MULTIPLE INPUT- MULTIPLE OUTPUT OFDM SYSTEMS:

Orthogonal Frequency Division multiple access (OFDMA) is a scheme used in the area of high-data-rate mobile wireless communications such as cellular phones, satellite communications and digital audio broadcasting. This technique is mainly utilized to combat inter-symbol interference. The OFDMA technology was first conceived in the 1960s and 1970s during research into minimizing Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI) due to multipath. OFDMA is a special form of Multi Carrier Modulation (MCM) with densely spaced sub carriers with overlapping spectra, thus allowing for multiple-access. MCM is the principle of transmitting data by dividing the stream into several bit streams, each of which has a much lower bit rate and by using these sub-streams to modulate several carriers. This technique is being investigated as the next generation transmission scheme for mobile wireless communications networks. A multiple-access is a transmission scheme where several simultaneous users can use the same fixed bandwidth. Some other multiple access schemes are TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access), FDMA (Frequency Division Multiple Access and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). This paper describes a channel estimation method for MIMO-OFDMA systems. The channel estimation techniques used in this paper are Zero Forcing (ZF) and Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE). ZF receiver eliminates the Inter Symbol Interference completely but does not remove the noise effectively. Whereas, MMSE receiver, balances both ISI and noise effectively.

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUNND

INTRODUCTION
Initial proposals for OFDMA were made in the 60s and the 70s. It has taken more than a quarter of a century for this technology to move from the research domain to the industry. The concept of OFDMA is quite simple but the practicality of implementing it has many complexities.So, it is a fully software project.OFDMA depends on the principle of Orthogonality. Orthogonality means, it allows the sub carriers, which are orthogonal to each other, meaning that cross talk between co-channels is eliminated and inter-carrier guard bands are not required. This greatly simplifies the design of both the transmitter and receiver, unlike conventional FDM; a separate filter for each sub channel is not required. Orthogonal Frequency Division multiple access (OFDMA) is a digital multi carrier modulation scheme, which uses a large number of closely spaced orthogonal sub-carriers. A single stream of data is split into parallel streams each of which is coded and modulated on to a subcarrier, a term commonly used in OFDMA systems.Each sub-carrier is modulated with a conventional modulation scheme (such as quadrature amplitude modulation) at a low symbol rate, maintaining data rates similar to conventional single carrier modulation schemes in the same bandwidth. Thus the high bit rates seen before on a single carrier is reduced to lower bit rates on the subcarrier. In practice, OFDMA signals are generated and detected using the Fast Fourier Transform algorithm. OFDMA has developed into a popular scheme for wideband digital communication, wireless as well as copper wires. Actually, FDM systems have been common for many decades. However, in FDM, the carriers are all independent of each other. There is a guard period in between them and no overlap whatsoever. This works well because in FDM system each carrier carries data meant for a different user or application. FM radio is an FDM system. FDM systems are not ideal for what we want for wideband

systems. Using FDM would waste too much bandwidth. This is where OFDMA makes sense. In OFDMA, subcarriers overlap. They are orthogonal because the peak of one subcarrier occurs when other subcarriers are at zero. This is achieved by realizing all the subcarriers together using Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT). The demodulator at the receiver demodulates parallel channels from an FFT block. Note that each subcarrier can still be modulated independently. Since the realization of high data wireless access is demanded by many applications, more bandwidth needs to be allocated to achieve high data rate transmission in traditional systems. But increasing the bandwidth is often undesirable due to system complexity or spectral limitations. Therefore, multiple-input multiple-out (MIMO) systems with multiple transmit and receive antennas can theoretically be employed to achieve over narrowband channels an improvement of spectral efficiency proportional to the number of transmit antennas. And space-time coding technique is often applied to MIMO systems to mitigate channel fading without sacrificing bandwidth and becoming attractive in broadband wireless systems. Moreover, Orthogonal Frequency Division multiple access (OFDMA) is an effective technique for mitigating the effects of delay spread in a frequency selective fading channel. By using OFDMA modulation with cyclic prefix, frequency selective sub channels; thereby space-time processing technique can be effectively applied to improve the system performance. A system that combines MIMO system, space time coding and OFDMA can provide spectral efficiency and higher data transmission over a fading channel. In MIMOOFDMA systems, channel estimation is important to the data detection process. And there are many channel estimation methods proposed for MIMO-OFDMA systems. Zero Forcing (ZF) and Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) are some of the techniques which are used in the project to estimate the channel.

