Wireless Cellular & LTE 4G

Broadband-15EC81

Module-2: Frequency Domain

Multiple Access: OFDMA and SC-
FDMA
Frequency Domain Multiple Access: OFDMA and
SC-FDMA

• Multiple Access for OFDM Systems-FDMA,TDMA ,CDMA

• OFDMA

• SC-FDMA

• OFDMA and SC-FDMA in LTE

 Multiple Access for OFDM Systems

• OFDM has wide acceptance in wireless communications as an appropriate

broadband modulation scheme.
• The main advantages of OFDM is the flexibility in combining adaptive modulation
and multiple access techniques
 Multiple Access Overview

• Common way to divide the available dimensions among the multiple users is
through – time, frequency, code.

• FDMA – each user receives a unique carrier frequency and BW. – data transfer is
continuous in slow and smooth data rate.

• TDMA – each user is given a unique time slot, either on demand or in a fixed
rotation. – data transfer is in short bursts with high data rate.

• CDMA – each user is given a unique binary code, but share the same frequency
and BW.

• Merits of OFDMA – sub-carriers can be adjusted in time & frequency to achieve

many desirable features of FDMA & TDMA and mitigate the negative features.
Multiple Access
 Random Access vs. Multiple Access
• CSMA – Carrier Sense Multiple Access – used in packet based communications – Ethernet,
WLAN.
• Idea of RAT - the users content for the channel instead of getting allocated with a reserved
time, frequency or code.
• Commonly used RAT– ALOHA, slotted ALOHA, CSMA.
• ALOHA – users transmit data at their will without regards to other users.
– If packet is not ack by the Rx after some period of time it is assumed lost and re-transmitted.

– This is inefficient as traffic increases, as many transmissions increases collision and re-
transmissions.
• Slotted ALOHA – improvement over ALOHA.
– Users transmit over specified time boundaries, collisions reduces to ½.

• CSMA – improvement through carrier sensing.

– User listens to the channel before transmitting to avoid collision.
ALOHA Slotted ALOHA

CSMA
 Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDM-FDMA)

• FDMA can be implemented in OFDM systems by

assigning different users with their own sub-
carriers.
• Different methods of allocation:
– Static Allocation of sub-carriers to each users

– Dynamic sub-carrier allocation

• Static Allocation of sub-carriers to each users –

– 64 sub-carrier OFDM system, user 1 – sub-
carriers 1-16; user 2 – 17-32; user 3- 33-48;
user 4- 49-64 – done by MUX.
– Uneven allocations - high data rate uses
being allocated more sub-carriers than lower
data rate sub-carriers. FDMA
– System is referred to as OFDMA – multiple
users sharing OFDM sub-carriers.
 Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDM-FDMA)

• Dynamic sub-carrier allocation – based upon channel state conditions.

– E.g. – due to frequency selective fading, user 1 may have good channels on
sub-carriers 33-48, user 3 might have good channels on sub-carriers 1-16.
– Users can swap the static allocations.

Figure : Combination of FDMA with TDMA

OFDMA-OFDM
 Time Division Multiple Access (OFDM-TDMA)

• A particular user is given all the sub-carrier of the system for any particular symbol
duration.
• Each user is assigned a time slot during which all the sub-carriers can be used for
the particular user.
• Adaptive loading can be performed on all the subcarriers, depending on channel
conditions.
• The number of symbols per frame can be varied based on each user’s requirement.

Figure : Combination of FDMA with

TDMA
 Code Division Multiple Access (OFDM-CDMA or
MC-CDMA)
• Hybrid access scheme that contains benefits:
1. OFDM: Provides a simple method to overcome the ISI effect of the multi-
path frequency selective channel
2. CDMA: Provides frequency diversity and multi-user access scheme
• Frequency domain spreading – better performance than time domain spreading.
• Each data symbols are simultaneously sent on N different sub-carriers.
 Comparison between OFDM_TDMA, OFDM_FDMA, OFDM_CDMA

Granularity

OFDM_TDMA OFDM_FDMA OFDM_CDMA

Complexity

Multiple types Advantages Disadvantages

OFDM_TDMA  Simple implementation  Frequency-reuse factor ≥ 3

 Flexibility
 Relatively high latency
OFDM_FDMA  Power savings Simple resource
 Frequency-reuse factor ≥ 3
allocation
 Easiest to implement  Lowest flexibility

