Beyond 3G Techniques of Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing and Performance Analysis Via Simulation

International Journal of Advanced Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, 3(3), 1-13, July-September 2011 1
Beyond 3G Techniques of
Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing and Performance
Analysis via Simulation
Chunyan Wang, State Intellectual Property Office, China
ABSTRACT
As one of the techniques beyond 3G, because of the effective performance of high spectrum utilization and antifading for frequency selecting and adopted multi-carrier modulation technique that meets the requirement of
the explosive traffic capacity, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) has carried great weight
in wireless communications. This paper expounds OFDM technical characteristics and performs computer
simulation on the OFDM system based on Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) by means MATLAB. During
the course of simulation, comparison between OFDM and traditional single-carrier technology is performed.
The simulation results have great significance for research and applications in the field.
Keywords:
Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT), MATLAB, Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM), Single-Carrier Technology, Wireless Communications
INTRODUCTION
OFDM is kind of both multi-carrier and multiplexing technique, which distributes a given
channel into plurality of sub-channel. And
each parallel transmitting sub-channel adopts
single-carrier modulating. By this meaning,
each sub-channel is flat relatively, and performs
narrowband transmission. Signal bandwidth is
less than related bandwidth, which eliminates
interference between signal waveforms and improves frequency spectrum utilization because
DOI: 10.4018/japuc.2011070101
of signal orthogonality, frequency spectrum

overlap (Ramasami, 2002).
OFDM discards the way using traditional
band filter to distribute sub-carrier, and adopting
frequency modulation meaning to select the signal waveforms that can keep orthogonality even
while frequency spectrum aliasing. Therefore,
OFDM is both modulating and multiplexing
techniques.
For the traditional Frequency Division
Multiplexing (FDM), guard band is used to
avoid intercarrier interference (Figure 1),
which induces frequency spectrum utilization.
Whereas, OFDM system applies FFT technique
into multi-carrier transmission system with
Copyright 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.
2 International Journal of Advanced Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, 3(3), 1-13, July-September 2011
Figure 1. FDM frequency distribution
orthogonal and aliasing frequency spectrum, so

as to realize multiplex signal multiplexing and
split conveniently. Here orthogonal indicates
accurate mathematical relationship between
carrier frequencies:
problem of selective fading can be solved. In

addition, if adding a delayed protection to generated OFDM signal, intersymbol interference
can be figured out (Gong & Jia, 2002; IEEE
Computer Society, 1999). The modulation
principle in OFDM system is seen in Figure 2.
After the modulating of MQAM, MPSK
T
T
(m = n ) or DPSK, etc., taking advantage of sub-carrier
0 cos(2pmf0t ) cos(2pnf0t )dt = 2

orthogonality, the original signal is demodu0(m n )
lated. The principle is seen in Figure 3.
T
One OFDM symbol includes signals which
(m = n )
T
are combined by multiple modulated sub-car0 sin(2pmf0t ) sin(2pnf0t )dt = 2
0(m n )
riers, and each sub-carrier can be modulated
by PSK or QAM symbol. If N indicates the
T
T
(m = n )
number of sub-channel, T indicates OFDM

0 cos(2pmf0t ) sin(2pnf0t )dt = 2
symbol density, di (i=0, 1, 2, , N-1) indicates
0(m n )
data symbol distributed to each sub-channel,
(1)
and fc indicates the carrier frequency of the No.
0, rect(t)=1, |t|T/2, the original OFDM symbol
and an important advantage of OFDM technique can be indicated as following:
is that modulation and demodulation can be
performed by adopting IFFT/FFT, so as to reN 1
duce complexity for realizing the system.
s(t ) = Re{ di rect(t ts T / 2)

i =0
exp[ j 2p( fc + i / T )(t ts )]},
TECHNIQUE PRINCIPLE
(2)
ts t t + ts
The essential technical principle is to divides
one high speed data flow into plurality of low s (t ) = 0, t < ts or t > t + ts
speed data flows. And the low-speed data flows
are modulated by orthogonal frequency and
OFDM output signal is described by
transmit data simultaneously, thus wide band
equivalent
baseband symbol:
becomes narrow bands, and consequently, the
Figure 2. OFDM modulation principle
From the figure, it is known that respective

