BANGALORE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATIONS ENGINEERING

Project Seminar on

OFDM Transmitter & Receiver

Guide: Dr. Vijaya Prakash A.M.
Professor, ECE Department
Group members: Shriram Shridhar Shanbhag(1BI12EC101)
Shubham Dhingra (1BI12EC103)
Supreem H(1BI12EC111)
Mohammed Ibrahim Adilshah(1BI13EC407)
Agenda / Topics

• Introduction to OFDM
• Single carrier modulation v/s Multi-carrier modulation
• Block Diagram
• Constellation Mapper
• Role of IFFT block
• Cyclic Prefix
• Design of Constellation Mapper
• Design of IFFT block
• Simulation Results
• Conclusion
• References
Introduction to OFDM

 Multi Carrier modulation technique

 Subcarrier frequencies are chosen so that the subcarriers are orthogonal to each other
 Two signals are said to be orthogonal to each other if the integral of the product of
two signals is zero over a time period

 Orthogonality is defined by:

𝑇
0
cos(2𝜋𝑛𝑓0𝑡)cos(2𝜋𝑚𝑓0𝑡)𝑑𝑡 = 0 (𝑛 ≠ 𝑚)

 For OFDM, T is one symbol period and f0 set to 1/T for optimal effectiveness

 Orthogonality prevents interference between overlapping carriers

Basis for OFDM – Multi Carrier Modulation(MCM)

 Operates by dividing the data stream to be transmitted into a number of lower data rate
data streams
 Each of the lower data rate streams is then used to modulate an individual carrier
 MCM is being used as a modulation format for high data rate transmissions

Single Carrier Modulation v/s MCM – An example

 Usually, symbol period must be greater than delay time to avoid ISI
 Generally, delay time Td = 2-3 μs

Say, bandwidth B = 10Mhz

Case (i) Single Carrier Modulation
Symbol time, T = 1/B = 1/10M = 0.1μs
T < Td which implies there will be ISI

Case (ii)Multi-Carrier Modulation ... ...

Suppose , there are 1000 sub-carriers, i.e. N=1000
Symbol time, T = 1/(B/N) = 1/(10M/1000) = 100μs -2B/N -B/N 0 B/N 2B/N

T>>Td which implies there will be no ISI B

Transmission in MCM systems
 OFDM signal consists of a number of closely spaced modulated carriers (until they are
actually overlapping)

 Because of orthogonal carriers, inter carrier

guard bands are not required and hence provides
high bandwidth efficiency compared to FDM

 Doesn’t require filter at the receiver side as in

the case of FDM

Spectrum overlap in OFDM

Fig.(A)Spectrum of FDM showing guard

bands

Fig.(B)Spectrum of OFDM showing

overlapping carriers
 Block Diagram of OFDM
Cyclic Prefix
(xN-Ncp ,xN-Ncp-1,….,xN-1)

s0 X0 x0 Parallel OFDM signal

d0,d1,d2,… Serial to s1 Constellation X1 x1 to Serial
Mapper IFFT
Parallel sn-1 (QPSK/QAM) Xn-1 xn-1

Channel

s0 R0 r0
d0,d1,… Parallel s1 Constellation r1 Delete Serial
R1
to Serial demapper FFT Cyclic to
(QPSK/QAM) Parallel
sn-1 rn-1 Prefix
Rn-1
Constellation mapper

Constellation mapper is nothing but the modulator that takes word as an

input and maps it to a point on the constellation diagram
The size of the word depends on the type of modulation used
In case of QPSK the size is 2 bits/word, in 16-QAM it’s 4 bits/word and in
case of 64-QAM it’s 6 bits/word
The use of phase shift keying produces a constant amplitude signal while
QAM produces signal with variable amplitude
Hence PSK modulators are easier in terms of implementation
The constellation diagram for QPSK, 16-QAM and 64-QAM are shown below
Role of IFFT block

