Orthogonal Frequency Division

Multiple Access
(OFDMA)

Khaja Mohammad Shazzad

Outline

1. Background
 Multiple Access (MA) Methods
2. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM) Based Multiple Access (OFDMA)
 Orthogonality Principle
 OFDM
 OFDM-FDMA
3. Advantages and Disadvantages of OFDMA
4. Conclusion
2
Multiple Access (MA)

 General wireless cellular systems are multi-users

systems
 Radio resource are limited
– Limited Bandwidth
– Limited number of channels
 The radio resource must be shared among multiple
users
 Multiple Access Control (MAC) needed
– Contention-based
– Non-contention-based
Contention-based
Multiple Access(MA)

 Contention-based
– Each terminal transmits in a decentralized way
– No central controller (Base stations or access points)
– Example:
 ALOHA
 Carrier Sensing Multiple Access (CSMA)
Standard:
– GSM [l] uses the slotted ALOHA in the terminal’s initial
access process
– IEEE 802.11 uses CSMA/CA based contention access
scheme

4
Non-contention-based
Multiple Access (MA)

 A logic controller (BS or AP) is needed to

coordinate the transmissions of all the terminals
 The controller informs each device when and on
which channel it can transmit
 Collisions can be avoided entirely
 Two Subdivisions
1. Non-channelization
2. Channelization
Non-channelization
Non-contention-based MA

 Terminals transmit sequentially using the same

channel
 Example:
– Polling based medium access
 Standard:
– IEEE 802.15(WPAN)
– IEEE 802.11(WLAN)
Channelization
Non-contention-based MA

 Terminals transmit simultaneously using different

channels
 Most commonly used protocols in cellular systems
 Example:
– 1. Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA)
– 2. Code Division Multiple Access( CDMA)
– 1. Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA)
 Standard
– 1. GSM (TDMA)
– 2. IS-95 (CDMA)
– 3. American Mobile Phone System, AMPS (FDMA)
Time Division Multiple Access
(TDMA)

 GSM
– Time slot 0.577 ms
– Frame 4.6 ms
– 8 time slots per frame
– Frequency band 20 KHz

8
Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA)

 IS-95
– Orthogonal Walsh codes
– 64 codes (channels)
– One pilot channel
– Seven paging channels
– 55 traffic channels
– Each carrier 1.25 MHz
Frequency Division Multiple Access
(FDMA)

 American Mobile Phone

System (AMPS)
– Total Bandwidth 25 MHz
– Each Channel 30 KHz
Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (OFDM) Based Multiple
Access (OFDMA)

 Orthogonality Principle
 OFDM
 OFDM-FDMA
Orthogonality Principle

 Vector space
– A, B and C vectors in
space are orthogonal to
each other B
– A.B=B.C=C.A=0
– (A+B+C).A=(mod A)^2
– (A+B+C).B=(mod B)^2
A
– (A+B+C).C=(mod C)^2
C

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Orthogonality Principle cont..

 Real Function space

f1 (t )  A sin( wt )
f 2 (t )  B cos( wt )
 T
 f1 (t ) f 2 (t ) dt  0
f m (t )  M sin( mwt )
f n (t )  N cos( nwt )
 T
 f m (t ) f n (t ) dt  0
Orthogonality Principle cont..

m.n Ν
T
 sin(mwt)sin(nwt)dt  0 where m  n
0
T
 sin(mwt)cos(nwt)dt  0
f (t )  sin( wt ) sin( 2 wt ) 0

Here mw and nw are called

m-th and n-th harmonics of
w respectively
Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing(OFDM)

 It is a special kind of FDM

 The spacing between carriers are such that
they are orthogonal to one another
 Therefore no need of guard band between
carriers.
 One example makes the thing clear

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Example of OFDM

 Lets we have following information bits

– 1, 1, -1, -1, 1, 1, 1, -1, 1, -1, -1, -1, -1, 1, -1, -1, …
 Just converts the serials bits to parallel bits
C1 C2 C3 C4

1 1 -1 -1
1 1 1 -1
1 -1 -1 -1
-1 1 -1 -1
-1 1 1 -1
-1 -1 1 1
 Example of OFDM cont..

Modulate each column with corresponding sub-carrier using BPSK

Modulated signal for C1 Modulated signal for C2

Modulated signal for C3 Modulated signal for C4

Example of OFDM cont..

 Final OFDM Signal = Sum of all signal

N 1
V(t)
V (t )   I (t ) sin(2nt )
n 0
n

Generated OFDM signal, V(t)

OFDM-FDMA (OFDMA)

 Each terminal occupies

a subset of sub-carriers
 Subset is called an user4
OFDMA traffic channel user3
 Each traffic channel is user2
assigned exclusively to
one user at any time user1
OFDM-FDMA (OFDMA)

 The IEEE 802.16e/ WiMax use OFDMA as

Multiple access technique
– Bandwidth options 1.25, 5, 10, or 20 MHz
– Entire bandwidth divided into 128, 512, 1024 or
2048 sub carriers
– 20 MHz bandwidth with 2048 sub carriers has 9.8
KHz spacing between sub carriers
OFDM-FDMA (System View)
Advantages of OFDMA

 Multi-user Diversity
– broadband signals experience frequency selective
fading
– OFDMA allows different users to transmit over
different portions of the broadband spectrum (traffic
channel)
– Different users perceive different channel qualities,
a deep faded channel for one user may still be
favorable to others

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Advantages of OFDMA cont..

Multi-user Diversity
Advantages of OFDMA cont..

 Efficient use of Spectrum

4/3 Hz per symbol

6/5 Hz per symbol

Advantages of OFDMA cont..

 Receiver Simplicity
– It eliminates the intra-cell interference avoiding
CDMA type of multi-user detection
– Orthogonality of code destroyed by selective
fading
– Only FFT processor is required
 Bit Error Rate performance is better only in Fading
environment
Disadvantages of OFDMA
2
 Peak to average power x(t )
ratio (PAPR) PAPR 
P avg

The large amplitude variation increases in-band noise and

increases the BER when the signal has to go through amplifier
nonlinearities.
Disadvantages of OFDMA cont..

 Synchronization
– Tight Synchronization between users are
required for FFT in receiver
– Pilot signals are used for synchronizations
 Co-channel interference
– Dealing with this is more complex in OFDM than in CDMA
– Dynamic channel allocation with advanced
coordination among adjacent base stations

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Research issues and Conclusion

 Future works
– Peak-to-average power reduction in OFDM
– Timing and Frequency Synchronization
– Efficient digital signal processing Implementation of OFDM
– Multiple input/Multiple output (MIMO) OFDM
 Conclusion
– Different variations of OFDMA are proposed and
have different pros and cons

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Thank You

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