Simulation of OFDMA for LTE DownLink &

Comparative Study with SC-FDMA

Rajendra R. Bhat
Electrical & Computer Engineering
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Abstract3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) is next generation
technology which will provide high-speed data, high capacity
voice and media transport. It includes high speed data with
multimedia unicast and multimedia broadcast services. In this
paper we focus on physical layer aspect of LTE and especially
downlink (OFDMA) implementation and latter we do some
comparative study with uplink (SC-FDMA) in terms of PAPR
analysis.
Keywords-component;OFDMA,SC-FDMA,Fading,LTE,PAPR
1.1 OFDM
In wireless communication when information is transferred
in the space between transmitter, receiver and vice-versa, there
are various factors which play as against wired communication.
Chief among them is multipath fading which result in
intersymbol interference and this is caused when receiver not
only receives direct line of sight but delayed multiple reflected
radio waves from the same transmitter. For instance when data
rate is several megabits per second, the delay time of the delay
wave exceeds one symbol time which result interfering with
other next symbol causing interference. This result in poor
reception of the signal. However OFDM mitigate this by
breaking high speed data rate into number of parallel slow data
stream modulated by multi-carrier. This is the reason it is
called multi-carrier modulation scheme. Following is the
diagram of transmitter and receiver block for OFDM.
Fig. 1: Block diagram of OFDM system
As seen from the above diagram input data is mapped to
suitable constellation like QPSK, QAM and converted to
parallel data stream using serial-to-parallel converter. Then it is
converted to time domain using IFFT and after that the signal is
appended with CP, which is simply appending the last part of
the signal to the beginning of the signal to avoid ISI and to
convert linear convolution to circular convolution. Once we do
that then we convert from parallel to serial data stream and pass
through channel. Here channel is free space and introduce
Gaussian noise and frequency selective fading onto it. Finally
when receiver receives the signal it does exactly opposite of the
transmitter circuit to recover the original signal. OFDM using
DFT operation produces orthogonal signal and insertion of
guard interval eliminates ISI. This ensures orthogonality of
sub-channels in OFDM and individual sub-channels can be
separated by using FFT in the receiver side where there wont
be ISI (Inter-signal interference) and ICI (Inter-carrier
interference) introduced by transmission channel distortion.
Following is the figure for orthogonal subcarriers in OFDM.

Fig. 2: Orthogonal Subcarriers in OFDM
1.1.1 Capacity
As shown in [6], the instantaneous capacity for k
th
sub-
carrier in the i
th
block is defined as follows:

,
_

+
2
2
,
2 ,
1 log

P H
C
k i
k i
and hence the total instantaneous capacity of the i
th
block is
given by following expression:

,
_

+
1
0
2
2
,
2
1
0
,
1 log
N
k
k i
N
k
k i i
P H
C C

1.1.2 Outage Probability
Outage probability,

, of OFDM is defined as the
probability that the average capacity of the L symbols is below
a rate R when L OFDM symbols are transmitted at the same
time. It is defined as:

,
_

<

+

1 1 L i
i l
i
R C
L
P
1
1.1.3 PAPR
Peak-to-average-power ratio (PAPR) is a performance
measurement of power efficiency of the transmitter. So, in
ideal linear power amplifier when it goes to saturation point,
we reach maximum power efficiency. Hence, positive PAPR in
dB means we need a power back off to operate in the linear
region of the power amplifier. This theoretical relationship can
be expressed as follows
20
max
10 .
PAPR

Where

is the power efficiency and

max

is maximum
power efficiency. For instance for class A power amplifier
max

is 50% and for class B is 78.5%.