• In OFDM we divide the available bandwidth into N orthogonal

carriers
• If Xi is the symbol to be transmitted on ith subcarrier, transmitted
signal equation can be written as
Si = Xi*ej2*pi*i*(B/N)*t where B is the total bandwidth
• The set of symbols transmitted can be written as
S = Σ Xi*ej2*pi*i*(B/N)*t
• The above expression is nothing but IFFT(X)
Pictorially, it can be represented as follows :
Cyclic Prefix

• Usually to minimize the ISI we increase the symbol time

• But even after increasing symbol time, some effects are not removed
• To eliminate this problem, we have to find a way to recover the lost part
• One way to do this is duplicating the initial part of the symbol and append
it to the end of the symbol
• This increases the overall length of the symbol but the gains outweigh the
increase in length
• From the figure below, it can be seen that with cyclic prefix the problem no
longer exists
• The length of the cyclic prefix should be large enough to eliminate the
effects of multipath components but short enough to keep the symbol time
low
 Design of constellation mapper

Binary Mapping points Hexadecimal

16
in Out_real 00 0.707 + j0.707 3fe6 3fe6

QPSK 01 -0.707 + j0.707 bfe6 3fe6

16 10 -0.707 –j0.707 bfe6 bfe6

clk Out_im
11 0.707 – j0.707 3fe6 bfe6

rst
 ROM MODULE 4x32

Address Value
address 2
00 3fe63fe6
32
4x32 Out 01 bfe63fe6
ROM
10 bfe6bfe6
clk
11 3fe6bfe6

rst
 rst

2 16
din Out_real
32
address 4x32
SIPO
ROM
16
clk Out_img

in ROM Clk
/2

rst
 Design of IFFT block

X(0) = x(0)+ x(4)+ x(2)+ x(6)+ x(1)+ x(5)+ x(3)+ x(7)

X(4) = x(0)+ x(4)+ x(2)+ x(6)- x(1)- x(5)- x(3)- x(7)
X(2) = x(0)+ x(4)- x(2)- x(6)+ jx(1)+ jx(5)- jx(3)- jx(7)
X(6) = x(0)+ x(4)- x(2)- x(6)- jx(1)- jx(5)+ jx(3)+ jx(7)
X(1) = x(0) - x(4) + jx(2) - jx(6) + 0.7071x(1) + j0.7071x(1) - 0.7071x(5) - j0.7071x(5) -
0.7071x(3) - j0.7071x(3) + 0.7071x(7) + j0.7071x(7)

X(5) = x(0) - x(4) + jx(2) - jx(6) - 0.7071x(1) - j0.7071x(1) + 0.7071x(5) + j0.7071x(5) +

0.7071x(3) + j0.7071x (3) - 0.7071x(7) - j0.7071x(7)
X(3) = x(0) - x(4) - jx(2) - jx(6) - 0.7071x(1) + j0.7071x(1) + 0.7071x(5)- j0.7071x(5) +
0.7071x(3) - j0.7071x(3) - 0.7071x(7) + j0.7071x(7)
X(7) =x(0)- x(4) - jx(2) - jx(6) + 0.7071x(1) - j0.7071x(1) - 0.7071x(5) + j0.7071x(5) -
0.7071x(3)+ j0.7071x(3)+ 0.7071x(7)- j0.7071x(7)
 Design of IFFT Block

Path0 x(0)

X0 Path1 x(1)
X1
Path2 x(2)
X2
Path3 x(3)
X3
Pass Path4 x(4)
X4
X5 Path5 x(5)
X6
X6 Path6 x(6)

Path7 x(7)
 Path 0 & 4

x0
adder
x4
x2 adder

x6 adder

x1 adder
8bits

x5 adder

x3 adder

x7 adder x(0)
 Path 2 & 6

x0
adder
x4
x2 adder

x6 adder x(2) R

x1
adder
x5
x3 adder

x7 adder x(2) I
 Path 1, 3, 5 & 7
X(1) = x(0) - x(4) + jx(2) - jx(6) + 0.7071x(1) + j0.7071x(1) - 0.7071x(5) - j0.7071x(5) - 0.7071x(3) -j0.7071x(3) +
0.7071x(7) + j0.7071x(7)

