Simulation of OFDM Technique for wireless communication systems

Albe Bloul, Saeed Mohseni, Bader Alhasson, Mustafa Ayad and M. A. Matin
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
School of Engineering and Computer Engineering
University of Denver


ABSTRACT

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (OFDM) is a modulation technique to transmit the baseband Radio signals
over Fiber (RoF). Combining OFDM modulation technique and radio over fiber technology will improve future wireless
communication. This technique can be implemented using laser and photodetector as optical modulator and
demodulator. OFDM uses multiple sub-carriers to transmit low data rate streams in parallel, by using Quadrature
Amplitude Modulation (QAM) or Phase Shift Keying (PSK). In this paper we will compare power spectrum signal and
signal constellation of transmitted and received signals in RoF using Matlab and OptiSystem simulation software.

Keywords: OFDM, RoF, QPSK, PSK and QAM.


1. INTRODUCTION

OFDM is a modulation technique for transferring high-data-rate baseband signal for wireless communications by using
multicarrier transmission schemes [1]. It is a technique that broadly used modulation technique in modern broadband
wireless communication systems to increase robustness against many type of interference such as frequency selective
fading and narrowband interference [2]. In addition, OFDM is an efficient method to deal with multi-path delay spread;
however, OFDM achieves that by splitting high rate data streams into lower rate data streams. Hence, which are then
can be transmitted in parallel over multiple subcarriers. The OFDM subcarriers can be modulated by PSK or QAM
modulation techniques. The resulted signals can be carried on high frequency carrier of five Giga Hertz. In fact coded
OFDM provides strong communications potential with the frequency range from channel coding and interleaving. More
bits were added at the transmitter, which used as an error correcting code, so many bits can be corrected when it is
received. Many modern communications systems were developed by using OFDM technique, and can be used for future
of communication systems such as 4th generation wireless systems. Thus, the combination of OFDM and RoF systems
(OFDM-RoF) has attracted researchers for future Giga Bit broadband wireless communication [3].

RoF technology has several advantages such as immunity to electromagnetic interference, high bandwidth and low
power consumption. In RoF system uses optical components and techniques to distribute the microwave electrical
signals. The RoF system consists of transmitting site, receiver site and the transmission media which is the fiber link or a
network that connects the transmitter and receiver. The transmitted electrical signals could be baseband signal or an
actual RF signal. These signals will be carried over the optical transmission media till reach the receiver. Microwaves
and millimeter-waves signals can be transmitted using RoF through optical fiber for long distance; this capacity makes
the particular RoF is a promising technique for wireless local area network, so that it can solve many interference
problems at the receiver site [4, 5].

Consequently, in our simulation we are going to use the both 4-QAM-OFDM and QPSK-OFDM as modulation
technique for transmitting baseband signal on Single Mode Fiber (SMF). We used both of Matlab and OptiSystem
software packages to find the power spectrum and constellation of QPSK-OFDM and 4-QAM-OFDM transmissions over
optical fiber and then compared our results.

Optics and Photonics for Information Processing IV, edited by Abdul Ahad Sami Awwal,
Khan M. Iftekharuddin, Scott C. Burkhart, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 7797, 77971B 2010 SPIE
CCC code: 0277-786X/10/$18 doi: 10.1117/12.863101
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2. SYSTEM DESIGN
In Matlab and OptiSystem applications software, our systems include transmitter, transmission media and receiver as
shown in figure 1. OFDM contain multicarrier communication system with orthogonal sub-carriers with specific spacing
[3].With this carrier spacing, the sub-channels can maintain orthogonally, even though the sub-channels overlap.
Therefore, there is no inter-sub-carrier interference with OFDM systems and that is one of the greatest advantages of
OFDM techniques. Therefore, each individual sub-channel does not affected significantly by Inter-symbol Interference
(ISI) [6].

2.1 Matlab Simulink model
In this section, we used Matlab/ Simulink software package version 8 to model our OFDM transmitter and receiver
system as shown in figure 1.


Figure 1. QPSK-OFDM Transmitter and Receiver system model.

2.1.1 Design of transmitter and receiver system
In the figure 1, the transmitter contains several parts that perform different functions required to produce the signal to be
transmitted over the channel. The first block in our model is a binary source generator, which is used to generate
distributed random binary numbers.

