SIMULATION OF SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIO FOR OFDM

TRANSCEIVERS IN VHDL
PROJECT REPORT
Submitted
in partial fulfilment for the award of the degree
of
BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY
in
ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING
by
B.HARISH (13505A0402)
D.SURESH (12501A0423)
K.SUBRAHMANYAM (13505A0412)
B.NAVEEN KUMAR (12501A0407)
Under the Guidance of
Dr. Ch. GANGADHAR, M.Tech, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

PRASAD V. POTLURI SIDDHARTHA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

(Affiliated to JNTUK: Kakinada, Approved by AICTE)

(Accredited by NBA & NAAC and ISO Certified Institution)

Kanuru, Vijayawada-520007.
2015-2016

PRASAD V POTLURI SIDDHARTHA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that this project report entitled SIMULATION OF SOFTWARE DEFINED
RADIO FOR OFDM TRANSCEIVERS IN VHDL is a bonafide work jointly done by
B.HARISH(13505A0402),D.SURESH(12501A0423),K.SUBRAHMANYAM(13505A0412),B
.NAVEEN KUMAR(12501A0407) carried out under my guidance and supervision and is
submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Bachelor of
Technology in ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING by Jawaharlal
Nehru Technological University Kakinada, during the academic year 2015-2016.

Signature of the Guide

Signature of the HOD

(Dr.Ch.Gangadhar, M.Tech, Ph.D.)

(Dr.P.Rajesh Kumar, M.E, Ph.D.)

Associate Professor

Professor and HOD

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost we sincerely salute our esteemed institution PRASAD V. POTLURI
SIDDHARTHA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY for giving this golden opportunity for
fulfilling our warm dreams of becoming an engineer.
We hereby express sincere gratitude to our principal Dr. K.SIVAJI BABU, M.TECH,
Ph.D. who has rendered us his constant encouragement and valuable suggestions in making our
project work successful.
We are also thankful to our Head of the Department Dr. P. Rajesh Kumar, M.E, and
Ph.D. for his constant encouragement and valuable support throughout the course of our project
work.
We are glad to express deep sense of gratitude to Mr. Ch. Gangadhar, M.Tech, Ph.D.,
Associate Professor, our guide for his guidance and co-operation in completing this project
report successfully.
We thank one and all who have rendered help directly or indirectly in the completion of
project work successfully.

Project Associates:
B.HARISH (13505A0402)
D.SURESH (12501A0423)
K.SUBRAHMANYAM (13505A0412)
B.NAVEEN KUMAR (12501A0407)

ABSTRACT
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a transmission
technique which ensures efficient utilization of the spectrum by allowing overlap of
carriers. OFDM is a combination of modulation and multiplexing that is used in the
transmission of information and data. Compared with the other wireless
transmission techniques like Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Code
Division Multiple Access (CDMA), OFDM has numerous advantages like high spectral
density, its robustness to channel fading, its ability to overcome several radio
impairment factors such as effect of AWGN, impulse noise, multipath fading, etc.
Due to this it finds wide application in Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), Digital
Video Broadcasting (DVB), and Wireless LAN. Most of the wireless LAN standards like
IEEE 802.11a or IEEE 802.11g use the OFDM as the main multiplexing scheme for
better use of spectrum. In fact in the 4G telecommunication system OFDMA is the
backbone of it.
This project deals with the simulation of the OFDM system using the tools of
XILINX ISE using VHDL.

CONTENTS
S.No

Topic

1.

Page No.
Chapter 1

Introduction
.....................
2
1.1 What is
OFDM?....................................................................
3
1.2 Data on OFDM.....................
4
1.3
Objective........................
5
1.4 Back
ground......................
5
1.5 Multiple Access Techniques...............
7
1.5.1 FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Accesses)
.....

1.5.2 TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access)

.........

1.5.3 CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access)

.........

1.5.3.1CDMA
Generation..........

2.

Chapter 2

10

Literature Review..........................
12
3.

Chapter 3
3.1 Theory & Research Introduction..............

16
3.2 OFDM
Principles....................
16
3.3 Fourier
Transform.....................
16
3.4
Orthogonality......................
18
3.5 OFDM
Carriers........................
18
3.6 OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing).......
18
3.7 OFDM
Generation....................
20
3.8 Modulation
Techniques.................

3.8.1
QAM....................
21
3.8.2
QPSK.......................
22

21

3.9 FFT &

IFFT.........................
23
3.10 Adding a Guard Period of
OFDM.............

4.

24

Chapter 4
4.1 Implementation of OFDM
System............

27

4.2 OFDM Model

Used..................

27

4.2.1 Series To Parallel

conversion..........

27

4.2.2 Modulation of
Data.............

28

4.2.3 Inverse Fourier

Transform...........

28

4.2.4 Guard
Period.................

28

4.2.5
Channel.................
28
4.2.6
Receiver................
28
4.3 High Data
Rates................

29

4.4 Problems with

OFDM................
4.4.1 Peak-to-Mean power
Ratio.........

30

30

4.4.2
Synchronization................
30
4.4.3 Co-channel
interference...........

31

4.5 Algorithms Used in the OFDM Transceivers

design......

31

4.5.1 Fast Fourier

Transform.............

31

4.5.1.1 Alternative solutions and design

choice.

31
4.5.1.2 Algorithm Description

...........

31

4.5.1.3 Cooly-Turkey FFT

Algorithm............

32

4.5.1.4 Multiplication by the Twiddle

Factors.....

32

4.5.1.5 8-Point FFT

implementation........

32

4.6 Advantages of
OFDM................

33

4.7 Disadvantages of
OFDM................

33

4.8 OFDM
Applications..................
34

5.

Chapter 5
Result

Analysis..............

36

Conclusion.............................

Bibliography..............................

LIST OF FIGURES
FIG.NO.

NAME OF THE FIGURE

PAGE.NO

1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6

Traditional view of receiving signals carrying modulation

OFDM Spectrum
Guard Interval
Evolution of current networks to the next generation of wireless network
FDMA showing that the each narrow band is allocated to a single carrier
FDMA spectrum, where the available band width is sub-divided into narrow

3
3
4
6
7

1.7
1.8

band channels
Scheme, where each user is allocated a small time slot
TDMA/FDMA hybrid , showing that the bandwidth is split into frequency

8
8

1.9
1.10
1.11
1.12
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6

channels and time slots

9
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
9
Basic CDMA Generation
10
Simple direct sequence modulator
10
Direct sequence signals
11
OFDM sub carriers in the frequency domain
19
OFDM Block Diagram
21
QAM System
22
Generation of QPSK
24
FFT & IFFT diagram
25
Section of an OFDM signal showing 5 symbols, using a guard period which is

4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
5.1

half a cyclic extension of the symbol, and half a zero amplitude signal
OFDM Model used for simulations
Traditional symbol transmission
Traditional symbol transmission with ISI
OFDM symbol transmission
OFDM transmission with ISI
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation(QAM)

26
28
30
30
30
31
37

5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6

Inverse Fast Fourier Transform(8-point)

Fast Fourier Transform(8-point)
Demodulation of QAM
RTL Schematic of OFDM
Simulation of OFDM