X(5) = x(0) - x(4) + jx(2) - jx(6) - 0.7071x(1) - j0.7071x(1) + 0.7071x(5) + j0.7071x(5) + 0.7071x(3) + j0.7071x (3) -
0.7071x(7) - j0.7071x(7)
X(3) = x(0) - x(4) - jx(2) - jx(6) - 0.7071x(1) + j0.7071x(1) + 0.7071x(5)- j0.7071x(5) + 0.7071x(3) - j0.7071x(3) -
0.7071x(7) + j0.7071x(7)
X(7) =x(0)- x(4) - jx(2) - jx(6) + 0.7071x(1) - j0.7071x(1) - 0.7071x(5) + j0.7071x(5) - 0.7071x(3)+ j0.7071x(3)+
0.7071x(7)- j0.7071x(7)

• Each expression contains 12 products and sum of those product terms.

• So the path can be split into 2 modules one to find the products, and one to add
them up.
 Path 1, 3, 5 & 7

x0
x1 XR
x2

16 bits
x3 Path 5
8 bits

x4
x5 XI

x6

x7
 p1
x0 p2
p3 XR
x1 p4
x2 p5

16 bits
x3 Product p6 Cascade
x4 Generator p7 of adders
8 bits

p8
x5 p9 XI
p10
x6 p11
p12
x7
busy enable

clk
start
 M1

M2

a M3

inputs
p

outputs
. .
b . . .
multiplier . . .
. . .
start . . .
busy . .
clk M11

M12

clk busy
Tools Used
• MATLAB R2014a
• Xilinx 9.2i
• ModelSim-Altera 10.1d (quartus 13.1)
Results

Simulation of constellation mapper

RTL schematics of
QPSK constellation
mapper
Simulation of path 0
Simulation of path 2
Simulation of path 5
Comparison of Transmitted signal with the received signal
using OFDM system simulated in MATLAB with SNR = 10 dB
BER v/s SNR for different modulation schemes
Fig.(A) SNR = 30 dB

Fig.(B) SNR = 20 dB

Fig.(C) SNR = 10 dB
 Conclusion
Because of orthogonal carriers, inter carrier guard bands are not required and hence
OFDM provides higher bandwidth efficiency compared to FDM

OFDM overcomes even severe intersymbol interference through the use of the IFFT and a
cyclic prefix

BER v/s SNR curve shows BER reduces at low SNR values for QPSK while it reduces to the
same levels at relatively higher SNR in case of QAM

Data rates of 16-QAM is twice of QPSK and that of 64-QAM, it’s thrice of QPSK

Choice of modulation is a trade-off between accuracy and speed

 References
• “HDL Programming (VHDL and Verilog)” Nazeih Botros- 2008 edition
• Foisal Ahmed,1,* Md. Liakot Ali,2 and Mohammad Imam Hasan Bin Asad2 “Design of high speed
ofdm transmitter and receiver” 8th International Conference on Electrical and Computer
Engineering 20-22 December, 2014, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• “Hardware implementation of ofdm trasnmitter and receiver using fpga” Shabaz Abbasi and
Shazer Baig National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences Fast June 2008
• “OFDM SIMULATION in MATLAB” by Paul Gaunming Lin California Polytechnic State University
• “Implementation the Technique of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Using 16-Point
Fast Fourier Transform and Inverse Fast Fourier Transform” Muhammad Waqas – Sharad
institute of science and information technology, Peshawar, Pakistan
• “Design and Implementation of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) Signaling”
Alan C. Brooks and Stephen J hoelzer.
• Mathuranathan Viswanathan, “Introduction to OFDM”, June 2015;
https://www.gaussianwaves.com
 References
• https://www.rf-wireless.com
• Charan Langton, “Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM, DMT)”, July 2015;
https://www.complextoreal.com
• Krishna Sankar M, “Cyclic Prefix in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing”, July 2015;
https://www.dsplog.com
• Matlab help (https://www.mathworks.com)
THANK YOU