A MB-OFDM system implemented in Matlab

Version number Date

1.0 2008
1.1 2008 Revision

Author: Sandro Noto

Revised by: Helena Sarmento






Technical Report


Project: UWB Receiver: baseband processing using reconfigurable hardware (UWBR)
PTDC/EEA-ELC/67993/2006

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Table of Contents
A MB-OFDM system implemented in Matlab .......................................................................1
Table of Contents....................................................................................................................3
Abstract ...................................................................................................................................5
MB-OFDM UWB technology ............................................................................................7
OFDM scheme....................................................................................................................8
Multi-band OFDM..............................................................................................................9
MB-OFDM baseband processing .....................................................................................10
Convolutional encoder and Puncturer...............................................................................11
Interleaver .........................................................................................................................12
Constellation Mapping......................................................................................................13
IFFT ..................................................................................................................................13
Channel .............................................................................................................................13
FFT....................................................................................................................................13
Pilots and guard su-carriers remover ................................................................................13
Quantifier and concatenator..............................................................................................14
Deinterleaver.....................................................................................................................15
Depuncturer and Viterbi ...................................................................................................15
Descrambler ......................................................................................................................16
Simulation results..................................................................................................................16
Conclusions...........................................................................................................................17
References.............................................................................................................................17

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Abstract
This report describes a Matlab which simulates the transmission and the reception of a base
band signal for a Multi Band-Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (MB-OFDM)
system, operating over a Gaussian channel. We followed the ECMA 368 [1] standard. After
a brief introduction about the MB-OFDM (Multi Band-OFDM) main features, we describe
the system blocks, and, for each block we identify the Matlab function(s) used.
We present results obtained for the bit error rate (BER) and compare them with other [1].
To finalize, we identify future work.

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MB-OFDM UWB technology
MB-OFDM [1] is a multi-band technology, using orthogonal frequency division
multiplexing. The total bandwidth that could be occupied, as defined by FCC, is from 3.1
GHz to 10.6 GHz. This covers a total span of 7.5 GHz. MB-OFDM divides the available
spectrum into 14 bands of 528 MHz. The first 12 bands are grouped into 4 band groups
consisting of 3 bands, and the last two bands are grouped into a fifth band group (see
Figure 1).
10296
MHz
3432
MHz
3960
MHz
5544
MHz
5016
MHz
4488
MHz
6072
MHz
6600
MHz
8184
MHz
7128
MHz
7656
MHz
8712
MHz
9240
MHz
9768
MHz
bandgroup1 bandgroup2 bandgroup3 bandgroup4 bandgroup5
band band band bandband band band band band band band band band band
1234567891011121314

Figure 1 - UWB Standard spectrum allocation
Multiple access is based on two types of Time-Frequency codes (TFCs). With a Time-
Frequency Interleaving (TFI) code, information is interleaved over three bands. Fixed
Frequency Interleaving (FFI) transmits coded data on a single band. Within each of the first
four band groups, four time-frequency codes using TFI and three time-frequency codes
using FFI are defined; thereby, providing support for up to seven channels per band. For the
fifth band group, two time-frequency codes using FFI are defined. Therefore, 30 channels
are available in total to define a piconet.
An OFDM symbol, transmitted in a band (528 MHz), includes 100 data sub-carriers, 10
guard sub-carriers, and 12 pilot sub-carriers for coherent and to provide robustness against
frequency offsets and phase noise. Data sent over each data sub-carrier are modulated,
using QPSK or dual carrier modulation (DCM). Using QPSK, a symbol of 2 bits is mapped
on a sub-carrier. The DCM symbol has 4 bits. The same 4 bits of information are mapped
onto two different sub-carriers, separated by 50 sub-carriers (approximately 206 MHz).
With this separation, the probability that both points simultaneously suffer from fading
decreases and diversity loss is reduced.
Data rate (Mbps) Modulation Code rate TDS FDS
53.3 QPSK 1/3 Yes Yes
80 QPSK 1/2 Yes Yes
106.7 QPSK 1/3 No Yes
110 QPSK 11/32 No Yes
160 QPSK 1/2 No Yes
200 QPSK 5/8 No Yes
320 DCM 1/2 No No
400 DCM 5/8 No No
480 DCM 3/4 No No
Table 1 MB-OFDM data rates

