9.

Multi Carrier Modulation and OFDM

 Transmission of Data Through Frequency Selective Time
Varying Channels

We have seen a wireless channel is characterized by time

spread and frequency spread.

Frequency Spread
S ( , F )
F
FDMAX
 Time Spread
 RMS  RMS
 MEAN
 Single Carrier Modulation in Flat Fading Channels

• if symbol duration >> time spread then there is almost no Inter

Symbol Interference (ISI).
channel
TS

1 0 time 1 0
phase still recognizable

Problem with this: Low Data Rate!!!

 … in the Frequency Domain

• this corresponds to Flat Fading

channel
Frequency Frequency
1 / TS
Flat Freq. Response

Frequency
 Single Carrier Modulation in Frequency Selective Channels

• if symbol duration ~ time spread then there is considerable Inter

Symbol Interference (ISI).

channel

time
? ?
1 0 phase not recognizable
 One Solution: we need equalization
channel equalizer

time time

1 0 1 0

Channel and
Equalizer
Problems with equalization:
• it might require training data (thus loss of bandwidth)
• if blind, it can be expensive in terms computational effort
• always a problem when the channel is time varying
 The Multi Carrier Approach

• let symbol duration >> time spread so there is almost no Inter

Symbol Interference (ISI);
• send a block of data using a number of carriers (Multi Carrier)
“symbol” “symbol”
1 0

time channel

0 1

time

1 0

time
 Compare Single Carrier and Multi Carrier Modulation

SC
Frequency
Frequency
 1 0 1 1  Flat Fading Channel:
1
One symbol Easy Demod
channel
MC
 0 1 0 1 1 1 

Frequency Frequency
subcarriers

0 1 0 1 1 1
Each subcarrier sees a
Block of Flat Fading Channel:
symbols Easy Demod
 Structure of Multi Carrier Modulation

In MC modulation each “MC symbol” is defined on a time interval and it contains a

block of data
OFDM Symbol

 data data data data 

time

TSymbol

data
t
Tg Tb
guard interval data interval

with Tg   MAX MAX channel time spread

 Guard Time

We leave a “guard time”

between blocks to allow TX RX
multipath
Guard Time
Tg
Data Block the “guard time” is long
Data Block
Tb enough, so the multipath in
one block does not affect the
 
next block
TSymbol
data+guard

Tg
RX  
TX
NO Inter Block Interference!
 MC Signal

Transmitted Signal:

s(t )  Re e  j 2FC t
x(t ) 
FC carrier frequency
Baseband Complex Signal:

k
NF

c e
2
j 2kF t
x(t )  k
0  t  TSymbol
k 
NF
2
k 0 kF  subcarrier frequency offset

ck  data
 “Orthogonal” Subcarriers and OFDM

t
guard interval T g Tb data interval

N F F 1
Choose: F 
F Tb

FC F
Fk  FC  kF
Orthogonality:
t 0 Tb t 0 Tb
1 1 1 if k  
e e
j 2Fk t  j 2F t j 2 ( k   ) Ft
e dt  dt  
Tb t0
Tb t0 0 if k  
 Orthogonality at the Receiver

Transmitted Received
subcarrier Channel subcarrier
j 2Fk t (LTI)
e
h(t ) t
t 0 Tg Tg  Tb
0 H ( F )  FTh(t )
Tg  Tb transient steady state
response response

x(t )   ck e j 2Fk t y(t )   ck H ( Fk )e j 2 Fk t

k k

0  t  Tg  Tb Tg  t  Tg  Tb

still orthogonal at the

receiver!!!

1  1 
Tg Tb

ck   y(t )e
 j 2Fk t
dt 
H ( Fk )  Tb 
 Tg 
 OFDM symbols in discrete time

Let
• FS be the sampling frequency;
• N  NF be the number of data samples in each symbol;
• F  1 / N TS   FS / N the subcarriers spacing
Then:

NF NF

n  0,.., L  N  1
2 2
1 1
 ck e  ck e
j 2k FF ( n  L ) jk 2N ( n  L )
x(nTS )  s

N k 
NF N k 
NF
2 2

with Tg  L  TS the guard time.

