Technologies and Services of Digital Broadcasting (9)

MODULATION Systems (part 2)

"Technologies and Services of Digital Broadcasting" (in Japanese, ISBN4-339-01162-2) is published by
CORONA publishing co., Ltd. Copying, reprinting, translation, or retransmission of this document is
prohibited without the permission of the authors and the publishers, CORONA publishing co., Ltd. and NHK.

1. OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division where automobiles and other objects come into play. On
Multiplex) the other hand, for fixed reception by an antenna installed
on a roof as in ordinary television reception, 64QAM-
1.1 OFDM signal OFDM is used so that as much data as possible can be
Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing is a transmitted within a limited frequency bandwidth.
multicarrier digital modulation system that has been Transmit symbols in OFDM consist of effective symbols
employed as a modulation system for terrestrial digital and guard intervals. Data allocated to the carriers are
broadcasting. Compared with single-carrier digital transformed collectively by an inverse discrete Fourier
modulation, OFDM can lengthen the symbol period while transform into symbols each within the effective symbol
maintaining the same error-rate characteristics and band period Tu. A guard interval is formed for each effective
efficiency. It can also add a redundant signal period called symbol period by taking a section of waveform data from
a guard interval. For these reasons, OFDM features little the end of the symbol in question and simply attaching it
deterioration of transmission
characteristics with respect to multipath
temporal waveform of OFDM frequency spectrum of OFDM
distortion, the main type of disturbance
on a terrestrial transmission path.
The OFDM signal multiplexes carrier 1
multiple digitally modulated waves that
are mutually orthogonal in a certain + +
carrier 2
signal interval. Referring to Figure 1, if,
for baseband frequencies, we let carrier- + +
1 be the base wave and arrange
subsequent carriers at integral multiples
+
of 2, 3, and so on of the base frequency, +
carrier k
then any set of these carriers will be
mutually orthogonal within one period +
+
of the basic wave. Varying the
amplitude and phase of each of these
carriers by digital modulation and then
adding them together (frequency
multiplexing them) results in an OFDM broadcast
signal
signal. In addition, performing a
Fourier transform on this OFDM signal frequency
in one base-wave period makes it
guard effective symbol
possible to uncover the amplitude and interval period
phase information of each carrier. This symbol period
operation is none other than OFDM
demodulation.
Figure 1: OFDM time spectrum and frequency spectrum
Digital modulation of individual
carriers is normally performed using
QPSK or QAM, and particular output of IFFT output of IFFT
modulation systems are referred to as
Tg Tu
QPSK-OFDM, 64QAM-OFDM, etc. The
QPSK-OFDM and 16QAM-OFDM
systems are used on transmission paths
characterized by severe disturbances guard interval
such as in mobile communications
Figure 2: Attaching a guard interval

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 Lecture

is 0)
l: Symbol number
K: Number of carriers
Ts: Length of symbol period (Tg+ Tu)
10dB
Tg: Length of guard-interval period
Tu: Length of effective symbol period
fc: Center frequency of RF signal
20MHz Kc: Carrier number corresponding to center frequency of
RF signal
Figure 3: OFDM transmission spectrum C(l,k): Complex transmit data corresponding to symbol
number l and carrier number k
to the front of the symbol, as shown in Figure 2. Transmit S(t):RF signal
symbols of period Tu+Tg are obtained in this way.
The OFDM carrier interval is the inverse of the base-wave 1.2 OFDM modulation/demodulation and Fourier
period (effective symbol period) shown in Figure 1. transforms
Modulation and demodulation in an OFDM system can
(1) be performed for all carriers collectively by using an inverse
For example, for an effective symbol period Tu = 1 msec, discrete Fourier transform (IDFT, IFFT) and a discrete
the carrier interval = 1 kHz. Fourier transform (DFT, FFT). On the transmit side, the
Each OFDM carrier has a small spectral width because of transmit bit stream is input data for the IFFT.
the low-speed modulation, and the OFDM transmission As an example, consider the case of 16QAM-OFDM
spectrum that groups together these individual spectrums modulation. As shown in Figure 4, each carrier is divided
takes on a nearly rectangular shape, as shown in Figure 3. into 4-bit units. If the four bits allocated to symbol number
If the number of carriers K is large (several hundred or l and carrier number k happen to be 1001, the I-axis value
more), the occupied bandwidth B can be approximated as will be 1 and the Q-axis value -3 in the 16QAM
follows. constellation. Accordingly, data C(l,k) input to the IFFT can
be expressed as complex data in the following manner.
(2)
Letting C(l, k) denote transmit data corresponding to
symbol number l and carrier number k, the OFDM (4)
transmit signal S(t) can be expressed as follows. This input-data conversion is performed for multiple
carriers and the result is subjected to the IFFT: this constitutes
the 16QAM-OFDM modulation process. The output from
(3) one IFFT pass constitutes the temporal waveform data of one
Here: (effective) symbol. On the receive side, the inverse operations
of those on the transmit side are performed to obtain the
received bit stream. The above forms the basis for OFDM
modulation/demodulation using FFTs.
Using only the above processes, however, does not result
in a transmittable OFDM signal expressed by Equation (3),
The symbols in the above expressions have the following and on the OFDM receive side, simply extracting the FFT
meanings. output does not enable the original transmit bit stream to
k: carrier number (carrier at the lower end of the band be decoded.

