PHASE NOISE CANCELLATION IN OFDM SYSTEMS

A PROJECT REPORT

Submitted by

FATHIMA FAIZAN
FARASHATH.M
KARTHIK.R

in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree

of

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
IN
ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

B.S.ABDUR RAHMAN CRESCENT ENGINEERING COLLEGE

ANNA UNIVERSITY: CHENNAI 600 025

APRIL 2012
 ANNA UNIVERSITY: CHENNAI 600 025

BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

Certified that this project report, “PHASE NOISE CANCELLATION IN

OFDM SYSTEMS” is the bonafide work of “FATHIMA FAIZAN

(40408106032), FARASHATH.M (40408106031), R.KARTHIK

(40408106043)” who carried out the project work under my supervision.

SIGNATURE SIGNATURE

Dr.S.KAJA MOHIDEEN Mrs.P.NALLATHAI

Asst. Professor ( Senior Grade )

HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT SUPERVISOR

Electronics and Communication Engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering

B.S.A. Crescent Engineering College, B.S.A. Crescent Engineering College

Vandalur, Chennai-48. Vandalur, Chennai-48.

Submitted for the examination held on ……………….

INTERNAL EXAMINER EXTERNAL EXAMINER

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Project work is a phase of activity during our course of study in which

we are expected to expose our creative thinking ability.

We are highly obliged to express our sincere thanks and profound

gratitude to our beloved principal Dr.V.M.PERIASAMY for his constant
encouragement throughout the course of our studies.

We extend our sincere thanks to our Head of the Department Prof.

Dr.KAJA MOHIDEEN for his motivation and support during our studies.

We have no words to express our gratitude and thanks to our Project

Guide Mrs. Nallathai who helped us in all aspects with her constant guidance
right from the beginning of the Project Work till the completion of the project
work successfully.

We would like to thank all our Staff members for their valuable
advice and suggestions. We would like to thank all our non-teaching Staffs and
friends who helped us throughout the Project Work.

We take this opportunity to thank our Parents whose valuable support

and moral guidance went a long way in helping us in accomplishing our objective.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER. TITLE PAGE NO.

NO.
ABSTRACT i
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ii
LIST OF ACRONYMS iii

1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 DIGITAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS 2

1.2 FOURTH GENERATION WIRELESS SYSTEMS 3

1.3 OBJECTIVE AND OUTLINE OF THE THESIS 4

2 PROPAGATION CHARACTERISTICS OF MOBILE RADIO

CHANNELS 6

2.1 ATTENUATION 6
2.2 MULTIPATH EFFECTS 7
2.2.1 Rayleigh fading 7
2.2.2 Frequency Selective Fading 9
2.2.3 Delay Spread 9
2.2.4 Doppler Shift 11

3 DESCRIPTION OF OFDM SYSTEMS 12

3.1 INTRODUCTION OF OFDM 12

3.2 BASIC PRINCIPLE OF OFDM 15
3.3 BASIC BLOCK DIAGRAM 15
 3.3.1 Series and Parallel Concepts 16
3.3.2 FFT and IFFT 17
3.3.3 Guard Interval and Cyclic Extension 19

4 CHANNEL ESTIMATION AND INTERPOLATION TECHNIQUES 20

4.1 CHANNEL ESTIMATION IN OFDM SYSTEMS 22

4.2 PILOT ARRANGEMENT IN OFDM SYSTEMS 22
4.3 COMB TYPE PILOT AIDED CHANNEL ESTIMATION 23
4.4 LEAST SQUARE ESTIMATION 23
4.4.1 Basic principle of LS Channel estimation 24
4.4.2 Least Square Algorithm 25
4.5 INTERPOLATION IN OFDM SYSTEMS 26
4.5.1 LI (Linear Interpolation) 26
4.5.2 SOI (Second Order Interpolation) 27

5 SIMULATION AND RESULTS

5.1 SIMULINK DESCRIPTION 28

5.2 SOME FEATURES 28
5.3 SIMULINK MODEL OF OFDM SYSTEMS 29
5.4 DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS BLOCKS 31
5.4.1. Data Source 31
5.4.2 Modulator / IQ Mapper 32
5.4.3 OFDM Modulator 35
5.4.4 Transmission Channel 36
5.4.5 OFDM Demodulator 37
5.4.6 I-Q Demapper / Demodulator 39
5.4.7 Data Sink 40
5.4.8 Output 41
5.4.9 Estimation and Interpolation of Received Symbols 42
 SIMULATION RESULTS

5.5 OFDM SYSTEM WITH 16-QAM MAPPING 43

5.5.1 UN-ESTIMATED OUTPUT 43

5.5.2 LS ESTIMATION WITH LINEAR INTERPOLATION 43
5.5.3 LS ESTIMATION WITH SECOND ORDER INTERPOLATION 44
5.5.4 16-QAM SPECTRUM PLOT 44
5.6 OFDM SYSTEM WITH 16-QAM MAPPING 45

5.6.1 UN-ESTIMATED OUTPUT 45

5.6.2 LS ESTIMATION WITH LINEAR INTERPOLATION 45
5.6.3 LS ESTIMATION WITH SECOND ORDER INTERPOLATION 46
5.6.4 64-QAM SPECTRUM PLOT 46
5.7 OFDM SYSTEM WITH QPSK MAPPING 47

5.7.1 UN-ESTIMATED OUTPUT 47

5.7.2 LS ESTIMATION WITH LINEAR INTERPOLATION 47
5.7.3 LS ESTIMATION WITH SECOND ORDER INTERPOLATION 48
5.7.4 QPSK-QAM SPECTRUM PLOT 48
5.8 OFDM SYSTEM WITH BPSK MAPPING 49

5.8.1 UN-ESTIMATED OUTPUT 49

5.8.2 LS ESTIMATION WITH LINEAR INTERPOLATION 49
5.8.3 LS ESTIMATION WITH SECOND ORDER INTERPOLATION 50
5.8.4 BPSK-QAM SPECTRUM PLOT 50

6 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORKS 51

6.1 THESIS CONCLUSION 51
6.1.1 The simulation results gave the following conclusions 52
6.2 FUTURE WORKS 53

REFERENCES 55
ABSTRACT

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing is a multi-carrier modulation scheme

that is widely used in wireless broadband networks, and 4G mobile
communications. OFDM has better characteristics when compared to single carrier
modulation. But there is degradation in Bit Error Rate performance of OFDM
which can be attributed to loss of orthogonality between subcarriers due to the
effect of phase noise. The phase noise is caused due to the shift in Doppler
frequency. The main objective of this project is to mitigate the effect of phase
noise i.e., cancellation of inter carrier interference between the sub carriers. The
Comb type Pilot based Least Square (LS) channel estimation technique for the
OFDM system is used to find the Channel State Information at the pilot sub
carriers and the various interpolation techniques such as Linear and Second Order
Interpolation methods are used to determine the data sub carriers. The Bit Error
Rate performance of the OFDM systems is analysed using various mapping
techniques such as 16-QAM, 64-QAM, QPSK and BPSK. The reduction in phase
noise is shown by an improvement in Bit Error Rate.

i
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Attenuation of signals in Radio Environment 7

