Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing/Modulation: OFDM

Marina Mondin [email protected]

Politecnico di Torino, Dip. di Elettronica
1

Multipath Propagation Simple Model

| 0 | 1 | 1 | | 2 |

hc(t) = k k (t - k) where k = 0, , K-1

k : path gain (complex) 0 = 0 normalize relative delay of first path k = k - 0 difference in time-of-flight

Equivalent Propagation Channel

convolution

heff(t) = gtr(t) * hc(t) * grx(t)

transmit filters multipath channel Effective channel at receiver
Propagation channel Transmit / receive filters

receive filters

hc(t) typically random & changes with time

Must estimate and re-estimate channel
3

Impact of Multipath: Delay Spread & ISI

1 0.5

2Ts 4Ts
1 0.8 0.6

-0.5 -6

-4

-2

2 t/Ts

0.4

0.8
0.2

0.6
0

0.4
-0.2 -6

-4

-2

0 t/Ts

0.2

-0.2

Ts

-6

-4

-2

2 t/Ts

Max delay spread = effective number of symbol periods occupied by channel Requires equalization to remove resulting ISI
4

Effective Delay Spread

Delay spread depends on difference in path lengths Effective delay spread: function of the maximum difference Sampling period Ts determines effect of delay spread Cell size Pico cell Micro cell Macro cell 0.1 km 5 km 20 km Max Delay Spread 300 ns 15 us 40 us Application WLAN Audio TV broadcast
5

Sampling Period Channel taps 802.11a DVB-T DAB 50 ns 160 ns 600 ns 6 90 60

Concept of Multicarrier Modulation

Divide broadband channel into narrowband subchannels N ISI in No i subchannels b h l if constant t t gain i in i every subchannel and if ideal sampling Considered for fourth-generation mobile communication systems
channel magnitud de carrier subchannel frequency
6

OFDM: Basic concepts

OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing)
z Multicarrier transmission z Single g data-stream transmitted over lower rate subcarriers

serial bit stream, Rb,ser

0010

S/P converter

Main feature of OFDM

N parallel bit sub-streams, Rb,par = Rb,ser/N

00 0 1

Adopted for various wireless standards

z Robustness against frequency selective fading and narrowband interferences z IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.16a, DAB, DVB (+DSL), HyperLAN II

Monocarrier vs. Multicarrier modulation

Channel Channelization Guard bands Guard bands N carriers Similar to FDM technique B Pulse length ~ N/B Data are shared among several carriers and simultaneously transmitted Advantages Flat Fading per carrier N long o g pulses pu ses ISI is comparatively short N short Equalizers needed Poor spectral efficiency because of band guards Furthermore It is easy to exploit Frequency diversity It allows to deploy 2D coding techniques Dynamic signalling

B Pulse length ~1/B Data are transmited over only one carrier

Drawbacks Selective Fading Very short pulses ISI is compartively long Equalizers are very long Poor spectral efficiency because of band guards

To improve the spectral efficiency: Eliminate band guards between carriers To use orthogonal carriers (allowing overlapping)

OFDM: a special Multicarrier Modulation

OFDM is a special case of FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing), which uses overlapping subchannels in order d t to cope with ith th the i inefficiency ffi i of f th the conventional ti l nonoverlapping multicarrier technique (FDM)

FDM Saving of bandwidth Frequency subchannels

9

OFDM

OFDM: a special Multicarrier Modulation

To realize the overlapping multicarrier technique, it is necessary to avoid crosstalk between subchannels b h l
z i.e. the subchannels are received without InterChannel (Inter-Carrier) Interference (ICI). z subchannel subcarrier

Orthogonality between the different modulated subcarriers is needed

z it is obtained by a proper choice of subcarrier spacing

10

The OFDM signal (1)

N carriers
Symbol: 2 periods of f0

Transmit f
B
Symbol: 8 periods of f0

+
Symbol: 4 periods of f0

Data coded in frequency domain Transformation to time domain: each frequency is a sine wave in time, all added up.