Background:

Most first generations systems were introduced in the mid 1980s, and can be Characterized by the use of analog transmission techniques and the use of simple multiple access techniques such as Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA). First generation telecommunications systems such as Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) only provided voice communications. They also suffered from a low user capacity, and security problems due to the simple radio interface used. Second generation systems were introduced in the early 1990s, and all use digital technology. This provided an increase in the user capacity of around three times. This was achieved by compressing the voice waveforms before transmission. Third generation systems are an extension on the complexity of second-generation systems and are expected to be introduced after the year 2000. The system capacity is expected to be increased to over ten times original first generation systems. This is going to be achieved by using complex multiple access techniques such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), or an extension of TDMA, and by improving flexibility of services available. The telecommunications industry faces the problem of providing telephone services to rural areas, where the customer base is small, but the cost of installing a wired phone network is very high. One method of reducing the high infrastructure cost of a wired system is to use a fixed wireless radio network. The problem with this is that for rural and urban areas, large cell sizes are required to get sufficient coverage. Fig.1.1 shows the evolution of current services and networks to the aim of combining them into a unified third generation network. Many currently separate systems and services such as radio paging, cordless telephony, satellite phones and private radio systems for companies etc, will be combined so that all these services will be provided by third generation telecommunications systems.

Fig: 1.1 Evolution of current networks to the next generation of wireless networks. Currently Global System for Mobile telecommunications (GSM) technology is being applied to fixed wireless phone systems in rural areas. However, GSM uses time division multiple access (TDMA), which has a high symbol rate leading to problems with multipath causing inter-symbol interference. Several techniques are under consideration for the next generation of digital phone systems, with the aim of improving cell capacity, multipath immunity, and flexibility. These include CDMA and OFDMA. Both these techniques could be applied to providing a fixed wireless system for rural areas. However, each technique as different properties, making it more suited for specific applications. OFDMA is currently being used in several new radio broadcast systems including the proposal for high definition digital television (HDTV) and digital audio broadcasting (DAB). However, little research has been done into the use of OFDMA as a transmission method for mobile telecommunications systems. In CDMA, all users transmit in the same broad frequency band using specialized codes as a basis of channelization. Both the base station and the mobile station know these codes, which are used to modulate the data sent. OFDMA/COFDMA allows many users to transmit in an allocated band, by subdividing the available bandwidth into many narrow bandwidth carriers. Each user is allocated several carriers in which to transmit their data.

The transmission is generated in such a way that the carriers used are orthogonal to one another, thus allowing them to be packed together much closer than standard frequency division multiplexing (FDM). This leads to OFDMA/COFDMA providing a high spectral efficiency. Orthogonal Frequency Division multiple access is a scheme used in the area of high-data-rate mobile wireless communications such as cellular phones, satellite communications and digital audio broadcasting. This technique is mainly utilized to combat inter-symbol interference.

Multiple Access Techniques:

Multiple access schemes are used to allow many simultaneous users to use the same fixed bandwidth radio spectrum. In any radio system, the bandwidth, which is allocated to it, is always limited. For mobile phone systems the total bandwidth is typically 50 MHz, which is split in half to provide the forward and reverse links of the system. Sharing of the spectrum is required in order increase the user capacity of any wireless network. FDMA, TDMA and CDMA are the three major methods of sharing the available bandwidth to multiple users in wireless system. There are many extensions, and hybrid techniques for these methods, such as OFDMA, and hybrid TDMA and FDMA systems. However, an understanding of the three major methods is required for understanding of any extensions to these methods.

Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA):

In Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), the available bandwidth is subdivided into a number of narrower band channels. Each user is allocated a unique frequency band in which to transmit and receive on. During a call, no other user can use the same frequency band.

Each user is allocated a forward link channel (from the base station to the mobile phone) and a reverse channel (back to the base station), each being a single way link. The transmitted signal on each of the channels is continuous allowing analog transmissions. The bandwidths of FDMA channels are generally low (30 kHz) as each channel only supports one user. FDMA is used as the primary breakup of large allocated frequency bands and is used as part of most multi-channel systems.

Fig. 1.2 & Fig. 1.3 show the allocation of the available bandwidth into several channels.

Time Division Multiple Access:

Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) divides the available spectrum into multiple time slots, by giving each user a time slot in which they can transmit or receive. Fig. 1.4 shows how the time slots are provided to users in a round robin fashion, with each user being allotted one time slot per frame. TDMA systems transmit data in a buffer and burst method, thus the transmission of each channel is non-continuous.

