Introduction to OFDM

Fire Tom Wada

Professor, Information Engineering, Univ. of the Ryukyus
Chief Scientist at Magna Design Net, Inc
[email protected]
http://www.ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/~wada/

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What is OFDM?
 OFDM
=Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

 Many orthogonal sub-carriers are multiplexed

in one symbol
 What is the orthogonal?
 How multiplexed?
 What is the merit of OFDM?
 What kinds of application?

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Outline
 Background, history, application
 Review of digital modulation
 FDMA vs. Multi-carrier modulation
 Theory of OFDM
 Multi-path
 Summary

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 Why OFDM is getting popular？
 State-of-the-art high bandwidth digital communication
start using OFDM
 Terrestrial Video Broadcasting in Japan and Europe
 ADSL High Speed Modem
 WLAN such as IEEE 802.11a/g/n
 WiMAX as IEEE 802.16d/e

 Economical OFDM implementation become possible

because of advancement in the LSI technology

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 Japan Terrestrial Video
Broadcasting service
 ISDB-T (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting for
Terrestrial Television Broadcasting)
 Service starts on 2003/December at three major cities
(Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka)
 Full service area coverage on 2006
 5.6MHz BW is divided into 13 segments (~430KHz BW)
 HDTV: 12 segments
 Mobile TV : 1 segment
 SDTV: 4 segment
 Analog Service will end 2011

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Brief history of OFDM
 First proposal in 1950’s
 Theory completed in 1960’s
 DFT implementation proposed in 1970’s
 Europe adopted OFDM for digital radio
broadcasting in 1987
 OFDM for Terrestrial Video broadcasting in
Europe and Japan
 ADSL, WLAN(802.11a)
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 Digital modulation basics
 Digital modulation modulates three
parameters of sinusoidal signal.
 A, θk fc,
s (t ) = A ⋅ cos(2π ⋅ f c ⋅ t + θ k )
 Three type digital modulation:
 ASK : Amplitude Shift Keying
 PSK : Phase Shift Keying
 FSK : Frequency Shift Keying

OFDM uses combination of ASK and PSK such as QAM, PSK

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 Symbol Waveform
Digital Information 1 0 1 0 0
carrier

ASK

PSK

FSK

5/31/2019 Symbol length 8

 Multi bit modulation
carrier

1 0 1 0 0
BPSK
1bit per symbol
10 11 01 00 01
QPSK
2bit per symbol
Symbol length
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 Mathematical expression
of digital modulation
 Transmission signal can be expressed as follows
s (t ) = cos(2π ⋅ f c ⋅ t + θ k )
= cos θ k ⋅ cos(2π ⋅ f c ⋅ t ) − sin θ k ⋅ sin( 2π ⋅ f c ⋅ t )
a k = cos θ k , b k = sin θ k
s (t ) = Re[(a k + jb k )e j 2πfc ⋅t ]
 s(t) can be expressed by complex base-band signal ( a k + jb k )e j 2πfc ⋅t
j 2 πfc ⋅t
e Indicates carrier sinusoidal
(a k + jb k ) Digital modulation

Digital modulation can be expressed by the complex number

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 Constellation map
 (ak + jbk) is plotted on I(real)-Q(imaginary) plane
data
ak bk QPSK
1 1
Q
00 π/4
2 2
01 3π /4 −
1 1
2 2
11 5π /4 −
1
−
1 I
2 2
10 7π /4 1
−
1
2 2
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 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
(QAM)
16QAM 64QAM
Q Q

I I

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Summary of digital modulation
 Type of modulation: ASK,PSK,FSK,QAM
 OFDM uses ASK,PSK,QAM
 Digital modulation is mathematically characterized by
the coefficient of complex base-band signal

(a k + jb k ) Q

 Plot of the coefficients gives

the constellation map I

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 Frequency Division Multiple Access
(FDMA)
 Old conventional method (Analog TV, Radio etc.)
 Use separate carrier frequency for individual
transmission

