IEEE Symp.

/ IISc -2001
I I T Madras
1

OFDM Physical Layer --
Fundamentals, Standards, & Advances


K. Giridhar

Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering
Telecom and Computer Networks (TeNeT) Group
IIT Madras, Chennai 600036
http://www.tenet.res.in
Instructional Workshop on Wireless Networks : Physical Layer Aspects
DRDO-IISc Program on Mathematical Engineering, Feb. 14, 2003
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Contents
Wireless Propagation -- Overview
OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

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3
Basics of Radio Propagation
Distance
P
o
w
e
r

10-100 m
(1-10 secs)
0.1 -1 m
(10-100 msecs)
Exponential
Long-term Fading
Short-term Fading
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Multi-path Propagation
r(t) = a
0
s(t-t
0
) + a
1
s(t-t
1
) + a
2
s(t-t
2
) + a
3
s(t-t
3
)
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Multi-path Propagation -- contd.
r(t) = a
0
s(t-t
0
) + a
1
s(t-t
1
) + a
2
s(t-t
2
) + a
3
s(t-t
3
)
channel
Input
(Tx signal)
Output
(Rx signal)
Impulse
Response h(t)
t
3
- t
0
time
a
3
a
0
freq.
Frequency
Response H(f)
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Frequency Selective Fading
Time
2.0 secs 2.5 secs
3.0
secs
Fading
Frequency Selective Fading Channels can provide
-- time diversity (can be exploited in DS-CDMA)
-- frequency diversity (can be exploited in OFDM)
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Contents
Wireless Propagation -- Overview
OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

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TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
Wireless Systems

Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) is the most
prevalent wireless access system to date
GSM, ANSI-136, EDGE, DECT, PHS, Tetra

Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-
CDMA) became commercial only in the mid 90s
IS-95 (A,B, HDR,1x,3x,...), cdma-2000 (3GPP2), W-CDMA (3GPP)

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is
perhaps the least well known
can be viewed as a spectrally efficient FDMA technique
IEEE 802.11A, .11G, HiperLAN, IEEE 802.16 OFDM/OFDMA options

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TDMA (with FDMA) Principle
Power
Time
Freq.
Time-slots
Carriers
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Direct Sequence CDMA Principle
(with FDMA)
Power
Time
Freq.
User Code
Waveforms
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OFDM (with TDMA & FDMA) Principle
Power
Time
Freq.
Time-slots
Carriers
Tones
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Other Multiple Access Techniques
Multi-Carrier TDMA
DECT, PACS
Frequency Hopped Spread Spectrum
Bluetooth
CSMA/CA
IEEE 802.11 (1 or 2 Mbps standard)
DS-CDMA with Time Slotting
3GPP W-CDMA TDD (Time Division Duplex)
Packet Switched Air Interface is vital for high bit-rates
and high capacity (for data users) -- GPRS, DPRS, etc.
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What is an OFDM System ?
Data is transmitted in parallel on multiple carriers
that overlap in frequency

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FEC
IFFT
DAC
Linear
PA

add cyclic extension
bits
f
c

OFDM symbol
Pulse shaper
&
view this as a time to
frequency mapper
Generic OFDM Transmitter
Complexity (cost) is transferred back from the digital to the analog domain!
Serial to
Parallel
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Add
Cyclic
Prefix
Serial/
Parallel
] 0 , [n s
] 1 , [n s
] , [ N n s
Parallel/
Serial
IFFT
] 0 , [n d
] 1 , [n d
] , [ N n d
OFDM Transmitter -- contd.
S/P acts as Time/Frequency mapper
IFFT generates the required Time domain waveform
Cyclic Prefix acts like guard interval and makes equalization easy
(FFT-cyclic convolution vs channel-linear convolution)

1
0
2
] , [
1
] , [
N
k
N
k
i j
e k n s
N
i n d

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OFDM Receiver
Cyclic Prefix is discarded