38
39
40
40
41

LIST OF TABLES
TABLE NO

NAME OF THE TABLE

PAGE.NO

3.1

QPSK symbol transmission and successive phase shift

4.1

Cooley-Tukey Algorithm time and frequency indices

Re-mapping

23
32

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

Chapter
1

INTRODUCTION

Recently, a worldwide convergence has occurred for the use of Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (OFDM) as an emerging technology for high data rates. In particular, many wireless
standards (Wi-Max, IEEE802.11a, LTE, and DVB) have adopted the OFDM technology as a mean to
increase dramatically future wireless communications. OFDM is a particular form of Multi-carrier
transmission and is suited for frequency selective channels and high data rates. This technique transforms
a frequency-selective wide-band channel into a group of non-selective narrowband channels, which
makes it robust against large delay spreads by preserving orthogonality in the frequency domain.
Moreover, the ingenious introduction of cyclic redundancy at the transmitter reduces the complexity to
only FFT processing and one tap scalar equalization at the receiver.
Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is a method of encoding digital data on
multiple carrier frequencies. OFDM has developed into a popular scheme for wideband digital
communication, used in applications such as digital television and audio broadcasting, DSL Internet
access, wireless networks, power line networks, and 4G mobile communications. OFDM is a frequencydivision multiplexing (FDM) scheme used as a digital multi-carrier modulation method. A large number
of closely spaced orthogonal sub-carrier signals are used to carry data on several parallel data streams or
channels. Each sub-carrier is modulated with a conventional modulation scheme (such as quadrature
amplitude modulation or phase-shift keying) at a low symbol rate, maintaining total data rates similar to
conventional single-carrier modulation schemes in the same bandwidth.
The primary advantage of OFDM over single-carrier schemes is its ability to cope with
severe channel conditions (for example, attenuation of high frequencies in a long copper wire,
narrowband interference and frequency-selective fading due to multipath) without complex equalization
filters. Channel equalization is simplified because OFDM may be viewed as using many slowly
modulated narrowband signals rather than one rapidly modulated wideband signal. The low symbol rate
makes the use of a guard interval between symbols affordable, making it possible to eliminate inter
symbol interference (ISI) and utilize echoes and time-spreading (on analogue TV these are visible
as ghosting and blurring, respectively) to achieve a diversity gain, i.e. a signal ratio improvement. This
mechanism also facilitates the design of single frequency networks (SFNs), where several adjacent
transmitters send the same signal simultaneously at the same frequency, as the signals from multiple
distant transmitters may be combined constructively, rather than interfering as would typically occur in a
traditional single-carrier system.
Although OFDM, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing is more complicated than earlier
forms of signal format, it provides some distinct advantages in terms of data transmission, especially
where high data rates are needed along with relatively wide bandwidths.

1.1 What is OFDM?

OFDM is a form of multicarrier modulation. An OFDM signal consists of a number of closely
spaced modulated carriers. When modulation of any form - voice, data, etc. is applied to a carrier, then
sidebands spread out either side. It is necessary for a receiver to be able to receive the whole signal to be
able to successfully demodulate the data. As a result when signals are transmitted close to one another
they must be spaced so that the receiver can separate them using a filter and there must be a guard band
between them. This is not the case with OFDM. Although the sidebands from each carrier overlap, they
can still be received without the interference that might be expected because they are orthogonal to each
another. This is achieved by having the carrier spacing equal to the reciprocal of the symbol period.

Fig1.1: Traditional view of receiving signals carrying modulation

To see how OFDM works, it is necessary to look at the receiver. This acts as a bank of
demodulators, translating each carrier down to DC. The resulting signal is integrated over the symbol
period to regenerate the data from that carrier. The same demodulator also demodulates the other carriers.
As the carrier spacing equal to the reciprocal of the symbol period means that they will have a whole
number of cycles in the symbol period and their contribution will sum to zero - in other words there is no
interference contribution.

Figure1.2: OFDM Spectrum

One requirement of the OFDM transmitting and receiving systems is that they must be linear.
Any non-linearity will cause interference between the carriers as a result of inter-modulation distortion.
This will introduce unwanted signals that would cause interference and impair the orthogonality of the
transmission.

In terms of the equipment to be used the high peak to average ratio of multi-carrier systems such
as OFDM requires the RF final amplifier on the output of the transmitter to be able to handle the peaks
whilst the average power is much lower and this leads to inefficiency. In some systems the peaks are
limited. Although this introduces distortion that results in a higher level of data errors, the system can rely
on the error correction to remove them.
3

1.2 Data on OFDM

The data to be transmitted on an OFDM signal is spread across the carriers of the signal, each
carrier taking part of the payload. This reduces the data rate taken by each carrier. The lower data rate has
the advantage that interference from reflections is much less critical. This is achieved by adding a guard
band time or guard interval into the system. This ensures that the data is only sampled when the signal is
stable and no new delayed signals arrive that would alter the timing and phase of the signal.

Figure1.3: Guard Interval

The distribution of the data across a large number of carriers in the OFDM signal has some
further advantages. Nulls caused by multi-path effects or interference on a given frequency only affect a
small number of the carriers, the remaining ones being received correctly. By using error-coding
techniques, which does mean adding further data to the transmitted signal, it enables many or all of the
corrupted data to be reconstructed within the receiver. This can be done because the error correction code
is transmitted in a different part of the signal.

Initial proposals for OFDM were made in the 60s and the 70s. It has taken more than a quarter of
a century for this technology to move from the research domain to the industry. The concept of OFDM is
quite simple but the practicality of implementing it has many complexities. So, it is a fully software
project.
OFDM depends on Orthogonality principle. Orthogonality means, it allows the sub carriers,
which are orthogonal to each other, meaning that cross talk between co-channels is eliminated and intercarrier guard bands are not required. This greatly simplifies the design of both the transmitter and
receiver, unlike conventional FDM; a separate filter for each sub channel is not required.
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a digital multi carrier modulation
scheme, which uses a large number of closely spaced orthogonal sub-carriers. A single stream of data is
split into parallel streams each of which is coded and modulated on to a subcarrier, a term commonly used
in OFDM systems.
Each sub-carrier is modulated with a conventional modulation scheme (such as quadrature
amplitude modulation) at a low symbol rate, maintaining data rates similar to conventional single carrier
modulation schemes in the same bandwidth. Thus the high bit rates seen before on a single carrier is
reduced to lower bit rates on the subcarrier.

In practice, OFDM signals are generated and detected using the Fast Fourier Transform
algorithm. OFDM has developed into a popular scheme for wideband digital communication, wireless as
well as copper wires.
Actually, FDM systems have been common for many decades. However, in FDM, the carriers are
all independent of each other. There is a guard period in between them and no overlap whatsoever. This
works well because in FDM system each carrier carries data meant for a different user or application. FM
radio is an FDM system. FDM systems are not ideal for what we want for wideband systems. Using FDM
would waste too much bandwidth. This is where OFDM makes sense.
In OFDM, subcarriers overlap. They are orthogonal because the peak of one subcarrier occurs
when other subcarriers are at zero. This is achieved by realizing all the subcarriers together using Inverse
Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT). The demodulator at the receiver parallel channels from an FFT block.
Note that each subcarrier can still be modulated independently.
Since orthogonality is important for OFDM systems, synchronization in frequency and time must
be extremely good. Once orthogonality is lost we experience inter-carrier interference (ICI). This is the
interference from one subcarrier to another. There is another reason for ICI. Adding the guard time with
no transmission causes problems for IFFT and FFT, which results in ICI. A delayed version of one
subcarrier can interfere with another subcarrier in the next symbol period. This is avoided by extending
the symbol into the guard period that precedes it. This is known as a cyclic prefix. It ensures that delayed
symbols will have integer number of cycles within the FFT integration interval. This removes ICI so long
as the delay spread is less than the guard period.

1.3 Objective:
The aim of this project is to investigate the OFDM scheme, and realize a fully functional system
in software and analyzing how it is reducing the inter-symbol interference caused by the multipath fading
channels and different effects and estimating, evaluating the performance of it.

