ENERGY ALLOCATION AND MULTIPLE ACCESS FOR MULTICARRIER COMMUNICATION

by

S Karthikeyan (EC 970136) R Venkatesh (EC 970176)

A thesis submitted to

THE FACULTY OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of degree of

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
In

ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

SCHOOL OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING ANNA UNIVERSITY MAY 2001

ii

BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

Certified that this thesis titled ENERGY ALLOCATION AND MULTIPLE ACCESS FOR MULTICARRIER COMMUNICATIONS is the Bonafide work done by the following students: S Karthikeyan (EC 970136) R Venkatesh (EC 970176) Certified further, that to the best of my knowledge the work reported herein does not form any part of thesis or dissertation on the basis of which a degree or award was conferred on an earlier occasion on this or any other candidates.

Date: 14th May 2001 Place: Chennai 600 025.

Dr. G. Ravindran Director School of Electronics and Communication Engineering College of Engineering Anna University, Chennai 600 025

Dr. S. Srikanth Visiting Faculty School of Electronics and Communication Engineering College of Engineering Anna University, Chennai 600 025

iii

ABSTRACT

Multicarrier communications of which OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) is a particular type has become attractive recently for providing multimedia services over multipath channels. Also, it can be considered as a possible alternative to single carrier techniques for providing flexible and high data rate communications for applications like wireless multimedia, wireless internet access, future generation mobile communication systems and powerline communication systems. The main advantage is the flexibility it offers in modulation and multiple access. OFDM with adaptive modulation can be used for the downlink communication system (base station to the user) where the available bandwidth is divided into independent subchannels. In a typical multiple access scenario, each user has different QoS and bit rate requirements. The fact that different subcarriers experience different channel conditions for different users in a frequency selective fading environment can be exploited. Hence, an adaptive strategy, which is used to minimize the total transmit power by optimally allocating subcarriers and bits based on the instantaneous channel information is investigated in this thesis. We propose a new Adaptive Allocation Algorithm for Multiuser OFDM (MOAAA), which outperforms existing multiple access schemes like OFDM-TDMA and OFDM-FDMA. The experiments have been conducted with reference to the powerline environment with multipath fading, exponential noise spectrum and narrowband interference. We have presented the results obtained by Monte-Carlo simulation using Matlab under different channel and noise conditions. We have quantified the improvement in terms of overall transmit power and BER. Our new algorithm achieves a significant gain of 3 to 5 dB in SNR over OFDM-FDMA and TDMA. Hence, the proposed algorithm can be used for efficient multiple access for broadband multimedia communications over frequency selective fading environment.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We wish to express our deep gratitude to our guide, Dr. S Srikanth, for his excellent guidance, encouragement, and insightful comments throughout the period of this project. Whatever knowledge and experience we have gained during this project we owe it to him. We also thank him and Dr. M Meenakshi for providing us with good computational facilities for the project. We are very grateful to Dr. C N Krishnan of AU-KBC Center for Internet and Telecom Technology, Anna University for his valuable comments and suggestions during the course of the project. Also we thank Dr. G Ravindran, Director, for the encouragement and facilities provided to us during this project. We express our immeasurable gratitude to our parents for their moral support and guidance not only for this project, but also for everything in life. Our heartfelt thanks go to other faculty members and our classmates for their encouragement and support. Finally, we would thank God for all that he has given to us until now.

S Karthikeyan R Venkatesh

vi

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT (ENGLISH)

(iii)

ABSTRACT (TAMIL)

(iv)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

(v)

LIST OF FIGURES

(ix)

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

(xi)

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background 1.2 Contribution to the thesis 1.3 Thesis outline

1 1 1 2

Chapter 2

AN OVERVIEW OF OFDM SYSTEM 2.1 Introduction to OFDM 2.2 OFDM System Implementation 2.3 Channel and its Effect 2.4 Cyclic Prefix and Channel Estimation 2.4.1 Simulation and Results 2.5 OFDM System Design Steps 2.6 Channel Specifications 2.7 System Description 2.8 Noise Model

3 3 6 7 9 10 13 13 14 15

vii

Chapter 3

BIT AND ENERGY ALLOCATION ALGORITHMS 3.1 Adaptive Modulation 3.2 Single Carrier Analysis 3.2.1 Square QAM Approximation 3.2.2 SNR Gap Analysis 3.3 Mulicarrier Analysis 3.3.1 Optimum Bit and Power Allocation Algorithm 3.4 Simulation Results 3.4.1 White Noise Environment 3.4.2 Effect of Narrowband Interference 3.4.3 Exponential Noise Spectrum 3.4.4 Maximum Achievable Bitrate for a given power budget

17 17 17 18 19 21

22 24 25 27 28

30

Chapter 4

MULTIPLE ACCESS FOR OFDM 4.1 Introduction to Multiple Access 4.2 OFDM as Multiple Access Concept 4.3 Multiple Access Schemes for OFDM 4.3.1 OFDM Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) 4.3.2 OFDM Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) 4.3.3 Adaptive Allocation Strategies 4.4 Adaptive Allocation Algorithm for Multiuser OFDM 4.4.1 Problem Formulation 4.4.2 Mathematical Formulation 4.4.3 Iterative Method For Solving For Optimum Value

32 32 33 37

37

40 40 41 41 44

46

viii 4.5 Matrix Optimization 4.5.1 Subcarrier Allocation Algorithm 4.5.2 Combined Bit, Power And Subcarrier Allocation Algorithm 4.6 Simulation And Results 4.6.1 OFDM-TDMA With Adaptive Modulation 4.6.2 OFDM-FDMA with Adaptive Modulation 4.6.3 Multiuser OFDM with Adaptive Allocation Algorithm (MOAAA) 4.6.4 Comparison of MOAAA with other schemes 55 56 51 53 53 54 48 48

Chapter 5

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE

58

REFERENCES

60

ix

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. No. 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 OFDM Modulator OFDM Demodulator

Description

Pg. No. 5 5 6 7 7 8 8 9 11 11 12 13 15 18 25 26 27 28 29

Power Spectral Density of OFDM Signal Block diagram of OFDM Transmitter Block diagram of OFDM Receiver

2.6 (a) Bandlimited Intersymbol-Interference (ISI) channel (b) Channel and Multichannel Decomposition of Channel response 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 2.11 2.12 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Independant subchannels Channel estimation with cyclic prefix of length L = 2 Channel Estimation with Cyclic prefix of length L = 12 Variation of MSE of estimation with the length of cyclic prefix, L Normalized Impulse Response of Class A Powerline channel Spectrum of Noise with Exponential PSD Constellation Plots for 16QAM and 32QAM Bit allocation in a white noise environment BER plot for different noise power Performance Comparison of Adaptive OFDM with Static OFDM Bit Allocation in the presence of Narrowband Interference Bit allocation in the presence of noise with exponential spectrum BER plot for Adaptive OFDM and static OFDM in the presence of noise with exponential spectrum 3.8 3.9 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Plot of Bitrate for different power budget maintaining a constant BER Bit allocation for different power budgets Frequency Division Duplexing Time Division Duplexing Multiuser OFDM for Downlink OFDM Time and Frequency Grid

