Orthogonal Frequency Division Modulation (OFDM)

OFDM is a multicarrier transmission scheme which divides the allocated spectrum into parallel
orthogonal sub channels. It splits a high rate stream into many lower rate streams, which are
transmitted at the same time over these sub-channels. OFDM is a spectral efficient scheme. In
older multicarrier systems using FDM, the total available bandwidth is divided into N non-
overlapping frequency sub-channels. Each sub channel is modulated with a separate symbol
stream and the N Sub channels are frequency multiplexed, though the prevention of spectral
overlapping of subcarriers reduces interchannel interference.

The Guard band on either side of each sub channel is a waste of precious bandwidth; however
OFDM allows subcarrier to overlap while they can still be received without any adjacent carrier
interference.

To achieve spectral efficiency by allowing spectral overlapping, subcarriers must be

mathematically orthogonal, thus frequency spacing between any two subchannels must be a
multiple of 1/Ts, the reciprocal of symbol period Ts.

A null from all other adjacent subcarriers is present at the peak of each subcarrier. Another way
of specifying the subcarriers orthogonality condition is to require that each subcarrier have
exactly integer number of cycles in the interval Ts. Therefore by applying this overlapping,
OFDM can achieve a very high spectral efficiency by saving a lot of spectrum. OFDM systems
are implemented using a combination of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and Inverse of Fast
Fourier Transform (IFFT). They are mathematically equivalent version of DFT and IDFT.

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
first choosing the spectrum required based on input data and the modulation scheme used. Each
carrier to be produced is assigning some data to be transmitted. The required amplitude and
phase of the carrier is then calculated based on modulation scheme (typically differential BPSK,
QPSK or QAM).The required spectrum is then converted back to its time domain signal using
inverse Fourier transform (IFFT).The IFFT performs the transformation very efficiently and
provides a simple way of ensuring a carrier signals produced is orthogonal [2].

The FFT transform a cyclic time domain signal into it’s a frequency domain spectrum. This is
done by finding the equivalent waveform generated by a sum of orthogonal sinusoidal
components .The amplitude and phase of sinusoidal components represents the frequency
spectrum of the time domain signal. An IFFT converts a number of complex data points of
length that is of power 2, into time domain signal of the same number of points. Each data points
in frequency spectrum used for an FFT or IFFT is called a bin.

The orthogonal carriers required for OFDM signals can easily be generated by setting the
amplitude and phase of each frequency bin, then performing the IFFT. Since each bin of IFFT
corresponds to the amplitude and phase of a set of orthogonal sinusoids, the reverse process
guarantees that the carriers generated are orthogonal.