 Summary OFDM Symbol

# samples
# subcarriers
guard L data N  NF
TIME:
0 Tg Tb t
Sampling Interval TS  1 / FS

Freq spacing F  FS / N

FREQUENCY:
 FS / 2 0 FS / 2 F
N F N F FS
 F S
2 N 2 N
 OFDM Symbol and FFT

NF
2
1
c e
jk 2N n
x[n  L]  k
N k 
NF
2
NF
2 1
1 1
c e c e
jk 2N n j ( N  k ) 2N n
 k  k
N k 1 N k 
NF
2
N 1
IFFT X [k ]
1
 X [k ]e
jk 2N n

N k 0

Where:
X [k ]  ck , k  1,..., N F / 2 positive subcarriers

X [ N  k ]  ck , k  1,..., N F / 2 negative subcarriers

X [k ]  0, otherwise unused subcarriers

 Guard Time with Cyclic Prefix (CP)

x[ L],..., x[ L  N 1]  IFFT X [k ], k  0,..., N 1

0 L L  N 1

CP IFFT{ X }
 
N

CP from the periodicity x[0]  x[ N ]

x[n]  x[ N  n]  x[1]  x[ N  1]
...
x[ L  1]  x[ L  N  1]
 OFDM Demodulator

See each block:

y[n] n
0 L 1 L  N 1
No Inter Block Interference

y[n  L]  h[n]* x[n  L]

N 1 2
1
 X [k ]e
j kn
 h[n]* N
N k 0
N 1 2
1
 H [k ] X [k ]e  IFFT H [k ] X [k ]
j kn
 N
N k 0

H[k ] X [k ]  FFTy[ L],..., y[ L  N 1]

with H[k ]  FFT h[0],..., h[ L 1],0,...,0 k  0,..., N  1

 Overall Structure of OFDM Comms System

 X [0] 
 X [1] 
X   IFFT +CP P/S
  
 
 X [ N  1]
N N NL
NL
h[n ]

 H [0] X [0]  w[n]

 H [1] X [1] 
Y   W FFT -CP S/P
  
 
 H [ N  1] X [ N  1] N N
NL

NL
 Simple One Gain Equalization

To recover the transmitted signal you need a very simple one

gain equalization:
received transm. noise

Y [k ]  H [k ] X [k ]  W [k ]

channel

Use simple Wiener Filter:

H *[k ]
Xˆ [k ]  Y [k ]
H [k ]  
2 2
W
 OFDM as Parallel Flat Fading Channels

Significance: a Freq. Selective Channel becomes N Flat Fading

Channels
h(t ) w(t )
X m [0] x(t ) y (t ) Ym [0]
  OFDM OFDM  
X m [ N  1] Mod Demod Ym [ N  1]

Frequency N Flat
Selective
channel
 Fading
Channels

Wm [0]
X m [0] H [ 0] Ym [0]

  Wm [ N  1] 
X m [ N  1] H [ N  1] Ym [ N  1]
 OFDM Parameters
Summarize basic OFDM Parameters:
• FS sampling rate in Hz
• N length of Data Field in number of samples
• L length of Cyclic Prefix in number of samples
• NF  N total number of Data Subcarriers

guard guard guard

data data
t / TS 0 F / FS
L N NF / N
time frequency
IEEE 802.11a:

Frequency Bands: 5.150-5.350 GHz and 5.725-5.825 GHz (12 channels)

Modulation OFDM
Range: 100m

IEEE 802.11g
Frequency Bands: 2.412-2.472GHz
Modulation: OFDM
Range: 300m
 Channel Parameters: FCC

Example: the Unlicensed Band 5GHz U-NII (Unlicensed National

Information Infrastructure)

• 8 channels in the range 5.15-5.35GHz

20MHz
30MHz 30MHz

5150 5180 5200 5300 5320 5350 F (MHz )

FC

• 4 channels in the range 5.725-5.825GHz

 Channel Parameters: Example IEEE802.11

In terms of a Transmitter Spectrum Mask (Sec. 17.3.9.2 in

IEEE Std 802.11a-1999)
0dB
Typical Signal
Spectrum

20dB

28dB
40dB

30 20 11 9 FC 9 11 20 30 F (MHz )

Typical BW~16 MHz

In either case:

FS  20MHz Sampling frequency

N  64 FFT size
L  16 Cyclic Prefix

CP DATA

N  16 N  64
Tb  64 / 20  3.2 sec
Tg  16 / 20  0.8 sec
Sub-carriers: (48 data + 4 pilots) + (12 nulls) = 64

NULL
0 0 x0
c1 1
 
c26 26

N F  52 NULL  N  64
c 26 38

 
c1 63 63 x63
IFFT
Frequency Time
Pilots at: -21, -7, 7, 21
Frequencies:

