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6. OFDM/OFDMA
TECHNIQUES

INTRODUCTION
¾ The goal of third and fourth generation networks is
to provide users with high data rates, and to
provide a wider range of services.

¾ A common challenge in designing a wireless

system is to overcome the effects of the
wireless channel, such as multi-path
propagation,...

¾ The ability of OFDM to combat the effects of

multi-path propagation made it the modulation
of choice for third and fourth generation
networks.
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OFDM/OFDMA Systems
¾ OFDM/OFDMA techniques are currently adopted in
many systems such as:
i. Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11a,n),
ii. Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave
Access (WiMAX) IEEE 802.16d (fixed‐services),
and IEEE 802.16e (mobile services);
iii. 3rd Generation Partnership Project Long Term
Evolution (3GPP LTE) downlink systems.

Introduction to
Wireless Channels

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Wireless Channel Propagation Problems

Large Scale Effects Small Scale Effects

Path Loss Diffraction Scattering Multipath

Shadowing
Occur over a distance much larger than
the wavelength causing attenuation
Wideband Narrowband
(Frequency Selective) (Flat)
Occur over a distance of order of the
wavelength due to constructive or
destructive interferences.

Sketch of all these problems

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Multipath Fading (1)

Multipath Fading ((2

2)

Narrowband Wideband
* Signal is distorted
* No distortion of the signal
* Symbol
y time << Delayy spread
p
* Symbol
S b l time
ti >> Delay
D l spread
d
* Symbol B.W. << (Delay spread)-1 * Symbol B.W. >> (Delay spread)-1

Coherence B.W.:
It’s equal to the inverse of rms delay spread, a signal with B.W. << Bc
will be affected only by attenuation but no distortion. That’s the
main idea!!!!

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Multipath Fading ((3

3)

We wish to transform any wideband signal to a narrowband one to be

subjected to flat fading.

OFDM Basics
B i

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What is orthogonality?
•Signals are orthogonal if they are mutually independent of
each other. Orthogonality is a property that allows multiple
information signals to be transmitted perfectly over a common
channel and detected, without interference

•Mathematically, two functions are orthogonal if their product

when integrated over certain interval gives zero.

•Sines and Cosines are orthogonal within their period.

* We note that although subcarriers overlap in time , we can

separate them due to their orthogonality.

MCM

FDM OFDM

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Multicarrier
Modulation

Sub-
Actual channel
channel
Magnitude

carrie
r

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Frequency

What is MCM ?
• MCM is a multicarrier modulation scheme in which a high
rate data input is converted into lower rates substreams that
will be modulated over orthogonal subcarriers.

Lower rate streams will have much lower bandwidth and

hence can fit in the coherence bandwidth of the channel
causing no distortion of the signal only attenuation.

* This attenuation is be estimated by a channel

equalization scheme
scheme.

* Subcarrier frequencies must be chosen to assure

orthogonality within the symbol period

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General Idea of MCM

MCM Transmitter
Pulse Shaping

(T) (ts= NT) (Ts= ts+ΔG)

High Rate Lower Rate SubStreams

Input Stream Orthogonal subcarriers
(B << Bc)

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MCM Receiver

Band pass Filters Symbol Demapping

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Generating the subcarriers in OFDM

• In order to overcome the requirement for L RF
generators in both the transmitter and receiver,
OFDM uses the DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform)
L −1
1 i 2πf k t
x ( n) =
N
∑ X ( k )e
k =0
IDFT

k T k
fk = where s = L so f k =
LTo To Ts
• The FFT and its inverse, the IFFT are able to
create a multitude of orthogonal subcarriers
using just a single RF generator.

Frequency Visualization of FFT

FFT Points

Discrete spectrum Continuous spectrum

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• To show how FFT and IFFT create orthogonal subcarriers:

• Assume two carriers with frequency ff11 and ff22
• The received signal is
x1 (t )ei 2πf1t + x2 (t )ei 2πf 2t

• To get x1(t):
Ts
1
y=
Ts ∫x
0
1 + x 2 e i 2 π ( f1 − f 2 ) t dt

x 2 e i 2 π ( f1 − f 2 ) Ts − 1
y = x1 +
T s i 2π ( f 1 − f 2)
m
y = x1 if f 1 − f 2 = where m is an integer
Ts

An example of four Orthogonal OFDM subcarriers

signals in time domain

Note that subcarriers must have complete period within the symbol period in
order for the correlator to be able to recover the original symbols.

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Frequency Domain Picture

Conventional
Multicarrier
Technique

Orthogonal
Multicarrier
M lti i
Modulation
Technique

• The spectra of subcarriers in OFDM overlap but

remain orthogonal.
• OFDM has better spectral efficiency than
conventional multicarrier techniques as FDM.

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A simplified OFDM System Block Diagram

Detailed OFDM Transmitter and Receiver

Note that IFFT can take place only if number of symbols is a power of 2,
zero padding may be necessary if number of symbols is less and then at
receiver we remove them before detection.

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OFDM Advantages and Disadvantages

Using OFDM we can gain the following advantages ;
1. OFDM is an efficient way to deal with multipath effects;
2. Bandwidth efficiency is high since it uses overlapping
orthogonal
th l subcarriers.
b i
3. It is possible to enhance capacity significantly by
adapting the data rate per subcarriers according to the
SNR of that particular subcarrier.

¾ Despite these benefits, OFDM suffer a number of

drawbacks including:
i. Intercarrier interference (ICI) due to phase noise and
carrier frequency offset which destroy the
orthogonality.
ii. Intersymbol ISI due to channel delays and dispersion.
٢٧
iii. High value of Peak-to-Average
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Power Ratio (PAPR).

