Orthogonal Frequency Division

Multiplexing.
 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM)
• Due to multipath fading and mobile user’s movement the
channel impulse response changes very rapidly.

• At some instances it is causes frequency flat fading and at

some other instances it causes frequency selective fading.
 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM)
• Due to multipath fading and mobile user’s movement the
channel impulse response changes very rapidly.

• At some instances it is causes frequency flat fading and at

some other instances it causes frequency selective fading.
 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM)
• Bs = 6KHz then signal suffers frequency flat fading
• Bs = 500KHz then signal suffers frequency selective fading.
 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM)
• Bs = 6KHz then signal suffers frequency selective fading
• Bs = 100Hz then signal suffers frequency flat fading.

• What is the catch……………..

 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM)
• We have studied that the following from our communication
systems course that……….

• If some how we slow down our data rate or widen the pulse
widths and then we can have narrower bandwidths, then we
can get rid of the frequency selective fading.
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM)
 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM)

• But slowing down the data rates is not a solution since we

have to transmit the data rate that we desire utilizing the full
spectrum.
• So what should we do………..??
 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM).
• The answer to this question is serial to parallel
conversion.
• Divide the incoming bit stream in to parallel
bit streams thus lowering down the data of
each individual bit stream.
• Then transmitting each bit stream separately
on different frequencies using different
modulators….
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM).
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM).
 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM).
• In other words we divide the available spectrum such that
spectrum of each data stream is less than the coherence
bandwidth.
𝐵𝑖 < 𝐵𝐶

Let the bandwidth of ith sub-channel is

𝑖𝐵
𝑓𝑖 =
𝑁

where B is the total bandwidth and N is number of subcarriers.

 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
(OFDM).
• Now the transmitted signal on ith sub channel is
given by..
𝑆𝑖 (𝑡) = 𝑋𝑖 𝑒 𝑗2𝜋𝑓𝑖 𝑡
where 𝑋𝑖 is the data transmitted signal on ith sub
channel and 𝑓𝑖 is the frequency of ith subcarrier.
So the total signal that would be transmitted.
𝑁

𝑆 𝑡 = 𝑋𝑖 𝑒 𝑗2𝜋𝑓𝑖 𝑡
𝑖=1
 Detection or demodulation of OFDM.
• Each sub channel is multiplied with all the frequency sub
channel carriers and then integrated over a time period of
one symbol.

• This will result in the detection of only one sub channel and
all other frequency channels will be eliminated.

• Since the bandwidth of one sub channel is B/N so the time

period of one sub channel is N/B,
Detection or demodulation of OFDM.
𝑁
𝐵 𝐵
𝑠 𝑡 𝑒 −𝑗2𝜋𝑓𝑙 𝑡 𝑑𝑡
𝑁 0

𝑁 𝑁
𝐵 𝐵
= 𝑋𝑖 𝑒 𝑗2𝜋𝑓𝑖 𝑡 𝑒 −𝑗2𝜋𝑓𝑙 𝑡 𝑑𝑡
𝑁 0 𝑖=1

𝑙𝐵 𝑖𝐵
Substituting 𝑓𝑙 = and 𝑓𝑖 =
𝑁 𝑁

𝑁 𝑁
𝐵 𝐵 𝐵
𝑗2𝜋(𝑖−𝑙) 𝑡
= 𝑋𝑖 𝑒 𝑁 𝑑𝑡
𝑁
𝑖=1 0
 Detection or demodulation of OFDM.
𝑁 𝑁
𝐵 𝐵 𝐵
𝑗2𝜋(𝑖−𝑙)𝑁𝑡
= 𝑋𝑖 𝑒 𝑑𝑡
𝑁 0
𝑖=1
𝑁
𝐵 𝐵 = 0 𝑖𝑓 𝑖 ≠ 𝑙
𝑗2𝜋(𝑖−𝑙) 𝑡
𝑒 𝑁 𝑑𝑡 𝐵
0 = 𝑖𝑓 𝑖 = 𝑙
𝑁

This is what orthogonality is all about.