Channel frequency response

Decode each frequency bin separately Receive time B Time-domain signal Frequency-domain signal
11

The OFDM signal (2)

Time-frequency grid Freque ency N carriers Data

B f0

Carrier

B Features No intercarrier guard bands Controlled overlapping of bands Maximum spectral efficiency (Nyquist rate) Easy implementation using IFFTs Very sensitive to freq. synchronization Modulation technique A user utilizes all carriers to transmit its data as coded quantity at each frequency carrier, which can be quadrature-amplitude modulated (QAM). T=1/f 0 One OFDM symbol Time

Intercarrier Separation = 1/(symbol duration)

12

OFDM: signal generation

Ndata parallel frequency sub-carriers Bits on each subcarrier are then mapped pp onto digital g constellation symbols dk (complex), belonging to MPSK or M-QAM constellations Number of data bits necessary to generate one symbol on each subcarrier: Nbit = log2(M)*Ndata Np, number of pilot subcarriers Nz, number of zero subcarriers
z where pilot symbols are transmitted z where zero symbols are transmitted, as a guard band z index k indicates the subcarrier z Ndata, number of subcarriers carrying information symbols

Total number of subcarriers, NFFT= Ndata+Np+Nz (odd) fc, central carrier frequency
13

Signal generation (2)

OFDM symbol (complex envelope), s(t)

z TFFT, OFDM symbol duration z k/TFFT, k-th subcarrier frequency

Each subcarrier has an integer number of cycles in the interval TFFT The number of cycles in TFFT between adjacent subcarriers differs by one
14

OFDM subcarriers

15

Ortogonality among subcarriers

Orthogonality among subcarriers is guaranteed

OFDM symbol in the frequency domain

z extremely flat in-band spectrum z fast out-of-band decay (as faster as the number of subcarriers increases)
16

Spectra of the individual subcarriers

17

OFDM Symbol spectrum

18

The IFFT operation (1)

Observe the OFDM symbol

it can be seen as the IDFT (Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform) of a discrete frequency spectrum S[fk], with In practice practice, IDFT returns time-domain time domain samples
z frequency samples S[fk] = dk z frequency sampling step 1/TFFT

z a very efficient implementation is achieved by the (Inverse) Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) algorithm
19

The IFFT operation (2)

in this figure: xi = dk

20

OFDM Modulation and Demodulation using FFTs

d0 b0 d1 P/S IFFT b1 d2 d0, d1, d2, ., dN-1 b2 Inverse fast d3 Parallel to . Fourier transform . serial i l converter t . . Transmit time-domain f . . samples of one symbol . . time bN-1 dN-1 Data coded in Data in time domain: frequency domain: one symbol at a time one symbol at a time d0 d0 d1 d2 . . . . dN-1 Decode each b0 frequency bin b1 independently b2 . . f . . bN-1
21

d0, d1, ., dN-1

S/P
Serial to parallel converter

FFT
Fast Fourier transform

Receive time-domain samples of one symbol

time

An OFDM MoDem
N subchannels
Bits S/P quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) encoder

N complex samples
add cyclic prefix D/A + transmit filter

N-IFFT

P/S

TRANSMITTER RECEIVER N subchannels

invert channel =
frequency domain equalizer

multipath channel

N complex samples
remove S/P cyclic prefix Receive filter + A/D
22

P/S

QAM decoder

N-FFT

Guard Time
An OFDM transmission consists in a sequence of symbols scp(t), that last T seconds (T>TFFT) and are spaced T seconds apart, i.e.,

i scp,i(t-iT) (t iT)

Each symbol scp,i(t-iT) carries Nbit information bits

Due to the presence of a delay spread in the channel impulse response, a Guard Time (GT) is introduced for each OFDM symbol, to eliminate ISI almost completely The GT must be chosen larger than the expected delay spread of the propagation channel

z a guard time is a time interval TG [s] between two successive symbols, during which no transmissions take place

