Subject : Wireless and Cellular

Communication (18EC81)

MODULE-4
 TEXT BOOKS
Text Books:
1. “FUNDAMENTALS OF LTE”, Arunabha Ghosh,
Jan Zhang, Jefferey Andrews, Riaz Mohammed,
Pearson education (Formerly Prentice Hall,
Communications Engg. and Emerging Technologies)
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-703311-9.
2. “Introduction to Wireless Telecommunications
Systems and Network”, Gary Mullet, First Edition,
Cengaga learning India Pvt Ltd., 2006, ISBN-13:
978-81-315-0559-5.

Reference Books:
1. “Wireless Communications: Principles and
Practice” Theodore Rappaport, 2nd Edition, Prentice
Hall Communications engineering and emerging
Technologies Series, 2002, ISBN 0-13-042232-0.
2. “LTE for UMTS Evolution to LTE-Advanced” Harri
 Key Enabling Technologies
and Features of LTE
A brief introduction to some of the key
enabling technologies used in the LTE design
1. Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (OFDM)
2. SC-FDE and SC-FDMA
3. Channel Dependent Multi-user Resource
Scheduling
4. Multi-antenna Techniques
5. IP-Based Flat Network Architecture
1.Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM)
⚫ One of the key differences between existing 3G
systems and LTE is the use of Orthogonal
Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) as the
underlying modulation technology.
⚫ Widely deployed 3G systems such as
UMTS(Universal Mobile Telecommunication
System) and CDMA2000 are based on Code
Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology.
⚫ CDMA works by spreading a narrow band signal
over a wider bandwidth to achieve interference
resistance and performs remarkably well for low
data rate communications such as voice, where a
large number of users can be multiplexed to
achieve high system capacity.
⚫ For high-speed applications, CDMA becomes
 OFDM has emerged as a technology of choice for
achieving high data rates. It is the core
technology used by a variety of systems including
Wi-Fi and WiMAX. The following advantages of
OFDM led to its selection for LTE:
1. Elegant solution to multipath interference
2. Reduced computational complexity
3. Graceful degradation of performance under
excess delay
4. Exploitation of frequency diversity
5. Enables efficient multi-access scheme
6. Robust against narrowband interference
7. Suitable for coherent demodulation
8. Facilitates use of MIMO
 Disadvantages of OFDM:
⚫ Peak-to-Average Ratio (PAR): OFDM has high
PAR, which causes non-linearity and clipping
distortion when passed through an RF
amplifier.
⚫ High PAR increases the cost of the
transmitter.
2. SC-FDE and SC-FDMA
⚫ To keep the cost down and the battery life up,
LTE incorporated a power efficient transmission
scheme for the uplink.
⚫ Single Carrier Frequency Domain Equalization
(SC-FDE) is conceptually similar to OFDM but
instead of transmitting the Inverse Fast Fourier
Transform (IFFT) of the actual data symbols, the
data symbols are sent as a sequence of QAM
symbols with a cyclic prefix added; the IFFT is
added at the end of the receiver.
⚫ SC-FDE retains all the advantages of OFDM such
as multipath resistance and low complexity, while
having a low peak-to-average ratio of 4-5dB.
⚫ The uplink of LTE implements a multi-user
version of SC-FDE, called SC-FDMA, which
allows multiple users to use parts of the frequency
spectrum.
⚫ SC-FDMA closely resembles OFDMA and can in
fact be thought of as “DFT precoded OFDMA.”
3. Channel Dependent Multi-user Resource
Scheduling