Fig 1.4 TDMA scheme, where each user is allocated a small time slot

The input data to be transmitted is buffered over the previous frame and burst transmitted at a higher rate during the time slot for the channel. TDMA can not send analog signals directly due to the buffering required, thus are only used for transmitting digital data. TDMA can suffer from multipath effects, as the transmission rate is generally very high. This leads the multipath signals causing inter-symbol interference. TDMA is normally used in conjunction with FDMA to subdivide the total available bandwidth into several channels. This is done to reduce the number of users per channel allowing a lower data rate to be used. This helps reduce the effect of delay spread on the transmission. Fig. 1.5 shows the use of TDMA with FDMA. Each channel based on FDMA, is further subdivided using TDMA, so that several users can transmit of the one channel. This type of transmission technique is used by most digital second generation mobile phone systems. For GSM, the total allocated bandwidth of 25MHz is divided into 125, 200 kHz channels using FDMA. These channels are then subdivided further by using TDMA so that each 200 kHz channel allows 8-16 users.

Fig. 1.5 TDMA/FDMA hybrid, showing that the bandwidth is split into frequency channels and time slots.

Code Division Multiple Access:

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) is a spread spectrum technique that uses neither frequency channels nor time slots. In CDMA, the narrow band message (typically digitized voice data) is multiplied by a large bandwidth signal, which is a pseudo random noise code (PN code). All users in a CDMA system use the same frequency band and transmit simultaneously. The transmitted signal is recovered by correlating the received signal with the PN code used by the transmitter. Fig. 1.6 shows the general use of the spectrum using CDMA.

Some of the properties that have made CDMA useful are: Signal hiding and noninterference with existing systems, Anti-jam and interference rejection, Information security, Accurate Ranging, Multiple User Access, Multipath tolerance.

Fig. 1.6 Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)

Fig.1.7 shows the process of a CDMA transmission. The data to be transmitted (a) is spread before transmission by modulating the data using a PN code. This broadens the spectrum as shown in (b). In this example the process gain is 125 as the spread spectrum bandwidth is 125 times greater the data bandwidth. Part (c) shows the received signal. This consists of the required signal, plus background noise, and any interference from other CDMA users or radio sources. The received signal is recovered by multiplying the signal by the original spreading code. This process causes the wanted received signal to be dispread back to the original transmitted data. However, all other signals, which are uncorrelated to the PN spreading code used, become more spread. The wanted signal in (d) is then filtered removing the wide spread interference and noise signals.

Fig. 1.7 Basic CDMA Generation.

CDMA Generation:

CDMA is achieved by modulating the data signal by a pseudo random noise sequence (PN code), which has a chip rate higher then the bit rate of the data. The PN code sequence is a sequence of ones and zeros (called chips), which alternate in a random fashion. The data is modulated by modular-2 adding the data with the PN code sequence. This can also be done by multiplying the signals, provided the data and PN code is represented by 1 and -1 instead of 1 and 0. Fig. 1.8 shows a basic CDMA transmitter.

Fig. 1.8 Simple direct sequence modulator

The PN code used to spread the data can be of two main types. A short PN code (Typically 10-128 chips in length), can be used to modulate each data bit. The short PN code is then repeated for every data bit allowing for quick and simple synchronization of the receiver. Fig.1.9 shows the generation of a CDMA signal using a 10-chip length short code. Alternatively a long PN code can be used. Long codes are generally thousands to millions of chips in length, thus are only repeated infrequently. Because of this they are useful for added security as they are more difficult to decode.

Fig.1.9 Direct sequence signals

CHAPTER 2

THEORY & REASEARCH

Theory & Research Introduction:
The OFDMA technology was first conceived in the 1960s and 1970s during research into minimizing ISI, due to multipath. The expression digital communications in its basic form is the mapping of digital information into a waveform called a carrier signal, which is a transmitted electromagnetic pulse or wave at a steady base frequency of alternation on which information can be imposed by increasing signal strength, varying the base frequency, varying the wave phase, or other means. In this instance, orthogonality is an implication of a definite and fixed relationship between all carriers in the collection. Multiplexing is the process of sending multiple signals or streams of information on a carrier at the same time in the form of a single, complex signal and then recovering the separate signals at the receiving end. Modulation is the addition of information to an electronic or optical signal carrier. Modulation can be applied to direct current (mainly by turning it on and off), to alternating current, and to optical signals. One can think of blanket waving as a form of modulation used in smoke signal transmission (the carrier being a steady stream of smoke). In telecommunications in general, a channel is a separate path through which signals can flow. In optical fiber transmission using dense wavelength-division multiplexing, a channel is a separate wavelength of light within a combined, multiplexed light stream. This project focuses on the telecommunications definition of a channel.

OFDMA Principles:
OFDMA is a special form of Multi Carrier Modulation (MCM) with densely spaced sub carriers with overlapping spectra, thus allowing for multiple-access. MCM) is the principle of transmitting data by dividing the stream into several bit streams, each of which has a much lower bit rate, and by using these sub-streams to modulate several

carriers. This technique is being investigated as the next generation transmission scheme for mobile wireless communications networks.

