International Conference on Electrical, Electronics, and Optimization Techniques (ICEEOT) - 2016
Evaluation of BER for AWGN, Rayleigh Fading
Channels under M-QAM Modulation Scheme
M.Raju1
1 2
Ph.D Research Scholar, Kakatiya University,
Warangal, Telangana, INDIA
1 2
m.raju2002@gmail.com
ABSTRACT-The concert of wireless communication systems
depends on wireless channel environment. By properly analyzing
the wireless channels, we can develop an efficient wireless
communication system. M-QAM modulation schemes are
preferred because in this scheme more than one bit can be
grouped and transmit at a time, which is very effective for
band limited channels. M-QAM (M-Quadrature Amplitude
Modulation) is the most effective digital modulation
technique as it is more power efficient for larger values of M.
In this paper, we analyze OFDM system inimitability in AWGN
(additive White Gaussian Noise) and Rayleigh fading channel
using M-QAM modulation schemes. Rayleigh fading channel is
describe by Clarke and Gans model. The performance measured in
terms of bit error rate (BER) is evaluated for M = 4, 8 and 16
modulation schemes of M-QAM numerically and verified our
analytical results by computer simulation. It has been
demonstrated that the BER increases as the modulation order
increases.
Key Terms: OFDM, M-QAM, AWGN, Rayleigh fading channel,
BER, SNR.
I. INTRODUCTION
In wireless and mobile communication system,
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) plays
vital role, because it can tolerate the severe effects of different
fading channel environment. OFDM has a number of
applications together with Digital Video Broadcasting [1].
OFDM can be seen as either a modulation technique or a
multiplexing technique allows high speeds at wireless
communications; its hierarchy corresponds to the physical and
medium access layer. Designing high performance wireless
communication system basically depends on the effect of
channel environment. Channel estimation is a method of
characterizing the effect of the physical medium on the input
data stream. For wireless communication, OFDM is excellent
multi-carrier scheme due to its essence of strong resistance to
interference and more spectral efficiency, high data rate
transmission. Channel estimation technologies are implemented
in order to estimate the effect of propagation delay and channel
synchronization [2].
978-1-4673-9939-5/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
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K.Ashoka Reddy2
Professor, ECE Department, KITS, Warangal,
Telangana, INDIA
reddy.ashok@yahoo.com
Estimation of Channel can be classified into two
categories: blind channel estimation and pilot-aided channel
estimation. The channel estimation advances are described with
all pilot-aided, for pilot-aided channel estimation are more
applicable in fast-fading frequency selective radio transmission
channel [3], [4]. The spectra of subcarriers coincide each other
but each subcarrier can be extracted by baseband processing.
This overlapping property makes OFDM more spectral efficient
than the conventional multicarrier communication design.
The Rayleigh fading is caused by multipath reception.
Rayleigh fading is a statistical model for the effect of a
propagation atmosphere on a radio signal. It is a practical model
for troposphere and ionospheres signal propagation as well as
the effect of urban environments on radio signals. Rayleigh
fading is most applicable when there is no line of sight (LOS)
between the transmitter and receiver.
A. Multipath Propagation
In wireless telecommunications, multipath is the
transmission phenomenon that results in radio signals reaching
the receiving antenna by two or more paths. Reasons for
multipath incorporate environmental ducting, ionosphere
reflection and refraction, and reflection from water bodies and
physical protests i.e., mountains and structures. The impacts of
multipath include constructive and destructive interference and
phase shifting of the signal. In digital radio communications,
multipath propagation can affect the quality of communications.
By including the impact of development of either transmitter or
receiver or the Surrounding disorder.
The major paths result in the arrival of delayed
variations of the signal at the receiver. In addition, the radio
signal undergoes scattering on a local scale for every major path.
Such local scattering is typically characterized by a large amount
of reflections by objects near the mobile. These irresolvable
elements combine at the receiver and give rise to the
phenomenon recognized as multipath fading. Due to this
phenomenon, each major path behaves as a discrete fading path.
Typically, the fading method is characterized by a Rayleigh
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distribution for a nonline-of-sight path and a Rician distribution
for a line-of-sight path [5], [6].
B. Fading
Fading means speedy fluctuations of the amplitudes,
phases, or multipath delays of a radio signal over a brief period