1
0
2
] , [ '
1
] , [
N
i
N
i
k j
e i n d
N
k n r

FFT
] 0 , [n r
] 1 , [n r
] , [ N n r
Parallel/
Serial
Serial/
Parallel
Remove
Cyclic
Prefix
] 0 , [
'
n d
] 1 , [
'
n d
] , [
'
N n d
FFT generates the required Frequency Domain signal
P/S acts like a Frequency/Time Mapper
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AGC
f
c

VCO
Sampler
FFT
Error
gross offset
Slot &
fine offset
Freq. Offset
Estimation
Timing
Sync.
(of all tones sent in one OFDM symbol)
Generic OFDM Receiver
Recovery
P/S and
Detection
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OFDM Basics
To maintain orthogonality where
= sub-carrier spacing
= symbol duration
If N-point IDFT (or FFT) is used
Total bandwidth (in Hz) =

= symbol duration after CP addition
f
T
s

1
f
s
T
f N W
CP S
T T
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Condition for Orthogonality
Time
T
Base frequency = 1/T
T= symbol period
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OFDM Basics -- contd.
If the Cyclic Prefix > Max. Delay Spread, then
the received signal after FFT, at the n
th

tone for the k
th
OFDM block can be
expressed as

where
is additive noise
is channel frequency response
] , [ ] , [ ] , [ ] , [ k n w k n s k n H k n r
] , [ k n w
] , [ k n H
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Tx Waveform over a OFDM Symbol
(magnitude values, for 802.11a)
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Sync Basis Functions
(of equal height for single-ray channel)
Shape gets upset by
(a) Fine Frequency Offset
(b) Fading
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OFDM -- PHY layer tasks

Signals sent thro wireless channels encounter one or
more of the following distortions:
additive white noise
frequency and phase offset
timing offset, slip
delay spread
fading (with or without LoS component)
co-channel interference
non-linear distortion, impulse noise, etc

OFDM is well suited for high-bit rate applications
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Frequency Offset

Carrier recovery and tracking critical for OFDM
Offsets can be comparable to sub-carrier spacing in OFDM
Non-coherent detectors possible with differential coding

Residual freq. offset causes
constellation rotation in TDMA
loss of correlation strength over integration window in CDMA
(thereby admitting more CCI or noise)
increased inter-channel interference (ICI) in OFDM

OFDM can easily compensate for gross freq. offsets
(offsets which are an integral multiple of sub-carrier width)



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Timing Synchronisation

Timing recovery (at symbol level) is easily achieved in
OFDM systems
Can easily overcome distortions from delay spread

Can employ non-coherent timing recovery techniques by
introducing self-similarity
=> very robust to uncompensated frequency offsets

If cyclic prefix is larger than the rms delay spread, range of
(equally good) timing phases become available
=> robust to estimation errors




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Slot and Timing Synchronization in OFDM
Example: 4 tones per slot (OFDM symbol)
T
self-symmetry can be
exploited for non-
coherent timing recovery
zero tones
IFFT
PA
T secs
t
IFFT
PA
T secs
t
T/2
T
Traffic Slot
Preamble/Control Slot
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Effect of Delay Spread

Typical rms delay spread in macro-cells
Urban : 1-4 msecs, Sub-urban : 3-6 msecs
Rural (plain, open country) : 3-10 msecs
Hilly terrain : 5-15 msecs

TDMA requires equalization (even if rms delay spread is
only 20-30% of symbol duration)
higher bit-rates would imply more Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI)
therefore, equalization complexity increases with bit rate



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Effect of Delay Spread -- contd. 1

Effect of delay spread on DS-CDMA is multi-fold
On the Uplink, the time diversity inherent in the delay spread can
be used to mitigate fading
On the Downlink, multipath delay spread upsets channelization
(short) code orthogonality

Sectorisation vital in CDMA to reduce CCI on the Uplink
However, sectorisation reduces delay spread as well, thereby
reducing the RAKE performance



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Effect of Delay Spread in OFDM

