2016 Conference on Advances in Signal Processing (CASP)

Cummins College of Engineering for Women, Pune. Jun 9-11, 2016

WLAN-IEEE 802.11ac: Simulation and Performance

Evaluation with MIMO-OFDM
Mrs. Shubhangi R. Chaudhary1, Dr. Anil J. Patil2 , Ashwini V. Yadao3
Department of Electronics &Telecommunication
MKSSS's Cummins College of Engineering for Women1,3
Savitribai Phule University of Pune, India1,3
SGD College of Engineering, North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon, India2
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract – The MIMO-OFDM technology is under the wireless channels. The future wireless communication
significant considerations for the development of various systems are arising to provide higher data rate, and stronger
wireless communication systems. A WLAN for 5G is for very performance with low complexity data processing. One
high throughput. The combination of Multiple Input Multiple among them is IEEE 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard [1].
Output with multicarrier, Orthogonal Frequency Division
MIMO gives the glimpse to enhance link capacity and
Multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) delivers a significant
performance improvement in terms of many parameters like spectral efficiency. Multiple transmit antennas can be
transmission rate, smaller bit error rate (BER), capacity and employed to get diversity gains, spatial multiplexing gains, or
increased reliability. In this paper, a good performance in terms both. Space Time Block Codes provide the benefits of spatial
of low BER is achieved with the use of better channel coding diversity and coding gains. The channel state information
technique and modulation scheme for WLAN IEEE 802.11ac (CSI) is available at the receiver, which supports MIMO
standard. systems with improved data rate performance.
IEEE 802.11ac promises a robust communication with very OFDM converts broadband, wideband communication
high Throughput. In order to achieve that, MIMO with higher
channel into subcarriers of parallel flat fading channels.
orders of modulations is used. The effect of different digital
modulation and coding techniques were studied. We OFDM has its popularity because of its bandwidth efficiency,
investigated the performance of MIMO using Space-Time Block robustness to multipath fading owing to cyclic prefix,
Coding (STBC). The simulation result shows the improvement simplicity to implement because of the IFFT/FFT and the
in the system. flexibility in resource allocation.

Using MATLAB/Simulink, the performance analysis is The concepts of MIMO and OFDM have been
carried out by varying the MIMO antenna configuration under consolidated to structure more attractive MIMO-OFDM
Rayleigh fading channel and the effects on BER are examined. framework to boost up the performance of wireless
communication systems [2]. In this paper the performance of
Keywords - IEEE 802.11ac ; MIMO ; OFDM ; BER
MIMO-OFDM system is evaluated by using channel coding
technique for IEEE 802.11ac system.
I. INTRODUCTION
II. IEEE 802.11AC PHY LAYER DESCRIPTION
In today’s era, a huge demand for providing robust high-
IEEE 802.11 is also known as Wireless-Fidelity (Wi-Fi).
speed wireless communication links to support a more
Wi-Fi defines a standard for the physical and the data link
number of applications. Such reliable link design is a
layers of wireless LANs. An Industrial, Scientific and
challenging task in a wireless environment. The transmitted
Medical (ISM) band is used for WLAN standard. This is
signals are received through multiple paths, which may cause
license-free band. Wireless LANs have been evolved with
multipath fading, in wireless communication. A medium is
speed from a megabit in the late 1990s to a gigabit with the
shared by many users for different applications, this may
first release of 802.11ac in 2013. Conceptually, 802.11ac is
cause interference. Further, high-speed wireless applications
an evolutionary step from 802.11n [3]. IEEE 802.11ac targets
have other challenges namely-limitations of available
greater than 1Gbps throughput and considers the traditional
bandwidth, transmit power’s constraints, hardware
WLAN frequencies below 6 GHz [4].
complexity and cost implications.
IEEE 802.11ac is the latest protocol for WLAN:
Future broadband communication systems will provide the • 802.11a (1999) gives up to 54 Mbps per radio in the
large demands for speedy and reliable communications over 5 GHz band.

