The SIJ Transactions on Computer Networks & Communication Engineering (CNCE), Vol. 2, No.

3, May 2014
ISSN: 2321-2403 2014 | Published by The Standard International Journals (The SIJ) 43



AbstractIn Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) wireless communication system, the
power of received signal might suffer giant variation from the non-ideal channel effect, such as path loss and
shadowing effect. Then, it might lead to serious degradations of system performance in OFDM wireless
system. Automatic Gain Control (AGC) must periodic control the Variable Gain Amplifier (VGA) for whole
packet to ensure such received power stably. Typically, shadowing effect is not considered in designs. In this
work, we create an AGC scheme to balance the convergence rate and the gain stability under shadowing effect
in OFDM wireless communication system. The path loss and dynamic shadowing effect could be solved by a
new AGC algorithm. With a mechanism of reference value alignment and a precise gain calculation in the
PLCP and data symbol duration, ADC can prevent from quantization mismatch and saturation error. And the
proposed AGC algorithm uses the signal power normalizes to improve the signal convergence speed and
stables the signal amplitude. In simulations, this solution can achieve 10% PER with a 3-dB SNR loss.
KeywordsAutomatic Gain Control; Channel; Path Loss; Shadowing Effect; Wireless Communication.
AbbreviationsAutomatic Gain Control (AGC); Bit Error Ratio (BER); Full Scale Range (FSR); Orthogonal
Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM); Peak Average Power Ratio (PAR); Signal to Nosie Ratio (SNR);
Variable Gain Amplifier (VGA).

I. INTRODUCTION
FDM (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing)
is a method of encoding digital data on multiple
carrier frequencies for transmission large amounts of
digital data over radio wave. This concept of using parallel
data transmission and frequency division multiplexing was
drawn firstly in 1960s due to the high channel efficiency and
low multipath distortion that make high data rate possible.
OFDM has developed into a popular scheme for wideband
digital communication whether wireless or over copper wires
used in applications such as digital television, audio
broadcasting, DSL broadband internet access, wireless
networks and 4G mobile communications. However, OFDM
systems are sensitive to imperfect synchronization and non-
ideal front-end effects, leading to serious degradations of
system performance.
AGC (Automatic Gain Control) is essential to OFDM
systems because of recurrent gain adjustment for VGA
(Variable Gain Amplifier) to ensure received power stable.
There have been several research contributions that provide
AGC algorithms [Fort & Eberle, 2003; Jimenez et al., 2004].
However, they only consider power loss in large-scale
wireless channel environment, and the dynamic shadowing
effect [Charalambous & Menemenlis, 2002] would cause a
significant loss of SNR if the AGC have no scheme to defend
it. In this thesis we propose an AGC scheme to defend the
dynamic shadowing effect and our algorithm can achieve an
acceptable degradation compared with ideal AGC under
shadowing.
The motivation of this research are: a) OFDM systems
are sensitive to imperfect synchronization and non-ideal
front-end effects, leading to serious degradations of system
performance, b) shadowing effect is not considered in typical
design. And the objectives of this research are to balance the
convergence rate and the gain stability under shadowing
effect in OFDM wireless communication system. Finally, the
contributions of this manuscript are: a) the path loss and
dynamic shadowing effect could be solved by a new AGC
scheme and algorithm, b) the proposed AGC algorithm
improves the signal convergence speed and stables the signal
amplitude.
O
*PhD Student, Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, TAIWAN.
E-Mail: skyfeeling.cs96{at}g2{dot}nctu{dot}edu{dot}tw
**Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, TAIWAN.
E-Mail: tyhsu{at}cs{dot}nctu{dot}edu{dot}tw
Jian-Ya Chu* & Terng-Yin Hsu**
A Shadowing-aware Automatic Gain
Control Scheme for OFDM Wireless
Communication System
The SIJ Transactions on Computer Networks & Communication Engineering (CNCE), Vol. 2, No. 3, May 2014
ISSN: 2321-2403 2014 | Published by The Standard International Journals (The SIJ) 44
The complete AGC architecture is present in Section II.
Section III explains the design and proposed algorithm.
Simulation results are described in Section IV. Finally,
conclusions are given in Section V.
II. AGC ARCHITECTURE
The propose AGC architecture is shown in figure 1. The
VGA is a linear-in-dB analog device. It amplifying signal
amplitude depends on the gain value controlled by AGC. The
ADC is an analog-to-digital converter and it quantifies the
VGA output into the digital data. In the AGC function block,
it divided into several sub-blocks. The signal estimation
average block calculates and accumulates the signal power
from DAC. And then the gain of VGA can be calculated from
the average power value and reference value. Reference value
is the information of ADC signal size. Hence there is a
function to check the reference value in appropriate range. It
prevents ADC output from saturation error and quantization
mismatch by aligning ADC output level with reference value.
In the pilot average block, it tracks shadowing effect by using
average of pilot to calculate the gain and estimates precise
gain with pre-data symbol pilot. The state controller block
controls update timing of gain. According to the data input,
state controller choose signal power gain calculation or pilot
gain calculation. Our proposed AGC focus on shadowing
effect prevention. Hence, we assume the synchronization
timing and synchronization function are ideal in the
simulation platform.