Delay spread easily compensated in OFDM using :
Cyclic Prefix (CP) which is longer than the delay spread
Thereby, converting linear convolution (with multipath channel) to
effectively a circular convolution
enables simple one-tap equalisation at the tone level



However, the frequency selectiveness could lead to certain tones
having very poor SNR=> poor gross error rate performance
Data Payload CP
3.2msecs 0.8msecs
Example: IEEE 802.11 A (and also in HiperLAN)
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Delay Spread Compensation in OFDM

Two basic ideas to combat freq. selectivity in OFDM
Feed-forward only techniques
Temporal FEC and interleaving
Transmit diversity and space-time coding
Feed-back based techniques (similar to approaches used in Multi-
Carrier Modulation in the ADSL modems)
Water-pouring (bit-loading)
Pre-equalisation or pre-distortion

Sectorisation in macro-cell OFDM can help reduce
delay spread



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AGC
Sampler
DFT
Error
-- Gross Freq. Offset
-- Channel Estimation
and Equalization
OFDM Receiver Algorithms -- Recap
Recovery
P/S and
Detection
Freq.
-- Fine Freq. Offset
-- Timing Estimation
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Conventional
OFDM
Frequency Domain Equalisation
-- Conventional OFDM
DFT
Frequency
Domain
Equaliser
Remove
CP
Rx
Algos.
Detection
& P/S
IDFT
Add
CP
Tx
Mod.
Symbol
Mapping
& S/P
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Tx -- low-complexity, TDMA
Rx -- implements SC-FDE;
Linear Equaliser or DFE
Frequency Domain Equalisation
-- Single Carrier FDE (SC-FDE)
DFT
Frequency
Domain
Equaliser
Remove
CP
Rx
Algos.
Detector
IDFT
Add
CP
(of symbols)
Tx
Mod.
Symbol
Mapping
to permit FDE
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TDE + FDE
for OFDM
Time & Frequency Domain Equalisation
-- for OFDM in large delay spread channels
DFT
Frequency
Domain
Equaliser
Remove
CP
Rx
Algos.
Detection
& P/S
IDFT
Add
CP
Tx
Mod.
Symbol
Mapping
& S/P
Time-
Domain
Equaliser
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Fading and Antenna Diversity
Short-term fading exhibits spatial correlation
Two antennas, spaced l/4 meters or greater apart,
fade independently
Spatial diversity combining can mitigate fading
Switch diversity (least complex, modest improvement)
Selection diversity
Equal gain combining
Maximal ratio combining (most complex, optimal)

TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM systems will invariably require
antenna diversity to overcome fading

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Fading and Channel Estimation
Use of midamble in GSM and EDGE to avoid channel tracking
within the slot duration
Unlike in TDMA and OFDM, fading affects not only signal
quality, but also system capacity in DS-CDMA
Fast closed-loop power control required which can track
short-term fading
For RAKE combining, multipath delays and gains are required
to be estimated and tracked
By using orthogonal signaling, IS-95 uplink does not need gain
estimation, but requires delay estimation
In OFDM systems, the long symbol duration makes channel
estimation and tracking very important
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Channel Estimation in OFDM -- Example
Traffic slots may contain a few equally spaced tones for phase
correction (due to residual freq. offset, phase noise, fading)
Control slot may also contain MAC messages

Frame (say, 4 slots)
Control +
Training Slot
Traffic Slot 1 Traffic Slot 3 Traffic Slot 2
Phase
Correction
Tones
Training
Tones
(for channel
identification)
MAC message
(broadcast)
Control +
Training Slot
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Fading Compensation in OFDM
OFDM using a FDE, observes only flat fading at the sub-
carrier level

Fading manifests as ICI terms in the Frequency Domain

In OFDM Phy Layer, two basic ways to reduce ICI
Reduce OFDM symbol duration (increase sub-carrier width)
802.16 has FFT sizes ranging from 256 to 4096
Transmit pulse shaping can reduce ICI
(by providing excess time-width)
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Other PHY Issues in OFDM
High peak-to-average ratio of the signal envelope
Linear Power Amp., with 5-8dB back-off required (costly)