Channel
Occupied BW separation

fｃ１ fｃ2 fｃ3 fｃN Radio

Carrier frequency frequency
Guard band
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 Japan VHF channel assignment
Channel number Frequency (MHz)
1 90-96  Channel Separation =
2 96-102 6MHz
3 102-108
4 170-176
5 176-182
6 182-188
7 188-194
8 192-198
9 198-204
10 204-210
11 210-216
12 216-222
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 Multi-carrier modulation
 Use multiple channel (carrier frequency) for
one data transmission

LPF
cos(2πf 1t ) cos(2πf 1t )
DEMULTIPLEX

MULTIPLEX
LPF
cos(2πf 2 t ) cos(2πf 2 t )
data data

LPF
cos(2πf N t ) cos(2πf N t )
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Spectrum comparison for
same data rate transmission

Multi carrier
frequency

Single carrier frequency

OFDM
frequency

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 OFDM vs. Multi carrier
 OFDM is multi carrier modulation
 OFDM sub-carrier spectrum is overlapping
 In FDMA, band-pass filter separates each
transmission
 In OFDM, each sub-carrier is separated by DFT
because carriers are orthogonal
 Condition of the orthogonality will be explained later
 Each sub-carrier is modulated by PSK, QAM
Thousands of PSK/QAM symbol can be
simultaneously transmitted in one OFDM symbol
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 OFDM carriers
 OFDM carrier frequency is n・1/T
1
f0 =
Symbol period T T
cos(2π ⋅ 1⋅ f 0 ⋅ t + θ1 )
cos(2π ⋅ 2 ⋅ f 0 ⋅ t + θ2 )
cos(2π ⋅ 3 ⋅ f 0 ⋅ t + θ3 )
cos(2π ⋅ 4 ⋅ f 0 ⋅ t + θ4 )
cos(2π ⋅ 5 ⋅ f 0 ⋅ t + θ5 )
cos(2π ⋅ 6 ⋅ f 0 ⋅ t + θ6 )
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 Sinusoidal Orthogonality
 m,n: integer, T=1/f0
T
T  (m = n )
∫0 cos(2πm f 0t ) ⋅ cos(2πn f 0t )d t =  2
 0 (m ≠ n ) Orthogonal

T
T  (m = n )
∫0 sin(2πm f 0t ) ⋅ sin(2πn f 0t )d t =  2
 0 (m ≠ n ) Orthogonal
T
∫ cos(2πm f
0
0 t ) ⋅ sin(2πn f 0 t )d t = 0 Orthogonal

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 A sub-carrier of f=nf0
a n ⋅ cos(2πn f 0t ) − b n ⋅ sin(2πn f 0t )
bn
= a n + b n cos(2πn f 0t + φn ), φn = tan −1
2 2

an
 Amplitude and Phase will be digitally modulated

n cycles

Time

t=0 t=T
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Base-band OFDM signal
N −1
s B (t ) = ∑ {a n cos(2πn f 0t ) − b n sin(2πn f 0t )}
n =0
Ｔ
n=0
n=1
n=2
n=3
n=4
n=5
n=6
sB(t)
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 How an,bn are caluculated from sB(t)
- Demodulation Procedure -
T
∫s
0
B (t ) ⋅ cos(2πkf 0t )d t

{ }
N −1
= ∑ a n ∫ cos(2πn f 0t ) cos(2πkf 0t )d t − b n ∫ sin(2πn f 0t ) cos(2πkf 0t )d t
T T

0 0
n =0

T
= ak
2
T
s B (t ){− sin(2πkf 0t )}d t =
T
∫0 2
bk
 According to the sinusoidal orthogonality, an,bn can be extracted.
 In actual implementation, DFT(FFT) is used
 N is roughly 64 for WLAN, thoudand for Terrestrial Video
Broadcasting
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Pass-band OFDM signal
 SB(t) is upcoverted to pass-band signal S(t)
 fc frequency shift
N −1

[ ]
s (t ) = ∑ a n cos{2π ( f c + n f 0 )t } − b n sin{2π ( f c + n f 0 )t }
n =0