29 30 31 32 33 36 36

x 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 Block FDMA FDMA with Random Allocation Interleaved FDMA OFDM TDMA Block Diagram of Multiuser OFDM with AAA (MOAAA) Capacity Curve for OFDM-TDMA Performance Comparison of OFDM-FDMA with OFDM-IFDMA Subcarrier and bit allocation for different users Performance curve for MOAAA Performance Comparison of MOAAA with other schemes Effect of frequency selectivity of the channel 38 39 39 40 42 53 54 55 56 56 57

xi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ADC ADSL ASIC BER CDMA DAB DAC DFT DMT DS-CDMA DSP DVB FDD FDMA FFT FIR HD-TV ICI IDFT IFDMA IFFT ISI MC-CDMA MOAAA OFDM PSD QAM QoS QPSK SNR Analog to Digital Converter Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line Application Specific Integrated Circuit Bit Error Rate Code Division Multiple Access Digital Audio Broadcasting Digital to Analog Converter Discrete Fourier Transform Discrete Multi-tone Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access Digital Signal Processor Digital Video Broadcasting Frequency Division Duplexing Frequency Division Multiple Access Fast Fourier Transform Finite Impulse Response High Definition Television Inter Channel Interference Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform Interleaved FDMA Inverse Fast Fourier Transform Intersymbol Interference Multicarrier CDMA Multiuser OFDM with Adaptive Allocation Algorithm Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Power Spectral Density Quadrature Amplitude Modulation Quality of Service Quadrature Phase Shift Keying Signal to Noise ratio

xii TDD TDMA UMTS VDSL Time Division Duplexing Time Division Multiple Access Universal Mobile Telecommunication System Very high data rate Digital Subscriber Line

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background

Recently, intense interest has been focused on modulation techniques, which can provide broadband transmission over multipath channels for applications including wireless multimedia, wireless internet access, future generation mobile communication systems and powerline communication systems. Multicarrier modulation techniques, including OFDM are among the more promising solutions. OFDM systems have been standardized for Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) and Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB).

Assuming that the channel information is available significant performance improvement can be achieved by using Adaptive modulation with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). Hence multi-user OFDM with adaptive subcarrier, bit and energy allocation technique has been considered with the objective of minimizing total transmit power.

1.2 Contribution To The Thesis

A single user allocation algorithm, which allocates bit and energy optimally for given bit rate and QoS requirements, has been tested for a multipath FIR channel with different noise conditions. The algorithm uses M-ary Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) with different M for different subcarriers. A comparative study of Adaptive QAM based OFDM with QPSK based OFDM is made for a single user environment using Monte Carlo simulations and the results have been presented. The

2 results show that the OFDM with adaptive loading outperforms the conventional QPSK OFDM.

OFDM

based

broadband

systems

for

wireless

communications

are

advantageous because of the inherent flexibility in bandwidth allocation for variable rate services. There are several possibilities of a multiple access scheme for OFDM. Some of them are OFDM-TDMA, OFDM-FDMA, and OFDM-with Code Division Multiple Access. We can also have a multiple access algorithm that allocates subcarrier, bit and energy to the users depending on their bit rate and QoS requirements. The algorithm takes into account individual users channel SNR in a frequency selective fading environment. A new scheme, which combines the advantages of TDMA and Adaptive algorithm for combined bit and sub-carrier allocation is proposed.

1.3 Thesis Outline

This thesis is organized as follows: An overview of OFDM systems is presented in chapter 2, then bit loading algorithms for single user system is discussed and the simulation results for single user case is presented in chapter 3. Finally multiple access schemes for the downlink communication system is discussed in chapter 4 and the results are discussed. Conclusion and scope for future work is given in chapter 5.

CHAPTER 2

AN OVERVIEW OF OFDM SYSTEM

2.1 Introduction to OFDM

The principles of OFDM have been developed about 25 years ago, however, practical interest has only increased recently, due in part to advances in signal processing and microelectronics. In the past, as well as in the present, this same modulation scheme is referred to as multitone, multicarrier, Fourier transform, and orthogonal frequency division multiplex communication.

The main idea behind OFDM is to split the data stream to be transmitted into N parallel streams of reduced data rate and to transmit each of them on a separate subcarrier. These carriers are made orthogonal by appropriately choosing the frequency spacing between them. Therefore, spectral overlapping among subcarriers is allowed, since the orthogonality will ensure that the receiver can separate the OFDM subcarriers, and a better spectral efficiency can be achieved than by using simple frequency division multiplex. Next, we give a mathematical description of the OFDM signal and we present a typical OFDM system. In its most general form, the lowpass equivalent OFDM signal can be written as a set of modulated carriers transmitted in parallel, as follows:

s (t ) =

n =

X
k =0

N 1

n,k

g k (t nTs )

(2.1)

with

(2.2)

4 and (2.3)

where X n ,k is the symbol transmitted on the kth subcarrier in the nth signaling interval, each of duration Ts, N is the number of OFDM subcarriers, fk is the kth subcarrier frequency, with f0 being the lowest frequency to be used. We define the nth OFDM frame as the transmitted signal for the nth signaling interval of duration equal to one symbol period Ts, and denote it by Fn(t). By substituting Fn(t) in equation (2.1) instead of the term in parenthesis, which corresponds to the nth OFDM frame , the relation can be rewritten as

(2.4)

and thus, Fn(t) corresponds to the set of symbols X n ,k , k=0...N-1, each transmitted on the corresponding subcarriers fk. Demodulation is based on the orthogonality of the carriers gk(t), namely: (2.5)

and therefore the demodulator will implement the relation: X n ,k = 1 Ts

( n +1)Ts

nTs

s(t ) g

* k

(t )dt

(2.6)

The block diagram of an OFDM modulator is given in Figure 2.1, while the demodulator is shown in Figure 2.2, where, for simplicity, we have ignored the filters inherent in all communication systems.

Figure 2.1: OFDM Modulator

Figure 2.2: OFDM Demodulator

In order to make an OFDM system practical, a more economical implementation of the modulator and demodulator is required, since according to Figure 2.1 and Figure 2.2 a large number of identical modulator/demodulator blocks would be needed. This can be accomplished through discrete time signal processing and by making use of the filtering properties of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT). By sampling the low pass equivalent signal of (2.1) and (2.4) at a rate N times higher than the subcarrier symbol rate 1/Ts, and assuming f0=0 (that is the carrier frequency is equal to the lowest subcarrier frequency), the OFDM frame can be expressed as:

Fn (m) = X n,k g k (t nTs )

k =0

N 1

m t = n + Ts N

,m=0,..,N-1

(2.7)

which yields

Fn (m) = e

j 2f oTs

m N

m j 2k N 1 X n ,k e N = N IDFT{ X n ,k } k =0

6 The power spectral density of the OFDM signal is shown in figure 2.3.

Figure 2.3: Power Spectral Density of the OFDM Signal

2.2 OFDM system implementation In OFDM systems, the input data is divided into N parallel streams of data and modulated by Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) or QPSK to get N parallel complex sub-symbols Xn,k ( where n represent nth OFDM symbol and k represents the sub-channel number). These sub-symbols are assigned to each carrier i.e. the spectrum is chosen. The required spectrum is converted back to time domain signal using Inverse Fourier Transform, IFFT is used for easy implementation. To ensure orthogonality between the carriers, cyclic prefix is added to the IFFT output and is converted into serial by a parallel to serial converter and converted to Analog signal using a A/D converter sampling at a rate (N+L)/Ts where L is the length of cyclic prefix and Ts is the OFDM symbol interval. The block diagram of an OFDM transmitter is given in figure 2.4.

The OFDM symbol transmitted at any symbol interval is given by, s (nTs /( N + L)) = X k exp( j 2 kn / N )
k =0 N 1

(2.8)

Figure 2.4: Block Diagram of OFDM Transmitter

At the receiver the reverse process is carried out (For simplicity Equalization, Coding and Synchronization aspects are left out). The block diagram of an OFDM receiver is given in figure 2.5.

Figure 2.5: Block Diagram of OFDM Receiver

2.3 Channel And Its Effect:

Figure 2.6(a) illustrates a channel with impulse response h(t) and additive (Gaussian) noise u(t). We call the channel output y(t). We investigate the use of multicarrier modulation on such an ISI channel.

