IETE Technical Review

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MATLAB Simulation of a Wireless Communication

System using OFDM Principle

S B Pokle & K D Kulat FIETE

To cite this article: S B Pokle & K D Kulat FIETE (2006) MATLAB Simulation of a Wireless
Communication System using OFDM Principle, IETE Technical Review, 23:3, 187-198, DOI:
10.1080/02564602.2006.11657945

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02564602.2006.11657945

Published online: 26 Nov 2015.

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 JETE Technical Review
Vol 23, No 3, May-June 2006, pp 187-197

MATLAB Simulation of a Wireless Communication

System using OFDM Principle
S B POKLE
Department of Electronics, Shri Ramdeobaba K N Engineering College,
Gittikhadan, Katol Road, Nagpur 440 013, India.
e-mail: poklesb@indiatimes.com
AND

K D KULAT, FIETE
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Department of Electronics & Computer Science, VNIT,

Nagpur 440 011, India.
e-mail: kishore_kulat@yahoo.com

FDMA, TDMA and COMA are the well known multiplexing techniques used in wireless
communication systems. While working with the wireless systems using these techniques
various problems encountered are (t) multipath fading (it) time dispersion which lead to
intersymbol interference (lSI) (iit) lower bit rate capacity (iv) requirement of larger transmit
power for high bit rate and (v) less spectrCJI efficiency. In a typical terrestrial broadcasting,
the transmitted signal arrives at the receiver using various paths of different lengths. Since
multiple versions of the signal interfere with each other, it becomes difficult to extract the
original information. The use of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)
technique provides better solution for the above mentioned problems. OFDM technique
distributes the data over a large number of carriers that are spaced apart at precise
frequencies. This spacing provides the "orthogonality", which prevents the demodulator
from seeing frequencies other than their own. The benefits of OFDM are high spectral
efficiency, resiliency of RF interference, and lower multi-path distortion. OFDM is a powerful
modulation technique that is capable of high data rate and is able to eliminate lSI. The use
of FFT technique to implement modulation and demodulation functions makes it
computationally more efficient. The OFDM based wireless communication system design
includes the design of OFDM transmitter, and OFDM receiver. The authors have proposed
the design for the above system, using simulink modeling tool and communication block
set available in MATAS version 6.5. The digital modulation schemes such as BPSK and
QPSK were selected to assess the performance of the designed OFDM system. From the
simulation results, it is observed that the BPSK allows the BER to be improved in a noisy
channel at the cost of maximum data transmission capacity. Use of QPSK allows higher
transmission capacity, but at the cost of slight increase in the probability of error. From the
results, authors concluded that use of OFDM with QPSK is beneficial for long distance
transmission link, whereas for short distance transmission link OFDM with BPSK will be
preferable.

INTRODUCTION overlapping, narrow band sub-carriers are transmitted

RTHOGONAL frequency division
0 multiplexing (OFDM) is becoming the chosen
modulation technique for wireless communications.
OFDM can provide large data rates with sufficient
robustness to radio channel impairments. Many
research centres in the world have specialized teams
working in the optimization ofOFDM systems. In an
OFDM scheme, a large number of orthogonal,
Paper No 151-A; Copyright © 2006 by the JETE.
in parallel. These carriers divide the available
transmission bandwidth. The separation of the sub-
carriers is such that there is a very compact spectral
utilization. The attraction ofOFDM is mainly because
of its way of handling the multipath interference at the
receiver. Multipath phenomenon generates two effects
(a) frequency selective fading and (b) intersymbol
interference (lSI). The "flatness" perceived by a narrow-
band channel overcomes the frequency selective fading.
On the other hand, modulating symbols at a very low
rate makes the symbols much longer than channel

187
 188 JETE TECHNICAL REVIEW, Vol 23, No.3, 2006

impulse response and hence reduces the lSI. Use of
suitable error correcting codes provides more
robustness against frequency selective fading. The
insertion of an extra guard interval between consecutive
OFDM symbols can reduce the effects of lSI even
more [ 1].
IMPORTANCE OF ORTHOGONALITY
The "orthogonal" part of the OFDM name indicates
that there is a precise mathematical relationship
between the frequen~ies of the carriers in the system.
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signal so that the sidebands of the individual carriers
overlap and the signals can still be received without
adjacent carriers interference. In order to do this the
carriers must be mathematically orthogonal. The
carriers are linearly independent (i.e. orthogonal) if
the carrier spacing is a multiple of 1I r. Where. r is the
symbol duration. The orthogonality among the carriers
can be maintained if the OFDM signal is defined by
using Fourier transform procedures [ 1,2]. The OFDM
system transmits a large number of narrowband
carriers, which are closely spaced. Note that at the
central frequency of each sub channel, there is no
crosstalk from other sub channels. This can be depicted

It is possible to arrange the carrier~ in an OFDM in Fig 1.

