial for the PRBS is (1 + X 9 + X 11 ) as shown in Fig. 15.
The coecients of the polynomial are based on 10101010101B. The pilot signals for

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Fig. 14.

Fig. 15.

387

Demapper block.

Generation of pilot signals.

the kth OFDM symbol can be derived from the value wk . The interleaving values
can be determined as c88 = c38 = c13 = c38 = c63 = c88 = 1 2wk and c63 =
c13 = 1 2(!wk ).
The Simulink model for generating the pilots is given in Fig. 15 which consists
of a LFSR block to generate random sequence, a block for generating the location
of !wk and nally the arithmetic operator to generate (1 2wk ) or (1 2(!wk )). If
we index the symbol from 0 to 255 then the values 63 and 13 would become 65
and 115 which are the time indices for determining the location of the bit in the
OFDM symbol. The signal ena and rst are used for enabling and resetting the
circuitry. The pilot signal is the output of the block.
5.5.2. Assembly and separation of symbols
The assembly and separation of the constituents of OFDM symbols are implemented
as shown in Figs. 16 and 17, respectively.
The arrangement of the data sequence of OFDM symbols is based on Standard
IEEE 802.16 and dened as follows: {28 0s, 100 data, zero, 100 data, 27 0s} in
which the locations of the pilots are at c88 , c63 , c38 , c13 , c13 , c38 , c63 and c88 .
Verilog language is used to generate this arrangement. The inputs of assembler are
the index of the symbol, the data to be transmitted, pilot and zeros for patching and

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Fig. 16.

Generation of OFDM symbols by combining of constituents.

Fig. 17.

Separation of constituents of OFDM signals.

data for the I- and Q-components as shown in Fig. 16. The output of this assembler
is IFFT-transformed to generate OFDM signals with control timing signals as shown
in Figs. 17 and 18. The disassembling of the OFDM signals at the receiving end
can be implemented with the input to the FFT block. The data information is then
fed into the equalizer as shown in the separator of Fig. 19.

Fig. 18.

OFDM generator.

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Fig. 19.

389

Schematic of the Separator of OFDM signals.

5.6. Transmission medium and evaluation of OFDM signals

5.6.1. Transmission medium models
The AWGN transmission channel is structured in a software platform and stored
in memory. The output signals with cyclic prex inserted would be superimposed
with noises (Figs. 20 and 21).
5.6.2. Equalizer
The equalization block is shown in Fig. 22. The estimation of transmission medium
from the pilots is received for setting of the coecients of the equalizer, which are
updated from time to time.

Fig. 20.

Generation block for cyclic prex insertion.

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Fig. 21.

Fig. 22.

Noise generation and superposition.

Estimator for transmission channel and equalization.

5.6.3. Error analyzer

The error analyzer is shown in Fig. 23. It is used to estimate the bit error rate
(BER) of the decoded data sequence as compared to the original data sequence at
the transmitting end.
5.6.4. Control signals
The monitoring of the performance of the hardware system is incorporated in a
look-up table. Our OFDM signals carry 256 subcarriers in which 55 values at the

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Fig. 23.

Fig. 24.

391

BER counter and analyzer.

Generation of control signals.

beginning and at the end of the symbol are patched up with zeroes. Thus, with eight
pilots used, the total number of bits for data payload would be 192. Convolution
code is used with a factor of 12 . Figure 24 shows the structure of the block for control
signals generation.
5.7. Hardware implementation
The schematic of an OFDM system developed in this work is shown in Fig. 25.
Similar shaded blocks are used to indicate the block and its counterparts at
the transmitting and receiving ends respectively. The functions of each block are
described in the previous section. The functions of the blocks of this diagram are
listed in Table 1.
6. Simulation and Experimental Platform
The OFDM signals are monitored by the software platform SignalTap which is
integrated in the hardware system, in particular the FPGA-based section. The
results obtained are then displayed on a desktop computer. SignalTap also updates
signals in real time. The development board is also updated via software platform
board using JTAG standard. In order to study the functions and performances
of each block of the system as described above, we monitored and accumulated

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Fig. 25.

