Mobile Communication
V Networks
Multi-carrier Modulation
OFDM
Note: Some slides and/or pictures in the following are adapted from slides ©2010 AAU, Bettstetter - Mobile and
Wireless Systems; ©2012 TUB, Schiller - Telematics, Mobile Communications; and adapted from books: ©2015 Beard
and Stallings – Wireless Communication Networks and Systems; ©2003 Schiller: Mobile Communications (2ed);
©2008 Eberspächer et al - GSM – Architecture, Protocols, and Services (3ed)
Inter-Symbol-Interference
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opagation Power delay
significant profile
significant inter-symbol
inter-symbol Christian Bettstetter
Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt
gnal is interference
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occurs. 49 Mobile Systems Group
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Delay spread imposes a limit on the achievable data rate
frequency selective fading and
Jamming
frequency selective
fading Jamming
channel
quality
V
frequency
signal
spectrum
Questions:
• How to overcome data rate limitation due to ISI?
• How to cope with (time varying) frequency selective
fading?
• How to cope with narrow-band interference?
(unintentional or jamming)
• Can multiple users transmit simultaneously in the same
frequency band?
Multi-carrier Modulation
Single-carrier Modulation
• In a single carrier modulation scheme each data
symbol is transmitted sequentially on a single carrier
à signaling interval equal to data symbol duration
• In a single carrier modulation scheme the modulated
carrier occupies the entire available bandwidth
Multi-carrier Modulation (MCM)
• In a multi-carrier modulation (MCM) scheme, N
sequential data symbols are transmitted
simultaneously (in parallel) on N multiple carriers
à signaling interval equal to N times data symbol
duration
• In a multi-carrier modulation scheme each
modulated carrier occupies only a small part of the
entire available bandwidth
Multi-carrier Modulation
Multi&carrier+Modulation
Single'carrier
Single'carrier 1/T
1/T
0
0 T
T 2T 3T
2T 3T 4T
4T
ffcc
Carrier
Carrier Spectrum
Spectrum
T:'single'carrier'signal'symbol'duration
T:'single'carrier'signal'symbol'duration
Multi.carrier
Multi.carrier Carrier'1
Carrier'1
1/NT
1/NT 1/NT
1/NT 1/NT
1/NT
Carrier'2
Carrier'2
.. .. ..
s/p
s/p ...
0
0 T
T 2T 3T
2T 3T 4T
4T .
Carrier'N
Carrier'N ffc1
c1 ffc2
c2 ffcN
cN
Spectrum
Spectrum
NT:'multi?carrier'signal'symbol'duration
NT:'multi?carrier'signal'symbol'duration
Multi&carrier+Modulation++++++++
MCM on Multipath Channels
on+Multipath+Channels
path%2%
Two9path%channel% path%1%
Transmitter Receiver
relative%delay%=%T
Time%domain%interpretation
path%1 path%1%
... ... ... ...
0 T 2T 3T 4T Significant' 0 NT 2NT Negligible'
path%2% ISI path%2% ISI
... ... ... ...
0 T T 2T% 3T% 4T% 0 T NT+T 2NT+T
Single9carrier%case Multi9carrier%case
Frequency%domain%interpretation
Two9path%channel% Two9path%channel%
frequency%response frequency%response
...
Significant'' Negligible'
fc distortion fc1 fc2 fcN distortion
Single9carrier%case Multi9carrier%case
How OFDM works
• Start with a data stream of R bps
– Could be sent with bandwidth B
– With bit duration Tb = 1/R
• OFDM splits into N parallel data streams
– Called subcarriers
– Each with bandwidth B’ = B/N = fb
– And data rate R’ = R/N
– Bit duration Tb’= 1/R’ = N/R = N*Tb
Conceptual Understanding of Orthogonal
Frequency Division Multiplexing
R/N bps
Modulator
f0 + (N – 1)fb /2
R/N bps
Modulator
f0 + 3fb /2
Modulator
Serial-to- R/N bps
R bps
parallel R/N bps f0 + fb /2
convertor
Modulator
f0 – fb /2
Modulator
R/N bps
f0 – 3fb /2
R/N bps
Modulator
f0 – (N – 1)fb /2
Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (OFDM)
• OFDM is a multi-carrier modulation scheme
• In OFDM the frequency spacing between adjacent subcarriers
is fb=1/(NT)
• fb=1/(NT) is the minimum frequency separation that is
necessary to ensure orthogonality between the sub-carriers
over the signaling interval of length NT
• In OFDM the frequency spectrum of each sub-carrier overlaps
the frequency spectrum of adjacent sub-carriers
Orthogonality
• The spacing of the fb frequencies allows tight
packing of signals
– Actually with overlap between the signals
– Signals at spacing of fb , 2fb, 3fb ,etc.
