Signal Processing for OFDM Communication Systems Eric Jacobsen Minister of Algorithms, Intel Labs Communication Technology Laboratory/ Radio Communications Laboratory July 29, 2004 With a lot of material from Rich Nicholls, CTL/RCL and Kurt Sundstrom, of unknown whereabouts
Outline OFDM What and Why Subcarrier Orthogonality and Spectral Effects Time Domain Comparison Equalization Signal Flow PAPR management Cool Tricks 2
Digital Modulation Schemes Single Carrier PSK, QAM, PAM, MSK, etc. Demodulate with matched filter, PLLs Common Standards: DVB-S, Intelsat, GSM, Ethernet, DOCSIS Multi-Carrier OFDM, DMT Demodulate with FFT, DSP Common Standards: DVB-T, 802.11a, DAB, DSL-DMT 3
......... Communication and Interconnect Technology Lab What is OFDM? Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Split a high symbol rate data stream into N lower rate streams Transmit the N low rate data streams using N subcarriers Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) & Multi-Carrier Modulation (MCM) N subcarriers must be mutually orthogonal N exp j 2 f t 2 Stream -N/2 Subcarrier spacing = f Partition available bandwidth into N orthogonal subchannels High Rate Complex Symbol Stream Serial to Parallel Hold (T hold = 1/ f sec) Stream 1 exp j 2 f t N exp j 2 1 f t 2 Complex Baseband OFDM Signal s(t) -N( f)/2 0 f (N-1)( f)/2 Stream N/2-1 OFDM Conceptual Block Diagram 4
Why OFDM? Reduces symbol rate by more than N, the number of subcarriers Fading per subcarrier is flat, so single coefficient equalization Reduces equalizer complexity O(N) instead of O(N 2 ) Fully Captures Multipath Energy For Large Channel Coherence Time, OFDM/DMT can Approach Water Pouring Channel Capacity Narrowband interference will corrupt small number of subcarriers Effect mitigated by coding/interleaving across subcarriers Increases Diversity Opportunity Frequency Diversity Increases Adaptation Opportunities, Flexibility Adaptive Bit Loading OFDMA PAPR largely independent of modulation order Helpful for systems with adaptive modulation 5
Downsides of OFDM Complexity FFT for modulation, demodulation Must be compared to complexity of equalizer Synchronization Overhead Cyclic Extension Pilot Tones PAPR Increases the length of the symbol for no increase in capacity Simplify equalization and tracking for no increase in capacity Depending on the configuration, the PAPR can be ~3dB-6dB worse than a single-carrier system Phase noise sensitivity The subcarriers are N-times narrower than a comparable single-carrier system Doppler Spread sensitivity Synchronization and EQ tracking can be problematic in high doppler environments 6
Subcarrier Orthogonality Orthogonality simplifies recovery of the N data streams Orthogonal subcarriers = No inter-carrier-interference (ICI) Time Domain Orthogonality: Every subcarrier has an integer number of cycles within T OFDM Satisfies precise mathematical definition of orthogonality for complex exponential (and sinusoidal) functions over the interval [0, T OFDM ] Frequency Domain Orthogonality: ICI = 0 at f = nf 0 f f Some FDM systems achieve orthogonality through zero spectral overlap BW inefficient! OFDM systems have overlapped spectra with each subcarrier spectrum having a Nyquist zero ISI pulse shape (really zero ICI in this case). BW efficient! 7
OFDM Signal (Time & Frequency) 1.5 TIME DOMAIN: 2 OFDM subcarriers (BPSK) 1 0.5 0-0.5-1 -1.5 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2 Time (Normalized by Tofdm) FREQUENCY DOMAIN: OFDM Subcarriers 2 through 10 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0-0.2-0.4 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Frequency (Normalized by 1/Tofdm) 8
Practical Signal Spectra Magnitude 0 10 Single carrier signals require filtering for spectral containment. This signal has narrow rolloff regions which requires long filters. 20 30 0 500 1000 1500 2000 Frequency OFDM spectra have naturally steep sides, especially with large N. The PAPR is often higher, which may result in more spectral regrowth. The blue trace is an unfiltered OFDM signal with 216 subcarriers. The red trace includes the effects of a non-linear Power Amplifier. 9
