Orthogonal Frequency Division

Multiplexing - OFDM
Frequency-Selective Radio Channel
Power response [dB]
20

15

10

-5

-10

Frequency

Multipath Radio Channel

Concept of parallel transmission
Channel impulse response
Time

1 Channel (serial)

Channels are transmitted

2 Channels at different frequencies
(sub-carriers)

8 Channels
In practice: 50 … 8000
Channels (sub-carriers)
Concept of parallel transmission
Channel impulse Channel
response Time
Frequency
transfer function

1 Channel (serial) Signal is

Frequency
“broadband”

2 Channels Frequency

8 Channels
Frequency

Channels are
“narrowband”
 Impact of fading
S(f) High bit rate H(f)

f r(t)
s(t) f
h(t)
t t
S(f) Low bit rate

f t r(t)
s(t)

t t
5
 Frequency Selective fading

flat fading
s(t) H(f)

t r(t)
f
p1(t)
h(t)
p2(t)
t
t
p3(t) p3(t)
t
p4(t) p4(t)
t

6
 Concept of an OFDM signal
Ch.1 Ch.2 Ch.3 Ch.4 Ch.5 Ch.6 Ch.7 Ch.8 Ch.9 Ch.10

Conventional multicarrier techniques frequency

Ch.2 Ch.4 Ch.6 Ch.8 Ch.10

Ch.1 Ch.3 Ch.5 Ch.7 Ch.9

Saving of bandwidth

50% bandwidth saving

Orthogonal multicarrier techniques frequency

 OFDM DEFINITION
 OFDM = Orthogonal FDM
 Carrier centers are put on orthogonal frequencies
 ORTHOGONALITY - The peak of each signal coincides with
zero crossing of other signals
 Subcarriers are spaced by 1/ Ts

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Orthogonal Subcarriers

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 A simplified view

Cos 2πf1t
Input bits
S-P + s(t)

Cos 2πf1t

Cos 2πf8t r(t) Rep P-S Output

bits

Cos 2πf8t 10
Alternate View

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OFDM Theory

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 Discrete Time Equivalent
 Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform

N -1
s(n) = ∑ dk exp( j 2π k n/N)
k=0

 N-point IDFT  N2 complex multiplications

 Inverse Fast Fourier Transform

 Radix 2 N-point IFFT  (N/2). log2 N
 Radix 4 N-point IFFT  (3/8). N. ( log 2 N - 2)

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14
 Complexity of OFDM versus
Single Carrier
 Key difference between OFDM and single carrier
transmission is FFT versus equalizer

 Complexity of 64 point radix-4 FFT in IEEE 802.11a

OFDM=96 million multiplications per second

 16 taps OQPSK or GMSK Equalizer for same data rates

above needs 768 million multiplications per second

 OFDM order of magnitude less complex

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Cyclic Prefix

16
Generation of ICI

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Cyclic Extension

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Cyclic Prefix

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Cyclic Extension

20
Windowing

21
Cyclic Extension & Windowing
(filtering ?)

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 OFDM ADVANTAGES
 OFDM is spectrally efficient
 Orthogonality & IFFT/FFT operation ensures that sub-carriers
do not interfere with each other.

 OFDM has an inherent robustness against narrowband interference.

 Narrowband interference will affect at most a couple
of subchannels.
 Information from the affected subchannels can be
erased and recovered via the forward error correction (FEC)
codes.

 Equalization is very simple compared to Single-Carrier systems

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 OFDM ADVANTAGES
 OFDM has excellent robustness in multi-path environments.
 Cyclic prefix preserves orthogonality between sub-
carriers.
 Cyclic prefix allows the receiver to capture multi-
path energy more efficiently.

 Ability to comply with world-wide regulations:

 Bands and tones can be dynamically turned on/off
to comply with changing regulations.

 Coexistence with current and future systems:

 Bands and tones can be dynamically turned on/off
for enhanced coexistence with the other devices.

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 OFDM DRAWBACKS
 High sensitivity inter-channel interference, ICI

 OFDM is sensitive to frequency, clock and phase offset

 The OFDM time-domain signal has a relatively large peak-

to-average power ratio
 tends to reduce the power efficiency of the RF
amplifier
 non-linear amplification destroys the orthogonality of
the OFDM signal and introduces out-of-band radiation

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OFFSET ESTIMATION &
SYNCHRONIZATION

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OFDM Preamble

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 OFDM Transceiver
RF Tx DAC
Binary
Input Add Cyclic
Data QAM Pilot extension
Coding Interleaving S-P P-S
mapping Insertion & Windowing

IFFT
FFT

Remove
QAM Channel Cyclic
Decoding De-
De-Interleaving P-S S-P
Binary demapping Correction extension
Output
Data Timing &
RF Rx ADC Freq.
Sync.
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 Selection of OFDM parameters
 Bandwidth, bit rate, delay spread
 Guard time Tg
 2 to 4 times delay spread  2σ to 4σ
 depends on the order of modulation employed
 Symbol duration > Guard time to maximize SNR
 More subcarriers,
subcarriers, smaller spacing, implementation complexity, more sensitivity
to phase noise & frequency offset, high PAPR
 Symbol duration  5 x Guard time ( 1- 1-dB SNR loss )
 TFFT = 5 x Tg
Tofdm = TFFT + Tg
 Subcarrier spacing ∆f = 1 / TFFT
 Number of subcarriers = 3-
3-dB BW / ∆f
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 Example :
 Bit rate = 20 Mbps
 Tolerable delay spread = 200 ns Given requirements
 Bandwidth < 15 MHz
 Tg = 800 ns
 Tofdm = 5 x Tg + Tg = 4.8 µsec

 ∆f = 1 / 4 µsec = 250 KHz

 Number of bits in one OFDM symbol = 20 Mbps x 4.8 µsec = 96

 16-QAM with rate ½ Conv. Coding  2 bits / symbol / subcarrier  48

subcarriers  48 x 250 KHz = 12 MHz < 15 MHz
 QPSK with rate ¾ coding  1.5 bits / symbol / subcarrier  64
subcarriers
 64 x 250 KHz  16 MHz > 15 MHz
 64 point IFFT / FFT  16 zero subcarriers  oversampling
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 OFDM based Applications

 DAB-OFDM
Digital Audio Broadcasting

DAB-
 DVD-OFDM
Digital Video Broadcasting
DVD-
 ADSL-OFDM
Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line
ADSL-
 Wireless Local Area Network
 IEEE-
IEEE-802.11a, IEEE-
IEEE-802.11g, .11n
 ETSI BRAN (Hyperlan/2)

 Wireless MAN 802.16 Working Group of IEEE

 802.16 a, b -- 2 to 11 GHz

 Mobile WiMAX

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 OFDM Systems
System Transform Number Channel Bandwidth Sample Symbol Data
Size Carriers Spacing MHz Rate Duration
kHz MHz µsec Rate

Mbits/s

HyperLAN/2 64 52 312.5 16.25 20 3.2 6-54

4 0.8
802.11a 64 52 312.5 16.56 20 3.2 6-54
4 0.8

DVB-T 2048 1712 4.464 7.643 9.174 224 0.68-14.92

1024 842

DAB 2048 1536 1.00 1.536 2.048 24/48/96 3.072

8192 msec

ADSL 256 (down) 36-127 4.3125 1.104 1.104 231.9 0.64-8.192

64 (up) 7-28

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 ADSL
Echo Cancellation
FDM

Upstream Downstream
Upstream Downstream

POTS
POTS

Frequency 1 Mhz
Frequency 1 Mhz

Create Multiple Channel

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Thank You