Table 2.1 Probability of Signals levels for Rayleigh distribution 8
Figure 2.2 Rayleigh fading effect 8
Figure 2.3 Delay Spread 10
Figure 3.1 Spectrums of Subcarriers in OFDM 13
Figure 3.2 (a) Conventional Multicarrier Technique 13
(b) Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Technique
Figure 3.3 Serial to Parallel Converter 16
Figure 3.4 OFDM generation by N-point IFFT 18
Figure 3.5 Guard interval with cyclic extension 19
Figure 4.1 (a) Block type 22
Figure 4.1 (b) Comb type 22
Figure 4.2 Estimation and Interpolation 25
Table 5.1 OFDM SIMULINK PARAMETERS 29
Figure 5.1 Implemented Block diagram 30
Figure 5.2(a) Block Used For Random Integer Generation. 31
Figure 5.2(b) Block Used For Integer to Bit Conversion. 31
Figure 5.3(a) Block used for Bit to Integer Conversion 32
Figure 5.3(b) Block used for BPSK Mapping 32
Figure 5.3(c) Constellation plot for BPSK Mapping 33
Figure 5.3(d) Block used for QPSK Mapping 33
Figure 5.3(e) Constellation plot for QPSK Mapping 33
Figure 5.3(f) Block used for 16 Rectangular QAM Mapping 34
Figure 5.3(g) Constellation plot for 16-QAM Mapping 34
Figure 5.3(h) Block used for 64 Rectangular QAM Mapping 34
Figure 5.3(i) Constellation plot for 64-QAM Mapping 35
Figure 5.4(a) Block used for Inverse Fourier Transform. 35
Figure 5.4(b) Block used for Multiport & Pilot Concatenation. 36
Figure 5.4(c) Block used for Cyclic Prefix Insertion. 36
Figure 5.5(a) Block used for Additive White Gaussian Noise. 37
Figure 5.5(b) Block used for Rayleigh Fading. 37
Figure 5.6(a) Block used for Removing Cyclic Prefix. 37
Figure 5.6(b) Block used for Fast Fourier Transform. 38
Figure 5.6(c) Block used for To Frame Conversion. 38
Figure 5.6(d) Block used for removing zeros. 38
Figure 5.7(a) Block used for QPSK Demodulator. 39
Figure 5.7(b) Block used for BPSK Demodulator. 39
ii
Figure 5.7(c) Block used for 16-QAM Demodulator. 39
Figure 5.7(d) Block used for 64-QAM Demodulator. 40
Figure 5.7(e) Block used for Integer to Bit Conversion. 40
Figure 5.9(a) Block used for Bit Error Rate Calculation. 40
Figure 5.9(b) Block used for Constellation Mapping. 41
Figure 5.9(c) Block used for Spectrum plot. 41
Figure 5.8 Block used for Integer to Bit Conversion. 41
Figure 5.10(a) Block for LS estimation 42
Figure 5.10(b) Block for Linear interpolation 42
Figure 5.10(c) Block for Second Order interpolation 42
Figure 5.11(a) 16-QAM Un-estimated Plot 43
Figure 5.11(b) BER 16-Qam Unestimated 43
Figure 5.11(c) 16-QAM Linear Interpolation 43
Figure 5.11(d) BER 16-QAM LS and LI 43
Figure 5.11(e) 16-QAM SOI 44
Figure 5.11(f) BER 16-QAM LS and SOI 44
Figure 5.11(g) 16-QAM spectrum plot with 10MHz Bandwidth 44
Figure 5.12(a) 64-QAM Unestimated Plot 45
Figure 5.12(b) BER 64-QAM Unestimated 45
Figure 5.12(c) 64-QAM Linear Interpolation 45
Figure 5.12(d) BER 64-QAM LS and LI 45
Figure 5.12(e) 64-QAM SOI 46
Figure 5.12(f) BER 64-QAM LS and SOI 46
Figure 5.12(g) 64-QAM spectrum plot with 10MHz Bandwidth 46
Figure 5.13(a) QPSK unestimated output 47
Figure 5.13(b) BER QPSK Unestimated 47
Figure 5.13(c) QPSK linear interpolation 47
Figure 5.13(d) BER QPSK LS and LI 47
Figure 5.13(e) QPSK with SOI 48
Figure 5.13(f) BER QPSK LS and SOI 48
Figure 5.13(g) QPSK spectrum plot with 10MHz Bandwidth 48
Figure 5.14(a) BPSK unestimated plot Figure 49
Figure 5.14(b) BER BPSK Unestimated 49
Figure 5.14(c) BPSK Linear Interpolation 49
Figure 5.14(d) BER LS and LI 49
Figure 5.14(e) BPSK with SOI 50
Figure 5.14(f) BER BPSK LS and SOI 50
Figure 5.14(g) BPSK spectrum plot with 10MHz Bandwidth 50
Table 6.1 Performance Analysis 52

iii
LIST OF ACRONYMS

AWGN: Additive White Gaussian Noise

BER: Bit Error Rate
BPSK: Binary Phase Shift Keying
FD: Frequency Domain
FFT: Fast Fourier Transform
ICI: Inter-Carrier Interference
IDFT: Inverse DFT
IFFT: Inverse FFT
LI: Linear Interpolation
LS: Least Square
OFDM: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
PSA: Pilot Symbol Assisted
QAM: Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
QPSK: Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
SNR: Signal to Noise Ratio
SOI: Second-Order Interpolation
TD: Time Domain

iv
CHAPTER-1

INTRODUCTION

During the past few years, there has been an explosion in wireless
technology. This growth has opened a new dimension to future wireless
communications whose ultimate goal is to provide universal personal and
multimedia communication without regard to mobility or location with high data
rates. To achieve such an objective, the next generation personal communication
networks will need to be support a wide range of services which will include high
quality voice, data, facsimile, still pictures and streaming video. These future
services are likely to include applications which require high transmission rates of
several Mega bits per seconds (Mbps).

When the data is transmitted at high bit rates, over mobile radio
channels, the channel impulse response can extend over many symbol periods,
which lead to Inter-symbol interference (ISI). Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiplexing (OFDM) is one of the promising candidates to mitigate the ISI. In an
OFDM signal the bandwidth is divided into many narrow sub-channels which are
transmitted in parallel. Each sub-channel is typically chosen narrow enough to
eliminate the effect of delay spread. By combining OFDM with CDMA dispersive
fading limitations of the cellular mobile radio environment can be overcome and
the effects of co-channel interference can be reduced.

1
1.1 DIGITAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

A digital communication system is often divided into several

functional units. The task of the source encoder is to represent the digital or analog
information by bits in an efficient way. The bits are then fed into the channel
encoder, which adds bits in a structured way to enable detection and correction of
transmission errors. The bits from the encoder are grouped and transformed to
certain symbols, or waveforms by the modulator and waveforms are mixed with a
carrier to get a signal suitable to be transmitted through the channel. At the receiver
the reverse function takes place. The received signals are demodulated and soft or
hard values of the corresponding bits are passed to the decoder. The decoder
analyzes the structure of received bit pattern and tries to detect or correct errors.
Finally, the corrected bits are fed to the source decoder that is used to reconstruct
the analog speech signal or digital data input. The main question is how to design
certain parts of the modulator and demodulator to achieve efficient and robust
transmission through a mobile wireless channel. The wireless channel has some
properties that make the design especially challenging: it introduces time varying
echoes and phase shifts as well as a time varying attenuation of the amplitude
(fade).