or short travel separation.
Small scale fading represent the rapid fluctuations of
received power level due to small, sub-wavelength changes in
receiver position. Fading is a random process, deep fades have a
tendency to occur approximately every half a wavelength of
motion. This effect is due to the constructive and destructive
interference of the numerous multipath waves that impinge upon
a wireless receiver. The resulting signal strength fluctuations
affect in every aspect of receiver design, dynamic range,
equalization, diversity, modulation scheme and channel and
error-correction coding. These fluctuations are the function of
path travel as related to the angle of arrival of multipath delay.
The virtual motion between the transmitter and receiver
causes Doppler shifts. Local scattering typically comes from
various angles around the mobile. This scenario causes a range
of Doppler shifts, known as the Doppler spectrum. The
maximum Doppler shift be in contact to the local scattering
components whose direction exactly opposes the mobile's
trajectory [7].
In the case of multiple main reflected paths, a single
instance of the Multipath Rayleigh Fading Channel block can
model all of them at the same time. The number of paths that the
block uses is the length of either the Delay vector or the Gain
vector parameter, either length is larger. (If both of these
parameters are vectors, they must have the same length; if
precisely one of these parameters is a scalar, the block expands
it into a vector whose size is equal that of the other vector
parameter.)
Global System for Mobile Communication systems
(GSM) , prefer to specify Doppler shifts in terms of the velocity
of the mobile. If the mobile moves at speed v make an angle of ș
with the direction of wave motion, then the Doppler shift is
§v f ·
fd = ¨ ¸ cos θ
© c ¹
where f is the transmission carrier frequency and c is the
speed of light. The Doppler frequency represents the highest
Doppler shift arising from motion of the mobile.
C. Rayleigh Fading Channel
Rayleigh fading channel is useful model of real-world
phenomena in wireless communications. These phenomena
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include multipath scattering effects, time dispersion, and
Doppler shifts that arise from relative motion between the
transmitter and receiver.
When the waves of multipath signals are out of phase, a
reduction of the signal strength at the receiver can occur. This
may result in deep fading. The basic model of Rayleigh fading
assumes a received multipath signal to exist of a large number of
reflected waves with independent and identically distributed in-
phase and quadrature amplitudes [8], [9]. This has played a
major role in mobile communication propagation.
D. QAM Modulator & Demodulator
The QAM modulator and demodulator block diagram
shown in Fig.1. The QAM modulator has two carrier signals
with a phase shift of 90° between them. These are amplitude
modulated with the two data streams known as the I or In-phase
and the Q or quadrature data streams. These are reproduce in the
baseband processing area. The two resultant signals are
summed and then processed as necessary in the RF signal chain,
typically converting them in frequency to the required final
frequency and amplifying them as required.
Fig. 1. QAM modulator and demodulator
For example, In 16-QAM, there are four I values and
four Q values. This results in a total of 16 possible states for the
signal. It can change from any state to any other state at every
symbol time. Since 16 = 24, four bits per symbol can be sent.
This confits of two bits for I and two bits for Q. The symbol rate
is one fourth of the bit rate. So this modulation format result a
more spectrally efficient transmission.
(1)
In QAM demodulator, the received signal is split into
real and imaginary signals. One half has the in-phase local
oscillator adjusted and the another half has the quadrature
oscillator signal applied [10].
QAM Modulation techniques have three optimistic
properties:
(i) Good Bit Error Rate Performance: Modulation schemes
should attain low bit error rate in the occurrence of fading,
Doppler spread, interference and thermal noise.
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 L is the number of taps, Įl is the lth complex path gain and IJl is
(ii) Power Efficiency: Power limitation is one of the vital
the path delay. And i[n] is the external interference and v[n] is
design challenges in portable and mobile applications.
the AWGN sample with zero mean.
Nonlinear amplifiers are frequently used to increase power
efficiency. still, nonlinearity may degrade the bit error rate
performance of some modulation schemes. Unvarying
envelope modulation techniques are used to avoid the
regrowth of spectral side lobes throughout nonlinear
amplification.
(iii) Spectral Efficiency: The modulated signals power spectral
density is must have a narrow main lobe and fast roll-off
of side lobes. Spectral efficiency is calculated in units of
bit /sec/Hz.