Fourier Transform:
Back in the 1960s, the application of OFDMA was not very practical. This was because at that point, several banks of oscillators were needed to generate the carrier frequencies necessary for sub-channel transmission. Since this proved to be difficult to accomplish during that time period, the scheme was deemed as not feasible. However, the advent of the Fourier Transform eliminated the initial complexity of the OFDMA scheme where the harmonically related frequencies generated by Fourier and Inverse Fourier transforms are used to implement OFDMA systems. The Fourier transform is used in linear systems analysis, antenna studies, etc., The Fourier transform, in essence, decomposes or separates a waveform or function into sinusoids of different frequencies which sum to the original waveform. It identifies or distinguishes the different frequency sinusoids and their respective amplitudes. The Fourier transform of f(x) is defined as:

F ( ) =
and its inverse is denoted by:

f ( x) e jx dx

(1)

1 f ( x) = 2

F ( ) e

j x

(2)

However, the digital age forced a change upon the traditional form of the Fourier transform to encompass the discrete values that exist is all digital systems. The modified series was called the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). The DFT of a discrete-time system, x(n) is defined as:

 ( k ) = x ( n) e
n=0

N 1

2 kn N

1 k N

(3)

and its associated inverse is denoted by:

1 x ( n) = N

(k ) e
n=0

N 1

2 kn N 1 n N

(4)

However, in OFDMA, another form of the DFT is used, called the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), which is a DFT algorithm developed in 1965. This new transform reduced the number of computations from something on the order of

N
Orthogonality:

2 to

N log 2 N . 2

(5)

In geometry, orthogonal means, "involving right angles" (from Greek ortho, meaning right, and gon meaning angled). The term has been extended to general use, meaning the characteristic of being independent (relative to something else). It also can mean: non-redundant, non-overlapping, or irrelevant. Orthogonality is defined for both real and complex valued functions. The functions m(t) and n(t) are said to be orthogonal with respect to each other over the interval a < t < b if they satisfy the condition:
b

(t ) (t )dt = 0,
* m

Where n m

(6)

OFDMA Carriers:
As mentioned before, OFDMA is a special form of MCM and the OFDMA time domain waveforms are chosen such that mutual orthogonality is ensured even though subcarrier spectra may over-lap. With respect to OFDMA, it can be stated that orthogonality is an implication of a definite and fixed relationship between all carriers in the collection.

It means that each carrier is positioned such that it occurs at the zero energy frequency point of all other carriers. The sinc function, illustrated in Fig. 2.1 exhibits this property and it is used as a carrier in an OFDMA system.

fu is the sub-carrier spacing Fig .2.1. OFDMA sub carriers in the frequency domain

Orthogonal Frequency Division multiple access:

Orthogonal Frequency Division multiple access (OFDMA) is a multicarrier transmission technique, which divides the available spectrum into many carriers, each one being modulated by a low rate data stream. OFDMA 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, OFDMA uses the spectrum much more efficiently by spacing the channels much closer together. This is achieved by making all the carriers orthogonal to one another, preventing interference between the closely spaced carriers. Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division multiple access (COFDMA) is the same as OFDMA except that forward error correction is applied to the signal before transmission. This is to overcome errors in the transmission due to lost carriers from frequency selective fading, channel noise and other propagation effects. For this discussion the terms OFDMA and COFDMA are used interchangeably, as the main focus of this thesis is on OFDMA,

but it is assumed that any practical system will use forward error correction, thus would be COFDMA. In FDMA each user is typically allocated a single channel, which is used to transmit all the user information. The bandwidth of each channel is typically 10 kHz-30 kHz for voice communications. However, the minimum required bandwidth for speech is only 3 kHz. The allocated bandwidth is made wider then the minimum amount required preventing channels from interfering with one another. This extra bandwidth is to allow for signals from neighboring channels to be filtered out, and to allow for any drift in the center frequency of the transmitter or receiver. In a typical system up to 50% of the total spectrum is wasted due to the extra spacing between channels. This problem becomes worse as the channel bandwidth becomes narrower, and the frequency band increases. Most digital phone systems use vocoders to compress the digitized speech. This allows for an increased system capacity due to a reduction in the bandwidth required for each user. Current vocoders require a data rate somewhere between 4- 13kbps, with depending on the quality of the sound and the type used. Thus each user only requires a minimum bandwidth of somewhere between 2-7 kHz, using QPSK modulation. However, simple FDMA does not handle such narrow bandwidths very efficiently. TDMA partly overcomes this problem by using wider bandwidth channels, which are used by several users. Multiple users access the same channel by transmitting in their data in time slots. Thus, many low data rate users can be combined together to transmit in a single channel, which has a bandwidth sufficient so that the spectrum can be used efficiently. There are however, two main problems with TDMA. There is an overhead associated with the change over between users due to time slotting on the channel. A change over time must be allocated to allow for any tolerance in the start time of each user, due to propagation delay variations and synchronization errors. This limits the number of users that can be sent efficiently in each channel. In addition, the symbol rate of each channel is high (as the channel handles the information from multiple users) resulting in problems with multipath delay spread.

