OFDM Physical Layer -Fundamentals, Standards, &

Advances

K. Giridhar
Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering
Telecom and Computer Networks (TeNeT) Group
IIT Madras, Chennai 600036

http://www.tenet.res.in

Instructional Workshop on Wireless Networks : Physical Layer Aspects

DRDO-IISc Program on Mathematical Engineering, Feb. 14, 2003
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

IIT Madras

Contents

Wireless Propagation -- Overview

OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

Basics of Radio Propagation

Power

Exponential

0.1 -1 m
(10-100 msecs)

Short-term Fading
Long-term Fading
10-100 m
(1-10 secs)

Distance
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

IIT Madras

Multi-path Propagation

r(t) =

0 s(t- 0) + 1 s(t- 1) + 2 s(t- 2) + 3 s(t- 3)

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

Multi-path Propagation -- contd.

r(t) =

0 s(t- 0) + 1 s(t- 1) + 2 s(t- 2) + 3 s(t- 3)

0

Impulse
Response h(t)

3 - 0
3
time

Input
(Tx signal)

Output
(Rx signal)

channel

Frequency
Response H(f)
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

freq.
IIT Madras

(in

vo
lts

Frequency Selective Fading

Ga
in

Fading

D
Sp ela
rm rea y
5 s d
se =
cs

2.0 secs

Time 3.0
2.5 secs
sec
s

Frequency Selective Fading Channels can provide

-- time diversity (can be exploited in DS-CDMA)
-- frequency diversity (can be exploited in OFDM)
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

IIT Madras

Contents

Wireless Propagation -- Overview

OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM

Wireless Systems

Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) is the most

prevalent wireless access system to date

Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DSCDMA) became commercial only in the mid 90s

GSM, ANSI-136, EDGE, DECT, PHS, Tetra

IS-95 (A,B, HDR,1x,3x,...), cdma-2000 (3GPP2), W-CDMA (3GPP)

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)

is perhaps the least well known

can be viewed as a spectrally efficient FDMA technique

IEEE 802.11A, .11G, HiperLAN, IEEE 802.16 OFDM/OFDMA

options

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

TDMA (with FDMA) Principle

Carriers

Power
Freq.

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

Time-slots

Time

IIT Madras

Direct Sequence CDMA Principle

(with FDMA)
User Code
Waveforms

Power
Freq.

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

Time

IIT Madras

10

OFDM (with TDMA & FDMA)

Principle
Tones
Carriers

Power
Freq.

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

Time-slots

Time

IIT Madras

11

Other Multiple Access

Techniques

Multi-Carrier TDMA

Frequency Hopped Spread Spectrum

Bluetooth

CSMA/CA

DECT, PACS

IEEE 802.11 (1 or 2 Mbps standard)

DS-CDMA with Time Slotting

3GPP W-CDMA TDD (Time Division Duplex)

Packet Switched Air Interface is vital for high bit-rates

and high capacity (for data users) -- GPRS, DPRS, etc.
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

IIT Madras

12

What is an OFDM System ?

Data is transmitted in parallel on multiple

carriers that overlap in frequency

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

13

Generic OFDM Transmitter

OFDM symbol
FEC

bits

Serial to
Parallel

IFFT

Pulse shaper
&

Linear
PA

DAC
add cyclic extension

fc

view this as a time to

frequency mapper

Complexity (cost) is transferred back from the digital to the analog dom
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

IIT Madras

14

OFDM Transmitter -- contd.

Serial/

s[n,0]

d [n,0]

s[n,1]

d [n,1]

IFFT

Parallel
s[ n, N ]

d [ n, N ]

Add

Parallel/

Cyclic

Serial

Prefix

S/P acts as Time/Frequency mapper

IFFT generates the required Time domain waveform

1
d [n, i ]
N

N 1

s[n, k ]e

j 2i

k
N

k 0

Cyclic Prefix acts like guard interval and makes

equalization easy (FFT-cyclic convolution vs channellinear
IEEE
Symp./convolution)
IISc
-2001

IIT Madras

15

OFDM Receiver
Serial/
Parallel

Remove
Cyclic
Prefix

r[n,0]

d ' [ n,0]
d ' [ n,1]

r[n,1] Parallel/

FFT

Serial

d ' [ n, N ]

r[ n, N ]

Cyclic Prefix is discarded

FFT generates the required

Frequency
Domain signal
i
N 1

1
r[n, k ]
N

d '[n, i]e

j 2k

i 0

P/S acts like a Frequency/Time Mapper

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

16

Generic OFDM Receiver

Slot &
Timing
AGC

Sync.

