The WiMAX Air Interface

Some of your questions that will be answered during this session o What is OFDM and how does it differ from OFDMA? o How does IFFT relate to OFDM? o What is a cyclic prefix, why can it differ in duration and what is it used for? o How do the WiMAX subcarrier to subchannel permutations work? o How do the subcarrier permutations relate to the frequency reuse scheme?

Introduction to OFDM/OFDMA
The Principle of OFDM
Step 1 OFDM is a technique where user data, instead of being transmitted using a single wideband RF carrier, is sent using multiple narrow band carriers, known as subcarriers. Each subcarrier carries different bits of the user data stream in parallel, which allows the achievement of high data rate transmissions. In non-orthogonal multicarrier systems, a relatively large spacing must be allowed between adjacent subcarriers to prevent inter-carrier interference. This however is wasteful of available RF spectrum

Step 2 As the image illustrates with a narrow subcarrier spacing, when the subcarriers are modulated, the resultant sidebands and harmonics are likely to interfere with each other. If frequencies are non-orthogonal, they need to be sufficiently spaced apart from each other to minimize the inter-frequency interference.

Step 3 OFDM is a multi carrier transmission technique capable of supporting high speed services whilst still being bandwidth efficient. It achieves this by forcing multiple sub-carriers together thereby reducing the bandwidth required when compared to more traditional FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing) methods. However, to ensure these adjacent sub-carriers do not cause excessive interference, they must be orthogonal or non-interfering to each other. To achieve orthogonality, the frequency of all of the subcarriers must be an integer multiple of the lowest subcarrier frequency.

Makeup of an OFDM/OFDMA Signal

As described in the previous section, an OFDM signal is made up of multiple subcarriers. These subcarriers are equally and closely spaced, in an orthogonal manner which allows the subcarriers to be closer together so that more can exist within the allocated bandwidth. Individual subcarriers become part of the resource that is available to users of the physical layer. As illustrated opposite, as well as dividing the available physical layer resources in the frequency domain, the time domain can also be divided into separate units. The smallest time domain unit supported by each subcarrier is a Modulation Symbol. One Modulation Symbol contains of an exact integer multiple number of cycles of the specified subcarrier frequency. I.e. in each modulation symbol, only a pure sine, with no changes in phase or amplitude is transmitted To achieve orthogonality, the subcarrier spacing and the period of each modulation symbol are exactly inversely proportional. All modulation symbols in parallel, i.e. on all subcarriers, in the time domain are refered to as an OFDM Symbol

Resource Sharing in OFDM/OFDMA

When used in a multi-user environment, the resources provided by the physical layer (i.e. subcarriers and modulation symbols) must be shared among all of the users to be supported. The diagram opposite illustrates a simplified view of the two basic options supported by the 802.16e-2005 physical layer chosen for WiMAX. OFDM Resource Sharing In OFDM implementations, during any given modulation symbol period, a single user is allocated use of all of the available data subcarriers (i.e. the entire OFDM symbol). Different users may be supported by allocating them to different OFDM symbols on a time shared basis as illustrated. This method allows for relatively simple user scheduling process, but can lead to wastage of physical layer resources. The smallest unit of resource that can be allocated to a given user is an OFDM Symbol. If that user has less data to send than can be accommodated in that OFDM symbol, the unused portion of the resource will be effectively wasted. OFDMA Resource Sharing For OFDMA a more flexible, albeit more complex, scheduling procedure is adopted. In this method individual users may be allocated to a subset of an OFDM Symbol, i.e individual or small groups of modulation symbols. This allows the scheduler to grant only the minimum resource necessary to accommodate the amount of data the user has to send. It also allows the scheduler to service more than one user during a single OFDM symbol, which can reduce

latency for real-time users In practice, the WiMAX physical layer first groups sets of subcarriers and modulation symbol into slightly larger allocation units, known as sub channels and slots before allocation to users. this concept is described later in this chapter.