23

Cyclic prefix
In OFDM, the guard time is used to transmit a cyclic prefix is cyclically The OFDM symbol y y y extended in the GT, to prevent ICI (Inter-Channel Interference)

z Ncp is the n number mber of samples in the GT

24

Cyclic prefix (2)

Orthogonality between subcarriers is preserved
z integer number of cycles within an integration period TFFT z no phase discontinuities are generated

Multipath signals with delays smaller than TG, cannot cause ICI

25

Loss of orthogonality (due to frequency offset)

Transmission pulses Reception pulse with offset
k (t ) = exp( jk 2 t / T ) & y k + m ( t ) = exp ( j 2 (k + m )t / T )
with k + m (t ) = exp (j 2 ( k + m + ) / T ) con 1 / 2

Interference between channels k and k+m

I m ( ) =

exp( jk 2 t / T ) exp( j (k + m + )2t / T )dt =

T (1 exp( j 2 )) j 2 ( m + )

Im ( ) =

T sin

m+

Summing up m

I
m

2 m

( ) (T )2
m =1

N 1

1 23 (T )2 m2 14

for

N >> 1 ( N > 5 Is enough )

0 Interference: Im( )/T en dB -10 -20 -30 -40 -50 -60 -70 -0.4

Loss for 8 carriers

m=1 m=3 m=5 m=7

Total ICI due to loss of orthogonality

-10 -15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45 assumed r.v. -50 Gaussian = -55 -60 2 4
ICI in dB

=0.05 =0.02 =0.01 =0.005 =0.002 =0.001

6 8 10 12

Practical limit

Asymetric
-0.3 -0.2 -0.1
0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

14

16

26

Frequency offset:

Carrier position within the band (N=16)

Loss of orthogonality (in time)

Let us assume a misadjustment
Xi = c0
T / 2 + T / 2 * k (t ) * l ( t ) dt + c 1 T / 2 + k (t ) l ( t )dt T/ 2

2 consecutive symbols

Then if m=k-l

sen m 2 T T , c c 0 1 Xi = m 0, c0 = c1
Xi 2 E 2 T

Or approximately, when <<T

Xi T

2 m m

T =2 T

independent on m

In average, the interfering power in any carrier is

2 2 1 1 = 4 T 2 + 0 2 = 2 T

ICI 20 log

2 , << T T Per carrier

Loss for 16 carriers

0 -5 -10 Interference en dB -15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45 -50 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 m=10 m=5 m=1

Zone of interest

Relative misadjustment

27

Spectrum Shaping
FCC manages spectrum Specifies power spectral density mask z Adjacent channel interference z Roll-off requirements Implications to OFDM z Zero tones on edge of band z Time domain windowing smoothes adjacent symbols
Adjacent channel

IEEE 802.11a

Inband

Zero tones

Ofdm symbol
Reference: Std 802.11a

frequency
28

Spectrum Shaping: Windowing

In order to reduce out-of-band interference interference, windowing is applied to the individual OFDM symbols scp,i[n] A commonly used window type is the Raised-Cosine window, with symbol interval T=TFFT+TG and roll-off
29

Windowing
Large

Effect of the roll-off

roll-off factors improve the spectral behavior in terms of out-of-band emissions
lowered

side-lobes

Windowing
In

decreases the overall delayspread tolerance by a factor

practice, the effective GT TG is reduced by the amount T

30

An OFDM Modem
N subchannels
Bits quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) encoder

N complex samples
add cyclic prefix D/A + transmit filter

00110

S/P

N-IFFT

P/S

TRANSMITTER RECEIVER N subchannels

invert channel =
frequency domain equalizer

multipath channel

N complex samples
remove S/P cyclic prefix Receive filter + A/D
31

P/S

QAM decoder

N-FFT

Ideal Channel Estimation

Wireless channels change frequently ~ 10 ms Require frequent channel estimation y systems y use pilot p tones known symbols y Many z Given sk, for k = k1, k2, k3, solve xk = l=0L hl e-j2 k l/N sk for hl z Find Hk = l=0L hl e-j2 k l / N (significant computation) More pilot tones z Better noise resilience z Lower throughput (pilots are not informative)
magnitude

