INTRODUCTION:

As new wireless products are developed, new standards are born, and consumers continue to demand more functionality crammed into their latest gadgets, organizations will need to migrate to a test and development platform that provides the flexibility to respond to these changes. 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 obtain sufficient coverage. These results in problems cased by large signal path loss and long delay times in multipath signal propagation.

The World Wide Web (WWW) has become an important communications media, as its use has increased dramatically over the last few years. This has resulted in an increased demand for computer networking services. In order to satisfy this, telecommunications systems are now being used for computer networking, Internet access and voice communications. This has led to the demand of a more integrated service, providing faster data rates, and a more universal interface for a variety of services.

The increased reliance on computer networking and the Internet has resulted in demand for connectivity to be provided Any where, Any time, leading to an increase in the demand for wireless systems. This demand has driven the need to develop new higher capacity, high reliability wireless telecommunications systems.

1. Study of basic techniques of communication: 1.1

3rd Generation Wireless System:

Third generation mobile systems such as the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) and CDMA2000 are striving to provide higher data rates than current 2G systems. These systems shift to more data oriented services such as Internet access. Third generation systems use Wide-band Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) as the carrier modulation scheme. This modulation scheme has a high multipath tolerance, flexible data rate, and allows a greater cellular spectral efficiency than 2G systems.

Third generation systems provide a significantly higher data rate (64 kbps 2 Mbps) than second-generation systems (9.6 14.4kbps). The higher data rate of 3G systems will be able to support a wide range of applications including Internet access, voice communications and mobile videophones.

In addition to this, they offer permanent network connectivity, such as wireless appliances, notebooks with built in mobile phones, remote logging, wireless web cameras, car navigation systems, and so forth. 3G technologies enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephony, video calls, and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment.

3G technologies enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency.

1.2 4th Generation Wireless System:

The commercial rollout of these systems is likely to begin around 2008 - 2012, and will replace 3rd generation technology It is likely that they will be able to extendthe capabilities of 3G networks, allowing a greater range of applications, and improved universal access. Thus, 4G networks should encompass broadband wireless services, such as High Definition Television (HDTV) (4 - 20 Mbps) and computer network applications (1 - 100 Mbps). This will allow 4G networks to replace many of the functions of WLAN systems. The spectral efficiency of 3G networks is too low to support high data rate services at low cost.As a consequence one of the main focuses of 4G systems will be to significantly improve the spectral efficiency. In addition to high data rates, future systems must support a higher Quality Of Service (QOS) than current cellular systems, which are designed to achieve 90 95% coverage i.e. network connection can be obtained over 90 - 95% of the area of the cell. This will become inadequate as more systems become dependent on wireless networking. As a result 4G systems are likely to require a QOS closer to 98-99.5%.

2. OFDM System:
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing has become the chosen modulation technique for wireless communications. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) can be termed as an alternative wireless modulation technology to CDMA. OFDM has the potential to surpass the capacity of CDMA systems and provide the wireless access method for 4G systems. Many research centers in the world have specialized teams working in the optimization of OFDM for countless applications.

History:
The origins of OFDM development started in the late 1950s with the introduction of Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) for data communications. In 1966 Chang patented the structure of OFDM and published the concept of using orthogonal overlapping multi-tone signals for data communications. In 1971 Weinstein introduced the idea of using a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) for implementation of the generation and reception of OFDM signals, eliminating the requirement for banks of analog subcarrier oscillators. This presented an opportunity for an easy implementation of OFDM, especially with the use of Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT), which are an efficient implementation of the DFT. This suggested that the easiest implementation of OFDM is with the use of Digital Signal Processing (DSP), which can implement FFT algorithms. It is only recently that the advances in integrated circuit technology have made the implementation of OFDM cost effective. The reliance on DSP prevented the wide spread use of OFDM during the early development of OFDM. It wasnt until the late 1980s that work began on the development of OFDM for commercial use, with the introduction of the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) system.

2.1 How is OFDM different from other communication systems

A common problem found in high-speed communication is inter-symbol interference (ISI). ISI occurs when a transmission interferes with itself and the receiver cannot decode the transmission correctly. For example, in a wireless communication system such as that shown in the following figure, the same transmission is sent in all directions.

Figure 1 : Multipath transmission of a signal Because the signal reflects from large objects such as mountains or buildings, the receiver sees more than one copy of the signal. In communication terminology, this is called multipath. Since the indirect paths take more time to travel to the receiver, the delayed copies of the signal interfere with the direct signal, causing ISI.

2.2 Need For Multiple-Carrier System:

OFDM is especially suitable for high-speed communication due to its resistance to ISI. OFDM overcomes the effects of multipath by breaking the signal into many narrow bandwidth carriers. This results in a low symbol rate reducing the amount of ISI. In addition to this, a guard period is added to the start of each symbol, removing the effects of ISI for multipath signals delayed less than the guard period. As communication systems increase their information transfer speed, the time for each transmission necessarily becomes shorter. Since the delay time caused by multipath remains constant, ISI becomes a limitation in high-data-rate communication. OFDM avoids this problem by sending many low speed transmissions simultaneously. For example, the figure below shows two ways to transmit the same four pieces of binary data.

