An Intercarrier Interference Cancellation Technique
with SSC and ASIZ in OFDM Systems
Li Zhao, Juan Li, Kechun Tian
Guilin University of Electronic Technology, Guilin 541004, China
E-mail: zhaoli_gl@163.com
Abstract—For intercarrier interference (ICI) due to frequency
offsets, an ICI cancellation scheme is proposed for combating the
impact of ICI on OFDM systems in this paper. A received symbol
shift cancellation (SSC) algorithm and an adjacent subchannel
inserting zero (ASIZ) algorithm are designed for the ICI
cancellation scheme, respectively. At the transmitter, original
data symbols are mapped into one special symbol block by using
ASIZ, and then it is transmitted as a regular OFDM system. At
the receiver, Received signals are demodulated to obtain the data
symbols as a regular OFDM system, and then these symbols are
processed by using SSC. By doing so, the estimation of original
data symbols is obtained, and meanwhile ICI is mitigated, finally.
Simulation results show that the ICI contained in the received
signals can be effectively reduced by using the ASIZ scheme, and
the Signal-to-Interference power Ratio (SIR) of the scheme is
obviously much better than that of a regular scheme. Similarly,
Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of the scheme is much better
than that of others.
Keywords: OFDM; CIR; ICI; BER; ASIZ; SSC
I. INTRODUCTION
It is well known that OFDM is very robust against radio
channel impairments due to multi-path propagation and
frequency-selective fading; receiver design is also simplified
due to less complex equalization; OFDM systems have high
spectral efficiency due to overlapping sub-carrier spectra. But
one of the major disadvantages of wireless OFDM systems is
the sensitivity of its performance to frequency or phase offsets
resulted from Doppler shifts and synchronization errors.
Frequency offsets result in a loss of the carriers’ orthogonality,
and hence intercarrier interference (ICI) occurs.
Currently, several approaches mitigating ICI have been
developedincluding: ICI self-cancellation [1, 2], frequency-
domain equalization [3], time-domain windowing scheme [4],
frequency offset estimation and compensation techniques [5],
and Doppler diversity [6]. ICI self-cancellation schemes are a
very simple way for suppressing ICI in OFDM systems. In
despite of loss of bandwidth, it needn’t to estimate frequency
offsets. Hence, it is very useful to combat the fast fading
channels due to Doppler spread, and fit to simple low-speed
OFDM systems.
This paper still focuses on the ICI selfcancellation, and
presents an ICI cancellation scheme. This scheme is different
from these schemes proposed by these papers [1, 2]. A received
symbols shift cancellation (SSC) algorithm at the receiver and an
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adjacent subchannel inserting zero (ASIZ) algorithm at the
transmitter are designed to mitigate ICI in the scheme. Finally,
the SSC-ASIZ scheme is simulated and analyzed, and the
results show it can effectively reduce the impact of intercarrier
interference on OFDM communication systems.
II. MAIN IDEAS AND THE TRANSCEIVER ARCHITECTURE
The scheme works in two steps. First, the ASIZ is used at
the transmitter side. Assuming N/2 original data symbols from
the modulation source, these symbols are mapped by mapping
encoder into one data symbol block(its length is N), in which
the N/2 original symbols are distributed to even indexes and
zero symbols are distributed to odd indexes, alternately, and
then the symbol block is transmitted as a regular OFDM
system.
Second, the received symbols shift cancellation (SSC) is
used at the receiver side. The received data symbols from FFT
processor are divided into three same paths, and then shifted
and cancelled each other. Thereby ICI components are
canceled due to similar ICI value at adjacent sample points.
Although the SSC method is simple, and has good
cancellation effects on the far intercarrier interferences, it
results in the adjacent subcarrier interferences, and destroys
symbol transmission in the adjacent subchannels. Hence ASIZ
algorithm on the first step is used to avoid the effects of the
adjacent subcarrier interferences.
By doing so, the effect of ICI on the OFDM system will be
obviously reduced. The system with the scheme can be easily
implemented by only adding few circuits to a regular OFDM
system. This transceiver diagram with the scheme is shown as
Fig.1.
Dˆ ( j ) Xˆ (m)
Figure 1. The diagram of the transceiver with the scheme
1
 III. ICI CANCELLATION ALGORITHM After FFT processing, the output symbols may be
The ICI mitigation scheme adopts the SSC algorithm in the represented as
L −1 N −1
receiver and the ASIZ algorithm in the transmitter to combat Y ( m ) = ¦ ¦ [α i ( k ) X ( k )u i ( k − m ) ] + W ( m ) (6)
ICI due frequency offsets, respectively. i =0 k = 0