Sampler

FFT

fc
VCO

fine offset

P/S and
Detection

Error
Recovery

gross offset
Freq. Offset
Estimation
(of all tones sent in one OFDM symbol)

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

17

OFDM Basics

1
f
To maintain orthogonality
Ts

where

= sub-carrier spacing
Ts = symbol duration

If N-point IDFT (or FFT) is used

Total bandwidth (in Hz) = W Nf

TS TCP

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

= symbol duration after CP addition

IIT Madras

18

Condition for Orthogonality

Time

T
Base frequency = 1/T
T= symbol period

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

19

OFDM Basics -- contd.

If the Cyclic Prefix > Max. Delay Spread,

then the received signal after FFT, at the
nth tone for the kth OFDM block can be
expressed as

r[n, k ] H [n, k ]s[n, k ] w[n, k ]

where

w[n, k ]
H [ n, k ]

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

is additive noise
is channel frequency response
IIT Madras

20

Tx Waveform over a OFDM Symbol

(magnitude values, for 802.11a)

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

21

Sync Basis Functions

(of equal height for single-ray Shape
channel)
gets upset by
(a) Fine Frequency Offset
(b) Fading

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

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22

OFDM -- PHY layer tasks

Signals sent thro wireless channels encounter

one or more of the following distortions:

additive white noise

frequency and phase offset
timing offset, slip
delay spread
fading (with or without LoS component)
co-channel interference
non-linear distortion, impulse noise, etc

OFDM is well suited for high-bit rate applications

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

23

Frequency Offset

Carrier recovery and tracking critical for OFDM

Residual freq. offset causes

Offsets can be comparable to sub-carrier spacing in OFDM

Non-coherent detectors possible with differential coding

constellation rotation in TDMA

loss of correlation strength over integration window in CDMA
(thereby admitting more CCI or noise)
increased inter-channel interference (ICI) in OFDM

OFDM can easily compensate for gross freq. offsets

(offsets which are an integral multiple of sub-carrier width)

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

24

Timing Synchronisation

Timing recovery (at symbol level) is easily achieved in OFDM

systems
Can easily overcome distortions from delay spread

Can employ non-coherent timing recovery techniques by introducing self-similarity

=> very robust to uncompensated frequency offsets

If cyclic prefix is larger than the rms delay spread, range of (equally good) timing
phases become available

=> robust to estimation errors

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

25

Slot and Timing Synchronization in OFDM

Example: 4 tones per slot (OFDM symbol)

Traffic Slot
IFFT

PA

T secs
T/2

Preamble/Control Slot
IFFT
T secs

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

PA

zero tones

IIT Madras

t
self-symmetry can be
exploited for noncoherent timing recovery
26

Effect of Delay Spread

Typical rms delay spread in macro-cells

Urban : 1-4 secs, Sub-urban : 3-6 secs

Rural (plain, open country) : 3-10 secs

Hilly terrain : 5-15 secs

TDMA requires equalization (even if

spread is only 20-30% of symbol duration)

rms delay

higher
bit-rates
would
imply
more
Inter-Symbol
Interference (ISI)
therefore, equalization complexity increases with bit rate

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

27

Effect of Delay Spread -- contd. 1

Effect of delay spread on DS-CDMA is multi-fold

On the Uplink, the time diversity inherent in the delay

spread can be used to mitigate fading
On the Downlink, multipath delay spread upsets
channelization (short) code orthogonality

Sectorisation vital in CDMA to reduce CCI on the

Uplink

However, sectorisation reduces delay spread as well,

thereby reducing the RAKE performance

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

28

Effect of Delay Spread in OFDM

Delay spread easily compensated in OFDM using :