⚫ The OFDMA scheme used in LTE provides

enormous flexibility in how channel resources
are allocated.
⚫ OFDMA allows for allocation in both time and
frequency and it is possible to design
algorithms to allocate resources in a flexible
manner to meet throughput, delay, and other
requirements.
⚫ The standard supports dynamic,
channel-dependent scheduling to enhance
overall system capacity.
⚫ Frequency selective multiuser scheduling, calls
for focusing transmission power in each user’s
best channel portion, thereby increasing the
⚫ Frequency selective scheduling requires good
channel tracking and is generally only viable in
slow varying channels.
⚫ For fast varying channels, the overhead
involved in doing this negates the potential
capacity gains.
⚫ In OFDMA, frequency selective scheduling can
be combined with multi-user time domain
scheduling, which calls for scheduling users
during the crests of their individual fading
channels.
⚫ For high-mobility users, OFDMA can be used
to achieve frequency diversity.
⚫ By coding and interleaving across subcarriers
in the frequency domain the signal can be
made more robust against frequency selective
4. Multi-antenna Techniques
The LTE standard provides extensive support for
implementing advanced multi-antenna solutions
to improve link robustness, system capacity and
spectral efficiency.
Depending on the deployment scenario, one or
more of the techniques can be used.
Multi-antenna techniques supported in LTE
include:
1. Transmit diversity
2. Beamforming
3. Spatial multiplexing
4. Multi-user MIMO
 1. Transmit Diversity:
⚫ This technique is used to combat multipath
fading in the wireless channel.
⚫ Copies of same signal is sent that are coded
differently over multiple transmit antenna.
⚫ LTE transmit diversity is based on
space-frequency block coding (SFBC)
techniques complemented with frequency
shift time diversity(FSTD).
⚫ Transmit diversity is used in common
downlink channels that cannot make use of
channel-dependent scheduling.
⚫ It increases system capacity and cell range.
 2. Beamforming:
⚫ Multiple antennas in LTE may also use
beamforming technique to transmit the
beam in the direction of the receiver and
away from interference, thereby improving
the received signal-to-interference ratio.
⚫ It can provide significant improvements in
coverage range, capacity, reliability and
battery life.
⚫ It can also be useful in providing angular
information for user tracking.
⚫ LTE supports beamforming in the
downlink.
 3. Spatial multiplexing :
⚫ In spatial multiplexing, multiple independent
streams can be transmitted in parallel over
multiple antennas and can be separated at the
receiver using multiple receive chains through
appropriate signal processing.
⚫ Spatial multiplexing provides data rate and
capacity gains proportional to the number of
antennas used.
⚫ It works well under good SNR and light load
conditions. LTE standard supports spatial
multiplexing with up to four transmits antennas
and four receiver antennas.
4. Multi-user MIMO:
⚫ Since spatial multiplexing requires multiple
transmit antennas, it is currently not
supported in the uplink due to complexity
and high cost.
⚫ Multi-User MIMO (MU-MIMO) allows
multiple users in the uplink, each with a
single antenna, to transmit using the same
frequency and time.
⚫ The signals from the different MU-MIMO
users are separated at the base station
receiver using accurate channel state
information of each user
5. IP-Based Flat Network
Architecture
⚫ “Flat” here implies fewer nodes and a less
hierarchical structure for the network.
⚫ The lower cost and lower latency
requirements drove the design toward a flat
architecture since fewer nodes obviously
implies a lower infrastructure cost.
⚫ It also means fewer interfaces and
protocol-related processing, and reduced
interoperability testing, which lowers the
development and deployment cost.
⚫ Figure 1.3 shows how the 3GPP network
architecture evolved over a few releases.
⚫ 3GPP Release 6 architecture, which is
conceptually very similar to its predecessors, has
four network elements in the data path: the base
station or Node-B, radio network controller
(RNC), serving GPRS service node (SGSN), and
gateway GRPS service node (GGSN).
⚫ Release 7 introduced a direct tunnel option from
the RNC to GGSN, which eliminated SGSN from
the data path.
⚫ LTE on the other hand, will have only two
network elements in the data path: the enhanced
Node-B or eNode-B, and a System Architecture
Evolution Gateway (SAE-GW).
⚫ Unlike all previous cellular systems, LTE merges
the base station and radio network controller
functionality into a single unit.
⚫ The control path includes a functional entity
called the Mobility Management Entity (MME),
⚫ A key aspect of the LTE flat architecture is that
all services, including voice, are supported on
the IP packet network using IP protocols.
⚫ Unlike previous systems, which had a separate
circuit-switched subnetwork for supporting
voice with their own Mobile Switching
Centers (MSC) and transport networks, LTE
envisions only a single evolved
packet-switched core, the EPC, over which all
services are supported, which could provide
huge operational and infrastructure cost
savings.
 LTE Network
Architecture
⚫ The core network design presented in 3GPP
Release 8 to support LTE is called the Evolved
Packet Core (EPC).
⚫ EPC is designed to provide a high capacity, all
IP, reduced latency, flat architecture that
dramatically reduces cost and supports
advanced real-time and media-rich services
with enhanced quality of experience.
⚫ It is designed not only to support new radio
access networks such as LTE, but also provide
interworking 2G GERAN and 3G UTRAN
networks connected via SGSN.
 LTE Network Architecture
Functions provided by the EPC include
access control, packet routing and transfer,
mobility management, security, radio
resource management and network
management.