Scaling of OFDM / OFDMA-Systems

The 802.16e-2005 physical layer chosen by the WiMAX forum. provides for the use of different channel bandwidths. This means that the OFDMA subcarriers must be scaled to accommodate the available bandwidth. The image illustrates two options on how to scale an OFDM/OFDMA systemin case of variable bandwidth situations. The upper part uses fixed subcarrier spacing and simply applies more subcarriers if more bandwidth is available. The lower part uses the opposite approach: n = 5 and the subcarrier spacing varies with the available bandwidth.

Scaling of the WiMAX OFDMA PHY

The objective of this section is to illustrate the adaptation of the introduced parameters for the WiMAX OFDMA physical layer. The key point of this section is that the WiMAX OFDMA PHY does not use the same f and T(b)-values for all possible bandwidths. Note that typical and heavily supported bandwidths are 5 MHz, 7 MHz and 10 MHz.

OFDM / OFDMA and IFFT

This section illustrates how IFFT maps so perfectly to the requirements of an OFDM system. The key point of this section is that IFFT provides nothing else but the digital recipe to produce perfectly orthogonal sine waves and to burn the formula into silicon. Discrete Oscillator Array Option An OFDM radio could be considered to be a collection of multiple radio modulators, each operating in parallel on a separate, orthogonal, radio frequency. to transmit data across the radio link, it would be converted from series to parallel and fed into each separate modulator. At the receiver side, the radio could be considered as a series of individual radio receivers, each tuned to a specific radio frequency. Data would be converted back from multiple parallel streams into a single high rate data stream. This option is unrealistic for large scale deployments as it scales very poorly and since it is very expensive to implement. The IFFT Option In practice, OFDM/OFDMA systems use a mathematical function called Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) to mimic the discrete oscillator option. This process uses a concept termed discrete Fourier Transform which provides a way of analyzing the components of a complex waveform. The data stream is again first converted from a serial stream into a number of parallel virtual branches, the number being equal to the number of subcarriers in use on the channel (e.g. 512, 1024, etc). The appropriate modulation is applied to individual subcarriers, and then a Inverse FFT (IFFT) function will calculate a series of samples that when extrapolated, will produce the combined waveform that will be transmitted across the air interface. At the receive side, the combined signal is processed by an FFT function, which generates the composite virtual data stream which can be combined to form a copy of the original data. The illustrated formula may be real numbered only (sin) or complex numbered (sin + cos). The number of samples S(t) over one symbol duration T(b) depends on the highest OFDM frequency which is k x f(0). According to Nyquist, we therefore need 2 x k x f(0) different samples S(t) per symbol period T(b) to provide for an error-free signal processing. Using, this algorithm is the optimal method of producing an OFDM/OFDMA system, as the IFFT/FFT functions can be performed by a n ASIC based solution. The only disadvantage of FFT is that the FFT-size = n needs to be a 2k value (e.g. 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024 ). Values like n = 66, 214 or similar are therefore forbidden.

Tackling Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI)

The objective of this section are to illustrate how multipath causes inter-symbol interferences and which

means exist to tackle these interferences. The key point of this section is that there are basically two means to cope with ISI: Either to increase the time between two successive symbols or to calculate the impact of ISI for each symbol (equalization).In the image The dotted sine wave represents the transmitted signal at the transmitter. All the solid sine waves are attenuated and time shifted copies which are perceived by and at the receive. As illustrated, these copies spread into the following symbol and interfere with it. The delay spread represents the maximum delay which needs to be considered. Its value depends mostly on the RF-frequency in use, on the relative speed of transmitter and receiver and on the type of terrain. One well known example is GSM with an RF-frequency of 900 MHz, a symbol duration of 3.692 s and a maximum speed of 250 km/h. The delay spread to be coped with by technical implementations is 5 symbol periods (app. 18 s). In aGSM-systemequalizers are used to calculate the impact of the ISI caused by the preceding 4 symbols on the current symbol. This equalization is a complex process and needs to be done independently for each burst. However, the alternative to wait long enough between two successive symbols in GSM is obviously no option considering the enormous delay spread of 18 s compared to a symbol duration of just 3.69 s. However, this is very different in an OFDM-system with its inherently long symbol durations.