Pilot tones

frequency
32

Frequency Domain Equalization

For the kth carrier: xk = Hk sk + vk

where Hk = n hk(nTs) exp(j2 k n / N) and n = 0, ,. N-1 Frequency domain equalizer

xk Hk-1

sk = sk + vk Hk-1 = sk + vk

Noise enhancement factor

|Hk|2 |Hk-1|2

k2 = k2|Hk-1|2
bad good k

33

Frequency Domain Equalization with constant amplitude modulations (QPSK)

For the kth carrier: xk = Hk sk + vk

Frequency domain equalizer xk abs(Hk )Hk-1 No noise enhancement factor same noise variance in all subchannels k 2 = k 2
Has a rotated pdf, but since Gaussian pdf has circular symmetry, noise variance is unchanged

sk = sk + vk abs(Hk )Hk-1 = sk + vk

34

Channel Estimation Via Interpolation

More efficient approach is interpolation Algorithm pilot ki find Hki = xki / ski z For each p z Interpolate unknown values using interpolation filter z Hm = m,1 Hk1 + m,2 Hk2 + Comments z Longer interpolation filter: more computation, timing sensitivity z Typical 1dB loss in performance in practical implementation
magnitud de

frequency
35

DMT vs. OFDM

DMT (Discrete Multitone Transmission) z Channel changes very slowly ~ 1 s z Subchannel gains known at transmitter z Bit-loading Bit loading (sending more bits on good channels) increases throughput OFDM (wireless) z Channel may change quickly ~ 10 ms z Not enough time to convey gains to transmitter z Forward error correction mitigates problems on bad channels DMT: Send more data here OFDM: Try to code so bad subchannels can be ignored

magnitud de

frequency
36

DMT vs. OFDM

Key difference with DMT Bandpass transmission allows for complex waveforms T Transmit: it y(t) (t) = Re{( R {(I(t)+j ) j Q(t)) exp(j2p (j2 fc t)} = I(t) cos(2 fc t) Q(t) sin(2 fc t)

37

Coded OFDM (COFDM)

Error correction is necessary in OFDM systems Forward error correction (FEC)
z Adds redundancy to data stream z Examples: convolutional codes, block codes z Mitigates the effects of bad channels z Reduces overall throughput according to the coding rate k/n

Automatic repeat request (ARQ)

z Adds error detecting ability to data stream z Examples: 16-bit cyclic redundancy code z Used to detect errors in an OFDM symbol z Bad packets are retransmitted (hopefully the channel changes) z Usually used with FEC z Minus: Ineffective in broadcast systems
38

Frequency diversity using coding

Random errors: primarily introduced by thermal and circuit noise. Channel-selected errors: introduced by magnitude distortion in channel frequency response. response
Time-frequency grid Data bits

Frequency

B f0

Bad carriers

f Frequency response
T=1/f0

Time

Errors are no longer random. Interleaving is often used to scramble the data bits so that standard error correcting codes can be applied.

39

Typical Coded OFDM Encoder

FEC Reed-Solomon and/or convolutional code Data bits Rate 1/2 Bitwise Interleaving Intersperse coded and uncoded bits Parity bits

Symbol Mapping

Map bits to symbols

40

Typical Coded OFDM Decoder

Symbol demapping
Frequency-domain equalization

z Produce soft estimate of each bit z Improves decoding

Symbol Demapping

Deinterleaving

Decoding

41

OFDM in Broadcast
Enables Single Frequency Network (SFN) z Multiple transmit antennas geographically separated z Enables same radio/TV channel frequency throughout a country z Creates artificially large delay spread OFDM has no problems