N
times
modulating are not in the real calculai 0

ts t ts + T
tion, and for the generator, that is similar to
perform one IFFT, but for the receiver, modus (t ) = 0, t < tsort > t + ts
(3) lating part is similar to performs one FFT.
Figure 5 describes an embodiment that one
In the formula, the real pat and the imagi- OFDM symbol includes three sub-carriers, in
nation part is respectively corresponding to which all the sub-carriers have same amplitude
the phase component and the orthogonal com- and phase. Each sub-carrier includes integer
ponent, and in the real, multiplies the cosine multiple periods in one OFDM symbol period,
component and the sine component separately, and every two adjacent sub-carriers differs one
so as to generate a final synthetic OFDM signal period. This characteristic can explain the orthogonality between sub-carriers as following:
by sub-channel signals (Figure 4).
N 1
s (t ) = Re{ di ret(t ts T / 2) exp[ j 2pi / T (t ts )]},
Figure 3. OFDM demodulation principle
Figure 4. OFDM system primary model diagram
therefore, the spectrum can be viewed as a

convolution for the rectangular pulse spectrum
0
in period T and a group of functions at each
sub-carrier frequency. The rectangular pulse
In the formulation, the carrier j is de- spectrum amplitude is sin c[ fT ] function, and
modulated, and integrated within time length the zero is in the point at which the frequency
is integral multiple 1/T (Figure 6). Aliasing
T;
sub-channels multiply each other on rectanguN 1
lar pulse to results in sine function spectrum.
1 t +T
1
j
dj =
exp[j 2 (t ts )] di x [j 2 (t ts )]dt
At the maximum of each sub-carrier, all other

T T
T
T
i =1
t +T
sub-carriers spectrum is exactly zero. Because
1 N 1
ij
= di
exp[j 2
(t ts )dt = dj
T
during the course of modulating OFDM symbol,
T
T i =0
(5) each sub-carrier frequency maximum, corresponding to the points, is calculated so as to
Thus, carrier j is demodulated to restore extract every sub-channel symbol from multhe expected symbols. For other carriers, be- tiple aliasing sub-channel symbols, thus avoiding interference from other sub-channels.
cause that frequency difference is (i - j ) in
T
In accordance with Figure 6, OFDM symone integral interval to generate integral mul- bol meets the Nyquist criterion, that is to say
tiple of periods, the integration result is zero that the spectrum interference does not exist
(Guo & Li, n. d.; Tamaki & Tomohisa, 2002). among the multiple sub-channels. Accordingly,
The orthogonality can be explained at the in frequency domain, the spectrum maximum
angle of frequency domain. According to the of a sub-channel corresponds to zero points of
formulation (5), each OFDM symbol includes other sub-channels, which can avoid Interplurality of non-zero sub-carriers in period T. Carrier Interference (ICI).
1
T
1, m = n
exp( j wnt )dt =

0, m n
(4)
Figure 5. OFDM symbol that includes three sub-carriers
Figure 6. OFDM frequency spectrum
KEY TECHNIQUES
As a technique beyond 3G, OFDM has following key techniques.
1. Synchronization of Time Domain and
Frequency Domain
OFDM system is sensitive to offset of