Figure 2.6(a): Bandlimited Intersymbol Interference (ISI) Channel

Figure 2.6(b): Channel and Multichannel Decomposition of Channel Response

When N is large, the continuous transfer function of the channel response H(f) can be approximated by the discrete curve illustrated by rectangles in figure 2.6(b). Each of the rectangles is band of frequencies 1/Ts Hz wide. The value of the transfer function at each center frequency H(fi) is abbreviated as Hi the fi in the figure are the center carrier frequencies, fi, i = 1 to N. Hi has a magnitude |Hi| and a phase angle(Hi). When N is sufficiently large, then the rectangles are very narrow in figure 2.6, and is mathematically correct to write Yi ,k = H i X i ,k + U i , k

(2.9)

where Yi ,k i = 1,,N are the complex outputs of the N-pt FFT in figure (and U i ,k i = 1,..,N are similarly defined for the noise). That is, the N output samples of the receiver FFT correspond to N independent subchannels, i.e. with no interference between them, as is illustrated in figure 2.7. When N is large, the noise components can be shown to be independent when u(t) is Gaussian even if the noise is not white.

Figure 2.7: Independent Subchannels

We note that then, because the subchannels are independent, they can be individually decoded using a memory less detector for each. This set of memory less detectors is the optimum maximum likelihood detector for the transmitted signal. Maximum-likelihood detection is then achieved with no equalization nor any use of sequence detection.

2.4 Cyclic Prefix And Channel Estimation The addition of cyclic prefix to the IFFT output ensures the orthogonality between the carriers and prevents Inter Carrier Interference (ICI) and the length of cyclic prefix is so chosen that it also remove Inter-symbol Interference (ISI). Cyclic prefix addition is nothing but addition of cyclic extension of symbols at the start. The cyclically extended frame FC(m) can be written as,

10 FCn(m) = = Fn (N+m) Fn (m) , m = -L,,-1 , m = 0,N-1 (2.10)

where, Fn (m) is given by (2.7) It can be shown that the addition of cyclic prefix makes the channel matrix circulant if the length of the cyclic prefix is greater than the maximum delay spread of the channel. The input-output relation of OFDM block transmission is given by the matrix equation,

y(i) where, x(i) y(i) u(i) H

H x(i) + u(i)

(2.11)

= = = =

transmitted block i (N x 1 matrix) received block i (N x 1 matrix) effective noise for block i N x N circulant channel matrix

The result can be written in frequency domain as,

Y(k)

X(k).H(k)

U(k)

k = 0,N-1

(2.12)

where, H(k) X(k) Y(k) = = = frequency response of sub-channel k complex sub-symbol input of sub-channel k complex sub-symbol output of sub-channel k

Thus by sending the known symbols X(k) through the channel and using the output Y(k), the frequency response of the sub-channels could be found.

2.4.1 Simulation and Results

The model used for simulation is an OFDM system with 256 carriers and a FIR channel with maximum delay spread 10 and with equal variance for all taps. Set of known symbols was transmitted and the sub-channel frequency response is found

11 using the relation (2.12) for different lengths of cyclic prefix and the results are given below.

Figure 2.8 : Channel Estimation with cyclic prefix of length L = 2

Figure 2.9 : Channel Estimation with Cyclic prefix of length L = 12

12

Figure 2.10 : Variation of MSE of estimation with the length of cyclic prefix, L

It is clear from the above results that cyclic prefix maintains orthogonality between the carriers, if length of the cyclic prefix is greater than the maximum effective delay spread of the channel and the relation of independence between subchannels given by (2.12) is valid only if cyclic prefix is added. Figure 2.8 and Figure 2.9 shows the plot of estimated frequency response of the channel using the relation (2.12) with cyclic prefix of length 2 and 12 respectively. It can be inferred that the estimation error is more when the length of the cyclic prefix is less than the maximum delay spread of the channel. This is illustrated in Figure 2.10 and it can be seen that the Mean Square Error saturates once the length of the cyclic prefix is greater than or equal to the length of the maximum delay spread of the channel.

For adaptive OFDM systems channel and noise estimation is an important aspect. There are several adaptive estimators available for perfect estimation of channel and noise parameters. In this respect neural network based estimators form an important class of estimators especially for non-stationary environments.

13 2.5 OFDM System Design Steps

The steps involved in the design of an OFDM system are given below: 1. Let B be the total available bandwidth 2. Let the maximum delay spread of the channel be td seconds 3. To prevent ISI, choose guard interval Tg for OFDM symbol much greater than the maximum delay spread td say Tg = 4 x td 4. To reduce the overhead introduced by cyclic prefix, choose OFDM symbol time Ts much greater than the guard time Tg, say Tos = 8 x Tg 5. Then Subcarrier spacing, fd = 1/Tos 6. Total symbol time, Ts = Tos + Tg 7. Number of subcarriers, N = B/fd (Nearest power of 2)

2.6 Channel Specifications

During the entire course of the project, the channel used for simulation is a typical powerline channel modeled as a tapped delay line filter. The normalized impulse response of the model channel of class 1 is given below.

Figure 2.11 : Normalized Impulse Response of Class A Powerline channel

14 The number of discrete paths in the model is 7 for class 1. The amplitudes of each path of the model is normalized to the maximum amplitude of the model, which is 22 dB for class 1. The mean and standard deviation are given for each path. It can be seen that delay of the paths is between about 100ns and 800ns and the amplitude is decreasing with increasing delay time. The channel sampling rate is interpolated to achieve the sampling rate of the transmitted signal. The maximum delay spread of the channel is 1us.

2.7 System Description Based on the channel impulse response, the OFDM system designed for the simulation is given below:

Available Channel Bandwidth, B

8 MHz

Maximum Channel Delay Spread, td

1 us

Guard Interval, Tg

4 us

To reduce the overhead due to the Guard time, OFDM symbol time must be >> guard time. Let OFDM symbol time be 8 times the guard time so that the overhead due to guard time is 11.11%. If we reduce the overhead further by increasing the OFDM symbol time will result in reduction in the subcarrier spacing, which will in turn increase the total number of subcarriers for a given bandwidth. More the number of subcarriers the complexity involved in the design of IFFT and FFT processors will increase. Hence for an optimum number of subcarriers, the overhead is chosen.

Tos

8 x 4us

32 us

Ts

Tos + Tg

36 us

Subchannel spacing, fd

1/Tos

31.25 kHz

15 Number of Subcarriers, N = B/fd = 256

Size of IFFT and FFT, 2N

2*N

512

Sampling frequency, fs

2*N*fd

16 MHz

Cyclic Prefix Length, L

fs*Tguard

64

2.8 Noise Model When the number of subcarriers is large the effective noise PSD in the subchannels is flat. We have conducted experiments for equal noise power in all subchannels and also with RF pulse interference, which is very common in powerline environment. The background noise for the residential environment is given by, Nresident(f) = - 35 + 35.exp(-f(MHz)/3.6) dBuV/Hz1/2

(2.13)

Figure 2.12 : Spectrum of Noise with Exponential PSD

16 To generate the above noise environment, a filter with the frequency response given by equation (2.13) is designed. By passing white noise (with zero mean and unit variance) through this filter, the required noise with exponential power spectrum is generated. The power spectrum of the noise is given in figure 2.12.

In the next chapter we analyze the capacity and rate margin of multicarrier systems starting from the single carrier analysis.

17

CHAPTER 3

BIT AND ENERGY ALLOCATION ALGORITHMS

3.1 Adaptive Modulation

In OFDM systems employing adaptive modulation, the number of bits and energy allocated to a subchannel is decided based on the signal to noise ratio in that particular subchannel for a given probability of error. The algorithms used to calculate the bit and energy for all subchannels are known as bit and energy allocation algorithms or simply allocation algorithms. Thus in OFDM systems with adaptive modulation, different number of bits are transmitted in different subchannels based on the channel conditions. If a subchannel has very low SNR than no bits are allocated to that subchannel and if a subchannel has high SNR more number of bits can be allocated to that subchannel. This is taken care by the allocation algorithms. The SNR gap analysis for single carrier system is presented in the following section and is extended for multicarrier systems.