Cyclic Prefix (CP) which is longer than the delay spread

Thereby, converting linear convolution (with multipath
channel) to effectively a circular convolution

enables simple one-tap equalisation at the tone level

Example: IEEE 802.11 A (and also in HiperLAN)

Data Payload

CP

3.2secs

0.8secs

However, the frequency selectiveness could lead to certain tones

having very poor SNR=> poor gross error rate performance
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

IIT Madras

29

Delay Spread Compensation in

OFDM

Two basic ideas to combat freq. selectivity in

OFDM

Feed-forward only techniques

Temporal FEC and interleaving
Transmit diversity and space-time coding
Feed-back based techniques (similar to approaches used
in Multi-Carrier Modulation in the ADSL modems)

Water-pouring (bit-loading)

Pre-equalisation or pre-distortion

Sectorisation in macro-cell
reduce delay spread

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

OFDM

can

help

30

OFDM Receiver Algorithms -- Recap

AGC

Sampler

DFT

P/S and
Detection

Error
Recovery

Freq.

-- Gross Freq. Offset

-- Channel Estimation
and Equalization

-- Fine Freq. Offset

-- Timing Estimation
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

IIT Madras

31

Frequency Domain Equalisation

-- Conventional OFDM

Symbol
Mapping
& S/P

IDFT

Add
CP

Tx
Mod.

Conventional
OFDM

Rx
Algos.

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

Remove
CP

IIT Madras

DFT

Frequency
Domain
Equaliser

Detection
& P/S

32

Frequency Domain Equalisation

-- Single Carrier FDE (SC-FDE)

Symbol
Mapping

Add
CP
(of symbols)

Tx
Mod.

Tx -- low-complexity, TDMA
Rx -- implements SC-FDE;
Linear Equaliser or DFE

to permit FDE

Rx
Algos.

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

Remove
CP

DFT

Frequency
Domain
Equaliser

IIT Madras

IDFT

Detector

33

Time & Frequency Domain Equalisation

-- for OFDM in large delay spread channels

Symbol
Mapping
& S/P

IDFT

Add
CP

Rx
Algos.

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

Tx
Mod.

TDE + FDE
for OFDM

TimeDomain
Equaliser

Remove
CP

IIT Madras

DFT

Frequency
Domain
Equaliser

Detection
& P/S

34

Fading and Antenna Diversity

Short-term fading exhibits spatial correlation

Two antennas, spaced /4 meters or greater apart,

fade independently
Spatial diversity combining can mitigate fading
Switch diversity (least complex, modest improvement)
Selection diversity
Equal gain combining
Maximal ratio combining (most complex, optimal)

TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM systems will invariably

require antenna diversity to overcome fading

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

35

Fading and Channel Estimation

Use of midamble in GSM and EDGE to avoid channel

tracking within the slot duration
Unlike in TDMA and OFDM, fading affects not only
signal quality, but also system capacity in DS-CDMA
Fast closed-loop power control required which can
track short-term fading

For RAKE combining, multipath delays and gains are

required to be estimated and tracked

By using orthogonal signaling, IS-95 uplink does not

need gain estimation, but requires delay estimation

In OFDM systems, the long symbol duration makes

channel estimation and tracking very important

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

36

Channel Estimation in OFDM -Example

Frame (say, 4 slots)
Control +
Training Slot

Traffic Slot 1

Traffic Slot 2

Traffic Slot 3

Control +
Training Slot

Training
Tones
(for channel
identification)

MAC message
(broadcast)

Phase
Correction
Tones

Traffic slots may contain a few equally spaced tones for phase correction (due
to residual freq. offset, phase noise, fading)
Control slot may also contain MAC messages

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

37

Fading Compensation in OFDM

OFDM using a FDE, observes only flat fading at the

sub-carrier level

Fading manifests as ICI terms in the Frequency

Domain

In OFDM Phy Layer, two basic ways to reduce ICI

Reduce OFDM symbol duration (increase sub-carrier width)

802.16 has FFT sizes ranging from 256 to 4096

Transmit pulse shaping can reduce ICI

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

(by providing excess time-width)

