Orthogonal frequency-division multiple

access
Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) is a multi-user version of the
popular Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) digital modulation scheme.
Multiple access is achieved in OFDMA by assigning subsets of subcarriers to individual users as
shown in the illustration below. This allows simultaneous low data rate transmission from
several users.

Contents
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 1 Key features
o 1.1 Claimed advantages over CDMA
o 1.2 Claimed advantages over OFDM with time-domain statistical multiplexing
o 1.3 Claimed OFDMA Advantages
o 1.4 Recognized disadvantages of OFDMA
 2 Characteristics and principles of operation
 3 Usage
 4 References
 5 Literature
 6 See also
 7 External links

Key features
The advantages and disadvantages summarized below are further discussed in the Characteristics
and principles of operation section. See also the list of OFDM Key features.
Claimed advantages over CDMA

 OFDM can combat multipath interference with more robustness and less complexity.[1]
 OFDMA can achieve a higher MIMO spectral efficiency due to providing flatter
frequency channels than a CDMA RAKE receiver can.[1]
 No cell size breathing as more users connect.

Claimed advantages over OFDM with time-domain statistical multiplexing

 Allows simultaneous low-data-rate transmission from several users.

 Pulsed carrier can be avoided.
 Lower maximum transmission power for low data rate users.
 Shorter delay, and constant delay.
 Contention-based multiple access (collision avoidance) is simplified.
 Further improves OFDM robustness to fading and interference.

Claimed OFDMA Advantages

 Flexibility of deployment across various frequency bands with little needed modification
to the air interface.[1]
 Averaging interferences from neighboring cells, by using different basic carrier
permutations between users in different cells.
 Interferences within the cell are averaged by using allocation with cyclic permutations.
 Enables Single Frequency Network coverage, where coverage problem exists and gives
excellent coverage.
 Offers Frequency diversity by spreading the carriers all over the used spectrum.

Recognized disadvantages of OFDMA

 Higher sensitivity to frequency offsets and phase noise.[1]

 Asynchronous data communication services such as web access are characterized by
short communication bursts at high data rate. Few users in a base station cell are
transferring data simultaneously at low constant data rate.
 The complex OFDM electronics, including the FFT algorithm and forward error
correction, is constantly active independent of the data rate, which is inefficient from
power consumption point of view, while OFDM combined with data packet scheduling
may allow that the FFT algorithm hibernates during certain time intervals.
 The OFDM diversity gain, and resistance to frequency-selective fading, may partly be
lost if very few sub-carriers are assigned to each user, and if the same carrier is used in
every OFDM symbol. Adaptive sub-carrier assignment based on fast feedback
information about the channel, or sub-carrier frequency hopping, is therefore desirable.
 Dealing with co-channel interference from nearby cells is more complex in OFDM than
in CDMA. It would require dynamic channel allocation with advanced coordination
among adjacent base stations.
  The fast channel feedback information and adaptive sub-carrier assignment is more
complex than CDMA fast power control.

Characteristics and principles of operation

Based on feedback information about the channel conditions, adaptive user-to-subcarrier
assignment can be achieved. If the assignment is done sufficiently fast, this further improves the
OFDM robustness to fast fading and narrow-band cochannel interference, and makes it possible
to achieve even better system spectral efficiency.

Different number of sub-carriers can be assigned to different users, in view to support

differentiated Quality of Service (QoS), i.e. to control the data rate and error probability
individually for each user.

OFDMA resembles code division multiple access (CDMA) spread spectrum, where users can
achieve different data rates by assigning a different code spreading factor or a different number
of spreading codes to each user.

OFDMA can be seen as an alternative to combining OFDM with time division multiple access
(TDMA) or time-domain statistical multiplexing, i.e. packet mode communication. Low-data-
rate users can send continuously with low transmission power instead of using a "pulsed" high-
power carrier. Constant delay, and shorter delay, can be achieved.

OFDMA can also be described as a combination of frequency domain and time domain multiple
access, where the resources are partitioned in the time-frequency space, and slots are assigned
along the OFDM symbol index as well as OFDM sub-carrier index.

OFDMA is considered as highly suitable for broadband wireless networks, due to advantages
including scalability and MIMO-friendliness, and ability to take advantage of channel frequency
selectivity.[1]

In spectrum sensing cognitive radio, OFDMA is a possible approach to filling free radio
frequency bands adaptively. Timo A. Weiss and Friedrich K. Jondral of the University of
Karlsruhe proposed a spectrum Pooling system in which free bands sensed by nodes were
immediately filled by OFDMA subbands.

Usage
OFDMA is used in:

 the mobility mode of the IEEE 802.16 Wireless MAN standard, commonly referred to as
WiMAX,
 the IEEE 802.20 mobile Wireless MAN standard, commonly referred to as MBWA,
  the downlink of the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) fourth generation mobile
broadband standard. The radio interface was formerly named High Speed OFDM Packet
Access (HSOPA), now named Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA).
 the Qualcomm Flarion Technologies Mobile Flash-OFDM
 the now defunct Qualcomm/3GPP2 Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB) project, intended as
a successor of CDMA2000, but replaced by LTE.

