Investigation of Coded OFDM System over Rayliegh

fading Channel
Maw-Yang Liu1, Chien-Hsien Chiang1, Chia-Fu Yang2, and Yi-Min Tsai2
Department of Electrical Engineering1
National Ilan University, Taiwan1
Public Television Service Foundation, Taiwan2
myliu@niu.edu.tw
1963 [5]. Lately, it has been re-discovered by MacKay and
Neal [6]. Gallager demonstrated that these codes was
processed on tracking the probability density or distribution of
the extrinsic information exchanged during the messagepassing decoding rules, and it can approach Shannon limit
while increasing code length [7]. Furthermore, Gallager
proposed a practical iterative algorithm that used extrinsic
information exchanged between bit nodes and check nodes for
decoding these codes [7]. Briefly, LDPC codes are linear block
codes whose parity check matrix is very sparse. BCH code is a
cyclic code that is constructed from Galois field. It was
proposed by Hocquenghem in 1959, but independently it was
also discovered by Bose and Ray-Chaudhuri in 1960 [8]. There
is a great deal of decoding algorithm for BCH code;
Berlekamp, Massey, Chien, Forney, and the others [9].

AbstractThis paper presents a channel coding scheme for

OFDM with 64-QAM and 256-QAM over Rayleigh channel. In
our proposed scheme, the OFDM system employs three mode of
IFFT with 4k, 16k, and 32k. In addition, the concatenated coding
scheme of LDPC and BCH code is utilized as channel code
referring to the standard from ETSI EN 302 755. Aside from the
simulation, we also measure the system performance via the
instrument that using DVB-T2 transmitter and receiver. Finally,
the comparison and discussion of the simulation and trial
measurement are demonstrated.
Keywords: LDPC; QAM; OFDM; Rayleigh fading

I. Introduction
Recently, novel digital terrestrial television (DTT)
broadcasting system can achieve high-speed data rate with
carrying high quality video over very bad transmission
environments. Such system employs orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing (OFDM) technique that provides a new
approach to achieve the high-speed transmission under 64QAM and 256-QAM modulation. Due to the high spectral
efficiency of M-QAM, the net data rates can be greatly
increased. OFDM techniques have been also exploited in many
communication systems, such as IEEE 802.16m wirelessMAN-Advanced (Wimax2), the asymmetric digital subscriber
loop (ADSL), and IEEE 802.11n, etc. [1][2]. Communication
system adopts this technique that can be useful to challenge the
carry out of Hi-definition televisions.

Basically, the proposed system architecture is predicated

upon ETSI 302755 that provides a new digital terrestrial
television broadcasting system. Channel coding is comprised
of LDPC code and BCH code, modulation is made by OFDM
with M-QAM system, and channel model is the general
Rayleigh fading channel. The OFDM system has three modes,
IFFT 4K, 16K, and 32K. It is observed that some of the system
parameters both in our simulation and trial measurement will
greatly affect the system performance. These include coding
gain, M-QAM modulation, and number of sub-carriers in
OFDM system.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. The system
model is introduced in section II, where the communication
architecture and basic system overview through the QAM
modulation in OFDM system over Rayleigh fading channel is
described. The numerical results and discussions of both
simulation and real measurement are presented in section III.
Finally, the conclusion remarks are given in section IV.

Generally, the advantage of a multi-carrier system is that it

can be robust against inter-symbol interference (ISI). However,
the OFDM system is very sensitive to frequency offset caused
by multipath delay spread channels. These frequency offset
effects destroy the orthogonality of OFDM subcarriers, and it
will also bring about the inter-carrier interference (ICI) [2].
Channel coding technique is an effective manner to provide
robustness against the transmission impairment, hence channel
capacity can be easily achieved the expected goals.

II.

In this paper, we discuss the employment of channel

coding that utilizes the LDPC and BCH code, where the
simulation platform is based on OFDM system over Rayleigh
fading channel [10]. Fig. 1 illustrates the transmitted digital
signal generated by the OFDM system. Modulation and
demodulation in OFDM system can be performed for all
carriers collectively by using an inverse fast Fourier transform
(IFFT) and a fast Fourier transform (FFT).