• A brief description of each of the four new

elements is provided here:
1. Serving Gateway (SGW)
2. Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW)
3. Mobility Management Entity (MME)
4. Policy and Charging Rules Function
(PCRF)
Figure 1.4 shows the end-to-end architecture
including how the EPC supports LTE as well as
current and legacy radio access networks
Serving Gateway (SGW)
⚫ The SGW acts as a demarcation point between
the RAN and core network, and manages user
plane mobility.
⚫ It serves as the mobility anchor when
terminals move across areas served by
different eNode-B elements in E-UTRAN, as
well as across other 3GPP radio networks such
as GERAN and UTRAN.
⚫ SGW does downlink packet buffering and
initiation of network-triggered service request
procedures.
⚫ Other functions include lawful interception,
packet routing and forwarding, transport level
packet marking in the uplink and the
Packet Data Network Gateway
(PGW):
⚫ The PGW acts as the termination point of the
EPC toward other Packet Data Networks
(PDN) such as the Internet, private IP network,
or the IMS network providing end-user
services.
⚫ It provides functions such as user IP address
allocation, policy enforcement, packet
filtering, and charging support.
⚫ Policy enforcement includes operator-defined
rules for resource allocation to control data
rate and usage.
⚫ Packet filtering functions include deep packet
inspection for application detection.
Mobility Management Entity (MME)
⚫ MME manages thousands of eNode-B elements,
which is one of the key differences from 2G or 3G
platforms using RNC and SGSN platforms.
⚫ It is also responsible for selecting the appropriate
serving and PDN gateways and selecting legacy
gateways for handovers to other GERAN or UTRAN
networks.
⚫ MME controls all control plane functions related to
subscriber and session management.
⚫ The MME performs the signalling and control
functions to manage the user terminal access to
network connections, assignment of network
resources, and mobility management function such
as idle mode location tracking, paging, roaming,
and handovers.
⚫ The MME provides security functions such as
Policy and Charging Rules Function
(PCRF)
⚫ The Policy and Charging Rules Function
(PCRF) is a concatenation of Policy Decision
Function (PDF) and Charging Rules Function
(CRF).
⚫ The PCRF interfaces with the PDN gateway
and supports service data flow detection,
policy enforcement and flow-based charging.
⚫ The PCRF was actually defined in Release 7 of
3GPP ahead of LTE. Although not much
deployed with pre-LTE systems, it is
mandatory for LTE.
⚫ Release 8 further enhanced PCRF
functionality to include support for non-3GPP
access (e.g., Wi-Fi or fixed line access) to the
 Module-4 PART 2

Multicarrier Modulation
OFDMA and SC-FDMA
Sl. No. Topics Date Date Hours
planned engaged
1. Multicarrier Modulation: OFDM basics 1st
2. OFDM in LTE ,Timing and Frequency 2nd
Synchronization
3. PAR, SC-FDE 3rd
4. OFDMA and SC-FDMA:OFDM with 4th
FDMA,TDMA, CDMA
5. OFDMA, SC-FDMA, OFDMA and 5th
SC-FDMA in LTE
6. Multiple Antenna Transmission and 6th
Reception: Spatial Diversity overview
7. Receive Diversity, Transmit Diversity 7th
8. Interference cancellation and signal 8th
enhancement
9. Spatial Multiplexing, Choice between 9th
Diversity
10. Interference suppression and Spatial 10th
Multiplexing
3.1 THE MULTICARRIER CONCEPT

• Multicarrier modulation is used to achieve high

data rates and intersymbol interference (ISI) free
channels.
• To have a channel without ISI, the symbol
time Ts has to be larger than the channel delay
spread τ.
• Digital communication systems simply cannot
function if ISI is present—an error floor quickly
develops and as Ts falls below τ, the bit error rate
becomes intolerable.
•In wideband channels that provide the high data
rates, the desired symbol time is usually much
smaller than the delay spread, so inter symbol
interference is severe.
• In order to overcome this, multicarrier
modulation divides the high-rate transmit
bitstream into L lower-rate substreams,
Where, L is chosen such that each of the
subcarriers has symbol time TsL >> τ, and is hence
effectively ISI-free.

•These individual substreams are sent

over L parallel subcarriers, maintaining the total
desired data rate.