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) has proven to

be a modulation technique well suited for high data rates on time dispersive
channels. There are some specific requirements when designing wireless OFDM
systems, for example, how to choose the bandwidth of the sub-channels used for
transmission and how to achieve reliable synchronization. The latter is especially
important in packet-based systems since synchronization has to be achieved within
a few symbols. In order to achieve good performance the receiver has to know the

2
impact of the channel. The problem is how to extract this information in an
efficient way. Conventionally, known symbols are multiplexed into the data
sequence in order to estimate the channel. From these symbols, all channel
attenuations are estimated with an interpolation filter.

For mobile or wireless applications, the channel is often described as a

set of independent multipath components. Among the most important parameters
when choosing the modulation scheme are the delay and the expected received
power for different delays. Large delays for stronger paths mean that the
interference between the different received signal parts can severe, especially when
the symbol rate is high so that the delay exceeds several symbols. In that case one
has to introduce an equalizer to mitigate the effects of inter-symbol interference
(ISI). Another alternative is to use many parallel channels so that the symbol time
on each of the channels is long. This means that only a small part of the symbol is
affected by ISI and this is the idea behind orthogonal frequency division
multiplexing (OFDM).

1.2 FOURTH GENERATION WIRELESS SYSTEMS

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing OFDM is a multicarrier

transmission technique, many carriers, each one being modulated by a low rate
data stream share the transmission bandwidth. OFDM is similar to FDMA in that
the multiple user access is achieved by subdividing the available bandwidth into
multiple channels that are then allocated to users. However, OFDM uses the
spectrum much more efficiently by spacing the channels much closer. This is
achieved by making all the carriers orthogonal to one another, preventing
interference between the closely spaced carriers.

3
 OFDM overcomes most of the problems with both FDMA and
TDMA. OFDM splits the available bandwidth into many narrow band channels
(typically 100-8000 Hz). The carriers for each channel are made orthogonal to one
another, allowing them to be spaced very close together, with no overhead.
Because of this there is no great need for users to be time multiplexed as in
TDMA, thus there is no overhead associated with switching between users. The
orthogonality of the carriers means that each carrier has an integer number of
cycles over a symbol period. Due to this, the spectrum of each carrier has a null at
the location of each of the other carriers in the system. This results in no
interference between the carriers, allowing them to be as close as theoretically
possible. This overcomes the problem of overhead carrier spacing required in
FDMA. Each carrier in an OFDM signal has a very narrow bandwidth (i.e.1kHz),
thus the resulting symbol rate is low. This results in the signal having a high
tolerance to multipath delay spread, as the delay spread must be very long to cause
significant inter-symbol interference (e.g. 500 μsec).

1.3 OBJECTIVE AND OUTLINE OF THESIS

The main objectives of this thesis are:

(1) Investigate OFDM as a modulation technique for wireless radio applications.

Main factors affecting the performance of an OFDM system are multipath delay
spread and Phase noise. The performance is assessed using computer simulations
performed using Matlab.
(2) Channel estimation, for wireless OFDM transmission using pilot carriers and
implicit training sequence and compare the bit error rate performance.

4
This thesis is organized as follows:

In Chapter 2, Characteristics of mobile radio channels and the basics of OFDM are
presented; In Chapter3, The description of OFDM system; In Chapter 4, The
different approaches of Channel Estimation and Interpolation in OFDM systems is
presented; Chapter 5, Demonstrates Simulations and Results; Chapter 6, Concludes
the thesis and a future work is also suggested.

5
CHAPTER-2

PROPAGATION CHARACTERISTICS OF MOBILE RADIO

CHANNELS

For an ideal radio channel, the received signal would consist of only a
single direct path signal, which would be a perfect reconstruction of the transmitted
signal. However in a real channel, the signal is modified during transmission in the
channel. The received signal consists of a combination of attenuated, reflected,
refracted, and diffracted replicas of the transmitted signal. On top of all this, the
channel adds noise to the signal and can cause a shift in the carrier frequency if the
transmitter or receiver is moving (Doppler Effect). Understanding of these effects
on the signal is important because the performance of a radio system is dependent
on the radio channel characteristics.

2.1 ATTENUATION

Attenuation is the drop in the signal power when transmitting from

one point to another. It can be caused by the transmission path length, obstructions
in the signal path and multipath effects. Any objects, which obstruct the line of
sight signal from the transmitter to the receiver, can cause attenuation. Shadowing
of the signal can occur whenever there is an obstruction between the transmitter
and receiver. It is generally caused by buildings and hills, and is the most
important environmental attenuation factor.

6
 Shadowing is most severe in heavily built up areas, due to the
shadowing from buildings. However, hills can cause a large problem due to the
large shadow they produce. Radio signals diffract off the boundaries of
obstructions, thus preventing total shadowing of the signals behind hills and
buildings. However, the amount of diffraction is dependent on the radio frequency
used, with low frequencies diffracting more than high frequency signals. Thus,
high frequency signals, especially, Ultra High Frequencies (UHF), and microwave
signals require line of sight for adequate signal strength. To overcome the problem
of shadowing, transmitters are usually elevated as high as possible to minimize the
number of obstructions.

Figure 2.1 Attenuation of Signal in Radio Environment

2.2 MULTIPATH EFFECTS

2.2.1. Rayleigh fading

In a radio link, the RF signal from the transmitter may be reflected

from objects such as hills, buildings, or vehicles. This gives rise to multiple
transmission paths at the receiver. The relative phase of multiple reflected signals
can cause constructive or destructive interference at the receiver. This is

7
experienced over very short distances (typically at half wavelength distances), thus
is given the term fast fading. These variations can vary from10-30dB over a short
distance. Figure 2.2 shows the level of attenuation that can occur due to the fading.

Figure 2.2 Rayleigh Fading Effect

The Rayleigh distribution is commonly used to describe the statistical
time varying nature of the received signal power. It describes the probability of the
signal level being received due to fading. Table 2.1 shows the probability of the
signal level for the Rayleigh distribution.

Table 2.1 Probability of the signal level for the Rayleigh distribution

8
2.2.2. Frequency Selective Fading

In any radio transmission, the channel spectral response is not flat. It

has dips or fades in the response due to reflections causing cancellation of certain
frequencies at the receiver. Reflections off near-by objects (e.g. ground, buildings,
trees, etc) can lead to multipath signals of similar signal power as the direct signal.
This can result in deep nulls in the received signal power due to destructive
interference. For narrow bandwidth transmissions if the null in the frequency
response occurs at the transmission frequency then the entire signal can be lost.
This can be partly overcome in two ways. By transmitting a wide bandwidth signal
or spread spectrum as CDMA, any dips in the spectrum only result in a small loss
of signal power, rather than a complete loss. Another method is to split the
transmission up into many small bandwidth carriers, as is done in a OFDM
transmission. The original signal is spread over a wide bandwidth and thus, any
nulls in the spectrum are unlikely to occur at all of the carrier frequencies. This
will result in only some of the carriers being lost, rather than the entire signal. The
information in the lost carriers can be recovered provided enough forward error
corrections are sent.