OFDMA overcomes most of the problems with both FDMA and TDMA. OFDMA splits the available bandwidth into many narrow band channels (typically 100-8000). The carriers for each channel are made orthogonal to one another, allowing them to be spaced very close together, with no overhead as in the FDMA example. Because of this there is no great need for users to be time multiplex 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 center frequency of each of the other carriers in the system. This results in no interference between the carriers, allowing then to be spaced as close as theoretically possible. This overcomes the problem of overhead carrier spacing required in FDMA.Each carrier in an OFDMA signal has a very narrow bandwidth (i.e. 1 kHz), 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 ISI (e.g > 500usec).

OFDMA generation:
To generate OFDMA successfully the relationship between all the carriers must be carefully controlled to maintain the orthogonality of the carriers. For this reason, OFDMA is generated by firstly choosing the spectrum required, based on the input data, and modulation scheme used. Each carrier to be produced is assigned some data to transmit. The required amplitude and phase of the carrier is then calculated based on the modulation scheme (typically differential BPSK, QPSK, or QAM). The required spectrum is then converted back to its time domain signal using an Inverse Fourier Transform. In most applications, an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT) is used. The IFFT performs the transformation very efficiently, and provides a simple way of ensuring the carrier signals produced are orthogonal.

The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) transforms a cyclic time domain signal into its equivalent frequency spectrum. This is done by finding the equivalent waveform, generated by a sum of orthogonal sinusoidal components. The amplitude and phase of the sinusoidal components represent the frequency spectrum of the time domain signal. . The IFFT performs the reverse process, transforming a spectrum (amplitude and

phase of each component) into a time domain signal. An IFFT converts a number of complex data points, of length, which is a power of 2, into the time domain signal of the same number of points. Each data point in frequency spectrum used for an FFT or IFFT is called a bin. The orthogonal carriers required for the OFDMA signal can be easily generated by setting the amplitude and phase of each bin, then performing the IFFT. Since each bin of an IFFT corresponds to the amplitude and phase of a set of orthogonal sinusoids, the reverse process guarantees that the carriers generated are orthogonal.

Fig. 2.2 OFDMA Block Diagram

Fig. 2.2 shows the setup for a basic OFDMA transmitter and receiver. The signal generated is a base band, thus the signal is filtered, then stepped up in frequency before transmitting the signal. OFDMA time domain waveforms are chosen such that mutual orthogonality is ensured even though sub-carrier spectra may overlap. Typically QAM or Differential Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (DQPSK) modulation schemes are applied to the individual sub carriers. To prevent ISI, the individual blocks are separated by guard intervals wherein the blocks are periodically extended.

Modulation Techniques:
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM):
This modulation scheme is also called quadrature carrier multiplexing. Infact, this modulation scheme enables to DSB-SC modulated signals to occupy the same transmission BW at the receiver o/p. it is, therefore, known as a bandwidth-conservation scheme. The QAM Tx consists of two separate balanced modulators, which are supplied, with two carrier waves of the same freq but differing in phase by 90. The o/p of the two balanced modulators are added in the adder and transmitted.

Fig. 2.3 QAM System

The transmitted signal is thus given by S (t) = X1 (t) A cos (2Fc t) + X2 (t) A sin (2Fc t) Hence, the multiplexed signal consists of the in-phase component A X1 (t) and the quadrature phase component A X2 (t). Balanced Modulator: A DSB-SC signal is basically the product of the modulating or base band signal and the carrier signal. Unfortunately, a single electronic device cannot generate a DSB-SC

signal. A circuit is needed to achieve the generation of a DSB-SC signal is called product modulator i.e., Balanced Modulator.

We know that a non-linear resistance or a non-linear device may be used to produce AM i.e., one carrier and two sidebands. However, a DSB-SC signal contains only 2 sidebands. Thus, if 2 non-linear devices such as diodes, transistors etc., are connected in balanced mode so as to suppress the carriers of each other, then only sidebands are left, i.e., a DSB-SC signal is generated. Therefore, a balanced modulator may be defined as a circuit in which two non-linear devices are connected in a balanced mode to produce a DSB-SC signal.

Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK):

In communication systems, we have two main resources. These are: 1. Transmission Power 2. Channel bandwidth If two or more bits are combined in some symbols, then the signaling rate will be reduced. Thus, the frequency of the carrier needed is also reduced. This reduces the transmission channel B.W. Hence, because of grouping of bits in symbols; the transmission channel B.W can be reduced. In QPSK two successive bits in the data sequence are grouped together. This reduces the bits rate or signaling rate and thus reduces the B.W of the channel. In case of BPSK, we know that when sym. Changes the level, the phase of the carrier is changed by 180. Because, there were only two syms in BPSK, the phase shift occurs in 2 levels only. However, in QPSK, 2 successive bits are combined. Infact, this combination of two bits forms 4 distinct syms. When the sym is changed to next sym, then the phase of the carrier is changed by 45 degrees.
S.No I/p successive bits symbol phase shift in carrier

I=1 I=2 I=3

1(1v) 0(-1v) 0(-1v)

0(-1v) 0(-1v) 1(1v)

S1 S2 S3

/4 3/4 5/4

I=4

1(1v)

1(1v)

S4

7/4

Generation of QPSK: Here the i/p binary seq. is first converted into a bipolar NRZ type of signal. This signal is denoted by b (t). It represents binary 1 by +1V and binary 0 by -1V. The demultiplexer divides b (t) into 2 separate bit streams of the odd numbered and even numbered bits. Here Be (t) represents even numbered sequence and Bo (t) represents odd numbered sequence. The symbol duration of both of these odd numbered sequences is 2Tb. Hence, each symbol consists of 2 bits.

Fig.2.4 Generation of QPSK

It may be observed that the first even bit occurs after the first odd bit. Hence, even numbered bit sequence Be (t) starts with the delay of one bit period due to first odd bit. Thus, first symbol of Be (t) is delayed by one bit period due to first odd bit. Thus, first symbol of Be (t) is delayed by on bit period Tb with respect to first symbol of Bo (t). This delay of Tb is known as offset. This shows that the change in the levels of Be (t) and Bo (t) cant occur at the same time due to offset or staggering. The bit stream Be (t) modulates carrier cosine carrier and B0(t) modulates sinusoidal carrier. These modulators are the balanced modulators. The 2 carriers are Ps.cos (2Fc.t) and Ps.sin (2Fc.t) have been shown in fig. Their carriers are known as quadrature carriers. Due to the offset, the phase shift in QPSK signal is /2.

FFT & IFFT:

In practice, OFDMA systems are implemented using a combination of FFT and IFFT blocks that are mathematically equivalent versions of the DFT and IDFT, respectively, but more efficient to implement.

An OFDMA system treats the source symbols (e.g., the QPSK or QAM symbols that would be present in a single carrier system) at the Tx as though they are in the freqdomain. These syms are used as the i/ps to an IFFT block that brings the sig into the time domain. The IFFT takes in N syms at a time where N is the num of sub carriers in the system. Each of these N i/p syms has a symbol period of T secs. Recall that the basis functions for an IFFT are N orthogonal sinusoids. These sinusoids each have a different freq and the lowest freq is DC. Each i/p symbol acts like a complex weight for the corresponding sinusoidal basis fun. Since the i/p syms are complex, the value of the sym determines both the amplitude and phase of the sinusoid for that sub carrier. The IFFT o/p is the summation of all N sinusoids. Thus, the IFFT block provides a simple way to modulate data onto N orthogonal sub carriers. The block of N o/p samples from the IFFT make up a single OFDMA sym. The length of the OFDMA symbol is NT where T is the IFFT i/p symbol period mentioned above.

Fig. 2.5 FFT & IFFT diagram

After some additional processing, the time-domain sig that results from the IFFT is transmitted across the channel. At the Rx, an FFT block is used to process the received signal and bring it into the freq domain. Ideally, the FFT o/p will be the original syms that were sent to the IFFT at the Tx. When plotted in the complex plane, the FFT o/p samples will form a constellation, such as 16-QAM. However, there is no notion of a constellation for the time-domain sig. When plotted on the complex plane, the time-domain sig forms a

scatter plot with no regular shape. Thus, any Rx processing that uses the concept of a constellation (such as symbol slicing) must occur in the frequency- domain.