Input to IFFT Output of FFT

Q-axis
0100 0101 0001 0000 C(l,1)=1+j(-3) Y(l,1)=1+j(-3)
3
Bit stream Bit stream
C(l,2)=3+j1 Y(l,2)=3+j1
0110 0111 0011 0010 11 0100 1001 11 0100 1001
1
C(l,k)=A(l,k)+jB(l,k) IFFT OFDM FFT Y(l,k)=C(l,k)
-3 -1 1 3 temporal
I-axis
1110 1111 1011 1010 signal
-1

1100 1101 1001 1000

-3
OFDM transmitter OFDM receiver
16QAM constellation
(gray code constellation)

Figure 4: OFDM transmit signal (case of 16QAM-OFDM)

Broadcast Technology no.16, Autumn 2003 C NHK STRL 17

 1.3 Transmission and reception of the OFDM signal Finally, to obtain a transmittable OFDM signal, the
The OFDM transmit signal is generated by the process system converts the baseband signals to transmission
shown in Figure 5. In this process, the system transforms frequencies. In this process, a cosine wave and -sine wave
complex-number data on the frequency axis to signals on of frequency fc are applied to the I-axis and Q-axis
the time axis by IFFT one symbol at a time, passes the baseband signals, respectively, to perform orthogonal
baseband temporal waveform data so obtained through modulation. The resulting OFDM signal S(t) is expressed as
D/A converters, and performs frequency conversion with follows.
an orthogonal modulator. The receiver in this system
performs a frequency conversion to the baseband followed
by an FFT on the resulting signal waveform so that the
data from each carrier can be determined.
The following discusses OFDM signal generation in more
detail, focusing on the effective symbol period of one
symbol. The output S(i) of an N(=2L)-point IFFT with respect (8)
to input complex data C(n) can be expressed as follows.
Because the transmit complex data C(k) is zero when the
carrier number K is less than the number of IFFT points N
(5) and K-1<k<N, it can be seen that Eq. (8) represents one
The system outputs the real part and imaginary part of effective symbol period of the transmit signal S(t) of Eq. (3)
S(i) as I-axis and Q-axis data, respectively. Note here that if if we replace n by k and N by K. In addition, Kc in the above
K<N and n>k-1, C(n)=0. equation is a correction value assuming that the center
Next, within the effective symbol period Tu, the system carrier of the OFDM signal has frequency fc.
samples the real part and imaginary part of S(i) at Tu/N At the receiver, the system performs inverse processing
intervals, where sample time t is expressed as follows. with respect to the transmit side. Specifically, the system
first performs carrier and clock recovery in the
synchronization circuit section. It then performs
(6) orthogonal demodulation on the received OFDM signal by
Then, after performing D/A conversion, the system using the recovered carrier frequency fc as a local signal,
passes the results through LPFs and obtains the following and converts the result to the baseband frequency. The
as the OFDM baseband signal Sb(t). system next performs an A/D conversion on these
baseband signals by using the recovered clock and then
executes an FFT to enable the receive data from each
carrier to be determined.
After A/D conversion, N instances of complex data R(i)
within the effective symbol period Tu are input to an N-
point FFT. Its output Y(n) is as follows.