OFDMA is also a candidate access method for the IEEE 802.22 Wireless Regional Area
Networks (WRAN). The project aims at designing the first cognitive radio based standard
operating in the VHF-low UHF spectrum (TV spectrum).

The term "OFDMA" is claimed to be a registered trademark by Runcom Technologies Ltd.[1],

with various other claimants to the underlying technologies through patents.

References
1. ^ a b c d e Hujun Yin and Siavash Alamouti (August 2007). "OFDMA: A Broadband
Wireless Access Technology". IEEE Sarnoff Symposium, 2006 (IEEE): pp. 1–4.
doi:10.1109/SARNOF.2006.4534773.

Literature
 K. Fazel and S. Kaiser, Multi-Carrier and Spread Spectrum Systems: From OFDM and
MC-CDMA to LTE and WiMAX, 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2008, ISBN 978-0-
470-99821-2.

OFDM Basics Tutorial

- OFDM - Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex, the modulation concept
being used for many wireless and radio communications radio applications from
DAB, DVB, Wi-Fi and Mobile Video.

OFDM Basics Tutorial

- OFDM - Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex, the modulation concept
being used for many wireless and radio communications radio applications from
DAB, DVB, Wi-Fi and Mobile Video.
This OFDM tutorial is split into several pages each of which addresses a different aspect of
OFDM operation and technology:

[1] OFDM basics tutorial [2] OFDM synchronization

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex or OFDM is a modulation format that is finding

increasing levels of use in today's radio communications scene. OFDM has been adopted in the
Wi-Fi arena where the 802.11a standard uses it to provide data rates up to 54 Mbps in the 5 GHz
ISM (Industrial, Scientific and Medical) band. In addition to this the recently ratified 802.11g
standard has it in the 2.4 GHz ISM band. In addition to this, it is being used for WiMAX and is
also the format of choice for the next generation cellular radio communications systems
including 3G LTE and UMB.

If this was not enough it is also being used for digital terrestrial television transmissions as well
as DAB digital radio. A new form of broadcasting called Digital Radio Mondiale for the long
medium and short wave bands is being launched and this has also adopted COFDM. Then for the
future it is being proposed as the modulation technique for fourth generation cell phone systems
that are in their early stages of development and OFDM is also being used for many of the
proposed mobile phone video systems.

OFDM, orthogonal frequency division multiplex is a rather different format for modulation to
that used for more traditional forms of transmission. It utilises many carriers together to provide
many advantages over simpler modulation formats.

OFDM concept
An OFDM signal consists of a number of closely spaced modulated carriers. When modulation
of any form - voice, data, etc. is applied to a carrier, then sidebands spread out either side. It is
necessary for a receiver to be able to receive the whole signal to be able to successfully
demodulate the data. As a result when signals are transmitted close to one another they must be
spaced so that the receiver can separate them using a filter and there must be a guard band
between them. This is not the case with OFDM. Although the sidebands from each carrier
overlap, they can still be received without the interference that might be expected because they
are orthogonal to each another. This is achieved by having the carrier spacing equal to the
reciprocal of the symbol period.

Traditional view of receiving signals carrying modulation

To see how OFDM works, it is necessary to look at the receiver. This acts as a bank of
demodulators, translating each carrier down to DC. The resulting signal is integrated over the
symbol period to regenerate the data from that carrier. The same demodulator also demodulates
the other carriers. As the carrier spacing equal to the reciprocal of the symbol period means that
they will have a whole number of cycles in the symbol period and their contribution will sum to
zero - in other words there is no interference contribution.

OFDM Spectrum

One requirement of the OFDM transmitting and receiving systems is that they must be linear.
Any non-linearity will cause interference between the carriers as a result of inter-modulation
distortion. This will introduce unwanted signals that would cause interference and impair the
orthogonality of the transmission.

In terms of the equipment to be used the high peak to average ratio of multi-carrier systems such
as OFDM requires the RF final amplifier on the output of the transmitter to be able to handle the
peaks whilst the average power is much lower and this leads to inefficiency. In some systems the
peaks are limited. Although this introduces distortion that results in a higher level of data errors,
the system can rely on the error correction to remove them.

Data on OFDM
The data to be transmitted on an OFDM signal is spread across the carriers of the signal, each
carrier taking part of the payload. This reduces the data rate taken by each carrier. The lower data
rate has the advantage that interference from reflections is much less critical. This is achieved by
adding a guard band time or guard interval into the system. This ensures that the data is only
sampled when the signal is stable and no new delayed signals arrive that would alter the timing
and phase of the signal.
 Guard Interval

The distribution of the data across a large number of carriers in the OFDM signal has some
further advantages. Nulls caused by multi-path effects or interference on a given frequency only
affect a small number of the carriers, the remaining ones being received correctly. By using
error-coding techniques, which does mean adding further data to the transmitted signal, it
enables many or all of the corrupted data to be reconstructed within the receiver. This can be
done because the error correction code is transmitted in a different part of the signal.