1.4 Background:
Most first generations systems were introduced in the mid 1980s, and can be characterized by the
use of analog transmission techniques and the use of simple multiple access techniques such as Frequency
Division Multiple Access (FDMA). First generation telecommunications systems such as Advanced
Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) only provided voice communications. They also suffered from a low user
capacity, and security problems due to the simple radio interface used. Second generation systems were
introduced in the early 1990s, and all use digital technology. This provided an increase in the user
capacity of around three times. This was achieved by compressing the voice waveforms before
transmission.
Third generation systems are an extension on the complexity of second-generation systems and
are expected to be introduced after the year 2000. The system capacity is expected to be increased to over
ten times original first generation systems. This is going to be achieved by using complex multiple access
techniques such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), or an extension of TDMA, and by
improving flexibility of services available.
5

The telecommunications industry faces the problem of providing telephone services to rural
areas, where the customer base is small, but the cost of installing a wired phone network is very high. One
method of reducing the high infrastructure cost of a wired system is to use a fixed wireless radio network.
The problem with this is that for rural and urban areas, large cell sizes are required to get sufficient
coverage.
Fig.1.1 shows the evolution of current services and networks to the aim of combining them into a
unified third generation network. Many currently separate systems and services such as radio paging,
cordless telephony, satellite phones and private radio systems for companies etc, will be combined so that
all these services will be provided by third generation telecommunications systems.

Fig. 1.4: Evolution of current networks to the next generation of wireless networks.
Currently Global System for Mobile telecommunications (GSM) technology is being applied to
fixed wireless phone systems in rural areas. However, GSM uses time division multiple access (TDMA),
which has a high symbol rate leading to problems with multipath causing inter-symbol interference.
Several techniques are under consideration for the next generation of digital phone systems, with the aim
of improving cell capacity, multipath immunity, and flexibility. These include CDMA and OFDM. Both
these techniques could be applied to providing a fixed wireless system for rural areas. However, each
technique as different properties, making it more suited for specific applications.
OFDM is currently being used in several new radio broadcast systems including the proposal for
high definition digital television (HDTV) and digital audio broadcasting (DAB). However, little research
has been done into the use of OFDM as a transmission method for mobile telecommunications systems.
In CDMA, all users transmit in the same broad frequency band using specialized codes as a basis of
channelization. Both the base station and the mobile station know these codes, which are used to
modulate the data sent. OFDM/COFDM allows many users to transmit in an allocated band, by
subdividing the available bandwidth into many narrow bandwidth carriers. Each user is allocated several
carriers in which to transmit their data.

The transmission is generated in such a way that the carriers used are orthogonal to one another,
thus allowing them to be packed together much closer than standard frequency division multiplexing
(FDM). This leads to OFDM/COFDM providing a high spectral efficiency.
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is a scheme used in the area of high-data-rate
mobile wireless communications such as cellular phones, satellite communications and digital audio
broadcasting. This technique is mainly utilized to combat inter-symbol interference.

1.5 Multiple Access Techniques:

Multiple access schemes are used to allow many simultaneous users to use the same fixed
bandwidth radio spectrum. In any radio system, the bandwidth, which is allocated to it, is always limited.
For mobile phone systems the total bandwidth is typically 50 MHz, which is split in half to provide the
forward and reverse links of the system.
Sharing of the spectrum is required in order increase the user capacity of any wireless network.
FDMA, TDMA and CDMA are the three major methods of sharing the available bandwidth to multiple
users in wireless system. There are many extensions, and hybrid techniques for these methods, such as
OFDM, and hybrid TDMA and FDMA systems. However, an understanding of the three major methods is
required for understanding of any extensions to these methods.

1.5.1 Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA):

In Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), the available bandwidth is subdivided into a
number of narrower band channels. Each user is allocated a unique frequency band in which to transmit
and receive on. During a call, no other user can use the same frequency band.
Each user is allocated a forward link channel (from the base station to the mobile phone) and a
reverse channel (back to the base station), each being a single way link. The transmitted signal on each of
the channels is continuous allowing analog transmissions. The bandwidths of FDMA channels are
generally low (30 kHz) as each channel only supports one user. FDMA is used as the primary breakup of
large allocated frequency bands and is used as part of most multi-channel systems.

Fig. 1.5 : .FDMA showing that the each narrow band is allocated to a single carrier

Fig. 1.6 :
FDMA spectrum, where the available band width is sub-divided
into narrow band channels
.

1.5.2. Time Division Multiple Access:

Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) divides the available spectrum into multiple time slots,
by giving each user a time slot in which they can transmit or receive. Fig. 1.7 shows how the time slots
are provided to users in a round robin fashion, with each user being allotted one time slot per frame.
TDMA systems transmit data in a buffer and burst method, thus the transmission of each channel is noncontinuous.

Fig 1.7: TDMA scheme, where each user is allocated a small time slot
The input data to be transmitted is buffered over the previous frame and burst transmitted at a
higher rate during the time slot for the channel. TDMA cannot send an analog signal directly due to the
buffering required, thus is only used for transmitting digital data. TDMA can suffer from multipath
effects, as the transmission rate is generally very high. This leads the multipath signals causing intersymbol interference. TDMA is normally used in conjunction with FDMA to subdivide the total available
bandwidth into several channels. This is done to reduce the number of users per channel allowing a lower
data rate to be used. This helps reduce the effect of delay spread on the transmission.
Fig. 1.8 shows the use of TDMA with FDMA. Each channel based on FDMA, is further
subdivided using TDMA, so that several users can transmit of the one channel. This type of transmission
technique is used by most digital second generation mobile phone systems. For GSM, the total allocated
bandwidth of 25MHz is divided into 125, 200 kHz channels using FDMA. These channels are then
subdivided further by using TDMA so that each 200 kHz channel allows 8-16 users.

Fig. 1.8 TDMA/FDMA hybrid , showing that the bandwidth is split into frequency channels
and time slots.

1.5.3. Code Division Multiple Access:

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) is a spread spectrum technique that uses neither
frequency channels nor time slots. In CDMA, the narrow band message (typically digitized voice data) is
multiplied by a large bandwidth signal, which is a pseudo random noise code (PN code). All users in a
CDMA system use the same frequency band and transmit simultaneously. The transmitted signal is
recovered by correlating the received signal with the PN code used by the transmitter. Fig. 1.9 shows the
general use of the spectrum using CDMA.
Some of the properties that have made CDMA useful are: Signal hiding and non-interference
with existing systems, Anti-jam and interference rejection, Information security, Accurate Ranging,
Multiple User Access, Multipath tolerance.

`
Fig. 1.9 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)
Fig.1.10 shows the process of a CDMA transmission. The data to be transmitted (a) is spread
before transmission by modulating the data using a PN code. This broadens the spectrum as shown in (b).
In this example the process gain is 125 as the spread spectrum bandwidth is 125 times greater the data
9

bandwidth. Part (c) shows the received signal. This consists of the required signal, plus background noise,
and any interference from other CDMA users or radio sources.
The received signal is recovered by multiplying the signal by the original spreading code. This
process causes the wanted received signal to be dispread back to the original transmitted data. However,
all other signals, which are uncorrelated to the PN spreading code used, become more spread. The wanted
signal in (d) is then filtered removing the wide spread interference and noise signals.

Fig. 1.10: Basic CDMA Generation.

1.5.3.1 CDMA Generation:

CDMA is achieved by modulating the data signal by a pseudo random noise sequence (PN code),
which has a chip rate higher than the bit rate of the data. The PN code sequence is a sequence of ones and
zeros (called chips), which alternate in a random fashion. The data is modulated by modular-2 adding the
data with the PN code sequence. This can also be done by multiplying the signals, provided the data and
PN code is represented by 1 and -1 instead of 1 and 0. Fig. 1.11 shows a basic CDMA transmitter.