Cyclic Prefix
OFDM can cope without equalization because the inherently long symbol durations allow for the option to insert a cyclic prefix in the first place. The cyclic prefix represents the final part of the OFDM-symbol that is simply copied and placed at the front of the same OFDM-symbol. The squeezing in of the cyclic prefix between two successive OFDM-symbols obviously degrades the system performance by the respective percentages (e.g. T(g) = 12.5% of T(b)). The operation in lower RF-frequency ranges tendentiously requires larger T(g)-values because of the probability of more paths and therefore higher delay spread The useful symbol time T(b) is therefore only 88.89% of the overall symbol time T(s). This is the consequence of the formula T(b) / (T(b) + 0.125 x T(b)) = 88.89%. The specification mandates adjustable cyclic prefix values of 1/32, 1/16, 1/8 and 1/4 of T(b) to be supported by all implementations [IEEE 802.16e-2005 (8.4.2.3)]. However, the WiMAX-forum has reduced this requirement in a way that only a value of 1/8 must be supported in order to meet the requirements of the mobile system profile and to obtain the related certificate [WiMAX-Forum Mobile System Profile (4.1.1.4)].

Utilization of the IEEE 802.16 Subcarriers

The graphic opposite illustrates the typical brick wall image of any OFDM/OFDMAimplementation. As previously described, the available bandwidth supports multiple sub carriers, of which there are three types: Null Subcarriers, Pilot Subcarriers and Data Subcarriers. Null subcarriers, are subcarriers on which no RF energy is transmitted at any time. There are two types of null subcarrier; firstly, at the upper and lower edges of the allocated bandwidth, a number of null subcarrier positions are use to provide upper and lower guard bands. These guard bands help to keep the transmitter's signal spectrum within the specified limits, avoiding spurious transmissions interfering with adjacent services. The subcarrier that falls directly on the center channel frequency is considered the DC subcarrier and is unused due to potential interference from either a direct launch transmitter or carrier feedthrough. In each implementation, a number of subcarriers are allocated as Pilot Subcarriers. The pilots transmit a known modulation patern, which is used by the receiving station to estimate the quality of the radio path. All remaining subcarriers are classified as Data Subcarriers, and will be used to transfer user data and control information This leaves us with only 201 subcarriers of which one is occupied by the DC-subcarrier at the center carrier frequency. So there are only 200 subcarriers left. Taking into account the 8 reserved subcarriers for pilot signals, only 192 subcarriers are left for data transmission

OFDM Subcarrier Allocation

The 802.16e-2005 OFDM PHY, operates using a fixed FFT size of 256subcarriers. This means that if the available bandwidth varies, the subcarrier spacing and symbol duration must also vary to maintain orthogonality. Of the 256 subcarriers, 55 are used to provide the guard bands, (28 at the lower frequency edge and 27 at the upper frequency edge) remain unused (no RF-Transmission). This helps to avoid interferences with adjacent bands.

As described above, the subcarrier in the centre of the spectrum allocation is a null subcarrier, deemed the DC Subcarrier. Eight Subcarriers, in fixed positions and evenly spaced across the spectrum allocation, are provided as Pilot Subcarriers. The 192 remaining subcarriers are available for data transfer.

OFDMA Subcarrier Allocation

In the case of the 802.16e-2005 OFDMA PHY chosen by the WiMAX Forum, although the concept is similar to that described above, but there are variations on the theme. The OFDMA PHY uses scalable OFDMA. As such the number of carriers of each type can vary with the available spectrum bandwidth allocation. The table below shows the number of data and guardband sub carriers for the most popular bandwidths.

