OFDM Orthogonal Frequency

Division Multiplexing
Dr. Jean Armstrong
Department of Electronic Engineering
La Trobe University

Overview
!

Introduction
!
!

Why use OFDM?

!

!
!
!
!

applications
multicarrier systems
multipath transmission

How OFDM works

Applications of OFDM
Problems with OFDM
Research in OFDM
2

Applications of OFDM
!

Digital Television
!

Wireless Local Area Networks (LANs)

!

Hiperlan 2

ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber loop)

!

European and Australian standard

High speed data transmitted along existing

telephone lines

Future mobile telephony?

3

Multicarrier systems
!

Single carrier system

!

frequency

Multicarrier system
!

!
frequency

signal representing each bit

uses all of the available
spectrum
available spectrum divided
into many narrow bands
data is divided into parallel
data streams each
transmitted on a separate
band

W N
4

What is OFDM?
!

OFDM is a multicarrier system

!

frequency

W N
!

Available bandwidth is divided

into very many narrow bands
!

Frequency

W/N

uses discrete Fourier

Transform/Fast Fourier
Transform (DFT/FFT)
sin(x)/x spectra for subcarriers

~2000-8000 for digital TV

~48 for Hiperlan 2

Data is transmitted in parallel

on these bands
5

OFDM & DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform)

OFDM Signal over 4 Sub-carriers f1 = cos ( t Ts ) f2 = cos ( 2 t Ts )
f3 = cos ( 3t Ts ) f4 = cos ( 4t Ts )
Ts
f1 =

f2 =

1
2Ts

-f1

1
Ts
-f2

f3 =

f2

3
2Ts
-f3

f4 =

f1

f3

2
Ts
-f4

OFDM Signal:
Time Domain

Tallal Elshabrawy

f4

OFDM Signal:
Freq. Domain

OFDM & DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform)

OFDM Signal over 4 Sub-carriers f1 = cos ( t Ts ) f2 = cos ( 2 t Ts )
f3 = cos ( 3t Ts ) f4 = cos ( 4t Ts ) (Separated by 1/2Ts)
We need to compute the
composite spectrum in the
frequency domain to be able to
compute the 4 samples used
by the IDFT

f1 =

Tallal Elshabrawy

1
1
3
2
f2 =
f3 =
f4 =
2Ts
Ts
2Ts
Ts

OFDM & DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform)

OFDM Signal over 4 Sub-carriersf1 = cos ( 2t Ts ) f2 = cos ( 4 t Ts )
f3 = cos ( 6t Ts ) f4 = cos ( 8t Ts ) (Separated by 1/Ts)
The separation between
carriers guarantee that
samples from individual
spectrum of sub-carriers
correspond to samples from
the composite spectrum

f1 =

Tallal Elshabrawy

1
Ts

f2 =

2
Ts

f3 =

3
Ts

f4 =

4
Ts

How are signals transmitted in

parallel without interference?
First three subcarriers

Symbol period

2 lt
2 kt
0 sin T sin T dt = 0, k l

Each subcarrier has a

different frequency
Frequencies chosen so
that an integral number
of cycles in a symbol
period
Signals are
mathematically
orthogonal
11

How is data carried on the

subcarriers?
!

Data is carried by
varying the phase or
amplitude of each
subcarrier
QPSK, 4-QAM, 16-QAM,
64-QAM

Two possible subcarrier values

12

How are OFDM signals generated?

Typical IFFT Output Samples

Signal values at the output

of the IFFT are the sum
of many samples of many
sinusoids - looks random

Parallel data streams are

used as inputs to an IFFT
IFFT output is sum of
signal samples
IFFT does modulation and
multiplexing in one step
Filtering and D/A of
samples results in
baseband signal
14

Modulation
!