IIT Madras

38

Other PHY Issues in OFDM

High peak-to-average ratio of the signal envelope

Linear Power Amp., with 5-8dB back-off required
(costly)

To support mobility (fast fading) it will require

More training tones per symbol and also in every slot
Tx diversity and/or ST coding support
Exploit
time, frequency, and space diversity /
processing

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

39

Phy Layer Issues in Macro-cell OFDM

Macrocells will require larger cyclic extensions / prefix

Microcells may not be economical during initial deployment

GPS locked base stations required

To control ACI from neighbor BS sites (at cell edge)

CCI can be estimated / controlled only if it is tone-aligned

Strict power control required may be required on uplink

To minimize cross-talk between tones of different users

sharing the same OFDM symbol (time slot)

To avoid uplink power control

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

allocate only one user per uplink slot

or, make uplink a pure TDMA (not OFDM)

IIT Madras

40

Phy Layer Issues in OFDMA

Strict power control required required on uplink

(OFDMA)

To minimize cross-talk between tones of different

users sharing the same OFDM symbol (time slot)
To avoid uplink power control

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

allocate only one user per uplink slot (OFDM)

or, make uplink a pure TDMA (single-carrier)

IIT Madras

41

MAC Layer Issues in Macro-Cell OFDM

Many proprietary broad-band FWA based on OFDM are

configured as primarily data networks providing

Bridging functionality (Ethernet packets on air)

Routing functionality (IP packets on air)

Some of the key issues then are

How many modes (scheduling options) should MAC

support?

How is voice and other streaming data to be handled?

Indeed, mixing of voice

statistical multiplexing

and

data

not

good

for

CDMA example the new cdma2000 / HDR standard, where

distinct voice-only and data-only base stations are proposed

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

42

Contents

Wireless Propagation -- Overview

OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

43

DS-CDMA versus OFDM

0

Impulse
Response h(t)

DS-CDMA can
exploit
time-diversity

time
Input
(Tx signal)

Output
(Rx signal)

channel

Frequency
Response H(f)
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

OFDM can exploit

freq. diversity
freq.
IIT Madras

44

Comparing Complexity of TDMA,

DS-CDMA, & OFDM Transceivers
TDMA
Timing Sync.
Freq. Sync.
Timing Tracking
Freq. Tracking
Channel
Equalisation

CDMA

OFDM

Difficult, and requires

sync. channel (code)

Very elegant, requiring

no extra overhead

More difficult than TDMA

Gross Sync. Easy

Fine Sync. is Difficult

Easy, but requires

overhead (sync.) bits
Easy, but requires
overhead (sync.) bits

Complexity is high in
Asynchronous WCDMA

Modest Complexity

Easy, decision-directed
Modest Complexity
techniques can be used(using dedicated correlator)

Requires CPE Tones

(additional overhead)

Modest to High ComplexityRAKE Combining in CDMA

Frequency Domain
(depending on bit-rate and
usually more complex than Equalisation is very easy
extent of delay-spread)
equalisation in TDMA

Analog Front-end
Very simple
(especially for CPM signals)
(AGC, PA, VCO, etc)
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

Usually not required

within a burst/packet

Fairly Complex
(power control loop)

IIT Madras

Complexity or cost is
very high (PA back-off
is necessary)

45

Comparing Performance of
TDMA, DS-CDMA, & OFDM
Transceivers
TDMA

Fade Margin
(for mobile apps.)
Range
Re-use & Capacity
FEC Requirements
Variable Bit-rate
Support
Spectral Efficiency
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

Required for mobile

applications

CDMA

OFDM

Modest requirement
(RAKE gain vs powercontrol problems)

Required for mobile

applications

Very easy to increase Range increase by reducing Difficult to support large

allowed noise rise (capacity) cells (PA , AGC limitations)
cell sizes
Modest (in TDMA) and
High in MC-TDMA

Re-use planning is
crucial here

Modest

FEC is usually inherent (to

FEC optional for voice
increase code decorrelation)

Low to modest support

Very elegant methods

to support VBR & VAD

Modest

Poor to Low

IIT Madras

FEC is vital even for

fixed wireless access
Powerful methods
to support VBR
(for fixed access)

Very High
(& Higher Peak Bit-rates)