timing and frequency, especially under the
circumstance that FDMA, TDMA and CDMA
etc. multiplexing in combination. Downlink
synchronization is simple relatively, and easy to
implement. In the uplink, signals from different
mobile stations must arrive at the Base Station
(BS), so that the inter-carrier orthogonality can
be insured. That is important especially.
2. Channel Estimation
In OFDM system, there are two points in
channel estimation: pilot information selection
and channel estimator designation. Because the
wireless channel is fading channel and channel
tracking must be continuous, the pilot information must be transmitted constantly. Channel
estimator designation requires low-complexity
and nice pilot tracking capability.
3. Channel Encoding and Interleaving
For improving digital communications
system performance, channel encoding and
interleaving are general technical meaning.
Channel encoding avoids random errors in
channels and channel interleaving avoids burst
error in fading channel.
4. Depressing Peak-to-Average Power Ratio
(PAPR)
In OFDM signal time domain, orthogonal
N sub-carrier signals overlay each other. When
all the maximum of the N sub-carrier signals
add together, the OFDM signal generates a peak,
and the peak power is N times of the average
power. Though the peak power value occurs
seldom, however, for transmitting undistorted
OFDM signal at high PAPR, the transmitter
requires High Power Amplifier (HPA) with
high linearity degree. Therefore, a high PAPR
depresses OFDM system performance greatly,
as well as the real allocation (Ramasami, 2002).
5. Channel Equalization
In general fading environment, because the
OFDM technique has diversity characteristic
of multi-path channel, therefore OFDM does
not equalize. But in high scattering channel,
channel memory length is great; therefore the
Cyclic Prefix (CP) must be long enough so as
to avoid the ICI, however, the CP length results
in energy lost. Accordingly, adding equalization
can be considered to reduce CP length. That
means to improve frequency utility at the cost

of increasing system complexity.
PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
VIA SIMULATION
In 1971, Weinstein and Ebert apply DFT to
multi-carriers transmission system, which
realizes multi-path signal multiplexing and decomposition of multi-path signal. Consequently,
OFDM attracts great attention and is regarded
as a beyond 3G hot technique in future mobile
communications. In this part, in accordance
with OFDM system model based on IFFT/FFT,
numerical analysis software MATLAB is adopted to perform a mass of computer simulation.
The simulation results embody OFDM system
characteristic and performance intuitively (You,
2002; Gong & Jia, 2002).
Simulation Model
Figure 7 describes an OFDM system flow using
MATLAB simulation. Wherein, the input data
is binary data, and after baseband modulating
(16QAM), mapping to be symbol data (
d0 ~ dN -1 ), S/P converting, the parallel data is
converted to be time domain sample point by
IFFT/FFT.
Channel simulation describes some wireless channel generality characteristic, e.g., noise,
multi-path. The noise is generated by adding
random data to transmitting data. The multi-path
is generated by copying the channeling with
time-delay and fading. Definitively, the OFDM
performed P/S converting is generated by aliasing plurality sub-channels, which results in
great PAPR. When going through a nonlinear
device, spread spectrum and band distortion
emerges much. Accordingly, the peak clipping
must be performed. After performing S/P converting to the serial data, the receiver executes
FFT converting to the parallel data to acquire
corresponding frequency domain data, and finally, after base-band demodulating (16QAM)
and P/S converting, binary data is recovered.
During perform the simulation, there
are the following hypothesis premises: ideal
Figure 7. Simulation diagram
synchronization of the transmitting side and

the receiving side, and ideal channel estimation; channel fading is flat, which means the
channel is regarded as being constant in one
OFDM symbol. Table 1 describes the simulation parameters.
SIMULATION RESULTS
ANALYSIS
Figure 8 describes the simulation of binary data
input/output and OFDM transmitting/receiving.
The binary input data is performed 16QAM
modulation as Figure 9, and the output data
corresponds to the time domain signal waveform
at B point in Figure 8.
Figure 8(c) and (d) is the waveform of

OFDM signal going through two-path Gauss
channel and recovered binary data separately.
Sub-figure (c) corresponds to point F, (d) corresponds to point H. Comparing sub-figure (c)
(d) with (b) (a) respectively, it is knowable that
received OFDM signal waveform and recovered
binary data all have weak distortion because
that OFDM has great reflection of mitigating
multi-path.
The S(t) may have two expression;
S (t ) = an cos(wct ) bn sin(wct )
(6-1)
S (t ) = Re (an + jbn )e j 2p fct
(6-2)
Table 1. Simulation parameters