Schematics of OFDM systems as constructed on DSP Builder.

data at the inputs and outputs of each block.11,12 Delay adjustments are made to
compensate for the data accumulation. This section thus presents the experimental
results obtained including the monitoring of the spectra of OFDK system via an
external spectrum analyzer.
6.1. Randomizer
The data passing by the randomizer twice would give the same sequence at the
input. Once randomized, the data are indexed with 1 or 0 which appear continuously. Figure 26 depicts the waveforms of the data sequence at the input and
output of the randomizer after one and two passing. This conrms the working
principles of the randomizer as described above.
6.2. Encoder
The input randomized data sequence would be encoded using convolutional code
principles with a coding speed of 12 . After coding, noises are superimposed by a
bit-complementary transmission channel. At this stage the probability of error is
1
4 with an error sequence of 01000100. After this the Viterbi algorithm is used
to decode the encoded data sequence; the decoded sequence must be the same as
the original data sequence. Figure 27 shows the performance of the encoder with
the input data sequence, its output after the encoder, and then the output of the
decoder which is identical with its original image. Thus this conrms the working
of the encoder developed using FPGA-based processor. The coding speed of 12
means that for each bit entering the encoder, there would be two bits following the
pattern g1 and g2 which are represented as a pair of bits (g1 g2 ) where g1 is the most

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Table 1.
Blocks

Description of blocks of the OFDM systems (Fig. 25).

Functions

Data lines
Names

Sink

393

Generating data for

transmission and
control signals

index out
rd data

Functions

Ena
data out

Indexing of symbol
Reading data after constellation at the
FIFO
Enabling data output
Output data

Randomizer

Randomization of
data sequence

ena
in ran
rst

Enabling processing
Data to be randominzed input
Reset

Channel
Encoder

Encoding

ena
in cc
rst
out cc1
out cc2

Enabling processing
Data to be encoded input
Reset
Output g1 = 171oct
Output g2 = 133oct

Mapper

Mapping to
constellation
points

rd data
wr data
in map

out mapQ

Retrieve data from FIFO memory

Writing data to FIFO memory
Data input to be mapped to constellation
points
Erase FIFO memory
In phase output of mapper points states
of constellation
Quadrature phase output

sclr
out mapI

Assembling
Symbol
OFDM

Generating OFDM
symbol by
assembling data
and inserting pilot
and zero patching

index
in dataI
in dataQ
out I
out Q

Symbol index
Inphase input
Quadrature phase input
Inphase output
Quadrature phase output

Signal
OFDM

Generating OFDM
signals by IFFT

index in
in real
in imag
out real
out imag
out sop
out rst

Symbol index
Real input
Imaginary input
Real output
Imaginary output
Start of fame at output
Reset output for new symbol

Cyclic Prex

Insert cyclic prex

in real
in imag
sclr
out real
out imag

Real input
Imaginary input
Erase index of data at output
Output real
Output imaginary

Remove
Cyclic
Prex

Removing cyclic
prex

in real
in imag
out real
out imag
sop rx

Input real
Input imaginary
Output real
Output imaginary
Start frame at receiving end after
removing CP
End of frame at receiving end

eop rx

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Table 1.
Blocks

(Continued )

Functions

Data lines
Names

Functions

Signal
OFDM

Decomposition of
OFDM signals by
FFT

in realrx
in imagrx
in sop
In eop
out realrx
out imagrx
sop rx

Input real
Input imaginary
Start of receiving frame
End of receiving frame
Output real
Output imaginary
Start of frame output

Disassembling
Symbol
OFDM

Decomposition of
OFDM signals to
collect data, pilot

in realrx
in imagrx
sop rx
data I
data Q
pilot I
pilot Q
wr data
index

Inphase input
Quadrature phase input
Start of output fram
Inphase output
QUadrature phase output
Inphase pilot output
Quadrature phase pilot output
Writing into FIFO memory
Index of received data

Equalizer

Estimation of
transmission channel
characteristics

data I
data Q
pilot I
pilot Q
rx I
rx Q

Inphase input data

Quadrature input data
Pilot inphase input
Quadrature pilot input
Inphase output
Quadrature phase output

Demapper

Conversion of
constellation points
to data sequence

rx I
rx Q
wr data
rd data
data out

Inphase input data

Quadrature phase input data
Writing into FIFO memory
Reading data from FIFO
Data output after mapping to
constellation

Channel
Decoder

Decoding using
Viterbi algorithm

in dec
sink val
out dec
out ena

Input data to be decoded

Enabling decoding
Output of decoder
Enable output of decoder

Derandomizer

Decoding by
de-randomization

in ran
ena
out ran

Input data to be decoded

Enabling randomnization
Randomnized Data

signicant bit and g2 is the least signicant bit. The clock period of the decoder
is four times longer than the recovery temporal length. Thus for a recovery length
of 42, the length of the decoder is 7, and a delay time of the decoder is 168 clock
intervals. This would allow us to set the delay time for comparison between the
input encoded data sequence and that of the output of the decoder. The sequence
waveforms in Fig. 27 can then be conrmed to demonstrate the working of the
encoder and decoder. Note that for every four bits transmitted, there would be one
error bit and this error bit is corrected by the Viterbi algorithm.

