www.BesserAssociates.

com 1

ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY
DIVISION MULTIPLEXING
MULTIPLE ACCESS
TECHNIQUES
Bob Morrow, Ph.D.
Morrow Technical Services
6976 Kempton Rd., Centerville IN 47330 USA
+1-765-855-5109 rkmorrow@ieee.org

Sponsored by Rohde & Schwarz

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 2

OVERVIEW

 Multiple
access methods: TDMA and FDMA
 OFDM basics and signal construction
 OFDM challenges
 OFDM application: IEEE 802.11g Wi-Fi
 OFDM application: IEEE 802.16e-2005 WiMAX

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 3

MEDIUM ACCESS CONTROL

(MAC): WHEN TO TRANSMIT?
 Used for multiple access and duplexing
• Multiple access: multiple users
• Duplexing: two-way communication
 Scheduled access
• Structured communications
• Collisions cannot usually occur
• High overhead; requires transmitter coordination
 Random access (contention-based)
• Unstructured communications
• Collisions can occur
• Low overhead; no transmitter coordination

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 4

MULTIPLE ACCESS: SCHEDULED

 Frequency-division multiple access FDMA
• Each user transmits on separate frequency
• Transmissions may overlap in time

 Time-division multiple access TDMA

• Each user transmits during separate time
• Transmissions may overlap in frequency

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 5

MULTIPLE ACCESS: RANDOM

 ALOHA
• Transmit without listening first
• Often used in code division multiple access (CDMA)
 Carrier-Sense Multiple-Access (CSMA)
• Listen before transmitting
• Collision detection (CSMA/CD)
– Node must be able to transmit and receive simultaneously
– More suitable for wired networks such as 802.3 Ethernet
• Collision avoidance (CSMA/CA)
– Doesn’t require simultaneous transmit and receive
– CSMA reserves channel for subsequent longer data packets
– Used in many wireless networks

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 6

ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY
DIVISION MULTIPLEXING (OFDM)
 Several subcarriers are modulated, each with “slow” data
• Subcarriers are orthogonal (no cross-carrier interference)
• Modulation is via binary/quadrature phase shift keying
(BPSK/QPSK), or quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)
• Fast aggregate data rate
 Advantages
• Spectrally efficient
• Each subcarrier experiences slow, flat fading
• Error correction compensates for the loss of a few subcarriers
 Disadvantages
• Complex implementation
• Intrasymbol interference between subcarriers
– Frequency relationship must be precise
• High peak-to-average power (PAP) at transmitter
– Requires highly linear RF amplifiers
MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services
www.BesserAssociates.com 7

OFDM SUBCARRIERS
Time domain: Each subcarrier has
an integral number of cycles
within the symbol duration

symbol duration

Frequency domain: Each subcarrier

peak is at a zero amplitude point for all
other subcarriers. Subcarrier spacing is
the reciprocal of the symbol duration

subcarrier
Source: Communication Systems Design, February 2001
spacing
MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services
www.BesserAssociates.com 8

OFDM
SIGNAL
GENERATION
AND
DETECTION

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 9

OFDM SUBCARRIER MAPPING

(16-QAM SHOWN)

 Data string is broken into four bits per subcarrier

 Each subcarrier is assigned a point on its 16-QAM
signal constellation corresponding to its data
 IFFT is performed on the composite I-Q vector to
obtain one OFDM symbol in the time domain
MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services
www.BesserAssociates.com 10

SAMPLE OFDM SYMBOL

(TIME DOMAIN)
OFDM symbol

subcarriers

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 11

OFDM GUARD INTERVAL (GI)

USING CYCLIC PREFIX (CP)

 GI allows previous symbol’s multipath to die out

• Prevents multipath-induced intersymbol interference (ISI)
• GI must exceed the RMS delay spread
 CP maintains subcarrier orthogonality
• Linear convolution during RX FFT becomes circular convolution
• Time domain signal is continuous within an OFDM symbol
• Avoids TX turn-on transients at beginning of RX FFT period
 GI reduces OFDM efficiency in two related ways
• Increased bandwidth due to increased subcarrier spacing
• Increased time overhead since GI contains no additional information
MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services
www.BesserAssociates.com 12