Fig 1 Examples of OFDM spectrum (a) for a single sub channel (b) for 5 orthogonal carriers

OFDM GENERATION

Fig 2 Bas1c OFDM transmitter and receiver

 POKLE & KULAT: MATLAB
OFDM MODEL USED FOR SIMULATION
Random Serial to Digital
data parallel modulation
generator converter BPSKIQPSK
L----------------------------
Transmitter j
r------------------------
Receiver
l
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Serial 1 Parallel Digital
data ~-- to serial demodulation
out I converter ..._____ BPSKIQPSK
L----------------------------~
Fig 3 OFDM model used for simulation
Figure 2 shows the basic block diagram ofOFDM
transmitter and receiver. OFDM is generated by choosing
the spectrum required, based on the input data, and
modulation scheme used. Each carrier to be produced is
assigned data to be transmitted. The required amplitude
and phase of the carrier is then calculated based on the
modulation scheme (typically BPSK, QPSK, or QAM).
For example, if we have to transmit incoming 8 bit
digital data, we have to choose 8 different carrier signals,
which are orthogonal to each other. Each carrier is
assigned to a different bit and its amplitude and phase
are chosen according to modulation scheme used. The
required spectrum is then converted back to its time
domain signal using an Inverse Fourier Transform. In
most applications, an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform
(IFFT) is used [3,4]. The IFFT performs the
transformation very efficiently, and provides a simple
way of ensuring the carrier signals produced are
orthogonal. The reverse process guarantees that the
carriers generated are orthogonal [1.5,6].
WORKING OF THE MODEL
Consider the model shown in Fig 3. The random
data generator generates the data system. This input
serial data stream is formatted into the word size
required for transmission. For example, 1 bit/word for
BPSK & 2 bits/word for QPSK, and then shifted into
a parallel format. The data is then transmitted in
SIMULATION 189
Serial to ----
parallel
converter removal
parallel by assigning each data word to one carrier in
the transmission. The data to be transmitted on each
carrier is then mapped into a Phase Shift Keying
(PSK) format. The data on each symbol is mapped to
a phase angle based on the modulation method. For
example, in QPSK the phase angles used are 0°, 90°,
180°, and 2 70°. The use of phase shift keying produces
a constant amplitude signal and was chosen for its
simplicity and to reduce problems with amplitude
fluctuations due to fading. After the required spectrum
is worked out, an Inverse Fourier Transform is used to
find the corresponding time domain waveform. The
guard period is then added to the start of each symbol
as shown in the Fig 4. One of the most important
properties ofOFDM transmissions is its high level of
robustness against multipath delay spread. This is a
result of the long symbol period used, which minimizes
the inter-symbol interference. The level of multi path
robustness can be further increased by the addition of
a guard period between transmitted symbols. The
guard period allows time for multipath signals from
the previous ~ymbol to die away before the information
from the current symbol is gathered. The guard period
used, can be made up of two sections. Half of the
guard period time is a zero amplitude transmission
called Zero padding and the other half of the guard
period is a cyclic extension of the symbol to be
transmitted. After the guard has been added, the
symbols are then converted back to a serial time
 190 IETE TECHNICAL REVIEW, Vol 23r No 3, 2006

~Guard period
.
_
..... Symbol period
_.
~

Data bits
I • I
+ L--------------~
cyclic extension of symbol
Half guard period time contains
Zero amplitude transmission
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Fig 4. Addition of guard interval with symbol

waveform. This is then the base band signal for the Selection of N-point FFT
OFDM transmission. A channel model is then applied
to the transmitted signal. The model allows for the As the numbers of carriers used are 52, we have to
signal to noise ratio. It is set by adding a known consider 64-point FFT and IFFT.
amount of white noise to the transmitted signal. The
channel output is given to the receiver. The receiver
basically does the reverse operation to the transmitter.
The guard period is removed from the received signal. TABLE 1: OFDM system parameten considered for
The FFT of each symbol is then taken to find the the simulation
original transmitted spectrum. The phase angle of
Parameter Value!fype
each transmission carrier is then evaluated and
converted back to the data word by demodulating the Bit Rate 13 Mbps
rece1ved phase. The data words are then combined, CaTTier Modulation used BPSK, QPSK
wh1ch gives the same word size as that of original
IFFT, FFT Size 64-point
data.
No. of earners used 52
PARAMETER SELECTION FOR OFDM Channel used AWGN
SYSTEM
Guard period type Half of the guard period
(Refer figure 4) time is a zero signal and
Selection of Bit Rate other half guard period time
is a cyclic extension of
Generally OFDM systems are used for wireless the symbol.
communication to achieve higher bit rate. e.g. greater Total Guard Interval size FFT sized I 4 = 16
than 10 Mbps. Also system should support IEEE
OFDM output frame size 64+16=-80
WLAN Standards. Hence here we have considered 13
Mbps bit rate, which is supported by IEEE 802.11 a, as
well as 802.11 g standard.