OFDM variants
There are several other variants of OFDM for which the initials are seen in the technical
literature. These follow the basic format for OFDM, but have additional attributes or variations:

 COFDM:   Coded Orthogonal frequency division multiplex. A form of OFDM where

error correction coding is incorporated into the signal.
 Flash OFDM:   This is a variant of OFDM that was developed by Flarion and it is a fast
hopped form of OFDM. It uses multiple tones and fast hopping to spread signals over a
given spectrum band.
 OFDMA:   Orthogonal frequency division multiple access. A scheme used to provide a
multiple access capability for applications such as cellular telecommunications when
using OFDM technologies.
 VOFDM:   Vector OFDM. This form of OFDM uses the concept of MIMO technology.
It is being developed by CISCO Systems. MIMO stands for Multiple Input Multiple
output and it uses multiple antennas to transmit and receive the signals so that multi-path
effects can be utilised to enhance the signal reception and improve the transmission
speeds that can be supported.
 WOFDM:   Wideband OFDM. The concept of this form of OFDM is that it uses a degree
of spacing between the channels that is large enough that any frequency errors between
transmitter and receiver do not affect the performance. It is particularly applicable to Wi-
Fi systems.
Each of these forms of OFDM utilise the same basic concept of using close spaced orthogonal
carriers each carrying low data rate signals. During the demodulation phase the data is then
combined to provide the complete signal.

OFDM Summary
OFDM and COFDM have gained a significant presence in the wireless market place. The
combination of high data capacity, high spectral efficiency, and its resilience to interference as a
result of multi-path effects means that it is ideal for the high data applications that are becoming
a common factor in today's communications scene.

This OFDM tutorial is split into several pages each of which addresses a different aspect of
OFDM operation and technology:

[1] OFDM basics tutorial [2] OFDM synchronization

While OFDM has been successfully deployed in many different radio communications systems,
one of the main problems that needs to be overcome is that if OFDM synchronization.

Effective OFDM synchronization enables the data error rates to be kept to a minimum, whereas
if the system is not accurately synchronized, then errors will result and the system will become
less effective.

The need for OFDM synchronization

OFDM offers many advantages in terms of resilience to fading, reflections and the like. OFDM
also offers a high level of spectrum efficiency. However to reap the rewards, it is necessary that
the OFDM system operates correctly, and to achieve this, it is necessary for the OFDM
synchronization to be effective.

There are a number of areas in which the OFDM synchronisation is critical to the operation of
the system:

 OFDM synchronization in terms of frequency offset:   It is necessary that the

frequencies are accurately tracked to ensure that orthogonality is maintained.
 OFDM synchronisation in terms of clock accuracy:   It is necessary that the sampling
occurs at the correct time interval to ensure that the samples are synchronized and data
errors are minimised.

In order to ensure that the OFDM system works to its optimum, it is necessary to ensure that
there are schemes in place to ensure the OFDM synchronization is within the required limits.
Frequency offset OFDM synchronization
It is particularly important that the demodulator in an OFDM receiver is able to synchronize
accurately with the carriers within the OFDM signal. Offsets may arise for a number of reasons
including any frequency errors between the transmitter and the receiver and also as a result of
Doppler shifts if there is movement between the transmitter and receiver.

If the frequency synchronisation is impaired, then the orthogonality of the carriers is reduced
within the demodulation process and error rates increase. Accordingly it is essential to maintain
orthogonality to reduce errors and maintain the performance of the link.

First look at the way that sampling should occur. With the demodulator in synchronisation, all
the contributions from the other carriers sum to zero as shown. On this way all the carriers are
orthogonal and the error rate is at its minimum.

An OFDM signal where demodulation is in synchronisation

If a situation is encountered where the OFDM synchronisation for the frequency aspects are
poor, then the demodulator will centre its samples away from the peak of the signal, and also at a
point where the contributions from the other signals do not sum to zero. This will lead to a
degradation of the signal which could in turn lead to an increase in the number of bit errors.

An OFDM signal where demodulation has poor synchronisation

Clock offset OFDM synchronization
It is also necessary to maintain OFDM synchronization in terms of the clock. Gain if the clock
synchronisation is not accurate, sampling will be offset and again orthogonality will be reduced,
and data errors will increase.

When looking at OFDM synchronization with regard to the clock offset, the carrier spacing used
within the receiver for sampling the received signal will be based upon the internal clock rate. If
this differs from that used within the transmitter, it will be found that even if the first carrier
within the multiplex is correct, then there will be a growing discrepancy with each carrier away
from the first one. Even small levels of discrepancy will cause the error rate to increase.

OFDM synchronization problem with clock offset problem