Abdul-Mawjoud: Impact of Downlink Distributed and Adjacent Subcarrier------

69

Impact of Downlink Distributed and Adjacent Subcarrier
Permutation Modes on the Performance of Mobile WiMAX
System in ITU-R Ped. B Channel with Obtaining Optimum Cyclic
Prefix

Safwan E. Abdul Fatah Dr. Sami A. Mawjoud
Abstract
Mobile WiMAX is one of the candidate technologies for 4G wireless systems,
promising high data rates and affluent multimedia services. The mobile WiMAX
standard (IEEE802.16e-2005)is based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple
Access (OFDMA), which allows a very efficient use of bandwidth in a wide frequency
range, this is due to the fact that OFDMA uses multi-channel OFDM approach and
provides subcarrier access in the time and the frequency domains.
In this paper the impact of downlink distributed (FUSC, PUSC) and adjacent
(AMC) subcarrier permutation modes used in mobile WiMAX system are investigated
using simulation under various modulation and coding schemes (link speeds)with the
support of optimum value of the Cyclic Prefix (CP) for the OFDMA symbol duration.
The results are expressed in terms of the maximum achievable throughput and
operating distance from base station in pedestrian multipath fading channel (ITU-R
Ped. B at 3Km/h speed) under a UDP-based application (video streaming), which is the
proper application for multimedia services. The results show the optimum cyclic prefix
valve for the FUSC, PUSC and AMC subcarrier permutation modes to achieve the best
system performance, also the results show differences in PER performance atvarious
modulation and coding schemes for the three subcarrier permutation modes (FUSC,
PUSC and AMC). These differences in performance are exploited in the present work to
show the best threshold SNR to switch from link speed to another link speed in terms of
throughput and operating distance.
Key words: IEEE802.16e-2005, OFDMA, FUSC, PUSC, AMC, ITU-R Ped. B channel,
PER.


ITU-R Ped. B

.


( . IEEE 802.16e-2005 )
( OFDMA )
( subcarriers . )

( cyclic
prefix . ) throughput
( ITU-R Ped. B. 3Km/hour ) .
UDP .
FUSC PUSC AMC .
PER FUSC PUSC AMC
SNR
throughput .

Received: 13 3 - 2011 Accepted: 26 8 - 2011
Al-Rafidain Engineering Vol.20 No. 4 August 2012

70

1- Introduction:
Wireless Metropolitan Area Network (Wireless MAN) or worldwide interoperability
for Microwave Access (WiMAX), which is mainly based on the IEEE standard is the leading
technology for delivering wireless internet services and offers high-throughput broadband
connections over long distances. In December 2005, the IEEE group completed and approved
IEEE 802.16e-2005, an amendment to the IEEE 802.16-2004 standard that added mobility
support. The IEEE 802.16e-2005 forms the basis for the WiMAX solution for nomadic and
mobile applications and is often referred to as mobile WiMAX [1,2,3].The Mobile WiMAX
air interface adopts Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) for improved
multi-path performance in non-line-of-sight environments. OFDMA is a flexible multiple-
access technique that can accommodate many users with widely varying applications, data
rates, and QoS requirements [3].Scalable OFDMA (SOFDMA) [4] is introduced in the IEEE
802.16e-2005 Amendment to support scalable channel bandwidths (typically 1.25 MHz, 5
MHz, 10 MHz or 20 MHz). The scalability is supported by scaling the Fast Fourier
transforms (FFT) size to the channel bandwidth in order to fix the subcarrier frequency
spacing at 10.94 kHz [5]. The SOFDMA parameters are listed in Table (3).
When designing SOFDMA wireless systems the optimum choice of the number of
subcarriers per channel bandwidth is a tradeoff between protection against multipath, Doppler
shift, and design cost/complexity. When the time delay between the various signal paths is a
significant fraction of the transmitted signals symbol period, a transmitted symbol may arrive
at the receiver during the next symbol period and cause intersymbol interference (ISI). At
higher data rates, the symbol time is shorter; hence, it takes only a smaller delay to cause ISI
[3]. Calculations in [4] show that the optimum tradeoff for mobile systems is achieved when
subcarrier spacing is 10.94 kHz [5, 6].
Inverse-Fast-Fourier-Transforming (IFFT) creates the OFDMA symbol time
(T
s
=T
b
+T
g
). Time duration T
b
is referred to as the useful symbol time. Guard Time (GT)
length is one of the key OFDMA parameters. Termed Cyclic Prefix (CP), a copy of the last
T
g
of the useful symbol period appended to the beginning of each transmitted symbol to
completely suppress ISI as long as the GT is greater than the channel delay spread. Besides it
is used to collect the multipath signals, it is essential to maintain the orthogonally of the
subcarriers [1,2].
Also by implementing the GT as a CP the system being immune to Intermarried
Interference (ICI) which causes a severe degradation of Quality of Service (QoS) in OFDMA
systems [7,8]. Adding a guard interval, however, implies power wastage and a decrease in
bandwidth efficiency. The amount of power wasted depends on how large a fraction of the
OFDMA symbol duration the guard time is. Therefore, the larger the symbol period leading
to smaller loss in power and bandwidth efficiency [3].
An OFDMA symbol is made up of subcarriers, the number of which determines the
FFT size used. In the frequency domain, each OFDMA symbol is created by mapping the
sequence of symbols on the subcarriers. WiMAX has three classes of subcarriers.
1. Data subcarriers are used for carrying data symbols.
2. Pilot subcarriers are used for carrying pilot symbols. The pilot symbols are known a priori
and can be used for channel estimation and channel tracking.
3. Null subcarriers have no power allocated to them, including the DC subcarrier and the
guard subcarriers toward the edge. The DC subcarrier is not modulated, to prevent any
saturation effects or excess power draw at the amplifier. No power is allocated to the guard
subcarriers toward the edge of the spectrum in order to fit the spectrum of the OFDMA
symbol within the allocated bandwidth and thus reduce the interference between adjacent
channels.
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71