3.2 Single Carrier Analysis:

Since multicarrier systems are equivalent to a set of independent (and also ISIfree) QAM subchannels, we can use single carrier QAM analysis for a large part of the analysis of the multicarrier system. In this section we present a simple method for analyzing QAM.

18 3.2.1 Square QAM Approximation

Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) constellation may take a variety of forms. When these points are arranged regularly within a square boundary, the constellation is said to be a QAM square. The constellation plots for square 16-QAM and 32-QAM are illustrated in figure 3.1. 4-QAM, 64 QAM, and even 1024 QAM are often encountered in data transmission applications. The distance between points in the constellation is denoted by d, and all points are assumed equally likely. The constellation is centered at the origin and has zero mean value.

Figure 3.1: Constellation Plots for 16QAM and 32QAM

The energy of such a constellation is E = ( M 1) d 2 / 6

(3.1)

19 per two dimensional symbol. M = 2 b is some power of 4 (b is an even integer) representing the number of points in the constellation, and b is the number of bits represented by single QAM symbol. In practice, when b >= 2 and odd or non-integer, then (3.1) is not exact, but still an accurate approximation to the average transmit energy. When b<2, (3.1) is not a good approximation in general. With trellis coding, and in particular with the popular 4-D 16-state trellis code on Wei, it is possible for b to be as small as b = .25 and to use the relation in (3.1) without significant error. When doing this, M = 2 b and is not necessarily the number of points in the 2-D QAM constellation when coded. Constellations with granularity to .5 bit (say b = 3.5) are readily accommodated in the code case also. So we assume that relation in (3.1) is correct for any QAM constellation in the following analysis.

3.2.2 SNR Gap Analysis

The probability of two-dimensional symbol error in QAM is closely approximated by, Pe 4 Q(d min /(2 ))

(3.2)

where 2 = noise variance and d min = minimum distance between constellation points at the channel output and if H is the channel gain and assuming the channel has no ISI,

d min = d 2 H
2

(3.3)

where d = minimum distance between constellation points at the channel input in an uncoded input constellation.

The Q-function in (3.2) is defined by

20

Q( x) =

1 2

e
x

z2 2

dz

(3.4)

For a given Pe, the term (d min /(2 )) 2 is calculated and SNR gap ( ), which is a measure of how close a given code on a channel is to the theoretical maximum for that particular channel and its given transmit energy, is defined as 3 = (d min /(2 )) 2

(3.5)

For a probability of symbol error per dimension (Pe/2) 10-7, the term (d min /(2 )) 2 is given by, (d min /(2 )) 2 = 14.5dB + m dB c dB

(3.6)

The quantity c is the coding gain of any applied code, including shaping gain/loss, nearest-neighbor penalties, and correlated-noise adjustments. The quantity m is called the margin, an amount of extra performance that is required to ensure adequate performance in the presence of unforeseen channel impairments. When c and m are zeros, then the QAM system is uncoded and has no margin and we need 14.5 dB as an argument to the Q-function in (3.4) to get Pe/2 = 10-7. When the system is coded, we reduce 14.5 dB by the amount of the coding gain, which is the amount by which dmin will appear to have been increased through the action of the code. When we desire a margin, we increase the 14.5 dB by the value of the margin.

We can rewrite (3.1) as

M = 1+

6E H
2 d min

(3.7)

21 By taking log, base 2 of (3.7) and substituting for dmin from (3.5) in (3.7) we can compute the number of bits. SNR b = log 2 ( M ) = log 2 1 + Where Signal to noise ratio (SNR) for a given channel is given by, (3.8)

SNR = E H / 2 2
2

(3.9)

On rearranging (3.8) we get,

= SNR /( M 1)

(3.10)

Based on the channel SNR and Pe requirement one can decide on the number of bits that can be transmitted on the channel using the above equation. The value of b calculated is rounded off to the nearest integer.

3.3 Multicarrier Analysis

The equations analyzed for single carrier QAM can be extended to multicarrier systems as given below: bi = log 2 (1 + SNRi / )

(3.11)

Where the subscript i represents the subchannel i and bi is the number of bits representing one QAM symbol in the subchannel i and SNRi is the SNR of subchannel i and is given by,

SNRi =

H i Ei 2 i2

(3.12)

22 where i2 = noise variance in the subchannel i and H i is the channel gain and Ei is the energy per 2D symbol in the subchannel i. Here we assume that Pe is maintained constant in all the subchannels and hence SNR gap is the same for all the subchannels. The total number of bits transmitted in one OFDM symbol is given by,
N 1 i=0

b = bi

(3.13)

Let E be the total energy available (based on the power budget) and the total energy is divided equally to all the subchannels. The number of bits that could be transmitted over a subchannel is calculated based on the subchannel SNR and the probability of error requirement. Here Ei, energy for the subchannel i is maintained constant for used subchannels and is zero for unused subchannels. This gives variable bit rate depending on the channel conditions. Another variation could be fixing up the bit rate and calculating the energy required for achieving that rate for a given channel and noise conditions by optimally allocation bits for subchannels. One such algorithm is presented below:

3.3.1 Optimal Bit And Power Allocation Algorithm

1.

Fix up the required probability of error, Pe and calculate the SNR gap for the given modulation technique, here QAM.

2.

Fix up the maximum number of bits per subchannel, q. i.e. the maximum constellation size.

3.

Find the incremental power matrix whose elements consists of the power required to transmit a one extra bit in the given subchannel using the

23 subchannel gain and subchannel noise variance for all subchannels. It is given as P = {P(k , j )} = Pnoise ( j ) 2 k 1 / H ( j ) j=0 to N-1 and k=1 to q
2

(3.14)

where j correspond to subchannel index and k corresponds to the bit index.

4.

Initially set bits and power allocated to each subchannel to be zero

5.

After the matrix has been calculated the algorithm works as follows i) we search row 1 for the smallest P and if this happens to be for a particular subchannel p we assign one more bit to it and also increment the power allocated to the particular subchannel by P (1,p) ii) if total no of bits allocated to all the subchannels is greater than or equal to the desired no of bits to be transmitted in an OFDM symbol, come out of the iteration iii) else rotate the particular column corresponding to the pth subchannel upwards by one row iv) go to step i) and repeat until the desired bit rate is achieved.

Features

For a given bit rate and probability of error requirement, the algorithm allocates bit and energy to the subcarriers so that the total transmit power is minimum.

The algorithm can be modified to achieve maximum transmission rate for a given power budget and Pe.

Perfect channel information must be available for the algorithm to allocate bits and energy. Hence channel estimation is required.

24

Algorithm uses M-ary QAM as a modulation method with different M for different subcarriers.

3.4 Simulations and results

The OFDM system described in section 2.7 is used for the simulation. The channel and noise model described in section 2.6 and 2.8 is used and the results are presented in this section. It is assumed that the perfect statistics of noise and channel are available and using the statistics we allocate bits and power to the subchannel using the bitloading algorithm. For simplicity, coding gain is assumed to be 0 dB and the data rate is fixed at 14.42Mbps (i.e. 512 bits per OFDM symbol time) for comparison with QPSK based static OFDM.

Incoming bit stream is buffered and converted into N parallel bit streams using serial to parallel converter so that each subchannel gets the allocated number of bits. Then the bits are modulated using M-ary QAM constellation mapper to get N parallel complex subsymbols corresponding to N subchannels. The corresponding time domain symbols for the given spectrum are obtained by taking 2N point IFFT. The 2N parallel time domain symbols are converted to serial using a parallel to serial converter. The cyclic extension of the above-specified length (L) is added to the time domain symbols to account for ISI and to maintain orthogonality between the carriers and the resulting symbols are converted to analog and transmitted on the channel using a DAC sampling at a rate of fs.