When we try to correlate different subcarriers we have zero
output.
Orthogonality in frequency domain.
 How to implement efficiently.
• Consider the fact that the time period of each symbol of OFDM is
given by
1
𝑇𝑠 =
𝐵
• Now the kth sample of the OFDM symbol is
𝑘
𝑘𝑇𝑠 =
𝐵
• Since we have already studied that the an OFDM symbol is sum of
many subcarriers…..
𝑁

𝑆 𝑡 = 𝑋𝑖 𝑒 𝑗2𝜋𝑓𝑖 𝑡
𝑖=1
 How to implement efficiently.
• Now sampling the OFDM symbol will give us
𝑁

𝑆 𝑘𝑇𝑠 = 𝑋𝑖 𝑒 𝑗2𝜋𝑓𝑖 𝑘𝑇𝑠

𝑖=1

now using the definition of kTs and fi we have..

𝑁
𝑖𝐵 𝑘
𝑗2𝜋 𝑁 𝐵
𝑆 𝑘𝑇𝑠 = 𝑋𝑖 𝑒
𝑖=1

𝑁
𝑘𝑖
𝑗2𝜋 𝑁
𝑆 𝑘𝑇𝑠 = 𝑋𝑖 𝑒
𝑖=1
 How to implement efficiently.
• Now if we look at the expression below it is IDFT or inverse discrete
Fourier transform.
𝑁
𝑘
𝑗2𝜋 𝑁
𝑆 𝑘𝑇𝑠 = 𝑋𝑖 𝑒
𝑖=1
• So now we can generate an OFDM symbol by simply taking the IFFT.
• Similarly at the receiver side we can take the FFT of the signal to recover
the smybols Xi.
 How to implement efficiently.
Bit
stream S
/ I-DFT Transmitter
P

P
Bit
/ DFT Receiver
stream
S
 Detailed implementation.

cos(2f C t )

Real
S
Bit
/ I-DFT
stream
P
Imag

sin(2f C t )

AIR ＢＰＦ
 Detailed implementation.

LPF
T
u cos(2f C t ) A P
Channel
n / DFT /
e π/2 D S
r
LPF

Bit
Stream
Further improvement in performance (cyclic prefix)

Delayed wave causes interference

Pat h 2

Building
Direct Pat h

Pat h 3 Mobile
Recept ion
Base St at ion
 Further improvement in performance (cyclic prefix)

Symbol k-1 Symbol k Symbol k+1

No multi-path T=1/f

Sampling Period

Multi-path Direct

Delayed

Sampling Period

• Inter symbol interference (ISI) happens in Multi-path condition

Further improvement in performance (cyclic prefix)

Tcyclic OFDM symbol(1/f0)

Tg
Copy signal
• By adding the Gurard Interval Period, ISI can be avoided

Tcyclic
OFDM symbol (1/f0)

Direct
Delayed

Sampling Period
 Further improvement in performance (cyclic prefix)

• So now we have changed the total length of the OFDM

symbol in order to mitigate ISI and ICI.
• The total length of cyclic prefix should be less than the
maximum delay spread in the channel.

𝑇𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑐 ≥ 𝑇𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑢𝑚 𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑦 𝑠𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑

• Now the total symbol period should be less than the

coherence time of the channel.

𝑇𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏𝑜𝑙 = 𝑇𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑐 + 𝑇𝑂𝐹𝐷𝑀

𝑇𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏𝑜𝑙 < 𝑇𝑐𝑜ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒
 Further improvement in performance (cyclic prefix)

• Adding cyclic prefix does not come at a price.

• We increase the period of one symbol and then we are
loosing throughput of the system or in other words it is taking
longer for us to transmit information than the usual time for
one OFDM symbol.
• So we loose in efficiency of the system i.e.,

𝑇𝑂𝐹𝐷𝑀
𝜂=
𝑇𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑐 + 𝑇𝑂𝐹𝐷𝑀
 Further improvement in performance (cyclic prefix)

• For Wimax which is also based on OFDM we have .

• Total subcarriers = N = 256.
• Total spectrum is = 4MHz.
• So each sub channel has 4MHz/256 = 15.625 KHz.
• Time of each OFDM symbol = 𝑇𝑂𝐹𝐷𝑀 = 256/4MHz = 64us.
• Let us suppose that 𝑇𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑖𝑐 = 12.5% of 𝑇𝑂𝐹𝐷𝑀 = 8us.
• So total symbol period is 𝑇𝑠𝑦𝑚𝑏𝑜𝑙 = 72us.
• Efficiency is thus = 64us/72us = 88%.