2.2.3 Delay Spread

The received radio signal from a transmitter consists of typically a

direct signal, plus reflections of object such as buildings, mountings, and other
structures. The reflected signals arrive at a later time than the direct signal because
of the extra path length, giving rise to a slightly different arrival time of the
transmitted pulse, thus spreading the received energy. Delay spread is the time
spread between the arrival of the first and last multipath signal seen by the

9
receiver. In a digital system, the delay spread can lead to inter-symbol interference.
This is due to the delayed multipath signal overlapping with the following
symbols. This can cause significant errors in high bit rate systems, especially when
using time division multiplexing (TDMA). As the transmitted bit rate is increased
the amount of inter symbol interference also increases. The effect starts to become
very significant when the delay spread is greater than ~50% of the bit time.

Inter-symbol interference can be minimized in several ways. One

method is to reduce the symbol rate by reducing the data rate for each channel (i.e.
split the bandwidth into more channels using frequency division multiplexing).
Another is to use a coding scheme, which is tolerant to inter symbol interference
such as CDMA.

Direct Signal

Figure 2.3 Delay Spread Phenomena

10
2.2.4 Doppler Shift

When a wave source and a receiver are moving relative to one another
the frequency of the received signal will not be the same as the source. When they
are moving toward each other the frequency of the received signal is higher than
the source, and when they are approaching each other the frequency decreases.
This is called the Doppler’s effect. An example of this is the change of pitch in a
car’s horn as it approaches then passes by. This effect becomes important when
developing mobile radio systems. The amount the frequency changes due to the
Doppler Effect depends on the relative motion between the source and receiver and
on the speed of propagation of the wave. The Doppler shift in frequency can be
written:
𝑣
∆𝑓 ≈ ±𝑓0 (2.1)
𝑐

Where
f is the change in frequency of the source seen at the receiver,
fo is the frequency of the source, v is the speed difference between the source and
transmitter, and
c is the speed of light.

Doppler shift can cause significant problems if the transmission

technique is sensitive to carrier frequency offsets or the relative speed is higher,
which is the case for OFDM. If we consider now a link between to cars moving in
opposite directions, each one with a speed of 80 km/hr, the Doppler shift will be
double.

11
CHAPTER-3

DESCRIPTION OF OFDM SYSTEMS

3.1 INTRODUCTION TO OFDM

OFDM originated from the need of efficient communications through

frequency-selective fading channels. OFDM can be simply defined as a form of
multicarrier modulation (MCM). MCM is the principle of transmitting a high-rate
serial data stream by splitting it into a set of parallel low rate sub-streams and
modulating each of these data streams onto individual subcarriers, where carrier
spacing is carefully selected to make each subcarrier orthogonal to the other
subcarriers. It is possible to arrange the carriers in an OFDM signal so that the
sideband of the individual carriers overlap and the signals can still be received
without adjacent carrier interference.
In OFDM signaling, the following orthogonality condition is satisfied,

𝑇 𝑗 2𝜋𝑓 𝑡 −𝑗 2𝜋𝑓 𝑗 𝑡 𝑇 𝑗 2𝜋(𝑓 𝑖 −𝑓 𝑗 )𝑡

0
𝑒 𝑖 .𝑒 . 𝑑𝑡 = 0
𝑒 . 𝑑𝑡 = 0, 𝑖≠𝑗 (3.1)

The space between the frequencies of the subcarriers should be

𝑚
𝑓 = 𝑓𝑖 − 𝑓𝑗 = (3.2)
𝑇

Where, m can be any positive integer. The smallest space for orthogonality is equal
to the symbol rate l/r. With orthogonality, each subcarrier can be demodulated

12
independently without ICI. It should be noted that the pass bands of the subcarriers
may overlap in OFDM, as shown in Figure
∆𝑓 3.1

Figure 3.1 Spectrums of Subcarriers in OFDM

Figure 3.2 (a) Conventional Multicarrier Technique

(b) Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Technique
13
 Compared with conventional non-overlapping multicarrier technique,
OFDM can save almost 50% of bandwidth by using the overlapping multicarrier
modulation technique, as shown in Figure 3.2

In digital communication Systems, the OFDM symbol is a sum of

subcarriers that are individually modulated by using PSK or QAM. The expression
for one OFDM symbol at t = ts as follows:

𝑁
2 −1
𝑖 + 0.5
𝑠 𝑡 = 𝑅𝑒 𝑑1+𝑁/2 . 𝑒𝑥𝑝 𝑗2𝜋 𝑓𝑐 − 𝑡 − 𝑡𝑠 , 𝑡𝑠 ≤ 𝑡 ≤ 𝑡𝑠 + 𝑇
𝑇
𝑁
𝑖=− 2

𝑠 𝑡 = 0, 𝑡 < 𝑡𝑠 , 𝑡 > 𝑡𝑠 + 𝑇 (3.3)

where, di are complex modulation symbols, Ns is the number of subcarriers, T is

the symbol duration, and fc is the carrier frequency.
The equivalent complex baseband notation is given by:

𝑁𝑠
2 −1
𝑖
𝑠 𝑡 = 𝑑1+𝑁𝑠/2 . 𝑒𝑥𝑝 𝑗2𝜋 𝑡 − 𝑡𝑠 , 𝑡𝑠 ≤ 𝑡 ≤ 𝑡𝑠 + 𝑇
𝑇
𝑁𝑠
𝑖=− 2

𝑠 𝑡 = 0, 𝑡 < 𝑡𝑠 , 𝑡 > 𝑡𝑠 + 𝑇 (3.4)

14
3.2 BASIC PRINCIPLE OF OFDM

At the transmission side, the binary information is first grouped and

mapped into complex-valued symbols according to the modulation by different
mapping schemes, such as BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM. Then there is a
series to parallel conversion to prepare different data groups for different OFDM
subcarriers. The mapped signals are modulated onto N orthogonal subcarriers by
the IFFT. A cyclic prefix (CP) is then added to the multiplexed IFFT output.
Finally, the obtained signal is converted to a time continuous analog signal before
it is transmitted through the channel. At the receiver side, an inverse operation is
carried out and the information data is detected.

3.3 BASIC BLOCK DIAGRAM

15
3.3.1 Series and parallel concepts

The series and parallel converters are considered to realize the concept
of parallel data transmission, as shown in Figure 3.2. In a conventional serial data
System, the symbols are transmitted sequentially and the frequency spectrum of
each data symbol is allowed to occupy the entire available bandwidth. When the
data rate is sufficiently high, several adjacent symbols may be completely distorted
over a frequency-selective fading or a multipath delay spread channel.

In an OFDM System, the entire channel bandwidth is divided into

many narrow sub-bands and the spectrum of an individual data element occupies
only a small part of the available bandwidth, so the frequency response over each
individual sub-channel is relatively flat. Hence, the parallel data transmission can
resist to frequency selective fading.