m, k = 0,1, 2, " , N − 1
A. ASIZ Algorithm In (6), W(m) is AWGN on frequency domain, and it is
At the transmitter side, firstly, N/2 original data symbols written as
D(i), i=0, 1, …,N/2-1 is mapped by mapping encoder into one 1 N −1 − j
2π
mn
symbol block X(k), k=0, 1, 2…, N-1. The mapping relation of W (m ) ¦ w ( n ) e N (7)
D(i) and X(k) is denoted as N n=0
¢i (k) is fading factor at the ith path, and it is written as
­D(i) k = 2i 2π k ∆ i
° N j
X (k) = ® i = 0,1,2,", −1 (1)
αi (k ) = hi e N
(8)
° 0 2
¯ k = 2i +1 The sequence ui(k-m) is defined as the ICI coefficient of
The architecture of the symbol blocks after ASIZ operation regular OFDM systems between the kth and the mth sub-
is shown in Fig.2. carriers [1] at the ith path, and it can be expressed as

1 1 − e j 2π ( k − m + ε i )
ui ( k − m ) = ⋅ 2π
(9)
N j ( k − m +εi )
1− e N
B. SSC Algorithm
Figure 2. The architecture of the symbol blocks mapped
At the receiver, SSC Algorithm may be expressed as
X(k) is processed by IFFT, and then transmitted as a
regular OFDM system. The OFDM symbol may be written as. Xˆ (m) = 2Y (m) − Y (m − 1) − Y (m + 1) (10)
N −1 2π Therefore, Substituting (6) into the above (10), it can be
1 j nk
x( n) = ¦ X ( k )e N
(2) derived as
N k =0 L−1 N−1
Where exp(j2ʌnk/N), k, n = 0, 1, ... N-1, represents the X (m) = ¦¦αi (k) X (k)[ 2ui (k − m) −ui (k − m−1) −ui (k − m+1)]
l
corresponding orthogonal frequencies of N sub-carriers. i=0 k =0

For time-varying multi-path channels, its pulse response + 2W(m) −W(m+1) −W(m −1) (11)
may be expressed as L−1 N−1

L −1 j
2π nε i = ¦¦αi (k) ⋅ X (k) ⋅ vi (k − m) +W' (m)
h( n ) = ¦ hi e N
δ (n − ∆i ) (3) i =0 k =0

i =0 m, k = 0,1,2,", N −1
Where L is number of multi-path, and ¨i is number of delay In the above expression, vi(k-m) is correspondly defined as
to sample interval at the ith path, and hi is random fading at the the ICI of the OFDM system with SCC algorithm, and it can be
ith path, and ¨f is sub-carrier frequency span, and normalized expressed as
frequency offset İi at the ith path is defined as
vi (k − m) = 2ui (k − m) − ui (k − m − 1) − ui (k − m + 1)
ε i = f di ∆f (4) Where W’(m) is AWGN via SSC process, and may be
Where fdi is frequency offsets above the carrier frequency written as
of the received OFDM signal due to Doppler frequency shift.
W ′(m) = 2W (m) − W (m + 1) − W (m − 1)
At the receiver side, it is assumed that the synchronization Furthermore, considering the equation (1), the jth obtained
including phase, frequency, and timing has been done by using symbol of the OFDM system with ICI cancellation can be
repeated preamble sequence, but ICI may still exist due to written as
frequency offset estimation errors or unexpected Doppler shifts.
For convenience, assuming that the length of CP(Cyclic Prefix) N
l ( j) = l
D X (m) m=2j j = 0,1, 2,", − 1 (12)
exceeds maximum multi-path delay spread on the channel, and
the impact of ISI (InterSymbol Interference) is ignored, and 2
w(n) is expressed as AWGN in the following discussion, Substituting (11) into the above (12), it can be derived as
thereby received signals at the receiver may be written as ª º
L−1 N /2−1
l ( j) = «α (2 j) ⋅ D( j) ⋅ v (0) + α ⋅ ⋅ − » +W ' (2 j)
r (n ) = x (n ) ⊗ h (n ) + w(n ) D ¦ « i i ¦ i (2u) D(u) vi [2(u j)]
»
i =0 u=0
L −1 2π nε i ¬« u≠ j ¼»
j (5)
= ¦ hi e N
x ( n − ∆ i ) + w( n )
i =0