Fig. 1.11 Simple direct sequence modulator

The PN code used to spread the data can be of two main types. A short PN code (Typically 10128 chips in length), can be used to modulate each data bit. The short PN code is then repeated for every
data bit allowing for quick and simple synchronization of the receiver. Fig.1.12 shows the generations of
a CDMA signal using a 10-chip length short code. Alternatively a long PN code can be used. Long codes
are generally thousands to millions of chips in length, thus are only repeated infrequently. Because of this
they are useful for added security as they are more difficult to decode.
10

Fig.1.12 Direct sequence signals

11

CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW

12

Chapter
2

LITERATURE REVIEW

[1]Jan-Jaap van de Beek , Magnus Sandell , Per Ola Borjesson ,On Synchronization in OFDM Systems
Using the Cyclic Prefix, IEEE 2006
In this paper, we present a data-based method for simultaneous Maximum Likelihood (ML)
symbol timing and carrier-frequency offset estimation in orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing
(OFDM) systems. The cyclic extension, a guard space preceding OFDM frames, is of decisive importance
for this method. It is shown that the redundancy introduced by this cyclic extension allows the estimation
to be performed without additional pilots. Simulations show that the performance of the frequency
estimator is usable in a tracking mode while the timing estimation can be used in an acquisition mode.
In this paper we have presented a simultaneous estimator of timing and frequency offset in
OFDM systems, which doesn't need pilots but uses the redundancy introduced by the cyclic extension. It
is derived under the assumption that the channel only consists of additive noise. Simulations show that in
a dispersive fading environment the timing estimator can be used in an acquisition mode and the
frequency estimator may perform well in a tracking mode. In a wireless system, pilots are needed for
channel estimation. These known symbols can be used by the estimator and hence further increase the
performance. Resulting synchronizers may be hybrid structures using both pilots and cyclic prefix. How
to incorporate pilot symbols in such timing and frequency estimators is not straightforward and needs
further research.
[2] Hindawi Publishing Corporation
EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, C.Williams, S. McLaughlin, and M. A.
Beach , Robust OFDM Timing Synchronization in Multipath Channels , 21 April 2008
This paper addresses pre-FFT synchronization for orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM)
under varying multipath conditions. To ensure the most efficient data transmission possible, there should
be no constraints on how much of the cyclic prefix (CP) is occupied by inter symbol interference (ISI).
Here a solution for timing synchronization is proposed, that is, robust even when the strongest multipath
components are delayed relative to the first arriving paths. In this situation, existing methods perform
poorly, whereas the solution proposed uses the derivative of the correlation function and is less sensitive
to the channel impulse response. In this paper, synchronization of a DVB single-frequency network is
investigated. A refinement is proposed that uses heuristic rules based on the maxima of the correlation and
derivative functions to further reduce the estimate variance.
The technique has relevance to broadcast, OFDMA, and WLAN applications, and simulations are
presented which compare the method with existing approaches. A new multipath-robust OFDM timing
13

estimation technique based on the derivative of the summed correlation function has been proposed and
the performance examined for the DVB-T system. Even in the worst case considered of very short CPs,
the method has shown to be superior to the peak detection method. In considering complexity, the
synchronization algorithms are dominated by the correlation calculation, and the additional number of
multiplications of the derivative and LS fitting are less than 1%. An initial constraint was that the ISI is
limited to the guard interval, but with the additional rules based processing, this need not be the case.
Compared to the Beak and second derivative methods, the first derivative method offers consistently good
estimates over a wide range of channels. Estimates are still good even when large portions of the CP are
occupied by ISI. It should be noted that the mean timing estimate is biased compared to the ideal timing
point.
[3 ] International Journal on Information Theory (IJIT), Vol.3, No.2, April 2014
DOI : 10.5121/ijit.2014.3201 1, Study of Timing Synchronization in MIMO-OFDM Systems Using
DVB-T
Farhan Farhan
Electrical Systems Technology Instructor, A-B Tech, Asheville NC, USA
OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing)provides the promising physical layer for
4G and3GPP LTE Systems in terms of efficient use of bandwidth and data rates. This paper highlights the
implementation of OFDM in Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial (DVB-T). It mainly focuses on the
timing offset problem present in OFDM systems and its proposed solution using Cyclic Prefix (CP) as a
modified SC (Schmidt and COX) algorithm. It also highlights the timing synchronization as well as
performance comparison through bit error rate. Synchronization issues in OFDM are important and can
lead to information loss if not properly addressed. Simulations were performed to implement DVB-T
system and to compare different synchronization methods under certain distribution model.
The main objective of this paper was to study and investigate the need for timing synchronization
errors in OFDM system, the major effects of timing offset errors, performance of system with reference to
BER and then to compare some of the synchronization algorithms. The goal was achieved by
implementing the OFDM system using DVB-T as an example with the effect as well as correction of
timing jitter. On the concluding remarks, it was observed that AWGN environment was primitive and
good enough to study the topic whereas Fading environment gives the good picture of practical scenario.
The future work will involve the investigation and simulation of different probabilistic models in state of
the art technologies such as 5G LTE.
[4] Journal of Signal and Information Processing, 2013, 4, 138-143
doi:10.4236/jsip.2013.43B024, Published Online August 2013, (http://www.scirp.org/journal/jsip)
Frequency Synchronization in OFDM System,C. Geetha Priya, A. M. Vasumathi
An accurate frequency synchronization method using the zadoff-chu (ZC) constant envelop preamble
is analyzed, and a new preamble weighted by pseudo-noise sequence is used for orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. Using this method, frequency offset estimator range is greatly
enlarged with no loss in accuracy. The range of the frequency estimation is 30 of subcarrier spacing
14

using ZC sequence as preamble. Simulations in the MATLAB for an AWGN channel show that the
proposed method achieves superior performance to existing techniques in terms of frequency accuracy
and range.
The method using ZC sequence as preamble for Frequency Offset Estimator enlarges the range of
estimation to 30 of subcarrier spacing for OFDM based WLAN system. The accuracy of estimation has
improved when compared to other methods. Compared to other data aided techniques simulated in this
paper like Schmidl, Minn, Ren for CFO estimation, this method gives better accuracy in the estimation of
frequency offset.
[5] Sun et al. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking 2012, 2012:368
http://jwcn.eurasipjournals.com/content/2012/1/368 , A novel sampling synchronization scheme for
OFDM-based system with unified reference clock, Zhuo Sun*, Tao Peng and Wenbo Wang
Due to the constraint of cost and size for mobile wireless communication terminals, many
orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based systems required the same crystal driving the
sampling and the channel frequencies, which leads to the challenge of a more comprehensive sampling
clock synchronization scheme needed. In this article, the effect of sampling clock error on the system
performance was analyzed by dividing it into sampling clock frequency offset (SFO) and sampling timing
error (STE) firstly. After that, we proposed a two-stage scheme of sampling clock synchronization based
on theoretical derivation: the preliminary SFO was jointly acquired with the carrier frequency offset by
using the improved preamble-aided algorithm firstly, the timing drift resulted from residual SFO and STE
was tracked based on a phase looped lock in the second stage. The deviation properties of the estimation
were achieved theoretically, which reveals that both the estimating variances of SFO and timing drift are
in inverse proportion to signal-to-noise ratio and grow linearly by the number of total subcarrier. The
results of the simulation show that the proposed synchronization scheme can introduce preferable
tracking and robust synchronizing performance for this kind of OFDM-based system.
Regarding the requirement of miniaturization and low cost for wireless personal communication
device, on which the same crystal to drive the sampling and channel frequency is equipped generally. The
proposed scheme of sampling clock synchronization is perfectly appropriate for this kind of OFDM-based
communication system. One of the advantages of the scheme is that it needs not an accurate result of
symbol timing synchronization (only with the toleration of 1/2 cyclic prefix length). This scheme also
has the advantage of low complexity that has been verified on a multi-core DSP platform for a wireless
system in authors research work.