Unlike the OFDM PHY, the OFDMA PHY does not have a fixed number or position for Pilot Subcarriers. Instead, they are allocated based upon the subchannel permutation used, as described later in this chapter

Introduction to Subchannelization
The objective of this section is to introducing the student into the different aspects of subchannelization and the related constraints. The key point of this section is that OFDMA allocates one or more subchannels for a certain time to a user in uplink and downlink direction. These allocations are referred to as bursts or data regions. The image consists of two parts:

 On the left hand side (physical view), the image reuses the image of the previous two sections but viewed from vertically above. Thus it illustrates the n data subcarriers, the DC-subcarrier and the guard bands. The following table lists the different values of n depending on the FFT-size. The indicated values apply for uplink and downlink. Note that only mandatory permutation schemes have been considered for these numbers.

On the right hand side (logical view), the image tries to illustrate how various subcarrier numbers are selected pseudo-randomly from the entire range to form a subchannel. The related pseudo-random formulas are called permutation formulas and their function will be presented during the following sections. The actual value of k as number of subchannels depends on the FFT-size and on the permutation rule. We will provide more details later. The same applies to the number of subcarriers x which are mapped onto a single subchannel. This number also varies with the permutation rule. The image also introduces another important concept of the WiMAX-OFDMA PHY: The slot as minimum possible data allocation unit. The MAC-layer will always allocate resources to the PHY-layer in multiples of a single slot. The duration of such a slot is measured in OFDM-symbol periods (T(s)) and varies with the permutation rule. Irrespective of the permutation rule, a slot always contains 48 symbols that carry data. A data region is a concatenation of slots. The concatenation occurs in both dimensions: Vertically in terms of concatenated subchannels and horizontally in terms of concatenated slot durations .

Allocating Subcarriers to Subchannels

Grouping subcarriers into subchannels within a cell is defined in the 802.16 standards. there are two main methods of grouping: Distributed Subcarrier Allocation (DSCA) Adjacent Subcarrier Allocation (ASCA)

Distributed Subcarrier Allocation

By selecting the subcarriers, to be used within a subchannel, widely accross the available bandwidth the distributed subcarrier allocation mode provides frequency diversity, and aims to reduce interference between cells. There are three main DSCA methods. Partial Usage of Subcannels (PUSC) When using this mode for downlink subchannels, the available subcarriers are first partitioned among three cells (or sectors). Then the subcarriers within the cell are grouped into subchannels and then the pilots are allocated within a subchannel. Accordingly, there are no pilots outside a subchannel. PUSC provides interference protection. Therefore it is used to send important information, such as allocation messages, for which it is the mandatory mode. In the uplink, all or subset of the subcarriers may used in all of the cells. Full Usage of Subchannels (FUSC) In this, downlink only mode, all usable subcarriers are used in all cells. This maximizes the ability to transport data. The BS uses FUSC to support real-time and non-realtime traffic. Interference management across neighbour cells is crucial in FUSC The major feature of regular FUSC is that there are no dedicated pilots per subchannel. The pilots are instead allocated before the remaining subcarriers are pseudo-random allocated to the subchannels. A detailed explanation follows in a later section. PUSC with All SUbchannels This mode of operation is an optional implementation of PUSC. all subchannels are used in each cell or sector. As this would cause interference in neighbouring cells, different frequency allocations are advisable in each sector or cell.

Adjacent Subcarrier Allocation

If subcarriers are distributed within subchannels, it is difficult to report channel conditions since the subcarriers, possibly widely spaced, will have different channel responses. Adjacent

subcarriers are more likely to have the same channel conditions. this makes it easier for the SS to report uniform channel conditions within allocated subchannels. Band AMC Band AMC only makes use of adjacent subcarriers and combines nine of them in a so called bin. Depending on the variant of AMC a number of adjacent bins can be combined into a single subchannel. More details will be provided in a later section.