OFDM_CDMA  Spectral efficiency  Requirement of power

 Frequency diversity control
 Implementation complexity
 MAI and ICI interference resistance
 Frequency-reuse factor = 1
 Highest flexibility
 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
(OFDMA)
• OFDMA systems allocate subscribers time frequent slices(“Resource grids)
• A resource block (RB) is the smallest unit of resources that can be allocated to a user.
• It consisting of M subcarriers over some number of consecutive OFDM symbols in time.
• The M subcarriers can either be
• Bunched together in M contiguous subcarriers: Which is often called a "band
AMC," "local- ized," or "grouped" cluster. The band AMC mode, instead
attempts to use subcarriers where the SINR is roughly equal and to choose the
best coding and modulation scheme for that SINR.
• Spread out over the band: It often called a "distributed," "comb," or "diversity"
allocation. The distributed allocation achieves frequency diversity over the entire
band, and would typically rely on interleaving and coding to correct errors
caused by poor subcarriers.
 OFDMA- The M sub-carriers can be arranged as :

 Bunched together in M contiguous  Spread out over the band –

sub-carriers – band AMC / localized / distributed / comb / diversity allocation
grouped cluster.
 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
(OFDMA)
• Table 4.1 summarizes the notation used in the explanation
 OFDMA: How It Works

• The basic flow is very similar to an OFDM system except for now k users share the L

subcarriers, with each user being allocated Mk subcarriers.

• In theory it is possible to have users share subcarriers, this never occurs in practice, so ∑ 𝑘 𝑀𝑘

= 𝐿 and each subcarrier only has one user assigned to it.

• At each receiver, the user cares only about its own 𝑀𝑘 subcarriers, but still has to apply an L

point FFT to the received digital waveform in order to extract the desired subset of subcarriers.

• Receiver has to know which time-frequency resources it has been allocated in order to extract

the correct subcarriers: the control signaling that achieves.

• OFDMA downlink receiver must mostly demodulate the entire waveform, which wastes

power, but digital separation of users is simple to enforce at the receiver and the amount of

residual inter user interference is very low compared to either CDMA or FDMA.
 OFDMA Downlink Tx

OFDMA Downlink Rx for user 1

 OFDMA : How it works

• The transmitter modulates user 𝑘′𝑠 bits over just the 𝑀𝑘 subcarriers of interest: in
this case, we have chosen 𝑀𝑘 = 𝑀 for all users, and shown user 1 occupying
subcarriers 1,2, • • • , M of the L total subcarriers.
• All the users' signals collide at the receiver's antenna, and are collectively
demodulated using the receiver's FFT.
• Assuming each subcarrier has only a single user on it, the demodulated subcarriers
can be de- mapped to the detectors for each of the K served users.
• Uplink OFDMA is more challenging than downlink OFDMA since the uplink is
naturally asynchronous, that is the users' signals arrive at the receiver offset slightly
in time (and frequency) from each other.
• This is not the case in the downlink since the transmitter is common for all users.
These time and frequency offsets can result in considerable self-interference if they
become large.
• In the distributed subcarrier mode, sufficiently large frequency offsets can severely
OFDMA Uplink Tx for user 1

OFDMA Uplink Rx
 OFDMA : How it works

• Base station is transmitting a band AMC type OFDMA signal to 4 different

devices simultaneously.

• 3 arrows of each user – signaling that must happen for band AMC to work.

• 1st the MS measures and feedback their channel quality – CSI channel
state information (SINR) to the BS.

• BS then allocates subcarriers to the 4 users and send this subcarrier

allocation information to the 4 users in a overhead message.

• Finally actual data is transmitted over the subcarriers assigned to each users.
OFDMA : How it works
 OFDMA Advantages & Disadvantages
OFDMA Advantages:
• OFDMA provide robust multipath suppression, relatively low complexity, and the creation
of frequency diversity.
• OFDMA is a flexible multiple access technique that can accommodate many users with
widely varying applications, data rates, and QoS requirements.
• Multiple access is performed in the digital domain, dynamic, flexible, and efficient
bandwidth allocation is possible.
• It makes receiver simple as it eliminates intra-cell interference which avoids multi- user
detection of CDMA type. Here only FFT processing is needed.
• Lower data rates (such as voice) and bursty data are handled much more efficiently in
OFDMA than in single-user OFDM (i.e., OFDM-TDMA) or with CSMA.

OFDMA Disadvantages:
• OFDMA has higher PAPR (Peak to Average Power Ratio). Hence large amplitude
variations lead to increase of in-band noise.
• OFDMA requires very tight time/frequency/channel equalizations between users.
This is achieved with the help of preamble, pilot signals and other signal processing
techniques.
 Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access
(SC-FDMA)

• SC-FDMA is employed in the LTE Uplink.

• Conceptually, this system evolves naturally from SC-FDE modulation approach.