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Actual OFDM spectrum

fｃ＋(ｋ-1)ｆ０ fｃ＋ｋｆ０ fｃ＋(ｋ+1)ｆ０

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 OFDM power spectrum
 Total Power spectrum is almost square shape

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OFDM signal generation
N −1

[ ]
s (t ) = ∑ a n cos{2π ( f c + n f 0 )t } − b n sin{2π ( f c + n f 0 )t }
n =0

 Direct method needs

N digital modulators
N carrier frequency generator
 Not practical
 In 1971, method using DFT is proposed to
OFDM siganal generation

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OFDM signal generation in digital domain
 Define complex base-band signal u(t) as follows
s B ( t ) = Re[u (t )]
N −1
u (t ) = ∑ n
d ⋅
n =0
e j 2 πn f 0 t
, d n = a n + jb n

 Perform N times sampling in period T

2 πn k
 k  N −1 k N −1
j 2 πn f 0
∑d ∑d
j
u  = ⋅e = ⋅e
Nf0 N
 Nf0
n n
n =0 n =0

2π nk
N −1
 
= ∑ d n ⋅e
j
N
 ( k = 0,1,2, , N − 1)
n =0  

u(k) = IFFT (dn) = IFFT(an + jbn)

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 OFDM modulator
cos(2πf C t )

Real
M S P
Bit
A / I-DFT /
stream
P P S
Imag

sin(2πf C t )

generated AIR ＢＰＦ

0~dＮ－１
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OFDM demodulation
N −1
s (t ) = ∑ [a n cos{2π ( f c + n f 0 )t } − b n sin{2π ( f c + n f 0 )t }]
n =0

1 N −1
L P F [ s (t ) ⋅ cos(2πf C t )] = ∑ {a n cos(2πn f 0t ) − b n sin( 2πn f 0t )} = s I (t )
1
2 n =0 2

1 N −1
L P F [ s (t ) ⋅ {− sin( 2πf C t )}] = ∑ {a n sin( 2πn f 0t ) + b n cos(2πn f 0t )} = s Q (t )
1
2 n =0 2
N −1
u (t ) = s I (t ) + js Q (t ) = ∑ n
d
n =0
⋅ e j 2 πn f 0 t

dn = FFT(u(k))
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 OFDM demodulator (Too simple)
LPF
T
u cos(2πf C t ) A S P
Channel
n / / DFT /
e π/2 D P S
r
LPF

D
Bit E
Stream M
A
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P 31
 Summary of OFDM signal
 Each symbol carries information
 Each symbol wave is sum of many sinusoidal
 Each sinusoidal wave can be PSK, QAM modulated
 Using IDFT and DFT, OFDM implementation became
practical

Time

Symbol period
T=1/f０
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Multi-path
 Delayed wave causes interference

Pat h 2

Building
Direct Pat h

Pat h 3 Mobile
Recept ion
Base St at ion

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 Multi-pass effect
Symbol k-1 Symbol k Symbol k+1
No multi-path T=1/f０

Sampling Period

Direct
Multi-path
Delayed

Sampling Period

 Inter symbol interference (ISI) happens in Multi-path condition

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 Guard Interval Tg
Tg OFDM symbol(1/f0)

Tg
Copy signal
 By adding the Gurard Interval Period, ISI can be
avoided
Tg OFDM symbol (1/f0)
Direct
Delayed

Sampling Period
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Multi-path
 By adding GI, orthogonality can be maintained
 However, multi-path causes Amplitude and Phase
distortion for each sub-carrier
 The distortion has to be compensated by Equalizer

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Multiple Frequency Network
f3
f１ Area 3 f1
Area 4
Area 1
f2
 Frequency
utilization is low
Area 2
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Single Frequency Network
f１
f１ Area 3 f1
Area 4
Area 1
f１  If multi-path
problem is solved,
SFN is possible
Area 2
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That’s all for introduction
 Feature of OFDM
1. High Frequency utilization by the square
spectrum shape
2. Multi-path problem is solved by GI
3. Multiple services in one OFDM by sharing sub-
carriers (3 services in ISDB-T)
4. SFN
5. Implementation was complicated but NOW
possible because of LSI technology progress

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