Figure 1: The Proposed AGC Architecture
III. PROPOSED AGC ALGORITHM
The AGC flow chart is shown in figure 2. Every step has
control signal to make sure the timing of next step correct in
different duration and state.

Figure 2: The AGC Flow Chart
3.1. Set a Minimal Gain to Detect Signal
The signal transmitted through the channel would become
weak and unstable. Hence, there should be an amplifier
system receiving the signal and quantifying it into digital.
And a minimal gain value is set to detect the noise and signal
in the system. AGC must ensure the signal is not clipped in
the ADC for getting a stable signal and know the gain value
enough to detect noise and signal. It consider Noise figure on
RF front-end and it usually reserved for 6dB margin [Jimenez
et al., 2004]. According to a formula, SNR=6.07N+1.076, it
can get N closing to 1 and converts about 2 bits of the ADC.
Hence, AGC adjust gain of VGA, observes whether the
output of ADC swing about 1~2 bits vibration and keeps the
gain for VGA. There is a minimal gain estimation formula in
equation (1). G (t+1) and G (t) are next gain and current gain
respectively,
_
is ADC noise reference value about
1~2bits and
_
is average power of ADC output
signal. If the
_
is less than
_
, AGC
increases the gain, otherwise decrease.
( ) ( )
|
|
.
|

\
|
|
|
.
|

\
|
- = +
ref noise
pwr signal
P
S
t G t G
_
_
1 1 (1)
The purpose of setting minimum gain is signal detection.
In this thesis we aim to address the impact of shadowing
effect and assume the detection function is ideal. We use
double sliding window detector and is shown in figure 3.
When the correlation energy is more than the threshold, the
system starts the AGC to adjust gain by AGC algorithm.

Figure 3: Double Sliding Window Detector
The SIJ Transactions on Computer Networks & Communication Engineering (CNCE), Vol. 2, No. 3, May 2014
ISSN: 2321-2403 2014 | Published by The Standard International Journals (The SIJ) 45
3.2. Reference Value Alignment and Gain Adjustment
When the signal is detected, the system enables AGC to start
gain calculation to amplify signal waveform of VGA. There
is a gain calculation equation (2.). It calculates the signal
power at 16 sample time once from the set of FIFO data and
gets a ratio by reference value. The ratio multiplied by
current gain value and adjustment factor () to be next gain
volume.
( ) ( )