Selection of number of carriers DESIGN OF MATLAB SIMULINK MODELS

In OFDM technique, the incoming high data rate
stream is split into number of parallel lower data rate
streams. For this purpose, we have considered total
numbers of carriers as 52, out of which 48 are used as
data carriers while 4 are used as pilot carriers. With
this, the transmit speed of each path achieved works
out to be 250 kbps.
Simulink is a software package in MA TLAB used
for modeling and simulating dynamical systems. The
system model can be built for on line simulations by
adding the required blocks, which are available in the
simulink library. Figure 5 shows the simulink model
designed for OFDM system with BPSK modulation
scheme, which Fig 6 shows corresponding model with
 POKLE & KULAT : MATLAB SIMULATION
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Fig 5 Block diagram of OFDM system with BPSK scheme
QPSK scheme. The required parameters are entered
with each block selected while designing the model.
OFDM SYSTEM SIMULATION WITH BPSK
DIGITAL MODULATION SCHEME
The Bernoulli random binary generator block
generates random binary numbers that are applied to
BPSK modulator block. This block modulates using
the binary phase shift keying method. The output is a
baseband representation of the modulated signal. The
input must be a discrete-time binary-valued signal. If
the input bit is 0 or 1, then the modulated symbol is
exp( fJ) or -exp( fJ) respectively, where 0 is the Phase
offset parameter. This frequency domain data is then
applied to the OFDM Transmitter, which consists of
the blocks as shown in the Fig 6.
Fig 6 Blocks inside the OFDM transmitter
191
The IFIT block computes the Inverse Fast Fourier
Transform (IFIT) of length-M input, where M must
be a power of two. While working with other input
sizes, the Zero Pad blocks can be used to pad or t:>
truncate the length so that it will be of size M. The
output is always frame-based, and each output frame
contains the M-point Inverse Discrete dourier
Transform (lOFT) of the corresponding input. Thus
IFFT converts the frequency domain data in to time
domain signal and at the same time maintains the
orthogonality among the carriers. The AWGN channel
block adds white Gaussain noise to a real or complex
input signal. When the input signal is real, this block
adds real Gaussian noise and produces a real output
signal. When the input signal is complex, this block
adds complex Gaussian noise and produces a complex
output signal.
Various blocks ofOFDM receiver are as shown in
the Fig 7.
The FFT block computes the Fast Fourier
Transform (FFT) oflength-M input, where M must be
a power of two. To work with other input sizes, use
the zero pad block to pad or truncate the length-M
dimension to a power-of-two length. The data is
converted back into frequency domain so that it can be
processed by the BPSK Demodulator block. This block
demodulates a signal that was modulated using the
binary phase shift keying method. The input is a
baseband representation of the modulated signal. The
 192 JETE TECHNICAL REVIEW, Vol 23, No 3, 2006

Received signal DFDM Spectrum

Frame Status
Conversion Remove zero pad
from OFDM

Fig 7 Blocks inside the OFDM receiver

input can be either a scalar or a frame-based column

vector. The input must be a discrete-time complex TABLE 2: BER results for OFDM model usiag
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signal. The block maps the point exp( B) and - exp ( 8) BPSK modulalion scheme
to 0 and 1, respectively, where 0 is the Phase offset I
Eb/No (dB) BER (BPSK)
parameters.
0 0.2248
Function of other blocks used 2 0.1568
4 0.0983
The error rate calculated block compares input
data from a transmitter with input data from a receiver. 6 5.29x 10 2
It calculates the error rate as a running statistic, by 8 1.78x 10- 2
dividing the total number of unequal pairs of data 6.78x 1o·J
10
elements by the total number of input data elements
from one source. The discrete-time scatter plot scope
block displays scatter plots of a modulated signal, to
reveal the modulation characteristics, such as pulse into a 1-by-N sample-based output. The display block
shaping or channel distortions of the signal. The buffer shows the value of its input. The zero-pad block
block redistributes the input samples to a new frame changes the dimensions of the input matrix from Mi-
size, larger or smaller than the input frame size. The by-N.I toM 0 -by-N0 by zero-padding or truncating along
unbuffer block converts and M-by-N frame-based input the columns, rows, or columns and rows.