•The subcarriers are orthogonal under ideal

propagation conditions, in which case
multicarrier modulation is often referred to as
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM).
•The data rate on each of the subcarriers is much
less than the total data rate, and that corresponds
to subcarrier bandwidth is much less than the
total system bandwidth.

•Thus, the ISI on each subcarrier is small. In the

digital implementation of OFDM, the ISI can be
completely eliminated through the use of a cyclic
prefix.
EXAMPLE 3.1
A certain wideband wireless channel has a delay spread of 1 μsec.
In order to overcome ISI, assume a requirement that Ts ≥ 10τ.
1. What is the maximum bandwidth allowable in this system if
the ISI constraint is to be met without using multicarrier
modulation?
2. If multicarrier modulation is used, and we desire a 10MHz
bandwidth, what is the required number of subcarriers?

For part (1), if it is assumed that Ts = 10τ in order to satisfy the

ISI-free condition, the maximum bandwidth would be 1/Ts =
.1/τ = 100KHz, two orders of magnitude below the intended
bandwidths for LTE systems.

In part (2), if multicarrier modulation is employed, the symbol

time goes to T = LTs. The delay spread criterion mandates that
the new symbol time is still bounded to 10% of the delay spread,
that is, (LTs)−1 = 100KHz. But the 10MHz bandwidth requirement
gives (Ts)−1 = 10MHz.

Hence, L ≥ 100, so a suitable3 choice of L might be 128

subcarriers to allow the full 10MHz bandwidth to be used with
3.2 OFDM BASICS
• In order to overcome the requirement for L RF
radios in both the transmitter and receiver,
OFDM employs an efficient computational
technique known as the Discrete Fourier
Transform (DFT), which lends itself to a highly
efficient implementation known as the Fast
Fourier Transform (FFT).
• FFT (and its inverse, the IFFT) are able to create
large number of orthogonal subcarriers using just
a single radio.
3.2.1 Block Transmission with Guard
Intervals
• Grouping ‘L’ data symbols into a block known as an
OFDM symbol with duration of T seconds, where T
= LTs.
• Guard time ‘Tg’ is introduced in between each
OFDM symbol to keep independent of the others
after going through a wireless channel, as shown
below:
• After receiving a series of OFDM symbols, as long
as the guard time Tg is larger than the delay
spread of the channel τ, each OFDM symbol will
only interfere with itself.

• OFDM transmissions allow ISI within an OFDM

symbol. But by including a large guard band, it is
possible to guarantee that there is no interference
between subsequent OFDM symbols.
 3.2.2 Circular Convolution and the
DFT
• OFDM symbols is made orthogonal with a guard
interval, the next task is to remove the
ISI within each OFDM symbol.
• When an input data stream x[n] is sent through a
linear time-invariant FIR channel h[n], the output
is the linear convolution of the input and the
channel, that is,
y[n] = x[n] * h[n]

• Let us consider that it is possible to compute y[n]

in terms of a circular convolution, that is
Cyclic Prefix :
• The cyclic prefix acts as a buffer region or guard
interval to protect the OFDM signals from ISI.
• The cyclic prefix is obtained by taking the last 𝑣
samples from the length N block of OFDM
symbols, and it is appended at the start of the
symbol block.
• As a result, the transmitted OFDM symbol block is
of length N + 𝑣 as shown in the fig 3.4 .
• For each OFDM symbol to be independent and to
avoid any ISI and ICI, the length 𝑣 of the CP
should be at least equal to the channel order.
The cyclic prefix performs two main functions.
1. It provides a guard interval to eliminate ISI
from the previous symbol.
2. It repeats the end of the symbol so the linear
convolution of a frequency-selective multipath
channel can be modeled as circular convolution.
• FFT/IFFT algorithms are used to realize OFDM
with reduced computational complexity.
• The IFFT operation at the transmitter allows all
the subcarriers to be created in the digital
domain, and thus requires only a single radio to
be used.
• In order for the IFFT/FFT to create an ISI-free
channel, the channel must appear to provide a
circular convolution.
• If a cyclic prefix is added to the transmitted
signal, as shown in Figure 3.4, then this creates a
signal that appears to be x[n]L, and so
y[n] = x[n]⊛ h[n].