To support mobility (fast fading) it will require
More training tones per symbol and also in every slot
Tx diversity and/or ST coding support
Exploit time, frequency, and space diversity / processing
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Phy Layer Issues in Macro-cell OFDM
Macrocells will require larger cyclic extensions / prefix
Microcells may not be economical during initial deployment
GPS locked base stations required
To control ACI from neighbor BS sites (at cell edge)
CCI can be estimated / controlled only if it is tone-aligned
Strict power control required may be required on uplink
To minimize cross-talk between tones of different users
sharing the same OFDM symbol (time slot)
To avoid uplink power control
allocate only one user per uplink slot
or, make uplink a pure TDMA (not OFDM)
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Phy Layer Issues in OFDMA
Strict power control required required on uplink
(OFDMA)
To minimize cross-talk between tones of different users
sharing the same OFDM symbol (time slot)
To avoid uplink power control
allocate only one user per uplink slot (OFDM)
or, make uplink a pure TDMA (single-carrier)
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MAC Layer Issues in Macro-Cell OFDM
Many proprietary broad-band FWA based on OFDM are
configured as primarily data networks providing
Bridging functionality (Ethernet packets on air)
Routing functionality (IP packets on air)

Some of the key issues then are
How many modes (scheduling options) should MAC support?
How is voice and other streaming data to be handled?

Indeed, mixing of voice and data not good for statistical
multiplexing
CDMA example the new cdma2000 / HDR standard, where
distinct voice-only and data-only base stations are proposed
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Contents
Wireless Propagation -- Overview
OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

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DS-CDMA versus OFDM
channel
Input
(Tx signal)
Output
(Rx signal)
Impulse
Response h(t)
time
a
3
a
0
freq.
Frequency
Response H(f)
DS-CDMA can exploit
time-diversity

OFDM can exploit
freq. diversity
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Comparing Complexity of TDMA,
DS-CDMA, & OFDM Transceivers
Timing Sync.
Freq. Sync.
Timing Tracking
Freq. Tracking
Channel
Equalisation
Analog Front-end
(AGC, PA, VCO, etc)
TDMA OFDM
Very elegant, requiring
no extra overhead
CDMA
Easy, but requires
overhead (sync.) bits
Difficult, and requires
sync. channel (code)
Easy, but requires
overhead (sync.) bits
More difficult than TDMA
Gross Sync. Easy
Fine Sync. is Difficult
Modest Complexity
Usually not required
within a burst/packet
Requires CPE Tones
(additional overhead)
RAKE Combining in CDMA
usually more complex than
equalisation in TDMA
Modest Complexity
(using dedicated correlator)
Easy, decision-directed
techniques can be used
Frequency Domain
Equalisation is very easy
Complexity or cost is
very high (PA back-off
is necessary)
Very simple
(especially for CPM signals)
Complexity is high in
Asynchronous W-CDMA
Modest to High Complexity
(depending on bit-rate and
extent of delay-spread)
Fairly Complex
(power control loop)
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Comparing Performance of TDMA,
DS-CDMA, & OFDM Transceivers
Fade Margin
(for mobile apps.)
Range
Re-use & Capacity
FEC Requirements
Variable Bit-rate
Support
Spectral Efficiency
TDMA OFDM
Required for mobile
applications
CDMA
Required for mobile
applications
Modest requirement
(RAKE gain vs power-
control problems)
Range increase by reducing
allowed noise rise (capacity)
Difficult to support large
cells (PA , AGC limitations)
Modest (in TDMA) and
High in MC-TDMA
Re-use planning is
crucial here
FEC is vital even for
fixed wireless access
FEC is usually inherent (to
increase code decorrelation)
FEC optional for voice
Powerful methods
to support VBR
(for fixed access)
Very High
(& Higher Peak Bit-rates)
Modest
Modest
Low to modest support
Poor to Low
Very elegant methods
to support VBR & VAD
Very easy to increase
cell sizes
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Contents
Wireless Propagation -- Overview
OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