OFDM USES

 802.11 a/g/n
 802.16 WiMAX
 Long-term evolution (LTE)
 Digital subscriber line (DSL)
 Digital audio broadcasting (DAB)
 Digital video broadcasting (DVB)

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 13

802.11g OFDM SIGNAL

 Signal contains 48 data subcarriers and 4 pilot subcarriers

• Subcarriers are spaced 312.5 kHz apart
• Symbol duration is 4 μs, including 800 ns cyclic prefix
 Subcarriers are modulated with BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, or 64-QAM
 Pilot subcarriers provide channel condition info and phase reference
• Pilot subcarrier spacing should be less than the coherence bandwidth

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 14

IEEE 802.11g OFDM CODING

Modulation Coded Bits Coded Bits Data Bits
Coding
Data Rate per OFDM per OFDM per OFDM
(each subcarrier) Rate Subcarrier Symbol Symbol
6 Mb/s BPSK 1/2 1 48 24
9 Mb/s BPSK 3/4 1 48 36
12 Mb/s QPSK 1/2 2 96 48
18 Mb/s QPSK 3/4 2 96 72
24 Mb/s 16-QAM 1/2 4 192 96
36 Mb/s 16-QAM 3/4 4 192 144
48 Mb/s 64-QAM 2/3 6 288 192
54 Mb/s 64-QAM 3/4 6 288 216

Maximum range decreases

as data rate increases
MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services
www.BesserAssociates.com 15

802.11 CSMA: DEVICES A AND B

COMPETING FOR ACCESS

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 16

BEYOND 802.11: TECHNICAL

CHALLENGES FOR BROADBAND
WIRELESS ACCESS (BWA)
 Reliable signaling in a hostile outdoor/indoor environment
 High spectral efficiency to support a large number of users
 Multiplexing services with different quality-of-service (QoS)
requirements
 Supporting mobility through seamless handover and roaming
 Low power consumption for battery use
 Robust security
 Adapts IP-based protocols for integration into existing
networks
 Low cost

Source: Andrews, J., Ghosh, A., and Muhamed, R., Fundamentals of WiMAX, Prentice Hall, 2007

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 17

Worldwide Interoperability
for Microwave Access

WiMAX
USAGE
Base Station
(BS)

Mobile Stations
(MS)
Source: “WiMAX Forum Plugfest, 24 Sep - 1 Oct 2006” white paper

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 18

WiMAX MULTIPLE-ACCESS
FEATURES (802.16e-2005)
 OFDM-based PHY
• Anti-multipath and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) operation
 Simultaneous multi-user transmissions
• Different users are assigned different OFDM subcarriers
 Scalable bandwidth/data rates with adaptive coding
• Supports multiple access and user roaming in changing
channels
 Hybrid automatic repeat request (ARQ)
• Uses previous erroneous packets in decoding process
 Time and frequency division duplexing (TDD/FDD) support
• System adjusts uplink (UL) and downlink (DL) usage ratios
 QoS support
• Variable bit rate, latency, and reliability
Source: Andrews, J., Ghosh, A., and Muhamed, R., Fundamentals of WiMAX, Prentice Hall, 2007

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 19

SCALABLE OFDM PARAMETERS:

MOBILE WiMAX
Parameter DL Value
Channel bandwidth 1.25 MHz 5 MHz* 10 MHz* 20 MHz
Total number of subcarriers 128 512 1024 2048
Number of data subcarriers 72 360 720 1440
Number of pilot subcarriers 12 60 120 240
Number of null subcarriers 44 92 184 368
Subcarrier spacing 10.94 kHz
Total symbol duration 102.9 μs
FFT interval 91.4 μs
Guard interval (1/8 FFT) 11.4 μs
OFDM symbols in 5 ms frame 48
* Initial mobile WiMAX system profiles

