OFDM for Wireless

Communications Systems

Ramjee Prasad

Artech House, Inc.

Boston • London
www.artechhouse.com
1.2 Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing 11

1.2 Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing

Over the past few years, there has been increasing emphasis on extending the serv-
ices available on wired public telecommunications networks to mobile/movable
nonwired telecommunications users. At present, in addition to voice services, only
low-bit-rate data services are available to mobile users. However, demands for wire-
less broadband multimedia communication systems (WBMCS) are anticipated
within both the public and private sectors. Wired networks are cannot support
extension to wireless mobile networks because mobile radio channels are more con-
taminated than wired data-transmission channels. We also cannot preserve the high
QoS required in wired networks [2].
The mobile radio channel is characterized by multipath reception: the signal
offered to the receiver contains not only a direct line-of-sight (LOS) radio wave, but
also a large number of reflected radio waves that arrive at the receiver at different
times. Delayed signals are the result of reflections from terrain features such as trees,
hills, mountains, vehicles, or buildings. These reflected, delayed waves interfere
with the direct wave and cause intersymbol interference (ISI), which in turn causes
significant degradation of network performance. A wireless network should be
designed to minimize adverse effects.
To create broadband multimedia mobile communication systems, it is necessary
to use high-bit-rate transmission of at least several megabits per second. However, if
digital data is transmitted at the rate of several megabits per second, the delay time
of the delayed waves is greater than 1 symbol time. Using adaptive equalization
techniques at the receiver is one method for equalizing these signals. There are prac-
tical difficulties in operating this equalization at several megabits per second with
compact, low-cost hardware.
To overcome such a multipath-fading environment with low complexity and to
achieve WBMCS, this chapter presents an overview of the orthogonal frequency-
division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission scheme. OFDM is one of the applica-
tions of a parallel-data-transmission scheme, which reduces the influence of
multipath fading and makes complex equalizers unnecessary.

1.2.1 History of OFDM

OFDM is a special case of multicarrier transmission, where a single data stream
is transmitted over a number of lower-rate subcarriers (SCs). It is worth mention-
ing here that OFDM can be seen as either a modulation technique or a multiplex-
ing technique. One of the main reasons to use OFDM is to increase
robustness against frequency-selective fading or narrowband interference. In a
single-carrier system, a single fade or interferer can cause the entire link to fail,
but in a multicarrier system, only a small percentage of the SCs will be affected.
Error-correction coding can then be used to correct for the few erroneous SCs.
The concept of using parallel-data transmission and frequency-division multiplex-
ing (FDM) was developed in the mid-1960s [28, 29]. Some early development
is traced back to the 1950s [30]. A U.S. patent was filed and issued in January
1970 [31].
12 Introduction

In a classical parallel-data system, the total signal frequency band is divided into
N nonoverlapping frequency subchannels. Each subchannel is modulated with a
separate symbol, and then the N subchannels are frequency multiplexed. It seems
good to avoid spectral overlap of channels to eliminate interchannel interference.
However, this leads to inefficient use of the available spectrum. To cope with the
inefficiency, the ideas proposed in the mid-1960s were to use parallel data and FDM
with overlapping subchannels, in which each, carrying a signaling rate b, is spaced b
apart in frequency to avoid the use of high-speed equalization and to combat impul-
sive noise and multipath distortion, as well as to use the available bandwidth fully.
Figure 1.10 illustrates the difference between the conventional nonoverlapping
multicarrier technique and the overlapping multicarrier modulation technique. By
using the overlapping multicarrier modulation technique, we save almost 50% of
bandwidth. To realize this technique, however, we need to reduce cross talk between
SCs, which means that we want orthogonality between the different modulated
carriers.
The word “orthogonal” indicates that there is a precise mathematical relation-
ship between the frequencies of the carriers in the system. In a normal FDM system,
many carriers are spaced apart in such a way that the signals can be received using
conventional filters and demodulators. In such receivers, guard bands are intro-
duced between the different carriers and in the frequency domain, which results in a
lowering of spectrum efficiency.
It is possible, however, to arrange the carriers in an OFDM signal so that the
sidebands of the individual carriers overlap and the signals are still received without
adjacent carrier interference. To do this the carriers must be mathematically
orthogonal. The receiver acts as a bank of demodulators, translating each carrier
down to dc, with the resulting signal integrated over a symbol period to recover the
raw data. If the other carriers all beat down the frequencies that, in the time domain,
have a whole number of cycles in the symbol period T, then the integration process
results in zero contribution from all of these other carriers. Thus, the carriers are

Ch.1 Ch.2 Ch.3 Ch.4 Ch.5 Ch.6 Ch.7 Ch.8 Ch.9 Ch.10

(a) Frequency

Savings in bandwidth

Frequency
(b)

Figure 1.10 Concept of the OFDM signal: (a) conventional multicarrier technique, and (b)
orthogonal multicarrier modulation technique.
1.2 Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing 13

linearly independent (i.e., orthogonal) if the carrier spacing is a multiple of 1/T.

