1.

Idealized OFDM Model

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is a specialized frequency multiplexing
(FDM) technique. It divides total available bandwidth into a number of orthogonal sub-carriers
and simultaneously transfers signals on these sub-carriers with a low data rate, achieving a total
data rate approaching ideal Nyquist data rate. Lower data rate on each sub-carrier means
narrower bandwidth, which brings several benefits to the data transmission, such as flat channel
fading and simpler receiver design.
An idealized OFDM communication system model can be shown as Figure 1. [1] In the
transmitter, the signal source, a serial binary sequence, is first demultiplexed into multiple
parallel data streams, corresponding to the number of sub-carriers to use. Each produced stream
is performed with constellation mapping, i. e. modulated with a certain modulation scheme (e.
g. BPSK).Then an inverse FFT is applied to each set of mapped symbols to convert them into
time-domain samples. These samples are then converted into an analog signal and up-converted
to the RF frequency. When the receiver senses the signal, the RF signal is first down-converted
and fed through a low-pass filter to generate a baseband signal. An ADC samples this baseband
signal and the samples are then provided to an forward FFT. The parallel outputs from the
forward FFT are multiplexed into a serial stream, and the stream of binary digits is the
recovered transmitted information.

(a) Transmitter

(b) Receiver
Figure 1 An Idealized OFDM Communication System

2. GNU Radio OFDM Example [3][4]

2.1.
Implementation
There is an OFDM example in the GNU Radio package. It implements the basic processing
blocks of OFDM, and uses USRP to transmit and receive OFDM signals. The flow charts of
transmitter and receiver are shown in Figure 2.

(a) Transmitter

(b) Receiver
Figure 2 GNU Radio OFDM Example

2.2.

Experiment Setup
a) Hardware setting:
Transmitter is one desktop computer connected with one USRP, which is equipped with
RFX2400 daughterboard and VERT2450 antenna. Receiver has the same setting.
Transmitter and Receiver are placed 5 feet apart from each other.
b) The source code is located in directory: ~/gnuradio/gnuradio-examples/python/ofdm/,
benchmark_ofdm_tx.py is for Transmitter and benchmark_ofdm_rx.py is for Receiver.
Their usage can be accessed by using -h command line option.

2.3.

Experiment Result
a) OFDM spectrum
In this experiment, the spectrum analyzer is used to display the signal spectrum:
connect one VERT2450 antenna to the input of the spectrum analyzer, set the center
frequency to 2.422GHz and set the display span to 500KHz.
On Transmitter, enter the directory ~/gnuradio/gnuradio-examples/python/ofdm/ and
enter the following command:
./benchmark_ofdm_tx.py -f 2422M --tx-amplitude=26214 -v
where tx-amplitude has a maximum value of 32768, and setting it to 26214 is equal
to using 80% of the maximum transmitting power. Other parameters are the default
values: modulation scheme is BPSK and the number of FFT bins is 512.
The OFDM spectrum observed on the spectrum analyzer is shown in Figure 3,
which demonstrates the shape of the theoretical OFDM spectrum, as shown in
Figure 4.
b) Data Transmission and Reception
On Receiver, enter the directory ~/gnuradio/gnuradio-examples/python/ofdm/ and
enter the following command:
./benchmark_ofdm_rx.py -f 2422M -v
Other parameters are the default values: modulation scheme is BPSK and the
number of FFT bins is 512.

Figure 3 Signal Spectrum of GNU Radio OFDM Example

Figure 4 Theoretical OFDM Spectrum [5]

PDR

PDR vs tx-amplitude
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0

PDR

10

100

1000

tx-amplitude

10000

Figure 5 Chart of PDR vs tx-amplitude

100000

On transmitter, enter the directory ~/gnuradio/gnuradio-examples/python/ofdm/ and

enter the following command:
./benchmark_ofdm_tx.py -f 2422M -M 0.4 --tx-amplitude=x -v
where -M 0.4 stands for sending 400K bytes, i. e. 1000 packets with 400
bytes/packet; tx-amplitude is changed in the range of [30, 32768], adjusting the
transmitting power. Other parameters are the default values: modulation scheme is
BPSK and the number of FFT bins is 512.
The packet delivery rate (PDR) vs tx-amplitude chart is shown in Figure 5. The
result shown that the PDR is approximately 100% when the tx-amplitude is set
between 500 and 10000, and it decreases dramatically when tx-amplitude exceeds
10000. The possible reason for the PDR decrease is that the high transmitting power
in the USRP causes signal distortion.