46

Contents

Wireless Propagation -- Overview

OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

47

Proprietary OFDM Flavours

Wireless Access (Macro-cellular)

Wideband-OFDM
(W-OFDM) of Wi-LAN
www.wi-lan.com

Flash OFDM
from Flarion
www.flarion.com

Vector OFDM
(V-OFDM) of Cisco, Iospan,etc.
www.iospan.com

-- Freq. Hopping for

-- 2.4 GHz band
CCI reduction, reuse
-- 30-45Mbps in 40MHz -- 1.25 to 5.0MHz BW
-- large tone-width
-- mobility support
(for mobility, overlay)

-- MIMO Technology
-- non-LoS coverage,
mainly for fixed access
-- upto 20 Mbps in MMDS

Wi-LAN leads the OFDM Forum -- many proposals submitted to

IEEE 802.16 Wireless MAN
Cisco leads the Broadand Wireless Internet Forum (BWIF)
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

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48

OFDM based Standards

Wireless LAN standards using OFDM are

HiperLAN-2 in Europe
IEEE 802.11a, .11g

OFDM based Broadband Access Standards are

getting defined for MAN and WAN applications

802.16 Working Group of IEEE

802.16 -- single carrier, 10-66GHz band

802.16a, b -- 2-11GHz, MAN standard

IEEE Symp./ IISc

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49

Key Parameters of 802.16a Wireless

MAN
Operates in 2-11 GHz
SC-mode, OFDM, OFDMA, and Mesh support
Bandwidth can be either 1.25/ 2.5/ 5/ 10/ 20 MHz
FFT size is 256 = (192 data carriers+ 8 pilots +56 Nulls)
RS+Convolutional coding
Block Turbo coding (optional)
Convolutional Turbo coding(optional)

QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM

Two different preambles for UL and DL

IEEE Symp./ IISc

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50

Preamble structure for 802.16a Wireless

MAN

Two different preamble structures for DL and

UL
CP

128

128

Tg

Tb

Preamble structure of 802.16a Uplink

CP 64 64 64 64
Tg

Tb

CP

128

Tg

128
Tb

Preamble structure of 802.16a Downlink

IEEE Symp./ IISc

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51

Calculations for 802.16a -- Example: 5MHz

Carrier frequency
Channel Bandwidth
Number of inputs to IFFT/FFT
Number of data subcarriers
Number of pilots
Subcarrier frequency spacing f
Period of IFFT/FFT Tb
Length of guard interval
Length of the preamble for Downlink
Length of the preamble for Uplink
Guard interval for Uplink preamble
OFDM symbol duration

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

2-11 GHz
5 MHz
256
192
8
19.53125 KHz (5 MHz/256)
51.2 s (1 / f)
12.8 s (Tb / 4)
128 s (640 sub-carriers)
76.8s (384/5 MHz)
25.6 s (128/5 MHz)
64 s (320/5 MHZ)

IIT Madras

52

Broadband Wireless Standards

ETSI BRAN activity

HiperLan > HiperLink > HiperAccess
Hiperaccess
(PMP, 25Mbps, 40GHz)
or
ETSIs FWA (2-11 GHz)

Hiperlink
(155Mbps, 17GHz
upto 150m)

HiperLan (1,2)
(19 or 54Mbps, 5GHz)

2-5 miles, LoS(> 11GHz)

or non-LoS (<11GHz)

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

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53

Broadband Access Standards -contd.

IEEE LAN and MAN standards

IEEE 802.16
(10 to 66 GHz)

IEEE 802.16a,b
(2 to 11 GHz)

1-3 miles, non-LoS

IEEE 802.11a or
.11b, or .11g

2-5 miles, LoS(> 11GHz)

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

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54

Contents

Wireless Propagation -- Overview

OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

55

IEEE 802.11a Overview

Carrier frequency= 5 GHz

Total allotted bandwidth= 20 MHz x 10 =
200MHz
Size of the FFT= 64
Number of data subcarriers= 48
Number of Pilot subcarriers= 4
FFT period= 3.2 s
Channel bandwidth used= 64/3.2 s => 20
MHz