16-QAM

Varying the complex

numbers at the IFFT
input results in
modulation of the
subcarriers

8-PSK

15

Signals at Input and Output of

Transmitter IFFT
High speed
data
(complex)

Serial
to
Parallel

IFFT

Parallel
to Serial

D/A
Conver
-ter

LowPass
Filtering

Transmitter
Complex value
representing data
is input to IFFT

IFFT output
gives samples
of modulated
multiplexed
signal

16

Baseband OFDM system

Discrete frequency domain
Each input controls
signal at one frequency

High speed
data
(complex)

Serial
to
Parallel

Discrete Time Domain

Samples of modulated
and multiplexed signals

IFFT

Parallel
to Serial

D/A
Conver
-ter

LowPass
Filtering

Transmitter

Received
high speed
data

Parallel
to
Serial

FFT

Serial
to
Parallel

A/D
Conver
-ter

LowPass
Filtering

Receiver
13

Why is OFDM so popular for

new broadband systems?
!

Most broadband systems are subject to

multipath transmission
Conventional solution to multipath is an
equalizer in the receiver
!

high data rates - equalizers too complicated

With OFDM there is a simple way of dealing

with multipath
!

relatively simple DSP algorithms

6

What is Multipath?
!

More than one

transmission path
between transmitter
and receiver
Received signal is the
sum of many versions
of the transmitted
signal with varying
delay and attenuation

Effect of Multipath on
Received Baseband Signal
1

Signal on Path 1
Received
Signal on Path 2

Signal

Signal on Path 3

Received signal depends on bits 2 - 4

!

Received signal at any time depends on a

number of transmitted bits
!

Intersymbol Interference (ISI)

Need equalizer to recover data

8

ISI gets worse as data rate

increases
1

Signal on Path 1
Received
Signal on Path 2

Signal

Signal on Path 3

Received signal depends on bits 1 - 4

!
!

ISI covers more symbol periods

Equalizer becomes too complicated
9

How does OFDM solve the

multipath problem?
!

Data is transmitted in parallel

!
!

longer symbol period

e.g. for N parallel streams, symbol period is N
times as long

Cyclic prefix
!

trick to avoid residual ISI

10

Adjacent Symbol Interference (ASI)

Symbol Smearing Due to Channel

Guard Interval Inserted Between Adjacent

Symbols to Suppress ASI

Cyclic Prefix Inserted in Guard Interval to

Suppress Adjacent Channel Interference (ACI)

Frequency selective fading

Amplitude

Transmitted
Signal

-1

Main signal +
Delayed signal
0

0.5

1
Symbol Duration

1.5

Amplitude

Transmitted
Signal

-2

Main signal +
Delayed signal

0.5

1
Symbol Duration

1.5

20

Spectrum of Received Signal

!

W
!

Multipath fading causes

some frequencies to be
attenuated
Fading is approximately
constant over narrow band
This is corrected in the
receiver
21

Amplitude and phase change

!
Amplitude

Transmitted
Signal

-1

Main signal +
Delayed signal
0

0.5

1
Symbol Duration

1.5

Amplitude

Transmitted
Signal

-2

Main signal +
Delayed signal

0.5

1
Symbol Duration

1.5

Multipath delay causes

change in amplitude and
phase of each subcarrier
Change depends on
subcarrier frequency
Corrected in receiver by
one complex multiplication
per subcarrier
22

Digital Video Broadcasting

(DVB)
OFDM is used in the Australian
!

digital television system

2048 point IFFT
!

TV

1705 subcarriers used

Flexible standard
!
!
!

variable error coding

variable cyclic prefix
variable constellation
!

4QAM, 16QAM, 64QAM

Broadcast system
!

mode determined by broadcaster

24

Hiperlan-2 - Wireless LAN

!
!

64 point FFT, 52 subcarriers used

Different modes
!

signal constellation, error coding, cyclic prefix

Two way channel

!

feedback be used to determine transmission mode

29

OFDM Problems
!

High peak-to-average power ratio

!

peak signals power much greater than average

signal power
need very linear amplifiers with large dynamic
range

Very sensitive to frequency errors

!
!

tight specifications for local oscillators

Doppler limitation

30