15

CHAPTER THREE
THEORY & REASEARCH

16

Chapter
3

THEORY & REASEARCH

3.1 Theory & Research Introduction:

The OFDM technology was first conceived in the 1960s and 1970s during research into
minimizing ISI, due to multipath. The expression digital communications in its basic form is the mapping
of digital information into a waveform called a carrier signal, which is a transmitted electromagnetic
pulse or wave at a steady base frequency of alternation on which information can be imposed by
increasing signal strength, varying the base frequency, varying the wave phase, or other means. In this
instance, orthogonality is an implication of a definite and fixed relationship between all carriers in the
collection. Multiplexing is the process of sending multiple signals or streams of information on a carrier
at the same time in the form of a single, complex signal and then recovering the separate signals at the
receiving end.
Modulation is the addition of information to an electronic or optical signal carrier. Modulation
can be applied to direct current (mainly by turning it on and off), to alternating current, and to optical
signals. One can think of blanket waving as a form of modulation used in smoke signal transmission (the
carrier being a steady stream of smoke). In telecommunications in general, a channel is a separate path
through which signals can flow. In optical fiber transmission using dense wavelength-division
multiplexing, a channel is a separate wavelength of light within a combined, multiplexed light stream.
This project focuses on the telecommunications definition of a channel.

3.2 OFDM Principles:

OFDM is a special form of Multi Carrier Modulation (MCM) with densely spaced sub carriers
with overlapping spectra, thus allowing for multiple-access. MCM) is the principle of transmitting data by
dividing the stream into several bit streams, each of which has a much lower bit rate, and by using these
sub-streams to modulate several carriers. This technique is being investigated as the next generation
transmission scheme for mobile wireless communications networks.

3.3 Fourier Transform:

Back in the 1960s, the application of OFDM was not very practical. This was because at that
point, several banks of oscillators were needed to generate the carrier frequencies necessary for sub-

17

channel transmission. Since this proved to be difficult to accomplish during that time period, the scheme
was deemed as not feasible.
However, the advent of the Fourier Transform eliminated the initial complexity of the OFDM
scheme where the harmonically related frequencies generated by Fourier and Inverse Fourier transforms
are used to implement OFDM systems. The Fourier transform is used in linear systems analysis, antenna
studies, etc., The Fourier transform, in essence, decomposes or separates a waveform or function into
sinusoids of different frequencies which sum to the original waveform. It identifies or distinguishes the
different frequency sinusoids and their respective amplitudes.
The Fourier transform of f(x) is defined as:

F ( )

f ( x) e

jx

dx

(1)

and its inverse is denoted by:

1
f ( x)
2

F ( ) e

jx

(2)

However, the digital age forced a change upon the traditional form of the Fourier transform to encompass
the discrete values that exist is all digital systems. The modified series was called the Discrete Fourier
Transform (DFT). The DFT of a discrete-time system, x(n) is defined as:
N 1

( k ) x( n) e

2
kn
N

n 0

(3)
1kN

and its associated inverse is denoted by:

1
x ( n)
N

N 1

(k ) e
n 0

2
kn
N

(4)
1nN

However, in OFDM, another form of the DFT is used, called the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT),
which is a DFT algorithm developed in 1965. This new transform reduced the number of computations
from something on the order of

to

N
log 2 N .
2
18

(5)

3.4 Orthogonality:
In geometry, orthogonal means, "involving right angles" (from Greek ortho, meaning right, and
gon meaning angled). The term has been extended to general use, meaning the characteristic of being
independent (relative to something else). It also can mean: non-redundant, non-overlapping, or irrelevant.
Orthogonality is defined for both real and complex valued functions. The functions m(t) and n(t) are
said to be orthogonal with respect to each other over the interval a < t < b if they satisfy the condition:
b

(t ) (t )dt 0,
*

(6)

Where n m

3.5 OFDM Carriers:

As fore mentioned, OFDM is a special form of MCM and the OFDM time domain waveforms are
chosen such that mutual orthogonality is ensured even though sub-carrier spectra may over-lap. With
respect to OFDM, it can be stated that orthogonality is an implication of a definite and fixed relationship
between all carriers in the collection.
It means that each carrier is positioned such that it occurs at the zero energy frequency point of all other
carriers. The sinc function, illustrated in Fig.32.1 exhibits this property and it is used as a carrier in an
OFDM system.

fu is the sub-carrier spacing

Fig .3.1. OFDM sub carriers in the frequency domain

3.6 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing:

19

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a multicarrier transmission technique, which

divides the available spectrum into many carriers, each one being modulated by a low rate data stream.
OFDM is similar to FDMA in that the multiple user access is achieved by subdividing the available
bandwidth into multiple channels that are then allocated to users.
However, OFDM uses the spectrum much more efficiently by spacing the channels much closer
together. This is achieved by making all the carriers orthogonal to one another, preventing interference
between the closely spaced carriers.
Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (COFDM) is the same as OFDM except that
forward error correction is applied to the signal before transmission.
This is to overcome errors in the transmission due to lost carriers from frequency selective fading,
channel noise and other propagation effects. For this discussion the terms OFDM and COFDM are used
interchangeably, as the main focus of this thesis is on OFDM, but it is assumed that any practical system
will use forward error correction, thus would be COFDM.
In FDMA each user is typically allocated a single channel, which is used to transmit all the user
information. The bandwidth of each channel is typically 10 kHz-30 kHz for voice communications.
However, the minimum required bandwidth for speech is only 3 kHz. The allocated bandwidth is made
wider than the minimum amount required preventing channels from interfering with one another. This
extra bandwidth is to allow for signals from neighboring channels to be filtered out, and to allow for any
drift in the center frequency of the transmitter or receiver. In a typical system up to 50% of the total
spectrum is wasted due to the extra spacing between channels.
This problem becomes worse as the channel bandwidth becomes narrower, and the frequency
band increases. Most digital phone systems use vocoders to compress the digitized speech. This allows
for an increased system capacity due to a reduction in the bandwidth required for each user. Current
vocoders require a data rate somewhere between 4- 13kbps, with depending on the quality of the sound
and the type used. Thus each user only requires a minimum bandwidth of somewhere between 2-7 kHz,
using QPSK modulation. However, simple FDMA does not handle such narrow bandwidths very
efficiently. TDMA partly overcomes this problem by using wider bandwidth channels, which are used by
several users. Multiple users access the same channel by transmitting in their data in time slots. Thus,
many low data rate users can be combined together to transmit in a single channel, which has a bandwidth
sufficient so that the spectrum can be used efficiently.
There are however, two main problems with TDMA. There is an overhead associated with the
change over between users due to time slotting on the channel. A change over time must be allocated to
allow for any tolerance in the start time of each user, due to propagation delay variations and
synchronization errors. This limits the number of users that can be sent efficiently in each channel. In
addition, the symbol rate of each channel is high (as the channel handles the information from multiple
users) resulting in problems with multipath delay spread.
OFDM overcomes most of the problems with both FDMA and TDMA. OFDM splits the
available bandwidth into many narrow band channels (typically 100-8000). The carriers for each channel
are made orthogonal to one another, allowing them to be spaced very close together, with no overhead as
20

in the FDMA example. Because of this there is no great need for users to be time multiplex as in TDMA,
thus there is no overhead associated with switching between users. The orthogonality of the carriers
means that each carrier has an integer number of cycles over a symbol period.