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(a)

395

(b)

(c)
Fig. 26. Experimental observation of the randomizer. (a) Original data sequence. (b) Randomized
data sequence. (c) De-randomized data sequence.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 27. Experimental signals obtained at the encoder. (a) Original data sequence. (b) Encoded
data sequence. (c) Encoded data with added noises. (d) Decoded data sequence.

6.3. Signal processing at the transmitter

The data sequence at the output of the transmitting end is formed by the randomizer. It is fed into the input of the encoder, the mapper for mapping to the constellation points, assembling into OFDM symbol and cyclic prex. Furthermore, the
output of DAC is a unipolar signal; thus addition of DC component and conversion
to bipolar is required. Each OFDM symbol is transmitted within 320 clock periods;
hence the obtained waveforms are presented in 320 clock periods.
6.3.1. Encoder
Because the randomized data sequence consists of 192 binary bits, in order to ensure
the right error correction of the 7-bit-long error encoder, we need to path a 0 at
the end of the bit sequence.

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(a)

(b)

(c)
Fig. 28. Data input to the mapper and after the mapper for mapping to the constellation for
QPSK modulation. (a) Input data sequence to the mapper. (b) Inphase component sequence at
the output of the mapper. (c) Quadrature phase component sequence at the output of the mapper.

6.3.2. Constellation transformer

The encoded data sequence would then be transformed to the states of the constellation using the mapper. With the convolutional encoding of 12 , the output of the
encoder is a 2-bit pair, or two bits per symbol state, which is equivalent to one state
of QPSK. Figure 28 shows the experimental waveform monitored at the output of
the encoder, consistent with the constellation mapper. The results obtained for the
I- and Q-components with xed points are consistent.
6.3.3. Forming OFDM symbols
Figure 29 shows the observed waveforms of the block performing the assembling of
data and pilot and zero patching for OFDM symbol, which consists of 256 points

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 29. Structure of an OFDM symbol. (a) Rearranged data in the I-component to bypass pilot
location. (b) Q-component. (c) Final OFDM symbol in I-axis. (d) Final OFDM symbol in Q-axis.

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with a structure of {28 0s, zero, 100 data bits, zero, 100 data bits, 27 0s}. In
this structure, the data-bit sequence consists of eight pilots at the locations of c88 ,
c63 , c38 , c13 , c13 , c38 , c63 and c88 . These pilots are not standardized. Thus,
they would have values greater than the data bits. The input data sequence would
bypass the locations of these pilots and the inserted pilot. The output of the OFDM
symbol block is consistent with its symbol structure.
6.3.4. Generation of OFDM signals
After forming the OFDM symbol, the IFFT would be used to form OFDM signals
(Fig. 30). Both I- and Q-data sequences are fed into the real and imaginary inputs
of the IFFT block. Thus the output of the IFFT is a complex sequence and we may
observe the PAPR eects of the waveform at this output as described in the section
above.
6.3.5. Insertion of cyclic prefix
Figure 31 shows the waveform after insertion of cyclic prex. The length of the
cyclic is 14 . The cyclic is inserted at the beginning of OFDM signals. The data at

(a)
Fig. 30.

(b)
OFDM signals. (a) I-component. (b) Q-component.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 31. Transmitted signals before and after adding cyclic prex after 192 clock period delay.
(a) I-component without cyclic prex. (b) Q-component without cyclic prex. (c) I-component
with cyclic prex. (d) Q-component with cyclic prex.

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(a)
Fig. 32.

(b)

Combined OFDM signals. (a) I-component signal. (b) Q-component signal.