• Representing such an OFDM symbol in the time

domain as a length L vector gives
X = [𝑥1, 𝑥2, 𝑥3,………..𝑥𝐿,]
• After applying a cyclic prefix of length 𝑣, the actual
transmitted signal is

• The output of the channel is by definition

𝑌𝑐𝑝 = ℎ ∗ 𝑋𝑐𝑝

Where, h is a length 𝑣 + 1 vector describing the

impulse response of the channel during the OFDM
symbols.

• The output 𝑌𝑐𝑝 has samples = Length of OFDM

symbol + Length of the channel
response - 1
= (L + 𝑣) + (𝑣 + 1) - 1
= L + 2𝑣 samples.
• The first 𝑣 samples of 𝑌𝑐𝑝, contain interference from
the preceding OFDM symbol, and so are discarded.
The last 𝑣 samples disperse into the subsequent
OFDM symbol, and so also are discarded. This leaves
exactly L samples for the desired output ′𝑦 ′, which is
precisely what is required to recover the L data
symbols embedded in 𝑿 .

• These L samples of 𝑦 will be equivalent to

𝑦 = h⊛ x.
• The circular convolution operation y[n] = x[n]⊛ h[n]
as shown below figure 3.5.
Figure 3.5: The OFDM cyclic prefix creates a circular
convolution at the receiver (signal y) even though the
actual channel causes a linear convolution.
• Due to the cyclic prefix 𝑦0 depends on 𝑥0 and the
circularly wrapped values 𝑥 𝐿−𝑣……𝑥L−1, That is:

• The drawback of cyclic prefix need more

bandwidth and power penalty.
• Since 𝑣 redundant symbols are sent, the required
Bandwidth of OFDM in increase from 𝐵 𝑡𝑜 (𝐿+𝑣/𝐿)
𝐵 and power penalty of
10 𝑙𝑜𝑔10 (𝐿+𝑣/𝐿) dB

• In summary, the use of cyclic prefix entails data

rate and power losses that are both
𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑠 = 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝐿𝑜𝑠𝑠 = 𝐿/𝐿 +𝑣

• The "wasted" power has increased importance in

an interference-limited wireless system, since it
causes interference to neighboring users.
3.2.3 Frequency Equalization:

• Equalization is the process of adjusting the

balance between frequency components within
a received OFDM signal.
• Frequency domain equalizers (FEQs) have been
applied extensively in multicarrier systems to
enhance transmission rate by reducing transmit
redundancy in the form of guard interval.
•After the FFT is performed, the data symbols
are estimated using a one-tap frequency
domain equalizer, or FEQ, as

Where, 𝐻𝑙 is the complex response of the

channel
3.2.5 An OFDM Block Diagram***
• The key steps in an OFDM communication system
are briefly shown in Figure 3.6.
Transmitter operations:
Step 1: In OFDM, break a wideband signal of
bandwidth 𝐵 into 𝐿 narrowband subcarriers each of
bandwidth 𝐵/𝐿 and each subcarrier experiences flat
fading, or ISI-free communication, as long as a cyclic
prefix that exceeds the delay spread is used. The 𝐿
subcarriers for a given OFDM symbol are
represented by a vector 𝑋, which contains the L
current symbols.
Step 2: 𝐿 independent narrow band subcarriers are
created digitally using an IFFT operation.
Step 3: IFFT/FFT decompose the ISI channel into
orthogonal subcarriers, a cyclic prefix of length 𝑣
must be appended after the IFFT operation. The
resulting 𝐿 + 𝑣 symbols are then sent in serial through
the wideband channel.
Receiver operations:
• At the receiver, the cyclic prefix is discarded, and the
L received symbols are demodulated using an FFT
operation, which results in L data symbols, each of
the form 𝑌𝑙 = 𝐻𝑙 𝑋𝑙+ 𝑁𝑙 for subcarrier 𝑙.
• Each subcarrier can then be equalized via an FEQ by
simply dividing by the complex channel gain H[i] for
that subcarrier. This results in