(7)
(9)

C(n) Sb(t) S(t)

L0
Re(S(i))
D/A LPF
I
serial-parallel
transmission data IFFT
transmission

D/A LPF
Q
Im(S(i)) frequency conversion

L0
Re(R(i))
LPF A/D

parallel-serial received data

FFT
transmission
LPF A/D
Im(R(i)) Y(n)
Figure 5: OFDM transmit/receive system

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 Lecture

Assuming, for the time being, that the IFFT output S(i) on
the transmit side is obtained as FFT input data R(i) on the Output of FFT in OFDM receiver
receive side, the FFT output data Y(n) would be expressed as
follows and the transmit data would be determined. Y(l,1)=c(l,1).H(l,1)+N(l,1)
Y(l,2)=c(l,2).H(l,2)+N(l,2)

FFT Y(l,k)=c(l,k).H(l,k)+N(l,k)

(10)
The transmitted data, however, cannot normally be
directly obtained from the FFT data Y(n) at the receiver.
This is because the signal is subjected to multipath Figure 6: Output of FFT in OFDM receiver (frequency response
H (l,k) in transmission path with noise N (l,k))
distortion and other disturbances on the transmission path
such that the OFDM signal exhibits frequency
characteristics within the band in question. In other words,
carrier (frequency)
the amplitude and phase of each carrier of the received
OFDM signal will be altered due to distortion on the

simbol (time)
transmission path. For this reason, demodulation of
transmit data requires that changes in the amplitude and
phase be detected and compensated for in each carrier.
Actual OFDM demodulation is described in the next
section.
: SP
1.4 OFDM demodulation : data
As stated above, the transmitted signal exhibits a
frequency response within the signal bandwidth if
Figure 7: Scattered pilots (SP) constellation
multipath distortion or other disturbances exist on the
transmission path. This means that the amplitude and The above equation tells us that if the CN ratio of the
phase of each carrier of the received OFDM signal will be OFDM signal is sufficiently large and the noise component
altered according to this frequency response. It therefore is of negligible magnitude, the transmit data C(l,k) will be
becomes necessary in OFDM demodulation to detect and demodulated without error.
compensate for the frequency response components We therefore see that an OFDM signal can be
associated with the transmission path using the FFT output demodulated provided that the frequency response of the
data at the receiver. transmission path can be determined for each carrier. In
The above discussion leads us to the following equation this regard, we describe a method for estimating the
for the FFT output Y(l,k) for symbol number l and carrier frequency response for each carrier and performing
number k at the OFDM receiver (see also the illustration in demodulation, taking Japan's ISDB-T (Integrated Services
Figure 6). Here, C(l,k) is the transmit data, H(l,k) is the Digital Broadcasting System for Terrestrial) as an example.
frequency response of the transmission path for carrier OFDM as used in ISDB-T adopts a transmission scheme
number k, and N(l,k) is the noise component. in which pilots are inserted in specific carriers within a
symbol. Such pilots are commonly called "scattered pilots"
(11) (SPs). Figure 7 shows how SPs are assigned to specific
Considering, for example, a transmission path having carriers of an OFDM symbol in ISDB-T. Denoting carriers
multipaths with a DU ratio of 20log( ) and delay time , assigned with SPs as k = kp, kp with respect to symbol
its frequency response H(f) would be expressed as follows. number l is expressed as follows.

(12) (14)
H(l,k) can be interpreted as the frequency response H(f) of p=0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ......
frequency f corresponding to carrier number k. Scattered pilots are arranged on the I-axis at L times or -L
Now, for all OFDM carriers, we assume that the times the RMS value of the modulation level of C(l,k)
frequency response H(l,k) of the transmission path can be transmit data. In ISDB-T, the value of L is 4/3. As shown in
correctly estimated. The OFDM demodulated data Z(l,k) Figure 8, the RMS value of the modulation level for
can then be obtained by performing complex division on 16QAM modulation is 10 so that the SP is placed at
the FFT output data using the estimated H(l,k). (4/3 10 , 0) or (-4/3 10 , 0). For 64QAM modulation, the
SP is placed at (4/3 42 , 0) or (-4/3 42 , 0). Which of the
two points to place the SP is decided beforehand for each
(13) carrier so that the receiver can know the arrangement and