So, for OFDM multi-carrier signal, we could express CCDF
(Cumulative distributive function) of the PAPR for N
subcarriers with Nyquist rate sampling as follows:
P(PAPR
N P
e P ) 1 ( 1 )
0
0


Where
2 2
0 0
/ P and
2
is the variance in time
domain and N is number of points in IFFT.
1.2 OFDMA
OFDMA is the modified version of OFDM. The main
difference is the allocation of orthogonal subcarriers distributed
across the system bandwidth. So, base station allocates
exclusive subset of subcarriers to individual user. Block
diagram of Transmitter and Receiver is as follows:
Fig. 3: Block diagram of OFDMA system
As can be seen the block diagram of OFDM and
OFDMA system the difference is only between subcarrier-
mapping. Rest, all blocks are same.
1.2.1 Capacity
Capacity of OFDMA is given by following expression

+
+
K
j
j
j i
fP
P
C
1 2 2
) 1 ( log

Where K is number of users transmitting with Power P

(signal) and noise power
2
and bandwidth fraction j

of the total bandwidth with f as ratio of leaked power into

users js spectrum. For KN available subcarriers when
there is no frequency offset between carriers, capacity is
given by


+
NK
j
j i
NK
j
j i i
P H C C
1
2 2
, 2
1
,
) / | | 1 ( log
And finally incorporating frequency offset and using same
factor f, we have final capacity equation.

+
+
+
+
NK
j
j i
NK
j j i
j i
NK
j
j i i
P H
f
P H f
P H
C C
1
2
,
2 2
1
2 2
,
2
,
2
1
,
)
| |
1
1 ( log
)
| |
| |
1 ( log

1.2.2 PAPR
PAPR is same as that of OFDM. Its simulation is done
In section 1.4.2.
1.3 SC-FDMA
SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency division multiple
access) is used in uplink transmission in LTE (Long Term
Evolution). As in OFDMA it uses different orthogonal
frequencies (subcarriers) to transmit information symbols. The
transmission of subcarriers is sequentially rather than parallel.
Thats why the envelope fluctuation in the transmitted
waveform is reduced considerably and similarly PAPR too.
These are some reason for it to be used in LTE uplink.
Following is the block diagram for transmitter and receiver.
Fig. 4: Block diagram of SC-FDMA system
As comparing the block diagram between the OFDMA and
SC-FDMA it is seen that there is extra N-point FFT and N-
Point before sub-carrier mapping. Rest all the block diagram is
same for OFDMA and SC-FDMA.
1.3.1 Capacity
Capacity expression for SC-FDMA is given by following
expression:

+
+
K
j
L
j
j i
FDMA SC
fP
P
C
1
10 / 2 2
)
10
1
* 1 ( log

Where all expression are same as discussed in section 1.2.1 and

LSC-FDMA is the link loss relative to OFDMA in dB. For QPSK it
assumes value is 0dB and for 16-QAM and 64-QAM is 1dB.
1.3.2 PAPR
2
According to subcarrier mapping there are 3 types of SC-
FDMA i.e. LFDMA (Localized FDMA), IFDMA (Interleaved
FDMA) and DFDMA (Distributed FDMA). So, for passband
transmit signal of SC-FDMA
x(t)=e
jwct