IEEE Symp./ IISc

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56

Rate Dependent Parameters

Coded bits
Data rate Modulation
per
Coding rate
(Mbits/s
subcarrier
(R)
)
(NBPSC)
6

BPSK

BPSK

12

Coded bits
per OFDM
symbol
(NCBPS)

Data bits
per OFDM
symbol
(NDBPS)

1/2

48

24

3/4

48

36

QPSK

1/2

96

48

18

QPSK

3/4

96

72

24

16 QAM

1/2

192

96

36

16 QAM

3/4

192

144

48

64 QAM

2/3

288

192

54

64 QAM

3/4

288

216

IEEE Symp./ IISc

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57

802.11A -- Frame and Slot

Structure

Details of the preamble field

10 short symbols (0.8*10 = 8s)

0

2 long symbols (1.6 + 2*3.2 = 8s)

9

8s

P2
8s

MAC
Header

T1

T2

Freq. Offset estimation

and channel estimation

Signal detect, AGC, Timing

Recovery, Freq. acquisition

P1

GI 2

Data

Data

4s

Data

Pream
ble2

Data

4s

Number of Sub-carriers = 64 (only 48+4=52 are non-zero)

IEEE Symp./ IISc
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PPDU Frame format

IEEE Symp./ IISc

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Preamble Structure -Implications

0

Only every 4th tone is non-zero. This

implies 10 replicas (in time) within 4+4 = 8secs

Even if delay spread in 0.2 secs (for a 100m cell), we can use 9 of 10
replicas to recover timing; use less than 9 for higher fade rates

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

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60

Auto-correlation and Piece-wise Crosscorrelation for Slot Boundary Detection

Auto-correlation for timing and freq. estimation

z(n)

k 79

| y(n k)y*(n k 16) | for n 0 to 159

k 0

Piece-wise Cross-correlation can also be used

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

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Timing Recovery in 802.11A

--Simulation Results
N=0 represents start of 1st preamble; length of channel
impulse response set to 8 samples (0.4secs)
Value of index n in Probability of the corresponding n being detected as the start
the transmitted
of the frame at different SNRs
data s(n)
5 db
10 db
15 db
20 db
No noise
n<7 (outside the
acceptable range)
N=7
N=8
N=9

0.062

0.008

0.032
0.057
0.096

0.009
0.048
0.091

0.002
0.022
0.081

0
0
0.013
0.080

N=10
0.144
0.195
0.226
0.236
N=11
0.204
0.276
0.322
0.327
N=12
0.148
0.216
0.205
0.208
N=13
0.118
0.109
0.113
0.106
N=14
0.070
0.036
0.027
0.027
N=15
0.033
0.036
0.002
0.003
N=16
0.019
0.008
0
0
n>16 (outside the
0.017
0.003
0
0
acceptable range
Performance of timing recovery algorithm using 1st preamble

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

0
0
0.013
0.083
0.231
0.313
0.228
0.103
0.026
0.003
0
0

Acceptable
Range

62

Auto-correlation Result
autocorrelation result

1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
1

11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 111 121 131 141 151 161

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

63

Piece-wise cross-correlation Result

Cross correlation Result

4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

154

145

136

127

118

109

100

91

82

73

64

55

46

37

28

19

10

64

Fine Frequency Offset Estimation

Quantity of interest is the Standard
Deviation, f
of the frequency estimate.
It is given by:

f = [E (( fest - fo )2 )] 1/2

Approximate by using ensemble

averaging of many Monte-Carlo runs

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

65

Comparison of the Two Fine

Frequency Estimation Algorithms
-1

-1

10

-2

S.D

S.D

10

10

-2

10

300 Hz

300 Hz

30 Hz

30 Hz
-3

10

10

15
snr(db)

20

25

-3

10

MMSE Technique
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

10

15
snr(db)