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Proprietary OFDM Flavours
Wideband-OFDM
(W-OFDM) of Wi-LAN
www.wi-lan.com
Flash OFDM
from Flarion
www.flarion.com
Vector OFDM
(V-OFDM) of Cisco, Iospan,etc.
www.iospan.com
Wireless Access (Macro-cellular)
-- 2.4 GHz band
-- 30-45Mbps in 40MHz
-- large tone-width
(for mobility, overlay)
-- Freq. Hopping for
CCI reduction, reuse
-- 1.25 to 5.0MHz BW
-- mobility support
-- MIMO Technology
-- non-LoS coverage,
mainly for fixed access
-- upto 20 Mbps in MMDS
Wi-LAN leads the OFDM Forum -- many proposals submitted to
IEEE 802.16 Wireless MAN
Cisco leads the Broadand Wireless Internet Forum (BWIF)
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OFDM based Standards
Wireless LAN standards using OFDM are
HiperLAN-2 in Europe
IEEE 802.11a, .11g

OFDM based Broadband Access Standards are getting
defined for MAN and WAN applications

802.16 Working Group of IEEE
802.16 -- single carrier, 10-66GHz band
802.16a, b -- 2-11GHz, MAN standard

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Key Parameters of 802.16a Wireless MAN
Operates in 2-11 GHz
SC-mode, OFDM, OFDMA, and Mesh support
Bandwidth can be either 1.25/ 2.5/ 5/ 10/ 20 MHz
FFT size is 256 = (192 data carriers+ 8 pilots +56 Nulls)
RS+Convolutional coding
Block Turbo coding (optional)
Convolutional Turbo coding(optional)
QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM
Two different preambles for UL and DL
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Preamble structure for 802.16a Wireless MAN
T
b
T
g
CP 128 128
Preamble structure of 802.16a Uplink
Two different preamble structures for DL and UL
T
g
T
g T
b
T
b
CP 64 64 64 64 CP 128 128
Preamble structure of 802.16a Downlink
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Calculations for 802.16a -- Example: 5MHz
Carrier frequency 2-11 GHz
Channel Bandwidth 5 MHz
Number of inputs to IFFT/FFT 256
Number of data subcarriers 192
Number of pilots 8
Subcarrier frequency spacing f
19.53125 KHz (5 MHz/256)
Period of IFFT/FFT T
b 51.2 ms (1 / f)
Length of guard interval
12.8 ms (T
b
/ 4)
Length of the preamble for Downlink
128 ms (640 sub-carriers)
Length of the preamble for Uplink 76.8ms (384/5 MHz)
Guard interval for Uplink preamble
25.6 ms (128/5 MHz)
OFDM symbol duration
64 ms (320/5 MHZ)
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Hiperaccess
(PMP, 25Mbps, 40GHz)
or
ETSIs FWA (2-11 GHz)
Broadband Wireless Standards
ETSI BRAN activity
HiperLan > HiperLink > HiperAccess
HiperLan (1,2)
(19 or 54Mbps, 5GHz)
Hiperlink
(155Mbps, 17GHz
upto 150m)
2-5 miles, LoS(> 11GHz)
or non-LoS (<11GHz)
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IEEE 802.16
(10 to 66 GHz)
Broadband Access Standards -- contd.
IEEE LAN and MAN standards
IEEE 802.11a or
.11b, or .11g
IEEE 802.16a,b
(2 to 11 GHz)
2-5 miles, LoS(> 11GHz)

1-3 miles, non-LoS
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Contents
Wireless Propagation -- Overview
OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