In the OFDMA mode, the active subcarriers are divided into subsets of subcarriers, each
subset is termed a sub channel, and here, sub channels form the minimum frequency
resource-unit allocated by the Base Station (BS). Therefore, different sub channels may be
allocated to different users as a multiple-access mechanism. This type of multi-access scheme
gives the (OFDMA) its name. In the downlink (DL), a sub channel may be intended for
different (groups of) receivers; in the uplink (UL), a transmitter may be assigned one or more
sub channels, several transmitters may transmit simultaneously. The subcarriers forming one
sub channel may, but need not be adjacent as illustrated in figure (1).










The WiMAX physical layer is also responsible for slot allocation and framing over the air.
The minimum time-frequency resource that can be allocated by a WiMAX system to a given
link is called a slot [2,3].
In IEEE 802.16e-2005, both Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) and Time Division
Duplexing (TDD) are allowed. Most WiMAX deployments are likely to be in TDD mode
because of its advantages, which are: TDD allows for a more flexible sharing of bandwidth
between uplink and downlink, does not require paired spectrum, has a reciprocal channel that
can be exploited for spatial processing, and has a simpler transceiver design. WiMAX is quite
flexible in terms of how multiple users and packets are multiplexed on a single frame. A
single downlink frame may contain multiple bursts of varying size and type carrying data for
several users. The frame size is also variable on a frame-by-frame basis from 2ms to 20ms
[3].

2-Subcarrier Permutation Modes in Mobile WiMAX OFDMA Physical
Layer:
Mobile WiMAX based on OFDMA allows several modes of subcarrier permutation, which
are described in [1, 2, 3, 9, and 10]. Sub channels may be constituted using either contiguous
subcarriers or subcarriers pseudo-randomly distributed across the frequency spectrum. Two
families of distribution modes can be distinguished:
- Diversity (or distributed) permutations: The subcarriers are distributed pseudo-
randomly, this family includes: FUSC (Full Usage of the Sub Channels) and PUSC (Partial
Usage of the Sub Channels), OPUSC (Optional PUSC), OFUSC (Optional FUSC) and TUSC
(Tile Usage of Sub Channels). The main advantages of distributed permutations are
frequency diversity and intercell interference averaging. Diversity permutations minimize the
probability of using the same subcarrier in adjacent sectors or cells. On the other hand,
channel estimation is not easy as the subcarriers are distributed over the available bandwidth.
- Contiguous (or adjacent) permutations: These consider a group of adjacent
subcarriers. This family includes the AMC (Adaptive Modulation and Coding) mode.
Although frequency diversity is lost, AMC allows system designers to exploit multiuser
diversity, allocating sub channels to users based on their frequency response. Multiuser
Figure (1): OFDMA frequency description (4 sub channel schematic example)
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72

diversity can provide significant gains in overall system capacity, if the system strives to
provide each user with a sub channel that maximizes its received SINR.
Each DL sub frame and UL sub frame in IEEE 802.16e-2005 is divided into various
zones, each using a different subcarrier permutation mode. The OFDMA frame may include
multiple zones (such as PUSC, FUSC, optional FUSC, AMC, TUSC1, and TUSC2). The
maximum number of DL zones is eight in one DL sub frame. The physical layer parameters
may change from one zone to the next. More than one DL or UL zone may be defined for
each configuration. Figure (2) depicts the OFDMA TDD frame with multiple zones [1,2].





Mandatory permutation modes of the presently defined mobile WiMAX profiles are:
- For the downlink: PUSC, FUSC and AMC;
- For the uplink: PUSC and AMC.
In this paper, we will concentrate on the downlink mandatory permutation modes PUSC,
FUSC and AMC.