(a)

(b)

(c)
Fig. 33. Transmitted signals after AWGN channel. (a) Random noises generated by the randomizer. Superimposed signals and noises of (b) the I-component, and (c) the Q-component.

the end would be copied to the beginning so as to form a signal with 320 intervals
in the time domain. These signals are then passed through the DAC to give the
baseband OFDM signals. The output of the DAC is unipolar 14 bit thus the IFFT
would be set up so that there is unipolar waveform at the output of the IFFT. The
DC component would be added with an appropriate value of 8192. Figure 32 shows
the waveform after this superposition.
6.3.6. Transmitted signals
The signals at the transmitter would be added with noises which have a natural probability density distribution to mimic the AWGN channel noises that are
normally presented in wireless transmission medium or polarization dispersion and
optically amplied ber cascaded spans. Figure 33 shows the transmitted signals
after superimposing noises to give a SNR of 20 dB. Naturally when the signals pass
through the medium, errors would occur. However, the decoder can perform error
correction.
6.4. Processing of signals at the receiving ends
The rst block at the receiving end of the OFDM system has the responsibility
of removing the cyclic prex. In this work the removal is done by controlling the

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start of sop and nish of the frame eop. These two signal indicators indicate
the FFT to receive only 256 values of the OFDM signal frame. The output of the
FFT would then be fed to the blocks responsible for disassembling the OFDM
symbols, demapping the constellation points, decoding and error correction and
derandomization. At the same time the output of the receiving end block would be
compared with the data sequence at the transmitting end and error counting would
be performed to obtain the BER of the system.
6.4.1. FFT transform to recover OFDM symbol
OFDM signals are passed through the FFT so as to receive the data sequence as
shown in Fig. 34. Due to superimposition of the noises on the signal, correction is
implemented at the decoder using the Viterbi algorithm.
6.4.2. Disassembling OFDM symbol block
The OFDM signals are then disassembled into data, pilot and eliminated zero patching sections. The pilot parts would be used to estimate the distortion eects of the
transmission channel and then used for the equalizer of the receiving end section.
Figure 35 shows the waveforms obtained at the transmitting and receiving ends at
the assembling block and disassembling block.
6.4.3. Constellation and encoder
The output of the disassembling block would be fed into the constellation mapper.
The output would be a pair of bits for QPSK modulation states on the constellation.
With the errors accumulated, the Viterbi algorithm associated with the decoder can
correct without much diculty, as proven in our experimental system.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 34. Data waveforms after FFT. (a) I-channel waveform of OFDM symbol at the transmitting
end. (b) Q-channel waveform at the transmitting end. (c) I-component of OFDM signals at the
receiving end. (d) Q-component of the OFDM signals at the receiving end.

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(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 35. Comparison of OFDM symbol at the transmitting and receiving ends. (a) I-component
data sequence of one symbol at the transmitting end. (b) Q-component data sequence of one
symbol at the transmitting end. (c) I-component data sequence of one symbol at the receiving
end. (d) Q-component data sequence of one symbol at the receiving end.

6.5. System performance

6.5.1. System parameters and resources used
The speed of the operating system is set at 100 MHz for the complete OFDM
system. The number of FFT points is 256 with a cyclic prex of 14 . Thus there
would be 320 value levels of the signal and 320 clock pulses for transmitting one
symbol OFDM. In the 256 values to be set at the IFFT, there are 192 useful data
locations. The system employs the convolutional code of Hamming distance of 12 and
QPSK modulation scheme with 2 bits/state. Thus the useful speed of the system
is 60 Mb/s.
FPGA is used for the design of systems and facilitates the setting of the operating condition of the system, as well as interfaces to various sections of the board for
the transmitting and receiving ends. The details of the FPGA are listed in Table 2.
The number of logic elements is 17,389 with a total LAB of 2020. Thus with the
potential of the DSP Development Kit and Devices Stratix EP1S25, we can design

Table 2.

Resources of the development systems.

STT

Resources

Use

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Total logic elements

Total registers
Total LABs
I/O pins
M512s
M4Ks
Total memory bits
Total RAM block bits

17,389/25,660 (68%)
14,900/29,168 (51%)
2020/2566 (79%)
54/598 (9%)
19/224 (8%)
136/138 (99%)
460,520/1,944,576 (24%)
637,632/1,944,576 (33%)

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and implement OFDM communication system or any other digital communication

systems with equivalent complexity.