• SC-FDE is a single-carrier modulation technique, it is not possible for an uplink

user to use only part of the spectrum.SC-FDMA can reasonably be called "FFT (or
DFT) pre-coded OFDMA.
• SC-FDMA more closely resembles OFDMA because it still requires an IFFT
operation at the transmitter in order to separate the users.
• The goal of SC-FDMA is

• Take the low peak-to-average ratio (PAR) properties of SC-FDE.

• Achieve an OFDMA-type system that allows partial usage of the frequency

band.
 SC-FDMA : How it Works

• SC-FDMA uplink Tx is similar to OFDMA uplink TX.

• Difference is – user’s Mk complex symbols are pre-processed with an FFT of

size Mk.

• In SC-FDMA uplink Rx – for each Mk subcarriers an additional IFFT must be

applied prior to detection to bring the received data back into the time domain.

• Like OFDMA, in SC-FDMA also frequency domain equalization is applied to

each user’s signal independently after the FFT.

• Then users signals are de-mapped based on the current subcarrier allocation.
SC-FDMA Uplink Transmitter

SC-FDMA Uplink Receiver

 SC-FDMA Advantages & Disadvantages

 SC-FDMA Advantages

– PAR of SC-FDMA is significantly lower than OFDMA.

– Low cost and power constraints experienced by mobile handsets.

– Only part of the frequency spectrum is used by any one user at a time, like in OFDM
 SC-FDMA Advantages

– SC-FDMA can experience more spectral leakage than OFDMA.

– Achieve frequency diversity differently, leading to slight differences in performance.

– SC-FDMA has a more complexity both the transmitter and receiver compare to OFDM.

– Need additional FFT of size 𝑀𝑘 has to be performed for each user at the transmitter and
receiver.
 OFDMA & SC-FDMA in LTE

• Any OFDMA-based standard specify following things in order for the

system to work.
• It must specify the "quanta," or units, of time-frequency resource
(RB) that can be assigned.
• It must specify messaging protocols that allow the MS to request
resources when necessary, and to know what resources they have
been assigned, both for transmission and reception.
• Ranging procedures must be specified so that simultaneous uplink
transmissions from several different mobile units can be reliably
decoded at the base station.
 1. LTE Time-Frequency Grid
• In LTE mobile units are allocated groups of subcarriers over time & frequency –
resource blocks, with size chosen based on the overhead size.
• Assigning any subcarrier to any user in any time slot requires large overheads for
the allocation for all the mobile units.
• OFDM-TDMA system gives lower overhead – but inefficient in terms of total
throughput delay & peak power.
• Resources are allocated to the users in units of resource blocks over a subframe =
12 subcarriers over 2x7 = 14 OFDM symbols for a total of 168 resource elements –
each resource elements are QAM symbols

Figure: The Structure of LTE Time –Frequency Grid

 LTE Resource Block

• Subcarriers in the resource block can be allocated in 2 ways:

• 1st – Distributed subcarrier allocation –

– Takes advantage of frequency diversity by spreading the resource block hop across the
entire BW.

– This can be done by using a comb pattern at any given point of time for a given user
so that its subcarriers occur at even intervals across the entire frequency BW.

– Used in downlink OFDMA.

– Frequency diversity can be provided by hopping a contiguous block of subcarriers in

time –used in SC-FDMA uplink.

• 2nd – Adjacent subcarrier allocation –

–
OFDMA comb-style subcarrier allocation in time
 2. Allocation Notification and Uplink Feedback

• BS broadcast the information to the active users in its cell regarding which subcarriers
to use for uplink and downlink.
• This overhead signaling is done on PDCCH - Physical downlink control channel –
it specifies the following:
– Downlink resource block allocation
– Uplink resource block allocation
– QAM constellation to use per resource block
– Type and rate of coding to use per resource block
• Once user decodes PDCCH, it gets the information on the uplink & downlink.
• PDCCH is sent over the first 2-3 OFDM symbols of each sub-frames for all the
subcarriers – 14-21% of the total downlink capacity is used by PDCCH.
• LTE uses buffer status reporting – BSR – each user notifies the BS about its queue
length & channel quality information CQI.
• BSR feedback is only used for uplink scheduling and CQI feedback is used for
 3. Power Control

• OFDMA & SC-FDMA systems provides orthogonality but still suffer from 2 types of self
interference.
• Inter-cell interference – neighboring cells allocate the same time-frequency resource blocks
to their users and cause interference.
– Occurs in both uplink & downlink. But more severe in downlink cell-edge users as they
are equidistant from 2 BS.
– Problem is solved by power control - it equalizes SINR over the cell.

• Self interference – caused due to imperfect time-frequency-power synchronization between

different uplink users.
– If power control is not used different signals may be received at different power, causing
a dynamic range problem.
– Strong users will dominate the A/D dynamic range and weak users will have severe
Thank You