2.1 Downlink Full Usage of Sub channels (FUSC) Permutation Mode:
In the case of DL FUSC, all the data subcarriers are used to create the various subchannels.
Each
Sub channel is made of 48 data subcarriers, which are distributed evenly throughout the
entire frequency band.
In FUSC, the pilot subcarriers are allocated first, and then the remainder of the
subcarriers are mapped onto the various sub channels, using a permutation scheme [3,4].
After mapping all pilots, the remainder of the used subcarriers is used to define the data sub
channels. To allocate the data sub channels, the remaining subcarriers are partitioned into
groups of contiguous sub carriers. Each sub channel consists of one subcarrier from each of
these groups. The number of groups is therefore equal to the number of subcarriers per sub
channel, and it is denoted N
subcarriers
. The number of the subcarriers in a group is equal to the
number of sub channels, and it is denoted N
subchannels
.As already mentioned, the number of
data subcarriers in every sub channel is the same N
subcarriers
=48. With 1024-FFT, there are 16
sub channels in total. The number of data subcarriers is thus equal to
N
subcarriers
N
subchannels
=4816=768 data subcarrier.
During subcarrier distribution process, one subcarrier is picked up using the
permutation formula [1,2] from every group and is being allocated to a sub channel. Figure
(3) is used to clarify the subcarrier permutation process for DL FUSC.







Figure (2): Illustration of OFDMA TDD frame with multiple zones
Abdul-Mawjoud: Impact of Downlink Distributed and Adjacent Subcarrier------

73












2.2 Downlink Partial Usage of Sub channels (PUSC) Permutation Mode:
PUSC is similar to FUSC except that all the subcarriers are first divided into six groups.
Permutation of subcarriers to create sub channels is performed independently withineach
group, thus, in essence, logically separating each group from the others.
One slot of PUSC is two OFDMA symbols by one sub channel, while one PUSCsubchannel
comprises 24 data subcarriers. In the case of PUSC, all the subcarriers except the null
subcarrier are first arranged into clusters. Each cluster consists of 14 adjacent subcarriers over
two OFDMA symbols. In each cluster, the subcarriers are divided into 24 data subcarriers
and 4 pilot subcarriers. The clusters are then renumbered using a pseudorandom numbering
scheme, which in essence redistributes the logical identity of the clusters. After renumbering,
the clusters are divided into six groups, with the first one-sixth of the clusters belonging to
group 0, and so on. A sub channel is created using two clusters from the same group.
Some useful terms specific to the DL PUSC:
Physical Cluster: It is a set of 14 adjacent subcarriers (12data+2pilot). These clusters
are contiguous in the frequency band.
Logical Cluster: Physical Clustered are renumbered according to a renumbering sequence to
form logical clusters. This renumbering sequence is given in [1,2]. The two adjacent logical
clusters are not contiguous in frequency band.
Group: It is a set of logical clusters. These groups are commonly referred as major
groups. There are six groups in total. With 1024-FFT, the even group consists of 12 logical
clusters while the odd group comprises 8 logical clusters. For the purpose of inner
permutation, the subcarriers of each group are indexed separately, i.e., every group will have
subcarriers index starting from 0.
Outer Permutation: It is the process by which physical clusters are renumbered to give rise to
logical clusters.
Inner Permutation: The process to form sub channels from the subcarrier of logical clusters of
a group is called inner permutation.
The permutation process to form sub channels in DL PUSC is shown in figure (4).
Pilot positions are marked separately for odd and even OFDMA symbol. These
subcarriers will be separated from the rest before inner permutation. The pilot subcarriers for
the odd symbols will be 4 and 8, the pilot subcarriers positions for the even symbols will
be 0 and 12. The rest twelve subcarriers will be used as data subcarriers in the inner
permutation.
In PUSC, it is possible to allocate all or only a subset of the six groups to a given
transmitter. By allocating disjoint subsets of the six available groups to neighboring
transmitters, it is possible to separate their signals in the subcarrier space, thus enabling a
tighter frequency reuse at the cost of data rate. Such usage of subcarriers is referred to as
segmentation.
Nused=768Data+82Pilot+1 DC Guard Band=86 Guard Band=87
G0
Sch0
G1 G47
Sch1 Sch15
Figure (3): Distributed permutation process of DL FUSC (1024-FFT)
Data subcarrier allocation
using Permutation
Only Data Subcarriers
Subchannel (Sch)
=48 Data subcarriers
Group (G)
=16 DataSubcarriers
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2.3 Downlink Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) Permutation Mode:

Unique to the AMC permutation mode, all subcarriers constituting a subchannel are adjacent
to each other. In this subcarrier permutation, nine adjacent subcarriers with eight data
subcarriers and one pilot subcarrier are used to form a bin.
Some useful definitions in the AMC:-

Bin: It is the smallest unit in frequency domain for adjacent subcarrier permutation. It is
composed of 9 contiguous subcarriers. Out of 9, eight are data tones and one is pilot tone.

Slot: There are four different slot structures types. In the first type (default type), a slot is six
contiguous bins by one symbol. The second typeis two bins by three symbols. The third type
is three bins by two OFDMA symbols and for the fourth and last type, a slot is one bin by six
symbols. If N is number of bins and M is number of symbols then product NM is always
equal to six.

Sub channel: The sub channel in adjacent subcarrier permutation is composed of bins.
Number of bins depends upon slot structure. For example for default type, a sub channel
comprises six bins. For the rest of the three types, sub channel has two, three and one bins
respectively.
Physical Band: A group of four adjacent bins in the frequency domain is called a physical
band.

Logical Band: A logical band is a group of physical bands. For 1024-FFT, number of
physical bands per logical band is two.
The permutation process to form subchannels in DL AMC is shown in figure (5).