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 20

TYPICAL DATA RATES:

MOBILE WiMAX
Subcarrier Data Rate
 Shown are aggregate PHY Modulation Coding (Mb/s)
data rates without overhead Rate
(512 subcarriers) DL UL
• Shared among all users in
the channel BPSK 1/2 not used
 Assumptions: 1/2 2.5 0.7
QPSK
• 5 MHz channel bandwidth 3/4 3.8 1.0
• 5 ms frame size 1/2 5.0 1.3
16-QAM
• 1/8 FFT for GI 3/4 7.6 2.0
• No space-time coding 1/2 7.6 2.0
2/3 10.0 2.6
64-QAM*
3/4 11.3 2.9
5/6 12.6 3.3
Source: Andrews, J., Ghosh, A., and Muhamed, R., Fundamentals of WiMAX, Prentice Hall, 2007 * Optional for uplink
MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services
www.BesserAssociates.com 21

ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY DIVISION

MULTIPLE ACCESS (OFDMA)
 OFDMA (802.16e-2005) allows users to share
different subcarriers and different time periods
• Hybrid of FDMA and TDMA
• Several mobile stations are supported by one base station
 OFDMA subchannelization
• The BS assigns to each MS a block (subchannel) of
OFDM subcarriers
 OFDMA messages from BS to MS:
• MS subcarrier map
• MS burst profile (modulation and coding method)

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 22

OFDMA SUBCARRIER MAPPING

EXAMPLE (802.16e-2005)
 Downlink full usage of subchannels (FUSC)
• All data subcarriers are used
• Each subchannel has 48 data subcarriers
– Subchannel carriers are not adjacent, but are distributed
throughout the OFDM subcarrier set
• Pilot subcarriers are both fixed and variable
– Variable pilot subcarriers change position in different OFDM
symbols for increased RX channel estimation accuracy

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 23

OFDMA UPLINK RANGING

 Process of equalizing BS received power levels and
timing among active MS
• Prevents intercarrier and intersymbol interference
 BS determines signal power and propagation
delay for each MS using special ranging
subchannels
• Each MS receives its power and delay information in the
burst profile sent by the BS
 MS then adjusts its own:
• TX power (1 dB max step size over 30 or 50 dB span)
• TX start time

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 24

MAC OFDMA/TDD EXAMPLE

 DL frame preamble provides sync and other PHY functions

 FCH: system control information (subcarriers used, etc.)
 MAP: specifies data regions in DL and UL for various MS
 Ranging subchannels: BS uses these to find MS power and delay
Source: Andrews, J., Ghosh, A., and Muhamed, R., Fundamentals of WiMAX, Prentice Hall, 2007

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 25

OFDMA HELPS SUPPORT

WiMAX QoS SCHEDULING
 Unsolicited grant services (UGS)
• Fixed size packets at a constant bit rate (e.g., some VoIP)
 Real-time polling services (rtPS)
• Variable size packets periodically (e.g., video streaming)
 Non-real-time polling services (nrtPS)
• Variable size packets that are delay-tolerant (e.g., FTP)
 Best-effort (BE)
• Packets without a minimum service guarantee (e.g., Web)
 Extended real-time variable rate (ERT-VR)
• Variable data rates requiring guaranteed delay (e.g.,
some VoIP)

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com 26

CONCLUSIONS

 OFDM has several advantages over single carrier

modulation methods
• Efficient use of bandwidth
• Fast aggregate data rate
• Anti-multipath (Doppler spread and delay spread)
 Multiple access using OFDM is highly flexible
• TDMA: Scheduled access in time
• FDMA: Scheduled access in frequency
• CSMA: Random access using carrier sense
• OFDMA: Assigning multiple users to different subcarriers

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services

www.BesserAssociates.com

MWJ OFDMA © 2009 Morrow Technical Services