Chapter 4 presents in detail the basic principle of OFDM.
Much of the research focuses on the highly efficient multicarrier transmission
scheme based on “orthogonal frequency” carriers. In 1971, Weinstein and Ebert
[32] applied the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) to parallel-data-transmission sys-
tems as part of the modulation and demodulation process. Figure 1.11(a) shows the
spectrum of the individual data of the subchannel. The OFDM signal, multiplexed
in the individual spectra with a frequency spacing b equal to the transmission speed
of each SC, is shown in Figure 1.11(b). Figure 1.11 shows that at the center fre-
quency of each SC, there is no cross talk from other channels. Therefore, if we use
DFT at the receiver and calculate correlation values with the center of frequency of
each SC, we recover the transmitted data with no cross talk. In addition, using the
DFT-based multicarrier technique, FDM is achieved not by bandpass filtering but
by baseband processing.
Moreover, to eliminate the banks of SC oscillators and coherent demodulators
required by FDM, completely digital implementations could be built around
special-purpose hardware performing the fast Fourier transform (FFT), which is an
efficient implementation of the DFT. Recent advances in very-large-scale integra-
tion (VLSI) technology make high-speed, large-size FFT chips commercially afford-
able. Using this method, both transmitter and receiver are implemented using
efficient FFT techniques that reduce the number of operations from N2 in DFT to
NlogN [33].
In the 1960s, the OFDM technique was used in several high-frequency military
systems such as KINEPLEX [30], ANDEFT [34], and KATHRYN [35]. For exam-
ple, the variable-rate data modem in KATHRYN was built for the high-frequency
band. It used up to 34 parallel low-rate phase-modulated channels with a spacing of
82 Hz.
In the 1980s, OFDM was studied for high-speed modems, digital mobile com-
munications, and high-density recording. One of the systems realized the OFDM
techniques for multiplexed quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) using
DFT [36]; also, by using pilot tone, stabilizing carrier and clock frequency control
and trellis coding could also be implemented [37]. Moreover, various-speed
modems were developed for telephone networks [38].
In the 1990s, OFDM was exploited for wideband data communications over
mobile radio FM channels, high-bit-rate digital subscriber lines (HDSL; 1.6 Mbps),

Frequency Frequency

(a) (b)

Figure 1.11 Spectra of (a) an OFDM subchannel, and (b) an OFDM signal.
14 Introduction

asymmetric digital subscriber lines (ADSL; up to 6 Mbps), very-high-speed digital

subscriber lines (VDSL; 100 Mbps), digital audio broadcasting (DAB), and high-
definition television (HDTV) terrestrial broadcasting [39–46].
The OFDM transmission scheme has the following key advantages:

• OFDM is an efficient way to deal with multipath; for a given delay spread, the
implementation complexity is significantly lower than that of a single-carrier
system with an equalizer.
• In relatively slow time-varying channels, it is possible to enhance capacity sig-
nificantly by adapting the data rate per SC according to the signal-to-noise
ratio (SNR) of that particular SC.
• OFDM is robust against narrowband interference because such interference
affects only a small percentage of the SCs.
• OFDM makes single-frequency networks possible, which is especially attrac-
tive for broadcasting applications.

On the other hand, OFDM also has some drawbacks compared with single-
carrier modulation:

• OFDM is more sensitive to frequency offset and phase noise.

• OFDM has a relatively large peak-to-average-power ratio, which tends to
reduce the power efficiency of the radio frequency (RF) amplifier.

1.3 Concluding Remarks

Multicarrier techniques, including OFDM-based wireless systems, will provide the

solution for future-generation wireless communications. The following provides
some of the justification:

1. Multicarrier techniques can combat hostile frequency-selective fading en-

countered in mobile communications. The robustness against frequency-
selective fading is very attractive, especially for high-speed data
transmission.
2. OFDM scheme has matured well through research and development for
high-rate WLANs and terrestrial DVB. We have developed a lot of know-
how for OFDM.
3. Combining OFDM with CDMA yields synergistic effects, such as enhanced
robustness against frequency-selective fading and high scalability in possible
data-transmission rates.

Figure 1.12 shows the advantages of multicarrier techniques.

The real challenge for the future can be explained by (1.1) to achieve IP-based
wireless multimedia communications:
1.3 Concluding Remarks 15

Multicarrier techniques:
Robustness against frequency selective fading
A lot of know-how obtained through research and
development of wireless LANs and digital broadcasting
Synergistic effects when combined with CDMA

Radio
communications and
access techniques in
4G systems

Figure 1.12 Advantages of multicarrier techniques for 4G systems.

E ∝ m.c 4 (1.1)

where E is evolution of wireless communications, m is multimedia communications,

and c is consumer electronics, computer technology, communications technology,
and contents. Figure 1.13 illustrates the clue to the evolution/revolution of wireless
IP-based multimedia communications.

tio
n ns
a atio
u nic unic
o mm mm
ac o
i
es sc
Goal ed
lt im i rel (c) Contents
Mu fw
(m
)
io no d )
lut ase
Ev
o -b
(IP (c) Communication
(E)
technology
(c) Consumer
electronics
(c) Computer
technology

Time

Figure 1.13 Evolution/revolution of wireless IP-based multimedia communications.