=
|
|
.
|

\
|
=
16
1
2
16
n
avg
n FIFO
FIFO
( ) ( ) ( ) o -
|
|
.
|

\
|
- = +
avg
ref avg
FIFO
P FIFO
t G t G t G 1
(2)
Considering the gain speed, 16 sample times once is
suitable. If the time of gain calculation once is too long, AGC
might not trace signal effectively. And the shadowing effect
still affects the signal. If the time of gain calculation once is
too short, the signal would have a small volatility and cause
worse performance.
The signal level size depends on the reference value and
allows the AGC to know whether the gain increase or
decrease. If the reference value is too large, there might be a
saturation error. If the value is too low and gets a weak
signal, it degrades signal performance by quantization
mismatch. Average power of ideal short training symbol is
usually used by reference value. However, ADC specification
and other causes on hardware system would affect the value
setting. In our simulation platform, there is no other hardware
effect. Therefore we only consider the signal level on ADC
dynamic range, and it can handle a consistent range. Hence,
the system SNR requirement determines the bit number of
ADC and is considered about the impact such as the Noise
Figure, BER (Bit error ratio) SNR, and PAR (Peak Average
Power Ratio) SNR and design margin. Besides the design
margin, an optimal signal output of ADC must be greater
than the impact to achieve the best signal quality. Therefore,
it uses a 6bit ADC in simulation platform, and its dynamic
range is 37.88dB. The platform assumes a 16QAM
communication system that has 6dB noise figure, 19dB BER
and 5.6dB PAR [Bernard Sklar, 2001]. It can rough estimate
these effects accounted for 80% of ADC total dynamic range,
and we can pre-assume that it is the optimal output of signal
on ADC.
Base on above assumptions, there is a simple calculation
for initial reference value. It uses the FSR (Full Scale Range)
of ADC to divide with a constant and then multiply 80% of
calculation value. Therefore, it assumes the FSR of ADC and
constant are 0.121v and 16. It can calculate the initial
reference value, (0.121/16)*0.8=0.0053. But the value is only
being an initial reference value in the AGC initial state. It
cannot make sure that the signal does not saturate.
In this thesis we propose an algorithm to align the
reference value. We set an upper and lower limitation to
check the maximum data in the FIFO at once of 16 sample
times. If the maximum data is more than the upper bound, the
system decreases the reference value by attenuation factor. If
the maximum data is lower than lower bound, the system
increases the reference value. The formula is in equation (3).
| | ( ) ( ) 0 : 15 max FIFO abs MAX =
( )
( )
( )

< |
.
|

\
|
+ -
> |
.
|

\
|
-
= +
bound lower MAX if
L
t P
bound upper MAX if
L
t P
t P
ref
ref
ref
1
1
1
1
1

(3)
The MAX is maximum data in the FIFO.

( +1)
and

() are next reference value and current reference

value. The upper limitation is 80% of ADC FSR. The lower
is 50% of ADC FSR, and L is the attenuation factor. There is
a conception diagram in figure 4.

Figure 4: Conception of Reference Value Calculation
3.3. The Mechanism of AGC Updates Gain
Mechanism of gain adjustment on different state is shown in
figure 5. In the PLCP preamble and header duration the AGC
adjust gain once at every 16 sample time, and the system
aligns reference value before the end of 7th short training
preamble. In the PLCP headers duration, the system stop
reference value alignment, and AGC uses final reference
value to adjust gain for VGA. In the data symbol duration, it
uses a weight that is average of 4 pilots to obtain a precise
gain at every 80 samples once. Hence, there is a state
controller to control gain update for VGA. It controls the gain
algorithm in the different state.

Figure 5: Adjustment Gain in Different State
The SIJ Transactions on Computer Networks & Communication Engineering (CNCE), Vol. 2, No. 3, May 2014
ISSN: 2321-2403 2014 | Published by The Standard International Journals (The SIJ) 46
3.4. Gain Calculation by Pilot
The pilot is used in channel estimation and synchronization.
The polarity of pilot is controlled by a serial subcarriers
inserted in data symbol. As shown in figure 6, the received
signal has a sine wave on the envelope of total packet
because of shadowing effect, and it can also be observed
from polarity of pilot. We calculate the average of the
absolute value of four pilots in each data symbol. It can find a
situation similar to as described above in the figure 7.