Adding a Guard Period to OFDMA:

One of the most important properties of OFDMA transmissions is the robustness against multipath delay spread. This is achieved by having a long symbol period, which minimizes the ISI. The level of robustness, can infact is increased even more by the addition of a guard period b/w transmitted syms. The guard period allows time for multipath sigs from the pervious symbol to die away before the information from the current symbol is gathered. The most effective guard period to use is a cyclic extension of the symbol. If a mirror in time, of the end of the symbol waveform is put at the start of the symbol as the guard period, this effectively extends the length of the symbol, while maintaining the orthogonally of the waveform. Using this cyclic extended symbol the samples required for performing the FFT (to decode the sym), can be taken anywhere over the length of the sym. This provides multipath immunity as well as sym time synchronization tolerance. As long as the multipath delay echos stay within the guard period duration, there is strictly no limitation regarding the signal level of the echos: they may even exceed the signal level of the shorter path! The signal energy from all paths just adds at the input to the receiver, and since the FFT is energy conservative, the whole available power feeds the decoder. If the delay spread is longer then the guard interval then they begins to cause ISI. However, provided the echoes are sufficiently small they do not cause significant problems. This is true most of the time as multipath echos delayed longer than the guard period will have been reflected of very distant objects. Other variations of guard periods are possible. One possible variation is to have half the guard period a cyclic extension of

the symbol, as above, and the other half a zero amplitude signal. This will result in a signal as shown in Fig.2.6.

Using this method the symbols can be easily identified. This possibly allows for symbol timing to be recovered from the signal, simply by applying envelop detection. The disadvantage of using this guard period method is that the zero period does not give any multipath tolerance, thus the effective active guard period is halved in length. It is interesting to note that this guard period method has not been mentioned in any of the research papers read, and it is still not clear whether symbol timing needs to be recovered using this method.

Fig. 2.6 Section of an OFDMA signal showing 5 symbols, using a guard period which is half a cyclic extension of the symbol, and half a zero amplitude signal.

CHAPTER 3 PROPAGATION OF CHANNEL CHARACTERISTICS

Propagation Characteristics of mobile radio channels:
In 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. It is known that the performance of any wireless systems performance is affected by the medium of propagation, namely the characteristics of the channel. In telecommunications in general, a channel is a separate path through which signals can flow. In the ideal situation, a direct line of sight between the transmitter and receiver is desired. But alas, it is not a perfect world; hence it is imperative to understand what goes on in the channel so that the original signal can be reconstructed with the least number of errors. 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.

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. Fig.3.1 shows some of the radio propagation effects that cause attenuation. Any objects, which obstruct the line of sight signal from the transmitter to the receiver, can cause attenuation.

Fig. 3.1. Some channel characteristics

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. 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 then 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. Typical amounts of variation in attenuation due to shadowing are shown in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1 Typical attenuation in a radio channel.

Shadowed areas tend to be large, resulting in the rate of change of the signal power being slow. For this reason, it is termed slow-fading, or lognormal shadowing.

Multipath Effects:
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. Fig. 3.2 show some of the possible ways in which multipath signals can occur.

Fig.3.2 Multipath Signals

The relative phase of multiple reflected sigs can cause constructive or destructive interference at the Rx. This is experienced over very short distances (typically at half

wavelength distances), thus is given the term fast fading. These variations can vary from 10-30dB over a short distance.

Fig. 3.3 Typical Rayleigh fading while the mobile unit is moving.

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 3.2 shows the probability of the signal level for the Rayleigh distribution.

Table 3.2 Cumulative distributions for Rayleigh distribution

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 COFDMA/OFDMA transmission. The original signal is spread over a wide bandwidth 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 then the entire signal. The information in the lost carriers can be recovered provided enough forward error corrections are sent. 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 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). Fig.3.4 shows the effect of inter-symbol interference due to delay spread on the received signal. 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 then ~50% of the bit time.

Fig.3.4 Multi delay spread

shows the typical delay spread that can occur in various environments. The maximum delay spread in an outdoor environment is approximately 20usec, thus significant intersymbol interference can occur at bit rates as low as 25kbps.

Table 3.3 Typical Delay Spread

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.

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 then the source, and when they are approaching each other the frequency decreases. This is called the Doppler Effect: An example of this is the change of pitch in a cars 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:

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.

For example: Let fo = 1GHz, and v = 60km/hr (16.7m/s) then the Doppler shift will be:

This shift of 55Hz in the carrier will generally not effect the transmission. However, Doppler shift can cause significant problems if the transmission technique is sensitive to carrier frequency offsets (for example COFDMA) or the relative speed is higher (for example in low earth orbiting satellites).