Figure 2 : Traditional vs. OFDM Communication

Suppose that this transmission takes four seconds. Then, each piece of data in the left picture has duration of one second. On the other hand, OFDM would send the four pieces simultaneously as shown on the right. In this case, each piece of data has duration of four seconds. This longer duration leads to fewer problems with ISI. Another reason to consider OFDM is low-complexity implementation for high-speed systems compared to traditional single carrier techniques.

In an OFDM scheme, a large number of orthogonal, overlapping, narrow band Sub-channels or sub carriers, transmitted in parallel, divide the available transmission bandwidth. The separation of the sub carriers is theoretically minimal such that there is a very compact spectral utilization. But the question ariseswhy we use a multi-carrier system. There are 2 main reasons: During transmission, data may be lost in one or two sub-carriers, but in a multi-carrier system, we do not lose the whole stream It helps combat frequency-selective channel fading.

Figure 3 : Different kinds of carrier systems

2.3 Orthogonality:
Signals are orthogonal if they are mutually independent of each other. Two signals are said to be orthogonal when their dot product is equal to zero. Lets take a sine wave of frequency m and multiply it by sinusoid of a frequency n, Where both m and n are integers. The integral or the area under the product is given By

Figure 4 : Orthogonality By simple trigonometric relationship, this is equal to a sum of two sinusoids of frequency (nm) and (n+m) = 0.5(n-m) + 0.5(n+m) These two components are each a sinusoid, so the integral is equal to zero over one period. Orthogonality is a property that allows multiple information signals to be transmitted perfectly over a common channel and detected, without interference. Loss of orthogonality results in blurring between these information signals and degradation in communications.

The subcarriers in an OFDM signal are spaced as close as is theoretically possible while maintain orthogonality between them. OFDM achieves orthogonality in the frequency domain by allocating each of the separate information signals onto different subcarriers.

OFDM signals are made up from a sum of sinusoids, with each corresponding to a subcarrier. The baseband frequency of each subcarrier is chosen to be an integer multiple of the inverse of the symbol time, resulting in all subcarriers having an integer number of cycles per symbol. As a consequence the subcarriers are orthogonal to each other.

Figure 5 : carrier and sub carriers in wave

The orthogonal nature of the transmission is a result of the peak of each subcarrier corresponding to the nulls of all other subcarriers. When this signal is detected using a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) the spectrum is not continuous, but has discrete samples. This will be elaborated in the transceiver section of OFDM.

2.3.1 Advantages of Orthogonality:

There is no need of introducing guard bands. Orthogonality offers high spectral efficiency. It simplifies design of transmitter and receiver. Cross-talk is eliminated.

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3. OFDM Transceiver

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3.1 OFDM TRANSMITTER:

OFDM transmitters generate both the carrier and the data signal simultaneously with purely digital circuits residing in the specialized DSP(Digital Signal Processor) microchips. The specific process of digital signal generation used in OFDM is based on the series of mathematical computations known as an Inverse Fourier Transform, and the process results in the formation of a complex modulated waveform at the output of the transmitter. The incoming serial data is first converted from serial to parallel and grouped into x bits each to form a complex number. The complex numbers are modulated in a base band fashion by the IFFT and converted back to serial data for transmission. A guard interval is inserted between symbols to avoid Inter symbol interference (ISI) caused by multipath distortion. The discrete symbols are converted to analog and low pass filtered for RF up-conversion.

Figure 7 : Operation in OFDM transmitter

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3.2 OFDM RECEIVER

The receiver performs the reverse operation of the transmitter, mixing the RF signal to base band for processing, then using a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) to analyse the signal in the frequency domain. The amplitude and phase of the subcarriers is then picked out and converted back to digital data. The IFFT and the FFT are complementary function and the most appropriate term depends on whether the signal is being received or generated. In cases where the signal is independent of this distinction then the term FFT and IFFT is used.

Figure 8 : Operation in OFDM receiver

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3.2.1 SERIAL TO PARALLEL CONVERSION

Data to be transmitted is typically in the form of a serial data stream. In OFDM, each symbol typically transmits 40 - 4000 bits, and so a serial to parallel conversion stage is needed to convert the input serial bit stream to the data to be transmitted in each OFDM symbol. The data allocated to each symbol depends on the modulation scheme used and the number of sub carriers. For example, for a sub carrier modulation of 16-QAM each sub carrier carries 4 bits of data, and so for a transmission using 100 sub carriers the number of bits per symbol would be 400.

3.2.2 SUB CARRIER MODULATION

Once each subcarrier has been allocated bits for transmission, they are mapped using a modulation scheme to a subcarrier amplitude and phase, which is represented by a complex In-phase and Quadrature-phase (IQ) vector. In the receiver, mapping the received IQ vector back to the data word performs subcarrier demodulation.