The rest of the paper organized is as follows. Section II

provides the OFDM system model. Channel Estimation in
OFDM is detailed in Section III. In Section IV, Simulation
results of AWGN and Rayleigh Fading channels by using M-
QAM modulation Schemes and followed by conclusion in
Section V.
II. SYSTEM MODEL
The typical block diagram of the baseband OFDM
system is shown in Fig. 2. The input data stream is modulated by
M-QAM modulation. Next the complex symbol stream passed
through a serial-to-parallel conversion. The output of S/P is a set
of N parallel modulated symbols correspond to each of the
subcarrier. These are the discrete frequency components of
OFDM modulator. This output is converted into time samples by
using IFFT algorithm, which consist sequence of OFDM
symbols of length N.
N −1
1
x[n] = ¦ X [i]e j 2π ni / N , 0 ≤ n ≤ N −1
N i =0
This equation corresponds to samples of the
multicarrier signal. Next the cyclic prefix is added to OFDM
symbol and are ordered by parallel-to-serial converter i.e x[ n] .
The transmitted signal is filtered by the channel
impulse response and corrupted by additive noise, then the
received signal is
~ nature of the expected envelope of a flat fading signal or the
y[n] = x[n] * h[ n] + v [n] + i[n]
The channel between transmitter and receiver is
modeled as multi-tap channel, then the impulse response of the
channel is
L −1
h(t , τ ) = ¦ α l (t )δ (τ − τ l )
l =0
Fig. 2. System model
The pilot symbols are inserted in the modulated data
sequence using pilot duration of 4 symbols and RMS a new data
sequence 'A'. After the pilot insertion data sequence 'A' is
converted into a time domain sequence using 32-point IFFT and
4 symbols CP is added, the resultant sequence is ‘at’. The guard
interval or the length of the CP is longer than the maximum
delay spread of the channel. The sequence ‘at’ is transmitted
over a channel. AWGN is added to the received signal. The CP
is removed in the noise corrupted received signal which is then
subject to FFT. Now, since the transmitted pilots and received
pilots are known, the CSI is estimated [11].
III. CHANNEL ESTIMATION
(2) A. Rayleigh Fading Channel
For Rayleigh fading channel, there exist a large number
of multipath components, each with random amplitude and
phase. According to central limit theorem, the real and
imaginary components of the complex envelope comply with
~
Gaussian distribution. Suppose x and y denoted real and
imaginary components respectively.
The Rayleigh distribution is commonly used in the
mobile radio channels to describe the statistical time varying
(3) envelope of an individual multipath component. It is well
recognized that the envelope of the sum of two quadrature
Gaussian noise signals obeys a Rayleigh distribution. Rayleigh
distributed signal envelope as a function of time.
The Rayleigh distribution has a probability density
(4) function (PDF) given by