F  20MHz / 64  312.5kHz

38 63 1 26 k Subcarriers index
 64  26

8.125 8.125 F ( MHz )

16.25MHz

DATA
F (MHz )
FCARRIER  10 FCARRIER FCARRIER  10

20MHz  1 / Ts
Time Block:

Ts  TFFT / 64  50 109 sec

time
TG  0.8 sec TFFT  3.2sec

TFRAME  4.0 sec

Overall Implementation (IEEE 802.11a with 16QAM).
1. Map encoded data into blocks of 192 bits and 48 symbols:

data Encode Buffer Map to a

Interleave (192 bits) 16QAM
…010011010101…
1110 +1+j3
0111 -1+j
48 … 1000 +3-j3
48
… …
+1-j
1101

4
4x48=192 bits
Overall Implementation (IEEE 802.11a with 16QAM).
2. Map each block of 48 symbols into 64 samples
frequency domain time domain
null 0 0 xm [0]
xm [1]
24 data 
1 1
+1+j3    2
…  2 pilots 
26

-3-j
+3-j3 

null 
 
27
 27  64 
…  24 data   26  64
+1-j  
2 pilots   62 xm [62]
1 64 63 xm [63]

am [ ] X m [k ] IFFT xm [n ]
 1: 48 k  0 : 63 n  0 : 63

 
 26 1 1 26 k
 Channel Parameters: Physical

Frequency Spread

S ( , F )
F
FDMAX  kHz
 Time Spread

 MAX  1  10 sec outdoor

 MAX  10  50 n sec indoor
Constraints on OFDM Symbol Duration:

 MAX  Tg  Tb  1/ FD MAX

10 6 sec 10 3 sec roughly!!!

to minimize CP overhead for channel Time Invariant

 Summary of OFDM and Channel Parameters
Channel:
1. Max Time Spread  MAX sec
2. Doppler Spread FDMAX Hz

3. Bandwidth BW Hz

4. Channel Spacing FS Hz

OFDM (design parameters):

1. Sampling Frequency FS

2. Cyclic Prefix L   MAX FS integer

3. FFT size (power of 2) 4 L  N  FS / FDMAX integer

4. Number of Carriers NF   N  BW / FS  integer
 Example: IEEE802.11a

Channel:
1. Max Time Spread  MAX  0.5  sec
2. Doppler Spread FDMAX  50 Hz

3. Bandwidth BW  16MHz

4. Channel Spacing FS  20MHz

OFDM (design parameters):

1. Sampling Frequency FS  20MHz

2. Cyclic Prefix L  16  0.5 20  10

3. FFT size (power of 2) N  64  20 106 / 50 integer
4. Number of Carriers NF  52  64 16 / 20 integer
 Applications: various Area Networks

According to the applications, we define three “Area Networks”:

• Personal Area Network (PAN), for communications within a few meters. This is the typical
Bluetooth or Zigbee application between between personal devices such as your cell phone,
desktop, earpiece and so on;
• Local Area Network (LAN), for communications up 300 meters. Access points at the
airport, coffee shops, wireless networking at home. Typical standard is IEEE802.11 (WiFi) or
HyperLan in Europe. It is implemented by access points, but it does not support mobility;
• Wide Area Network (WAN), for cellular communications, implemented by towers. Mobility
is fully supported, so you can move from one cell to the next without interruption. Currently it
is implemented by Spread Spectrum Technology via CDMA, CDMA-2000, TD-SCDMA,
EDGE and so on. The current technology, 3G, supports voice and data on separate networks.
For (not so) future developments, 4G technology will be supporting both data and voice on the
same network and the standard IEEE802.16 (WiMax) seems to be very likely
 More Applications

1. WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) standards and WiFi. In particular:

• IEEE 802.11a in Europe and North America
• HiperLAN /2 (High Performance LAN type 2) in Europe and North America
• MMAC (Mobile Multimedia Access Communication) in Japan
2. WMAN (Wireless Metropolitan Network) and WiMax
• IEEE 802.16
3. Digital Broadcasting
• Digital Audio and Video Broadcasting (DAB, DVB) in Europe
4. Ultra Wide Band (UWB) Modulation
• a very large bandwidth for a very short time.
5. Proposed for IEEE 802.20 (to come) for high mobility communications (cars,
trains …)