ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY-DIVISION MULTIPLEXING (OFDM) AND ITS APPLICATION IN WIRELESS BROADBAND MULTIMEDIA COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS (WBMCS)

Presented By: Vipul Saxena Final year Electrical

Motivation for Wireless Communication

High data rate wireless applications.

High capacity
- More users - More service

E mc4

Where, E is evolution of wireless communications, m is multimedia communications, and c is consumer electronics, computer technology, communications technology, and contents.

Limitations of the Mobile Radio Environment

Path loss

Shadow fading
Frequency-selective fading All of them result in Interference
Challenges faced by mobile environment

Evolution of OFDM
In a single-carrier system, a single fade or interferer can cause the entire link to fail, but in a multicarrier system (OFDM), only a small percentage of the SCs will be affected. OFDM is a special case of multicarrier transmission, where a single data stream is transmitted over a number of lower-rate subcarriers (SCs).

OFDM increases robustness against frequency-selective fading as only few SCs are affected.
Thus, Error-correction coding can then be used to correct for the few erroneous SCs.

From FDM to OFDM

In a classical parallel-data system (FDM) , the total signal frequency band is divided into N non-overlapping frequency sub-channels. Each sub-channel is modulated with a separate symbol, and then the N sub-channels are frequency multiplexed. It seems good to avoid spectral overlap of channels to eliminate interchannel interference. However, this leads to inefficient use of the available spectrum.

The different carriers are orthogonal to each other, that is, they are totally independent of one another.

This is achieved by placing the carrier exactly at the nulls in the modulation spectra of each other.

OFDM Subcarrier Spectra

Concept of the OFDM signal: (a) conventional multicarrier technique (FDM), and (b) orthogonal multicarrier modulation technique.

Comparison of OFDM over FDM and single-carrier systems. OFDM is more spectral efficient than FDM, since it utilizes the surface effectively with adjacent tiny streams.

 Lets us have following information bits serially

SERIAL DATA = 1, 1, -1, -1, 1, 1, 1, -1, 1, -1, -1, -1, -1, 1, -1, -1,

Just convert 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
V(t)

Generated OFDM signal, V(t)

 Orthogonality :

Sub-Carriers

Each sub carrier in an OFDM system is a sinusoid with a frequency that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency.

Inter symbol interference (ISI)

Inter symbol interference (ISI) is a form of distortion of a signal in which one symbol interferes with subsequent symbols. ISI is usually caused by multipath propagation or the inherent non linear frequency response of a channel causing successive symbols to blur together.

The presence of ISI in the system introduces error in the decision device at the receiver output.

Inter Carrier Interference (ICI)

Presence of Doppler shifts and frequency and phase offsets in an OFDM system causes loss in orthogonality of the sub carriers. As a result, interference is observed between sub carriers. This phenomenon is known as inter carrier interference (ICI) .

Cyclic Prefix
The Cyclic Prefix is a periodic extension of the last part of an OFDM symbol that is added to the front of the symbol in the transmitter, and is removed at the receiver before demodulation. The cyclic prefix has to two important benefits The cyclic prefix acts as a guard interval. It eliminates the inter symbol interference from the previous symbol. It acts as a repetition of the end of the symbol thus allowing the linear convolution of a frequency selective multipath channel to be modeled as circular convolution which in turn maybe transformed to the frequency domain using a discrete fourier transform.

Modulation in OFDM
In an OFDM system, the high data rate information is divided into small packets of data which are placed orthogonal to each other. This is achieved by modulating the data by a desirable modulation technique ( say QPSK). After this, IFFT is performed on the modulated signal which is further processed by passing through a parallel to serial converter. In order to avoid ISI we provide a cyclic prefix to the signal.

Demodulation
The received data is first made to pass through a low pass filter and the cyclic prefix is removed. FFT of the signal is done after it is made to pass through a serial to parallel converter. A demodulator is used, to get back the original signal.

Peak-to-Average Power Ratio(PAPR) A Limitation

The major problem one faces while implementing OFDM is the high peak to average power ratio (PAPR) of this system. A large PAPR causes: Increase in the complexity of the analog to digital and digital to analog converters. Reduction in the efficiency of the radio frequency (RF) power amplifier as the transmitter power amplifier is no longer confined to linear region in which it should operate. This has a harmful effect on the battery lifetime.

PAPR Reduction Techniques

PAPR reduction techniques vary according to the needs of the system and are dependent on various factors like PAPR reduction capacity, increase in power in transmit signal, loss in data rate, complexity of computation etc. Some of the popular and efficient techniques of reduction of PAPR are: AMPLITUDE CLIPPING AND FILTERING SELECTED MAPPING PARTIAL TRANSMIT SEQUENCE

Contd
AMPLITUDE CLIPPING AND FILTERING: A threshold value of the amplitude is set in this process and any sub-carrier having amplitude more than that value is clipped or that sub-carrier is filtered to bring out a lower PAPR value. SELECTED MAPPING: In this a set of sufficiently different data blocks representing the information same as the original data blocks are selected. Selection of data blocks with low PAPR value makes it suitable for transmission. PARTIAL TRANSMIT SEQUENCE: Data is divided into disjoint Sub-Blocks and the Sub-blocks are combined so as to have low PAPR value and than, sent for transmission. It is based on optimization techniques & thus is the most effective.

Unmodified OFDM signal OFDM Signal After Amplitude Clipping

Effect of Amplitude Clipping

SLM PTS
Performance curves of Selected Mapping (SLM )and Partial Transmit Sequence(PTS) Techniques.

