10/31/2011 1

Introduction to OFDM
Fire Tom Wada
Professor, Information Engineering, Univ. of the Ryukyus
Chief Scientist at Magna Design Net, Inc
wada@ie.u-ryukyu.ac.jp
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 1950s
Theory completed in 1960s
DFT implementation proposed in 1970s
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,
k
fc,


Three type digital modulation:
ASK : Amplitude Shift Keying
PSK : Phase Shift Keying
FSK : Frequency Shift Keying
s t A f t
c k
( ) cos( ) = + 2t u
OFDM uses combination of ASK and PSK such as QAM, PSK
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Symbol Waveform
1 0 1 0 0
Digital Information
carrier
ASK
PSK
FSK
Symbol length
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Multi bit modulation
1 0 1 0 0
carrier
BPSK
1bit per symbol
QPSK
2bit per symbol
10
11 01 00 01
Symbol length
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Mathematical expression
of digital modulation
Transmission signal can be expressed as follows
s(t) can be expressed by complex base-band signal
] ) Re[( ) (
sin , cos
) 2 sin( sin ) 2 cos( cos
) 2 cos( ) (
2 t fc j
k k
k k k k
c k c k
k c
e jb a t s
b a
t f t f
t f t s

+ =
= =
=
+ =
t
u u
t u t u
u t


( ) a jb e
k k
j fc t
+
2t
( ) a jb
k k
+
e
j fc t 2t
Indicates carrier sinusoidal
Digital modulation
Digital modulation can be expressed by the complex number
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Constellation map
(a
k
+ jb
k
) is plotted on I(real)-Q(imaginary) plane
data
a
k
b
k
00 /4
01 3 /4
11 5 /4
10 7 /4
1
2
1
2

1
2

1
2

1
2

1
2
1
2
1
2
QPSK
I
Q
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Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
(QAM)
I
Q
I
Q
16QAM 64QAM
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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



Plot of the coefficients gives
the constellation map
( ) a jb
k k
+
I
Q
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Frequency Division Multiple Access
(FDMA)
Old conventional method (Analog TV, Radio etc.)
Use separate carrier frequency for individual
transmission
Radio
frequency
f

f
2
f
3
f
N
Carrier frequency
Occupied BW
Channel
separation
Guard band
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Japan VHF channel assignment
Channel Separation =
6MHz

Channel number Frequency (MHz)
1 90-96
2 96-102
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
data
cos( ) 2
1
tf t
cos( ) 2
2
tf t
cos( ) 2tf t
N
cos( ) 2
1
tf t
cos( ) 2
2
tf t
cos( ) 2tf t
N
LPF
LPF
LPF
data
D
E
M
U
L
T
I
P
L
E
X

M
U
L
T
I
P
L
E
X

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Spectrum comparison for
same data rate transmission
frequency
Single carrier
frequency
OFDM
frequency
Multi carrier
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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 n1/T
Symbol period T
cos( ) 2 1
0 1
t u + f t
T
f
1
0
=
cos( ) 2 2
0 2
t u + f t
cos( ) 2 3
0 3
t u + f t
cos( ) 2 4
0 4
t u + f t
cos( ) 2 5
0 5
t u + f t
cos( ) 2 6
0 6
t u + f t
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Sinusoidal Orthogonality
m,n: integer, T=1/f
0

cos( ) cos( )
( )
( )
sin( ) sin( )
( )
( )
cos( ) sin( )
2 2
2
0
2 2
2
0
2 2 0
0 0
0
0 0
0
0 0
0
t t
t t
t t
mf t nf t dt
T
m n
m n
mf t nf t dt
T
m n
m n
mf t nf t dt
T
T
T
=
=
=

=
=
=

=
}
}
}




Orthogonal
Orthogonal
Orthogonal
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A sub-carrier of f=nf
0
Amplitude and Phase will be digitally modulated
a nf t b nf t
a b nf t
b
a
n n
n n n n
n
n

= + + =

cos( ) sin( )
cos( ), tan
2 2
2
0 0
2 2
0
1
t t
t | |
n cycles
t=0 t=T
Time
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Base-band OFDM signal
{ }
s t a nf t b nf t
B n n
n
N
( ) cos( ) sin( ) =
=