Simulation parameter
Parameter value
FFT_size
128
Num_carrier
32 (fft_size/4)
Signal constellation
16QAM
Channel model
Two-path Gauss channel
Figure 8. Binary data input/output, and OFDM signal transmitting/receiving
The equation 6-1 corresponds to the

16QAM output waveform in Figure 8. The
equation 6-2 is complex symbol data
( d0 , d1,...dN -1 , N is number of sub-carriers)
generated after signal constellation mapping.
After IFFT converting, the OFDM transmission
wave-form (time-amplitude) described in Figure 8(b), namely, the wave-form at point C in
Figure 7, is generated. The base-band signal at
N 1 j 2 p n t
point C: y (t ) = Re dne T , 0 t T
n =0
During the simulating, by adding random

data complying with Gaussian to simulate channel noise and copying the transmitting signal
consider fading and delay to simulate two-path
channel, Figure 10 describes the simulation of
two-path Gauss channel.
OFDM is kind of special multi-carrier, and
for comparing with single-carrier modulating,
modulation of 16QAM is adopted in the simulation. By simulating sub-carrier waveform
receiving and binary data recovery, the comparison of OFDM system performance and
single-carrier is reflected.
Figure 9. 16 QAM modulation principle
(i) Selection of single-carrier modulation

model
In OFDM system, sub-carrier modulating
model may be MPSK, MQAM, or DQPSK.
When source-rate, sub-carrier parameter and
channel bandwidth are ensured to be invariable,
in different SNR, the simulation of OFDM system of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN)
high speed voice-data compatible transmission
is described in Figure 10. The modulation model
and encoding rate are seen in Table 2.
From Figure 10, under the circumstance
that EBR, sub-carrier and protection interval
are same, for OFDM system, sub-carrier QAM

modulation model is better than PSK modulation model.
(ii) Performance of single-carrier (16QAM)
and OFDM
In Figure 11, as an example, 16 QAM single-carrier modulation system performs binary
data recovery and QAM transmitting/receiving
waveform are simulated. Comparing sub-figure
(c), (d) in Figure 11 with (c), (d) in Figure 8, it
is knowable that receiving waveform and data
recovery distorts greatly. That embodies that, in
Figure 10. SNR-BER graphs
Table 2. Modulation model and encoding rate

Sub-carrier Modulation Model
Convolution Coding Efficiency
DQPSK
Uncoded
16PSK
1/2
16QAM
1/2
64QAM
1/3
OFDM system, the performance of anti-delay,

anti-noise and anti-multipath interference is
better than the single-carrier modulation system.
Figure 11 shows the simulation result of
signal spectrum after FFT converting to OFDM,
QAM signal. Comparing the sub-figure (a) with
(b), it is knowable that the two has various greed
of distortion after through two-path Gauss
channel. Meanwhile, comparing Figure 12(c)
with Figure 13(c), it is knowable that performance of anti-multipath effect of OFDM system
is better than that of single carrier modulation
system. Figure 12(a) and Figure 13(a) are
spectrums of OFDM, QAM transmitting signal
waveform after FFT converting. At the angle
of spectrum utilization, OFDM sub-carrier

spectrum has close distribution and concentrated energy.
During channel simulating, adding independent Gauss binary data with 0 mean and
variance s 2 , channel noise is simulated. Figure
14 describes energy distributing for 16 QAM
received signal constellations corresponding to
different noise power, wherein, sub-figure (a),
(b), (c) is respectively corresponding to received
signal distribution when = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5.
The simulating results indicate; on low
noise power ( is small), the signal energy
distributes centrally, and with the noise power
Figure 11. Sub-carrier recovers input binary data
Figure 12. FFT of OFDM signal
Figure 13. FFT of QAM signal
Figure 14. 16 QAM received signal constellation and decision boundary
level rising, the proportion of noise component