978-1-5090-0849-0/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE 440

 • 802.11b (1999) provides up to 11 Mbps per radio in then demodulated by OFDM and QAM demodulator. The
the 2.4 GHz band. original signal is reobtained with Viterbi decoder.
• 802.11g (2003) provides up to 54 Mbps per radio in
the 2.4 GHz band.
• 802.11n (2009) provides up to 600 Mbps per radio in
the 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz band.
• 802.11ac (2013) provides up to 1000 Mbps (multi-
station) or 500 Mbps (single-station) in the 5.0 GHz
band.

IEEE 802.11ac standard gives variety of functionalities

and parameters. This increases the data rate than previous
standard. MIMO transmission with different modulation and
coding techniques improves performance of system. Also a
wider bandwidth is introduced in the amendment.
Additionally MIMO with STBC enhance the error Fig.1: System Model
protection and diversity characteristics in 802.11ac [3], [4]
and [5]. With reference to the above block diagram, the details
The major enhancements of the PHY layer of .11ac are: regarding the sub-blocks of the system model are as explained
(1) 80/160MHz channels, below:
(2) 256-QAM,
(3) Multiple antennas and A. Convolution coding with puncturing
The Channel coding is used in communication systems to
TABLE I improve the system performance. The main reason for
IEEE 802.11AC PHY PARAMETERS applying error correction coding in the wireless system is to
reduce the Bit Error Rate (BER). The convolution encoder
Parameter Details with the code rate ½ is designed, the input given at a rate of k
Frequency band 5.8 GHz ISM (unlicensed) band
bits per second gives output data bits at 2k bits per second.
Max data rate 6.93Gbps
Transmission bandwidth 20, 40, & 80 MHz The convolution encoder structure used is (171,133) in octal
160 & 80 + 80 MHz optional number represents the code generator polynomials with the
Modulation formats BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM constraint length of K=7. At the receiver, the decoder uses
256-QAM optional Viterbi algorithm to recover the information sequence
FEC coding Convolution coding or LPDC
(optional) with coding rates of 1/2, through maximum likelihood decoding.
2/3, 3/4, or 5/6
Beam-forming Optional Puncturing is used to create variable code rates by
FFT size 64, 128, 256 removing the selected bits and retaining others depending on
512 optional
the puncture vector used [3]. Puncturing eliminates the
Spatial streams 1
& MIMO 2 to 8 optional redundant bits in the convolution encoding thus optimizing
transmission bit rate. In 802.11ac LDPC or convolutional
Table I represent the IEEE802.11ac PHY layer specifications coding can be used as the error correction code. In this paper
and make it clear the superiority of 802.11ac over legacy we opted convolutional coding.
WLAN standards [3-5]
B. Modulation Scheme
More efficient modulation technique is used in IEEE
III. SYSTEM MODEL 802.11ac. Maintaining legacy with 802.11n, 802.11ac also
The modelling of the MIMO-OFDM is as shown in the have the option of higher order 256-QAM (Quadrature
figure 1. The system performance is analysed in amplitude modulation). 256-QAM provides more efficiency
MATLAB/Simulink platform in terms of the bit error rate gains than 64-QAM. With higher order modulation efficiency
(BER). In this model, the information sequence is generated increases, but they also require more signal power. As
using random integer generator. The forward error correction modulation complexity increases, signal quality must increase
includes convolution coding. The output is then converted so range generally decrease [5]. This paper considers BPSK,
into OFDM symbols and transmitted over multiple antennas QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM and 256-QAM modulations and
using STBC technique over the multipath fading channel. At convolution code.
the receiver, the signal is decoded using STBC decoder and

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C. MIMO System E. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
The multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver in Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is a
wireless communication system improves the performance multicarrier modulation technique. In which divides input
capabilities as compared to the single antenna systems. The data stream to a number of parallel sub streams and
multi-antenna system, MIMO ensures higher data transmitted over the individual subcarriers that are
transmission rates, wider coverage and higher reliability orthogonal to each other. Hence, the frequency selective
without using additional frequency spectrum. A reliable wideband channel is divided into a number of parallel narrow
performance can be obtained through diversity [6]. The same band sub-channels leading to flat fading. The orthogonality
is achieved in MIMO systems by sending same information between the subcarriers allows the overlapping of the
symbols and conjugate symbol at different time slots from subcarriers thus preventing the interference between them.
different transmit antennas. Space time block coding (STBC) The close spacing of the subcarriers enables the efficient
is a method to achieve high diversity performance which utilization of the bandwidth [10]. The Fig.2 shown below
simultaneously transmits the same data over different shows the implementation of OFDM system
antennas at different times [7].