Advantages of OFDM
Multipath delay spread tolerance

Immunity to frequency selective fading channels:

High transmission bit rates.

Disadvantages of OFDM
Large peak-to-mean power ratio :Due to the superposition of all subcarrier signals, this can become a distortion problem. More complex than single-carrier Modulation. Requires a more linear power amplifier.

APPLICATIONS OF OFDM
WBMCS

Applications

Multi-carrier Multiple Access Techniques

Advanced Communications Techniques

OFDM-CDMA OFDMA Flash-OFDM etc..

DAB DVB HIPERLAN etc.

CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)

In CDMA, one channel carries all transmissions simultaneously.

CDMA simply means communication with different codes.

In code-division multiple access (CDMA), the stations use different codes to achieve multiple access.

CDMA is based on coding theory and uses sequences of numbers called chips.

Properties of CDMA Codes

1. Each sequence is made of N elements, where N is the number of stations.

2. If we multiply a sequence by a number, every element in the sequence is multiplied by that element. This is called multiplication of a sequence by a scalar. For example,
2. [+1 +1-1-1]=[+2+2-2-2] 3. If we multiply two equal sequences, element by element, and add the results, we get N, where N is the number of elements in the each sequence. 4. If we multiply two different sequences, element by element, and add the results, we get 0.. For example, [+1 +1 -1 -1] [+1 +1 +1 +1] = 1 + 1 - 1 - 1 = 0

5. Adding two sequences means adding the corresponding elements. The result is another sequence. For example,
[+1+1-1-1]+[+1+1+1+1]=[+2+2 0 0]

OFDM-CDMA
In OFDM-CDMA, user data is spread over several subcarriers and/or OFDM symbols using spreading codes, and combined with signal from other users. We combine the benefits of OFDM and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). OFDM provides a simple method to overcome the Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI) effect of the multi-path frequency selective wireless channel.

CDMA provides the frequency diversity and the multi-user access scheme.
In OFDM-CDMA, the flexibility lies in the allocation of all available codes to the users, depending on the required data rates.

OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access)

In OFDM, available sub-carriers are distributed among all the users for transmission at any time instant. OFDMA allows assigning subset of subcarriers to different users. The active subcarriers are divided into subset of subcarriers termed as sub-channel. Carrier space is divided into NG groups. Each group contains NE carriers and thus NE sub-channels are created.

Comparison of OFDM and OFDMA subcarriers allocation

The type of coding and modulation are set separately for each sub-channel. The subcarriers can be allocated to different users (one sub-channel per one user) depending on the channel conditions. This characteristic is useful for operators who assign to these users most suitable subcarriers which leads to efficient use of resources. OFDMA is perfectly fitting for fast mobile scenarios.

Flash OFDM
Data communication over legacy cellular voice systems is inefficient since data is fundamentally different from voice. Flash-OFDM is an OFDMA system where the sub-carriers are distributed among the mobile stations. Spectrum is divided into N tones but different mobiles in the same cell use different tones. Flash-OFDM uses fast hopping across all tones. With fast hopping, a user that is assigned one tone does not transmit on the same tone every symbol, but uses a hopping pattern to jump to a different tone every symbol duration.

Contd
It provides higher data rates when it is close to the base station.

Hence it enables the MAC layer to perform efficient packet switching over the air.

Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB)

DAB is an European standard for digital broadcasting that was standardized by the European Telecommunications Institute (ETSI) in 1995. The DAB transmitted data consists of number of audio signals sampled at a rate of 48 kHz with a 22-bit resolution. This audio signal is then compressed at rates ranging from 32 to 384 kbps, depending upon the desired signal quality. The resulting digital data is then divided into frames of 24 ms. DAB uses differential QPSK modulation for the sub-carriers. A null-symbol is used to indicate the start of the frame.

Four Transmission modes of DAB

Digital Audio Broadcasting (OFDM Parameters)

Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB)

Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) is a standard for broadcasting Digital Television over satellites, cables and terrestrial (wireless) transmission. DVB was standardized by the ETSI in 1997. DVB has two modes of operation: the 2k mode with 1705 sub-carriers and the 8k modes with 6817 sub-carriers.

DVB uses QPSK, 16-QAM or 64-QAM sub-carrier modulation.

2G , 3G were based on TDMA ,FDMA. 4G, refers to all-IP packet-switched networks, mobile ultra-broadband (gigabit speed) access and multi-carrier transmission. 4G is based on OFDM which is the key enabler of 4G technology. Other technological aspects of 4G are adaptive processing and smart antennas. Currently 3G networks still send their data digitally over a single channel, OFDM is designed to send data over hundreds of parallel streams, thus increasing the amount of information that can be sent at a time over traditional CDMA networks. 4G networks also use smart antenna technology, which is used to aim the radio signal in the direction of the receiver in the terminal from the base station. When teamed up with adaptive techniques, multiple antennas can cancel out more interference while enhancing the signal.

REFERENCES
Ahmad R.S. Bahai , Burton R. Saltzberg, Mustafa Ergen - Multi-carrier Digital communications Theory and Applications of OFDM , Springer Internatinal Edition, 2005. Litwin , Louis and Pugel, Michael, The Principles of OFDM 2001. Ramjee Prasad-OFDM for Wireless Communication, Universal Personal Communications. Muhammad Imadur Rahman , Suvra Sekhar Das , Frank H.P. FitzekOFDM Based WLAN Systems , Technical report , Aalborg University2005.