increases and signal energy distribution tends
to be decentralized, and BER affection to OFDM
system is larger accordingly.
CONCLUSION
The paper expounds OFDM technical characteristic, and performs computer simulating to
OFDM system based on FFT/IFFT by means
of MATLAB. During the course of simulation,
comparation between OFDM and single-carrier
technique (16QAM) is described in detail.
Generally speaking, because of the subcarrier orthogonality, OFDM system reduces
inter-carrier interference, and also increases
spectrum utilizations. By adopting IFFT/FFT
to modulate/demodulate signal, complexity
of realizing the communications system is
depressed. The low-speed data stream is modulated on orthogonal frequency and transmitted
in the meantime, which changes the wide band
to be narrow band, consequently, the problem
of frequency selective fading is solved. By
comparing with single-carrier system, it is
embodied that OFDM has more advantage in
fields of resisting multi-path interference and
channel fading, and spectrum utilization.
Because that OFDM system has the
advantages that sing-carrier communication
system and traditional FDM system does not
have, OFDM is considered as one of the most
important techniques beyond 3G. In OFDM
technical field, it is necessary to research

further the techniques of time-frequency domain synchronization, channel encoding and
interleaving, depressing PAPR and channel
estimation, etc.
REFERENCES
Gong, J., & Jia, H. (2002). OFDM technique and
simulation analysis thereof. Railway Newspaper,
24(3).
Guo, Y., & Li, J. (n. d.). Mobile communications.
Sichuan, China. Press of Xian Electronic Science
& Technology University.
IEEE. Computer Society. (1999). IEEE 802.11a
1999. Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control
(MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specification.
Washington, DC: Author.
Ramasami, V. C. (2002). Orthogonal frequency
division multiplexing. Retrieved from http://www.
cetuc.puc-rio.br/~amanda.cunha/projeto/OFDM/
Tutorial%20de%20Orthogonal%20Frequency%20
Division%20Multiplexing.pdf
Saliga, S. V. (2000). An introduction to IEEE 802.11
Wireless LANs. In Proceedings of the IEEE Radio
Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (pp.
11-14).
Tamaki, S., & Tomohisa, W. (2002). Technical
notes: Magna Design Net. Retrieved from http://
www.magnadesignnet.com/en/booth/technote/ofdm/
You, X. (2002). Chinese mobile communication
development in the future.

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International Journal of Advanced Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, 3(3), 1-13, July-September 2011 1

of signal orthogonality, frequency spectrum

Figure 1. FDM frequency distribution

orthogonal and aliasing frequency spectrum, so

problem of selective fading can be solved. In

0 cos(2pmf0t ) cos(2pnf0t )dt = 2

number of sub-channel, T indicates OFDM

Figure 2. OFDM modulation principle

From the figure, it is known that respective

s (t ) = Re{ di ret(t ts T / 2) exp[ j 2pi / T (t ts )]},

Figure 3. OFDM demodulation principle

Figure 4. OFDM system primary model diagram

therefore, the spectrum can be viewed as a

Figure 5. OFDM symbol that includes three sub-carriers

Figure 6. OFDM frequency spectrum

OFDM system is sensitive to offset of

means to improve frequency utility at the cost

Figure 7. Simulation diagram

synchronization of the transmitting side and

Figure 8(c) and (d) is the waveform of

S (t ) = Re (an + jbn )e j 2p fct

Table 1. Simulation parameters

Two-path Gauss channel

Figure 8. Binary data input/output, and OFDM signal transmitting/receiving

The equation 6-1 corresponds to the

During the simulating, by adding random

Figure 9. 16 QAM modulation principle

(i) Selection of single-carrier modulation

are same, for OFDM system, sub-carrier QAM

Figure 10. SNR-BER graphs

Table 2. Modulation model and encoding rate

Convolution Coding Efficiency

OFDM system, the performance of anti-delay,

of spectrum utilization, OFDM sub-carrier

Figure 11. Sub-carrier recovers input binary data

Figure 12. FFT of OFDM signal

Figure 13. FFT of QAM signal

Figure 14. 16 QAM received signal constellation and decision boundary

level rising, the proportion of noise component

technical field, it is necessary to research

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