The second block is Reed Solomon (RS) Double Error Correcting (DEC) code has been used as Forward Error
Correction (FEC) code for baseband signal to be used as an input to the next stage. RS Encoder contains of an input unit
and output unit. The input unit is used to build an input port for a subsystem. Whereas the output unit build an output
port for a subsystem. The input of RS Encoder will used to build a RS code [6].


The third block is consisted of the QPSK modulator and training. Its used to provide input for QPSK symbol generation,
gain unit and QPSK Modulator Baseband. The Training block consists of two main parts which are Uni-polar to Bipolar
Converter, sequence generator and outport unit.

The fourth block is OFDM which is baseband modulator; it is used to generate the OFDM signal. In order to eliminate
the effect of dispersive channel distortion in high data rate OFDM system, cyclic prefix is added to remove inter-symbol
QPSK Modulator

OFDM Modulator
Laser Diode

P/S
RS Encoder Binary
Source
Training
Separation

OFDM Demodulator
QPSK Demodulator

RS Decoder
Cannel Estimator
Photo Diode Cannel

S/P
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interference. The multiport selector of the OFDM modulator distributes the input rows or the columns vertically or
horizontally respectively. The other component of the OFDM modulator is known as Zero pad that changes the input
dimensions by truncating rows or columns of the matrix signal. In addition, the zero-pad block contains the selector that
used to select the input element from the matrix signal [7, 8].

The fifth block is the Inverse Fast Fourier Transformer (IFFT), which is used to ensure that the transmitted data is carried
on narrow band sub-carriers in time domain over the transmission channel and then transformed part to frequency
domain at the receiver by using Fast Fourier Transformer (FFT). Each OFDM symbol is extended by a cyclic prefix that
is to avoid the reception problems when receiving multipath radio signals.

Another block of the transmitting system is the training insertion, which recognizes training pattern in OFDM symbol
and put them at known defined position in OFDM symbol to make simpler training process. The last block is parallel to
serial converter this component converts the parallel data stream into a serial data stream and produces OFDM signal by
sequentially outputting the time domain samples [6, 7]. In our model simulation system we used the laser as the last stage
in our transmitter system to convert the serial OFDM signal from electrical signal to optical signal then the optical signal
will be carried SMF.

Figure (2) shows the laser model that used to modulate OFDM signal. Equation (1) describes the output optical power of
the laser-diode. A laser-diode demonstrates a nonlinear behavior with memory which is called weak non-linearity. When
the laser is driven above the threshold current, its input/output relationship becomes non linear, which is used to model
the diode input/output characteristic. To make our analysis simpler, a power series of order 3 can be used to adequately
model the non-linear behavior of the laser, so that simple models can be used more readily for the analysis of OFDM
signals as well as narrow-band systems [9].




Figure 2. The Laser Model.

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P
opt
= - 0.0045+0. 32(I (t)-I
th
) + 147.05(I (t)-I
th
)
2
-12033(I(t)-I
th
)
3
(1)

Where,
I (t) = The input current of the microwave signal including the DC bias.
I
th
= The diode threshold current.
P
opt
= The output optical power of the laser.



OFDM receiver performs the opposite processes of the transmitter to recover the baseband signal and then transmit it to
the corresponding wireless end user. The first stage of the receiver is the photodetector block as shown in figure (3),
which is used to receive and convert the optical signal to electrical signal. Afterwards, the electrical signal will be
passing through the serial to parallel block, training separation and the OFDM demodulator. After the OFDM signal
demodulated and the cyclic prefix is removed, the produced signal will pass through channel estimator, channel
compensation, Remove Zero blocks, QPSK Remapping block and then finally through RS decoder [10].





Figure 3. The Photodetector Model.





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2.2 OptiSystem model

Our OptiSystem model is a very simple, to implement with different component. We use these components to built our
4-QAM-OFDM transmitter and receiver system, most of the components of the system have same functions as the
components of the system built at section 2.1 with more accuracy in performance as shown in figure (4).


Figure 4. 4-QAM-OFDM Transmitter and Receiver System.