In STBC multiple copies of the same data are transmitted

over a number of antennas. The redundancy can be obtained
with one or more received copies of data to correctly decode
the received signal. In short, STBC is a multi antenna
technique in which a multiple symbols are transmitted as a
block (2D array) of multiple antenna (representing space) and
symbol time.

Fig.3: OFDM System

Fig.2: 2X2 STBC System The discrete implementation of OFDM eliminates the
Inter Symbol Interference (ISI) using the cyclic prefix. The
Transmitter 1 Transmitter 2 individual subcarriers are orthogonal to each other so that the
Time ( t) S1 S2 overlapping of the subcarriers does not cause any interference
Time (t+T) − ∗ ∗
with the adjacent subcarrier [8]. The input bits are modulated
by using QAM modulator wherein, the bits are converted to
Alamouti code gives low complexity along with the full symbols. The symbols are passed through the serial to parallel
diversity than other high order STBC codes. The first STBC converter which corresponds to the QAM symbols transmitted
with two transmit antennas and one receive antenna was over each subcarrier. The output of serial to parallel converter
discovered by Alamouti [7], and is now widely known as the is the discrete frequency components. These frequency
Alamouti code. Alamouti’s code uses a complex orthogonal components are converted to the time domain samples by
design and satisfies the condition for complex orthogonality using The IFFT with N symbols. The IFFT yields the OFDM
in both space and time dimension [9]. The code matrix is symbol consisting of the sequence x[n] of length N [3].
given by (1)
The cyclic prefix is added to the OFDM symbol so that ISI
between the data blocks can be eliminated. The received
∗ ∗ (1) signal is passed through the channel. At the receiver the
−
cyclic prefix is removed. The time samples are serial-parallel
In MIMO OFDM, the OFDM symbol of length N is converted and passed through FFT. The FFT output is passed
encoded in the codeword matrix of size N x Mt, where through a QAM demodulator to recover the data [8], [10] ,
N=number of sub-channels plus cyclic prefix length and Mt. [11].
Mt is the number of transmit antennas.

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F. Rayleigh Fading Channel The output is given to the OFDM modulator with N=256
It is the statistical model which propagates the subcarriers and a cyclic prefix is added resulting in the
environment of radio signal. Rayleigh fading works as a OFDM symbol. The OFDM symbol is transmitted over the
reasonable model when many objects in environment are multiple antennas using orthogonal space time block coding
passed. Here the radio signal gets scatter before arriving of technique over the fading channel. At the receiver, the data is
receiver. Rayleigh fading is most applicable for non-line-of- demodulated and decoded to recover the information
sight propagation [8]. sequence. The bit error rate is calculated using error rate
calculation.
IV. SIMULATION
The system simulation specification is as given in Table II.
The Alamouti code is an orthogonal Space Time Block Code
TABLE II with full transmit diversity. For simulation we assumed that
SIMULATED SYSTEM PARAMETER
the receiver has the perfect knowledge of the channel
coefficient and the total transmit power is the same for all
Parameter Details antennas. The Bit Error Rate (BER) versus Signal to Noise
Forward error correction Ratio (SNR) plot gives the performance for Alamouti transmit
Convolution coding diversity scheme on slow fading channels.
code
BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM,
Modulation
64-QAM,256-QAM
V. RESULT ANALYSIS
MIMO Technique STBC(2X2)
Bandwidth 80MHz The simulation of MIMO-OFDM system is performed for
different modulation orders using efficient channel coding
FFT size 256
technique under flat fading multipath channel for 11ac
Channel Rayleigh system.