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 L−1 ª N / 2−1 º
= ¦«αi' ( j) ⋅ D( j) ⋅ vi' (0) + ¦ αi' (u) ⋅ D(u) ⋅ vi' (u − j)» +W'' ( j)
i=0
« u=0
»
¬« u≠ j ¼» IV. SIMULATION AND ANALYSIS
In order to analyze the performance of the SSC-ASIZ
(13) scheme, the simulation model based on the SSC-ASIZ scheme
must be set up and run in fading channel environments. For
In (13), α i' ( j ) = α i (2 j ) j = 0,1, " N / 2 − 1 comparison, a regular scheme, a COFDM scheme and a cc
scheme presented in paper [2] are also simulated, together. For
vi' (u − j) = vi [2(u − j)] u, j = 0,1,"N /2 −1 these systems, symbol rate is 106 Baud, and number of sub-
carriers is 128, and DQPSK and differential detection is used
except the regular scheme, and channel code is not adopted
W '' ( j ) = W ' (2 j ) except COFDM scheme. Jakes model [7] is used in the channel
simulation, and number of multi-path is 20, and maximum
C. Analysis of ICI Cancellation delay spread is 8us. Frequency selective fading, AWGN and
For analysis convenience, assuming time-varying channel Doppler frequency spread exist in the channel.
satisfies Wide Sense Stationary Uncorrelated Scattering
(WSSUS), and data symbols is statistic dependence. Hence ICI A. SIR Performance
average power in the jth received symbol may written as The average signal-to-interference power ratio (SIR) [5]
L −1 N / 2 −1 N / 2 −1 can be used as the ICI level indicator. The SIR is defined as the
PIC I ( j ) = E S ¦ ¦ ¦ Rα i [2 ( k − l )] ⋅ R v i (2 u , 2 l , 2 j ) desired received signal average power on the kth subcarrier
i= 0 l=0 u=0 (14) dividing by ICI average power from other subcarriers. The
l≠ j u≠ j

N
impacts of ICI on OFDM systems can be evaluated by
−1 u , l , j = 0,1, 2, " , simulating its SIR, respectively. The SIR curve of the SSC-
2
ASIZ scheme and regular schemes is shown in Fig.4, together.
In the above, E S = E ª D ( u ) D * ( l ) º = E ª X (2 u ) X * (2 l ) º
¬ ¼ ¬ ¼
ª 4π∆i (u − l) º 55
Rαi [2(u − l)] = E[αi (u)αi (l)] = E[αi (2u)αi (2l )] = σhi ⋅ E «exp( j
' '* * 2
)» SSC-ASIZ scheme
¬ N ¼ 50 regular scheme

Rvi (2u, 2l ,2 j ) = E[vi' (u − j)vi'* (l − j )] = E{vi [2(u − j )]vi*[2(l − j )]} 45

SIR OF OFDM SYSTEMS (dB)

40
However, signal average power in the jth received 35
symbol may written as
30
L−1 L−1
j = 0,1,2", N / 2 −1 (15)
2
Ps ( j) = ES ¦ª¬σh2i ⋅ Rvi (0)º¼ = ES ¦ªσh2i ⋅ vi (0) º 25
i=0 i=0
¬ ¼
20
In (14), σ h2 = Rα (0) 15
i i

10
For multi-path propagation, equation (14) and (15) cannot 5
be written into close expression. In order to observe signal and
0
ICI components in an OFDM symbol change with maximum 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
Maximum Normal Frequency Spraed
normalized frequency offsets, normalized signal average power
and normalized ICI average power in an OFDM symbol are Figure 4. SIR of the two OFDM systems
simulated. For comparison, a regular system is also simulated,
together. Simulation results are shown in Fig.3a and Fig.3b. The SIR of the SSC-ASIZ scheme is at least 15dB better
than that of the regular scheme. Thereby, it is obviously shown
By comparing Fig.3a with Fig.3b, it is obviously that the that the SSC-ASIZ scheme is markedly able to reduce ICI due
SSC-ASIZ scheme can effectively mitigate ICI components. to frequency offsets, and to improve the performance of the
Especially, signal power 20dB exceed ICI power for the SSC- OFDM system.
ASIZ scheme, but only 6dB for a regular scheme as Ť= 0.2.
0
0 B. BER Performance
Nor m alized Pow er o f Re gular O FDM System s dB