2 2
0 0
0
1
t t

n=0
n=1
n=2
n=3
n=4
n=5
n=6
s
B
(t)
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How a
n
,b
n
are caluculated from s
B
(t)
- Demodulation Procedure -
According to the sinusoidal orthogonality, a
n
,b
n
can be extracted.
In actual implementation, DFT(FFT) is used
N is roughly 64 for WLAN, thoudand for Terrestrial Video
Broadcasting
{ }
{ }
s t kf t dt
a nf t kf t dt b nf t kf t dt
T
a
s t kf t dt
T
b
B
T
n n
T T
n
N
k
B k
T
( ) cos( )
cos( ) cos( ) sin( ) cos( )
( ) sin( )

=
=
=
}
} }

}
=

2
2 2 2 2
2
2
2
0
0
0 0 0 0
0 0
0
1
0
0
t
t t t t
t
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Pass-band OFDM signal
S
B
(t) is upcoverted to pass-band signal S(t)
f
c
frequency shift
{ } { }
| |
s t a f nf t b f nf t
n c n c
n
N
( ) cos ( ) sin ( ) = + +
=

2 2
0 0
0
1
t t
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Actual OFDM spectrum
f

(-1)

f

(+1)

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OFDM power spectrum
Total Power spectrum is almost square shape
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OFDM signal generation
Direct method needs
N digital modulators
N carrier frequency generator
Not practical
In 1971, method using DFT is proposed to
OFDM siganal generation
{ } { }
| |
s t a f nf t b f nf t
n c n c
n
N
( ) cos ( ) sin ( ) = + +
=

2 2
0 0
0
1
t t
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OFDM signal generation in digital domain
Define complex base-band signal u(t) as follows
Perform N times sampling in period T
| |
s t u t
u t d e d a jb
B
n
j nf t
n
N
n n n
( ) Re ( )
( ) ,
=
= = +
=

2
0
1
0
t

u
k
Nf
d e d e
d e k N
n
j nf
k
Nf
n
N
n
j
nk
N
n
N
n
j
N
nk
n
N
0
2
0
1
2
0
1
2
0
1
0
0
0 1 2 1
|
\

|
.
|
= =
=
|
\

|
.
|
=
=

t
t
t
( , , , , )
u(k) = IFFT (d
n
) = IFFT(a
n
+ jb
n
)
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OFDM modulator
M
A
P
S
/
P
I-DFT
P
/
S
Real
cos( ) 2tf t
C

generated
0
~d

AIR
Bit
stream
Imag
sin( ) 2tf t
C
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OFDM demodulation
{ } { } | |
{ } ) (
2
1
) 2 sin( ) 2 cos(
2
1
)] 2 cos( ) ( [
) ( 2 sin ) ( 2 cos ) (
1
0
0 0
1
0
0 0
t s t nf b t nf a t f t s LPF
t nf f b t nf f a t s
I
N
n
n n C
N
n
c n c n
= =
+ + =

=
t t t
t t
{ } { } ) (
2
1
) 2 cos( ) 2 sin(
2
1
] ) 2 sin( ) ( [
1
0
0 0
t s t nf b t nf a t f t s LPF
Q
N
n
n n C
= + =

=
t t t
u t s t js t d e
I Q n
j nf t
n
N
( ) ( ) ( ) = + =
=

2
0
1
0
t
d
n
= FFT(u(k))
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OFDM demodulator (Too simple)
T
u
n
e
r
S
/
P
DFT
P
/
S
A
/
D
LPF
Channel
cos( ) 2tf t
C
/2
LPF
D
E
M
A
P
Bit
Stream
10/31/2011 32
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/f

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Multi-path
Delayed wave causes interference
Base St at ion
Mobile
Recept ion
Pat h 2
Pat h 3
Direct Pat h
Building
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Multi-pass effect
Inter symbol interference (ISI) happens in Multi-path condition
T=1/f

Symbol k Symbol k-1 Symbol k+1
Sampling Period
No multi-path
Sampling Period
Multi-path
Direct
Delayed
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Guard Interval T
g
By adding the Gurard Interval Period, ISI can be
avoided
OFDM symbol(1/f
0
)
Copy signal
T
g
T
g
Direct
Delayed
OFDM symbol (1/f
0
) T
g
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
Frequency
utilization is low
Area 1
Area 2
Area 3
Area 4
f
f2
f3
f1
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Single Frequency Network
Area 1
Area 2
Area 3
Area 4
f
f
f
f1
If multi-path
problem is solved,
SFN is possible
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Thats 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