16
3.3.2 FFT and IFFT

The key components of an OFDM System are the IDFT at the

transmitter and the DFT at the receiver. These operations perform linear mapping
between M complex data symbols and N complex OFDM symbols, resulting in
robustness against the multipath fading channel. The complex baseband OFDM
signal is in fact nothing more than the inverse Fourier transform of Ns modulated
input symbols. The use of DFT and IDFT to replace the sinusoidal generator and
the demodulation significantly reduces the implementation complexity of OFDM
modulator.

Then the discrete-time representation of the signal after IDFT is

1 𝑁−1 𝑛
𝑥 𝑛 = 𝑘=0 𝑋 𝑘 . exp 𝑗2𝜋𝑘 , 𝑛 = 0,1,2, … … , 𝑁 − 1 (3.5)
𝑁 𝑁

Where, X(k) denotes the kth discrete spectral sample of N samples in the
Frequency Domain(FD).

At the receiver side, the data is recovered by performing a DFT on the received
signal.

1 𝑁−1 𝑛
𝑋 𝑘 = 𝑛=0 𝑥 𝑛 . exp⁡ −𝑗2𝜋𝑘 , 𝑘 = 0,1,2, … … , 𝑁 − 1 (3.6)
𝑁 𝑁

Where the sequence {x(n)} contains N samples in the Time Domain(TD).

The FFT/IFFT algorithm is well known and widely used in digital

signal processing for its efficient evaluation of the DFT/IDFT. An N -point FFT

17
requires only N log(N) multiplications, which is more computationally efficient
than an equivalent single carrier system with an equalizer in the TD.

The IFFT function block is also used to realize the zero forcing
equalization to compensate the effective channel in the FD. An efficient OFDM
implementation converts a serial symbol stream of modulated data into size M
parallel streams. These M streams are then modulated onto M subcarriers via the
use of a size N ( N > M ) IFFT. The N outputs of the IFFT are then serialized to
form a data stream that can then be modulated by a single carrier. The N –point
IFFT can modulate up to N subcarriers. When M is less than N , the remaining N-
M subcarriers are not in the output stream. Essentially, these subcarriers have been
modulated with zero amplitude (zero-padding). For example, the IEEE802.11a
standard specifies that 52 (M = 52 ) out of 64 (N = 64) possible subcarriers are
modulated by the transmitter, as shown in Figure 3.4

Figure 3.4 OFDM generation by N-point IFFT

18
3.3.3 Guard interval and cyclic extension

In the multipath fading channel environment, channel dispersion

causes the consecutive blocks to overlap, creating ISI and intercarrier interference
(ICI). To eliminate ISI almost completely, a GI is introduced for each OFDM
symbol. The GI is chosen larger than the expected delay spread, such that
multipath components from one symbol cannot interfere with the next symbol. The
GI could consist of no signal at all. However, in this case, the problem of ICI
would arise. ICI is crosstalk between different subcarriers, which means they are
no longer orthogonal. In order to avoid ICI, a CP is used as GI. This is done by
taking symbol period samples from the end of the period and appending them to
the front of the period, as shown in Figure 2.4. The CP is equal or greater in length
than the channel impulse response (CIR), or the maximum delay spread of the
channel. This ensures that delayed replicas of the OFDM symbol always have an
integer number of cyclic within the FFT interval.

Figure 3.5 Guard intervals with cyclic extension

sdseprefixextension

19
CHAPTER-4
CHANNEL ESTIMATION AND INTERPOLATION TECHNIQUES

4.1 CHANNEL ESTIMATION IN OFDM SYSTEMS

Channel estimation is an important component of a communication

System. With the information on the Channel Impulse Response or the parameters
of a channel, one can perform optimal symbol detection, construct an equalizer or
predict the channel.

In OFDM Systems, since the channel introduces amplitude and phase

shifts due to the frequency selective and time-varying nature of the wireless
channel, modulated bits are distorted during transmission through the channel. In
order to acquire the original bits in the receiver, one needs to take into account
these unknown changes. The receiver applies either coherent detection or non-
coherent detection to recover the original bits. Coherent detection uses reference
values that are transmitted along with data bits. The entire channel can then be
estimated by using several interpolation techniques. Non-coherent detection, on the
other hand, does not use any reference values but often uses differential
modulation, where the information is transmitted in the difference of two
successive symbols. The receiver uses two adjacent symbols in time or two
adjacent subcarriers in frequency to compare one with the other to acquire the
transmitted symbol. Non-coherent detection has the advantage that the channel
estimation is not needed.

20
 However, without channel estimation, OFDM Systems have to use
differential PSK (DPSK), which has a 3 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) loss
compared with coherent PSK. DPSK is appropriate for relatively low data rates,
such as the European DAB Systems. Moreover, the coherent detection achieves a
better performance for higher order constellations than those used with non-
coherent detection. Therefore, coherent detection is preferable for high data rate
applications and is often used in OFDM Systems.

Accurate channel estimation algorithms can be applied in OFDM

Systems to allow coherent detection, thereby improving System performance.
Based upon whether the channel estimation algorithms apply training symbols, we
can divide them into three categories: training (pilot) based algorithms, blind
algorithms, and semi-blind algorithms. Training (pilot) based algorithms assume
known symbols (training or pilot symbols) are inserted in the transmitted signals. It
is then possible to identify the channel at the receiver by exploiting knowledge of
these known symbols. Blind algorithms estimate the channel based on properties of
the transmitted signals. Semi-blind algorithms can improve the performance of
blind algorithms by exploiting the knowledge of both known symbols and
properties of the transmitted signals. The objective of semi-blind channel
estimation algorithms is to get better performance than blind algorithms while
requiring fewer known symbols than training based channel estimation algorithms.

Therefore, for coherent detection of OFDM, it is preferable to

estimate channel characteristics based on training (pilot) signal in each individual
OFDM data block. The pilot symbol assisted (PSA) based channel estimation
algorithm is a suitable method for OFDM coherent detection.

21
4.2 PILOT ARRANGEMENT IN OFDM SYSTEMS

There are two different ways of arranging pilot tones in OFDM

transmission:
(a) Block-type pilot arrangement
(b) Comb-type pilot arrangement, as shown in Figure 4.1.

Figure 4.1 (a) Block-type (b) Comb-type

Block type pilot arrangement is where the whole block of frequencies

are sent as pilot symbols. The block type pilot is used in slow fading channels
where the adjacent subcarriers are less prone to phase shifts.

Comb type pilot arrangement is where the pilots are placed are regular
intervals, the pilots are inserted among the data subcarriers. This type of pilot
arrangement is used in the fast fading channels where the subcarriers in one OFDM
symbol are affected by the channel characteristics.

22
4.3 COMB-TYPE PILOT-AIDED CHANNEL ESTIMATION

To achieve high data rates as well as good performances, coherent

detection is commonly used in most existing OFDM Systems. Coherent detection
relies on knowledge of channel state information. One simple approach to obtain
channel state information is to send some pilot symbols at the transmitter. To this
end, pilot subcarriers are often interlaced with data subcarriers. There are two
different pilot arrangements for PSA channel estimation, namely block-type pilot
arrangement and comb-type pilot arrangement. Comb-type pilot insertion has been
shown to be suitable for channel estimation in fast fading channels.