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Frequency-domain spreading, time-domain spreading, and forward error correction (FEC)
coding are specified for different data rates. FEC used is a convolutional code with coding
rate of 1/3. Puncturing, TDSS and FDS permit to establish the other code rates: 1/2, 5/8 and
3/4 and 11/32. Therefore, the MB-OFDM data communication supports data rates of 53.3
Mb/s, 80 Mb/s, 106.7 Mb/s, 160 Mb/s, 200 Mb/s, 320 Mb/s, 400 Mb/s, and 480 Mb/s
(Table 1).
Data rates depend on modulation, code rate, and the existence or absence of TDS and FDS
spreading. For example, if QPSK modulation, code rate of 1/2, TDS and FDS are used (line
two of (Table 1), 80 Mbps are achieved. Symbols with 100 data sub-carriers with QPSK
modulation transmit 200 bits. However, if TDS and FDS are used the same data are sent
twice on the same symbol and twice on the next symbol. Therefore, only effective 50 bits
(200/4) are sent. For a code rate of 1/2, information bits are only 25. As the duration of
OFDM symbol is 312.5 ns, the available data rate is 25/312.5, or 80 Mbps.Forward error
correction employs: code rates of 1/3, 1/2, 5/8, 3/4 and 11/32; frequency-domain spreading
(FDS); and time-domain spreading (TDS). FDS and TDS involve the transmission of the
same information on two separate sub-carriers. These two sub-carriers belong to the same
OFDM symbol in FDS, or to two consecutive OFDM symbols in TDS.
According to the ECMA specification, first devices on market shall work only on the first
band group. These devices shall transmit and receive data at 53.3, 110 e 200 Mbps. As a
first step, we chose to implement the configuration of the first row of Table 1 .
OFDM scheme
# # # # # # #
-61 Cg[0] -55 Cp[0] -45 Cp[1] -35 Cp[2] -25 Cp[3] -15 Cp[4] -5 Cp[5]
-60 Cg[1] -54 Cd[1] -44 Cd[10] -34 Cd[19] -24 Cd[28] -14 Cd[37] -4 Cd[46]
-59 Cg[2] -53 Cd[2] -43 11 -33 20 -23 29 -13 38 -3 47
-58 Cg[3] -52 Cd[3] -42 12 -32 21 -22 30 -12 39 -2 48
-57 Cg[4] -51 Cd[4] -41 13 -31 22 -21 31 -11 40 -1 Cd[49]
-56 Cd[0] -50 Cd[5] -40 14 -30 23 -20 32 -10 41
-49 Cd[6] -39 15 -29 24 -19 33 -9 42
-48 Cd[7] -38 16 -28 25 -18 34 -8 43
-47 Cd[8] -37 17 -27 26 -17 35 -7 44
-46 Cd[9] -36 Cd[18] -26 Cd[27] -16 Cd[36] -6 Cd[45]

# # # # # # #
55 Cp[11] 45 Cp[10] 35 Cp[9] 25 Cp[8] 15 Cp[7] 5 Cp[6] 0 DC
56 Cd[99] 46 Cd[90] 36 Cd[81] 26 Cd[72] 16 Cd[63] 6 Cd[54] 1 Cd[50]
57 Cg[5] 47 91 37 82 27 73 17 64 7 55 2 51
58 Cg[6] 48 92 38 83 28 74 18 65 8 56 3 52
59 Cg[7] 49 93 39 84 29 75 19 66 9 57 4 Cd[53]
60 Cg[8] 50 94 40 85 30 76 20 67 10 58
61 Cg[9] 51 95 41 86 31 77 21 68 11 59
52 96 42 87 32 78 22 69 12 60
53 97 43 88 33 79 23 70 13 61
54 Cd[98] 44 Cd[89] 34 Cd[80] 24 Cd[71] 14 Cd[62]
Figure 2 Logical frequency sub-carriers

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An OFDM scheme is used to transmit information. A total of 100 data carriers C
D
, 10
guard carriers C
G
and 12 pilot sub-carriers C
P
per band is used. The 10 guard subcarriers
are located on either edge of the OFDM symbol at logical frequency subcarriers -61, -60,
, -57 and 57, 58, , 61. The pilot signals shall be placed in logical frequency subcarriers
-55, -45,-35, -25, -15, -5, 5, 15, 25, 35, 45 and 55. The logical frequency subcarriers [NT
2, NT 2] (-61 to 61) are mapped according to Figure 2.
The data on these carriers shall be created by copying over the five outermost data-bearing
subcarriers from the nearest edge of the OFDM symbol as defined by equation
[ ]
[ ]
[ ]
,
,
,
0, 1
2
90 , 1
2
G
D n
G n
G
D n G
N
C l l
C l
N
C l l N
(

