E225C – Lecture 16

OFDM Introduction
EE225C

Introduction to OFDM
l Basic idea
» Using a large number of parallel narrow-band sub-
carriers instead of a single wide-band carrier to
transport information
l Advantages
» Very easy and efficient in dealing with multi-path
» Robust again narrow-band interference
l Disadvantages
» Sensitive to frequency offset and phase noise
» Peak-to-average problem reduces the power
efficiency of RF amplifier at the transmitter
l Adopted for various standards
– DSL, 802.11a, DAB, DVB

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 Multipath can be described in two domains:
time and frequency
Time domain: Impulse response

time time
time

Impulse response

Frequency domain: Frequency response

time time

time f time

Sinusoidal signal as input Frequency response Sinusoidal signal as output

Modulation techniques:
monocarrier vs. multicarrier
Channel

Channelization N carriers

Similar to
Guard bands
FDM technique

B B
Pulse length ~1/B Pulse length ~ N/B
– Data are transmited over only one carrier – Data are shared among several carriers
and simultaneously transmitted

Drawbacks Advantages
Furthermore
– Selective Fading – Flat Fading per carrier
– It is easy to exploit
– Very short pulses – N long pulses Frequency diversity
– ISI is compartively long – ISI is comparatively short – It allows to deploy
2D coding techniques
– EQs are then very long – N short EQs needed
– Dynamic signalling
– Poor spectral efficiency – Poor spectral efficiency
because of band guards because of band guards

To improve the spectral efficiency:

Eliminate band guards between carriers
To use orthogonal carriers (allowing overlapping)

2
Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulation

N carriers
Symbol: 2 periods of f0

Transmit
f
+
Symbol: 4 periods of f0

f
B
Symbol: 8 periods of f0
Channel frequency
Data coded in frequency domain Transformation to time domain: response
each frequency is a sine wave
in time, all added up.

Decode each frequency

bin separately
Receive
time f

Time-domain signal Frequency-domain signal

OFDM uses multiple carriers

to modulate the data
Time-frequency grid Data

N carriers
Frequency

B Carrier
f0

B
One OFDM symbol
T=1/f0
Features Time
– No intercarrier guard bands
Intercarrier Separation =
– Controlled overlapping of bands
– Maximum spectral efficiency (Nyquist rate) 1/(symbol duration)
– Easy implementation using IFFTs
– Very sensitive to freq. synchronization

Modulation technique

A user utilizes all carriers to transmit its data as coded quantity at each
frequency carrier, which can be quadrature-amplitude modulated (QAM).

3
 OFDM Modulation and Demodulation
using FFTs
d0
b0
d1 P/S
b1 IFFT
d2 d0, d1, d2, …., dN-1
b2 Inverse fast d3 Parallel to
. Fourier transform . serial converter
.
f . . Transmit time-domain
. samples of one symbol
.
.
bN-1 time
dN-1
Data coded in
frequency domain: Data in time domain:
one symbol at a time one symbol at a time

d0’ Decode each

b0’
d0’, d1’, …., dN-1’ S/P d1’ FFT b1’
frequency bin
d2’ Fast Fourier independently
b2’
Serial to . transform .
Receive time-domain parallel converter . .
samples of one symbol . f .
. .
dN-1’ bN-1’
time

Loss of orthogonality (by frequency offset)

Transmission pulses ψ k (t) = exp( jk 2π t / T ) y ψ k +m ( t) = exp ( j2π (k + m )t / T )

ψ k+ m (t) = exp ( j2π (k + m + δ ) / T ) con δ ≤ 1 / 2

δ
Reception pulse with offset δ

T (1 − exp(− j2πδ ))
I m (δ ) = ∫ exp( jk2πt / T ) exp(− j(k + m + δ )2πt / T )dt =
T
Interference between
channels k and k+m 0
j 2π(m + δ )

N −1
T sin πδ 1 23
I m (δ) =
π m+δ
Summing up
∀m ∑I 2
m (δ ) ≈ (Tδ)2 ∑
m2
≈ (Tδ )2
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for N >> 1 (N > 5 Is enough )
m m =1