The channel estimation algorithm based on comb-type pilot is divided

into pilot signal estimation and channel interpolation. Pilot signal estimation is
based on Least Square (LS) criteria and interpolation algorithms include Linear
Interpolation (LI) and Second Order Interpolation (SOI). In this chapter, comb-
type PSA-OFDM channel estimation principle and algorithms are presented.
Channel estimation strategies in OFDM Systems are also reviewed.

4.4 LEAST SQUARE ESTIMATION

Pilot Channel Estimation, where the channel estimation technique is

performed only at the pilot subcarriers, followed by the interpolation at the data
subcarriers. In this work, we only consider the frequency domain initial channel
estimation techniques based on the block-type pilot arrangement.

In this chapter, the LS estimation technique is presented as it is

needed by many estimation techniques as an initial estimation.

23
4.4.1 Basic principle of LS channel estimation

Channel estimation and equalization method are used to compensate

for fading loss. The basic idea of this approach is that there is a pilot (training
sequence) known to both transmitter and receiver. This pilot signal is transmitted
and tampered (convoluted) by the channel response, and based on the difference
between received signal and known training sequence, the receiver can adjust the
parameters (filter coefficients) of the equalizer. These parameters are quite helpful
to extract the distorted 'unknown data' transmitted in the same channel or in an
adjacent channel.

The received pilot signals Yp(k) are extracted from received signals
Y(k) and the channel transfer function Hd(k) for the data sub channel can be
obtained from the information carried by Hp{k). With the knowledge of the
estimated channel response H(k), the estimated transmitted data sample Xd(k) can
be recovered by simply dividing the received signal by the estimated channel
response.
𝑌(𝑘)
𝑋𝑑 𝑘 = 𝑘 = 0, 1, … … , 𝑁 − 1 (4.1)
𝐻 (𝑘)

Where 𝐻 (𝑘) is an estimate of H(k).

Finally, the source binary information data are de-mapped and reconstructed at the
receiver
Generally, the process of comb-type pilot aided OFDM channel estimation has two
major steps:
(1) Pilot sub channel identification and
(2) Data sub channel interpolation, as illustrated in Figure 4.2.

24
 Figure 4.2 Estimation and Interpolation

4.4.2 Least Square algorithm

When ICI is eliminated by the GI, the received signal in (3.6) can be
modeled with the following equation:
Y = XH + W (4.2)
where Y is the received signal vector, .X is a diagonal matrix of the transmitted
signal, H is the CFR vector, and W is the noise vector in the Frequency Domain.
Using the LS estimator developed in Appendix C, the LS estimator for an OFDM
System is described as:
𝐻𝐿𝑆 = (𝑋𝐻 𝑋)−1 𝑋𝐻 𝑌 (4.3)

Since X is a diagonal matrix, the estimate is reduced to

25
 𝐻𝐿𝑆 = 𝑋 −1 𝑌 (4.4)

This indicates that the LS estimate of the frequency response channel

is simply the division of the received signal by the transmitted signal. In the comb-
type PSA OFDM channel estimation, the pilot sub channel is first identified by
using the transmitted pilot channel Xp and received pilots Yp. The estimate of the
channel at pilot subcarriers based on LS estimation is given by

𝑌𝑝 𝑚
𝐻𝑝 𝑚 = 𝑚 = 0,1,2, … . , 𝑁𝑝 − 1 (4.5)
𝑋𝑝 𝑚

where Yp(m) and Xp(m) are the output and the input at mth pilot subcarrier
respectively, and m denotes the index of the pilot sub channel.

4.5 INTERPOLATION IN OFDM SYSTEMS

4.5.1 Ll (Linear Interpolation)

In the linear interpolation algorithm, two successive pilot subcarriers

are used to determine the CIR for data subcarriers which are located between
pilots. Using linear interpolation, the channel estimation at the data carrier k, where
mL <k< (m+1)L, by is given by

𝐻𝑑 𝑘 = 𝐻𝑑 𝑚𝐿 + 𝑙

26
 𝑙 𝑙
𝐻𝑑 𝑘 = 1 − 𝐻𝑝 𝑚 + 𝐻𝑝 𝑚 + 1
𝐿 𝐿

𝑙
𝐻𝑑 𝑘 = 𝐻𝑝 𝑚 + 1 − 𝐻𝑝 𝑚 + 𝐻𝑝 𝑚 0 ≤ 𝑙 < 𝐿 (4.6)
𝐿

4.5.2 SOI (Second-Order Interpolation)

Theoretically, using higher-order polynomial interpolation will fit

better than LI. However; the computational complexity grows as the order is
increased. Here, we consider second-order polynomial interpolation for its
acceptable computational complexity. The interpolation algorithm is given by

𝐻𝑑 𝑘 = 𝐻𝑑 𝑘𝑚𝐿 + 𝑙 = 𝑐1 𝐻𝑝 𝑚 − 1 + 𝑐0 𝐻𝑝 𝑚 + 𝑐−1 𝐻𝑝 𝑚 + 1 (4.7)

Where,

∝ (∝ −1)
𝑐1 =
2
𝑙
𝑐0 = − ∝ −1 ∝ +1 , 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ∝=
𝑁

∝ (∝ +1)
𝑐−1 =
2

The channel estimation at the data carrier k is calculated based on

three channel estimates of the previous, present, and next pilot symbols. H (m -1)
is the channel estimate of the previous pilot symbol at position m - 1, Hp (m) is the
channel estimate of the present pilot symbol at position m and Hp(m + 1) is the
channel estimate of the next pilot symbol at position m + 1 . So the channel
estimation for the first four data symbols of the first OFDM symbol is obtained
using two pilot symbols as for the LI method.

27
CHAPTER-5

SIMULATION AND RESULTS

5.1 SIMULINK DESCRIPTION

Simulink is a platform for multi-domain simulation and model-based

design of dynamic systems. It provides an alternative graphical environment and a
customizable set of block libraries that let you accurately design, simulate,
implement, and test control, signal processing, communications, and other time-
varying systems.

Simulink is integrated with MATLAB, providing immediate access to

an extensive range of tools for algorithm development, data visualization, data
analysis and access and numerical computation. With Simulink, you can quickly
create, model and maintain a detailed block diagram of your system using a
comprehensive set of predefined blocks.

Simulink is also practical. With thousands of engineers around the

world using it to model and solve real time problems, knowledge of this tool will
serve you well throughout your professional career.

5.2 SOME FEATURES

Simulink has many interesting characteristics and now this section is

going to explain some of them have been used in the development of this report:

1. Using of workspace allows you to store all the values in several variables
and later you can see all these values just by writing the variables name that
you have defined before.

28
 2. The callbacks pane lets you specify functions to be invoked by Simulink at
specific points in the simulation of the model. You can enter the names of
any callback functions you want to be invoked in the appropriate fields.