Fig 8 BER versus Eb/N 0 curve for OFDM with BPSK

 POKLE & KULAT: MATLAB SIML'LATJO:--~ 193

SIMULATION RESULTS FOR OFDM WITH
BPSK
These are categorized as tabular results, graphical
results and scatter plot display. Signal to Noise ratio
(SNR) also called as E/N0 , where Eb is bit energy
and N0 ts nmse energy. SNR values in dB are adjusted
every time by adding noise in the A WGN channel. For
particular Eb/N0 value system is simulated and
corresponding probability of error (Bit Error Rate,
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BER) is noted from the display block. These results
are noted in Table 2. Figure 8 shows the nature of the
BER versus EJN0 curve. As we go on increasing the
E/N0 value, bit error rate reduces. Figure 9a shows
the scatter plot for the transmitted signal and Fig 9b
shows the scatter plot for received signal. The scatter
plot scope displays scatter plot of a modulated signal,
to reveal the modulation characteristics. such as channel
distortion of the signal. More is the scattering of a
point in the received plot, more is the distortion in the
received signal.

(a) (b)

Fig 9 (a) Scatter plot for transmitted signal and (b) Scatter plot for received signal

OFDM SYSTEM SIMULATION WITH QPSK DIGITAL MODULATION SCHEME

Fig 10 Block diagram of OFDM simulation using QPSK modulator

 194 IETE TECHNICAL REVIEW, Vol 23, No 3, 2006

The design of this simulink model is similar to the

model shown in Fig 5. The difference is that the BPSK
modulator/demodulator blocks are replaced by the
QPSK modulator/demodulator blocks. The QPSK
modulator baseband block modulates using the
quaternary phase shift keying method. The output is a
baseband representation of the modulated signal. The
QPSK demodulator baseband block demodulates a
signal that was modulated using the quaternary phase
shift keying method [6].

SIMULATION RESULTS
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The entire simulation process to be carried out is

similar to that of earlier systems with BPSK scheme.
For particular Eh/N0 value system is simulated and
corresponding probability of error (Bit Error Rate,
BER) is noted from the display block. These results
are noted in Table 3. Figure 11 shows the nature of the shows comparison of the BER versus Eb IN0 curves
BER versus Eb/N0 curve. As we go on increasing the obtained in the OFDM systems with BPSK and QPSK
EiNo value, bit error rate reduces. Figure 12a shows modulation schemes. It is clearly observed that the
the scatter plot for the transmitted signal and Fig 12b curve in latter system is always above the curve in the
shows the scatter plot for received signal. Figure 13 earlier system.

Fig 11 BER versus Eh 1 N0 curve for OFDM with QPSK

 POKLE & KULAT : MATLAB SIMULATION 195
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Fig 12 (a) Scatter plot for transmitted signal and (b) scatter plot for received signal