In this paper, we investigate forward error correction (FEC)

scheme based on LDPC code concatenated with BCH code for
OFDM system with 64-QAM and 256-QAM over Rayleigh
fading channel, where the LDPC code is utilized as inner code
and BCH is employed as outer code. In our numerical results,
it is shown that the system performance can be significantly
improved by the concatenated coding scheme. Low Density
Parity Check (LDPC) code was first introduced by Gallager in

c
978-1-4799-4315-9/14/$31.00 2014
IEEE

System Description

193

Source
Coding

BCH code
Encoder

LDPC code
Encoder

OFDM with QAM

Modulation

Rayleigh Fading
Channel

(n-k) [14]. On the other hand, if H is low density, but the

number of 1s per column or row is not constant, the
corresponding code is an irregular LDPC code [14]. In this
paper, the regular LDPC code is utilized in our simulation and
trial measurement platform.
In the encoding process, a source message is mapped to the
transmitted codeword x, this linear mapping can be represented
as [4]

Source
Decoding

BCH code
Decoder

LDPC code
Decoder

OFDM with QAM

Demodulation

Fig. 1: Proposed LDPC coding scheme for OFDM with QAM mapping over
Rayleigh channel.

In this paper, both simulation and trial measurement are

employed for evaluating system performance, which are based
on OFDM with 64-QAM or 256-QAM over Rayleigh fading
channel. There are three modes of subcarriers in OFDM, and
each subcarrier accommodates modulation scheme with 64QAM or 256-QAM.
The received signal is interfered with noise and fading over
the transmission channel; thus, it will incur signal distortion
and destruction of data information when radio wave
propagating on the air. The channel fading is caused by
multipath, signal time spreading, or building shadowing effect,
etc.; this will lead to fluctuation of received signal. In this
paper, we discuss about the effect of Rayleigh fading in
concatenated coded OFDM system. The probability density
function of Rayleigh distribution can be represented as [12]

p (r ) =

r2
)
2 2

(1)

For the proposed concatenated coding scheme, the inner

code we utilize is LDPC (16200, 8100) code, where the
decoder operates in soft decision with 20 iterations. The
decoding algorithm of LDPC code is based on the belief
propagation iterative decoding algorithm. The QAM
demodulation adapts an LLR (log likelihood ratio) output to
match the soft decision of LDPC decoder. To further improve
the system performance, BCH code is utilized as inner code to
be concatenated with LDPC code. In the proposed system,
shorten BCH (3240, 3072) code is employed with fast
decoding algorithm and higher code rate; also, it is
recommended by ETSI 302755.
In general, LDPC codes can be described by Tanner graph
that associates with the iterative decoding algorithm to modify
data while decoding. It had been discussed that system using
LDPC code can yield better performance than that of
convolutional code or turbo code; also, it is close to Shannon
limited on channel capacity [13]. It is a sparse block code
whose parity check matrix is composed of non-zero elements
with small density.
The LDPC (n, k) code represents block length n and
message length k. A regular LDPC (n, k) code is a linear block
code whose parity check matrix H contains exactly WC 1s per
column and exactly WR=WC(n/(n-k)) 1s per row, where WC

194

x =G T s (2)
Here, s stands for message vector; G T are decomposed
from the parity check matrix H; in other words, H= G T . For
general encoding of linear block code, the generator matrix G
is produced in advance. However, the generator matrix G of
LDPC code is so huge; hence, we try to use the differential
coding technique to utilize parity check matrix H for
generating codeword instead of generator matrix G. For
differential coding, the parity check matrix can be represented
as H=[H1|H2], and the data sequence is transmitted and
processed by the logical combinations of the current bit and the
previous bit [15].
LDPC code can be represented by Tanner graph that is
composed of two sets of nodes. The first set consists of N bit
nodes to stand for the N bits of a codeword. The second set is
comprised of M nodes which represents the parity constraint
that associated with a parity check matrix H. The message is
sent from N bit nodes to check nodes in H; checking message
will be send back from check node to information codeword in
next loop. The iterations stop until all judgments of error
message is corrected in bipartite graph or information updates
completely at the iteration numbers [16]. In this paper, we
employ soft decision for LDPC decoding, which is based on
message passing rule with LLR [8].
In the following, we will present the trial measurement of
the proposed system architecture. The block diagram for trial
measurement is shown in Fig. 2. In this measuring system,
digital signal with QAM/OFDM is generated by ROHDE &
SCHWARZ BTC Broadcast Test Center (R&S BTC) and
receiver demodulates the real time signal from ROHDE &
SCHWARZ ETL TV Analyzer (R&S ETL) professional
testing machine. Owing to the functionality of testing
equipment, the system performance is demonstrated with the
C/N ratio (carrier to noise ratio). Also, the measuring result
format for the inner code (i.e. LDPC code) is bit error rate
(BER), while the outer code (i.e. BCH code) is frame error rate
(FER). Therefore, performance with BER is demonstrated
before BCH. This can also clearly reflect the powerful coding

Fig. : Trial measurement graph of real system.