(

=

(

+
(

(1)

A common way to implement an inverse discrete Fourier transform is by using an inverse
Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) algorithm. In the FFT [1], the logical frequency subcarriers
1 to 61 are mapped to the same numbered IFFT inputs, while the logical frequency
subcarriers 61 to 1 are mapped into IFFT inputs 67 to 127, respectively. The remaining
inputs, 62 to 66 and the 0 (DC) input, are set to zero. The subcarrier falling at DC (0th
subcarrier) is not used to avoid difficulties in DAC and ADC offsets and carrier feed
through in the RF chain.
Multi-band OFDM
The multi-band process is actually done after the OFDM process above is complete. OFDM
symbols are interleaved in time across multiple frequencies, based on TFCs. Figure 3
shows an example how this process works in reference to time and frequencies for the first
band group. As time progresses the OFDM symbols are transmitted on different bands:
symbol 1 is transmitted on band 1, symbol 2 on band 3 and symbol 3 on band 1.

Figure 3 Multi Band OFDM interleaving


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MB-OFDM baseband processing
Figure 4 and Figure 5 present the block diagram of the baseband processing of a
transmitter and a receiver in a MB-OFDM system.
Figure 4 MB-OFDM transmitter diagram


Figure 5 MB-OFDM receiver diagram

s(n) r(n)
w(n)

Figure 6 Communication channel

2.1. Scrambler
The Hamming distance between two strings of bits, generated by the convolutional
encoder, is greater if the input sequences are uncorrelated. Therefore, a scrambler is used to
uniformly redistribute the zeros and ones bits over the data input. The scrambler scheme,
recommended by the ECMA standard [1] is presented on Figure 7.


Figure 7 Scrambler block diagram

The scrambled bit is given by equation (2) where [ ] s n is the unscrambled bit, the operator
denotes the modulo-2 addition, and [ ] x n is generated by equation (3).

[ ] [ ] [ ] 0,1, 2, v n s n x n n = = K (2)

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[ ] [ ] [ ] 14 15 0,1, 2, x n x n x n n = = K (3)

Equation (4) defines the initialization vector
init
x , which is specified by the MB-OFDM
frame field Seed Identifier (Table 2.1.1):
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
1 2 14 15
init i i i i
x x x x x ( =

K (4)
The term [ ]
i
x k represents the binary initial value at the output of the
th
k delay element.

Seed Identifier
init
x
00 0011 1111 1111 111
01 0111 1111 1111 111
10 1011 1111 1111 111
11 1111 1111 1111 111
Table 2 Seed Identifier
In uwb_ofdm_system.m the scrambler is implemented by the scramble.m function.
Convolutional encoder and Puncturer
The convolutional encoder defined by the ECMA [1] has a constraint length 7 L = , code
rate 1/ 3 R = and generator polynomials
0 8 1 8 2 8
133 , 165 , 171 g g g = = = . Additional code
rates are derived from the mother code rate 1/ 3 R = by employing puncturing. Puncturing
is a procedure for omitting some of the encoded bits at the transmitter and inserting
dummy zeros into the decoder at the receiver, in place of the omitted bits. In the
presented implementation, we only used the puncturing and depuncturing operations
described on Figure 8. At the transmitter, rate is changed from R =1/3 to R = 1/2,
suppressing bit B
0
at the receiver from R = 1/2 to R = 1/3, inserting bit B
0
= 0.