1
0
) (
N
n
n
nT t p x
Where wc is carrier frequency, p(t) is baseband pulse and T
symbol duration. So, for pulse we consider raised-cosine (RC)
and squared-raised cosine (RRC). Now, we calculate PAPR for
transmit signal x(t) as
Whereas, in discrete case it is given by following expression.
We have analyzed PAPR for various type of sc-fdma and
compare with OFDMA under our simulation shown in section
1.4.2.
1.3.3 Sub- Carrier Mapping
There are two types of assignment of M frequency domain
modulation symbols to subcarriers i.e. distributed subcarrier
mapping and localized subcarrier mapping. In localized,
symbols are assigned to M adjacent subcarriers while in
distributed mode; symbols are equally spaced across the entire
channel bandwidth that means there will be (N-M) zeros
assigned by transmitter for un-occupied subcarriers. Where N
represents number of subcarriers, M is symbols per block and
Q=N/M terminals or called spreading factors. For instance for
M=4 symbols per block, N= 12 subcarriers and Q=N/M = 3
terminals the 3 version of sc-fdma i.e. IFDMA(Interleaved
FDMA), DFDMA(Distributed FDMA) and LFDMA(Localized
FDMA) are shown in following figure.
Fig. 5: Subcarrier Mapping
1.4 SIMULATION
1.4.1 Simulation for OFDMA
In this part we will go through the details of OFDMA
simulation. Since we are simulating the downlink part of LTE,
we will mostly concentrate on OFDMA part rather than SC-
FDMA in this report. As per the block diagram [fig. 3], before
data are mapped it is necessary to do Forward Error correcting
code (FEC) as per the technical specification (IEEE 802.16e-
2005). Specification includes randomization, convolutional
coding with interleaving, OFDM with various modulation
scheme like BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM and 64-QAM.
Convolutional code with code-rate was simulated and
various simulations were carried for different constraint length.
Also we calculate the bit error rate and packet error
performance of the system. First of all we initialize all the
parameter in the main program [see in the Main Program].
%**********************Initialization variables********************************
no_parallel_channel = 52; %Number of parallel channel to transmit
fft_length = 64; %FFT Length
no_carrier=53; %Number of carrier
nd = 6; %Number of information OFDM symbol . Input Block Size.
modulation_level=2; %Modulation level: QPSK
symbol_rate=250000; %Symbol rate
bit_rate=symbol_rate*modulation_level; %Bit rate per carrier
gaurd_length=16; %Length of guard interval (points)
EbN0=[0:30]; % Eb/N0(dB)
no_error=0; %Number of error data
no_data = 0; %Number of transmitted data
sub_band=0; %Location of subband for subcarrier mapping.
So, there are 53 carriers with symbol time of 4
s
(1/symbol_rate) and guard interval of 16. Next, we generate
data and call it serial_data
serial_data = rand(1, no_parallel_channel*nd*modulation_level)>0.5;
Now, serial_data was converted into parallel data using reshape
function which was fed into QPSK modulation scheme.
parallel_data =reshape(serial_data, no_parallel_channel, nd*modulation_level);
Following is the input data plot at transmitter.
0 50 100 150
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
n
D
a
t
a

p
o
in
t
s
(
A
m
p
lit
u
d
e
s
)
Input in Transmitter(binary)
Fig. 6: Input data at transmitter
Next we encode the data using convolutional coding and
following it we interleave the coded data.
%************Encoding(Convolutional)****************
constlen=7; %constraint length
codegen=[171 133];%Polynomial generator matrix
3
trellis=poly2trellis(constlen,codegen); %trellis ; code rate
data_encoded = convenc(parallel_data,trellis); %encoding
data_matrix=reshape(data_encoded, length(data_encoded)/4,4); %48by4 = 192
data_interleaved = matintrlv(data_matrix',2,2)';%Interleave data_matrix
data_interleaved=data_interleaved'; %4 by 48
%Binary to decimal conversion
parallel_data =bi2de(data_interleaved','left-msb');% 48 by 1
Following this we modulate the data using psk modulation
scheme.
%*********************QPSK Modulation************************
%QPSK, custom function for qpsk modulation
[ich,qch]=qpskmod(parallel_data,no_parallel_channel,nd,modulation_level);
kmod=1/sqrt(2); %Normalizing constant
ich=ich.*kmod;
qch=qch.*kmod;
Following is the plot for 1
st
channel, inphase and quadrature qpsk modulated
data.

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
Frequency(f)
D
a
t
a

p
o
in
t
s
(
A
m
p
l)
QPSK modulated data.Inphase
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
Frequency(f)
D
a
t
a