3. FTW IEEE 802.11a/g/p OFDM Frame Encoder [5] [6]

3.1.
Implementation
This project implemented the example frame encoder provided by the IEEE 802.11a
standard document. The transmitting path is shown in Figure 6. This implementation
includes a group of standard compliant processing blocks other than the basic ones already
existing in GNU Radio. By adjusting the center frequency and interpolation rate, it can carry
out 802.11a, 802.11g or 802.11p.

Figure 6 FTW IEEE 802.11 OFDM Frame Encoder

3.2.

Experiment setup
a) Hardware setting:
One desktop computer connected with one USRP2, which is equipped with RFX2400
daughterboard and VERT2450 antenna.
b) Installation: [2]
Download the source code, enter the following command in the terminal:
svn co https://www.cgran.org/svn/projects/ftw_80211_ofdm_tx
Install the encoder, enter the following commands in the given order:
cd ftw_80211_ofdm_tx/trunk

./configure
make
sudo make install
ftw_ofdm_tx.py is the executable file, and the usage can be accessed by using -h
command line option.

3.3.

Experiment Result
a) OFDM spectrum
In this experiment, the spectrum analyzer is used to display the signal spectrum:
connect one VERT2450 antenna to the input of the spectrum analyzer, set the center
frequency to 2.422GHz and set the display span to 25MHz.
On the computer, enter the following command:
ftw_ofdm_tx.py -f 2422M -n 0.8 -s -r 0
where, -n 0.8 sets the transmitting amplitude; -s for swapping IQ components
before sending to USRP2 sink, due to one USRP2 IQ signal processing defect; -r 0
for sending infinite number of frames. Other parameters are the default values: the
interpolation rate is 5, which can provide 4us OFDM symbol duration for 802.11g;
the regime is 1, which is BPSK with coding rate .
The OFDM spectrum observed on the spectrum analyzer is shown in Figure 7,
which also demonstrates the shape of the theoretical OFDM spectrum, as shown in
Figure 4.

Figure 7 Signal Spectrum of FTW IEEE 802.11a/g/p OFDM Frame Encoder

b) Data Transmission and Reception

According to the authors of paper[6], signals transmitted by this frame encoder can be
decoded by an 802.11g receiver. In this experiment, one 802.11b/g compatible wireless
network adapter was used as the receiver, and Wireshark was used to capture incoming
packets through the receiver. However, there was no packets captured when the
transmitter was working and the OFDM signal was shown on the spectrum analyzer. I
am investigating the reason and will try some other methods to perform the data
reception.

Reference
[1] OFDM, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthogonal_frequencydivision_multiplexing#Idealized_system_model.
[2] GNU Radio Projects, https://www.cgran.org/wiki/Projects.
[3] L. Yang, W. Hou, L. Cao, B. Y. Zhao, and H. Zheng, "Supporting demanding wireless applications
with frequency-agile radios," in Proceeding of the 7th NSDI, 2010.
[4] A. Marwanto, M.A. Sarijari, N. Fisal, S.K.S. Yusof, and R.A. Rashid, Experimental study of
OFDM implementation utilizing GNU Radio and USRP - SDR," Communications (MICC), 2009
IEEE 9th Malaysia International Conference on , vol., no., pp.132-135, 15-17 Dec. 2009.
[5] A. Costantini, Implementation of an IEEE 802.11p transmitter in open-source Software-Defined
Radio, Master Thesis, University of Salento, 2010.
[6] P. Fuxjager, A. Costantini, D. Valerio, P. Castiglione, G. Zacheo, T. Zemen, and F. Ricciato, "IEEE
802.11p Transmission Using GNURadio," in Proceeding of the 6th Karlsruhe Workshop on Software
Radios, 2010, pp. 83-86.