Broadcast Technology no.16, Autumn 2003 C NHK STRL 19

 transmit SP so as to obtain an estimate
Q-axis of transmission-path frequency
0100 0101 0001 0000
3 response H(l,kp) for the SP only.
Next, the system inserts the SP
0110 0111 0011 0010
frequency response H(l,k p ) by
1 interpolation using a two-dimensional
-3 -1 1 3
I-axis filter G(l,k) consisting of a symbol-
1110 1111 1011 1010 direction filter Gs(l) and carrier-direction
-1
SP filter Gc(k) and consequently obtains an
estimate of the transmission-path
1100 1101 1001 1000 frequency response H(l,kp) for all carrier
-3
symbols.

Figure 8: Sp data of 16QAM-OFDM (for the RMS value 10 in 16QAM, SP is placed at

(+L 10 , 0) or (-L 10 , 0)) (15)
Z(l,k) of Eq. (13) can be obtained by
Y(l,k) complex division Z(l,k) dividing the FFT output data Y(l,k) by
FFT determination
Y(l,k)/H(l,k) the H(l,k) estimate of Eq. (15).
H(l,k) A symbol filter can be easily achieved.
One method (Figure 10) is to save the
carrier-direction filter
Gc(k) value of H(l,k p ) ( in the figure)
Two-dimensional filter determined from an SP inserted every
symbol-direction filter four symbols in the carrier kp until the
Gs(l) next SP appears ( in the figure). In
this way, H(l,kp) will be interpolated for
H(l,kp)
one in three carriers ( and in the
complex division generating SP figure) after passing through the
extracting SP Y(l,k p)/C(l,k p) C(l,k p) symbol filter. It will then be possible to
in receive-side
obtain the estimated frequency
Y(l,kp)
response H(l,k) for all carriers ( , ,
Figure 9: Demodulation process using SPs and small in the figure) by using a
subsequent carrier filter composed of an
FIR filter or similar having rectangular
(amplitude characteristic) H(f)

low-pass characteristics.
Linear interpolation between and
Frequency response
in transmission path in the carrier filter is also possible. We
Frequency response

note here that only amplitude

characteristics are shown in Figure 10
for the sake of clarity and that
processing with complex numbers is
normally required.
frequency The OFDM demodulation described
here is coherent demodulation such as
H(l-4,kp) 16QAM-OFDM and 64QAM-OFDM
H(l-3,kp) under the assumption that carrier
H(l-2,kp)
recovery and clock recovery as well as
H(l-1,kp)
symbol-timing recovery for coherent
H(l,kp)
demodulation operates in an ideal
manner.
Figure 10: SP and frequency response in transmission path Differential modulation is also
possible in OFDM, through phase
demodulate the OFDM signal using the received SP. modulation such as DQPSK. In differential modulation,
The demodulation process using SPs is shown in Figure 9. transmit data C(l,k) is differentially coded between adjacent
First, from among the FFT output data, the system extracts symbols on the same carrier in a process that is performed
the received SP data Y(l,kp) from carrier kp with the SP beforehand on the transmit side for each carrier. This
inserted. It then performs complex division on that data differentially coded data D(l,k) is used as IFFT input data.
with a receive-side generated C(l,kp) equivalent to the