Time-Domain Comparisons By greatly increasing the symbol period the fading per subcarrier becomes flat, so that it can be equalized with a single coefficient per subcarrier. The addition of the cyclic prefix eliminates Inter- Symbol Interference (ISI) due to multipath. 10
Frequency Domain Equalization Design System Such That T Delay Spread < T Guard and B Coherence > B Subcarrier Subcarriers are perfectly orthogonal (no ISI or ICI) Each Subcarrier experiences an AWGN channel Equalizer Complexity : Serial Data Rate = 1/T, OFDM Symbol Rate = 1/(NT) FEQ performs N complex multiplies in time NT (or 1 complex mult per time T) Time domain EQ must perform MT complex multiplies in time T where M is the number of equalizer coefficients Channel Frequency Response (at time t) Subcarrier n Frequency 11
802.11a PHY Block Diagram I DAC Guard Interval Insertion Window I & Q HPA /2 BPF Duplexer Q DAC Data Scrambler FEC Encoder Interleaver QAM Mapping Pilot Insertion S/P IFFT (TX) P/S Data Descrambler FEC Decoder Deinterleaver QAM Demap Channel Estimation & Correction P/S FFT(RX) S/P Guard Interval Removal To MAC Sublayer RSSI I ADC LPF Digital LPF Symbol Timing Frequency Correction Signal Detect AGC /2 LNA BPF Frequency Offset Estimation Q ADC LPF 12
802.11a Processing 802.11a is a TDD contention-based, bursty protocol Full acquisition, synchronization, and EQ training can be performed for each burst or frame The short training symbols provide timing, AGC, diversity selection, and initial carrier offset The long training symbols provide fine synchronization and channel estimation Two FFT periods allow 3dB increase in channel estimation SNR by combining (averaging) the estimates Tracking is facilitated by the four pilot tones 13
802.11a Time/Frequency Signal Structure 8.125 MHz Short Training Symbols Long Training Symbols DATA FRAME Data Symbols FREQUENCY 53 Subcarriers (48 data, 4 pilot, 0 @ DC) 0-8.125 MHz 800 ns 4 s Indicates Pilot Tone Location TIME 14
DVB-T Time/Frequency Signal Structure Since DVB-T is a continuous transmit signal, channel estimation is facilitated easily by rotating pilots across the subcarrier indices. Interpolation provides channel estimation for every subcarrier. This figure is from reference [4] 15
Peak to Average Power Ratio Single Carrier Systems PAPR affected by modulation scheme, order, and filtering Constant-envelope schemes have inherently low PAPR For example: MSK, OQPSK PAPR increases with modulation order e.g., 64-QAM PAPR is higher than QPSK As Raised Cosine excess bandwidth decreases, PAPR increases Squeezing the occupied spectrum increases PAPR Multi-Carrier Systems PAPR affected by subcarrier quantity and filtering PAPR is only very weakly connected to modulation order PAPR increases with the number of subcarriers Rate of increase slows after ~64 subcarriers The Central Limit Theorem is still your friend Whitening is very effective at reducing PAPR Symbol shaping decreases PAPR 16
PAPR with 240 subcarriers P(PAPR < Abscissa) 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 64-QAM 20% RRC PAPR Cumulative Distribution Function 64-QAM OFDM-48 64-QAM 802.11a OFDM-240 N = 240 requires no more than 1dB additional backoff compared to 802.11a, and about 3.5dB more than a single-carrier system. The results shown use only data whitening for PAPR reduction. Additional improvements may be possible with other techniques. 0 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 PAPR (db) 17
PAPR Mitigation in OFDM Scrambling (whitening) decreases the probability of subcarrier alignment Subcarriers with common phase increase PAPR Symbol weighting reduces the effects of phase discontinuities at the symbol boundaries Raised Cosine Pulse weighting Works well, requires buffering Signal filtering Easier to implement 18