p
o
in
t
s
(
A
m
p
l)
QPSK modulated data.Quadrature
Fig. 7: Inphase & Quadrature QPSK modulated data
Now sub-carrier mapping is done as per the block diagram and
this is done by our custom function.
%****************** sub-carrier mapping ******************
%Interleaved(distributed) mapping.
%ich1(1+sub_band:Q:numSymbols) = ich;
%qch1(1+sub_band:Q:numSymbols) = qch;
%Localized mapping.
ich1([1:nd]+nd*sub_band) = ich;
qch1([1:nd]+nd*sub_band) = qch;
Basically both interleaved and localized mapping are
implemented as shown above for subcarrier mapping [see
section 1.3.3]. Also in de-mapping both localized and
interleaved de-mapping are implemented.
So, here we use 16 symbols per block and there are 512
subcarriers allocated in the system for 32 users. The allocation
of subcarrier to user is done using various algorithms. Basically
data block which consists of M complex modulation symbols
which are generated at Rsource symbols/second. Now, again M-
point DFT produces M freq. domain symbols[fig.8] that
modulates M out of N orthogonal subcarriers spread over a
bandwidth (Wchannel)
Wchannel = N*f0 Hz ; f0 is subcarrier spacing.
Channel transmission rate is as follows:
Rchannel = N/M * Rsource symbols/sec
Hence spreading factor(Q) is calculated as
Q= Rchannel /Rsource = N/M
So, hence FDMA can handle up to Q orthogonal source signals
with each source occupying a different set of M orthogonal
subcarriers. So, according to our system initialization.[3]
M = 16 symbols per block & N=512 subcarrier, Hence
Q = N/M= 32 users in a system or terminals
Pictorially, relationship between subcarrier and fft/ifft block is
shown by following figure. Here subcarrier mapping block
assigns frequency domain modulated signal Xk symbols to
(N=512) subcarriers using various scheduling algorithm. The
simplest one is greedy algorithm while in paper there are
various algorithms discussed in literature.
Fig. 8: In N subcarriers M are occupied(M<N).
This is then converted into time domain signal using ifft.
%********************IFFT********************************
x=ich1+qch1.*i;
y=ifft(x);
ich2=real(y);
qch2=imag(y);
Time domain signal after ifft for 1
st
channel for both inphase
and quadrature are plotted below.

0 100 200 300 400 500 600
-0.05
0
0.05
Frequency(f)
D
a
t
a

p
o
in
t
s
(
A
m
p
l)
IFFT modulated data.Inphase
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
-0.05
0
0.05
Frequency(f)
D
a
t
a

p
o
in
t
s
(
A
m
p
l)
IFFT modulated data.Quadrature
Fig. 9: Time domain signal(Inphase & Quad)
Once we are done with ifft then we insert guard interval to
eliminated ISI caused by multipath fading using this custom
built function.
%******************Guard interval insertion******************
4
fft_length2=fft_length + gaurd_length;
[ich4,qch4]=guard_interval_insert (ich2, qch2, fft_length, gaurd_length, nd);
Basically guard interval insertion is just appending the last part
of the data to the beginning of the data. Following is the frame
structure we use for ofdma transmission.
G
I
C
E
G
I
Dat
a
G
I
Dat
a
G
I
Dat
a
G
I
Dat
a
G
I
Fig. 10: 1 Frame format
So, frame is divided into channel estimation symbol and data
symbols. So, for CE symbols, the amplitude and phase
deviation from the pilot data are measured by using pilot
signal.
As can be seen now due to guard signal, our fft length
changes accounting for guard length to the original fft length.
These signal are then transmitted into channel. There are 2
types of distortion to the signal. We have modeled AWGN
(white Gaussian noise) and frequency selective fading (both
amplitude & phase varies, ISI).
%%%%%%%%%%%%% fading initialization %%%%%%%%%%%
tstp=1/symbol_rate/(fft_length+gaurd_length); % Time resolution
itau=[0]; % Arrival time for each multipath normalized by tstp
dlvl1=[0]; % Mean power for each multipath normalized by direct wave.
n0=[6] % Number of waves to generate fading
th1=[0.0]; % Initial Phase of delayed wave
itnd1=[1000]; % set fading counter
now1=1; % Number of directwave + Number of delayed wave
fd=150; % Maximum Doppler frequency(Hz)
flat=0; % Flat or not (1->flat (only amplitude is fluctuated),
% 0->nomal (phase and amplitude are fluctuated).
itnd0=nd*(fft_length+gaurd_length)*20; % Number of fading counter to skip
%**********************fading channel ************************
[ifade,qfade,ramp,rcos,rsin]=freq_sel_fade(ich4,qch4,itau,dlvl1,th1,n0,itnd1,no
w1,length(ich4),tstp,fd,flat);
itnd1 = itnd1+itnd0;
ich4=ifade;
qch4=qfade;
%******************AWGN addition(Channel)*********************
[ich5,qch5]=awgnAdd (ich4,qch4,attn); %awgnAdd;custom function

