SC-FDMA for 3GPP-LTE

1 Introduction
As modern cellular systems move closer towards fourth generation (4G), increasing
numbers of organizations and corporations involved in standardization, research and
development are showing great interest and becoming more involved in the 4G
effort. A number of these systems are phasing into the stage of initial deployment.
One common design approach in 4G systems selects orthogonal frequency division
multiple-access (OFDM/A) as the framework for the air interface. Many examples of
state-of-the-art technologies use this approach: IEEE802.11n for wireless local area
network (WiFi), IEEE802.16e for fixed and mobile wireless metropolitan area
networks (WiMAX) and the cellular Long Term Evolution of 3GPP (3GPP-LTE) [1-3].
The OFDMA air interface introduces high resistance to a frequency selective fading
channel using a relatively simple receiver structure [4, 5]. It is considered easy to
combine OFDMA with multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications
technologies, which utilize multiple transmit and receive antennae. The resulting
combination technology, called OFDMA-MIMO, further increases system capacity
towards higher rates and a larger number of users by utilizing the space dimension in
addition to the classical approach of time-frequency scheduling.
The OFDMA signal consists of many sub-carriers each optionally modulated with a
high-order modulation scheme (e.g., 64 QAM). This signal, consisting of a high-order

SC-FDMA for 3GPP-LTE - 2 -
modulation combined with a large number of sub-carriers, results in a high peak-to-
averagepower-ratio (PAPR). This high-order modulation scheme requires very
accurate transmit signal generation. The high level of accuracy obliges the OFDMA
radio frequency (RF) chain, specifically the power amplifier, to work in its linear zone,
trading efficiency for accuracy. A straightforward approach for linearizing the power
amplification using back-off margin results in less than 20% added efficiency for
transmitting wide-band OFDMA signal over a typical power amplifier.
A well known approach to solve the problem is to constrain the signal generation
flow [7-9]. This approach is implemented in the transmitters digital stage.
The 3GPP standardization body proposes a different approach to the problem in its
Long Term Evolution (LTE) project. It proposes an asymmetric transmission scheme
for uplink (UL) and downlink (DL). The downlink in 3GPP-LTE is based on an OFDMA
transmission scheme. This choice, which is considered power inefficient, is tolerable
since in the case of DL transmission the power amplifier is placed at the base station
(e-Node-B in 3GPP terminology). In the base-station, power is available and the
extra complexity is shared over many mobile terminals. On the other hand, most of
the mobile terminals are battery powered, and constrained to be of low cost to
enable mass deployment. Hence, 3GPP specifications suggest for the 3GPP-LTE UL
signal a reduced PAPR transmission scheme called single-carrier frequency-division-
multiple-access (SC-FDMA). This eases the mobile terminal task of maintaining
highly efficient signal transmission by its power amplifier.
The 3GPP-LTE UL signal achieves this property without degradation in the system
flexibility and performance.
SC-FDMA for 3GPP-LTE - 3 -
This paper introduces an SC-FDMA transmitter and receiver and also provides an
overview to system implications for the uplink in the 3GPP-LTE standard. Section 2
presents a block diagram of an SC-FDMA transmitter and receiver as has been
proposed for the 3GPP-LTE. Section 3 presents a PAPR analysis and comparison to a
conventional OFDMA based transmitter. Section 4 lists the system parameters
affected by selecting SC-FDMA. Finally, conclusions are presented in Section 5.
2 SC-FDMA Transmission and Reception Scheme
The 3GPP-LTE proposes SC-FDMA transmission and reception flows for the UL data
transmission. Figure 1 presents a transmitter block diagram of the proposed
UL SC-FDMA scheme. We first note that the input to the block diagram in Figure 1 is
a stream of modulated symbols. Therefore, the entry point to the signal flow
presented in Figure 1 carries constellation points (i.e., complex numbers
representing symbols). A DFT module of N
TX
points performs processing at the first
stage. The following processing element, Pulse Shaping, optionally shapes the DFT
output signal. When this module is active it results in a bandwidth extension of the
original signal. The following processing unit, Sub-carrier Mapping, maps the
outcome of the pulse shaping unit onto the entire bandwidth span. It should be
noted that in some system configurations the entire bandwidth may be up to 20MHz.
To implement this mapping, the LTE standard defines a 2048 input FFT with up to
1320 actual, useful subcarriers.
The UL signal in 3GPP-LTE consists of additional components to the data carrying
signal (e.g., reference signal, control signal, and random access preamble). These
SC-FDMA for 3GPP-LTE - 4 -
signals are based on sequences signaling. The sequences are characterized by
constant amplitude with zero autocorrelation (CAZAC), which is also beneficial
considering the UL signals PAPR. In contrast to the data carrying signals, the
additional signal components, as mentioned above, are not part of the SC-FDMA
modulation scheme. Namely, the additional signal components' generation scheme
bypasses the pre-coding process defined for the data signals (i.e., DFT). In some
cases the SC-FDMA and the additional signals are transmitted separately. However,
for the cases were an SC-FDMA signal and a CAZAC based signal are transmitted
concurrently the effect of the CAZAC signal presence upon the analysis presented in
this work is negligible.
From the Sub-carrier Mapping stage and onwards, the signal flow is similar to a
conventional OFDM/A modulator. An inverse FFT (IFFT) module of N
FFT
inputs
processes a combined group of all the physical channels (i.e., data, control, and
reference signals). The IFFT module output is followed by a cyclic prefix insertion
that completes the digital stage of the signal flow.
The final block in the flow converts the digital signal to an analog signal. This
element typically includes a low pass filter (i.e., a reconstruction filter).
SC-FDMA for 3GPP-LTE - 5 -
DFT
Sub-carrier
Mapping
CP
Insertion
Size-NTX
Size-NFFT
Coded symbol rate= R
NTX symbols
IFFT
Pulse
Shaping
Digital to
Analog
Converter