Due to this, the spectrum of each carrier has a null at the center frequency of each of the other
carriers in the system. This results in no interference between the carriers, allowing then to be spaced as
close as theoretically possible. This overcomes the problem of overhead carrier spacing required in
FDMA. Each carrier in an OFDM signal has a very narrow bandwidth (i.e. 1 kHz), thus the resulting
symbol rate is low. This results in the signal having a high tolerance to multipath delay spread, as the
delay spread must be very long to cause significant ISI (e.g. > 500usec).

3.7 OFDM generation:

To generate OFDM successfully the relationship between all the carriers must be carefully
controlled to maintain the orthogonality of the carriers. For this reason, OFDM is generated by firstly
choosing the spectrum required, based on the input data, and modulation scheme used. Each carrier to be
produced is assigned some data to transmit. The required amplitude and phase of the carrier is then
calculated based on the modulation scheme (typically differential BPSK, QPSK, or QAM).
The required spectrum is then converted back to its time domain signal using an Inverse Fourier
Transform. In most applications, an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) is used. The IFFT performs
the transformation very efficiently, and provides a simple way of ensuring the carrier signals produced are
orthogonal. The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) transforms a cyclic time domain signal into its equivalent
frequency spectrum. This is done by finding the equivalent waveform, generated by a sum of orthogonal
sinusoidal components. The amplitude and phase of the sinusoidal components represent the frequency
spectrum of the time domain signal.
.
The IFFT performs the reverse process, transforming a spectrum (amplitude and phase of each
component) into a time domain signal. An IFFT converts a number of complex data points, of length,
which is a power of 2, into the time domain signal of the same number of points. Each data point in
frequency spectrum used for an FFT or IFFT is called a bin. The orthogonal carriers required for the
OFDM signal can be easily generated by setting the amplitude and phase of each bin, then performing the
IFFT. Since each bin of an IFFT corresponds to the amplitude and phase of a set of orthogonal sinusoids,

21

the

reverse

process

guarantees

that

the

carriers

generated

are

orthogonal.

Fig. 3.2 OFDM Block Diagram

Fig. 3.2 shows the setup for a basic OFDM transmitter and receiver. The signal generated is a
base band, thus the signal is filtered, then stepped up in frequency before transmitting the signal. OFDM
time domain waveforms are chosen such that mutual orthogonality is ensured even though sub-carrier
spectra may overlap. Typically QAM or Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (DQPSK)
modulation schemes are applied to the individual sub carriers. To prevent ISI, the individual blocks are
separated by guard intervals wherein the blocks are periodically extended.

3.8 Modulation Techniques:

3.8.1 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM):
This modulation scheme is also called quadrature carrier multiplexing. Infact, this modulation
scheme enables to DSB-SC modulated signals to occupy the same transmission BW at the receiver o/p. it
is, therefore, known as a bandwidth-conservation scheme. The QAM Transmitter consists of two separate
balanced modulators, which are supplied, with two carrier waves of the same freq but differing in phase

22

by 90. The o/p of the two balanced modulators are added in the adder and transmitted.

Fig. 3.3 QAM System

The transmitted signal is thus given by
S (t) = X1 (t) A cos (2Fc t) + X2 (t) A sin (2Fc t)
Hence, the multiplexed signal consists of the in-phase component A X1 (t) and the quadrature phase
component A X2 (t).

Balanced Modulator:
A DSB-SC signal is basically the product of the modulating or base band signal and the carrier
signal. Unfortunately, a single electronic device cannot generate a DSB-SC signal. A circuit is needed to
achieve the generation of a DSB-SC signal is called product modulator i.e., Balanced Modulator.
We know that a non-linear resistance or a non-linear device may be used to produce AM i.e., one
carrier and two sidebands. However, a DSB-SC signal contains only 2 sidebands. Thus, if 2 non-linear
devices such as diodes, transistors etc., are connected in balanced mode so as to suppress the carriers of
each other, then only sidebands are left, i.e., a DSB-SC signal is generated. Therefore, a balanced
modulator may be defined as a circuit in which two non-linear devices are connected in a balanced mode
to produce a DSB-SC signal.

3.8.2 Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) :

In communication systems, we have two main resources. These are:

Transmission Power
Channel bandwidth
23

If two or more bits are combined in some symbols, then the signalling rate will be reduced. Thus, the
frequency of the carrier needed is also reduced. This reduces the transmission channel B.W. Hence,
because of grouping of bits in symbols; the transmission channel B.W can be reduced. In QPSK two
successive bits in the data sequence are grouped together. This reduces the bits rate or signalling rate and
thus reduces the B.W of the channel. In case of BPSK, we know that when sym. Changes the level, the
phase of the carrier is changed by 180. Because, there were only two symbols in BPSK, the phase shift
occurs in 2 levels only.
However, in QPSK, 2 successive bits are combined. In fact, this combination of two bits forms 4
distinct symbols. When the sym is changed to next sym, then the phase of the carrier is changed by 45
degrees.

S.NO
I=1
I=2
I=3
I=4

I/P
1(1v)
0(-1v)
0(-1v)
1(1v)

Successive bits
0(-1v)
0(-1v)
1(1v)
1(1v)

Symbol
S1
S2
S3
S4

Phase shift in carrier

/4
3/4
5/4
7/4

Table 3.1 QPSK symbol transmission and successive phase shift

Generation of QPSK:
Here the I/P binary sequence is first converted into a bipolar NRZ type of signal. This signal is
denoted by b(t). It represents binary 1 by +1V and binary 0 by -1V. The demultiplexer divides b(t)
into 2 separate bit streams of the odd numbered and even numbered bits. Here Be(t) represents even
numbered sequence and Bo(t) represents odd numbered sequence. The symbol duration of both of these
odd numbered sequences is 2Tb. Hence, each symbol consists of 2 bits.

Fig.3.4 Generation of QPSK

It may be observed that the first even bit occurs after the first odd bit. Hence, even numbered bit
sequence Be(t) starts with the delay of one bit period due to first odd bit. Thus, first symbol of Be(t) is
delayed by one bit period due to first odd bit. Thus, first symbol of Be(t) is delayed by on bit period Tb
with respect to first symbol of Bo(t). This delay of Tb is known as offset.

24

This shows that the change in the levels of Be(t) and Bo(t) cant occur at the same time due to
offset or staggering. The bit stream Be(t) modulates carrier cosine carrier and Bo(t) modulates sinusoidal
carrier. These modulators are the balanced modulators. The 2 carriers are Ps.cos (2Fc.t) and Ps.sin
(2Fc.t) have been shown in fig. Their carriers are known as quadrature carriers. Due to the offset, the
phase shift in QPSK signal is /2.

3.9 FFT & IFFT:

In practice, OFDM systems are implemented using a combination of FFT and IFFT blocks that
are mathematically equivalent versions of the DFT and IDFT, respectively, but more efficient to
implement.
An OFDM system treats the source symbols (e.g., the QPSK or QAM symbols that would be
present in a single carrier system) at the Tx as though they are in the freq-domain. These symbols are used
as the i/ps to an IFFT block that brings the sig into the time domain. The IFFT takes in N symbols at a
time where N is the num of sub carriers in the system. Each of these N i/p symbols has a symbol period of
T seconds. Recall that the basic functions for an IFFT are N orthogonal sinusoids. These sinusoids each
have a different freq and the lowest freq is DC. Each i/p symbol acts like a complex weight for the
corresponding sinusoidal basis fun. Since the i/p symbols are complex, the value of the sym determines
both the amplitude and phase of the sinusoid for that sub carrier.
The IFFT o/p is the summation of all N sinusoids. Thus, the IFFT block provides a simple way to
modulate data onto N orthogonal sub carriers. The block of N o/p samples from the IFFT make up a
single OFDM sym. The length of the OFDM symbol is NT where T is the IFFT i/p symbol period
mentioned above.