0 100 200 300 400 500 600
-10
-5
0
5
x 10
-3
n
M
a
g
n
it
u
d
e
Fading signal (Inphase)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
-5
0
5
10
x 10
-3
n
M
a
g
n
it
u
d
e
Fading signal (Quadrature)
Fig. 10: Fading (freq. sel. fade) contaminated signal
(Inphase & Quadrature part) at channel.
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
-0.1
-0.05
0
0.05
0.1
Frequency(f)
D
a
t
a

p
o
in
t
s
(
A
m
p
l)
Transmitted signal(awgn+freq. fading).Inphase
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
-0.1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
Frequency(f)
D
a
t
a

p
o
in
t
s
(
A
m
p
l)
Transmitted signal(awgn+freq. fading).Quadrature
Fig. 11: (Noise+fading) contaminated signal at channel
For fading we have put 150 Hz as maximum Doppler
frequency (
/ cos v fd
) (can be changed in main
program) and for generating Rayleigh fading we have
implemented Clarkes Model. Changing parameter, flat = 0 &
1 in the main program, will generate flat and frequency
selective fading accordingly.
So, now in receiver side we do opposite of transmitter side [as
shown in fig. 3] to recover original signal.
First of all guard interval is removed followed by converting
signal to frequency domain using fft.
%******************Guard interval removal***********************
[ich6,qch6]=guard_interval_remove(ich5,qch5,fft_length2,gaurd_length,nd);
%***************************FFT******************************
rx = ich6+qch6*i;
ry=fft(rx);
ich7=real(ry);
qch7=imag(ry);
5

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
-2
-1
0
1
2
Frequency(f)
D
a
t
a

p
o
in
t
s
(
A
m
p
l)
FFT modulated data.Inphase
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
-2
-1
0
1
2
Frequency(f)
D
a
t
a

p
o
in
t
s
(
A
m
p
l)
FFT modulated data.Quadrature
Fig. 12: Frequency domain modulated signal(Rx)
This is followed by subcarrier de-mapping:
%**********************Subcarrier de-mapping*********************
%Interleaved(distributed) de-mapping.
%ich8=ich7(1+sub_band:Q:numSymbols);
%qch8=qch7(1+sub_band:Q:numSymbols);
%Localized de-mapping.
ich8=ich7([1:nd]+nd*sub_band);
qch8=qch7([1:nd]+nd*sub_band);
ich9=ich8./kmod; %De-Normalize
qch9=qch8./kmod; %De-Normalize

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
Frequency(f)
D
a
t
a

p
o
in
t
s
(
A
m
p
l)
QPSK de-modulated data.Inphase
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
Frequency(f)
D
a
t
a

p
o
in
t
s
(
A
m
p
l)
QPSK de-modulated data.Quadrature
Fig. 13: Frequency domain de-modulated signal(Rx)
Which is again followed by parallel to serial and qpsk
demodulation.
%***************************De-modulation***********************
[demodata]= qpskdemod (ich9,qch9,no_parallel_channel,nd,modulation_level);
%*****************************Parallel to serial*******************
demodata1=reshape (demodata,1,no_parallel_channel*nd*modulation_level);
0 50 100 150
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
n
D
a
t
a

p
o
in
t
s
(
A
m
p
lit
u
d
e
s
)
Received demodulated data(Rx)
Fig. 14: Received Signal at Rx
Finally, we calculate bit error rate and packet error rate in our
simulation. Bit error rate is calculated as number of error in bit
received from sent whereas packet error is calculated as
number of error packet received. We have simulated this for
number of iteration and average to get average error bit and
packet.
%Instantaneous number of error and data
no_error=sum(abs(demodata1-serial_data));
no_data=length(serial_data);
% calculating bit error rate
no_err_data=no_err_data+no_error;
no_Tx_data=no_Tx_data+no_data;
% calculating packet error rate
if no_error ~= 0
no_err_packet = no_err_packet+1;
else
no_err_packet = no_err_packet;
end
no_Tx_packet = no_Tx_packet+1;
ber_rate(jjj,iii) = no_error/no_data;
per_rate(jjj,iii) = no_err_packet/no_Tx_packet;
%Mean bit and packet error rate.
ber_rate = mean(ber_rate);
per_rate = mean(per_rate);
We have plotted simulated bit error rate with theoretical bit
error rate for both QPSK-AWGN and QPSK-Fading
(Rayleigh). Following are the expression for theoretical bit
error rate for QPSK.
( )
0
/
2
1
N E erfc BER
b AWGN QPSK