Figure 1 SC-FDMA Transmitter Structure
The DFT block in Figure 1 is particular to SC-FDMA. It may be viewed as a pre-
process to the large size IFFT. The Sub-carrier Mapping block controls the frequency
allocation. There are two principal modes of frequency resource allocation in 3GPP-
LTE UL: (1) local allocation (L-FDMA) and (2) distributed allocation (D-FDMA).
L-FDMA is considered simpler to signal in terms of control signaling overhead. On the
other hand, it suffers from a low level of frequency diversity.
To gain frequency diversity, it is proposed to use a distributed scheme (D-FDMA). In
this scheme the DFT stage output is evenly distributed over the entire (or a part of
the entire) symbol BW, which is larger than the original signal BW. A special case of
D-FDMA, in which the transmission occupies the entire BW, is usually termed as
interleaved FDMA (I-FDMA).
It should be observed that the DFT followed by IFFT in an L-FDMA setup operates as
an efficient implementation to an interpolation filter. This may justify the reduced
PAPR experienced in the IFFT output; the signal remains in the symbol constellation
space. A similar observation holds also for the D-FDMA and I-FDMA.
SC-FDMA for 3GPP-LTE - 6 -
0
0
0
0
L-1 zeros
L-1 zeros
L-1 zeros
DFT IFFT IFFT DFT

Figure 2 Localized (Left) and Distributed (Right) Mapping of SC-FDMA
Figure 2 illustrates the two modes of operation. The left hand side of Figure 2
presents a localized allocation where the transmitted signal occupies N
Tx
consecutive
sub-carriers. The right hand side of the figure presents a distributed allocation where
N
Tx
inputs are each separated by L-1 zeros.
Figure 3 depicts the digital baseband processing flow of a receiver for an SC-FDMA
transmission scheme. In addition to the SC-FDMA signal receiver elements the
receiver has an additional conventional functionality, such as channel-estimation,
equalization and forward error correcting codes (FEC). These elements are also
depicted in Figure 3 but are out of the scope of this work.