5.3 SIMULINK MODEL OF OFDM SYSTEMS

This model implements a simple OFDM transmitter and receiver

Following are the configuration parameters set for this model:

Simulation time: 1000 seconds
Solver type: Variable step, ode45 (Dormand-Prince)
Relative tolerance: 1e-3
Number of consecutive zero crossings: 1000

Parameter Specifications
FFT Size (Nfft) 64
Number of Used Carriers (N) 52 ( 48 + 4 )
Number of Null Subcarriers (Nn) 12
Number of Pilot Subcarriers (Np) 4
Guard Length (Ng) 16
Guard Type Cyclic Extension
OFDM Symbol (Ns) 80
Data Symbol Mapping 16-QAM, 64-QAM,
QPSK, BPSK
Subcarrier Frequency ( ∆f) 0.15625 MHz (10MHz/64)

System Bandwidth (B) 10 MHz

Table 5.1 OFDM SIMULINK PARAMETERS

29
The SIMULINK model of OFDM system is shown in Figure 5.1

Figure 5.1 Implemented Block Diagram

30
5.4 DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS BLOCKS
In the subsequent sections different components of Figure 5.1 is explained.

5.4.1. Data Source

This block is used to generate frame based input data. It consists of two sub blocks
asshown below:

1. Random integer generates a 4-ary number and outputs the data in a frame
based form containing 48 samples per frame with a sampling time of
0.1µsec. The output datatype is double.

Figure 5.2 (a) Block Used For Random Integer Generation.

2. Integer to bit converter block is used to convert the integers to bits in order
to facilitate the computation of BER.

Figure 5.2 (b) Block Used For Integer to Bit Conversion.

31
5.4.2 MODULATOR / IQ MAPPER

1. This block is used to map the input data stream into various mapping
techniques. A bit to integer converter is used to convert the bits back to
integers. This is because the QAM blocks can operate only integers.

Figure 5.3 (a) Block used for Bit to Integer Conversion

2. The Rectangular QAM / BPSK / QPSK is used to map the constellation

points by converting the integers into complex values i.e, into In-phase and
Quadrature Components of the corresponding integer values.

Figure 5.3 (b) Block used for BPSK Mapping

32
Figure 5.3(c) Constellation plot for BPSK Mapping

Figure 5.3(d) Block used for QPSK Mapping

Figure 5.3(e) Constellation plot for QPSK Mapping

33
 Figure 5.3(f) Block used for 16 Rectangular QAM Mapping

Figure 5.3(g) Constellation plot for 16-QAM Mapping

Figure 5.3(h) Block used for 64 Rectangular QAM Mapping

34
 Figure 5.3(i) Constellation plot for 64-QAM Mapping

5.4.3 OFDM MODULATOR

This block basically consists of IFFT block that computes inverse fast
Fourier transform of the input data. The IFFT operation is mathematically identical
to OFDM operation. Hence it could be said that this is the block that actually
implements OFDM.

Figure 5.4(a) Block used for Inverse Fourier Transform.

Before feeding the data samples to the IFFT block, the input data
stream should be formatted so that the total number of input samples is a power of
2 as is required by the IFFT block.

35
 In order to do this a multiport selector block is used to select the rows
and then unit data samples are added in between to maintain uniformity and finally
they are concatenated vertically to get the data in which number of input samples
are a power of 2. For 48 data samples, 4 pilots are used.

Figure 5.4(b) Block used for Multiport & Pilot Concatenation.

Finally a cyclic prefix block is added to add cyclic prefix to the data.

Figure 5.4(c) Block used for Cyclic Prefix Insertion.

5.4.4 TRANSMISSION CHANNEL

In order to model the actual transmission channel both the AWGN
and Rayleigh fading channels are connected in series. The signal to noise ratio of
the AWGN channel can be adjusted by varying the SNR parameter value.

36
 Figure 5.5(a) Block used for Additive White Gaussian Noise.

The Rayleigh fading block provides additional parameters like

Doppler shift, path delay gain etc., to make the channel resemble the actual
channel as closely as possible.

Figure 5.5(b) Block used for Rayleigh Fading.

5.4.5 OFDM DEMODULATOR

The operation performed by this block is basically opposite to that

performed by the OFDM modulator block. At first the cyclic prefix is removed by
using a remove cyclic prefix block.

Figure 5.6(a) Block used for Removing Cyclic Prefix.

Then FFT block is used to find the fast Fourier transform of the data samples.

37
 Figure 5.6(b) Block used for Fast Fourier Transform.

The To Frame Block is used to convert the output obtained from FFT
Block into Frame format.

Figure 5.6(c) Block used for To Frame Conversion.

The Remove Zero Padding and Select Rows Block is used to remove
the Guard Bits and Pilots added and output the exact data samples.

Figure 5.6(d) Block used for removing zeros.

38
5.4.6 I-Q DEMAPPER / DEMODULATION

This block demodulates the input data using demodulation blocks

such as QPSK/BPSK/ 16-QAM/64-QAM demodulator.

Figure 5.7(a) Block used for QPSK Demodulator.

Figure 5.7(b) Block used for BPSK Demodulator.

Figure 5.7(c) Block used for 16-QAM Demodulator.

39
 Figure 5.7(d) Block used for 64-QAM Demodulator.

Finally the output integer samples are converted to bits using an

integer to bit converter block to facilitate the computation of BER.

Figure 5.7(e) Block used for Integer to Bit Conversion.

5.4.7 DATA SINK

The data is sent to a data sink. But in actual block this will be
processed by the communication systems.

Figure 5.8 Block used for Integer to Bit Conversion.

40
5.4.8 OUTPUT
This block compares the transmitted bits and received bits and finds
the number of error bits.

Figure 5.9(a) Block used for Bit Error Rate Calculation.

Discrete- Time Scatter Plot is used to plot the Constellation points in a graph.

Figure 5.9(b) Block used for Constellation Mapping.

Spectrum Scope is used to plot the Spectrum of the transmitted and received
signal.

Figure 5.9(c) Block used for Spectrum plot.

41
5.4.9 ESTIMATION AND INTERPOLATION OF RECEIVED SYMBOLS

This block will invoke the least square estimation program that is
coded in the Matlab.

Figure 5.10(a) Block for LS estimation

This block will invoke the Linear Interpolation and Second Order Interpolation
technique which is coded in Matlab.