Fig. 3.5 FFT & IFFT diagram

After some additional processing, the time-domain sig that results from the IFFT is transmitted
across the channel. At the Rx, an FFT block is used to process the received signal and bring it into the
freq domain. Ideally, the FFT o/p will be the original symbols that were sent to the IFFT at the Tx. When
plotted in the complex plane, the FFT o/p samples will form a constellation, such as 16-QAM. However,
there is no notion of a constellation for the time-domain sig. When plotted on the complex plane, the
time-domain sig forms a scatter plot with no regular shape. Thus, any Rx processing that uses the concept
of a constellation (such as symbol slicing) must occur in the frequency- domain.

3.10 Adding a Guard Period to OFDM:

25

One of the most important properties of OFDM transmissions is the robustness against multipath
delay spread. This is achieved by having a long symbol period, which minimizes the ISI. The level of
robustness, can in fact is increased even more by the addition of a guard period b/w transmitted symbols.
The guard period allows time for multipath sigs from the previous symbol to die away before the
information from the current symbol is gathered.
The most effective guard period to use is a cyclic extension of the symbol. If a mirror in time, of
the end of the symbol waveform is put at the start of the symbol as the guard period, this effectively
extends the length of the symbol, while maintaining the orthogonally of the waveform. Using this cyclic
extended symbol the samples required for performing the FFT (to decode the sym), can be taken
anywhere over the length of the sym. This provides multipath immunity as well as sym time
synchronization tolerance.
As long as the multipath delay echoes stay within the guard period duration, there is strictly no
limitation regarding the signal level of the echoes: they may even exceed the signal level of the shorter
path! The signal energy from all paths just adds at the input to the receiver, and since the FFT is energy
conservative, the whole available power feeds the decoder. If the delay spread is longer than the guard
interval then they begins to cause ISI. However, provided the echoes are sufficiently small they do not
cause significant problems.
This is true most of the time as multipath echos delayed longer than the guard period will have
been reflected of very distant objects. Other variations of guard periods are possible. One possible
variation is to have half the guard period a cyclic extension of the symbol, as above, and the other half a
zero amplitude signal. This will result in a signal as shown in Fig.3.6.
Using this method the symbols can be easily identified. This possibly allows for symbol timing to be
recovered from the signal, simply by applying envelop detection. The disadvantage of using this guard
period method is that the zero period does not give any multipath tolerance, thus the effective active guard
period is halved in length. It is interesting to note that this guard period method has not been mentioned in
any of the research papers read, and it is still not clear whether symbol timing needs to be recovered using
this method.

Fig. 3.6 Section of an OFDM signal showing 5 symbols, using a guard period which is half a cyclic
extension of the symbol, and half a zero amplitude signal.
26

27

CHAPTER FOUR
IMPLEMENTATION OF OFDM
SYSTEMS

28

Chapter
4

IMPLEMENTATION OF OFDM SYSTEM

4.1 Implementation of OFDM System:

An OFDM system was modelled using Matlab to allow various parameters of the system to be
varied and tested. The aim of doing the simulations was to measure the performance of OFDM under
different channel conditions, and to allow for different OFDM configurations to be tested.

4.2 OFDM Model Used:

The OFDM system was modelled using VHDL and is shown in Fig.4.1. A brief description of the
model is provided below.

Fig. 4.1 OFDM Model used for simulations

4.2.1 Serial to Parallel Conversion:

The input serial data stream is formatted into the word size required for transmission, e.g.
2bit/word for QPSK, and shifted into a parallel format. The data is then transmitted in parallel by
assigning each data word to one carrier in the transmission.
29

4.2.2 Modulation of Data:

The data to be transmitted on each carrier is then differential encoded with previous symbols,
then mapped into a phase shift-keying format. Since differential encoding requires an initial phase
reference an extra symbol is added at the start for this purpose. The data on each symbol is then mapped
to a phase angle based on the modulation method. For example QPSK the phase angles used are 0, 90,
180, and 270 degrees. The use of phase shift keying produces a constant amplitude signal and was chosen
for its simplicity and to reduce problems with amplitude fluctuations due to fading.

4.2.3 Inverse Fourier Transform:

After the required spectrum is worked out, an inverse Fourier transform is used to find the
corresponding time waveform (IFFT Convert frequency domain signal to time domain signal). The
guard period is then added to the start of each symbol.

4.2.4 Guard Period:

The guard period used was made up of two sections. Half of the guard period time is a zero
amplitude transmission. The other half of the guard period is a cyclic extension of the symbol to be
transmitted. This was to allow for symbol timing to be easily recovered by envelope detection.
However it was found that it was not required in any of the simulations as the timing could be
accurately determined position of the samples. COFDM as a modulation technique for wireless
telecommunications, with a CDMA. After the guard has been added, the symbols are then converted back
to a serial time waveform. This is then the base band signal for the OFDM transmission.

4.2.5 Channel:
A channel model is then applied to the transmitted signal. The model allows for the signal to
noise ratio, multipath, and peak power clipping to be controlled. The signal to noise ratio is set by adding
a known amount of white noise to the transmitted signal. Multipath delay spread then added by simulating
the delay spread using an FIR filter. The length of the FIR filter represents the maximum delay spread,
while the coefficient amplitude represents the reflected signal magnitude.

4.2.6 Receiver:
The receiver basically does the reverse operation to the transmitter. The guard period is removed.
The FFT of each symbol is then taken to find the original transmitted spectrum. The phase angle of each
transmission carrier is then evaluated and converted back to the data word by demodulating the received
phase. The data words are then combined back to the same word size as the original data.

30

4.3 High Data Rates:

An advantage of the OFDM scheme is that it naturally combats inter-symbol interference while
still allowing a high data rate. In order to fully understand this, we will first take a look at a traditional
wireless transmission as seen in Fig. 4.2.

Fig. 4.2. Traditional symbol transmission

In a traditional transmission, if the system was to have a high data rate the symbol length would
have to be short thus making the rate high as seen in the Fig.4.2. The problem with this technique is that
in wireless transmission, inter symbol interference presents a huge problem when short symbols are used.
As seen in Fig. 4.3, even small ISI consumes much of the actual symbol. In this example, ISI consumes
roughly one third of each symbol. Therefore, a large portion of the actual information is corrupted.

Fig. 4.3. Traditional symbol transmission with ISI

Now lets take a look at an OFDM transmission.

Fig. 4.4 OFDM symbol transmission

In an OFDM transmission, the symbols do not need to be short to produce a high data rate. This is
illustrated in Fig 4.4. Recall that in an OFDM transmission, the information is represented in the
frequencies of the symbol and not the symbol itself.
31

Therefore, the symbol may be very lengthy but can still can a large amount of information in its
component frequencies. A large symbol length is a natural way to combat ISI as seen in Fig4.5. The ISI in
Fig. is the same length as in Fig. but only consumes roughly one eighth of each symbol.
Therefore, a large portion of the actual information is preserved.

Fig. 4.5. OFDM transmission with ISI

4.4. Problems with OFDM:

4.4.1 Peak-to-Mean Power Ratio:
An OFDM signal may exhibit a high instantaneous peak power with respect to the average signal
level, seeing that the OFDM signal is the superposition of a large number of modulated sub channel
signals. In addition, when a time-domain signal moves from a low to a high instantaneous power
waveform, large amplitude swings are encountered. In the context, the peak-to-mean power envelope
fluctuates considerably, when traversing the origin upon switching from one phasor to another.
In order to solve these problems, two things can be done:

Reduce the peak-to-mean power ratio. Using a different encoding or mapping scheme before
modulation can achieve this.
Improve the amplification stage of the transmitter, such as post processing the time-domain
OFDM signal or employ some sort of adaptive sub carrier allocation in order to reduce the Crest
factor (peak-to-mean signal ratio).