The received signal is converted to digital using ADC with a sampling rate fs and cyclic prefix is removed from the resulting signal. Then it is converted into 2N parallel streams using a serial to parallel converter and the complex symbols are obtained by taking 2N point FFT. The symbols are demodulated using a M-QAM demodulator to get back the transmitted data stream.

25 3.4.1 White Noise Environment

A white noise spectrum is considered. The bit allocation for this case is given in figure 3.2

Figure 3.2: Bit allocation in a white noise environment

It could be seen from figure 3.2 that bit allocation is in accordance with the channel SNR.

26

Figure 3.3 BER plot for different noise power

For a given bit rate of 14.42 Mbps, we fix up the Pe = 10-3 for QAM and calculate the power required to achieve the specifications and the practical BER is determined for the given bit and power allocation. For the same bit rate and power the BER is determined for QPSK (Here a constant modulation scheme is applied for all subchannels). The experiment is repeated for different noise power and a graph is plotted between noise power in dB and BER for the two schemes for comparison.

From figure 3.3 we find that for same channel and noise characteristics and for the same transmit power, adaptive QAM based OFDM performs better than QPSK based OFDM.

The average bit SNR (Eb/No) vs the BER for OFDM employing static modulation in all the subchannels i.e. QPSK, and for OFDM employing adaptive modulation is given in figure 3.4.

27

Figure 3.4: Performance Comparison of Adaptive OFDM with Static OFDM

It can be inferred from figure 3.4 that the QPSK based OFDM capacity curve is flatter than the theoretical QPSK curve because in QPSK based OFDM SNR gap is not maintained constant is all subchannels. Hence BER is different in different subchannels and so the deviation. It could be seen that by employing adaptive modulation for OFDM a gain of 7 dB is achieved for a BER of 10-2.

3.4.2 Effect of Narrowband Interference

In addition to the white Gaussian noise in the channel we introduce narrow band interference in several subchannels for both QPSK based and adaptive QAM based OFDM systems. The effect of the narrow band interference is determined. The bit allocation for this type of channel is given in figure 3.5.

28

Figure 3.5: Bit Allocation in the presence of Narrowband Interference

In this case, the total transmit power to achieve the given requirement depends upon the position of occurrence of the narrowband interference. If the interference occurs in a subchannel, which has a good gain then the power loss will be more, because that subchannel would be used for transmission otherwise.

3.4.3 Exponential Noise Spectrum

Here we consider a noise with an exponential PSD described in section 2.8 and the practical BER is found for the given allocation. The bit allocation is given in figure 3.6 and a plot of BER for different noise powers is presented in figure 3.7.

29

Figure 3.6: Bit allocation in the presence of noise with exponential spectrum

Figure 3.7: BER plot for Adaptive OFDM and static OFDM in the presence of noise with exponential spectrum

30 In this case the effective channel SNR is high in the intermediate subcarriers and hence more bits are allocated for these subcarriers. This can be inferred from figure

3.4.4 Maximum Bitrate for a given power budget

The algorithm is modified to achieve maximum bit rate for a given power budget and Pe. The BER plot is obtained for different transmit powers and is given in figure 3.8

Figure 3.8 Plot of Bitrate for different power budget maintaining a constant BER

It can be seen from figure 3.8 that by increasing the total transmit power significant increase in bit rate can be achieved maintaining same BER and is clear that achievable bit rate increases proportionally to an increase in transmit power.

31

Figure 3.9: Bit allocation for different power budgets

The bit allocation for different power budgets is presented in figure 3.9. It can be seen from figure 3.9 that the number of bits allocated increases proportionally with increase in transmit power. In the following chapter, we discuss extensively on multiuser OFDM

32

CHAPTER 4

MULTIPLE ACCESS FOR OFDM

4.1 Introduction To Multiple Access

Multiple Access schemes are used to allow many users to share simultaneously a finite amount of available bandwidth. The sharing of spectrum is required to achieve high capacity by simultaneously allocating the available bandwidth to multiple users. For high quality communications, this must be done without severe degradation in the performance of the system.

In wireless communication systems, it is often desirable to allow the subscriber to send simultaneously information to the base station while receiving information from the base station. For example in conventional telephone systems it is possible to talk and listen simultaneously and this effect is called duplexing is generally required in wireless communication systems. Duplexing may be done using frequency or time domain techniques. Frequency division duplexing provides two distinct bands of frequencies for every user. The forward band provides traffic from the base station to the mobile and the reverse band provides traffic from the mobile to the base station.

Figure 4.1: Frequency Division Duplexing

33 Time division duplexing uses time instead of frequency to provide both a forward and reverse link. If time split between the forward and reverse time slot is small then the transmission and reception of data appears simultaneous to the user.

Figure 4.2: Time Division Duplexing

In our system we assume frequency division duplexing and we analyze the possibility of using OFDM for multiple access in the downlink (i.e base station to subscriber unit) communication system.

Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) are the three major access techniques used to share the available bandwidth in a wireless communication system. We discuss the above schemes with respect to an OFDM system in the following section.

4.2 OFDM As Multiple Access Concept

New air interfaces based on a single carrier TDMA concept have potential problems to efficiently equalize high bit-rates in tough radio environments. Moreover, DS-CDMA systems have a potential problem with small spreading gains for high bit-rate services in the limited spectrum available for UMTS. In this light, we have studied the possibility to base a new air interface on a Multi-Carrier (MC) technology, referred to as Orthogonal Frequency Divided Multiplexing (OFDM).

34 The shown interest for the OFDM technique during the past years indicates interesting qualities as stated in [1][16][14]. According to results from different activities the most beneficial properties with the OFDM concept, from our point of view, are:

Each transceiver will have access to all subcarriers within a cell layer (this enable very high bit-rates).

There is more or less no need of frequency planning within a cell layer (it is performed with an Adaptive Allocation algorithm).

The technique will handle packet data services and mixtures of packet and circuit services.

The subcarrier modulation is performed with a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) which is a well known algorithm and should be considered as a compact digital modulator (easy to implement).

The division of the spectra to a large number of narrow banded, flat fading channels allows easy equalization even in environments with severe delay spread.

The division of the signal to a large number of more of less independent channels will provide the flexibility needed for all foreseen future multimedia services (variable bit rate with different quality of services).

Potential drawbacks with OFDM as a multiple access concept are mainly based on that OFDM is a relatively young technique and there are open issues where still no optimum solution has been found. Topics, which still are under active research, are:

35 A tight synchronization in time and frequency are needed for the system to stay orthogonal. This is a problem essentially on the uplink. Studies have shown that there are methods for handling these types of problems.

The high dynamics of the broadband signal implies a need of a wide range linear power amplifier (note that this is a general problem applying on all broadband systems).

OFDM is a spectrum efficient multiplexing technique that has proven functional in other concepts and standards as [5][6]:

High performance modem for copper wire, twisted pair (ADSL and VDSL). High quality audio broadcasting (DAB, Digital Audio Broadcasting) Broadcasting HD-TV

In general it can be said that uncertainties concerning OFDM as a multiple access concept concerns the system uplink. The main issue is to keep the mobile synchronized to the base stations time and frequency grid. This means that the mobiles must transmit the information with some timing advance due to the different propagation delay of the radio channels. The mobiles need to be synchronized to preserve the system orthogonality and avoid inter channel interference (ICI).

The downlink follows the same paths as the broadcast concepts and has already proven functional. Because all users are multiplexed in the base station they are always orthogonal to each other. If a mobile loose the synchronization on the downlink, the only thing that happens is that the connection is lost. No other user will suffer from this type of failure. Hence OFDM proves to be more efficient for the downlink.