Nused=720Data+120Pilot+1 DC Guard Band=91 Guard Band=92
PC0 PC1 PC59
Figure (4): Distributed permutation process of DL PUSC (1024-FFT)




Data subcarrier allocation
using Inner Permutation
Renumbering Sequence or
Outer Permutation
Major Group (MG)
Even Group=12LC
Odd Group=8LC
Physical Clusters (PC)
=14 subcarriers
LC0 LC1 LC59
LC
0
LC
1
LC
11
LC
12
LC
19
LC
59

MG0

MG1 MG5
Logical Clusters
(LC)
Subchannel (Sch)
=24 Data subcarriers
6 Subchannel (Sch) per Even Group
4 Subchannel (Sch) per Odd Group


Note: Pilots are separated
before this step
Segment =1 or more MG
Sch0 Sch5 Sch0 Sch0 Sch3 Sch3
Segment 0 Segment 2 Segment 1
LC
52
Abdul-Mawjoud: Impact of Downlink Distributed and Adjacent Subcarrier------

75












The various parameters related to the FUSC, PUSC, AMC permutation scheme in the
physical layer for 1024-FFT sizes are shown in table (1)[1,2].


Parameters Subcarrier Permutation Mode
FUSC PUSC AMC
Number of Guard Subcarriers, Left 87 92 80
Number of Guard Subcarriers, Right 86 91 79
Number of Used Subcarriers (Nused)
(including all possible allocated pilots
and the DC subcarrier)
851 841 865
Number of data subcarriers 768 720 768
Number of pilot Subcarriers 82 120 96
Number of sub channels 16 30 48
A slot consists of 1Subchannel
1OFDMA
symbol
1Subchannel
2OFDMA
symbols
2bins3OFD
MA symbols
Number of data subcarriers in each
symbol per sub channel
48 24 16
Number of data Subcarriers per slot 48 48 48
Number of physical bands - - 24
Number of bins per physical band - - 4
Number of subcarriers per cluster - 14 -
Number of clusters - 60 -
Number of PUSC groups - 6 -
Number of sub channels per even group - 6 -
Number of sub channels per odd group - 4 -

3- The Proposed Channel Model:
The empirical channel model that generally used for describing the mobile WiMAX system is
the ITU-R channel model, which was developed according to the ITU-R M.1225
Recommendation [11]. This model is implemented in this paper for the simulation of an
IEEE 80216e-2005(mobile WiMAX) system.
In order to model the ITU-R channel between a transmit and receive antennas as aSISO
(Single in Single Out) multipath channel, the Recommendation ITU-R M.1225 [12]
introduces a channel impulse response model based on a tapped-delay-line. The number of
taps, the time delay relative to the first tap, the average power relative to the strongest tap,
Nused=768Data+96Pilot+1 DC Guard Band=79 Guard Band=80
B0 B1 B95
Contiguous bins forming
Physical bands
Contiguous subcarriers
Figure (5): Adjacent permutation process of DL AMC (1024-FFT)
Bin (B) =9 Subcarriers
(8 data+1pilot)
PB0 PB23
Physical band (PB) =4 bins
B2 B3
PB1
LB0 LB1 LB11
Contiguous Physical bands
forming Logical bands
Logical band (LB)
=2 Physical bands
Table (1): 1024-FFT, 10MHz-BW OFDMA FUSC, PUSC, AMC subcarrier allocationparameters
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76

characterize the model and the Doppler spectrum of each tap, recall that each tap represents a
path delayer.
Equation (1) represents the impulse response of a tapped-delay-line multipath channel, which
is described by a discrete number of impulses:
( ) .......(1) ) ( ) t ( c t, h
N
1 i
i i
=
= t t o t
Where, t indicates the time variable and captures the time variability of the impulse
response of each multipath component modeled typically as Rayleigh fading, and refer to
the rms values of the path delays associated with each multipath. The coefficients c
i
(t) refer
to the Power Profiles(variance) of each path relative to the first path. The selection of the N
and delay values
i
depends upon what is considered a significant level. The implementation
of equation (1) as a tapped-delay-line multipath channel by a 4-tap model (as an example) is
shown in figure (6).
As illustrated in [3, 12, and 13] the multipath channel classified according to the delay
spread variability. ITU-R M.1225 has specified two multipath profiles, A and B, for
vehicular, pedestrian, and indoor channels. Channel B has a much longer delay spread than
channel A and is generally accepted as a good representative of urban macro-cellular
environment. Channel A, on the other hand, is accepted as a good representative of rural
macro-cellular environment.
The simulation presented in this paper is based on the pedestrian B channel (referred
to as Ped. B) Model, since it is suitable for broadband wireless communications, also,
according to WiMAX Forum [5, 12, 13], recommending that WiMAX simulations should use
the ITU Pedestrian B (3 km/h) and Vehicular A (60 km/h) mobility profiles.
Table (2) shows the normalized power profiles for the pedestrian B test environment tapped-
delay-line parameters. For each tap of the channels, three parameters are given: the time
delay relative to the first tap, the average power relative to the strongest tap, and the Doppler
spectrum of each tap.