The Fig. 4 shows the Simulink Implementation block 0

BER vs SNR for 2X1 & 2x2 STBC-OFDM convolutional coding
10
diagram of MIMO-OFDM. The information sequence
QPSK-2x1 STBC-OFDM
generated by the random integer generator is encoded using
-1 64-QAM-2x1 STBC-OFDM
convolution encoder with the coding gain of ½.The single bit 10
QPSK-2X2 STBC-OFDM
output codes is combined to produce punctured codes with the 64QAM-2X2 STBC-OFDM
rate ½. The punctured code is then interleaved to make the -2
10
forward error correction much more effective in overcoming
the burst errors. The matrix interleaver and general block
-3
interleaver is used. The code word is mapped by BPSK, 10
QPSK, 16-QAM, 64 and 256-QAM modulation.
BER

-4
10

-5
10

-6
10

-7
10
0 5 10 15 20 25
SNR (dB)

Fig.5. BER plot of 2x1 and 2x2 STBC-OFDM with convolution coding

Fig.5 shows the BER plot of Alamouti STBC-OFDM system.

With the increase in antenna number there is an improvement
in the BER results.
With 2x1 configuration at 18dB SNR value with 64-QAM,
BER value for the system is 3.391e-04 ,whereas with 2x2
Fig.4: Simulink implementation of MIMO-OFDM

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antenna configuration with the same modulation and the The BPSK modulation requires the lowest SNR, than
same SNR value BER value reduced to 4.166e-07. other modulation as 16-QAM, 64-QAM and 256-QAM.

0
BER vs SNR for 2x2 STBC-OFDM with & without convolutional coding
10
QPSK- 2x2 STBC-OFDM with conv
-1 64-QAM-2x2 STBC-OFDM with conv
10
QPSK-2X2 STBC-OFDM without conv
64QAM-2X2 STBC-OFDM without conv
-2
10

-3
10
BE R

-4
10

-5
10

-6
10

-7
10
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
SNR (dB)

Fig.6. Effect of Convolution coding Fig.8. CDF Vs Rate plot

From the Fig.6 it is clear that the BER for the system with The cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the capacity
convolution coding (CC) is less. BER for the system with CC can be produced for the random MIMO channel. The Fig.8
for QPSK modulation is 1.578e-3 whereas it is 1.8e-2 for the represents CDF of capacity for the MIMO channel with
system without convolution coding and the same SNR value different antenna numbers and SNR=10dB. The MIMO
i.e 6 dB. Thus the convolutional code reduces the errors as channel capacity improves by increasing the number of
compared with uncoded BER plots. transmit and receive antennas [8].

BER vs SNR for 2x2 STBC-OFDM with 256 FFT size CDF of Capacity
0
10 1
BPSK SNR=10dB
0.9 SNR=20dB
-1 QPSK
10
16-QAM 0.8
64-QAM
-2
10 256-QAM 0.7

0.6
-3
10
CDF

0.5
BE R

-4
10 0.4

0.3
-5
10
0.2

-6
10 0.1

0
-7 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 25
10
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 Capacity (bps/Hz)
SNR (dB)

Fig.9. CDF of capacity

Fig.7. BER plot of 2x2 STBC-OFDM with convolution coding

Fig.7 represents the BER plot of IEEE 802.11ac system with The results in the Fig.9 show the CDF of capacity for the
STBC-OFDM with 80MHz bandwidth with convolution MIMO channel with different SNR values. With the increase
coding for different modulation orders up to 256-QAM. in SNR value, the capacity performance of the system
improves.

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 VI. CONCLUSION [11] Chaudhary, Shubhangi R. “Performance of WiMAX/IEEE 802.16 with
Different Modulation and Coding,” Information Technology and Mobile
The performance of MIMO-OFDM system for IEEE Communication, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 2011, 440-444.
802.11ac is analysed for different digital modulations along
with convolution channel coding with 1/2 coding rate by
varying the number of transmit and receive.

The higher order modulation improves overall BER at high

SNR values. Lower modulation order and higher transmit and
receive diversity reduces bit error rate (BER).

The convolution coding scheme under Rayleigh multipath

fading channel improves performance with low Signal to
Noise ratio (SNR). OFDM with MIMO helps the system to
perform better in wireless environment thus enhancing the
data rates in WLAN standards.

The work can be further upgraded with the implementation

of LDPC coding with MIMO-OFDM system for more
performance improvements. Also the system can be simulated
for practical scenarios with frequency selective channel.

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