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IEEE 802.11a Overview
Carrier frequency= 5 GHz
Total allotted bandwidth= 20 MHz x 10 = 200MHz
Size of the FFT= 64
Number of data subcarriers= 48
Number of Pilot subcarriers= 4
FFT period= 3.2 s
Channel bandwidth used= 64/3.2 s => 20 MHz

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Rate Dependent Parameters
Coded bits
per
subcarrier
(N
BPSC
)


Coded bits
per OFDM
symbol
(N
CBPS
)

Data bits
per OFDM
symbol
(N
DBPS
)

Data rate
(Mbits/s)

Modulation

Coding rate
(R)
6
9
12
18
24
36
48
54
BPSK
BPSK
QPSK
QPSK
16 QAM
16 QAM
64 QAM
64 QAM
1/2
1/2

3/4

3/4

1/2

3/4

2/3

1
1
2
2
4
4
6
6
288
48
96
96
192
192
48
288
24
36
48
72
96
144
192
216 3/4
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802.11A -- Frame and Slot Structure
Details of the preamble field
10 short symbols (0.8*10 = 8ms) 2 long symbols (1.6 + 2*3.2 = 8ms)
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 GI 2 T1 T2
Freq. Offset estimation
and channel estimation
Signal detect, AGC, Timing
Recovery, Freq. acquisition

Number of Sub-carriers = 64 (only 48+4=52 are non-zero)
P1 P2 MAC
Header
Data Data
.
Data Pream
ble2
Data
8 m s 8 m s 4 m s 4 m s
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PPDU Frame format
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Preamble Structure -- Implications


0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Only every 4th tone is non-zero. This
implies 10 replicas (in time) within 4+4 = 8msecs
Even if delay spread in 0.2 msecs (for a 100m cell), we can use 9 of 10
replicas to recover timing; use less than 9 for higher fade rates
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Auto-correlation and Piece-wise Cross-
correlation for Slot Boundary Detection

79 k
0 k
*
159 to 0 n for 16) k (n k)y y(n z(n) | |
Auto-correlation for timing and freq. estimation
Piece-wise Cross-correlation can also be used
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Timing Recovery in 802.11A --
Simulation Results
N=0 represents start of 1st preamble; length of channel impulse
response set to 8 samples (0.4msecs)
Probability of the corresponding n being detected as the start
of the frame at different SNRs
Value of index n in
the transmitted
data s(n)
5 db 10 db 15 db 20 db No noise
n<7 (outside the
acceptable range)
0.062 0.008 0 0 0
N=7 0.032 0.009 0.002 0 0
N=8 0.057 0.048 0.022 0.013 0.013
N=9 0.096 0.091 0.081 0.080 0.083
N=10 0.144 0.195 0.226 0.236 0.231
N=11 0.204 0.276 0.322 0.327 0.313
N=12 0.148 0.216 0.205 0.208 0.228
N=13 0.118 0.109 0.113 0.106 0.103
N=14 0.070 0.036 0.027 0.027 0.026
N=15 0.033 0.036 0.002 0.003 0.003
N=16 0.019 0.008 0 0 0
n>16 (outside the
acceptable range
0.017 0.003 0 0 0
Performance of timing recovery algorithm using 1
st
preamble
Acceptable
Range
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Auto-correlation Result
autocorrelation result
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 111 121 131 141 151 161
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Piece-wise cross-correlation Result
Cross correlation Result
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
1
1
0
1
9
2
8
3
7
4
6
5
5
6
4
7
3
8
2
9
1
1
0
0
1
0
9
1
1
8
1
2
7
1
3
6
1
4
5
1
5
4
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Quantity of interest is the Standard Deviation,
f

of the frequency estimate.
It is given by:
f
= [E (( f
est
- f
o
)
2
)]
1/2

Fine Frequency Offset Estimation
Approximate by using ensemble
averaging of many Monte-Carlo runs
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MMSE Technique
5 10 15 20 25
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
snr(db)
S
.
D