36

Figure 4.3: Multiuser OFDM for Downlink

Figure 4.3 shows a typical downlink OFDM system with K users each having his own bitrate and QoS requirements. For example user 1 is a voice user, user 2 is requires video service and user 3 is a data user. Data communication can tolerate delay but needs very low probability of error (order of 10-8) whereas voice application cannot tolerate delay but can tolerate a probability of error of the order of 10-3. Hence QoS and bit rate requirements are different for different users depending on the service required. This should be incorporated in the system design. Since base stations are power limited, the allocation algorithm should ensure that the total transmit power is a minimum.

Figure 4.4: OFDM Time and Frequency Grid

37 One way of looking at OFDM is that it creates a time and frequency grid where each rectangle is orthogonal to all other rectangles in the grid, as shown in Figure 4.4. The size of a rectangle will depend on the choice of parameters for the OFDM system.

Each rectangle represents a subchannel available to a particular user in an OFDM symbol time. The user could employ specific type of modulation depending on the channel condition and his requirements in the subchannel allocated to him. Thereby OFDM systems offer flexibility in modulation and multiple access.

4.3 Multiple Access Schemes For OFDM

There are several possibilities of a multiple access schemes for OFDM. Some of these techniques are OFDM-TDMA, OFDM-FDMA, MC-CDMA etc. In the following section the FDMA and TDMA approach has been considered and an improvement has been presented in the form of the Adaptive Algorithm for modulation and multiple access.

4.3.1 OFDM Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDM-FDMA)

In OFDM-FDMA, each user is allocated a pre-determined band of subcarriers and can use only those subcarriers exclusively in every set of OFDM symbols. In each allocated subcarrier we can go in for adaptive modulation or fixed modulation. The adaptive bit allocation algorithm explained in section 3.3.1 will be used for the allocated subcarriers for adaptive modulation FDMA systems. Based on the allocation of subcarriers to users we can have variations of OFDM-FDMA. Some of them are given below:

1. Block FDMA

Here each user is allocated a bunch of adjacent subcarriers as shown in figure 4.4.

38

Figure 4.5: Block FDMA

The different shades in the above figure represent different users and the subcarriers allocated to him. The same set of subcarriers is used in all OFDM symbols.

The main advantage of this scheme is easy allocation of subcarriers with very less computational complexity but it lacks in robustness. In a frequency selective fading environment, there is a high correlation between channel gains in adjacent subcarriers. In order to avoid the situation where all subcarriers of a user are in deep fade, we go in for an improvement.

2. Random Allocation

Here we dont allocate a bunch of subcarriers, which are adjacent to a particular user. Instead we allocate subcarriers randomly so that the probability that all the subcarriers of a particular user are in deep fade is very less. The scheme is illustrated in figure 4.6

39

Figure 4.6: FDMA with Random Allocation

3. Interleaved FDMA

To achieve significant improvement in performance we go in for interleaved FDMA. Here the subcarriers assigned to a particular user are interlaced with other users subcarriers in the frequency domain. So if a deep fade occurs only a single subcarrier of a particular user is affected and the data can be recovered by using powerful coding techniques across many OFDM symbols. This is illustrated in the following figure 4.7.

Figure 4.7: Interleaved FDMA

40 4.3.2 OFDM Time Division Multiple Access (OFDM-TDMA)

In OFDM-TDMA, each user is assigned a pre-determined TDMA time slot and can all the subcarriers with in the allocated time slot exclusively. This is illustrated in figure 4.8

Figure 4.8: OFDM - TDMA

FDMA systems require tight frequency synchronization unlike TDMA systems because the entire bandwidth is available to a user during his time slot. All these schmes described above are static schemes wherein the instantaneous channel information is not taken in to consideration for subcarrier allocation. Hence significant performance improvement can be achieved if we use an adaptive allocation scheme for combined subcarrier and bit allocation based on the available channel information. In the following sections we present various adaptive schemes for multiple access and modulation.

4.3.3 Adaptive Allocation Strategies

In multiuser systems using static TDMA or FDMA as multi-access schemes, each user is allocated a predetermined time slot or frequency band to apply OFDM

41 with adaptive modulation. Consequently these unused subcarriers (as a result of adaptive modulation) within the allocated time slot or frequency band of a user are wasted and are not user by other users. However the subcarriers, which appear in deep fade for one user, may not be in deep fade for other users. Infact it is quite unlikely that a subcarrier will be in deep fade for all users, as the fading parameters for different users are mutually independent. This motivates us to consider an adaptive multiuser subcarrier allocation scheme where the subcarriers are assigned to the users based on instantaneous channel information. This approach will allow all the subcarriers to be used more effectively because a subcarrier will be left unused only if it appears to be in deep fade for all the users. The adaptive schemes are discussed in detail in the following section.

4.4 Adaptive Allocation Algorithm for Multiuser OFDM

We consider a multiuser subcarrier, bit and energy allocation scheme where all the users transmit in all the time slots. Our objective is to minimize the overall transmit power by allocating the subcarriers to the users and by determining to number of bits and the power level transmitted on each subcarrier based on the instantaneous fading characteristics of all users.

4.4.1 Problem Formulation

The configuration of our multiuser adaptive OFDM is shown in figure 4.9. We assume that the system has K users and a total of N subcarriers. The kth user has a data rate equal to Rk bits per second. In the transmitter, the serial data from the K users are fed into the subcarrier and bit allocation block, which allocates bits from different users to different subcarriers. We assume that each subcarrier has a bandwidth that is much smaller than the coherence bandwidth of the channel and that the transmitter knows the instantaneous channel gains on all the subcarriers of all the users. Using the channel information the transmitter applies the combined subcarrier, bit and power allocation algorithm to assign different subcarriers to different users and the number of

42 bits per OFDM symbol to be transmitted on each subcarrier. Depending on the number of bits assigned to a subcarrier the adaptive modulator will use a corresponding modulation scheme and the transmitted power level will be adjusted according to the combined subcarrier, bit and power allocation algorithm.

Figure 4.9: Block Diagram of Multiuser OFDM with AAA (MOAAA)

Let c n,k denote the number of bits assigned to the user k in the nth subcarrier. Here we assume that all users can share a subcarrier. Later we discuss a method of implementing the sharing by a novel concept. We also assume that the modulator allows c n ,k taking only integer values in the set D = {0,1,2,..,M), where M is the

43 maximum number of information bits/OFDM symbol that can be transmitted by each subcarrier. To get the theoretical limit, initially, we dont fix up the constellation size and restrict c n ,k to integer values.

The complex symbols at the output of the modulators are transformed into the time domain samples by inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT). Cyclic extension of the time domain samples, known as the cyclic prefix, is then added to ensure orthogonality between the subcarriers, provided that the maximum time dispersion is less than the cyclic prefix interval. The transmit signal is then passed through different frequency selective fading channels to different users.

The subcarrier and bit allocation information is sent to the receivers via a separate control channel. At the receiver cyclic prefix is removed to prevent ISI and the time samples of the kth user are transformed by the FFT block to the modulated symbols. The bit allocation information is used to configure the demodulators while the subcarrier allocation information is used to extract the demodulated bits from the subcarriers assigned to the kth user.

In a frequency selective fading environment, different subcarriers will experience different channel gains for different users. Let n ,k denotes the magnitude gain of the channel for nth subcarriers as seen by the kth user. Initially, we assume that all the users have same noise level and No is the single-sided noise power spectral density (PSD) level.

Let f k (c) denote the required received power (in energy per symbol) in a subcarrier for reliable reception of c information bits/symbol. The subscript k denotes the user index and note that this function can be different for different users based on his requirement. This allows different users to have different QoS requirements and different modulation scheme. In order to maintain this QoS requirement at the receiver, the transmit power in the nth subcarrier for the kth user should be,

44
2 Pn ,k = f k (c n ,k ) / n ,k

4.1

Using these transmit power levels at the transmitter, the receiver can demodulate the modulated symbols at the output of the FFT and achieve the desired QoSs of all users.