20

25

Self-Correlation
IIT Madras

66

64-QAM Without Pilot De-rotation

64 QAM before p ilot correction

2
1.5
1
0.5
0
-2

-1

-0.5
-1
-1.5
-2

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

67

64-QAM After Pilot De-rotation

64 QAM after p ilot rotation
1.5

0.5

0
-1.5

-1

-0.5

0.5

1.5

-0.5

-1

-1.5

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

68

BER Curves for Different Channel Models

For AWGN Channel

AWGN case
0
0

10

15

-1

BERin db

-2
-3
-4
-5

Eb/n0 in db

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

QPSK1/2
12Mbps
16QAM 1/2
24Mbps
64QAM2/3
48MBPS
BPSK1/2
6Mbps

69

Contents

Wireless Propagation -- Overview

OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

70

Motivation for Advances

Increase Erlang Capacity (Re-use

Efficiency) more users per square area
Increase Range and/or Reliability
Increase Channel Capacity (Spectral
Efficiency) -- higher average bit rate or lower
Tx power
Increase Coverage -- must for fixed wireless
Support for asymmetric and bursty traffic
-- high peak to average bit rate traffic like
Internet
Support for mobility, inter-operability etc.

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

71

Wireless Advances -- contd.

Spatial Multiplexing
Turbo Coding
Sectorisation
CCI Suppression
Freq.
Hopping

OFDM

Spectral
Efficiency

Link
Space-Time Coding
Adaptatio
Transmit Diversity
n
Transmit Diversity

Smart Antennas

Receive Diversity

VAD, AMR, VBR

Fixed
Beamforming

Power Control

Range

Multi-user Detection

Re-use
Efficiency
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

DCS

IIT Madras

72

ST Block Code Example

Recall Example Permutation Tx Diversity Scheme

-d*(k+1), d(k)

Tx

r(k+1), r(k)

Rx

d*(k), d(k+1)

Alamouti and other Tx diversity / coding schemes are suitable

only for frequency-flat channels
OFDM converts frequency selective channel to parallel flat
channels (one for every sub-carrier)

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

73

Contents

Wireless Propagation -- Overview

OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

74

MIMO OFDM

In addition to time and space, OFDM

systems can exploit frequency diversity

If feedback channels are available, SpaceTime-Frequency water pouring

possible!

OFDM can convert delay-spread diversity

into space diversity (diversity
conversion!)

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

75

Permutation Tx Diversity for

OFDM

Courtesy:http://www.research.att.com/~justin/
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

IIT Madras

76

ST Coded Tx Diversity for OFDM

Courtesy:http://www.research.att.com/~justin/
IEEE Symp./ IISc
-2001

IIT Madras

77

Contents

Wireless Propagation -- Overview

OFDM Fundamentals
Comparing TDMA, CDMA, and OFDM
OFDM Standards
Case Study: IEEE 802.11a OFDM WLAN
Key Advances in Wireless Technology
Space-Time Processing for OFDM
Summary

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

78

Why OFDM for Broadband

Access?

Why not CDMA ?

DS-CDMA cannot support high bit rates efficiently

Advantages of OFDM

Fundamentally, well suited for high bit rate applications

Simple frequency domain equalisation

lower complexity than RAKE or TDMA equalization

Timing recovery is very straight forward

Timing jitter easier to handle (due to long symbol duration)
Good support for highly variable bit rate applications

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

Coarse granularity from time-slots(1 time-slot=1

symbol)
Fine granularity from tones (blocks) inside a time-slot

IIT Madras

OFDM

79

Summary -- contd. 1

OFDM is emerging as popular solution for wireless

LAN, and also for fixed broad-band access

The questions that remain to be answered are

Will OFDM be good when there is vehicular mobility?

Pulse-shaping or large tone-widths reduce throughput

What about macro-cellular, non-LoS coverage issues?

What about OFDM deployment in unlicensed bands?

Will OFDM be cost-effective? If not right now, when?

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

Analog (linear PA) with dynamic PAR control

IIT Madras

80

Summary -- contd. 2

Space-Time processing for OFDM is a very hot area of

current research

The cost-effectiveness of many of these space-time

techniques is not clear at present

Multiple RF/IF chains versus faster base-band (MIPS) costs

Will 4G see a combination of OFDM, DS-CDMA & TDMA ?

Key Question is: Where are those high-bit rate, high

usage applications ? -- at low cost ?

Thank You!

IEEE Symp./ IISc

-2001

IIT Madras

81