Orthogonality
• The choice of fb is related to the bit rate to
make the signals orthogonal
– Average over bit time of s1(t) × s2(t) = 0
– Receiver is able to extract only the s1(t) signal
• If there is no corruption in the frequency spacing
Orthogonality
• Traditional FDM makes signals completely
avoid frequency overlap
– OFDM allows overlap which greatly increases
capacity
Illustration of Orthogonality of OFDM
A
Amplitude (volts)
Time
0
–A
1/(3fb)
1/(2fb)
Period = T = 1/fb
(a) Three subcarriers in time domain
S(f)
fb 2fb 3fb
(b) Three orthogonal subcarriers in frequency domain
S(f)
fb 7fb 13fb
(c) Three carriers using traditional FDM
Orthogonality
• Given an OFDM subcarrier bit time of T
– fb must be a multiple of 1/T
• Example: IEEE 802.11n wireless LAN
– 20 MHz total bandwidth
• Only 15 MHz can be used
– 48 subcarriers
– fb = 0.3125 MHz
– Signal is translated to 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz bands
Benefits of OFDM
• Frequency selective fading only affects some
subcarriers
– Can easily be handled with a forward error-
correcting code
– Easier to equalize
Benefits of OFDM
• More importantly, OFDM overcomes intersymbol
interference (ISI)
– ISI is a caused by multipath signals arriving in later bits
– OFDM bit times are much, much longer (by a factor of N)
• ISI is dramatically reduced
– N is chosen so the root-mean-square delay spread is
significantly smaller than the OFDM bit time
– It may not be necessary to deploy equalizers to
overcome ISI
• Eliminates the use of these complex and expensive devices.
Benefits of OFDM
• Bandwidth efficiency
• Possible use of Adaptive Modulation and Coding
(AMC) in each of the subcarriers
OFDMA
• Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple
Access (OFDMA) uses OFDM to share the
wireless channel
– Different users can have different slices of time
and different groups of subcarriers
– Subcarriers are allocated in groups
• Called subchannels or resource blocks
• Too much computation to allocate every subcarrier
separately
OFDM 8-21
OFDMA
• Subchannel allocation
– Adjacent subcarriers – similar SINR
• Must measure to find the best subchannel
– Regularly spaced subcarriers – diverse SINR
– Randomly space subcarriers – diverse SINR and
reduced adjacent-cell interference
OFDM and OFDMA
Frequency of subcarrier
(a) OFDM
Pilot Pilot Pilot Pilot Pilot Pilot
carrier carrier carrier carrier carrier carrier
Subchannel Subchannel Subchannel Subchannel Subchannel Subchannel
Frequency of subcarrier
(b) OFDMA (adjacent subcarriers)
Opportunistic scheduling
• Schedule subchannels and power levels based on
– Channel conditions
– Data requirements
• Adjust in a dynamic fashion
– Use channel variations as an opportunity to schedule the best
choice in users
• Hence the term opportunistic scheduling
– Criteria (maybe more than one used simultaneously)
• System efficiency – pick users with best throughput
• Fairness – proportional fairness considers the ratio of users’ current
rates to the users’ average rates to know when a channel is best for
them
• Requirements – audio, video
• Priority – public safety, emergency, or priority customers
Single-carrier FDMA
• SC-FDMA has similar structure and performance to
OFDMA
– Mobile user benefits – battery life, power efficiency, lower
cost
– Good for uplinks
• However:
– Spreads data symbols over all subcarriers
– Every data symbol is carried by every subcarrier
• Multiple access is not possible
– At one time, all subcarriers must be dedicated to one user
– Multiple access is provided by using different time slots
Example of OFDMA and SC-FDMA
Amplitude Amplitude
bo A
bo A
m M
sy DM
sy -FD
l
l
OF
SC
m
e
e
m
bo A
Ti
Ti
bo A
m M
sy DM
sy -FD
l
l
OF
SC
m
fb kHz Frequency
N fb kHz
Frequency
N fb kHz
(a) OFDMA: Data symbols occupy fb kHz (b) SC-FDMA: Data symbols occupy N fb kHz
for one OFDMA symbol period for 1/N SC-FDMA symbol period
Example: LTE networks
• OFDMA for downlink
• SC-FDMA for uplink
Literature
Wireless Communication Networks and Systems,
C. Beard and W. Stallings, Prentice Hall
• Chap 8
28