-5 1) Comparison of the SSC-ASIZ scheme, regular scheme

N orm aliz ed Pow e r o f AS IZ Sc he m e dB

-5
-10
and cc scheme:
-15
-10
-20 For fair comparison, 2DPSK is used in the regular scheme
-25
-15
to keep same bit rate for the three systems. Simulation results
-30
of the three schemes for different İ are shown in Fig.5,
-35
-20 respectively.
-40 Signal Power Signal Power

-45
0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
Interference Power

0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2 -25

0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
ICI Power

0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2

As İ = 0.02, the BER curve of the regular scheme exists
Maximum Normal Frequency Spread Maximum Normalized Frequency Spread floor effect, but that of the two improving schemes don’t in the
Fig.3a SSC-ASIZ scheme Fig.3b regular scheme observed range, and their BER is rather similar, and drop
Figure 3. Signal and ICI normalLzed average power in an OFDM symbol

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rapidly. As İ = 0.2, although all schemes exist floor effect, the Thereby it has much better capability to combat Doppler
remaining BER of the regular scheme is much larger than frequency spreads than the regular scheme.
others, and meanwhile the BER of the SSC-ASIZ scheme is
obviously less than that of the cc scheme as İ > 0.02. 10
-1

0
10

-2
10

BER OF OFDM SYSTEMS

-1
10
BER OF OFDM SYSTEMS

-3
-2
10
10

-3 -4
10 10

CC scheme =0.02
-4 regular scheme
10 SSC-ASIZ scheme =0.02
regular scheme =0.02 -5 SSC-ASIZ scheme
10
CC scheme =0.2 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14 0.16 0.18 0.2
SSC-ASIZ scheme =0.2 Maximum Normalized Frequency Spread
-5 regular scheme =0.2
10
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Eb/No (dB) Figure 7. BER to Maximum Normalized Frequency Offsets

Figure 5. Comparison of the ASIZ scheme, regular scheme and cc scheme

2) Comparison of the SSC-ASIZ scheme and COFDM
schemes:
The COFDM system adopts (2, 1, 3) convolutional code
and viterbi decoding. Simulation results of the two schemes for
different İ are shown in Fig.6, respectively.
It is shown that as İ is very small (İ = 0.01), the BER of the
SSC-ASIZ scheme is a little worse than that of the COFDM
scheme. It is because the effect of AWGN on the system
becomes primary. However, as İ is large (İ >0.01), the BER of
the SSC-ASIZ scheme is much better than that of the COFDM
scheme. It is because the effect of ICI on the system becomes
primary.
10
0
V. CONCLUSION
The SSC-ASIZ scheme can effectively reduce the
sensitivity of the OFDM system to ICI due to Doppler
frequency spreads, and provide much better SIR and BER
performance than a regular OFDM system and other schemes.
Although the transmission efficiency of the scheme is reduced
by half due to ASIZ, it can be solved by increasing larger
signal alphabet size. The scheme inserts only few circuits to a
regular OFDM system, without increasing system too much
complexity, and is compatible with a regular OFDM system
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The project was supported by Key Laboratory of Universal
Wireless Communication Lab.ˈ (Beijing University of Posts
and Telecommunications), Ministry of Education, P.R.China.

10
-1
REFERENCES
[1] Y. Zhao and S-G. Haggman, “Intercarrier Interference Self-cancellation
BER OF OFDM SYSTEMS

10
-2 Scheme for OFDM mobile communication systems,” IEEE Trans.
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COFDM scheme =0.01 29, 2004.
10 SSC-ASIZ scheme =0.01
COFDM scheme =0.05 [3] J. Ahn and H. S. Lee, “Frequency domain equalization of OFDM signal
SSC-ASIZ scheme =0.05
COFDM scheme =0.2 over frequency nonselective Rayleigh fading channels,” Electron. Lett.,
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-5 SSC-ASIZ scheme =0.2 vol.29, No.16, pp.1476–1477, Aug. 1993.
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Eb/No (dB) [4] C. Muschallik, “Improving an OFDM reception using an adaptive
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269, Aug. 1996.
Figure 6. Comparison of the SSC-ASIZ scheme and COFDM scheme
[5] P. H. Moose, “A technique for orthogonal frequency division
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[6] Byung-Chul Kim and I-Tai Lu, "Doppler Diversity for OFDM Wireless
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