Figure 6: Received Signal

Figure 7: The Average of 4 Pilots on Total Data Symbol
It is clear that shadowing effect would affect the data
symbol. Base on this average value, it takes advantage on this
change by predicting a precise gain value for the next data
symbol, and it prevents the AGC from giving not enough
gain to recovery the fluctuation intense signal. Hence, there is
a formula to calculate gain in the data symbol duration that is
in equation (4). G(t+1) and G(t) are next gain and current
gain respectively. J(t) refers to current average of pilot P(t) to
calculate a ratio, and the ratio multiplied by the current gain.
The L is arrangement factor. In the data symbol duration, the
signal is not regular. So the signal power cannot calculate
precise gain for VGA. But the pilot value is always 1, and it
can estimate the signal status.
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) L t J t G t G t G - - + = +1
( ) ( )

=
=
4
1
4
1
n
n pilot t P
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )

>
<
|
|
.
|

\
|
=
1
1 1
t P if
t P if
t P
t P
abs t J
(4)
In equation (2) the system adjusts the reference value to
calculate gain for AGC. It is according to the level of the
ADC output before the end of the PCLP preamble completed.
However, during the data symbol the signal may be saturated.
Since the data symbol of the output level is greater than the
PLCP preamble and headers in the ideal signal. There must
have a mechanism to check the ADC output level to prevent
the saturation error on ADC output and make sure the output
level is lower than the 90% of ADC FSR. In equation (5) it is
similar to equation (2). Its purpose is if the signal is greater
than the 90% ADC FSR, the system would decrease P
ref
to
keep output level under definition.
| | ( ) ( ) 16 : 1 FIFO abs x ma t Poin =
( ) ( ) level full ADC of t poin If
L
t P t P
ref ref
% 90
1
1 1 > |
.
|

\
|
- = +

(5)
IV. SIMULATION RESULT
The simulation parameters are shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Simulation Parameter
Parameter Value
Modulation 16 QAM
Coding Rate 3/4
PSDU Length 1024 Bytes(0.25ms)
Packet No 2000
FFT size 64
width of ADC 6 bit
Path Loss -20dB to -80dB
Shadowing vibrate 3dB
Channel Model Model B
RMS delay spread 15 ns
4.1. AGC Algorithm Result
In figure 8, it expresses AGC gain performance under
channel effect from VGA input to ADC output. The propose
AGC calculates the gain in different state. It controls gain to
stable the signal level and it controls an appropriate level for
ADC to avoid saturation signal degrade the system
performance. The first picture of figure 8 shows the path loss
with 3 period shadowing effect. It is our target to eliminate
this impact and the second picture shows the signal that
suffers these interferences such as AWGN, path loss and
shadowing effect. The third picture that are gain and packet
detection curves from the propose AGC algorithm. When the
system detect signal that is existing. The system starts the
AGC to calculate gain for VGA. While the AGC finish its
work and it can find the gain curve that looks like the
shadowing effect curve on the contrary. That means the AGC
can track shadowing effect on the signal and recover signal
successfully. So the fourth picture shows the AGC stable
signal and keeps signal level under FSR of ADC.
The SIJ Transactions on Computer Networks & Communication Engineering (CNCE), Vol. 2, No. 3, May 2014
ISSN: 2321-2403 2014 | Published by The Standard International Journals (The SIJ) 47

Figure 8: Simulation Result for Proposed AGC Algorithm
4.2. BER and PER Performance
In table 2, it is channel condition on simulation platform. The
No-AGC is ideal AGC and it doesnt have any AGC
algorithm and it doesnt run through the ADC. So the ideal
AGC does not have any quantization noise. The simulation
condition of ideal AGC only has AWGN for simulation-1 and
AWGN with multipath for simulation-2 and they get a ideal
curve respectively. The multipath uses mode-B of TGn
channel [TGn Channel Models, 2004] and it have 2 delay tap
and 15ns RMS delay spread. The purpose of ideal curve is to
know what difference in BER and PER between ideal and
propose or conventional AGC. The conventional AGC is
general algorithm [Tsung-Hsien Wang, 2010]. The other
parameters list in table 1.
Table 2: Channel Condition for Simulation Platform