Ta
p
Pedestrian B (Ped.B)
Channel
Doppler
spectru
m Relative
delay (ns)
Average
power (dB)
1 0 0 Classic
2 200 0.9 Classic
3 800 4.9 Classic
4 1 200 8.0 Classic
5 2 300 7.8 Classic
6 3 700 23.9 Classic

4- Simulation Parameters:
link-level simulations are used to study the behavior of downlink performance for Mobile
WiMAX system under multipath fading channel, the parameters defined in the physical layer
are from IEEE standards [1,2], also [5] and [14], all the required physical layer parameters for
simulation are listed in table(3).
The three subcarrier permutation modes(FUSC, PUSC, AMC) are based on Scalable
OFDMA principle, features which are selected in our simulation are highlighted. The TDD
Figure (6): Tapped-delay-line model
Table (2): Pedestrian B channel tapped-delay-
line parameters
Abdul-Mawjoud: Impact of Downlink Distributed and Adjacent Subcarrier------

77

duplexing has been chosen according to the advantages mentioned for reducing the
simulation time; the frame duration of 2 msec. is selected. The convolutional turbo codes
(CTC) is selected due to their superior performance over the other convolutional
codes[3,7,11]. The Mobile Station (MS) Parameters such as velocity, max. delay spread, and
max. Doppler spread as given in table (3) is selected according to the channel specification
parameters.


OFDMA Parameters
Duplexing TDD
Channel Bandwidth(BW) MHz 1.25 5 10 20
FFT Size (N
FFT
) 128 512 1024 2048
Sampling Factor
*
(n) 28/25 28/25 28/25 28/25
Sampling Frequency MHz (Fs= floor(n
BW /8000) 8000)
1.4 5.6 11.2 22.4
Subcarrier frequency Spacing (f= Fs/
N
FFT
)
10.9375 kHz
Useful Symbol Time(T
b
) (T
b
=1/f) 91.42 sec.
Cyclic Prefix(CP) duration (T
g
= T
b
/32, T
b

/16, T
b
/8, T
b
/4)
Variable (2.85, 5.71, 11.42, 22.85)sec.
OFDMA Symbol (T
s
=T
b
+T
g
) Dependent on CP duration (94.28, 97.14, 102.9,
114.28)sec.
Frame duration 2 msec.
Number of OFDMA symbols 20
DL:UL ratio 3:1
Subcarrier permutation mode DL FUSC, DL PUSC, DL AMC
Base Station(BS) Parameters
Carrier Frequency(f
c
) 2.3GHz
Total TX power 20 dBm
Antenna Gain 15 dBi
Modulation Scheme QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM
Coding Rate 1/2, 3/4, 5/6
Coding Type Convolutional Turbo Coding (CTC)
Antenna Configuration SISO
Mobile Station(MS) Parameters
Antenna Parameters Omni directional
Gain 0dBi

Noise Figure 7dB
Velocity(v) 3 Km/hour
MAX Delay Spread 3700 nsec.
MAX Doppler Spread (f
D
=vf
c
/Light
Speed)
6.38 Hz
* n: Sampling factor. This parameter determines the subcarrier spacing and the useful
symbol time. This value is set as follows: for channel bandwidths that are a mult iple of
1.75 MHz, then n = 8/7; else, for channel bandwidths that are a multiple of any of 1.25,
1.5, 2, or 2.75 MHz, then n = 28/25; else, for channel bandwidths not otherwise specified,
then n = 8/7.

Table (3): Mobile WiMAX system - physical layer simulation parameters
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78

5- System Performance Analysis:
5.1 Operating Distance Analysis:
The maximum base station mobile station separation distance (D) can be calculated
according to equation (2) which represents path loss model suggested for pedestrian test
environment [12]:
.......(2) 49 f log 30 D log 40 ) dB ( P
c 10 10 L
+ + =
where:-
P
L
(dB):Average path loss between the base station (TX) and mobile station (RX)

D:BSMS separation distance (km)
f
c
:Carrier frequency MHz
Path loss is calculated according to the link budget equation expressed in equation (3):
( ) .......(3) ) dBm ( P ) dB ( G ) dB ( G ) dBm ( P dB P
R MS BS T L
+ + =
where:-
P
T
: Base station transmit power.
G
MS
: Mobile station antenna gain.
G
BS
: Base station antenna gain.
P
R
: The received power computed according to equation (4).
.......(4) e(dB) NoiseFigur ) dBm ( se ThermalNoi ) dB ( SNR ) dBm ( P
R
+ + =
where:-
SNR : Received Signal-to-Noise Ratio.
Noise Figure: Receiver noise figure (at MS).
Thermal Noise=KTB
K= Boltzmans constant(1.38 10
-23
J/K).
T=Receiver temperature(290 K).
B=Receiver bandwidth (10 MHz).