1
1
1
1
1
]
1

0
/
1
1
1
1
2
1
N E
BER
b
FADING QPSK
For channel with AWGN only, we put Eb/N0 values as [0:30]
and simulation for 500 iteration we got following simulated
result.
6
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
Eb/No, dB
B
it

E
r
r
o
r

R
a
t
e
Bit error probability rate curve for QPSK modulation in ofdma
theory awgn
theory rayleigh fading
simulation
Fig. 15: Bit error rate in AWGN channel
Also for Rayleigh fading case, following is the simulation
result which matches with theoretical Rayleigh curve. We have
increased our iteration to 5000 in this case to have better
averaging of data.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
Eb/No, dB
B
it

E
r
r
o
r

R
a
t
e
Bit error probability rate curve for QPSK modulation in ofdma
theory awgn
theory rayleigh fading
simulation
Fig. 16: Bit error rate in Frequency selective fading channel
(OFDMA) Un-coded.
As shown in [fig. 3], we require FEC (Forward error
correction) and this was done using Convolutional coding with
bit error rate of with code generator [171 133] and this was
followed by interleaver and decoding using hard decision.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
Bit error probability curve in AWGN
B
it

E
r
r
o
r

R
a
t
e
Eb/No, dB
coded ofdma
rayleigh theory
un-coded ofdma
Fig. 17: Bit error rate (coded-OFDMA vs. uncoded-OFDMA)
As can be seen from the graph beyond 22 db SNR there is SNR
gain for same bit error probability using error correcting code.
For instance for 10^-4 bit error rate there is 10 dB SNR gain. I
think if we use more concatenated code for instance Reed-
Solomon code followed by convolutional code we gain more
dB as this can be left as extension of this current project.
Finally, following is the packet error performance (Rayleigh
fading) simulation result.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
Eb/No, dB
P
a
c
k
e
t

E
r
r
o
r

R
a
t
e
Packet error probability rate curve for QPSK modulation in ofdma
theory awgn
theory rayleigh fading
simulation
Fig. 18: Packet error rate in Freq. Sel. Fading channel
Whereas, for AWGN, we got following simulation result.
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
Eb/No, dB
P
a
c
k
e
t

E
r
r
o
r

R
a
t
e
Packet error probability rate curve for QPSK modulation in ofdma
theory awgn
simulation
Fig. 19: Packet error rate in AWGN channel
Which shows that packet error rate decreases with increase of
SNR after 7dB.
Also for adaptive bit loading and power allocation we have
used Chows algorithm and following is the Chows algorithm
flowchart [9] for power and bit allocation to subcarriers (fig.
20). Generally sub-carrier which has low gain will be allocated
less number of bits and power whereas subcarrier with high
gains will have access to high number of bits and power.
Following is the flowchart of Chows algorithm again.
7
Fig. 20: Chows Algorithm for adaptive bit loading & power
allocation.
First of all simulation was run for existing 512 subcarriers.
Since the graph was bit cluttered, I have chosen to plot first 70
samples for readability. As seen from the figure carriers having
highest gain have larger number of bits allocated whereas
channel with lesser gain gets lesser number of bits and power. I
have chosen 512 bits for bits allocation purpose.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
0
2
4
subcarriers
s
u
b
c
a
r
r
i
e
r
s

g
a
i
n
s
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
0
2
4
Subcarriers
B
i
t
s

a
l
l
o
c
a
t
i
o
n
Bits Allocation
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
0
1
2
3
P
o
w
e
r

a
l
l
o
c
a
t
i
o
n
Subcarriers
Fig. 21: Resource Allocation (subcarriers=512)
In second plot I have chosen 64 subcarriers with 128 bits
allocation and following is the plot (fig. 21). So, here each sub-
carrier get more number of bits than earlier fig. 20 as shown in
figure but still bits allocation is done using the algorithm(chow)
with highest number of bits allocated for higher subcarriers
gains.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
0
2
4
subcarriers
s
u
b
c
a
r
r
i
e
r
s