𝑋̃𝑙 = 𝑋𝑙+𝑁𝑙 /𝐻𝑙

3.3 OFDM in LTE: ***

• LTE systems can be used as an example to brief

time and frequency domain interpretations of
OFDM.
• Figure 3.7 shows view of a pass band OFDM
modulation engine. The inputs to this figure are
L independent QAM symbols (the vector X), and
these L symbols are treated as separate
subcarriers.
• The L-point IFFT then creates a time domain
L-vector x that is cyclic extended to length L(1 + G),
where G is the fractional overhead. In LTE G ~ 0.07
for the normal cyclic prefix and G = 0.25 for the
extended cyclic prefix.
• This longer vector is then parallel-to-serial (P/S)
converted into a wideband digital signal that can
be amplitude modulated with a single radio at a
carrier frequency of 𝑓𝑐 = 𝜔𝑐/2𝜋.
• The key OFDM parameters are summarized in
table below,
• For example, if 16QAM modulation was used (M =
16) with the normal cyclic prefix, the raw (neglecting
coding) data rate of this LTE system would be:
3.4 Timing and Frequency
Synchronization: ***
• In order to demodulate an OFDM signal, there
are two important synchronization tasks that
need to be performed by the receiver.
•Figure 3.8 shows a representation of an OFDM
symbol in time (top) and frequency (bottom).
•In Figure 3.8 only two of the carriers are shown:
the actual transmitted signal is the superposition
of all the individual carriers.
3.4.1 Timing Synchronization:
• The effect of timing errors in symbol
synchronization is relaxed in OFDM due to the
presence of a cyclic prefix.
• If the cyclic prefix length Ng is equivalent to the
length of the channel impulse response 𝑣,
successive OFDM symbols can be decoded ISI
free.
• If the perfect synchronization is not
maintained, it is possible to tolerate a timing
offset of 𝜏 seconds without any degradation in
performance as long as 0 ≪ 𝜏 ≪ ( 𝑇𝑔− 𝑇𝑚), where
𝑇𝑔 is the guard time (cyclic prefix duration) and
𝑇𝑚 is the maximum channel delay spread.
• As long as 𝜏 remains constant, it includes a fixed
phase offset and it can be corrected by the FEQ
without loss in performance.
• This acceptable range of 𝜏 is referred to as the
timing synchronization margin, and is shown in
Figure 3.9.
• If the timing offset 𝜏 is not within this window
0 ≪ 𝜏 ≪ ( 𝑇𝑔− 𝑇m), ISI occurs. The desired
energy is lost while interference from the
preceding symbol is included in the receive
window.
•For both of these scenarios, the SNR loss can be
approximated by,
3.4.2 Frequency Synchronization:
• OFDM achieves a high degree of bandwidth
efficiency compared to other wideband systems.
• In OFDM, the subcarrier packing is extremely
tight compared to conventional modulation
techniques, which require a guard band on the
order of 50% or more.
• Frequency offsets is very sensitive in OFDM
due to the fact that the subcarriers overlap,
rather than having each subcarrier spectrally
isolated.
•frequency offset 𝛿= 0, there is no interference
between the subcarriers.
• In practice, the frequency offset is not always
zero. The major causes for this are,
Mismatched oscillators at the transmitter
and receiver
Doppler frequency shifts due to mobility.
Crystal oscillators are expensive, tolerating
some degree of frequency offset is essential
in a consumer OFDM system like LTE.
• Hence the received samples of the FFT will
contain interference from the adjacent
subcarriers, called inter-carrier interference (ICI).
 Where, Co is a constant that depends on various
assumptions and is the average symbol
energy.
• The SNR loss induced by frequency offset is
given by,
3.5 The Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR)
***
• Definition: The PAPR is the ratio the maximum
power of a sample in a given OFDM transmit
symbol to the average power of that OFDM
symbol. In simple terms, PAPR is the ratio of
peak power to the average power of a signal. It is
expressed in the units of dB.
•PAPR occurs when in a multicarrier system the
different sub-carriers are out of phase with each
other.
• OFDM signals have a higher peak-to-average
ratio (PAPR). This high PAR is one of the most
important implementation challenges that face
OFDM because it reduces the efficiency and
• Alternatively, the same power amplifier (PA) can
be used but the input power to the PA must be
reduced: this is known as input backoff (IBO)
and results in a lower average SNR at the
receiver, and hence a reduced transmit range.
3.5.1 The PAR Problem:
• When a high-peak signal is transmitted through
a nonlinear device such as a high-power
amplifier (HPA) or digital-to-analog converter
(DAC), it generates out-of-band energy and
in-band distortion. These degradations may
affect the system performance severely.
• The nonlinear behavior of HPA can be
characterized by amplitude
modulation/amplitude modulation (AM/AM)
•To avoid the undesirable nonlinear effects, a
waveform with high-peak power must be
transmitted in the linear region of the HPA by
decreasing the average power of the input signal.
This is called input backoff (IBO) and results in a
proportional output backoff (OBO).
• High backoff reduces the power efficiency of the
HPA, and may limit the battery life for mobile
applications.
•The input backoff is defined as
3.5.2 Quantifying the PAR:
• The OFDM carries L narrowband signals. Each of
the L output samples from an L-point IFFT
operation involves the sum of L complex
numbers, the resulting output values {x1, x2,……
,xL} can be accurately modelled and the
amplitude of the output signal is

which is exponentially distributed with mean 2𝜎2.