4.4.2 Synchronization:
To optimize the performance of an OFDM link, time and frequency synchronization between the
transmitter and receiver is of absolute importance. This is achieved by using known pilot tones embedded
in the OFDM signal or attach fine frequency timing tracking algorithms within the OFDM signals cyclic
extension (guard interval).

32

4.4.3 Co channel Interference:

Co channel interference in cellular communications systems are combated by combining adaptive
antenna techniques with OFDM transmissions. With the aid of beam steering, it is possible to focus the
receivers antenna bean on the served user, while attenuating the co channel interferers. This is significant
since OFDM is sensitive to co channel interferences.

4.5ALGORITHMS USED IN THE OFDM TRANSCEIVERS DESIGN

4.5.1 FAST-FOURIER TRANSFORM
4.5.1.1 ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS AND DESIGN CHOICE
As a specification reference for my OFDM transceivers parameters I used 802.11a modem
standard. In 802.11a standard 64-point Fast Fourier Transform processor is used to implement OFDM
modulation and demodulation.
I did an extensive research on efficient hardware implementation of Fast Fourier Transform
algorithm from which I concluded that the most crucial design aspect of the hardware implementation of
Fast Fourier Transform is a process of performing multiplication by complex exponential factors, so
called twiddle factors.

4.5.1.2 ALGORITHM DESCRIPTION

The basis for my Fast-Fourier Transform implementation is Cooley-Tukey algorithm. The reason
why Cooley-Tukey algorithm was a perfect fit for my design specification (the need for both FFT and
inverse FFT units imposes the largest constraint on hardware resources usage among all units in the
OFDM transceiver) is that a specific form of this algorithm directly maps itself onto a very compact
hardware implementation.
The characteristic feature of Cooley-Tukey algorithm is re-mapping of time and frequency
Indices.

Time
Time index
Frequency

Standard FFT algorithm

n

Cooley-Tukey FFT algorithm

n1*sqrt(N)+n2

k1+sqrt(N)*k2

index
Table 4.1 : Cooley-Tukey Algorithm time and frequency indices re-mapping

4.5.1.3Cooley-Tukey FFT algorithm

33

As can be seen from the final expression for Cooley-Tukey algorithm, by using a technique of
time and frequency indices re-mapping 64-point FFT is split into two 8-point FFTs:

The inner 8-point FFT with n1 time index calculated for a specific value of n2.
Through the dependence on n2 value the inner 8-point FFT is embedded in the outer 8point FFT.
The outer 8-point FFT with n2 time index.

4.5.1.4 Multiplication by the twiddle factors:

64-point Fast Fourier Transform requires 49 nontrivial complex multiplications. However, there
are only eight unique sets of complex constants which allow to compute all 49 multiplications with
conditional interchange and negation operations. This important observation combined with the
representation of each constant in Canonical Signed-Digit representation (binary weights {-1,0,1}) leads
to a multiplier less solution to the twiddle factor multiplication problem.
Canonical Signed-Digit (CSD) representation of a number is a linear combination of 2 -i terms
which in binary arithmetic are just shift operations. Therefore multiplication of a number by a constant
represented in CSD can be realized with only adders and shifters. Due to the fact that multiplication by a
constant factor realized through a linear combination of shifted copies of an input signal involves addition
of multiple operands I decided to implement addition operation using Carry-Save Adder Tree to minimize
latency associated with addition of a chain of operands.

4.5.1.5 8-point FFT implementation:

8-point FFT unit has been implemented using decimation-in-time (DIT) Fast Fourier Transform
algorithm. Multiplication by the non-unity twiddle factors - + 1+ of the intermediate results in the
butterfly architecture of DIT 8-point FFT algorithm has been implemented using Carry Save Tree Adder
and Canonical Signed-Digit representation of these factors. This approach led to a fast multiplier less
implementation which computes 8-point FFT in the same clock cycle.

4.6 Advantages of OFDM:

34

Makes efficient use of the spectrum by allowing overlap.

By dividing the channel into narrowband flat fading sub channels, OFDM is more resistant to
frequency selective fadings than single carrier systems are.
Eliminates ISI and IFI through use of a cyclic prefix.
Using adequate channel coding and interleaving one can recover symbols lost due to the
frequency selectivity of the channel.
Channel equalization becomes simpler than by using adaptive equalization techniques with single
carrier systems.

It is possible to use maximum likelihood decoding with reasonable complexity.

OFDM is computationally efficient by using FFT techniques to implement the

modulation

and demodulation functions. Also, for multiple communication channels, as is the case in digital
audio broadcasting (DAB) systems, partial FFT algorithms can be used in order to implement
program selection and decimation.

In conjunction with differential modulation there is no need to implement a channel estimator.

Is less sensitive to sample timing offsets than single carrier systems.

Provides good protection against co channel interference and impulsive parasitic noise.

Preservation of orthogonality in severe multipath.

Used for highest speed applications.

Supports dynamic packet access.

Support for TX and RX diversity.

Support for:

i.

adaptive antenna arrays

ii.

MINO/space time coding

iii.

adaptive modulation and tone/power allocation

4.7 Disadvantages of OFDM:

The OFDM signal has a noise like amplitude with a very large dynamic range, therefore it requires
RF power amplifiers with a high peak to average power ratio.

It is more sensitive to carrier frequency offset and drift than single carrier systems are due to
leakage of the DFT.

35

4.8 OFDM Applications:

The main applications of the OFDM are as follows:

DAB

HDTV

ADSL & HDSL

WLANs (IEEE 802.11 & Hiper LAN II

36

CHAPTER FIVE
RESULT & DISCUSSION

37

Chapter

RESULT & DISCUSSION

SIMULATION RESULTS

38

FIGURE: 5.1 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)

FIGURE: 5.2 INVERSE FAST FOURIER TRANSFORM (8 POINT IFFT)

39

40

FIGURE: 5.3 FAST FOURIER TRANSFORM (8 POINT FFT)

Figure: 5.4 Demodulation of QAM

Figure: 5.5 RTL Schematic of OFDM

41

Figure: 5.6 Simulation of OFDM

42

CHAPTER SIX
CONCLUSION AND SCOPE OF WORK

43

Chapter
6

CONCLUSION AND SCOPE OF WORK

The purpose of this document was to give some insight into the power of the OFDM transmission
scheme. It has discussed not only the transmission scheme itself, but also some of the problems that are
presented in mobile communications as well as the techniques to correct them.
Digital Communications is a rapidly growing industry and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
is on the forefront of this technology. OFDM will prove to revolutionize mobile communications by
allowing it to be more reliable and robust while maintaining the high data rate that digital
communications demands.
The number of clock cycles required is reduced and both blocks gives the final outputs as desired. Here,
the real value inputs are given to the FFT blocks while all the imaginary input values are zero.
We have successfully implemented the 8-point IFFT & FFT algorithms using VHDL to be used in the
802.11a architecture of OFDM transmitter & receiver. The performance of the main processing block of
OFDM transceiver is upgraded by reducing the clock cycles in the above work.

44

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Van Nee, R., and R. Prasad. OFDM Wireless Multimedia Communications. Boston: Artech
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Couch II, L. W. Digital and Analog Communication Systems. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1997.

Keller, T., and L. Hanzo. Adaptive Multicarrier Modulation: A Convenient Framework for
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Resource

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PaloWireless.Com.

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<

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