Loss for 8 carriers Total ICI due to loss of orthogonality

0
-10
-10 m=1
Interference: Im(? )/T en dB

-15 δ =0.05
-20 -20
δ =0.02
m=3
m=5 -25
-30 m=7 -30 δ =0.01
ICI in dB

-40 -35 δ =0.005

-40
Practical limit
-50 -45 δ =0.002
Asymetric δ assumed
-50 r.v. δ =0.001
-60
Gaussian
-55 σ=δ
-70 -60
0
-0.4 -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Frequency offset: ∂ Carrier position within the band (N=16)

4
 Loss of orthogonality (time)
− T /2+ τ T/ 2 2 consecutive
Let us assume Xi = c 0 ∫ ψ k (t )ψ l (t − τ )dt + c 1 ∫ ψ k (t )ψ l (t − τ )dt
* *

a misadjustment τ −T /2 −T / 2+τ symbols

 τ
senmπ
2 T T , c ≠c τ
Then Xi =  mπ
0 1
Or approximately, Xi 2mπ T τ independent
≈ =2
 when τ<<T T mπ T on m
if m=k-l  0, c0 = c1

 τ
X 2  ICI ≈ 20log 2  , τ << T
τ 1 τ
2 2
In average, the interfering 1  T
power in any carrier is
E i2  = 4 T  2 + 0 2 = 2 T 
 T  Per carrier

Loss for 16 carriers ICI due to loss of orthogonaliy

0 45
-5
m=1 40 Doubling N means 3 dB more ICI
-10
Interference en dB

-15 35
τ assumed an Uniform r.v.
-20
ICI in dB
m=5 30
-25
-30 m=10 25 N=8 Max. practical limit
-35 20
-40 N=64
15
-45
-50 10
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
Relative misadjustment τ Typical deviation for the relative misadjustment
Zone of interest

Including a “cyclic prefix”

To combat the time dispersion: including ‘special’ time guards in the symbol transitions

co p y
Furthemore it converts Linear conv. = Cyclic conv.
CP
τ T (Method: overlap-save)
Tc

Without the Cyclic Prefix Including the Cyclic Prefix

Symbol: 8 periods of fi
CP
Symbol: 8 periods of fi
Passing the channel h(n)

Passing the channel h(n)

Ψi(t)
Ψi(t)

Channel:h(n )=(1 ) – n / n n =0 , …,2 3

≠Ψ i(t)

Initial transient The inclusion of a CP Final transient

remains within maintains the orthogonality remains within
Initial transient Loss of orthogonality Decaying transient
the CP the CP

Ψ j(t) Ψj (t)

Symbol: 4 periods of fi
Symbol: 4 periods of fi

CP functions:
– It acomodates the decaying transient of the previous symbol
– It avoids the initial transient reachs the current symbol

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 Cyclic Prefix

Tg T
Multi-path components

τmax
Tx Sampling start T

802.11a System Specification

t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6 t7 t8 t9 t10 GI2 T1 T2 GI OFDM Symbol GI OFDM Symbol

Short training sequence: Long training sequence:

AGC and frequency offset Channel estimation

l Sampling (chip) rate: 20MHz

l Chip duration: 50ns
l Number of FFT points: 64
l FFT symbol period: 3.2µs
l Cyclic prefix period: 16 chips or 0.8µs
» Typical maximum indoor delay spread < 400ns
» OFDM frame length: 80 chips or 4µs
» FFT symbol length / OFDM frame length = 4/5
l Modulation scheme
» QPSK: 2bits/sample
» 16QAM: 4bits/sample
» 64QAM: 6bits/sample
l Coding: rate ½ convolutional code with constraint length 7

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 Frequency diversity using coding
Random errors: primarily introduced by thermal and circuit noise.

Channel-selected errors: introduced by magnitude distortion in

channel frequency response.
Data bits
Time-frequency grid

Frequency
B
Bad carriers
f0

f Time
Frequency response T=1/f0

Errors are no longer random. Interleaving is often used to scramble

the data bits so that standard error correcting codes can be applied.