Inter Symbol Interference:

As communication systems evolve, the need for high symbol rates becomes more apparent. However, current multiple access with high symbol rates encounter several multi path problems, which leads to ISI. An echo is a copy of the original signal delayed in time. ISI takes place when echoes on different-length propagation paths result in overlapping received symbols. Problems can occur when one OFDMA symbol overlaps with the next

one. There is no correlation between two consecutive OFDMA symbols and therefore interference from one symbol with the other will result in a disturbed signal In addition, the symbol rate of communications systems is practically limited by the channels bandwidth. For the higher symbol rates, the effects of ISI must be dealt with seriously. Several channel equalization techniques can be used to suppress the ISIs caused by the channel. However, to do this, the CIR channel impulse response, must be estimated. Recently, OFDMA has been used to transmit data over a multi-path channel. Instead of trying to cancel the effects of the channels ISIs, a set of sub-carriers can be used to transmit information symbols in parallel sub-channels over the channel, where the systems output will be the sum of all the parallel channels throughputs.

This is the basis of how OFDMA works. By transmitting in parallel over a set of sub-carriers, the data rate per sub-channel is only a fraction of the data rate of a conventional single carrier system having the same output. Hence, a system can be designed to support high data rates while deferring the need for channel equalizations. In addition, once the incoming signal is split into the respective transmission subcarriers, a guard interval is added between each symbol. Each symbol consists of useful symbol duration, Ts and a guard interval, t, in which, part of the time, a signal of Ts is cyclically repeated. This is shown in Fig.3.5.

Fig. 3.5 Combating ISI using a guard interval

As long as the multi path propagation delays do not exceed the duration of the interval, no inter-symbol interference occurs and no channel equalization is required. CHANNELS We Used:

The transmission signal models of the electromagnetic wave which travels form transmitter to receiver. Along the way the wave encounters a wide range of different environments. Channel models represent the attempt to model these different environments. Their aim is to introduce well defined disturbances to the transmission signal. In this lecture we discuss channel models which are typical for DAB transmission. We consider the effects of noise, movement, and signal reflection. The general strategy is to have a pictorial representation of the channel environment before we introduce the mathematical model. Overview Diagram The following figure shows again the block diagram of communication system. Such a system consists of Sender, Channel and Receiver. In this lecture we focus on the channel aspect of the communication system. In the block diagram, s(t) is the transmission signal and s(t) is the received transmission signal.

Frequency offset channel The frequency offset channel introduces a static frequency offset. One possible cause for such a frequency offset is a slow drifting time base, normally a crystal oscillator, in either transmitter or receiver. The frequency offset channel tests the frequency correction circuit in the receiver. The following figure shows the block diagram of the Frequency shift channel.

The mathematical model follows as: . AWGN channel For the Additional White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel the received signal is equal to the transmitted signal with some portion of white Gaussian white noise added. This channel is particularly important for discrete models operating on a restricted number space, because this allows one to optimise the circuits in terms of their noise performance. The block diagram of the AWGN channel is given in the next figure.

s(t) = s(t) + n(t) where n(t) is a sample function of a Gaussian random process. This represents white Gaussian noise.

Multi path channel The multipath channel is the last of the static channels. It reflects the fact that electromagnetic waves can travel over various paths from the transmission antenna to the receiver antenna. The receiver antenna sums up all the different signals. Therefore, the mathematical model of the multipath environment creates the received transmission signal by summing up scaled and delayed versions of the original transmission signal. This superposition of signals causes ISI. The following figure shows a multipath environment.

The block diagram, shown in the next figure, details a DSP model for the multipath environment.

The mathematical model follows as:

Fading channels Fading channels represent a mathematical model for wireless data exchange in a physical environment which changes over time. These changes arise for two reasons:

1. The environment is changing even though the transmitter and receiver are fixed; examples are changes in the ionosphere, movement of foliage and movement of reflectors and scatterers. 2. Transmitter and receiver are mobile even though the environment might be static.
3. The next figure shows a multipath fading environment. The fading is modeled by

the fact that the environment is changing.

The block diagram, shown in the next figure, details a DSP model for the multipath environment

Mathematically the DSP model can be formulated as follows:

DSP model and mathematical description are close to the underlying physical phenomena. This makes them unsuitable for practical channel models. To establish practical channel models we employ statistical methods to abstract and generalize the fading channel models. In the following two subsections we discuss Rayleigh and Rician fading channels. Both represent statistical channel modes, the difference between them is that the Rayleigh model does not assume a direct or prominent path and the Ricien model assumes a direct path. The last channel model extends the ideas of Rayleigh and Rician fading channels with mobility aspects. The resulting mobile fading channels model the degrading effects in the frequency domain of wireless multipath channels.

Rayleigh fading:
Rayleigh fading is caused by multipath reception. The mobile antenna receives a large number, say N, reflected and scattered waves. Because of wave cancellation effects, the instantaneous received power seen by a moving antenna becomes a random variable, dependent on the location of the antenna.