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 ­° r § r2 · where PT is the average total power received in a local area
p(r ) = ® 2 exp¨ − ¸ (0 ≤ r ≤ ∞ ) (units of volts-squared)
°̄σ ¨ 2σ 2 ¸ (5)
© ¹
otherwise 0 for ( r  0) B. Simulation and Generation of Rayleigh Fading Envelope by
using Clarke and Gans model
where ı is the rms value of the received voltage signal before
A simulation method uses the concept of in-phase and
envelope detection and σ 2 = E02 / 2 is the time-average power of
quadrature modulation paths to produce a simulated signal as
the received signal before envelope detection. The envelope of
the received signal does not exceed a specified value of R and its E z (t ) = Tc (t ) cos(2πf c t ) − Ts (t ) sin( 2πf c t ) (11)
resultant cumulative distribution function (CDF) is
Where
R N
§ R2 ·
P (R ) = Pr (r ≤ R ) = ³ p (r ) dr = 1 − exp¨ −
¨ 2σ 2
¸
¸
(6) Tc (t ) = E 0 ¦C n cos(2πf n t + φ n ) (12)
0 © ¹ n =1
and
The mean value rmean of the Rayleigh distribution is
N
given by
∞
Ts (t ) = E 0 ¦C n sin(2πf c t + φ n ) (13)
π n =1
rmean = E [r ] = r p ( r ) dr = σ
³ = 1.2533σ (7) Both Tc(t) and Ts(t) are Gaussian random processes
2
0 which are denoted as Tc and Ts respectively, at any time t. Tc
and the variance of the Rayleigh distribution is given by ır2, and Ts are uncorrelated zero-mean Gaussian random variables
which represents the ac power in the signal envelope with an equal variance given by
2
σ 2π Tc2 = Ts2 = E z = E 02 2 (14)
³
σ r2 = E[r 2 ] − E 2 [r ] = r 2 p (r ) dr −
2 where the overbar denotes the ensemble average.
(8)
π· The envelope of the received E-field, Ez(t) is given by
§
σ r2 = σ 2 ¨ 2 − ¸ = 0.4292 σ
2
© 2¹
E z (t ) = Tc2 (t ) + Ts2 (t ) = r (t ) (15)
The rms value of the envelope is the square root of the
mean square, or 2 ı, where ı is the standard deviation of the In-phase and quadrature fading branches are produced
original complex Gaussian signal prior to envelope detection. by two independent Gaussian low pass noise sources. Each
Gaussian source may be produced by summing two independent
The median value of r is found by solving Gaussian random variables which are orthogonal (i.e., g = a +
jb, where a and b are real Gaussian random variables and g
median
1 is complex Gaussian). By using the spectral filter to form the
2
= ³ p(r ) dr
0
random signals in the frequency domain, precise time domain
waveforms of Doppler fading can be produced by using an
and is (9) inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) at the last stage of the
rmedian = 1.177σ simulator.
The power spectral density S(f) can be expressed as
Thus the mean and the median vary by only 0.55 dB in A[ p(α )G (α ) + p(−α )G (−α )]
S( f ) = (16)
a Rayleigh fading signal. By using median values instead of 2
mean values, it is easy to evaluate different fading distributions, § f − fc ·
fm 1 − ¨¨ ¸
which may vary with different means. ¸
© fm ¹
The Rayleigh fading signal is one whose envelope R where S ( f ) = 0, f − fc > fm (17)
follow a Rayleigh PDF, pR(r) can be expressed as
The spectrum is close on the carrier frequency and is
2 § −r2 · zero outer the limits of fc ± fm. Each of the arriving waves has its
p R (r ) = r exp¨ ¸, r≥0 (10) own carrier frequency (suitable to its direction of arrival) which
PT ¨ P ¸
© T ¹ is slightly offset from the center frequency.

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 For the case of a vertical Ȝ/4 antenna G(Į) = 1.5 number of channels. Both M and N can be equal to 1. The block
and a uniform distribution p(Į) = 1/2ʌ over 0 to 2ʌ, the output sum frames of length-M Gaussian noise to each of the N
of the spectrum is given as channels, using a distinct random distribution per channel.
1.5 Changing the symbol period in the AWGN Channel block
S Ez ( f ) = (18) affects the variance of the noise is added per sample, which also
2
§ f − fc · causes a change in the final error rate.
π fm 1 − ¨¨ ¸
¸
© fm ¹ If you give complex input signals to the AWGN
Channel block, then it adds complex zero-mean Gaussian noise
The power spectral density at f = fc ± fm is infinite, i,e,, with the calculated or specified variance. The variance of the
Doppler components arriving at exactly 00 and 1800 have an quadrature components of the complex noise is half of the
infinite power spectral density. calculated or specified value.

IV. SIMULATION RESULTS

After the envelope determination of the Doppler
shifted signal, the resulting baseband spectrum has a maximum In the simulation, we have been calculated BER for
frequency of 2fm. The baseband power spectral density given by different SNR's, finally we analyzed the performance of AWGN
channel and Rayleigh fading channel.
ª 2 º
1 § f · »
S bbE z ( f ) = K « 1 − ¨¨ ¸
¸ » (19) In this simulation, the error performance of 4QAM-
8π f m « OFDM, 4QAM-OFDM and 16QAM-OFDM is studied the
© 2 fm ¹ »
¬« ¼ AWGN and Rayleigh fading channel using Matlab software.