Figure 8 Puncturing and depuncturing operations for R=1/2 code

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In uwb_ofdm_system.m the convolutional encoder and puncturer operations are both
implemented by the convenc.m Matlab function, which processes the following
parameters:
BitD_scr: the uncoded bit string
t: calculated by the poly2trellis.m function, taking into account the
convolutional encoder trellis structure, determined by the constraint length L and
the generator polynomials
n
g .
[1 0 1]: the puncturing pattern, which indicates that for each group of three bits
the 1
st
and the 3
rd
(corresponding to 1 positions) have to be sent, while the 2
nd

(corresponding to 0 position) has to be stolen.
Interleaver

Figure 9 Block diagram of the bit interleaver
The coded bit stream is interleaved (Figure 9), before sub-carriers modulation, in order to
provide robustness against burst errors. The interleaving operations are performed in three
distinct stages, depending on parameters presented on Table 3.
Data Rate (Mb/s) TDS Factor
(
TDS
N )
Coded Bits /
OFDM Symbol
(
CBPS
N )
Tone Interleaver
Block Size
(
int T
N )
Cyclic Interleaver
Shift
(
Cyc
N )
53.3 2 100 10 33
80 2 100 10 33
106.7 2 200 20 66
160 2 200 20 66
200 2 200 20 66
320 1 200 20 33
400 1 200 20 33
480 1 200 20 33
Table 3 Parameters for the interleaver
Symbol interleaving permutes the bits across 6 consecutive OFDM symbols. The symbol
interleaving operation is performed by grouping the coded bits into blocks of bits
corresponding to six OFDM symbols and then using a block interleaver whose size depends
on the number of coded bits per OFDM symbol and the value of the time domain spreading
factor to permute the coded bits. Intra-symbol tone interleaving permutes the bits across the
data subcarriers within an OFDM symbol. Intra-symbol cyclic shifts the bits in successive
OFDM symbols by deterministic amounts.

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The uwb_ofdm_system.m script simulates situation of first row of on Table 3. The three
interleaver stages are implemented by the symbol_intrlv.m, tone_intrlv.m and
cyclic_shifter.m scripts that use the intrlv.m Matlab function. This function
permutes the positions of the elements of an input vector in accordance with a permutation
matrix.
Constellation Mapping
Sub-carriers modulation is performed after the interleaving process. We only implemented
QPSK modulation. The QPSK mapping operation is performed by first grouping the
interleaved bits into pairs and then associating to each pair a complex symbol (Figure 10).
Besides data, pilots and guards sub-carriers are also mapped, according to Figure 2.

01 11
00 10
1/ 2
1/ 2 -1/ 2
-1/ 2
Q
I

Figure 10 QPSK constellation
IFFT
The OFDM symbols are generated by an IFFT operation with 128 points. In the
uwb_ofdm_system.m script, the IFFT operation is implemented by the ifft.m Matlab
function.
Channel
The channel simulated by uwb_ofdm_system.m is an additive white gaussiaon noise
(AWGN) channel. In the uwb_ofdm_system.m script, the channel is implemented by the
Matlab function awgn.m. For a chosen SNR this function calculates the power of w(t).
FFT
A FFT process operates at the receiver to obtain the noisy symbols. In the
uwb_ofdm_system.m script, the FFT process is implemented by the Matlab function
fft.m.
Pilots and guard su-carriers remover
At the output of the FFT block, pilots and guards sub-carriers are removed to isolates the
data noisy symbols. In the uwb_ofdm_system.m, pilots and guard removal is

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implemented by the Matlab code presented on Figure 11, according to Figure 2. The R2
vector represents modulated information on 100 data carriers. R1 vector includes data,
pilot, guard and null values modultinf all the 128 sub-carriers.

R2=zeros(1,100);
R2(1)=R1(9);
R2(2:10)=R1(11:19);
R2(11:19)=R1(21:29);
R2(20:28)=R1(31:39);
R2(29:37)=R1(41:49);
R2(38:46)=R1(51:59);
R2(47:50)=R1(61:64);
R2(51:54)=R1(65:68);
R2(55:63)=R1(70:78);
R2(64:72)=R1(80:88);
R2(73:81)=R1(90:98);
R2(82:90)=R1(100:108);
R2(100)=R1(120);
Figure 11 Pilots and guard sub-carriers removal
Quantifier and concatenator
We adopt soft decision with 4 bits for the Viterbi decoder. Therefore, to implement
quantization for soft decision we have 64 levels /Figure 12). For simplicity, Figure 13
presents the quantifier with 3 bits/8 levels.
3 7 2 7 1 7 0 7
3 6 2 6 1 6 0 6
3 5 2 5 1 5 0 5
3 4 2 4 1 4 0 4
7 7 6 7 5 7 4 7
6 7 6 6 5 6 4 6
7 5 6 5 5 5 4 5
7 4 6 4 5 4 4 4
3 3 2 3 1 3 0 3
3 2 2 2 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 1 1 1 0 1
3 0 2 0 1 0 0 0
7 3 6 3 5 3 4 3
7 2 6 2 5 2 4 2
7 1 6 1 5 1 4 1
7 0 6 0 5 0 4 0
Imaginary
Real
00
01 11
10