No-AGC (Ideal-
AGC)
Propose AGC / Conventional
AGC
Simulation
-1
AWGN only
( No ADC
Quantization noise )
AWGN only
AWGN + Shadowing effect
Simulation
-2
AWGN + Multipath
( No ADC
Quantization noise)
AWGN + Multipath
AWGN + Multipath +
Shadowing effect
In figure 9 and figure 10, that is the result of BER and
PER especially on the simulation-1 condition. The
performance of propose AGC is better than conventional
AGC in the AWGN only environment. The difference in
BER and PAR between propose AGC and conventional AGC
are 0.5dB and 0.2dB. That is because of the propose AGC use
signal power normalize the AGC not only has a small value
but also it doesnt affect the convergence rate of the signal.
Hence the signal has a good convergence performance and
has little variation in the steady state by the propose AGC
gain adjustment. That can prove the propose AGC algorithm
is helpful to obtain a good signal quality in the data symbol
duration. On other hand the propose AGC is better than
conventional AGC in the shadowing effect environment and
it is more than 0.2dB difference at 3 shadowing and more
than 3dB difference at 6 shadowing. Because using of signal
power normalize and the mechanism of reference value
alignment the propose AGC reduces the signal has little
frequency oscillation on signal envelope than the
conventional AGC and the signal saturation probability is
also significantly reduced. That is helpful for the receiver
decoding and enhance the receiver performance. Although it
is out of 3dB range at 6 shadowing but it can still prove the
propose AGC algorithm is useful than the conventional AGC
on signal envelope recovery.

Figure 9: Simulation-1 BER

Figure 10: Simulation-1 PER
In figure 11 and figure 12, they are the result of BER and
PER especially on the simulation-2. In the performance of
propose AGC the difference in BER and PRE between ideal
AGC and propose AGC are 0.7dB and 1dB. That is Because
of multipath the SNR performance is bad than simulation-1
and it also affect the AGC performance. The multipath impair
the phase and amplitude of signal and the receiver need to
have a precise long preamble to calculate impulse response
for channel estimation to cancel the interference. But the
The SIJ Transactions on Computer Networks & Communication Engineering (CNCE), Vol. 2, No. 3, May 2014
ISSN: 2321-2403 2014 | Published by The Standard International Journals (The SIJ) 48
differences are under 1dB so the performance is acceptable.
The conventional AGC is still bad than propose AGC and it
is predictable from the result of simulation-1. The using of
signal power normalize and several AGC algorithm scheme
they still are helpful in the multipath environment. But the
ADC quantization noise and the same long preamble AGC
algorithm make they have the same performance in PER at no
shadowing environment. But the propose AGC is still better
than conventional AGC at 3 shadowing in the shadowing
effect environment. It can prove the propose AGC algorithm
is helpful on signal envelope recovery.

Figure 11: Simulation-2 BER

Figure 12: Simulation-2 PER
The plan test the propose AGC ability at the 2~8
shadowing effect. The results of BER and PER are shown in
figure 13 and figure 14 respectively. The performance of
propose AGC has 0.5dB degradation between every different
shadowing period. Because in the worse shadowing
environment the propose AGC hard to compensate the signal
envelope variation, and the variation of signal envelop is very
severe, and the difference of signal power is very large at
every calculation interval of signal power. To analyze the
signal after the propose AGC adjustment, it can find there
still have a low frequency oscillation on the signal envelope
in the worse shadowing effect. This phenomenon makes the
receiver hard to decode the signal and degrade the
performance at every shadowing period. So the AGC need
precise gain compensation and also requires appropriate
adjustment of gain interval to compensate the signal envelope
variation. In the PLCP duration the adjustment gain interval
is 8us, but in the data symbol duration the interval is 40us. It
is need to be considered in the gain adjustment of data
symbol duration. At the result of 4 shadowing effect the
difference in BER and PER between ideal and the result are
3dB and 2.7dB acceptable in communication method. At 5
shadowing or more shadowing period their BER and PER are
more than 3dB. Hence, it can know the ability of proposed
AGC is 2~ 4.