Time-Domain Weighting The phase discontinuities between symbols increase the size of the spectral sidelobes. Weighting the symbol transitions smooths them out and reduces the sidelobe amplitudes. Typically Raised- Cosine weighting Is applied. Tapered Regions This figure is informative content from the IEEE 802.11a specification. The two-fft period case applies only to preambles for synchronization and channel estimation. 19
Effect of Symbol Weighting With no RC weighting With 1% RC weighting Applying a tiny bit of symbol weighting in the time domain has a significant effect on PAPR. In this case only 1% of the symbol time is used for tapering. The blue trace is prior to the PA, the red trace after. Application of the 1% RC window meets the green transmit mask. 20
Cool and Interesting Tricks OFDMA Different users on different subcarriers Adaptive Bit Loading Seeking water filling capacity Adaptation to Channel Fading Adaptation to Interference 21
OFDMA Subcarrier Division Pilot Tones Data Subcarriers... Control User #1 User #2 User #3 User #N-1 User #N Redundant Control The 802.16 standard describes multiple means to implement OFDMA. In one mode each user s signal occupies contiguous subcarriers which can be independently modulated. Another mode permutes each user s subcarriers across the band in a spreading scheme so that all user s subcarriers are interlaced with other user s subcarriers. The first method allows for adaptive modulation and the second method increases frequency diversity. 22
Subcarrier Division with TDM Each color is for a distinct terminal. Control Subcarriers Subcarriers Redundant Control Subcarriers OFDM Symbols 23
Channel Frequency Response Multipath Frequency Selective Fading 5 Frequency (MHz) -5-4 -3-2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 0 Response (db) -5-10 -15-20 -25-30 Shannon s Law applies in each flat subinterval v = 100 km/hr f = 2 GHz t = 0.5 m sec 24
Adaptive Bit Loading Communication and Interconnect Technology Lab Response (db) 5 0-5 -10-15 -20-25 -30-5 -4-3 -2-1 0 1 2 3 4 5 High SNR At Receiver Deep Fade (Bad) Frequency (MHz) 6 bps/hz Low SNR At Receiver 4 bps/hz 2 bps/hz 0 bps/hz 64 QAM Channel Bandwidth 16 QAM QPSK OFDM Symbol Sub Carriers 25
Per-Subcarrier Adaptive Modulation Signal level Frequency 26
References [1] IEEE Std 802.11a-1999 [2] Robert Heath, UT at A, http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~bevans/courses/realtime/lectures/20_ofdm/346,22,ofdm and MIMO Systems [3] Hutter, et al, http://www.lis.ei.tum.de/research/lm/papers/vtc99b.pdf [4] Zabalegui, et al, http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/~in8189/csndsp2002/papers/g1/g1.2.pdf 27
Backup No! Go forward! 28
Cyclic Prefix (Guard Interval) Delay Spread Causes Inter-Symbol-Interference (ISI) and Inter-Carrier-Interference (ICI) Non-linear phase implies different subcarriers experience different delay (virtually all real channels are non-linear phase) Adding a guard interval between OFDM symbols mitigates this problem Zero valued guard interval will eliminate ISI but causes ICI Better to use cyclic extension of the symbol Symbol #1 T OFDM Symbol #2 T OFDM T G T FFT Subcarrier #2 ICI Subcarrier #1 (delayed relative to #2 ) Guard interval eliminates ISI from symbol #1 to symbol #2 Cyclic extension removes ISI and ICI! 3.5 cycles of subcarrier #1 inside the FFT integration period ICI! 29
DVB-T Time/Frequency Signal Structure Since DVB-T is a continuous transmit signal, channel estimation is facilitated easily by rotating pilots across the subcarrier indices. Interpolation provides channel estimation for every subcarrier. This figure is from reference [3] 30
Advantages SCM Sensitivity (margin) Complexity Memory Phase noise sensitivity Frequency registration Reduced PA Backoff Less Overhead (no cyclic prefix) OFDM Single Frequency Networks Simple EQ Flexibility Statistical Mux OFDMA BW, TDMA LOW SNR, avoid DFE PAPR not affected by modulation order. Automatically integrates multipath. IEEE Politics 31