The goal of the combined subcarrier, bit and power allocation algorithm is to determine the best assignment of c n ,k so that the overall transmit power, the sum of Pn ,k over all subcarriers and all users is a minimized for given transmission rates and QoS requirements specified through f k (.) , k=1,..,K. In order to make the problem tractable the function f k (.) should be convex and increasing function with f k (0) =0. i.e. no power is needed when no bits are transmitted and that the required additional power to transmit an additional bit increases with c (i.e. f k (c + 1) f k (c) is increasing in c). Almost all popular coding modulation schemes satisfy this condition.

Though the objective function is designed to minimize total transmit power for a given QoS and bit rate requirement, the same solution can be used to increase the QoSs of the users for a given total transmit power. This could be done by increasing the power proportionally for all the subcarriers, while using same set of c n ,k .

4.4.2 Mathematical Formulation

Mathematically, we can formulate the problem as PT = min

k =1 n =1 K N

1 f k (c n , k ) 2 n ,k

4.2

and the minimization is subject to constraint

c
n =1

n ,k

= Bk

for all k = 1,.K

4.3

45 where Bk = Rk.Ts = number of bits to be transmitted in OFDM symbol interval for the kth user Ts = OFDM symbol interval Rk = Bit rate requirement of the kth user in bits per seconds Using standard optimization techniques, we obtain the Lagrangian L =
K 1 c B f k (c n , k ) k , n k k n =1 k =1 n , k k =1 N K

4.4

where k is the Lagrangian Multipliers for the constraint After differentiation of L w.r.t cv , w , we obtain the necessary conditions for the optimal
* solution cv ,w

N K N c L 1 f k (cn,k ) K nk = 2 k , cv,w n=1 k =1 n,k cv, w k =1 n=1 cv,w

for all v = 1,..,N and w = 4.5

1,..,K we know

c n ,k c v ,w

= (n v, k w)

4.6

Substituting (4.6) in (4.5) we get,

L 1 f w ( c v , w ) = 2 w c v , w v , w cv , w
for minima equate (4.7) to 0 we get,

for all v=1,,N and w=1,,K

4.7

* L 1 f w ( c v .w ) = w = 0 * 2 * c v c v ,w v ,w ,w

4.8

46 rearranging (4.8)

w =
= where f w

2 v,w

* (c v fw ,w )

4.9

f w . Rearranging (4.9) we get * cv ,w 4.10

* 2 1 cv , w = f w ( w v , w )

is the optimum solution.

4.4.3 Iterative Method For Solving For Optimum Value Initialize k s with small positive value
* Using (4.10) find cv , w for all v and w * = cn Compute Bk , k and check if the requirement is satisfied. If satisfied go n

1. 2. 3.

to 7. 4. 5. 6. 7. Bk ))} Find m = arg{ max (abs( Bk = Bm using (4.9) Find m such that Bm Go to 2
* Algorithm converged and the optimum solution is given by c n ,k

The algorithm converges to a unique minimum, because the optimization problem is a convex minimization problem over a convex set. The solution obtained using the above method converges with real values for c n ,k . This is the ultimate bound for the optimization problem. Though multidimensional signaling can be used to send fractional bits in the subcarriers, to make the system design less complex we round off c n ,k to the nearest integer such that the constraints are satisfied. This will be a suboptimal solution.

47 For a system, which employs Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) with square signal constellation, the bit error probability is upper bounded by the symbol error probability, which in turn is approximated by 4 Q d 2 (2 N 0 ) . d is the minimum distance between points in the signal constellation at the receiver and No is the single sided noise PSD level. Since the average energy of a M-QAM symbol is equal to (M-1)d2/6, it follows that the required power for supporting c bits/symbol at a given BER Pe is given by, N 0 1 2 ( Q ( Pe / 4) ) (2 c 1) 3

f (c ) =

4.11

where we recall that

Q ( x) =

1 2

e
x

t 2 / 2

dt

4.12

It can be seen that f(c) is convex and increasing in c and f(0) = 0.

However we cannot use this result directly because the solution suggests that multiple users should share the subcarriers. One way implementing multiple user sharing is by performing TDMA over a specific number of OFDM symbol duration. Another method is to allocate the subcarrier to the user who has the largest sharing factor. But the rate constraint will not be satisfied and to tackle this we do single user bit allocation within the allocated subcarriers. This will not lead to the optimal solution since subcarrier allocation obtained by this method is not optimal. So we propose a matrix optimization method, which is described in the following section.

48 4.5 Matrix Optimization

In this scheme sharing of subcarriers by different users is not allowed and integer bit allocation is done on the subcarriers. The algorithm directly gives a suboptimal solution without sharing. The features of this algorithm are given below:

The algorithm does allocation of bits and subcarriers such that the total transmit power is minimized for a given bit rate and QoS requirements. Also it can be modified to achieve maximum bit rate for a given power budget and QoS requirement. Further for a given power budget and bit rate requirement, it can improve the QoS . We can set priorities for users depending on the service requested.

The major steps involved in the multiuser adaptive allocation scheme are as follows:

Subcarrier allocation is done based on the channel conditions for different users. Optimal bit allocation for each user is done within the allocated subcarriers to satisfy his bit rate and QoS requirements.

4.5.1 Subcarrier Allocation Algorithm

Subcarriers should be optimally allocated to the users such that the problem of starving should be avoided. For example, if a user has very poor channel gain in all the subcarriers when compared to all the other users, then no subcarriers would be allocated to him and he would be subjected to starvation. So we fix up the maximum number of subcarriers that can be allocated to each user. The maximum number of subcarriers for each user can be fixed to be the same or it can be fixed depending on the priorities.

49 Consider a system with N subcarriers and K users. Let Mc = Maximum number of subcarriers that can be allocated to each user (same for all users) and is given by,

Mc = floor(N/K)

4.13

n ,k = magnitude of the channel gain for the kth user in the nth subcarrier
No n ,k = single sided noise power spectral density level for the kth user in the nth subcarrier

Then the channel SNR is given by, CSNRn ,k =

2 n ,k

No n ,k

for all n=1,N and k=1,K

4.14

The algorithm works as follows,

Sort CSNR in descending order into a single column and maintain the corresponding user and subcarrier index Start allocating subcarriers starting from the first row down the column following the rules given below o If the subcarrier is already allocated to another user, do not allocate the subcarrier and move down the column, else o If the number of subcarriers allocated to the particular user is less than the maximum number of subcarriers allocate the subcarrier to that user and move down the column else move down the column without allocating the subcarrier.

Repeat the above steps till we reach the last row Once the subcarriers are allocated, use single user optimal bit allocation to allocate bits among the subcarriers in order to satisfy the bit rate requirements. We can also give users maximum bit rate for a given power budget

50 The algorithm can be mathematically formulated as,

1. Consider a NxK matrix, AL which contains binary elements 1 or 0. AL = { ali , j } and al i , j = 1 al i , j = 0 i=1,..,N and j=1,..,K if ith subcarrier is allocated to the jth user otherwise

2. Let PR = {pri } pri = Mc

i=1,K be the Kx1 priority matrix which is initially set to Mc for all i=1,..,K

3. IF PR(w) = = 0 for all w = 1,,K THEN GOTO Step 6 ELSE Find (v, w) = arg{max(CSNR )}

4. If ( AL(v, w) = = 0 ) & (PR(w)>0)

w =1 K

THEN AL(v,w) = 1,CSNR(v,w) = 0, PR(w) = PR(w) 1,goto step 3

5. ELSE CSNR(v,w) = 0, goto step 3

6. Do single user optimal bit allocation within the allocated subcarriers for each user to satisfy his bit rate requirements.