SC-FDMA for 3GPP-LTE - 7 -
CP
Removal
Size-N
FFT

FFT
Analog to
Digital
Convert er

IDFT
Size-NTX
Coded symbol rate= R
NTX symbols
Sub-carrier
De-Mapping
Matched
Filter
Channel
Estimation
and
Equalizer
FEC

Figure 3 SC-FDMA Receiver Structure
The receiver diagram assumes perfect timing and frequency synchronization for the
sake of simplicity. The block diagram shown in Figure 3 is very similar to a classic
OFDMA receiver apart from the addition of the optional shaping filter and the IDFT
blocks. The optional matched filter corresponds to the spectral shaping used in the
transmitter. Finally, the IDFT module converts the SC-FDMA signal to the signal
constellation.
3 PAPR Performance - Analysis and Comparison
One of the most prominent parameters for the power consumption of the mobile
station is the PAPR of the signal transmission. This is since high PAPR mandates the
use of a large power amplifier (PA) back-off for achieving the signal accuracy
requirement. This section compares PAPR measurements for a set of signals
including OFDMA and SC-FDMA. The analysis assumes an ideal reconstruction filter
at the transmitter. The results are presented in terms of the cumulative distribution
function (CDF) of the RF signal on a sample by sample basis.
Figure 4 presents the complementary-cumulative-distribution-function (CCDF) for
various UL signal families. The IFFT length for all curves presented in the figure is
SC-FDMA for 3GPP-LTE - 8 -
1024. The solid blue curve represents the PAPR CCDF of a signal constructed from a
complex Gaussian signal replacing the input of the IFFT block. The elements of this
complex Gaussian signal are normally distributed random variables with zero mean
and unit variance. The dashed-dotted curve represents an OFDM signal with 32 sub-
carriers, and symbols taken from a 64-QAM constellation.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
C
C
D
F
PAPR [dB]
Ntx= 32, N-QAM=64,M test=1000
OFDM
Gauss (empiric)
Gauss (Qfunc-bound)
SC-FDMA-L o=0
SC-FDMA-D o=0 L=4
SC-FDMA-I o=0
SC-FDMA-L o=0.2
SC-FDMA-D o=0.2 L=4
SC-FDMA-I o=0.2
Figure 4 PAPR CCDF for OFDMA and SC-FDMA Signals
The dotted blue curve in Figure 4 represents a bound for the Gaussian signal
according to the following formula:
SC-FDMA for 3GPP-LTE - 9 -
(1)
(