COMPARISON OF RESULTS OF TWO MODULATION SCHEMES

Fig 13 Graph showing comparison of BER versus Eb/N 0

CONCLUSIONS several parallel lower data rate streams and thereby

eliminating the frequency selective fading. It has been
The OFDM makes efficient use of available seen that the OFDM is a powerful modulation technique
spectrum by allowing overlapping among the carriers. that is capable ofhigh data rate and is able to eliminate
It basically converts the high data rate stream in to lSI. It is computationally efficient due to the use of
 196 fETE TECHNICAL REVIEW, Vol 23, No 3, 2006
FFT techniques to implement modulation and
demodulation functions. The current status of research
is that OFDM appears to be a suitable modulation
technique for high performance wireless
communications. The digital modulation techniques
for OFDM system design are investigated which
includes BPSK and QPSK. However. possible system
performance gains may be obtained by dynamically
choosing the modulation technique. This is based on
the user requirement parameters such as transmission
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data capacity and transmission distance.
Using Simulink tool and Communication blockset
(available in the MA TLAB) software), the performance
ofOFDM system was tested for two digital modulation
techniques namely BPSK and QPSK. The symbol rate
has been decided for these two schemes with randomly
generated data. From the observations, conclusions
drawn are as follows:
(I) It is observed that the OFDM system with
QPSK modulation scheme can tolerate
transmission with a SNR in excess of 10-12
dB. The result obtained for BER versus SNR
show low bit error rate for larger value of
SNR.
(2) The results further show that the bit error
rate BER rapidly increases as the SNR drops
below 6 dB. This is because of the fact that
QPSK uses two bits per symbol. Hence QPSK
ts easily affected by the noise. Therefore
OFDM with QPSK requires larger transmit
power.
(3) In case of OFDM with BPSK, the BER is
less for low SNR as compared to QPSK.
Thus, BPSK allows the BER to be improved
in a noisy channel at the cost of transmission
data capacity.
(4) Comparison of the two plots drawn for QPSK
and BPSK scheme clearly indicates that for
the same value of SNR, larger BER will be
there in QPSK as compare to BPSK.
(5) Comparison of the scatter plot for the
transmitted signal and received signal shows
the broadening of message point. This clearly
indicates the effect of noise on the message
signal.
(6) Finally, we conclude that the OFDM system
with BPSK scheme is suitable for low
capacity, short distance applications. While
the OFDM with QPSK scheme is useful for
large capacity, long distance applications at
the cost of slight increase in the bit error
rate. The OFDM promises to be a suitable
modulation technique for high capacity
wireless communications in future.
REFERENCES
I. Martin Toeltsch, Andreas Molisch, Efficient OFDM
Transmission without Cyclic prefix over Frequency-
selective channels,/£££ lith International Symposium
on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications,
September 18-21, 2000, London, (UK).
2. L Hanzo, M Munster, B J Choi & T Keller, OFJ)M and
MC-CDMA for broadband multiuser Communications,
New York: IEEE press, 2000.
3. S B Pokle & K D Kulat, OFDM Techniques: A Novel
Approach for Design of Wireless Commu111cation
System, Proceeding of National Level Conjim.'nce on
Advanced Communication Techniques. Act-2005 at BIT
Durg, April 5-6, 2005, pp 140-150.
4. P Coulon, Principles of Modulation m Wireless
Communications, Essay presented at Dept of Electrical
& Comm Engg, Helsinki University, Oct 1999.
5. S B Pokle, K D Kulat & A G Keskar. MATLAB
Simulation of a Fuzzy Controller for Attitude Control of
a Geostationary Satellite, fETE Journal of Education.
vol 45, no 4, Oct-Dec 2004, pp 203-209.
6. MA TLA6.5 software, Modeling tool for ocmmwticatlon.
M/s The Mathworks Inc .. USA.
7. Simon Haykin, Digital Communication.\, Wtlcy
Publications Ltd, Singapore, 1988.
 POKLE & KULAT: MATLAB SIMULATION
Authors
S B Mle did BE (Eie.:li'Oilics & Telecomm) from Govt
College of Engineering, Pune in 1993, MTe.:h (Electronics)
from Visvesvaraya Nllionallnstibde of Technology, Nagpur in
2001. Registered for PbD in MIMO-OPDM baled Wireless
Communic:alion Systems, at Visvesvaraya Nllioaallaslitute of
Te.:hoology, Nagpur, in July 2004. He is presendy working as a
senior le.:turer in Electronics department of Shri Ramdeobaba
Kamla Nehru Engineering College, Nagpur. His total teaching
experience is 10 yean. He has worked as Research and
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Development Engineer in National Telecom of India Lid, Nasilt
for 3 yeari. He has presented 07 research papers at National
level conferences. He has published papers in National level
Journals. His areas of interest are Design of Wireless
Communication System using MIMO-OFDM te.:hniques,
Design of Fuzzy logic based Systems etc. He is life member is
ISTE.
• • • •
197
KDKallldid BE(Eiec:buUcs) from Visvesv.aya t<egiona1
College of Engineering Nqpur in 1980, ME (Eiectrooics) from
vm Mumbai in 1984, and PbD from Visvesvaraya National
Institute ofTec:hnology, Nagpur, in 2003. He is preseady working
as Assistant Professor in Electrooics & Computer Science
Engineering Department, Visvesvaraya National Institute of
Te.:hoology, Nagpur. His total teaching experience is 23 years.
Dr Kulat had presented several papen in National and
International conference and JUided students in MTe.:h and
PbD levels. He has published rae.n:b p11p111 in Nlliooal Journals.
His area of interest are Design of Fuzzy cooiiOIIed systems,
Design of wireless communication systems, Satellite
Communication systems etc. He is a fellow of IETE. Life
member of ISTE and member of IE.
• •
 198 JETE TECHNICAL REVIEW, Vol 23, No 3, 2006

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