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 Lecture

will overlap. This inter-symbol interference can be a major

(16)
source of demodulation errors. Compared with single-
FFT output data at the OFDM demodulator is carrier digital modulation of an identical bit rate, OFDM
consequently given as follows. with K carriers can lengthen the effective symbol period by
K times. This means that selecting an appropriate value for
K can sufficiently lengthen the OFDM effective symbol
(17) period and minimize inter-symbol interference even for the
OFDM differentially modulated data Z(l,k) is obtained by multipath delay times that are common in terrestrial
performing complex division on the FFT output Y(l,k) of the transmissions (0 to several 10 sec).
current symbol with the FFT output Y(l-1,k) of the OFDM can also add guard intervals to minimize effects
immediately prior symbol. If we here consider that the from adjacent symbols. Referring to Figure 11(b), inter-
frequency response of the transmission path is invariable symbol interference from adjacent symbols will not occur if
between symbols and that the noise component can be the interval of overlapping adjacent symbols is within the
ignored, we get the following expression for Z(l,k). guard interval. This is because the period demodulated by
the FFT will enclose only the overlap of the same symbol
signal. As a result, fewer errors because of multipath
distortion will occur than in single-carrier digital
(18) modulation.
This is the OFDM differential demodulation. Nevertheless, OFDM will still suffer from deterioration
due to multipath distortion. As shown in Figure 10, a
1.5 Guard intervals and multipath distortion transmission path with multipath features will exhibit a
A digital signal affected by a multipath disturbance as in frequency response corresponding to the delay time and
Figure 11(a) will suffer from distortion as adjacent symbols DU ratio of that path. As a result, the received OFDM
signal will possess frequency characteristics within the
(a) without guard interval signal band and dips will occur. A carrier whose CN ratio
direct wave has dropped because of dips will experience dramatic
Ts deterioration in its error rate compared with other carriers.
symbol period It thus adversely affects the average error rate for all OFDM
reflected wave carriers.
multipath delay times inter-symbol interference
1.6 OFDM transmission characteristics
(b) with guard interval Figure 12 shows the Gaussian noise characteristics for
direct wave DQPSK-OFDM and 64QAM-OFDM. The transmission
Ts guard interval parameters in both cases are a carrier interval of 3.968
symbol period
reflected wave (=250/63) kHz, a carrier number of 1405 (bandwidth 5.57
MHz), an effective symbol length of 252 sec, and a
window for FFT
(effective symbol period) guard interval of 31.5 sec. The characteristic curves
marked in black represent the BER after OFDM
Figure 11: Guard intervals and multipath distortion

100 100
without error without error
correction correction
10-1 r=1/2 10-1 r=1/2
r=2/3 r=2/3
r=3/4 r=3/4
r=5/6 r=5/6
10-2 10-2
r=7/8 r=7/8
BER

BER

10-3 10-3

10-4 10-4

10-5 10-5

10-6 10-6
0 5 10 15 20 10 15 20 25 30
C/N [dB] C/N [dB]

DQPSK-OFDM Gaussian noise characteristics 16QAM-OFDM Gaussian noise characteristics

Figure 12: OFDM Gaussian noise characteristics

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 Lecture

10-1
D/U=0dB
10-1
10-2

10-2

BER
10-3
BER

6dB
10-3
10-4 without error
10dB correction
10-4 r=1/2
64QAM-OFDM
guard interval C/N=30dB r=2/3
10-5 r=3/4
10-5 r=5/6 D/U=3dB
0 50 100 150 r=7/8 delay time=15.6usec
Delay time [usec]
10-6
Figure 13: Multipath characteristics (delay time vs. BER) 10 15 20 25 30
C/N [dB]

Figure 14: Multipath characteristics (C/N vs. BER)

demodulation. The curves marked with white symbols The transmission parameters are the same as those of the
represent the BER after error correction of OFDM above case for Gaussian noise characteristics. It can be
demodulation data by Viterbi soft-decision decoding for seen that, for the same DU ratio, the BER is nearly constant
convolutional coding rates of r = 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6, and 7/8. for delays within the guard interval but that it deteriorates
We point out here that the BER of MPEG2 video data is for delays greater than the guard interval. Figure 14 shows
usually 2 10-4 after Viterbi decoding (but before Reed- multipath characteristics caused by a simple echo
Solomon decoding), which is generally considered to be the corresponding to a DU ratio of 3 dB. These results show
error-free level. Accordingly, the CN ratio at the point that reception is possible even under strong multipath
where a characteristic curve crosses a BER of 2 10 -4 interference having a DU ratio of 3 dB if the CN ratio is
becomes the required CN ratio. sufficiently large. However, comparing these results with
Let us now examine the OFDM multipath characteristics. those of Figure 12 for Gaussian noise characteristics tells us
Figure 13 plots BER versus OFDM multipath delay time. that the CN ratio to enable reception increases.
(Shunji Nakahara)

22 Broadcast Technology no.16, Autumn 2003 C NHK STRL