3. SIMULATION RESULTS DISCUSSION AND COMPARISON
In this section, we are going to present the simulation results of both Matlab Simulink and OptiSystem simulation
packages. The results and performance of both methods are compared.

3.1. Matlab/ Simulink results
3.1.1 OFDM over fiber Transmitted and Received Signal



(a) (b)
Figure 5. OFDM over fiber: (a) Transmitted signal; (b) Received Signal
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Figure 5. Shows the real part and image part of OFDM over fiber transmitted and received signal. Figure 5(a) shows that
the transmitted signal, which is the same as signal before sending it over fiber link whereas the received signal in figure
5(b) is different from the transmitted signal before sending it over fiber. Its clear from figure 5(b) that the photodetector
at the receiver can be used as an optical demodulator when the laser diode used as an optical modulator.



(a) (b)
Figure 6. Signal constellation diagram: (a) before channel estimation; (b) after channel estimation.

Figure (6) above shows two types of QPSK constellation symbols diagram, the constellation before channel estimation
and the constellation after channel estimation. Both figures above represent the complex envelope of each possible
symbol state. Figure 6(a) shows that the constellations of transmitted OFDM signal. The single frequency carrier wave
components binary-level modulation is applied by the QPSK, which results a space for an output signal, or four message
points constellation. Each message point conveys two informations bits. QPSK is able to hold double much information
of similar bandwidths amount while the two components of carrier wave is applied. The constellation after channel
estimation is shown in Figure 6(b) the power efficiency is related to the minimum distance between the points in the
constellation.





(a) (b)
Figure 7. OFDM power spectrum: (a) Transmitted power spectrum; (b) Received power spectrum

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Figure (7) shows two situation of OFDM signals spectrum over fiber, transmitted spectrum and received spectrum. The
OFDM signal has been used to modulate the laser. The resulted optical signal is then carried over the optical fiber link as
shown in figure 7(a). Figure 7(b) shows OFDM received power spectrum. The spectral shape is slightly modified by the
guard interval by reducing the ripples in the side lobe and introducing ripples into the main lobe. The spectrum becomes
closer to a rectangular shape as the side lobes of the complete OFDM spectrum show a steeper decay.

3.2. Opt System simulation results


(a) (b)
Figure 8. Signal constellation diagram: (a) Transmitted signal constellation; (b) Received signal constellation.

Figure 8(a). represents the OFDM transmitted signal before OFDM modulation. The recovered signal constellation
diagram after OFDM and Quadrature demodulation is shown in Figure 8(b). The blue spots represent the signal whereas
the red spots represent the low noise. When figure 8. (a, b) is compared to the Matlab results in figure 6 (a, b), it clear
that the results of figure 8(b) is more clear than the result of figure 6(a, b) in terms of signal power and noise.

) b ( ) a (
Figure 9. Signal constellation diagram: (a) Transmitted RF OFDM spectrum after OFDM & Quadrature modulation;
(b) Received RF OFDM spectrum before OFDM & Quadrature modulation.

The generated RF OFDM power spectrum is shown in Figure 9. The RF OFDM signal is then used to drive the
modulator. It clears that the received power spectrums of OFDM signal is very close to the transmitted OFDM power
spectrum in terms of bandwidth and main lobes as shown in figure 9 (a, b). We noticed that the bandwidth and the
signal shape and the power spectrum of figure 9 (a, b), much better than that results of figure 7(a, b), which indicates that
the OptiSystem package produces more accurate results than the Matlab package.
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4. CONCUSION

This paper presents a QPSK-OFDM Transmitter and Receiver System model and 4-QAM-OFDM system model. The QPSK-OFDM
model is implemented in Matlab/Simulink software whereas the 4-QAM-OFDM is implemented in OptiSystem simulation package.
The results for the optical power spectrum and constellation signal are presented for both techniques. The obtained results for
transmitted and received OFDM power spectrum signal on optical fiber link are close to each other. Also, the results show that the
received and transmitted constellation signals for both techniques are close to each other. When the results from both models are
compared, OptiSystem results were clearer than Matlab/Simulink results. The OptiSystem software gives more accurate results than
Matlab/Simulink. OFDM modulation and radio over fiber technology help to develop most modern wireless systems.

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