Figure 13: Propose AGC BER Simulation Result

Figure 14: Propose AGC PER Simulation Result
V. CONCLUSION
In this thesis it introduces automatic gain control algorithm
for OFDM system. The path loss and dynamic shadowing
effect could be solved by a new AGC algorithm. It also
proposes a mechanism of reference value alignment to
prevent saturation and quantization noise on ADC output. It
provides a precise gain calculation in the PLCP and data
symbol duration and the performance is better than
conventional AGC at the 3 shadowing period. The proposed
AGC algorithm uses the signal power normalizes to improve
the signal convergence speed and stables the signal
amplitude. The advantage is it does not require large value
to quickly achieve the initial reference value and the variation
of signal is very slightly in the steady state. In the shadowing
ability test the proposed AGC has good performance than
conventional AGC. It has a good ability in the
0~3shadowing effect and it is acceptable in the maximum
shadowing effect is 4.
The SIJ Transactions on Computer Networks & Communication Engineering (CNCE), Vol. 2, No. 3, May 2014
ISSN: 2321-2403 2014 | Published by The Standard International Journals (The SIJ) 49
REFERENCES
[1] Bernard Sklar (2001), Digital Communication: Fundamentals
and Applications, Prentice Hall; 2 Edition, ISBN-
10:0130847887 ISBN-13:987-0130847881.
[2] C.D. Charalambous & N. Menemenlis (2002), Dynamical
Spatial Log-Normal Shadowing Models for Mobile
Communications, Proceedings of the 27th General Assembly
of the International Union of Radio Science.
[3] A. Fort & W. Eberle (2003), Synchronization and AGC
Proposal for IEEE 802.11a Burst OFDM Systems, IEEE
Global Telecommunications Conference (GLOBECOM '03),
Pp. 13351338.
[4] V.P.G. Jimenez, M.J.F.-G. Garcia, F.J.G. Serrano & A.G.
Armada (2004), Design and Implementation of
Synchronization and AGC for OFDM-based WLAN
Receivers, IEEE Trans. Consum. Electron, Vol. 50, No 4, Pp
10161025.
[5] TGn Channel Models (2004), IEEE Std. 802.11 03//940r4,
Available: https://mentor.ieee.org/802.11/dcn/09/11-09-0308-
00-00ac-tgac-channel-model-addendum-document.doc.
[6] Tsung-Hsien Wang (2010), Study on the Automatic Gain
Control Techniques for the IEEE 802.11a System, National
Chung Cheng University.
Jian-Ya Chu has his B.S. degree in
Computer Science from National Chiao Tung
University, Taiwan, in 2011 and is studying
PhD in Computer Science of National Chiao
Tung University, Taiwan. Jian-Ya Chus
research areas include MIMO detection and
AGC in wireless communication.


Terng-Yin Hsu (M07) received the B.S. and
M.S. degrees from Feng Chia University,
Taichung, Taiwan, in 1993 and 1995,
respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from
National Chiao-Tung University, Hsinchu,
Taiwan, in 1999, all in electronic engineering.
In 2003, he joined the Department of
Computer Science, National Chiao-Tung
University, where he is currently an Associate Professor. His current
research interests include VLSI architectures, wireless
communications, multi-spec transmissions, high-speed networking,
analog-like digital circuits, system-on-chip (SoC) design
technology, and related application-specific ICs (ASIC) designs.