2014 IEEE 9th Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA)

Fig. 3: Simulation of OFDM with 64-QAM over Rayleigh fading channel.

mechanism of LDPC code.

The source coding via H.264 with concatenated coded
scheme (i.e. LDPC+BCH) is generated by BTC; also, the IFFT
is selected on 4k, 16k, 32k mode, respectively. In additional,
the central frequency is 521 MHz with bandwidth of 6 MHz.
Configured modulation and encoding mode is static, which can
benefit from receiving performance of transmitting system.
Dynamic modulation and encoding is not adapted in this
measured system, because transmitted signal is selected as
single-PLP (physical layer pipe) and not used for multi-PLP in
the IFFT modulated mode.
III. Numerical Results and Discussions
The simulations are performed using MATLAB under
OFDM with QAM over Rayliegh channel, which are
predicated upon [10]. The LDPC (16200, 8100) is employed as
the inner code with soft decision and 20 iterations; the BCH
(3240, 3072) is utilized as the inner code. This concatenated
coding scheme is recommended by the standard of ETSI EN
302 755.

Fig. 4: Simulation of OFDM with 256-QAM over Rayleigh fading channel .

The performances of the proposed system with 64-QAM

and 256-QAM under trial measurement are illustrated in Fig. 5
and Fig. 6, respectively. When BER larger than about10-4, the
signal decoding is malfunction in the receiver; it can not output
the correct pictures on the monitor. Besides, we can observe
that system using IFFT with 32k or 16k mode can perform
much better than that of using 4k mode. In general, the more
subcarriers in OFDM system may incur severe inter-carrier
interference under fading channel, while the spectral efficiency
can also be increased significantly. Furthermore, the
concatenated coding scheme can greatly alleviate this
detrimental impact of inter-carrier interference. Accordingly,
the overall useful net data rate is also enhanced. Both of the
simulation and trial measurement results reflect this
phenomenon. Hence, increasing the number of IFFT
subcarriers with the proposed coding scheme can strongly
relieve the adverse effect of Rayleigh fading; of course, the
system complexity is the inevitable cost.

Simulation results of our proposed system are illustrated in

Fig. 3 and Fig. 4, respectively, where subcarriers of 4k, 16k,
and 32k mode are analyzed in both 64-QAM and 256-QAM.
Since the requirement of BER for source decoding of H. 264
must be less than 10-5, accordingly it could be the benchmark
for proper selection of system parameters. It is observed that
system with coding scheme can yield much better performance
than the uncoded system (with 4k mode). For example, the
coded system with 4k mode in 64-QAM can gets advantage
about 25 dB over the uncoded system at BER =10-5. In addition,
the system with more subcarriers can also yield better
performance. In other words, it can be robust against the
channel fading effect.
Next, we will demonstrate the utilization of the measuring
instrument for collecting data in real signal through simulated
Rayliegh fading channel. It can be applied with 4k, 16k or 32k
IFFT mode. At a specific C/N value (i.e. threshold), signal will
be accepted at BER=10-4 after LDPC decoding (i.e. before
BCH) with demodulation of 64-QAM or 256-QAM.

Fig. 5: Trial measurement of OFDM with 64-QAM over Rayleigh fading

channel.

2014 IEEE 9th Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA)

195

[6]

[7]

[8]
[9]
[10]

[11]

Fig. 6: Trial measurement of OFDM with 256-QAM over Rayleigh fading

channel.

[12]
[13]

[14]

IV. Concluding Remarks

In this paper, the concatenated coded OFDM system over
Rayleigh fading channel are investigated, where subcarriers of
4k, 16k, and 32k mode are analyzed in 64-QAM and 256QAM. Both simulation and trial measurement techniques are
applied to evaluate the performance of the proposed system.
The LDPC (16200, 8100) is employed as the inner code, and
the BCH (3240, 3072) is utilized as the outer code. This
concatenated coding scheme is recommended by the standard
of ETSI EN 302 755.

[15]

[16]

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Fading is a seriously detrimental effect in channel

impairment. Countermeasures of anti-fading are indispensable
in practical communication systems. From the numerical
results, we find that system with error correction scheme can
yield large coding gain; thus, it can improve system
performance significantly. In addition, proposed system with
more subcarriers can yield better performance. In other words,
it can be more powerful to counteract the adverse impact of
Rayleigh fading channel.

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2014 IEEE 9th Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ICIEA)