20km

1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

42

OFDM for High-Speed Internet Access

High-speed data transmission z Large bandwidths -> high rate, many computations z Small sampling periods -> delay spread becomes a serious impairment z Requires much lower BER than voice systems OFDM pros z Takes advantage of multipath through simple equalization OFDM cons z Synchronization requirements are much more strict Requires more complex algorithms for time / frequency synch z Peak-to-average power ratio Approximately 10 log N (in dB) Large signal peaks require higher power amplifiers Amplifier cost grows nonlinearly with required power
43

OFDM Systems and Applications

Standard DAB DVB-T DVB-H DVB H IEEE 802.11a IEEE 802.11g IEEE 802.11n IEEE 802.16 IEEE 802.20 Meaning Digital Audio Broadcasting Digital Video Broadcasting Digital Video Broadcasting Wireless LAN / WiFi Wireless LAN / WiFi Wireless LAN (High Speed) Broadband Wireless Access Carrier Freq. FM radio UHF UHF Rate (Mbps) 0.008-0.384 3.7-32 13.7 6 - 54 6 54 6 100 0.5 20 ~1 Applications Audio broadcasting Digital TV broadcasting Digital broadcasting to handheld Wireless Internet Wireless Internet Wireless Internet Fixed / Mobile Wireless Internet Mobile Internet / Voice?

5.2 GHz 2.4 GHz 2.4 GHz - ?? 2.1 GHz & others Mobile Broad. Wireless Access 3.5 GHz

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) Digital modulation scheme Wireless counterpart to discrete multitone transmission Used in a variety of applications o Broadcast o High-speed internet access
44

Example: IEEE 802.11a

IEEE 802.11 employs adaptive modulation z Code rate & modulation depends on distance from base station z Overall data rate varies from 6 Mbps to 54 Mbps Reference: IEEE Std 802.11a-1999
45

IEEE 802.11a Wireless LAN

System parameters z FFT size: 64 z Number N mber of tones used sed 52 (12 zero ero tones) z Number of pilots 4 (data tones = 52-4 = 48 tones) z Bandwidth: 20MHz z Subcarrier spacing : f = 20 MHz / 64 = 312.5 kHz z OFDM symbol duration: TFFT = 1/f = 3.2us z Cyclic prefix duration: TGI = 0.8us z Signal duration: Tsignal i l = TFFT + TGI
CP TGI s y m b o l i TFFT
46

802.11a System Specification

t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 t6 t7 t8 t9 t10 GI2

T1

T2

GI

OFDM Symbol

GI

OFDM Symbol

Short training sequence: AGC and frequency offset

Long training sequence: Channel estimation

Sampling (chip) rate: 20MHz Chip duration: 50ns Number of FFT points: 64 FFT symbol period: 3.2s Cyclic prefix period: 16 chips or 0.8s z Typical maximum indoor delay spread < 400ns z OFDM frame length: 80 chips or 4s z FFT symbol length / OFDM frame length = 4/5 Modulation scheme z QPSK: 2bits/sample z 16QAM: 4bits/sample z 64QAM: 6bits/sample Coding: rate convolutional code with constraint length 7

47

IEEE 802.11a pilot structure

48

IEEE 802.11a Spectrum Mask

Power Spectral Density

-20 dB -28 dB

-40 dB -11 -9

-30

-20

f carrier

9 11

20

30 Frequency (MHz)

Requires extremely linear power amplifier design.

49

OFDM: Quick Summary

Basic idea
z Using a large number of parallel narrow-band subcarriers i i instead t d of f a single i l wide-band id b d carrier i t to transport information z Very easy and efficient in dealing with multi-path z Robust against narrow-band interference z Sensitive to frequency offset and phase noise z Peak-to-average problem reduces the power efficiency of RF amplifier at the transmitter
802.11a, 802.16a, DAB, DVB (+DSL)

Advantages

Disadvantages

Adopted for various wireless standards

50