Figure 5.10(b) Block for Linear interpolation

Figure 5.10(c) Block for Second Order interpolation

42
SIMULATION RESULTS

5.5 OFDM SYSTEM WITH 16-QAM MAPPING

5.5.1 UN-ESTIMATED OUTPUT

BER
Error Bits
Total Bits

Figure 5.11(a) 16-QAM Un-estimated Plot Figure 5.11(b) BER 16-Qam Unestimated

5.5.2 LS ESTIMATION WITH LINEAR INTERPOLATION

BER
Error Bits
Total Bits

Figure 5.11(c) 16-QAM Linear Interpolation Figure 5.11(d) BER 16-QAM LS and LI

43
5.5.3 LS ESTIMATION WITH SECOND ORDER INTERPOLATION

BER
Error Bits
Total Bits

Figure 5.11(e) 16-QAM SOI Figure 5.11(f) BER 16-QAM LS and SOI

5.5.4 16-QAM SPECTRUM PLOT

Figure 5.11(g) 16-QAM spectrum plot with 10MHz Bandwidth

44
5.6 OFDM SYSTEM WITH 16-QAM MAPPING

5.6.1 UN-ESTIMATED OUTPUT

BER
Error Bits
Total Bits

Figure 5.12(a) 64-QAM Unestimated Plot Figure 5.12(b)BER 64-QAM Unestimated

5.6.2 LS ESTIMATION WITH LINEAR INTERPOLATION

BER
Error Bits
Total Bits

Figure 5.12(c) 64-QAM Linear Interpolation Figure 5.12(d) BER 64-QAM LS and LI

45
5.6.3 LS ESTIMATION WITH SECOND ORDER INTERPOLATION

BER
Error Bits
Total Bits

Figure 5.12(e) 64-QAM SOI Figure 5.12(f) BER 64-QAM LS and SOI

5.6.4 64-QAM SPECTRUM PLOT

Figure 5.12(g) 64-QAM spectrum plot with 10MHz Bandwidth

46
5.7 OFDM SYSTEM WITH QPSK MAPPING

5.7.1 UN-ESTIMATED OUTPUT

BER
Error Bits
Total Bits

Figure 5.13(a) QPSK unestimated output Figure 5.13(b) BER QPSK Unestimated

5.7.2 LS ESTIMATION WITH LINEAR INTERPOLATION

BER
Error Bits
Total Bits

Figure 5.13(c) QPSK linear interpolation Figure 5.13(d) BER QPSK LS and LI

47
5.7.3 LS ESTIMATION WITH SECOND ORDER INTERPOLATION

BER
Error Bits
Total Bits

Figure 5.13(e) QPSK with SOI Figure 5.13(f) BER QPSK LS and SOI

5.7.4 QPSK-QAM SPECTRUM PLOT

Figure 5.13(g) QPSK spectrum plot with 10MHz Bandwidth

48
5.8 OFDM SYSTEM WITH BPSK MAPPING

5.8.1 UN-ESTIMATED OUTPUT

BER
Error Bits
Total Bits

Figure 5.14(a) BPSK unestimated plot Figure Figure 5.14(b) BER BPSK Unestimated

5.8.2 LS ESTIMATION WITH LINEAR INTERPOLATION

BER
Error Bits
Total Bits

Figure 5.14(c) BPSK Linear Interpolation Figure 5.14(d) BER LS and LI

49
5.8.3 LS ESTIMATION WITH SECOND ORDER INTERPOLATION

BER
Error Bits
Total Bits

Figure 5.14(e) BPSK with SOI Figure 5.14(f) BER BPSK LS and SOI

5.8.4 BPSK-QAM SPECTRUM PLOT

Figure 5.14(g) BPSK spectrum plot with 10MHz Bandwidth

50
CHAPTER-6
CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORKS

6.1 Thesis conclusions

OFDM techniques applications in WLAN communications have

attracted a lot of attentions in the last few years, because they make the System
robust against frequency selective channels. Using the IEEE802.1 la/g OFDM
System to construct an underground WLAN and to achieve a high data rate up to
54 Mbps is appealing. To achieve high data rates as well as good performances,
coherent channel estimation has to be performed at the receiver. Most of OFDM
coherent channel estimation methods are Pilot Symbol Assisted based (PSA) and
in the frequency domain. The transmitter just inserts known symbols periodically,
so there is no change in pulse shape or peak to average power ratio. These methods
have low complexity and implementation should be easy. They require additional
processing to estimate the CFR on the subcarriers other than the pilot ones. The
channel estimation is performed using LS estimation, at pilot subcarriers and
interpolation of the channel at data subcarriers.

In this thesis, some popular PSA channel estimation algorithms for

OFDM Systems based on comb-type pilot arrangement were studied. The
algorithms were tested using Matlab/Simulink to verify their functionalities. The
OFDM System model with channel estimation was setup in Simulink. The System
performance was tested under different situations, including different modulation
schemes (such as 16 QAM, 64 QAM, QPSK, and BPSK), different channel models

51
(such as AWGN model and RAYLEIGH model), different channel information
and different channel estimation and interpolation algorithms.

In chapter 3, it was established that in PSA OFDM channel estimation

based comb-type pilot arrangement is preferable over the frequency-selective
channel estimation due to its simplicity. The main estimation schemes are LS for
pilot frequency estimation and LI/SOI for channel estimation data frequencies. The
simulations have been done over the Rayleigh fading.

6.1.1 The simulation results gave the following conclusions.

1. Complete synchronization between the transmitter and the receiver is
assumed.
2. Channel is assumed to be Additive White Gaussian Noise with SNR as 20
dB and Rayleigh fading channel with Doppler frequency shift as 0.1Hz.
3. The bandwidth used for transmitting the data symbols is 10MHz.

Constellation Un-estimated Least Square Least Square

Mapping BER Channel Channel
Estimation with Estimation with
Linear 2nd Order
Interpolation Interpolation

BPSK 0.6789 0.2985 0.0995

QPSK 0.6764 0.3703 0.2817

16-QAM 0.5294 0.3925 0.2983

64-QAM 0.4423 0.3983 0.3665

Table 6.1 Performance Analysis

52
From the above obtained results we derive the following conclusions.

1. With the increase in bandwidth the multi path fading increases this result in
an increase in bit error rate.

2. On performing the least square channel estimation technique and comparing

the results obtained by both interpolation techniques it’s the Second Order
Interpolation that always shows a better BER result when compared to the
linear interpolation for all the 4 cases of constellation mapping that is being
taken into account.

3. The BER of BPSK mapping shows a better result this is because it tends to
transmit only 2 symbols compensating on the data rate. Following BPSK is
the QPSK which transmits 4 symbols. Next to QPSK falls 16-QAM which
transmits 16 symbols and followed by 64-QAM which transmits 64
symbols. 64-QAM gives a better data rate for a given bandwidth.

BPSK < QPSK < 16-QAM < 64-QAM

Increasing order of BER

6.2 FUTURE WORKS

Due to the limited time frame of this project, there are still some
important issues that have not been dealt with. The following is a list of suggested
future works that can be investigated.

• Improve the performance by using channel estimation in the time domain.

Channel estimation in FD has low complexity and is easy to implement. However,
it is very sensitive to deep fades. If the deep fades occur in the CFR at pilot
frequencies, then the channel estimation may be compromised. Its applicability is
restricted to fixed wireless scenarios. Moreover, the complexity of channel

53
estimators may significantly increase in high mobility scenarios, where channel
tracing may be needed. Although methods in the TD usually have higher
complexity than the FD approaches, channel tracing in TD is still preferable.

• Investigate channel estimation in fast-varying channels where the channel

changes within an OFDM block. In this thesis, we have limited the time varying
channel to change within an OFDM frame, but not within an OFDM block. When
the channel changes within an OFDM block, ICI occurs. The effects of ICI on
channel estimation should be studied.

• Study the effect of frequency offset on channel estimations. In our analysis, we

have assumed perfect frequency synchronization; therefore, the negative effect of
ICI has not been analyzed.

• Study the effect of time synchronization on channel estimations. In our project,

we have assumed timing synchronization between the transmitter and the receiver,
but whereas in the practical systems these timing synchronization needs to be
undertaken. Timing synchronization deals with the generation of the pilots at the
receiver using the Local Oscillator which is prone to phase noise effect that needs
to be reduced.

54
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