6.5.2. Spectra of OFDM signals

The wireless transmission channel can be modeled as a set of delay paths and
interference of signals. For optical guided wave channel, the distortion eects are
mainly due to chromatic and polarization dispersion eects, as well as nonlinear
self phase modulation eects. One must address the fact that such models are
applicable to passband communication systems. For example, in the case of optical
communication systems, the lightwave frequency is very high in the tera-Hz range
and it is very dicult for the digital computing systems to operate if we include and
sample the data at this speed. Indeed it must be a few ten-times higher than the
center frequency of the carrier. Thus the common complex amplitude signals are
used to represent the envelope of the signals. The phase of the carrier is included
as the complex part of the amplitude. The signals are observed at the output of
the DAC.
The spectra of OFDM signals generated by MATLAB Simulink section under
noiseless and noisy conditions are shown in Figs. 36 and 37 respectively. The monitored OFDM spectra at the output of the digital to analog converter of the FPGA
board are shown in Fig. 38, at the receiver output that indicates the agreement
of the analysis and simulation. There are some deviations of the spectra, possibly due to electromagnetic interference. The modulation is QPSK with the I- and
Q-channels monitored. Implementation of M-ary PSK would also be possible without much diculty. The frequency scale in Fig. 37 is normalized to 80 MHz; the
bandwidth of the OFDM system is 64 MHz which agrees well with the experimental
spectrum in Fig. 38. It is noted that the MATLAB observation point is at the position where no cyclic prex has been added. Clearly the spectrum indicates the true
representation of the composite data signal waveforms. The roll-o of the spectrum
observed in this experiment (Fig. 38) is due to the roll-o characteristics of the

(a)

(b)

Fig. 36. Spectra of noiseless OFDM signals as obtained on MATLAB Simulink. (a) I-component.
(b) Q-component. Normalized frequency.

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Fig. 37. Nonnormalized spectrum of OFDM signals superimposed with noises as observed on
MATLAB Simulink platform. Note that no cyclic prex is included at this observation.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 38. Spectra of received signals as observed at the output of the DAC on a spectrum analyzer.
(a) I-channel at 8.7 dB/div. (b) Q-channel at 8.7 dB/div.

low-pass ltering of the DAC subsystem at the transmitting side. This could be
corrected without much diculty.
7. Concluding Remarks and Further Research
In this paper, we have demonstrated an OFDM communication platform using
both MATLAB Simulink and software development facilities of an FPGA-based
development hardware to prove the principles and performances of systematic
blocks of the system for generation of OFDM symbols, encoding, and mapping

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to QPSK symbols with the possibility of upgrading to 16-QAM models of transmission medium. The use of pilots has enabled the estimation of the transmission
medium characteristics and hence their employment in the equalizer at the receiver.
The waveforms are monitored at the transmitting end blocks and at the receiving
end so as to conrm the working principles of the design of various blocks of the
OFDM communication systems.
The models presented in this paper will be modied and integrated into a
MATLAB development platform for simulation of OFDM signals transmission
through optically amplied multi-span optical ber communication systems.13 This
will be used to study various OFDM signaling techniques to combat impairment
and associated mitigation technqiues for ultra-long transmission without using dispersion compensating modules and associated optical ampliers. These works will
be reported in the future.
Furthermore, the developed system reported here would be expanded to include
all kinds of wireless transmission media and channel estimation for broadband
wireless access for the 4G wireless communication networks with the bit rate reaching 1 Gb/s and above.
For long-haul optical amplifed ber transmission systems, we identify the following issues/problems for further research:
Techniques for the reduction of the peak to average values of OFDM signals in
order not to drive the optical modulator into the nonlinear region, especially when
an optical interferometric modulator is used. Optical phase modulator may be
used in association with clamping of the peak amplitude. The error contribution
to the signal recovery due to this clamping will be studied and investigated by
simulation.
The model developed in this paper will be integrated with a MATLAB Simulink
platform for multi-span optically amplied ber transmission to study these
eects and the mitigation techniques to reduce the impairment.
Under long-haul multi-span transmission, OFDM will suer the eects of linear chromatic dispersion and polarization mode dispersion, and nonlinear eects
such as self-phase modulation, cross-phase modulation and four-wave mixing.
However, we believe that the self-phase modulation eects will aect the I- and
Q-components of the passband OFDM signals and the cross-phase modulation
eects will create interchannel interference eects in the frequency domain of
adjacent optical channels (i.e. at dierent wavelengths of systems employing dense
wavelength division multiplexing).
Mitigation techniques will be employed to overcome the distortion eects identied above such as equalization of OFDM, especially the equalization in the
frequency domain.
A parallel bank of these FPGA-based processors will be structured to form
extremely wideband signals for modulating an IQ optical modulator for
long-haul optical transmission, metropolitan or access optical Internet operating with multi-Gb/s bit rates.

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