where K [*] is the complete elliptical integral of the first kind. The Bit Error Rate (BER) performance against signal to
The spectral character of the Doppler spread determines the time noise ratio (Eb/No) of 4QAM-OFDM, 8QAM-OFDM and
domain fading waveform and dictates the temporal correlation 16QAM-OFDM in both AWGN channel and Rayleigh fading
and fade slope behaviors. Rayleigh fading simulators must use a channel has been shown in figure 4 and 5 respectively. The
fading spectrum in order to produce realistic fading waveforms BER decreases sharply with the increase in the signal to noise
that have proper time correlation. ratio in both AWGN channel & Rayleigh fading channel but the
bit error rate in Rayleigh fading channel is higher than normal
C. AWGN Channel AWGN channel.
BER vs SNR in AWGN Channel
The AWGN Channel block sum white Gaussian noise 0
10
to a real or complex input signal. When the input signal is real, 16-QAM
this block sum real Gaussian noise and produces a real output 8-QAM
4-QAM
signal. When the input signal is complex, this block sums -1
10
complex Gaussian noise and produces a complex output signal.
This block inherits its sample time from the input signal.
--> BER

-2
10

Transmitted Received Signal

Signal Sm(t) r(t) =Sm(t) + n(t)
-3
10

-4
10
0 5 10 15 20
Noise n(t) --> SNR(dB)

Fig. 3. AWGN channel model Fig.4. BER vs SNR in AWGN Channel

Sm(t) is the transmitted signal and n(t) is the zero mean white
Gaussian noise with power spectral density of N0/2.
This AWGN block can process multichannel signals.
When you locate the input processing parameter to Columns as
channels (frame based), the block inputs are M by N. M
specifies the number of samples per channel and N specifies the
It is observed that, the value of M i.e., the number of
bits in a symbol increases i.e., from 4 to 16, the error rate also
increases. The same effect can be seen when the different
modulated signals are pass through the Rayleigh fading channel
but the error rate in Rayleigh fading channel is much higher than
the error rate in the AWGN channel.

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 Wiley & Sons, Inc.,2012, Print ISBN :0-471-31779-9, Electronic ISBN: 0-
BER vs SNR in Rayleigh Channel
471-20069-7.
0
10 [7] Digham, F.F., Hasna, M.O., “Performance of OFDM with M-QAM
16-QAM modulation and optimal loading over Rayleigh fading channels”, IEEE
8-QAM Conference on Vehicular Technology, Vol.1, pp.479-483, 2004,
4-QAM DOI:10.11.09/VETECF-2004.
-1
10 [8] Xiaoyi Tang, Mohamed-Slim Alouini and Andrea J.Goldsmith, “Effect of
Channel Estimation Error on M-QAM BER Performance in Rayleigh
Fading”, IEEE Transaction on Communications, Vol.47, n0.12, 1999.
[9] Abdel-Ghaffar, H.S., Pasupathy.S., “Asympototical performance of M-ary
--> BER

-2
10 and binary signals over multipath/multichannel Rayleigh and Rician
fading”, IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol.43, no.11, pp.2721-
2731, 1995.
[10] Zareian, H., Vakili,V.T., “Analytical BER Performance of M-QAM-
-3
10 OFDM Systems in the presence of IQ Imbalance”, International
Conference on Wireless and Optical Communications Networks,
WOCN’07, pp.1-5, 2007, INSPEC Accession Number:9801392.
[11] Sinem Coleri, Mustafa Ergen, Anuj Puri, Ahmad Bahai, “A Study of
-4
10 Channel Estimation in OFDM Systems”, IEEE Transaction on
0 5 10 15 20
Broadcasting, pp.894-898, 2002.
--> SNR(dB)
Fig.5. BER vs SNR in Rayleigh Channel

V. CONCLUSION
It the simulation results shown that OFDM allows data
transmission with minimal error over fading channel than a
Single Carrier.the performances of different modulation scheme
for 4-QAM, 8-QAM and 16-QAM have been analyzed. In an
interference free channel, a larger constellation modulation
scheme (16-QAM) is more beneficial due to the higher bit rate.
This paper gives a clear thought of the error performance of
4QAM-OFDM, 8QAM-OFDM & 16QAM-OFDM system over
AWGN channel & Rayleigh fading channel. It is observed from
the simulation results that has the signal power is increases the
error rate decreases in both AWGN & Rayleigh fading channel
but error rate increases as the value of modulation scheme M
increases. The error rate in Rayleigh fading channel is also
higher than the AWGN channel for same signal. So to provide a
reliable communication along with the high data rate, there
should be a tradeoff between modulation order and signal
power.

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