3.2.3 FREQUENCY TO TIME DOMAIN CONVERSION

After the subcarrier modulation stage each of the data subcarriers is set to an amplitude and phase based on the data being sent and the modulation scheme; all unused subcarriers are set to zero. This sets up the OFDM signal in the frequency domain. An IFFT is then used to convert this signal to the time domain, allowing it to be transmitted.

3.2.4 GUARD PERIOD

For a given system bandwidth the symbol rate for an OFDM signal is much lower than a single carrier transmission scheme. For example for a single carrier BPSK modulation, the symbol rate corresponds to the bit rate of the transmission. However for OFDM the system bandwidth is broken up into Nc subcarriers, resulting in a symbol rate that is Nc times lower than the single carrier transmission. This low symbol rate makes OFDM naturally resistant to effects of InterSymbol Interference (ISI) caused by multipath propagation.

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3.2.5 Cyclic Prefix:

In an OFDM symbol the cyclic prefix is a repeat of the end of the symbol at the beginning The purpose is to allow multipath to settle before the main data arrives at the receiver The length of the cyclic prefix is often equal to the guard interval

Figure 9 : OFDM frame

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3.3 EFFECT OF ADDITIVE WHITE GAUSSIAN NOISE ON OFDM:

Noise exists in all communications systems operating over an analog physical channel, such as radio. The main sources are thermal background noise, electrical noise in the receiver amplifiers, and inter-cellular interference. In addition to this noise can also be generated internally to the communications system as a result of Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI), Inter-Carrier Interference (ICI), and Inter-Modulation Distortion (IMD). These sources of noise decrease the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), ultimately limiting the spectral efficiency of the system. Most types of noise present in radio communication systems can be modelled accurately using Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN). This noise has a uniform spectral density making it white and a Gaussian distribution in amplitude also referred to as a normal distribution or bell curve. OFDM signals have a flat spectral density and a Gaussian amplitude distribution provided that the number of carriers is large. Because of this the inter-cellular interference from other OFDM systems has AWGN properties. For the same reason ICI, ISI, and IMD also have AWGN properties for OFDM signals.

3.4 CHANNEL CODING

The goal of channel coding, or error control coding, is to improve bit error ratio (BER) performance by adding structured redundancy to the transmitted data. Channel coding means that additional redundant bits are added to the signal to enable error detection and error correction. Channel impairments can cause errors to the signal; these impairments can be e.g. noise, fading, interference or jamming. Basic channel coding methods are block coding and convolution coding. In OFDM channel coding is done with convolution coding, because convolution coding offer good performance with low implementation cost. Coding is performed on serial data before symbol mapping. Convolution coding operates with bit stream

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and has memory that utilizes previous bits to encode or decode following bits. Convolution encoder is defined with three variables: number of output bits n, number of input bits k and memory depth L. Encoder maps k input bits into n output bits. From memory length can be derived constraint length using the equation given below.

Constraint length tells how many output bits are influenced with single input bit. The error correction capacity is related with this value. C= n (L+1)

3.4.1 FREQUENCY SELECTIVE FADING

Multipath causes fading changes with frequency. This is due to the phase response of the multipath components varying with frequency. The received phase, relative to the transmitter, of a multipath component corresponds to the number of wavelengths the signal has travelled from the transmitter. The wavelength is inversely proportional to frequency and so for a fixed transmission path the phase will change with frequency. The path distances of each of the multipath component is different and so results in a different phase change. Below is an example of a two-path transmission.

Figure 10 : Two path transmission

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Path 1 is a direct signal and has a transmission distance of 10m, while the second path is a reflection with a longer transmission distance of 25 m. This makes the two paths out of phase, which results in a reduction in the signal amplitude at this frequency.

3.4.2

INTERLEAVING
Because of frequency selective fading, in OFDM certain sub

channels can be located in a deep fades in channel and information carried by these sub carriers are lost. This effect causes errors to occur in bursts rather than being randomly scattered. To make errors appear more randomly, interleaving is performed on the coded bit stream. Interleaving is a way to permute bits in a certain way and at the receiver reverse permutation is performed. A commonly used interleaving method is block interleaving. In block interleaving data is written in to a matrix row-by-row and read out column-bycolumn.

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4. PEAK TO AVERAGE POWER RATIO

The main disadvantage of OFDM is high peak to average power ratio (PAPR).A high peak to average power ratio causes saturation in power amplifiers, leading to intermodulation products among the sub carriers and disturbing out of band energy. Therefore, it is desirable to reduce the PAPR.

By definition we have, PAPR= Peak Amplitude of the Signal Average value of the Signal

PAPR = ((xk)^2)max / E{(xk)^2

1<=k<=N

Where E{(xk)^2} stands for the expected value or average value of the time domain signal An OFDM signal consists of a number of independent sub carriers, which can give a large peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) when added coherently. When N signals are added with the same phase, they produce a peak power that is N times the average power. As a result, linear behavior of the system over a large dynamic range is needed and the efficiency of the output amplifier is reduced. The average power must be kept low in order to prevent the transmitter amplifier saturation. Minimizing the PAPR allows higher.

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