Figure 12 QPSK decision zones


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0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Symbol real or
imaginary part
Probability
level

Figure 13 Quantifier (n=3)
Real and imaginary values received on sub-carriers, after pilot and guard removal,
represented by R2 are independently quantified in levels. At the output of the quantifier, the
concatenator block reorders real and imaginary quantified values, putting the real and
imaginary quantified values of the same complex in succession. In uwb_ofdm_system.m
script, the quantifier is implemented by the quantification_integer.m script forn =
4, and the concatenator by some lines of Matlab code.
Deinterleaver
The deinterleaver implements the reverse operations of the interleaver by rearranging the
quantified values at the output of the concatenator. In uwb_ofdm_system.m, the three
deinterleaver stages are implemented by the inv_ciclyc_shifter.m, tone_deintrlv.m and
symbol_deintrlv.m scripts. These scripts use the deintrlv.m Matlab function. By processing
the same permutation matrix used in intrlv.m, the deintrlv.m permutes the elements of the
input vector in the opposite way.
Depuncturer and Viterbi
The depuncturing is a procedure for inserting dummy bits in place of the punctured
(suppressed) bits. Then, the Viterbi decoder estimates the original data sequence by
determining the most likely through its trellis diagram. In the uwb_ofdm_system.m script,
puncturing and Viterbi decoding with soft decision operations are implemented by the
vitdec.m Matlab function. The input parameters of vitdec.m are are:
Vector_rx_deintrlv: the coded sequence.
t: calculated by the poly2trellis.m function, taking into account the
convolutional encoder trellis structure, determined by the constraint length L and
the generator polynomials.
tblen: a positive integer that specifies the traceback depth. We considered 5 times
the constraint length L.
trunc: to assumed the start at the all-zeros state.

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soft: to assume soft decision.
[1 0 1]: the puncturer pattern
Descrambler
The descrambler scheme is equal to the scrambler scheme. In fact, if ( ) scramble a b = then
( ) scramble b a = . In uwb_ofdm_system.m script, the descrambler operation is
implemented by the scrambler.m script.
Simulation results
We simulated the complete script to verify the implementation, comparing sent bits with
received bits. The two compared systems were simulated under the same conditions. We
also compare the bit error rate with the AWGN channel with previous results presented in
[2]. The bit error rate is calculated using equation (5), where
H
d is the Hamming distance,
which counts the number of different bits in the two pattern. The denominator is the
number of transmitted data bits, considering 600 bits transmitted in each of the N
v
cycles
600 distinct bits are transmitted). In our experiment we fixed N
v
=10
6
.

(transmitted data bit sequence, received data bit sequence)

600
H
V
d
BER
N
=

(5)

The curves on Figure 14 show the bit error rate as a function of the energy per bit to the
noise ratio (
0
/
b
E N ). The red present results from the simulation of the the
uwb_ofdm_system.m script and the blue line results from 17
0.0001
0.001
0.01
0.1
1
0 2 4 6 8 10
B
E
R
Eb/No


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Figure 14 BER as a function of
0
/
b
E N
Conclusions
We implement in Matlab the complete MB-OFMD system. The simulation confirmed the
correctness of this description. We have now the complete framework to implement the
receiver, using FPGAs. Simulink and Xilinx System Generator from Xilinx will be used to
implement the receiver in FPGA. The System Generator automatically generates the
Hardware Description Language (HDL) code by processing the Simulink and the Xilinx
blocksets which constitute the system. This HDL design can then be synthesized for
implementation in Virtex-5 FPGA ML506.
References
[1] Standard ECMA-368, High Rate Ultra Wideband PHY and MAC Standard,
December 2007
[2] Harry Viittala, Matti Hmlinen, Jari Iinatti: Comparative studies of MB-OFDM and
DS-UWB with co-existing systems in AWGN channel, IEEE International Symposium
on Personal, Indoor and Mobile Radio Communications (PIMRC06).
[3] Xilinx, System Generator for DSP User Guide, Release 10.1.1 April, 2008