5.2 Throughput Analysis:
Throughput is a measure of the efficiency of a network expressed as the data transfer rate of
useful information. The peak physical layer error-free DL throughput (R
peak
) per base station
for a certain link-speed can be calculated using equation (5)[14]:
R
peak
= N
D
N
b
R
FEC
/T
s
(5)
where N
D
is the number of assigned data subcarriers to the users, N
b
is the number ofmapped
bits per subcarrier, R
FEC
is the FEC (Forward Error Correction) coding rate and T
S
is the
OFDMA symbol duration. The actual link throughput per base station is estimated from the
Packet Error Rate(PER) according to equation (6)[14]:
R = R
peak
(1-PER) .(6)
Where PER depends on the channel characteristics, SNR at the receiver, and the selected link
speed according to the adaptive modulation and coding process.

6- Simulation Results:
The simulation model for the DL mobile WiMAX system consists of a base station as the
transmitter followed by the ITU-R Ped. B channel with pedestrian speed of (3Km/h) then a
mobile station as the receiver. The PER calculated at the receiver by demodulating the
incoming signal (which is faded and corrupted with noise) and is compared with the original
transmitted data after adding a proper delay to it.



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79

i. System Performance in Terms of Optimum Cyclic Prefix (CP):
In this section, the PER performance vs. average SNR, for mobile WiMAX system, that
described previously (for the three types downlink subcarrier permutation modes (FUSC,
PUSC, AMC)), will be evaluated under various CP values. In order to determine the optimum
CP value that eliminates the effects of ISI and reduces the power loss and the throughput
degradation due to the overhead of this CP on the OFDMA symbol duration.
The link speed 16QAM scheme and Convolutional Turbo Coding (CTC) with coding rate
1/2, are chosen in this simulation, because they are considered as a moderate value for PER
performance, throughput and operating distance as compared to other link speeds. The
simulation results in figures(7), (8) for PUSC, AMC show that the CP=T
b
/16 length better
than the other CP lengths (T
b
/4, T
b
/8, T
b
/32) in PER reduction at higher values of SNR, this
results agrees with [7], [11] which were dealt with PUSC permutation mode in their analysis
and simulation. The simulation results for FUSC figure (9) show that the CP=T
b
/4 slightly
better than the CP=T
b
/16 and other CP lengths (at PER=110
-3
, the CP=T
b
/4 better than the
CP=T
b
/16 by 0.3dB in SNR). In order to take the effects of CP length on other important
system parameters into account, the results of peak DL throughput per base station for the
three subcarrier permutation modes, with the SNR loss (SNR
loss
) which is calculated
according to equation(7)[1,2,7]are listed in table (4).
.......(7) ) ) T T ( T 1 ( log 10 SNR
b g g 10 loss
+ =

whereT
g
, T
b
values are listed in table (3)





















Figure (7): PER vs. SNR for PUSC mode -
different CP values
Figure (9): PER vs. SNR for FUSC mode - different CP values

Figure (8): PER vs. SNR for AMC mode -
different CP values

Al-Rafidain Engineering Vol.20 No. 4 August 2012

80

Table (4) shows the maximum throughput obtained, using equation (5), for all possible link
speeds with different CP lengths. It is clear that the results of FUSC and AMC are identical,
also they give better throughput than the PUSC that is because they use the same number of
data subcarriers in the DL transmission, which are greater than that used in the PUSC as
illustrated in table (1).



Subcarrier
permutation
mode
CP
lengths
Peak Obtained Throughput (Mbps) SNR
loss
(d
B)

QPSK
1/2
QPSK
3/4
16QAM
1/2
16QAM
3/4
64QAM
1/2
64QAM
3/4
64QA
M5/6
FUSC, AMC T
b
/4 6.72 10.08 13.44 20.16 20.16 30.24 33.6 0.9691001
3
T
b
/8 7.466 11.2 14.93 22.4 22.4 33.6 37.3 0.5115252
24
T
b
/16 7.905 11.85 15.81 23.71 23.71 35.57 39.5 0.2632893
87
T
b
/32 8.145 12.21 16.29 24.43 24.43 36.65 40.7 0.1336396
16
PUSC T
b
/4 6.3 9.45 12.6 18.9 18.9 28.35 31.5 0.9691001
3
T
b
/8 7 10.5 14 21 21 31.5 35 0.5115252
24
T
b
/16 7.41 11.11 14.82 22.23 22.23 33.35 37.05 0.2632893
87
T
b
/32 7.63 11.45 15.27 22.9 22.9 34.36 38.18 0.1336396
16

In addition, it is clear that the peak throughput obtained increases with the decrease of
the CP lengths for all link speeds, this is because the CP overhead on the symbol duration is
reduced; for the same reason mentioned. It can also be shown that the effect of reducing the
CP length leads to reduction in the SNR loss, which is an important factor at the receiver
(MS).
It is important to mention that the CP length must be selected by the primarily negotiation
done between the base station and mobile station, and the CP length cannot be changed
during the frame transmission DL or UL, because changing the CP would force all the
Mobile Stations to resynchronize to the Base Station [10].
Depending on the simulation results, the optimum value for the CP length in the PUSC
and AMC permutation modes will be CP=T
b
/16=5.71sec. In the FUSC, though there is a
0.3dB improvement by the CP=T
b
/4 over the CP=T
b
/16, we must take into account the
enhanced performance due to the increased throughput and reduced SNR
loss
by the CP=T
b
/16
over the CP=T
b
/4. Then, the value of CP=T
b
/16 = 5.71sec length (which excessed the
maximum r.m.s delay spread (3.7sec.) of the ITU-R Ped. B channel) will be selected as an
optimum CP length in the three permutation modes and it will be dependent in the further
simulation of this paper.

ii. System Performance in Terms of PER:
Figure (10) shows PER performance vs. SNR for various subcarrier permutation modes and
link speeds, as the coding rate is higher. The PER, performance degraded due to reduced
ability for errors correction in multipath fading channel.