The main advantage of this algorithm is the flexibility it offers in fixing up the priorities and in the number of subcarriers assigned to each user. Also, it is less computationally complex when compared to the theoretical optimization problem. It can be easily implemented using DSPs. The algorithm does subcarrier allocation and bit allocation separately. We propose another algorithm, which does subcarrier, bit and

51 power allocation together using matrix optimization technique in the following section.

4.5.2 Combined Bit, Power And Subcarrier Allocation Algorithm

This algorithm allocates subcarrier, bit and power to each user depending on the channel conditions and requirements of all users. It allocates bit to a subcarrier, which requires least power to transmit one extra bit. Here Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) with square signal constellation is considered and the function fk(c) denotes the required received power level for reliable transmission of c bits/symbol and is given by (4.11)

The algorithm works as follows Let P = {p n ,k } for n=1,..,N and k=1,..K, a NxK matrix whose elements contains the transmit power required to transmit the specified number of bits in the corresponding subcarrier for all the users, Mc is the maximum number of subcarriers that can be assigned to each user given by (4.13) and c n ,k represents bits transmitted in nth subcarrier for the kth user. Initialization: Let t n ,k = 0 p n ,k = 0 c n,k = 0 P = { p n ,k } for all n=1,..,N and k=1,..,K where

p n ,k =

[f

(t n ,k + 1) f k (t n,k )]
2 n ,k

4.15

Consider a NxK matrix, AL which contains binary elements 1 or 0. AL = { ali , j } and al i , j = 1 i=1,..,N and j=1,..,K if ith subcarrier is allocated to the jth user

52 al i , j = 0 Iteration:
1.

otherwise

Find (v, w) = arg{min(P)} If

2.

c
i =1

i ,w

== Bw then remove the user w from further iterations by making

p n , w = for all n=1,.,N, else

3.

If the number of subcarriers allocated to the user w is equal to Mc i.e.

al
i =1

i ,w

== Mc , then within the allocated subcarriers for the user w do single

user optimum bit allocation to satisfy his bit rate requirement given by (4.3) and remove the user w from further iterations by making p n , w = for all n=1,.,N, else

4.

If the subcarrier v is already allocated to user w OR not allocated to any other user AND if his bit rate requirement is not satisfied [i.e. { al v , w == 1 OR

alv,i == 0 } AND
i =1

c
i =1

i ,w

< Bw ] then allocate one bit to the user w in the

subcarrier v and increment the power by p v , w . Mathematically, al v , w = 1 cv, w = cv , w + 1 t v,w = t v,w + 1 p v , w = p v , w + p v , w calculate P using (4.15) and goto step 1 5. If the subcarrier v is allocated to the user m k i.e. { al v , w == 0 AND

al
i =1

v ,i

== 1 }then t v , w = t v , w + 1 and calculate P using (4.15) and goto step 1

Repeat the iterations till the bit rate requirement for all the users are satisfied.

53 After the algorithm is converged C = {c n ,k } gives the number of bits to be transmitted in nth subcarrier for the kth user and P = {p n ,k }gives the corresponding transmit power required to achieve this.

4.6 Simulation And Results

The OFDM system considered here is same as that considered for the single user case presented in section 2.7. Number of users considered is K = 4 and the powerline channel given in section 2.6 is considered with white Gaussian noise for all users. In the following sections, the performance curves for the described OFDM systems with adaptive modulation and different multiple access schemes are presented and discussed.

4.6.1 OFDM-TDMA With Adaptive Modulation

Figure 4.10 shows the BER results for a TDMA multiple access scheme with adaptive modulation.

Figure 4.10: Capacity Curve for OFDM-TDMA

54 4.6.2 OFDM-FDMA with Adaptive Modulation

As described earlier in section 4.3, variations of OFDM-FDMA are possible. Figure 4.11 shows the BER results for FDMA with block allocation and interleaved FDMA.

Figure 4.11: Performance Comparison of OFDM-FDMA with OFDM-IFDMA

It can be seen from figure 4.11 that OFDM - IFDMA outperforms OFDM FDMA. For Pe of 10-2 a significant gain of 3 dB is achieved by IFDMA over the block FDMA.

55

4.6.3 Multiuser OFDM with Adaptive Allocation Algorithm (MOAAA)

Figure 4.12 shows the subcarrier and bit allocation done by the Adaptive Allocation Algorithm (MOAAA). It can be seen that the users are allocated subcarrier with high channel SNR.

Figure 4.12: Subcarrier and bit allocation for different users

Figure 4.13 shows the BER results for Multiuser OFDM with Adaptive Allocation Algorithm (MOAAA)

56

Figure 4.13: Performance curve for MOAAA

4.6.4 Comparison of MOAAA with other schemes

Figure 4.14 shows BER results for MOAAA, OFDM-TDMA, OFDM-FDMA and OFDM-IFDMA.

Figure 4.14: Performance Comparison of MOAAA with other schemes

57 It can be seen from figure 4.14 that clearly outperforms all the other existing schemes. A minimum of 2dB gain in SNR for a Pe of 10-3 can be obtained by using MOAAA. The gain is 5 dB over OFDM-FDMA whereas it is 8 dB over conventional OFDMTDMA.

It can be expected that the efficiency of MOAAA depends on the frequency selectivity of the channel, i.e. the coherence bandwidth f coh subcarrier spacing f . For higher values f 1

max

compared to the

f coh

, the correlation between the transfer

factors of the adjacent subcarriers become smaller and thus the individual SNRs will differ considerably among the total bandwidth such that an adaptive modulation becomes efficient. This is confirmed by the results shown in figure 4.15 where the total transmit power for different values of f max , is compared at a probability of error of 10-3.

Figure 4.15: Effect of frequency selectivity of the channel

It can be inferred from figure 4.14 that after a certain value of f max , total transmit power decreases for MOAAA while it increases for the other multiple access schemes.

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CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

We have proposed a novel Adaptive Allocation Algorithm for Multiuser OFDM (MOAAA) for the downlink in a frequency selective fading environment. The main feature of the adaptive OFDM strategy is the optimization of resources in a multiuser downlink situation, also it can provide flexible and high date rate in the downlink for multimedia applications. Extensive simulation studies were performed under various cases and from the simulation results we conclude that significant improvement can be achieved by using MOAAA for multiple access in OFDM systems. The use of adaptive modulation in the algorithm produces a gain in SNR of about 7dB over static modulation for a probability of error of 10-2. A gain in SNR of about 3-5 dB can be achieved over other multiple access schemes like OFDM-FDMA, OFDM-IFDMA, and OFDM-TDMA depending on the frequency selectivity of the channel. It can be seen from the results that the efficiency of the algorithm increases as the frequency selectivity of the channel increases. Most of the practical communication channels like satellite communication, underwater communication and wireless communication channels are inherently non-stationary. Since the scheme is adaptive it can be used in non-stationary environments by adapting the system at regular intervals. But these adaptive modulation schemes are more suited for reasonably static environments.

Since the algorithm has a significant gain in SNR, the base station can use it to increase the total number users that can be accommodated for a given power budget. Hence, the blocking probability of the system can be reduced. Also the coverage area can be improved in a cellular system by using our algorithm. All the experimental results are obtained for a practical powerline communication channel using matrix implementation. Though we have tested the results for a powerline channel, the

59 algorithm could be used in wireless environments where adaptive techniques and QOS issues are expected to dominate.

Future Scope Of The Work

The algorithm proposed by us is suboptimal because the users are not allowed to share subcarriers. The theoretical solution, which allows users to share subcarriers is the ultimate bound for the performance and is the optimal solution. One way to reach the optimum solution is by allowing subcarrier sharing. This can be implemented by doing Adaptive TDMA i.e. by allowing the users to share the subcarriers over a time interval, which consists of several OFDM symbol intervals. In other words it is a combination of TDMA with adaptive allocation. Further work is being carried on in the design of this Adaptive TDMA system and the comparison of its performance. It is expected that the Adaptive TDMA system should give a near-optimum performance.

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