Cyclic Prefix (CP

(CP)) : Solution of ISI and
ICI:

‰ Due to multipath channel,

channel the receiver
has many versions of the transmitted data
which causes two main problems:
problems:

1- ISI p
problem 2- ICI p
problem

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Effect of Timing Offset

* Effect of timing offset is the introduction of ISI.

Effect of Frequency Offset

* Effect of frequency offset is the introduction of ICI.

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CP Insersion
T
Tcp

Cycli First part of the Last part of

c signal the signal
Prefi
x

¾Cyclic prefix is considered as a better solution

for both ISI and ICI problems due to multipath
channel
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The ISI Problem:

h(t)

Path Delay

Symbol1 Symbol2 Symbol3 Symbol4 Path 1

Symbol1 Symbol2 Symbol3 Symbol4 Path 2
Symbol1 Symbol2 Symbol3 Symbol4 Path 3

ISI

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Solution of the ISI Problem by

GI

h(t)

Path Delay
G G G G G
Symbol1 Symbol2 Symbol3 Symbol4
I I I I I
G G G G G
Symbol1 Symbol2 Symbol3 Symbol4
I I I I I
G G G G G
Symbol1 Symbol2 Symbol3 Symbol4
I I I I I

ƒ GI > Delay spread for no ISI

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The ICI problem

Path 1

Path 2

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Solution of the ICI problem

Path 1

Path 2

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Disadvantages of Cyclic Prefix Introduction

* Increases transmitted power:
Because we send redundant symbols.
* Lowers Symbol Rate:

Bandwidth Efficiency

If every symbol carries k bits information then:

So we see how OFDM is bandwidth efficient !!!!

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The PAPR Problem

¾ The second drawback, and the major aspect we are
concerned with is that the,
the OFMD signal has large amplitude
fluctuations and so a high PAPR
PAPR..
¾ This high PAPR requires system components with a wide
linear range to accommodate for the signal variations
variations..
¾ Otherwise, nonlinear distortion,
distortion, which results in a loss of
subcarrier orthogonality and hence a degradation in the
system performance occurs
occurs..

¾ Therefore, OFDM is considered power inefficient

inefficient,, which is
undesirable particularly for battery
battery--powered wireless
systems..
systems

Effects of Non Linearity

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Effect of the Nonlinear Power Amplifier

¾The combined OFDM signals are likely to have large peak powers.
¾The peak power increases as the number of subcarriers increases;
Linear Response
¾These large peaks force the Amplifier Response

amplifier into the saturation region.

¾ The nonlinear distortion Saturation point

results in a loss of subcarrier

Output Power
orthogonality which degrades Linear Region Saturation Region

performance.
¾To keep the peak power of the Actual
input signal within the linear
region, the operating point must
Backoff
shift to the left.
¾This shift is called input power
backoff (IBO). Input Power

¾ Increasing the IBO is not a good solution for the PAPR problem.
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PAPR Details:
*The saturation region of any non-linear element in the system
occasionally clips the signal due to its high PAPR.
* From another view point, any nonlinear element in the system
i
introduces
d severe intermodulation
i d l i distortion
di i (IMD).
(IMD)
* These effects result in:

1. Signal distortion.
2. Spectral widening leading to out of band noise.
3. More ACI (Adjacent channel interference).
4. More BER. 2
max[ x ( t )]
PAPR =
E [| x ( t ) |2 ]
* For an OFDM signal with N subcarriers with normalized symbol power,
peak power can be as high as N2 while average power = N so
PAPR (max) =N

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Overview on the Solution

* There are two methods for obtaining low PAPR
constellations:

1. Distortion methods: distorts the transmitted

signal by clipping the signal peaks, increasing the
bit error rate (BER) as well as signal bandwidth and
hence out of band noise and ACI.

2. Non-distortion
2 Non distortion methods : The other class is
characterized by the fact that, although the PAPR of
the transmit signal is reduced, the signal remains
undistorted. While this costs bandwidth efficiency,
the BER remains unchanged.

PAPR Reduction with Signal Distortion

Clipping and Filtering:
• The simplest way to reduce the PAPR.
• Problems of clipping:
– By distorting signal amplitude ,interference degrades the BER.
– Nonlinear distortion of signal increases the level of the out
out--of
of--
band radiation.

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Distortionless PAPR Reduction Techniques

The signal remains undistorted at the cost of bandwidth
efficiency and very high complexity computation techniques.
A Distortionless Technique:
• Selective Mapping.

Cons: Table look-

look-up required at
the receiver

(Ad
(Advanced t i l Optional
d material: O ti l Assignment)
A i t)

Selective Mapping:
…
…
…

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Orthogonal Frequency Division

Multiple Access (OFDMA)
• OFDMA employs multiple closely spaced sub-
sub-
carriers divided into groups; each group of sub
sub--
carriers are named a sub
sub--channel.
• The sub-
sub-carriers that form a sub
sub--channel are
not necessarily adjacent.

Subcarriers
with
i h the
h
same colour
represent a
sub-channel

The difference between OFDM and

OFDMA
• In OFDM (/TDMA), only one user transmits in one
time slot.
slot
• In OFDMA, several users can transmit in one time
slot on different sub-
sub-channels.

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Subcarrier Permutation Schemes:

• Adjacent Subcarrier Allocation:

– The sub-
sub-channel uses adjacent subcarriers chosen
adaptively to avoid subcarriers with deep fading and
chose subcarriers with high SINR
– Used in slowly changing channels (low speed)
• Distributed Subcarrier Allocation:
– A sub-
sub-channel uses different subcarriers randomly
distributed across the channel bandwidth.
– Used for fast changing channels (mobile
environments)
• Resource allocation techniques are used to allocate
subcarriers to users to:
1. Minimize the total transmit power with a constraint on the
user data rate.
2. Maximize the total data rate with a constraint on total
transmit power.

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