Table (4): Peak obtained throughput and SNR loss in terms of various subcarrier permutation
modes, link speeds and CP values
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81






















The important observation that can be noticed from the simulation results in figure
(10), is that there is a slight difference in the PER performance between different subcarrier
permutation modes at the lower link speeds (QPSK1/2, QPSK3/4, 16QAM1/2). Which means
that when the MSs are far from the BS (SNR=12-22dB) there is no significant improvement
in system performance (max. improvements=1.2dB at PER=110
-2
) between the three
permutation modes (FUSC, PUSC, AMC). On the other side, it can be seen that at the higher
link speeds (16QAM3/4, 64QAM1/2, 64QAM3/4), there are a significant performance
improvement in the distributed subcarrier permutation modes (FUSC, PUSC) over the
adjacent subcarrier permutation mode (AMC). This means at close distance (SNR=22-36dB)
from BS, there are a significant effect on the performance due to the selected subcarrier
permutation mode (max. improvements 5dB at PER=110
-2
). At the 64QAM5/6, we can see
that the PUSC outperform the AMC, but the FUSC produces the worst PER performance
with minimum PER=1.810
-2
in spite of increasing the SNR until 50dB. This means that
when the MSs are very close to the BS (SNR32dB) it is recommended to select the PUSC
permutation mode in order to achieve the best performance in PER and operating distance. So
according to the received SNR and the assumed threshold PER, it is important to select a
proper subcarrier permutation mode to achieve the best performance of the mobile WiMAX
system.
It is also clear that the FUSC mode outperform the other two (PUSC and AMC) modes
due to the high frequency diversity across the total bandwidth. Which lead to a better
performance in multipath fading channel environment except at link speed 64QAM5/6 where
the higher coding rate (5/6) with the high frequency diversity lead to difficulty in correcting
errors. Also, it is noticed that there are some useful cases that may be used for performance
improvements in mobile WiMAX system by achieving better throughput and operating
distance. The 64QAM3/4 link speed for FUSC and PUSC modes outperform the 16QAM3/4
link speed for AMC at a PER610
-3
. The 64QAM5/6 link speed for PUSC mode
outperforms the 64QAM3/4 link speed for AMC at a PER1.9710
-1
. If these cases are taken
into account at the BS when decided to switch from a lower link speed to a higher link speed
Figure (10): PER vs. SNR for various subcarrier permutation modes and link
speeds
Al-Rafidain Engineering Vol.20 No. 4 August 2012

82

depending on the received SNR during the adaptive modulation and coding process, it will
improve the overall performance of the system.

iii. System Performance in Terms of DL Throughput and Operating Distance:
Based on the simulation results in (ii) and equation (6), figure (11) and(12)show the
comparison results for DL throughput with respect to SNR and operating distance
respectively. As mentioned in the earlier, the mobile WiMAX promising high data rates and
affluent multimedia services; UDP is more suitable for multimedia traffic. In this throughput
and operating distance simulation, the UDP-based application is assumed to be video
streaming. The PER thresholds for UDP-based applications is 1% PER, which is considered
the highest PER acceptable for UDP-based applications; any PER in excess of this value is
assumed to be too severe to maintain a practical data link [15].
Figures (11), (12) show that the QPSK1/2 link speed with any one of the permutation
modes (FUSC, PUSC, AMC) achieves the maximum range (D=0.18Km) from the BS, but
with minimum DL throughput per BS(R=7.874Mbps at FUSC and AMC, R=7.404Mbps at
PUSC) to maintain the assumed link connection at 1% PER. On the other hand the
64QAM5/6 with AMC permutation mode achieves the maximum DL throughput per BS (R=
39.21Mbps) with a maximum range (D=0.04Km) to maintain the assumed link connection at
1% PER. Also, it can be seen that the higher modulation and coding rate 64QAM5/6 at FUSC
mode cannot achieve the PER thresholds for UDP-based applications at 1% PER because this
link speed produces a significant PER which is higher than the assumed threshold PER. It is
also clear that the peak obtained throughput for FUSC and AMC modes are equal and
outperform the PUSC mode (this is illustrated in table (4)). Now for better performance for
the mobile WiMAX system in the three permutation modes at a certain DL sub frame, we
recommended to follow the step stairs (curves intersections) shown in figure (11), (12) to
switch from link speed to another depending on the SNR in figure (11) and on the Distance in
figure (12). Recall that the simulation is done based on threshold link connection of 1% PER.






