g
a
i
n
s
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
0
5
Subcarriers
B
i
t
s

a
l
l
o
c
a
t
i
o
n
Bits Allocation
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
0
1
2
3
P
o
w
e
r

a
l
l
o
c
a
t
i
o
n
Subcarriers
Fig. 22: Resource Allocation (subcarriers=64)
We have successfully shown the simulation result for
OFDMA transmission and receiver side. Also, we implemented
the same with sc-fdma except now the change will be the fft
and ifft circuit position only in the block diagram [see fig. 3 &
fig. 4].
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
Eb/No, dB
B
it

E
r
r
o
r

R
a
t
e
Bit error probability rate curve for QPSK modulation in sc-fdma
theory awgn
theory rayleigh fading
simulation
Fig. 23: Bit error rate in Frequency selective fading channel
(SC-FDMA) Un-coded.
As comparing graph between fig. 14 and fig. 17, both seem to
agree much with the theoretical bit error rate. Both were
computed using 5000 iteration. Also comparative PAPR was
calculated between OFDMA and SC-FDMA [fig. 19].
1.4.2 PAPR Analysis
In this section we will try to analysis and comparatively
study the PAPR for both system ofdma and sc-ofdma system.
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
PAPR0[dB]
P
r
(
P
A
P
R
>
P
A
P
R
0
)
PAPR of ofdma
8
Fig. 24: PAPR of OFDMA
Following is the papr for sc-fdma & ofdma. Here for sc-fdma
we use pulse shaping with raised cosine filter with rolloff factor
0.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
PAPR0[dB]
P
r
(
P
A
P
R
>
P
A
P
R
0
)
PAPR of ofdma
OFDMA
SCFDMA
Fig. 25: PAPR for SCFDMA & OFDMA
As can be seen from the graph, it is seen that papr for sc-fdma
is less than ofdma. For instance for 6 dB, there is a difference
of 0.5052. This is also the reason behind of using sc-fdma in
uplink rather than ofdma.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
10
-4
10
-3
10
-2
10
-1
10
0
PAPR0[dB]
P
r
(
P
A
P
R
>
P
A
P
R
0
)
PAPR of ofdma
IFDMA
LFDMA
OFDMA
Fig. 26: PAPR for SCFDMA(IFDMA,LFDMA) & OFDMA
CONCLUSION
We have successfully shown the simulation of ofdma in
this paper which is widely used in downlink for LTE
technology. Sc-fdma is used in uplink and simulation of it was
done by simply changing fft/ifft circuit positions. Also we have
shown the papr analysis and seen that papr of sc-fdma is lower
than its counterparts ofdma. This is one of the reason of it
being used in uplink of LTE.
FUTURE WORKS
Comparative study of capacity and outage probability of the
system could be simulated in the future code. Also higher
concatenated FEC could be used for encoder/decoder like
Reed-Solomon followed by convolutional coding. There are
also some papers which discuss on adaptive modulation which
could be implemented in future code.
REFERENCES
[1] Andrea Goldsmith, Wireless Communication
[2] Richard Van. Nee & Ramjee Prasad OFDM for wireless multimedia
communication.
[3] Hyung G. Myung & David J. Goodman Single Carrier FDMA A new
air interface for long term evolution.
[4] Hiroshi Harada & Ramjee Prasad Simulation and software radio for
mobile communications.
[5] Tingting Shi, Shidong Zhou, Yan Yao Capacity of single carrier
systems with frequency-domain equalization ieee.
[6] Nima Soltani Comparison of Single-Carrier FDMA vs. OFDMA as
3GPP Long-Term Evolution Uplink.
[7] Stefania sesia,Issam Toufik, Matthew Baker, LTE The UMTS Long
Term Evolution from theory to practice.
[8] Resource Allocation Algorithms for OFDMA Downlink by Eric Lai
[9] A Practical Discrete Multitone Transceiver Loading Algorithm for Data
Transmission over Spectrally Shaped Channel by Peter S. Chow,John
M. Cioffi,and John A.C. Bingha
9