300 Hz
30 Hz
5 10 15 20 25
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
snr(db)
S
.
D

30 Hz
300 Hz
Self-Correlation
Comparison of the Two Fine Frequency
Estimation Algorithms
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64-QAM Without Pilot De-rotation
64 QAM before pilot correction
-2
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
-2 -1 0 1 2
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64-QAM After Pilot De-rotation
64 QAM after pilot rotation
-1.5
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
-1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5
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BER Curves for Different Channel Models
For AWGN Channel

AWGN case
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
0 5 10 15
Eb/n0 in db
B
E
R
i
n

d
bQPSK1/2
12Mbps
16QAM 1/2
24Mbps
64QAM2/3
48MBPS
BPSK1/2
6Mbps
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Contents
Wireless Propagation -- Overview
OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

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Motivation for Advances
Increase Erlang Capacity (Re-use Efficiency)
more users per square area
Increase Range and/or Reliability
Increase Channel Capacity (Spectral
Efficiency) -- higher average bit rate or lower Tx
power
Increase Coverage -- must for fixed wireless
Support for asymmetric and bursty traffic --
high peak to average bit rate traffic like Internet
Support for mobility, inter-operability etc.
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Wireless Advances -- contd.


Transmit Diversity



Smart Antennas
Sectorisation
CCI Suppression
Freq. Hopping
Multi-user Detection
Power Control
VAD, AMR, VBR
Receive Diversity
Fixed Beamforming
Transmit Diversity
Spatial Multiplexing
Space-Time Coding
Link
Adaptation
Re-use
Efficiency
Range
Spectral
Efficiency
DCS
Turbo Coding
OFDM
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ST Block Code Example
-d*(k+1), d(k)
d*(k), d(k+1)
Tx
Rx
r(k+1), r(k)
a
b
Recall Example Permutation Tx Diversity Scheme
Alamouti and other Tx diversity / coding schemes are suitable
only for frequency-flat channels

OFDM converts frequency selective channel to parallel flat
channels (one for every sub-carrier)
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Contents
Wireless Propagation -- Overview
OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

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MIMO OFDM
In addition to time and space, OFDM systems
can exploit frequency diversity

If feedback channels are available, Space-
Time-Frequency water pouring possible!

OFDM can convert delay-spread diversity into
space diversity (diversity conversion!)

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Permutation Tx Diversity for OFDM
Courtesy:http://www.research.att.com/~justin/
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ST Coded Tx Diversity for OFDM
Courtesy:http://www.research.att.com/~justin/
IEEE Symp./ IISc -2001
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Contents
Wireless Propagation -- Overview
OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

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Why OFDM for Broadband Access?
Why not CDMA ?
DS-CDMA cannot support high bit rates efficiently
Advantages of OFDM
Fundamentally, well suited for high bit rate applications
Simple frequency domain equalisation
lower complexity than RAKE or TDMA equalization
Timing recovery is very straight forward
Timing jitter easier to handle (due to long symbol duration)
Good support for highly variable bit rate applications
Coarse granularity from time-slots(1 time-slot=1 OFDM symbol)
Fine granularity from tones (blocks) inside a time-slot
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Summary -- contd. 1
OFDM is emerging as popular solution for wireless LAN,
and also for fixed broad-band access

The questions that remain to be answered are
Will OFDM be good when there is vehicular mobility?
Pulse-shaping or large tone-widths reduce throughput

What about macro-cellular, non-LoS coverage issues?

What about OFDM deployment in unlicensed bands?

Will OFDM be cost-effective? If not right now, when?
Analog (linear PA) with dynamic PAR control


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Summary -- contd. 2
Space-Time processing for OFDM is a very hot area of
current research

The cost-effectiveness of many of these space-time
techniques is not clear at present
Multiple RF/IF chains versus faster base-band (MIPS) costs

Will 4G see a combination of OFDM, DS-CDMA & TDMA ?

Key Question is: Where are those high-bit rate, high
usage applications ? -- at low cost ?

Thank You!