• The PAR of the transmitted analog signal can be
defined as

•The discrete-time PAR can be defined for the

IFFT output as

• The maximum possible value of the PAR is L or

10 log10 L dB, which would occur if all the
subcarriers add up constructively at a single
point.
Clipping and Other PAR Reduction
Techniques:
Clipping Techniques:
• In this technique "clip" off the highest peaks, at
the cost of some minimal distortion of the signal.
•Clipping, called as "soft limiting," truncates the
amplitude of signals that exceed the clipping
level as

Where, x (n) is the original signal and 𝑥̃(𝑛) is the output after clipping,
and A is the clipping level, that is, the maximum output envelope value.
The clipping ratio can be used as a metric and is
defined as

Conclusion:
o Clipping reduces the PAR at the expense of
distorting the desired signal.
o The two primary drawbacks from clipping are
1.Spectral regrowth (frequency domain leakage),
which causes unacceptable interference to users
in neighboring RF channels,
2. Distortion of the desired signal.
i) Spectral Regrowth:
o It is the frequency domain leakage noise due to
clipping. The clipping noise can be expressed in
the frequency domain through the use of the DFT.
o The resulting clipped frequency domain signal,

Where Ck represents the clipped off signal in the

frequency domain.
ii) In-band Distortion
⚫ In-band distortion due to clipping process as
the combination of uncorrelated additive
noise and attenuation of desired signal as,

⚫ The attenuation factor α is obtained by,

⚫ The attenuation factor α vs clipping ratioγis

plotted as shown in figure 3.15.
⚫ Attenuation factor α is negligible when
compared to clipping ratioγis greater than
8dB (for high clipping ratio).

⚫ The correlated time-domain clipped-off

signal c[n] can be approximated by
uncorrelated noise d[n].
c[n]~d[n] as γincreases
⚫ The variance of uncorrelated clipping noise
can be expressed assuming a stationary
Gaussian noise input x[n] as
⚫ The Signal-to-noise-plus-distortion ratio
(SNDR) of one OFDM symbol in order to
estimate the impact of clipped OFDM signals
over an AWGN channel under the assumption
that the distortion d[n] is Gaussian and
uncorrelated with the input and channel
noise(that has variance No/2).

⚫ The Bit Error Probability (BER) for M-QAM

and average power Ex is given by,

⚫ Figure shows Bit error rate probability for a

 Figure 3.16: Bit error rate probability for a
clipped OFDM signal in AWGN with different
clipping ratios.
3.5.4 LTE's Approach to PAR in the Uplink:

• In the downlink PAR is less important because the

base stations are fewer in number and generally
higher in cost, and so are not much sensitive to
the exact PAR.
• If the PAR is still considered to be too high, a
number of techniques can be utilized to bring it
down, all with some complexity and performance
tradeoffs.
•For uplink, mobiles are many in number and are
sensitive to cost, so SCFDMA/SC-FDE is used.
Single carrier frequency domain
equalization (SC-FDE)
An alternative approach to OFDM is SC-FDE
approach to ISI suppression, SC-FDE maintains
OFDM’s three most important benefits:
1. Low complexity even for severe multipath
channels
2. Excellent BER performance, close to
theoretical bounds
3. A decoupling of ISI from other types of
interference.
SC-FDE System Description
⚫ Frequency domain equalization is used in
both OFDM and SC-FDE systems to reduce
the complexity inherent to time-domain
equalization.
⚫ IFFT is moved to the end of the receive chain
rather than operating at the transmitter, to
create a multicarrier waveform as in OFDM.
⚫ An SC-FDE still utilizes a cyclic prefix at least as
long as the channel delay spread, but now the
transmitted signal is simply a sequence of QAM
symbols, which have low PAR, on the order of
4-5 dB depending on the constellation size.
⚫ Because of the application of the cyclic prefix,
the received signal appears to be circularly
convolved, that is,
y[n]= x[n] * h [n] + w[n],
where w[n] is noise.
FFT {y[n]} = Y[m]= H[m] X[m] + W[m]
Design Considerations for SC-FDE and
OFDM
⚫ Since the performance difference between
SC-FDE and OFDM is not that significant, other
considerations are more important in
determining which is the appropriate method to
use for a given application.
⚫ An obvious difference is that SC-FDE has a
lower-complexity transmitter but a
higher-complexity receiver, compared to
OFDM. Since the receiver was already
considerably more complex than the transmitter
in a typical OFDM system due to channel
estimation, synchronization, and the error
correction decoder, this further skews the
asymmetry.
⚫ In such a situation, the base station would
therefore perform 3 IFFT/FFT operations and
the mobile, which is more power- and
cost-sensitive, would perform only a single FFT
operation (to receive its OFDM waveform from
the base station).
⚫ Adding in SC-FDE’s benefits of reduced PAR
and the commensurate cost and power savings,
it appears that the case for using SC-FDE in the
uplink of a wideband data system is favourable
indeed.
⚫ Channel estimation and synchronization are a
bit different in practice for an SC-FDE system
vs. an OFDM system.
⚫ In a typical wireless OFDM system—including
LTE, WiMAX, and 802.11a/g/n—channel
⚫ Although SC-FDE systems would typically also
include a preamble, this preamble is in the time
domain so it is not as straightforward to
estimate the frequency domain values Hl.
Similarly, it is not possible to insert pilot tones
on a per-frame basis. SC-FDMA overcomes
these potential problems for LTE by using both
a DFT and an IFFT at the transmitter.
⚫ Another commonly cited disadvantage of
SC-FDE is that it has a nominally more
dispersive spectrum compared to OFDM.
OFDM’s sharper spectrum results in less
co-channel interference and/or less restrictive
RF roll-off requirements. On the other hand,
because OFDM has a higher PAR, it is more
subject to clipping that can cause spectral
dispersion.
⚫ Finally, the combination of SC-FDE with MIMO
⚫ On the whole, OFDM continues to be much
more popular than SC-FDE, but the
fundamental technical arguments for this
imbalance are not very clear. Instead, it is
reasonable to posit that the longevity and
familiarity with OFDM are bigger factors.
THE COMPUTATIONAL COMPLEXITY
ADVANTAGE OF OFDM AND SC-FDE
⚫ One of the principal advantages of frequency
domain equalization relative to time domain
equalization is that FDE—whether in OFDM or
⚫ SC-FDE systems—requires much lower
computational complexity, especially for high
data rates. In this section, we compare the
computational complexity of an equalizer with
that of a standard IFFT/FFT implementation of
OFDM.
⚫ A time-domain equalizer consists of a series of
multiplications with several delayed versions of
the signal. The number of delay taps in an
equalizer depends on the symbol rate of the
⚫ To be more precise, the number of equalizer taps
is proportional to the bandwidth-delay spread
product Tm/Ts ≈ BTm. We have been calling this
quantity ν, or the number of ISI channel taps. An
equalizer with ν taps performs ν complex
multiply and accumulate (CMAC) operations per
received symbol. Therefore, the complexity of an
equalizer is of the order

⚫ In an OFDM or SC-FDE system, the IFFT and

FFT are the principal computational operations.
It is well known that the IFFT and FFT each have
a complexity of O(L log2 L), where L is the FFT
block size. In the case of OFDM, L is the number
of subcarriers. As this chapter has shown, for a
fixed cyclic prefix overhead, the number of
⚫ The computational complexity for each OFDM
symbol (or SC-FDE block) is of the order O(BTm
log2 BTm). There are B/L OFDM symbols sent
each second. Since L ∝ BTm, this means there
are order O(1/Tm) OFDM symbols per second,
so the computational complexity in terms of
CMACs for OFDM is

⚫ The complexity of a time-domain equalizer

grows as the square of the data rate since both
the symbol rate and the number of taps
increases linearly with the data rate.
⚫ For an OFDM or SC-FDE system, the increase in
complexity grows with the data rate only slightly
faster than linearly. This difference is dramatic
for very large data rates, as shown in Figure. It
should be noted, however, that LTE uses
Figure : OFDM and SC-FDE have an enormous complexity advantage
over equalization for broadband data rates. The delay spread is Tm =
2μsec, the OFDM symbol period is T = 20μsec, 16 QAM (4 bps/Hz) is
used, and the considered time-domain equalizer is a DFE.
THANK YOU