=
+ +
) 10 ( ) 10 ( 4 ) (
20
3
2
20
3 PAPR PAPR
Q Q PAPR CDF
In (1) the PAPR is measured in dB, and Q(.) denotes the Q-function integral [6].
Still in Figure 4, the green set of curves presents the CCDF for L-FDMA, D-FDMA and
I-FDMA. The D-FDMA signals, allocated with sub-carriers spacing, equals four SCs
(i.e., L=4). All the above mentioned SC-FDMA signals are without applying pulse
shaping (i.e., o=0). It is clearly seen that all the curves show essentially the same
PAPR distribution for this case. Similar to the green set of curves, the red set of
curves corresponds to a square-root-raised cosine pulse shaping with a roll-off factor
of o=0.2. As for the green set, all the curves of the red set have the same
performance. However, the red set shows a PAPR improvement of 0.7 dB with
respect to the green set.
4 System Implications Overview
The proposed SC-FDMA scheme for 3GPP-LTE UL may be conceived as an elaboration
of the OFDMA framework. On the one hand, simple channel equalization by means of
frequency-domain equalization is preserved as in a conventional OFDMA system. On
the other hand, SC-FDMA is beneficial due to its low PAPR level relative to an OFDMA
signal. This PAPR reduction entails additional preprocessing in the form of a small
sized DFT in the order of the used sub-carriers. In addition, the eNode-B side must
support each up-link stream with a corresponding IDFT module in addition to a
conventional OFDMA receiver. An important question posed by the UL design regards
the DFT size limits. It is clear that an increased transmission BW implies a large
SC-FDMA for 3GPP-LTE - 10 -
preprocessing-DFT, which considerably increases the transmitter complexity (i.e.,
front-end stage of the digital baseband). In extreme cases, mobile station
transmitter complexity may approach twice the complexity of a conventional OFDMA
transmitter.
Another aspect of the preprocessing using the DFT at the transmitter end is an
increased signal dynamic range appearing at the input to the IFFT block. Eventually,
the increase in the IFFT input dynamic range is reduced at the IFFT block output.
This property of the dynamic range is similar to a conventional OFDMA modulator,
but the other way around. Therefore the OFDMA and SC-FDMA schemes are similar
in terms of complexity in this aspect by argument of duality.
On the other hand, the increased dynamic range at the transmitter-IFFT input
essentially affects the receiver at the eNodeB. The receiver FFT block experiences an
increased dynamic range with respect to a conventional OFDMA receiver. This
relative increase of dynamic range may be considered as an increase in receiver FFT-
module complexity with respect to a conventional OFDMA based UL signal. However,
the increase in receiver complexity in the UL is tolerable considering the benefits of
power reduction at the mobile station.
As for the pulse shaping degree of freedom, Figure 4 shows that this approach
presents a significant potential in reducing the SC-FDMA signal PAPR. However, the
trade-off in this case is between spectral efficiency and PAPR reduction. This option,
although proposed in the feasibility study phase, is currently left out for the 3GPP-
LTE signals technical specification.
SC-FDMA for 3GPP-LTE - 11 -
5 Summary
Several conclusions may be drawn for the SC-FDMA technology presented in this
paper. The first and most prominent is that SC-FDMA provides a transmission
scheme that reduces the PAPR by approximately 2 dB. A drawback observed for the
SC-FDMA is an increase in complexity of both the receiver and transmitter. While the
additional complexity added to the transmitter is considered as negligible, the
increase in complexity of the receiver is larger considering the requirement of
supporting multiple users in parallel. Overall, this represents a tradeoff between
power consumption improvement of the mobile station transmitter, on the one hand,
and increase in base-station receiver complexity, on the other.
The 3GPP-LTE proposed SC-FDMA scheme and a classical OFDMA scheme are
expected to be similar in terms of link level and system level performance. Both
schemes provide similar degrees of freedom in system deployment and up-link
scheduling without performance degradation.
6 References
[1] 3GPP-TR 25.814 v7.1.0
[2] 3GPP-TR 25.912 v7.0.0 Table 13.1
[3] 3GPP-TS 36.211 v8.1.0
[4] A. V. Oppenheim, R. W. Schafer, Discrete-Time Signal Processing,
Prentice-Hall, 1989
SC-FDMA for 3GPP-LTE - 12 -
[5] D. Falconer, S.Lek Ariyavisitakul et al, Frequency Domain Equalization for
Single-Carrier Broadband Wireless Systems, Feb. 2002, available online:
http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/falconer02frequency.html
[6] J. G. Proakis, Digital Communications, 4th Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2001
[7] D. Wulich, N. Dinur and A. Glinowiecki, Level Clipped High-Order OFDM,
IEEE Trans. Comm., Vol. 48 No. 6 pp. 928-930, June 2000
[8] S. H. Muller and J. B. Huber, A Comparison of Peak Power Reduction Schemes
for OFDM, Proc. IEEE Globecomm, pp. 1-5, Nov. 1997
[9] P. V. Eetvelt, G. Wade and M. Tomlinson, Peak to Average Power Reduction
for OFDM Schemes by Selective Mapping, Electronic Letters, Vol. 32, No. 21,
pp. 1963-1964, Oct. 1996

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