Spectrum Mask
Power Spectral Density

-20 dB

-28 dB

-40 dB

-30 -20 -11 -9 9 11 20 30

f carrier
Frequency (MHz)

• Requires extremely linear power amplifier design.

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 Adjacent Channel and
Alternate Channel Rejection
Date M inimum Adjacent Channel Alternate
rate Sensibility Rejection Channel rejection
6 Mbps -82 d B m 16 dB 32 dB

12Mbps -79 d B m 13 dB 29 dB

24Mbps -74 d B m 8 dB 24 dB

36Mbps -70 d B m 4 dB 20 dB

54Mbps -65 d B m 0 dB 15 dB

32 dB blocker

16 dB blocker

Signal Frequency

• Requires joint design of the anti-aliasing filter and ADC.

OFDM Receiver Design

Yun Chiu, Dejan Markovic, Haiyun Tang,
Ning Zhang
EE225C Final Project Report, 12 December
2000

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 OFDM System Block Diagram

Synchronization

l Frame detection

Tg T
Frame start

l Frequency offset compensation

l Sampling error
» Usually less 100ppm and can be ignored
– 100ppm = off 1% of a sample every 100 samples

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 System Pilot Structure

IEEE 802.11a OFDM Txer

Short Preamble Gen.

Long Preamble Gen.

OFDM Data Path

10 x 0.8 = 8 uS 2 x 0.8 + 2 x 3.2 = 8 uS 0.8 + 3.2 = 8 uS 0.8 + 3.2 = 8 uS 0.8 + 3.2 = 8 uS

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 GI2 T1 T2 GI Signal GI Data GI Data

Signal Detection, AGC, Channel & Fine Freq. Rate, Length Data Data
Diversity Selection Offset Estimation
Coarse Freq. Offset
Est.,Timing Sync.

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 Short & Long Preambles
1+j

-20
-24 -12
-16 f
-1-j

Short Preamble

+1 Period = 16 Chips
-24
-26
-16 -12
f
-1

Long Preamble

Period = 64 Chips

Correlation of Short Preamble

Correlation

Fine Timing

Auto-
Correlation

Coarse Timing

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 Synchronization
From AGC

16Td Td Td Td ... T d

* * *
... * Σ
Moving Auto-
Corr. Unit
Td Td Td ... Td

From AGC

Td Td Td ... T d

* * *
... * Σ
Moving SP
Corr. Unit ...
Short Preamble (LUT)

Impairments: Multi-Path Channel

Tc

2T 0 0
0 T
T 2T
3T t T t
t 4T c

0 T
T 2T
2T 3T t t
3T t 4T
4T 5T

0 0 0
T T
2T 2T
T t 3T t 3T t
c 4T 4T
5T 5T

Auto-Correlation w/
Ch. Impulse
Multi-Path Channel
Response
Response.

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 Impairments: Frequency Offset

0
T
2T
3T t
4T

0
T
2T
3T t
4T

0
T
2T
3T t
4T

Fine Frequency Offset Est.

Accumulator

Complex
Multiplier
Sync. Signal

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 Coarse-Fine Joint Estimation &
Decision Alignment Error Correction

0
π Average over

π
3 2
π 64 chips
0 4 1
0 π B A
5 8 C D 0
Average over π 6 7 −π
16 chips

π
0

Coarse Fine ±100ppm ∆fc

@ 5.8GHz
Folding Signal
π
Vin
0
Folding ADC 0 π 0 π

Frequency Offset Compensation

Decision
Alignment

Channel

Joint Coarse-
Fine Est.
Offset Corr.

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 Performance Summary

Parameters Metrics
Number of sub-carriers 48 data +4 pilot
OFDM symbol freq. 4 µs
Modulation Scheme BPSK up to 64-QAM
Sampling clock freq. 20 MHz
Sync. Frame Start Accuracy ≤ 8 chips (CP = 16
chips)
Freq. Offset Est. Range ± 5π = ± 100ppm @ 5.8 GHz
Freq. Offset Est. Accuracy 1% (@ 15dB SNR)
Critical path delay 12.7 ns
Silicon area 397,080 µm2
Total power consumption 3.4 mW @ 20 MHz

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