Figure (11): DL throughput vs. SNR for various subcarrier permutation modes and
link speeds 1% PER threshold
Abdul-Mawjoud: Impact of Downlink Distributed and Adjacent Subcarrier------

83






















In order to evaluate the overall simulation results for the mobile WiMAX system,
table (5) shows the minimum required SNR to obtain the maximum distance with the
maximum achieved throughput to maintain the link connection at 1% PER for different link
speeds and permutation modes.



Subcarrier
permutatio
n mode
Parameters QPSK
1/2
QPSK
3/4
16QAM
1/2
16QAM
3/4
64QAM
1/2
64QAM
3/4
64QAM
5/6
FUSC Min. required SNR
(dB)
12 18 18 22 22 30 NA
Max. achieved
Distance (Km)
0.179 0.127 0.127 0.101 0.101 0.064 NA
Max. obtained
Throughput (Mbps)
7.874 11.86 15.8 23.53 23.65 35.58 NA
PUSC Min. required SNR
(dB)
12 18 18 24 22 28 32
Max. achieved
Distance (Km)
0.179 0.127 0.127 0.090 0.101 0.071 0.057
Max. obtained
Throughput (Mbps)
7.404 11.05 14.81 22.21 22.04 33.19 36.84
AMC Min. required SNR
(dB)
12 20 20 28 28 34 38
Max. achieved
Distance (Km)
0.179 0.113 0.113 0.071 0.071 0.051 0.040
Max. obtained
Throughput (Mbps)
7.874 11.8 15.78 23.58 23.6 35.36 39.21

It is obvious from table (5) that the simulation results for the maximum throughput obtained
is very close to the peak throughput obtained, at CP=1/16 which is calculated in table (4).

Table (5): Min. required SNR, Max. achieved operating distance and Max. obtained throughput
for various subcarrier permutation modes and link speeds
Figure (12): DL throughput vs. operating distance for various subcarrier permutation
modes and link speeds 1% PER threshold
Al-Rafidain Engineering Vol.20 No. 4 August 2012

84

7- Conclusion:
In this paper, the downlink performance analysis of distributed, and adjacent subcarrier
permutation modes, used in mobile WiMAX system operating in ITU-R Ped.. B channel is
investigated for different parameters of physical layer such as modulation, coding schemes
and the optimum value of the cyclic prefix.
The results show that the optimum cyclic prefix valve for the FUSC, PUSC and AMC
subcarrier permutation modes that achieve the best performance is T
b
/16 of the OFDMA
symbol time.
The results also show a slight differences in the PER performance between the FUSC,
PUSC and AMC subcarrier permutation modes at the lower modulation and coding schemes
(QPSK1/2, QPSK3/4, 16QAM1/2). Which means that when the MSs are far from the BS
there is no significant improvement in system performance in selecting any one of the three
permutation modes (FUSC, PUSC, AMC). At the higher modulation and coding schemes
(16QAM3/4, 64QAM1/2, 64QAM3/4), there are a significant performance improvements of
the distributed subcarrier permutation modes (FUSC, PUSC) over the adjacent subcarrier
permutation mode (AMC). This means at close distance from BS, it is recommended to use
the FUSC subcarrier permutation mode due to its higher throughput rather than the PUSC
subcarrier permutation mode at the same operating distance as shown in figure (12). At the
64QAM5/6, it can be seen that the PUSC outperform the AMC. Though FUSC is also a type
of distributed subcarrier permutation, its performance in terms of PER performance is worse
than that of PUSC and AMC, which produces minimum PER=1.810
-2
in spite of increasing
the SNR until 50dB. This means that when the MSs are very close to the BS it is
recommended to select the PUSC permutation mode in order to achieve the best performance
in PER and operating distance.

8- References:
[1] IEEE Std 802.16-2009, Revision of IEEE Std 802.16-2004 IEEE Standard for Local
and metropolitan area networks Part 16: Air Interface for Broadband Wireless Access
Systems
[2] IEEE Std 802.16e-2005, IEEE Std 802. 2004/Cor 1-2005, IEEE Standard for Local and
metropolitan area networks, Part 16: Air Interface for Fixed and Mobile Broadband
Wireless Access Systems, Amendment 2: Physical and Medium Access Control Layers
for Combined Fixed and Mobile Operation in Licensed Bands and Corrigendum 1.
[3]J. G. Andrews, A. Ghosh, R. Muhamed, Fundamentals of WiMAX Understanding
Broadband Wireless Networking, Prentice Hall Press, 2007.
[4]H.Yaghoobi, Intel Communications Group, Intel Corporation, Scalable OFDMA Physical
Layer in IEEE 802.16 WirelessMAN, Intel Technology Journal, Volume 8, Issue 3,
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[5]WiMAX Forum, Mobile WiMAX - Part 1: A Technical Overview and Performance
Evaluation, August 2006.
[6]V.Bykovnikov, The Advantages of SOFDMA for WiMAX, 2005 Intel Corporation.
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[8] Uma ShankerJha, Ramjee Prasad, OFDM Towards Fixed and Mobile Broadband
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Abdul-Mawjoud: Impact of Downlink Distributed and Adjacent Subcarrier------

85

[10] LoutfiNuaymi, WiMAX: Technology for Broadband Wireless Access, John Wiley &
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The work was carried out at the college of Engineering. University of Mosul